Solutions-Focused Community Book Club | May 23, 2024

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.

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.

“Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It’s an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again.” —Chicago Tribune

Alice Wong founded The Disability Visibility Project as an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Visit disabilityvisibilityproject.com/about to learn more about Alice and upcoming events and to view other works published by disabled people, including essays, reports, and blog posts about ableism, intersectionality, culture, media, and politics.

Jean Parker, Ph. D., is the founding Executive Director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, which has become one of the state’s most powerful lobbying groups. She currently serves on the Board of the National Federation of the Blind of Tucson and teaches nonprofit management and development practice at Regis University in Denver.

Kate Elliot, MSW, earned her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Chicago, specializing in Family Support. She managed a Family Support Program and later worked with families at the Domestic Violence Alternative Center at the Juvenile Courts. Katie works at the Autism Society of Southern Arizona, where she shares her experience with two children on the spectrum. She supports the families and individuals in their programs while strengthening the Autistic community, advocating and promoting Allyship in Southern Arizona.

Dr. Amanda Kraus has worked at the University of Arizona (UA) for over twenty years. She currently serves as Assistant Vice President for Campus and Executive Director of UA’s Disability Resource Center. One the largest in the nation, the Disability Resource Center is an international model of progressive service delivery uniquely positioned to approach campus access systemically. Through her research and teaching, she challenges the dominant deficit or tragedy narrative on disability and promotes models and tools to increase access and equity and ultimately reframe concepts of difference in higher education. Dr. Kraus is regularly invited to speak and consult and colleges and universities and organizations around the country and internationally.

During book club, participants will be sat on tables of 6. Each group will have a set of questions they can discuss including:

1. What stories from this essay collection have stayed with you? How have they impacted your worldview? 
2. How does pop culture betray disabled people? What are some examples you can name? Why is having disabled people visible on TV and in movies important?
3. How do low expectations of disabled people impact their lives and opportunities? How do high expectations impact them/us?
4. How do we look to technology to bring equality? Can equality only be achieved by taking away our differences?
5. What are some of the disability rights issues the authors identified? How did people discuss fighting or advocating for their rights? 
6. How do you see yourself as an advocate for disability rights? Or, how might you become a better advocate? 
7. The collection’s editor, Alice Wong, states, “Staying alive is a lot of work for a disabled person in an ableist society…” What are some examples of ways our community makes life harder for disabled people? What about ways it makes life easier?
8. What are ways you think governments and communities could become better at meeting the needs of the disabled?
9. Why does intersectionality help movements be successful? What does it mean to be in disability solidarity?
10. What are some of the disability rights issues the authors identified? How did people discuss fighting or advocating for their rights? 
11. In one of the essays, an author says, “Now I understand the exchange of silence for the comfort of others as oppression…” How do you decide when to be silent or when to make others uncomfortable as part of your advocacy work?
12. In referencing Annie Elainey Segarra’s T-shirt, “The Future Is Accessible,” one of the authors asks audiences to, “stop, go inward, and imagine that future.” What kind of accessible future can you/do you imagine? 
13. One author remarked, “As disabled people, we are often both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
14. When you hear about something traumatic happening to disabled people, how do you react? Do you feel a call to action or put it out of your mind?