Disability Pride
Dispatches from a Post-ADA World
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- $299.00
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- $299.00
Descripción editorial
An eye-opening portrait of the diverse disability community as it is today, and how disability attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
In Disability Pride, disabled journalist Ben Mattlin weaves together interviews and reportage to introduce a cavalcade of individuals, ideas, and events in engaging, fast-paced prose. He traces the generation that came of age after the ADA reshaped America, and how it is influencing the future. He documents how autistic self-advocacy and the neurodiversity movement upended views of those whose brains work differently. He lifts the veil on a thriving disability culture—from social media to high fashion, Hollywood to Broadway—showing how the politics of beauty for those with marginalized body types and facial features is sparking widespread change.
He also explores the movement’s shortcomings, particularly the erasure of nonwhite and LGBTQIA+ people that helped give rise to Disability Justice. He delves into systemic ableism in health care, the right-to-die movement, institutionalization, and the scourge of subminimum-wage labor that some call legalized slavery. And he finds glimmers of hope in how disabled people never give up their fight for parity and fair play.
Beautifully written, without anger or pity, Disability Pride is a revealing account of an often misunderstood movement and identity, an inclusive reexamination of society’s treatment of those it deems different.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Mattlin (In Sickness and in Health), who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, offers a celebratory account of disability rights activism since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Highlighting both the vibrancy of the movement and its ongoing challenges, Mattlin discusses, among other matters, the "trend of high-profile disability inclusion" that helped put Sen. Tammy Duckworth on the short list to become Joe Biden's running mate; the "unapologetic self-confidence" of young people with disabilities on Instagram and YouTube; and the importance of "authentic disabled role models" in helping children to overcome the notion that their disabilities "are personal traumas they and their families must cope with, rather than ordinary experiences." Throughout, Mattlin shares his perspective as a lifelong wheelchair user, while acknowledging the limits of his experiences when it comes to the Black-led disability justice movement, the self-advocacy of autistic and neurodiverse people, and other developments. Profile subjects include Duckworth, Last Comic Standing winner Josh Blue, and dozens of disability rights activists involved in efforts to make medical offices more accessible and keep lower-income disabled people out of institutional care, among other causes. Upbeat and carefully researched, this valuable guide reveals current trends within the disability community.
