Alice Wong

According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Unspeakable Conversations," which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith's celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love.

First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

Disability Visibility

alex 

Disability justice exists every place two disabled people meet - at a kitchen table, on heating pads in bed talking to our loves. Our power and our vulnerability are often in our revolutionary obscurity and the horizontal ways of organizing that can come from it. 

this is genuinely one of those books i recommend reading a physical copy if you're able to. i felt so lost during the narration and wish there were at least 2 narrators to switch between the stories so there was a better divide. otherwise you might get a bit lost like i did.

ash (smokedshelves)

Louisa

Sandrin

The quality of the essays varied quite a lot but nonetheless all of them felt earnest and passionate.

Stephanie Ridiculous

This is a great collection on disability from own-voices. It was good to hear personal stories that offered perspective on both the day to day and systems and society. Highly recommend.

Fraser Simons

I found quite a few of these to be at intersections I had not thought of, so I think this collection is for people exactly like me, and why it’s so valuable to read about lived experience. The pieces themselves vary; some are clearly quite proficient and practiced in their writing, others are on the opposite end of the spectrum. 

I’ll leave the curation of each to people who know more on the subject to me. Some seem a bit odd, such as the Cyborg Manifesto piece critique. A piece of writing 37 years old and about specifically literature. The idea that it has blind spots for lived experience is a foregone conclusion and the author has written numerous other works since that are far better and intersectional. Cyberpunk didn’t see _cell phones_ coming, right. Of course it isn’t pertinent anymore. That people would bring it up to people using prosthetics does expose just how far behind the general intellect is on these things, though.

priya

"I turned my head to show off my scar. She brightened and showed me her own. I told her my story. She told me hers. I sat back. I listened. I understood."

"It is a privilege to never have to consider the spaces you occupy. I come to this realization anew every time I do the work to anchor Sandy Ho and Hoa Tien Yun to the world, and it is exhausting to still need permission to encompass all of myself. But in the spaces formed by marginalized disabled people, my existence is allowed on our shared world map in a way that is liberating simply because here I am presumed whole."

"Independence is a fairy tale that late capitalism tells in order to shift the responsibility for care and support from community and state to individuals and families. But not everyone has the personal capacity, and not everyone has the family support. And the stories we tell about bootstraps tell us that it’s the fault of an individual if they don’t thrive. They’re just not trying hard enough."

"Hannah Gadsby told people artists don’t have to suffer for their art, and I’ll forever thank her for having the guts to stand up and say that to the world. Because I used to believe it was true."

Isabelle Dion

Informative and educational, all while being beautifully written. Loved the short story format; it allows you the learn about such a wide variety of people, their stories and the issues in society that need to be addressed. Disability Visibility invites people to challenge their assumptions and hopefully learn about the disability experience and culture.

Caitlin Berger

An indispensable collection of essays that everyone must read. Disability justice is tied with all social justice movements. We cannot keep excluding the disabled community from our collective fight for freedom. Please read this book!!!

Disability Visibility First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

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