Lecture: Heng-hao Chang, “Post-Colonial Reflections on International Disability Rights: Adaptation and Localization in Taiwan” (02/26/26)
Posted: 2/19/2026 (Local Events)
Taiwan is a unique site of innovation in disability rights. Despite being barred from becoming a States Party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) according to the diplomatic exclusion faced by Taiwan, it has become a model for the localization of the CRPD through its use “domestic review mechanisms.” Furthermore, Taiwan demonstrates the ways in which fundamental divides within human rights discourse, such as Western individualism and East Asian familialism, can be bridged using strategic adaptation that reimagine disability rights as a post-colonial hybrid.
Heng-hao Chang is a Professor of Sociology and former Dean of the College of Social Sciences at National Taipei University. A dedicated advocate for disability studies and the disability rights movement, Chang is a co-founder and past Chairman of the Taiwan Society for Disability Studies and currently serves as the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice.
Event made possible by the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities and co-Sponsored by The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; East Asia Center; the Center for Human Rights; Taiwan Studies Program; Center for Human Rights; Disability Studies Program; and the Harlan Hahn Endowment.
Date: 02/26/2026
Location: Communications Building (CMU) 120, UW