No Pity
People With Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement
by Joseph P. Shapiro, 1994 In 1988, Gallaudet students, alumni and faculty forced the administration to appoint a Deaf president. This protest garnered more attention than any other action by disabled people, but it isn't close to the first. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, almost 50 million Americans are considered disabled. Many of these people do not consider themselves disabled; many of them do. A vocal segment of the disabled population, as well as people who care about them, have been advocating for disabled people's right in the last half century. Disability groups demand the services they need, proclaim their equality to abled people, and ask for recognition as human beings.
Disabilities are diverse. Some people have sensory disabilities(deafness, blindness), some have physical disabilities(paraplegia, quadriplegia, Cerebral Palsy), some have mental disabilities(Down Syndrome, autism, manic-depression), and some have illnesses(Lou Gehrig's Disease, multiple sclerosis). The ability of self advocates with different disabilities to fight together isn't always exercised. When it is, the group represents a very large and politically powerful group.
In the ten years since this book was written, some things have changed. More disabled advocate groups have advanced, prenatal screening for many more disabilities is an unfortunate reality, and terminology is different. One character in this book on whom a chapter is spent is classified as retarded, but now would probably get a label of autism.
The research in this book is lacking. For his chapter on Gallaudet and deafness, Shapiro relies largely on books(I guess he doesn't know Sign), but for the rest of the book, he uses mostly articles. For many of his statistics, no source is given. A few I know to be incorrect. Some contradict each other. However, I appreciated the attitude of the book and the portrayal of the activist atmosphere.
Happy reading.
