Refocused Disability and Inclusion through The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Abstract

Academic research can play an essential part as support for positive social change by providing information and insights. Focusing on the social issues of disability and inclusion, this article examines The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, both the novel by Mark Haddon and play by Simon Stephens in terms of the negative context of labelling disability as a social construct that can be a destructive narrative connected to disabling environmental elements on the one hand and the positive context of social inclusion movements on the other hand, navigating a neurodiverse family and valuing neurodiverse ability. From a first-person point of view, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time gives a unique experience of an off-balance sensory input feeling that offers the reader/audience a chance to enter a differently organized world. By connecting the fictional print and performance story told by a neurodiverse teenager to the actual historical and current state of Neurodiversity and inclusion in the UK and US, this research aims to support social change by encouraging the expansion of social inclusion of neurodiverse individuals and recognition of their untapped potential. It also demonstrates the power of print and performance literature in relation to social change.