Sapna Ramnani Ph.D

I speak from a place that is rarely represented, both personally and intellectually. Growing up with a physical disability, I was expected to identify as “disabled,” yet that never fully reflected my lived experience. At the same time, I didn’t feel able-bodied either. I existed in a space in between, and as a child, that is not a neutral place to be. The perceptions of others were imposed on me so consistently that, over time, I began to internalise them as my own. Years later, when I developed tinnitus, something shifted. For the first time, I had something tangible I could point to. Yet even then, the existing frameworks, the medical and social models of disability, did not fully capture my experience. It was through my recovery journey that I began to recognise the deeper impact of growing up in that undefined space: the emotional and psychological imprint it had left behind. What I offer is not just a personal story, but a reframing. I bring together lived experience, critical insight, and a deep exploration of trauma to challenge how we understand disability, exclusion, identity, and belonging. My work invites audiences to consider not only what is visible or diagnosable, but what remains unnamed, and the cost of living with those experiences without language.