Research Guides: ReadUP: 2022-23: Disability Visibility

Disability Visibility

Library copies to borrow:

About the Book

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong (Editor)
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ISBN: 9781984899422
Published: 2020
One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent-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 this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people. From Harriet McBryde Johnson's account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond- this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.

Photo of an Asian American woman in a power chair. She is wearing a blue shirt with a geometric pattern with orange, black, white, and yellow lines and cubes. She is wearing a mask over her nose attached to a gray tube and bright red lip color. She is smiling at the camera. — Photo credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography

Alice Wong is a disabled activist, media maker, and research consultant based in San Francisco, California. She is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Alice is also the host and co-producer of the Disability Visibility podcast and co-partner in a number of collaborations such as #CripTheVote and Access Is Love. From 2013 to 2015, Alice served as a member of the National Council on Disability, an appointment by President Barack Obama.

Twitter | Instagram

Disability Visibility Project
The Disability Visibility Project is an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.
Disability Visibility Podcast
This is life from a disabled lens. Disability Visibility is a podcast hosted by San Francisco night owl Alice Wong featuring conversations on politics, culture, and media with disabled people. If you’re interested in disability rights, social justice, and intersectionality, this show is for you. It’s time to hear more disabled people in podcasting and radio. Named one of the 15 best podcasts by women that you’re not listening to by Refinery 29 in 2021.
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The podcast ended with episode 100 in April 2021 with possible audio stories coming in the future so do not unsubscribe!

Sept. 13, 2022: Disabilities and Voting
Sept. 20, 2022: Book Discussion
Oct. 11, 2022: Crip Camp Screening
Oct. 18, 2022: Book Discussion
Oct. 19, 2022: From Impossible to I'm Possible
Nov. 15, 2022: Book Discussion
Mar. 7, 2023: Poster Session: Women's History Month/Disability Awareness Month
Apr. 6, 2023: ReadUP End of Semester Reception

Book Discussion - Sept. 20, 2022

Presentation: Disability Visibility Book Discussion | Unspeakable Conversations
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Sept. 20, 2022
Recording: Disability Visibility Book Discussion | Unspeakable Conversations
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Presentation in Teaching Gallery

Book Discussion - Oct. 18, 2022

Oct. 18, 2022: Book Discussion Presentation
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Essay: "There's a Mathematical Equation That Proves I'm Ugly"

TED Talk - Oct. 29, 2022

How a 13 year old changed 'Impossible' to 'I'm Possible' | Sparsh Shah | TEDxGateway
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Led by Professor Madhu Tandon a group of students, faculty & staff view and discuss this inspirational talk given by a 13 year old born with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Transcript (TEDxGateway - How a 13 year old...)

Beyond the Book: Discipline Connections

Articles

'Known and Feeling Sorrows': Disabled Knowledge and King Lear
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This essay argues that King Lear presents a version of disability determined not by bodily authenticity but by bodily knowledge. By staging multiple forms and experiences of disability, the play defies the drive to authenticate and control non-standard bodies that flourished in early modern England.
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Row-Heyveld, Lindsey. “‘Known and Feeling Sorrows’: Disabled Knowledge and King Lear.” Early Theatre, vol. 22, no. 2, 2019, pp. 157–70. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26868140.
Art History Teaching Resources: Disability in Art History
Includes a slideshow of classical art that depicts people with disabilities and provides suggestions for comparison and discussion topics.

Videos

Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty
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Collection: Kanopy
Year: 2013

Sins Invalid witnesses a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists. Since 2006, its performances have explored themes of sexuality, beauty, and the disabled body, impacting thousands through live performance. Sins Invalid is as an entryway into the absurdly taboo topic of sexuality and disability, manifesting a new paradigm of disability justice.

Books

Music, Disability, and Society by Alex Lubet
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited access)
ISBN: 9781439900277
Published: 2010
Musical talent in Western culture is regarded as an extraordinary combination of technical proficiency and interpretative sensitivity. Lubet challenges the rigid view of technical skill and writes about music in relation to disability studies. He addresses the ways in which people with disabilities are denied the opportunity to participate in music. Considering hand-injured and one-handed pianists; the impairments of jazz luminaries Django Reinhardt, Horace Parlan, and "Little" Jimmy Scott; and the "Blind Orchestra" of Cairo, he shows how the cultural world of classical music contrasts sharply with that of jazz and how musicality itself is regarded a disability in some religious contexts.
Blind Visitor Experiences at Art Museums by Simon J. Hayhoe
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Collection: Ebook Central
ISBN: 9781442272057
Published: 2017
Blind Visitor Experiences at Art Museums seeks to answer two questions: 1. Given the guiding principle of visual art being understood only by sight, what do people understand when sight is diminished or not there? 2. Moreover, given the experience of blindness, what are the effects of vision loss or no vision on a cultural identity in art? It does this by exploring seven in-depth case studies of visitors to the education department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the experiences of leading groups by two teachers.

Articles

‘I was told I could never work remotely’: Before coronavirus, workers with disabilities say they implored employers to allow them to work from home (MarketWatch)
As many businesses across the U.S. have cobbled together work-from-home programs to comply with COVID-19 social-distancing measures, some workers with disabilities wonder why they were told for so long that they couldn’t work remotely to accommodate their disability — and now hope that this moment could be a turning point that makes telework options more widely available.
Donald Norman: I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me (FastCompany)
The world is designed against the elderly [the specific issues he addresses overlap with physical disabilities, like mobility aids], writes Don Norman, 83-year-old author of the industry bible Design of Everyday Things and a former Apple VP.

Websites

Disability Equality Index
Scores companies on a scale of 0 to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.” Publishes annual reports and showcases best practices from companies.
JAN: Job Accommodation Network
Resource for individuals and employers to match accommodations to particular situations. JAN is a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy/ODEP.

Books

Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments by Edward Steinfeld; Jordana Maisel
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited access)
ISBN: 9781118168479
Published: 2012
Written by top thinkers at the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA), it demonstrates the difference between universal design and accessibility and identifies its relationship to sustainable design and active living. Hundreds of examples from all areas of design illustrate the practical application of this growing field. An invaluable resource for architects, interior designers, urban planners, landscape architects, product designers, and anyone with an interest in how we access, use, and enjoy the environment.

Videos

Disability vs The Workplace by Lesa Bradshaw (14m)
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TEDxLytteltonWomen | This talk speaks about inclusivity of people with a disability in the workplace. Lesa talks about why we are struggling in this area, and what we need to do in order to open doors to the avenue of professionalism for People with a Disability.
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A local entrepreneur and HR consultant, Lesa Bradshaw, a partner at Bradshaw Le Roux Consulting, recruitment and assessment specialists and disability integration consultants, who was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a condition that causes muscular weakness in all the voluntary muscles in the body. Technically, Lesa should not be able to lead an independent life, but she has done so. She is a psychology honours graduate, a registered psychometrist, and an MBA Graduate, having completed her dissertation on strategies for integrating people with disabilities into the workplace.

Articles

Whither the Disability Rights Movement? The Future of Disability Rights Law
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Short overview of issues, organized by: ADA Coverage and Enforceability; Health Care and Education; Criminal Justice Reform; and Infrastructure, Technology, and Employment
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Hill, Eve. “Whither the Disability Rights Movement? The Future of Disability Rights Law.” Human Rights, vol. 42, no. 4, 2017, pp. 2–5. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26423419.
Accessible Technology (University of Washington)
UW has some handy checklists and guides for making different types of content accessible (documents, presentations, online meetings, etc).

Websites

UDL on Campus
Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. Offers resources on course design, media & materials, and general principles.

Books

Disability in Higher Education by Nancy J. Evans; Ellen M. Broido; Kirsten R. Brown; Autumn K. Wilke
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited access)
ISBN: 9781118018224
Published: 2017
Examines how disability is conceptualized in higher education and ways in which students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and served on college campuses. This book provides strategies for addressing ableism in the assumptions, policies and practices, organizational structures, attitudes, and physical structures of higher education. Create campuses inclusive and supportive of disabled students, staff, and faculty.

The Law

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA
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ADA.gov: A Guide to Disability Rights Laws

Articles

Whither the Disability Rights Movement? The Future of Disability Rights Law
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Short overview of issues, organized by: ADA Coverage and Enforceability; Health Care and Education; Criminal Justice Reform; and Infrastructure, Technology, and Employment
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Hill, Eve. “Whither the Disability Rights Movement? The Future of Disability Rights Law.” Human Rights, vol. 42, no. 4, 2017, pp. 2–5. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26423419.
Why it’s now illegal for some voters with disabilities to cast a ballot (Vox)
The pandemic helped improve accessibility, but new election barriers in states like Wisconsin are rolling back gains for thousands of voters with disabilities.

Videos

Where Is Hope: The Art of Murder: Police Brutality Against People With Disabilities
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It is estimated that over 50 percent of the victims of police brutality and police killings nationally have a disability that contributed to the incident. Where Is Hope: The Art of Murder chronicles disabled victims murdered by police as well as the activists/artists who are fighting to end police brutality against people with disabilities. The work of many disabled activists and artists/activists are explored around this issue, especially involving disabled people of color. Notably, Director Emmitt H Thrower, is a retired NY City cop turned artist/filmmaker.
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Disability is glazed over or not recorded in the official police reports. Nor is the fact adequately represented in the media and even in popular movement around this issue of police brutality in general. It informs us that for them, disability doesn’t matter. But clearly disability does matter, and this documentary project makes that statement loud and clear.

Articles

Timeline of Disability Rights in the United States
Timeline of major events (bills passed, schools founded, protests held) in the US since 1776.

Websites

Disability Social History Project
Community history project
Patient No More Virtual Exhibit
Virtual exhibit on the Section 504 sit-in of 1977, which marked a major victory in disability rights and protections. From San Francisco State University.

Podcast Episodes

Now & Then: A Disability Discourse (51m)
How has America historically defined physical disabilities? How have disability rights activists achieved hard-fought wins? And how does the current debate over mask mandates and pandemic restrictions leave out those with disabilities or chronic illness?
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Heather and Joanne discuss the impact of pensions for disabled war veterans in the Revolutionary and Civil War periods, the interlocking histories of racism, sexism, and ableism, and the impact of the 1970s disability rights movement.
You're Dead to Me: Disability in the Ancient World (60m)
Greg Jenner and his guests discuss stories of disability from over a thousand years of history.
99% Invisible: Curb Cuts (51m)
If you live in an American city and you don’t personally use a wheelchair, it’s easy to overlook the small ramp at most intersections, between the sidewalk and the street. Today, these curb cuts are everywhere, but fifty years ago — when an activist named Ed Roberts was young — most urban corners featured a sharp drop-off, making it difficult for him and other wheelchair users to get between blocks without assistance. | Page includes podcast episode with transcript and article on activist Ed Roberts with embedded primary sources.

Videos

Defiant Lives: The Rise Of The Disability Rights Movement
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A triumphant film that traces the origins of the world-wide disability rights movement. Featuring interviews and rarely seen archival footage, the film reveals how these activists fought to live outside of institutions, challenged the stigmas and negative image of disability portrayed by the media, demanded access to public transportation, and battled to reframe disability rights as a social responsibility relevant to us all.
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Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Vigo Inclusion Film Festival. Official Selection at the Sydney Film Festival.

Books

Care in the Past : Archaeological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives by Lindsay Powell, William Southwell-Wright, and Rebecca Gowland
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited access)
ISBN: 9781785703362
Published: 2016
These 12 papers examine the topic of care in past societies and specifically how we might recognise the provision of care in archaeological contexts and to open up an inter-disciplinary conversation, including historical, bioarchaeological, faunal and philosophical perspectives. The topic of 'care' is examined through three different strands: the provision of care throughout the life course, namely that provided to the youngest and oldest members of a society; care-giving and attitudes towards impairment and disability in prehistoric and historic contexts, and the role of animals as both recipients of care and as tools for its provision.

Websites

Disability in Kidlit
"Disability in Kidlit is dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. We publish articles, reviews, interviews, and discussions examining this topic from various angles — and always from the disabled perspective."

Books

Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction by Ria Cheyne
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Collection: JSTOR Open Access
ISBN: 9781789624892
Published: 2019
Examining the intersection of disability and genre in popular works of horror, crime, science fiction, fantasy, and romance published since the late 1960s,Disability, Literature, Genre is a major contribution to both cultural disability studies and genre fiction studies. Drawing on recent work on affect and emotion, the book explores how disability makes us feel, and how those feelings shape interpersonal and fictional encounters.
Reading Embodied Citizenship: Disability, Narrative, and the Body Politic by Emily Russell
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited users)
ISBN: 9780813549903
Published: 2011
Drawing from major figures in American literature, including Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and David Foster Wallace, as well as introducing texts from the emerging canon of disability studies, Emily Russell demonstrates the place of disability at the core of American ideals. The narratives prompted by the encounter between physical difference and the body politic require a new understanding of embodiment as a necessary conjunction of physical, textual, and social bodies. Russell examines literature to explore and unsettle long-held assumptions about American citizenship.

Articles

Journal of Social Issues, vol. 75, issue 3 (2019): Ableism special issue
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In this special issue, we define ableism as stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and social oppression toward people with disabilities—the largest minority group in the United States. The issue has three areas of focus: social and individual‐level predictors of ableism, experiences and consequences of ableism, and navigating and resisting ableism. List of included articles below the cut:
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Articles:
-Ableism Special Issue Introduction (provides overview of topic and terms, not just the issue information)
-Actors against Ableism? Qualities of Nondisabled Allies from the Perspective of People with Physical Disabilities.
-Recognizing Ableism: A Social Identity Analysis of Disabled People Perceiving Discrimination as Illegitimate.
-Critical Disability Studies: Looking Back and Forward.
-The Subtle Side of Stigma: Understanding and Reducing Mental Illness Stigma from a Contemporary Prejudice Perspective.
-The Experiences of Microaggressions against Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities.
-Demographic, Experiential, and Temporal Variation in Ableism.
-The Association of Group‐Based Discrimination with Health and Well‐Being: A Comparison of Ableism with Other "Isms".
-Disability: Missing from the Conversation of Violence.
-Disclosure in Cystic Fibrosis: A Qualitative Study.
-Hostile, Benevolent, and Ambivalent Ableism: Contemporary Manifestations.
-Consequences of Confronting Patronizing Help for People with Disabilities: Do Target Gender and Disability Type Matter?
-Outsider Privileges Can Lead to Insider Disadvantages: Some Psychosocial Aspects of Ableism.
-Identity Management Strategies for Workers with Concealable Disabilities: Antecedents and Consequences.

Books

Seriously Funny: Disability and the Paradoxical Power of Humor by Shawn Chandler Bingham and Sara E. Green
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Collection: Ebook Central (unlimited access)
ISBN: 9781626375659
Published: 2016
Exploring a paradox, Shawn Bingham and Sara Green show how humor has been used both to challenge traditional views of disability and to reinforce negative stereotypes and social inequalities. Seriously Funny ranges from ancient Greek dramas to medieval courts jesters to contemporary comedy, from stage performances to the experiences of daily life. Rich with insights into issues of identity and social stratification, it offers an eye-opening perspective on attitudes toward disability across the ages.
Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment by James I. Charlton
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Collection: EBSCO eBook Collection (3 copies)
ISBN: 9780520207950
Published: 1998
James Charlton has produced a ringing indictment of disability oppression, which, he says, is rooted in degradation, dependency, and powerlessness and is experienced in some form by five hundred million persons throughout the world who have physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. Nothing About Us Without Us is the first book in the literature on disability to provide a theoretical overview of disability oppression that shows its similarities to, and differences from, racism, sexism, and colonialism. Charlton's analysis is illuminated by interviews he conducted over a ten-year period with disability rights activists throughout the Third World, Europe, and the United States.

Articles

I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me
The world is designed against the elderly [the specific issues he addresses overlap with physical disabilities, like mobility aids], writes Don Norman, 83-year-old author of the industry bible Design of Everyday Things and a former Apple VP.
What Geordi La Forge Can Teach STEM About Accessibility
STEM fields are beginning to fulfill the promise that Geordi La Forge embodies – the promise of equal opportunity regardless of disability.

Websites

Engineering at Home
Showcases low-tech adaptations and prosthetics as used by a survivor of a complex medical trauma and documented by an anthropologist and a designer.

Videos

Gattaca
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Collection: Place Hold to request a copy for loan
ISBN: 9781424898473
Published: 1997
As one of the last "natural" beings born into a genetically engineered world, Vincent Freeman has none of the 'pre-ordered' DNA that will guarantee him success. Desperate to realize his dream of exploring space, Vincent assumes the identity of a genetically superior athlete. Avoiding detection using the athlete's genetic markers, Vincent becomes a rising star at Gattaca Aerospace, attracting the attention of a beautiful co-worker. When a flight director is brutally murdered, a clue left at the crime scene threatens to shatter Vincent's plans.

#OwnVoices

A work is considered #OwnVoices when the person creating that piece of media—for our purposes, an author of a book—shares a marginalization with their protagonist.

Nina Grauer, BookRiot

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (Editor); Peter Catapano (Editor)
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ISBN: 9781631498589
Published: 2021
Boldly claiming a space in which people with disabilities can be seen and heard as they are-not as others perceive them-About Us captures the voices of a community that has for too long been stereotyped and misrepresented. Speaking not only to those with disabilities, but also to their families, coworkers and support networks, the authors in About Us offer intimate stories of how they navigate a world not built for them.

Ouch! Disability Talk Show
Every month, Rob Crossan and Kate Monaghan present the programme you didn’t know you wanted to hear. It's disability from a fresh angle featuring interviews, discussion and the occasional quiz. The (disabled) presenters dissect and analyse recent events with interest and a good dose of healthy humour.
Disability Visibility Podcast
This is life from a disabled lens. Disability Visibility is a podcast hosted by San Francisco night owl Alice Wong featuring conversations on politics, culture, and media with disabled people. If you’re interested in disability rights, social justice, and intersectionality, this show is for you. It’s time to hear more disabled people in podcasting and radio. Named one of the 15 best podcasts by women that you’re not listening to by Refinery 29 in 2021.
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The podcast ended with episode 100 in April 2021 with possible audio stories coming in the future so do not unsubscribe!
The Spoon Theory written by Christine Miserandino
The origin of the "spoon theory" metaphor that illustrates how people with chronic conditions must ration their physical and mental resources to get things done.

Lone Star College

Accessibility Services and Resources (LSC)