| Title | : | Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781984858979 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 176 |
| Publication | : | First published September 7, 2021 |
Disabled people are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us–disabled and non-disabled alike–don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on important disability issues you need to know about, including:
• How to appreciate disability history and identity
• How to recognize and avoid ableism (discrimination toward disabled people)
• How to be mindful of good disability etiquette
• How to appropriately think, talk, and ask about disability
• How to ensure accessibility becomes your standard practice, from everyday communication to planning special events
• How to identify and speak up about disability stereotypes in media
Authored by celebrated disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer Emily Ladau, this practical, intersectional guide offers all readers a welcoming place to understand disability as part of the human experience.
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally Reviews
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Emily Ladau is a widely known disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer whose book "Demystifying Disability" is, and I have to say it, an accessible guide to being a thoughtful and informed guide to people with disabilities.
Oh, and she apparently has sex.
I knew as soon as I saw a quote from good friend Lawrence Carter-Long in the book that I was going to be in good hands with Ladau's intelligent and insightful work here. For those of us living with disabilities, "Demystifying Disabilities" isn't particularly demystifying. After all, we live it. Though, as Ladau points out on multiple occasions in the book, we all live it differently and part of the beauty of "Demystifying Disability" is that Ladau leaves room at the table for nearly everyone.
Disabled people are the world's largest minority - an estimated 15% of the world's population. Yet, to this day, it seems as disability remains a mystery to many and "Demystifying Disability" gently yet intentionally breaks down the walls of mystery and builds a bridge to understanding and human connection.
Ladau's writing style is warm and friendly, however, Ladau doesn't hold back on the importance of these insights she's so eloquently sharing. Ladau explores such issues as exploring disability history and identity, ableism, positive disability etiquette, appropriately communicating about disability, planning for accessibility in daily life, and confronting media stereotypes about disability.
There's more, of course, but one of the wise things here is that Ladau actually keeps the conversation surprisingly simple and weaves in her own experiences into the wider conversations being discussed here. Ladau discusses the importance of understanding intersectionality, a term we've all likely heard these days but often don't truly understand.
"Demystifying Disability" is a tremendous place to start the disability conversation. There are a myriad of quality discussions that can be formed out of the book and Ladau writes from a peaceful, hospitable place that seems to invite genuine conversations. It is, of course, possible to go much deeper than Ladau chooses to go here. While I myself didn't particularly find "Demystifying Disability" groundbreaking information, I've had a disability my entire life and I can assure you that many will read these pages and go "I never thought of it that way."
Indeed, many of us deal with it every single day.
Beautifully written and easy to understand, "Demystifying Disability" takes away the mystery and the "inspiration" and the stereotypes and infuses disability with real life, rich humanity, and common ground. -
Hi everyone! GeekDis is happening again this year, and I'm giving away a copy of Demystifying Disability as a part of the event!
It's open internationally, and
you can enter to win here!
I've reviewed this book as a part of an event I am hosting in September 2021 called GeekDis. GeekDis is a collaborative event for members of the disability community to talk about disability representation in pop culture. You can learn more about
GeekDis here!
Originally posted on
Just Geeking by.
It’s taken me a while to get my thoughts in order for this review, not because there were any problems with Demystifying Disability because it is absolutely brilliant. I find these reviews the hardest because if I don’t take the time to put my thoughts in order all you will get my dear readers is a lot of nonsensical squeeing and an overuse of capital letters.
Starting at the beginning, the book covers a vast range of material and does so in a format that makes sense and eases the reader into the subject slowly and painlessly. There’s a huge emphasis on learning and being able to make mistakes as long as you are willing to keep learning. It would be nice if there wasn’t such a huge learning curve, but as a white woman I’m aware of my own learning curve when it comes to racism, so I am in no position to fault nondisabled people for having when it comes to ableism. Plus, I would hope that most people who are actually reading Demystifying Disability are already open to the possibility of changing their own perceptions of disabled people and the disabled community. It can be extremely frustrating as a disabled person to keep dealing with ignorance, but I think Ladau puts it best when she says in the introduction “If the disabled community wants a world that’s accessible to us, then we must make ideas and experiences of disability accessible to the world” and that is exactly what Demystifying Disability does.
Ladau starts with basics; “So, what is Disability, anyway?” is the name of the second chapter and it covers everything from the dictionary definition, to what disability means to disabled people and how to talk about disability. This part includes the difference between Person-first language (PFL) and Identity-first language (IFL), and why people in the disabled community choose to use either one. I extremely appreciated Ladua admitting that when she realised her own personal preference, (IFL) she also recognised that she didn’t like being told what to call herself and with that “came an understanding that I couldn’t tell other people what to call themselves”. I was silently applauded Ladau at this stage because this is one of my biggest issues with many people in the disability community; they criticise others for what they do, especially the language they choose to use, but hate being told what they should do themselves. The level of hypocrisy is horrible, and for someone to put it in print in a book about disability is absolutely fantastic.
She continued on this topic by included the controversial term “differently able”, including a quote from a fellow disabled advocate who explained why she prefers to use it. I personally have no issue with the term, but many people do, and they can get quite nasty about it. Instead of choosing to listen to the reasons why people may use it they brand it as “ableist”, and I’ve even seen the word “traitor” get thrown around before. Again, I appreciate that Ladau made a point of including it and pointing out that the real issue is not what disabled people choose to call themselves, it’s when nondisabled people make up ways to “dance around disability” as she puts it. Those are far more harmful, and I hope that certain people within the disabled community understand Ladau’s message here because it’s for them just as much as nondisabled readers.
I could fill this entire review with points about each chapter (I highlighted so many excellent points of this book) but that would defeat the point of you all reading it for yourself. Every single chapter is filled with information, anecdotal evidence from Ladau’s life, carefully collected source material, or guests she has interviewed. Some of their accounts are chilling even to me, a member of the disabled community. Her section on intersectionality in particular gets right to the point and does not waste time in ensuring that the reader understands how serious the reality of prejudice and stigma towards disabled people of multiple marginalised identities is. One interview remained with me long after reading Demystifying Disability. D’Arcee Neal a doctoral student shared his experiences as a Black young man with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair. In an interview, he told Ladau:
“When I was younger, the very first question most white people would ask upon meeting me was ‘When were you who?’ They immeadiatly jumped to the conclusion that I had a spinal cord injury as a result of gang or gun violence.”
Neal’s experience is just one of many that Ladau shares in Demystifying Disability. Some are familiar to me, and some are so shocking that I had to put the book down briefly. At times this will be a hard book to read, but remember that these are events that people lived through. Disability is something that I, and many others, live with every day. The least you and I owe the people that shared their experiences to help spread awareness about what disabled people have to deal with is read them.
One of the chapters that I was most interested to read was the one on disability history, and it was very informative; if you’re American. I still learned a lot from it, however, it only covers the American side of history and as a Brit that means it’s filled with a lot of names and events that mean nothing to me. I think an American reader will get a lot more out of this than I did. While I appreciate that it would have been difficult to include an entire worldwide history in one chapter, it would have been nice if there had even just been a few highlights.
As I’m reviewing this for GeekDis I need to mention the brilliant chapter on “Disability in the Media”, which was once again based on American media, but this is to be expected with an American author. Media consumption is a personal preference, after all. Ladau introduces the reader to the discrepancies in disability representation, highlighting the connection between inaccurate representation and discrimination, and how it affects how disabled people perceive themselves. She then focuses on a huge issue; inspiration p0rn. After explaining what it is, Ladau divides it into three types; Overcoming Adversity, Life’s Moments, Great Expectations and Not Your Good Deed. She then challenges the reader to not share inspiration p0rn the next time they come across it, or if they do, share it to call it out. I’m making a point to highlight this segment of the book because in the age of social media, inspiration p0rn is an ever-growing thing and this part of Demystifying Disability is just as important as everything else Ladau writes about.
Ladau continues the chapter by doing some calling out of her own as she goes through some of the most common tropes in media. In a section about the “tragedy” of physical disability she calls out the popular film Me Before You, under stigmatizing mental illness she draws attention to how often pop culture encourages us to gawk at people in crisis, and in freaks and other “abnormalities” she highlights how modern medical dramas like Grey’s Anatatomy dramatise stories of people with complex diagnoses for ratings. It’s not all bad news though; there’s a wonderfully uplifting section as Ladau celebrates positive portrayals of disability representation and tells people what to look for (if you’ve been keeping up with GeekDis you’ll know what I’m about to say…); authenticity. As Ladau says, “people with disabilities know ourselves and our experiences best, and we use them to breathe life into stories both real and imagined”. She continues to explain that disabled creators have always been there, but nondisabled gatekeepers have decided what stories should be told, and slowly things are changing as “the mainstream is letting us in”.
There is a lot of information in Demystifying Disability, and one of the great things that Ladau has done to help make it easy to digest is a quick recap at the end of each chapter in bullet points. This is a book that you’ll want to keep a copy of at hand to back to and re-read when and as you need it. That is what it’s designed for, and there is a fabulous index at the back of the book that makes it even easier for the reader to find what they are looking for again. No one is expecting nondisabled readers to memorise this book, or get it right every time, the point is that we want you to try. That’s why Ladau has created Demystifying Disability and for my fellow disabled readers this is a perfect book to give to people who might not quite understand what you’re going through. Whether it’s a relative, a friend or a colleague, Demystifying Disability is a great book for them to read and then come to you. It takes the weight of expectation off of us as disabled people to answer every single question, and I think that is probably by design by Ladau too.
As I said in my review, this is a book that I have already started recommending to people and I probably will be for quite a while!
For more of my reviews please visit
my blog! -
clear, accessible, and compassionate, emily ladau's book is exactly the sort of resource i've been seeking to read and share with folks around me!
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this book since I finished it, and I felt like I would be doing a misdeed to not leave it a review.
From the very first chapter, I found it to be steeped in ableism. “I believe offering honest and sincere guidance and conversation remains a key part of the path forward for the disability community. That’s how progress has been made by the powerhouse disability activists who have come before me” already set the tone that disabled people should tell their stories in order to get our basic human rights met. No disabled person should be forced to be a “teacher” to others. We don’t have to offer guidance or have conversations with nondisabled folks in order to be respected and to qualify to have our needs met.
This book goes on to sugarcoat disability in some of the goofiest ways I’ve ever read, going so far as to compare different disability presentations to different slices of pizza. If this book was written for children, that may be acceptable. But for a “wide range of audiences”, as the author has suggested, it is infantalizing. And is that not something that disabled people fight against? We don’t want nondisabled people infantalizing us, but this book turns around and infantalizes its audience.
In the Disability History chapter, the author says “my goal isn’t to put you to sleep”, as if our history as disabled folks is a snooze. Our history is part of our culture & part of disability justice. You can’t separate the disability movement from its history. But this chapter felt like it was raced through with urgency, as if it was a highlight reel. How can we seek disability justice if others don’t know what came before? You can’t just lightly touch on something that has shaped our past, present, and future.
I could say so many more things- my critiques for this book are limitless. If you want to learn more about disability, our beautiful culture, our rich history, our real and valid struggles with ableism, etc., this book isn’t the right one. Instead, I would recommend Care Work or Disability Visibility. -
This saw a great introduction to disability justice, and How to not be a dick to disable ppl in your life. A good starting point for anyone interested!
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In short, this is an invaluable resource and one I will return to for guidance.
I raced through this book in two days, but honestly it deserves a closer rereading. I was so excited by its release because I'd heard the author speak at a webinar and found such insight and value in what she shared. The book is short and very digestible, but covers a breadth of topics and is packed with useful tips. This is a book I wish I could have read when I was 14, but I'm so glad it's a resource for me and others now. I've already brought it up in conversations with friends, who also have disabilities, to help consider how to respond to ableism we experience. And it saved me in an emergency this weekend when I was able to speak up for myself with more conviction than I'd otherwise have. I will be using the tools I learn here as I learn how to be a better self-advocate and a better advocate to others, as I navigate how to bring attention to issues faced by people with disabilities while setting the right tone. I'd recommend it to anyone really, as all our lives are touched by disability, whether directly or indirectly, but I especially wish healthcare professionals, including PTs and OTs, read this, to have them understand that people with disabilities deserve every bit as much support and medical care (beyond individuals' pre-existing conditions) as those without long-term disabilities. My friend who trained at the leading US medical schools says she received no training on disability issues, yet these are the individuals tasked with rationing care. Having medical students read this would be a huge step in the right direction, though just the beginning and no substitute for laws that codify the rights of people with disabilities beyond the ADA, which is itself minimally enforced. It boils down to recognizing our lives deserve as much respect and that we have every right to full access and opportunity as anyone else. I also appreciated the discussion of the different movements within the disability community, as these nuances were very new to me. And lastly, I think the author set the perfect tone, calling us in instead of calling us out, as we seek to educate ourselves on what is called "disability etiquette," something we can all benefit from learning about, as we are only ever experts on our own experiences. -
Loved it! Well-organized and extremely easy to digest. Some of this information will be review for many, but don't skip over it; even in rereading what you may consider the "basics," you may discover a couple things you didn't know. I should note that this book was written with a very U.S. American (rather than global) lens, for which I'd mostly recommend it to readers from the region.
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While I’d recommend something with a bit more depth for an adult audience (and something less US-focused for an international audience), this would be a decent addition to a US-based secondary school library. A potentially solid 101/introductory text for a teenage audience.
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Emily, thank you! I learned so much about my own ableism.
Highly highly encourage everyone to read/listen to this book. It’s eye opening, conversational, and straightforward in how ableist bias perpetuates society, media, and culture. -
I feel almost guilty admitting that, although I certainly support her main tenets of the innate autonomy and self-determination and the need for much greater accessibility in the public and private sphere for people with disabilities, I disagreed with a couple of points:
One, oftentimes one's life would be "better" without a disability. I say this as a person with a chronic, very annoying and potentially dangerous and likely to be eventually debilitating disease. Can I really speak for everyone with a disability? No. But can she just as easily say that no one missing a limb, an organ, a biological process would rather just be "normal"? (Not that simply being normal's an option...)
Two, i firmly believe that sometimes people with disabilities need a certain level of exclusion to meet their needs when it comes to education. I taught students and young adults with the most profound intellectual disabilities. They certainly do not need to be hidden away and should not be, BUT they do need a learning environment for core academics and life skills that often looks veryyyy different than what nondisabled students are placed in. The hustle and bustle of 25 kids around them would overload the senses of some; the need for intense prompting, guiding, lesson modification, and content paraphrasing to make a "regular ed" lesson meaningful to a child who cannot talk ot read would in itself be cruel. Special education classrooms allow for the creative substitution needed to make content accessible and relevant to students with severe cognitive disabilities.
(Of course, in a perfect world all children would have personalized hands-on learning opportunities in small classrooms, but that's far from our world today. )
There was one thing that struck me. I have had close friends share with me that they'd rather die than live the life I live. In my opinion, if one takes nothing else from the book, at least take some recognition that the entire idea of telling someone that you couldn't bear to live their life due to their disability is a cruel and heartless thing to say that is both offensive and shows you to be a weak, shallow being.
That is all. -
I loved that on first half and i learn a lot! But i dont know i got that weird feeling for the rest of that book :/
But anyway i think that is important to know everything that Emily is writing about -
It was just fine. I would say this book is a good intro to see if you’d want to learn more about disability. The author provides a lot of recommendations to other sources for further reading which I will check out.
What I liked about it was that it made me think more about how I refer to myself or some of the ableist beliefs that were put on me abt myself. -
3.5 stars.
This is MOSTLY an amazing book. This is the book that, as a disabled person for these last 13+ years, I would love to be so much more common knowledge. It is most certainly one that I will be recommending to anyone and everyone that wants to know more about the real-life experience and actual barriers faced by millions of us that live life with disabilities. The tone is light and friendly, while discussing very important topics and themes. And the audiobook is very well read by the author.
I am taking one full star off of my what should have been a 4.5-star book because, as a non-American, I am so incredibly sick of the unnecessary centring of the US. I find it to be such a lazy and exclusionary choice. This book should either have included an international history chapter, or it should have been titled *Demystifying Disability in the US* (in which case, I likely would have skipped it entirely).
**THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THIS BOOK:**
* The cover.
* The overall light and friendly tone.
* Generally very inclusive (except regarding history outside of the US). The author is clear that the *disabled community* is an umbrella term that encompasses a vastly diverse community, both on the spectrum of physical, mental and/or cognitive disabilities, but also within individuals themselves. Not everyone is happy using the same terminology, for example, though there are generally only a few mainly-used options. The best way to know what someone prefers is to ask.
* The discussion of privilege and intersectionality, and how it still applies to those of us that are disabled and identify in certain ways. I would have liked to see a lengthier discussion on this topic, though I got the sense that the author struggled with the concept.
* I particularly loved the “dos and don’ts of disability etiquette”. Profound, well explained and non-judgemental. And it is amazing how despite the vast range of disabilities, disability life experiences and unique characters of individuals with disabilities, that so many of us face the same invasive (and often unkind) treatment.
**THINGS I REALLY DISLIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK:**
* This REALLY guts me. So many American authors choose to focus primarily or exclusively on the US to the point of ridiculousness. This book definitely falls into that category. And though the author says that it is the history to at they are most personally grateful for, I find that it is lazy and exclusive.
For example, though the author throws out a handful of international/non-American examples later in the book, they included in the history chapter when the US first hosted the Paralympic Games, rather than sharing when/how they were formed in the first place. Ugh. Talk about centring the US to exclusion. Plus, chapter three takes up almost 20% of a four-hour audiobook!
Sure, many of the examples were interesting on their own but they didn’t mean anything to me (I personally would have skipped at least the second half of chapter three, but I feel that as an ARC reviewer that I need to listen to the entirety of an audiobook to give a fair review).
This book should either have included an international history chapter following the same decadal timeline, skipped the vast majority of chapter three or it should have been titled *Demystifying Disability in the US*. For an author that frequently repeats how important representation is and how much it matters, they really fell flat in the disability history department.
* I would have liked to see much more on intersectionality, how much it matters, and given examples of different levels of barriers experienced by those who are marginalized for multiple reasons - centring the voices of those who enjoy much less privilege than the author. I got the sense that the author didn’t fully comprehend this concept though (certainly not as well as the rest of concepts).
* Though only evident in a couple/few offhand comments, it seems like the author has very little compassion for the grief that so many face when becoming disabled later in life. Giving up much or everything that you have even known, while navigating pain and a whole new world, and likely mountains of cruel paperwork at the same time is incredibly challenging. Not everyone is going to go straight into thinking that their new disabilities are a superpower or a gift. Some don’t ever get there.
**Conclusion:**
All-in-all, this is a very well-written, thought-provoking, essential contribution on disability. I would highly recommend it, especially if you are American. If you aren’t, know that almost 20% of the book centres the US to absolute exclusion and much of the rest of the text does so, albeit less strikingly. Had it not been so US-centric (or had that been made obvious in the title), I would have given it 4.5 stars.
Thank you to the author Emily Ladau, the publisher Ten Speed Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review/opinion. -
While in no way comprehensive and at times maybe too non-threatening to the status quo, this book is an incredibly easy to understand guide to many facets of ability and disability that you may or may not have thought or wondered about. This is a great book to jumpstart your learning and accompliceship!
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*No rating because how do you rate someone telling you how to be better? Not to mention it's my job to learn and not to critique. I did learn things though!
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As soon as I found this on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it. I liked the definitions of disability from interviewees and the fact that one of the people is someone I know from an online disability community.
I have Cerebral Palsy, Hydrocephalus and four visual impairments and have so many experiences of different treatment from different people throughout my life.
I have experienced both ignorance and acceptance from people and life has been, and still is, a constant fight for inclusion.
I know so many people with disabilities will identify with me on this.
15% of the world's population has some type of disability.
I don't need disability to be demystified for me as I live with my disabilities every day but this is exactly the type of book that I know could help many people who need to know more about the world of disability and what those of us with disabilities are constantly up against.
Demystifying Disability will be good for those who think they "know it all" as they live with, or know, people with a disability. I believe everyone can learn more.
Like Emily Ladau, I am a wheelchair user and I identified with her experiences. I also learnt about her disability.
Another part of this book that I loved was her discussion of visible versus invisible disabilities, since I have both. My glasses and wheelchair are a marker of my visual disabilities, as are my scars from my shunt surgeries for hydrocephalus.
However, unless I let people know I have hydrocephalus, let them know what it is and how it affects me, they have no idea that I have it or how serious it is.
Likewise with my glasses. I have them but people cannot tell how strong my prescription is or that they only allow me to "see" the very little I can and that they don't correct my visual difficulties, that nothing will. I embrace all these parts of me and encourage those who do not to do so and for others with disabilities to embrace their own uniqueness.
Demystifying Disability is a friendly but firm nudge in the right direction for people who think the world is accepting of people with disabilities.
It will challenge your perception of disability whether you have a disability or not, and I hope it will go a long way in producing more real change in society.
I think, and hope, it is the kind of book that will let people know that they shouldn't judge people based on what they "think" a person with a certain disability will look, or move, like.
I sincerely wish I could have had access to this book when I was growing up, as I think it will have gone a long way in shaping people's attitudes.
The message this book gives is that all of us with disabilities should love ourselves as we are and that everyone can learn something, no matter how much they think they know.
Because we can all keep learning.
Thanks to Emily Ladau for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.
5 stars. -
Thanks to Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC!
This was a nice overview about disability for a general audience. I think it could work well for teens, but many adults would benefit from reading it as well.
This book is most effective when discussing topics like disability etiquette, how to talk about disability, recognizing and addressing ableism, and portrayals of disability in the media. Here, Ladau is able to pull in her own anecdotes and those of many other disabled activists, and her strong convictions enable her to carve her own space among other basic overviews of disability. Ladau effectively acknowledges that she cannot speak for all disabled people, clarifying her specific lens as a physically disabled, straight, white, Jewish, cisgender woman. She includes quotes from many BIPOC & queer disabled people, as well as people with different types of disabilities from her own, to help emphasize the variety of viewpoints and lived experiences that exist within the disabled community. She is clear that while she can give broad recommendations for how to speak and think about disability, each disabled person will have their own opinions, and can clarify their own preferences about terminology, boundaries, etc.
I found chapter 3 (“An (Incomplete) Overview of Disability History”) to be the least engaging. The whole chapter came across like she just felt obligated to include the subject. In an attempt to be approachable, Ladau starts by asking the reader not to abandon the book and promising that it won’t be boring. This is a pretty odd and ineffective way to introduce a topic. Then, her quite brief summary of U.S. disability history moved through events so quickly that I couldn’t see it being particularly useful to someone with no background information. It felt like the same care and effort was not put into this chapter, and it became unclear why it was even included. -
Each of our lived experiences shape us. As a black woman with a non-apparent disability and a person lucky enough to work with Emily, I was eager to read her book. I found Emily’s book to be open and informative. It was a great mix of her lived experience and a guide to “demystifying” disability.
I hope parents and caregivers take the time to read it — perhaps with their loved ones. And I hope every foundation CEO reads her book and recognizes disability as a key element in achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion. -
This is challenging because I REALLY wanted to like this book. To give you some background, I am an intervention specialist in a school, both of my siblings have/had severe disabilities. I volunteer my time working with young adults with disabilities. I have spent a lot of time working with individuals with disabilities and many of my friends are disabled. I only share this to show that I am not new to the disabled community and consider myself to be and ally and advocate for individuals with disabilities. In the next breath, I also understand that this book is written by a member of the disabled community and there are experiences that she has that I will not be able to relate to, even as an ally.
The reason I was not fond of this book was because of the tone. In my opinion, it was a harsh and accusatory tone. It offered great information, but it seemed more informal than I would have hoped.
I am by no means an expert about individuals with disabilities and mean absolutely no disrespect to the author as I think this book could be good for people who want to know more about disabilities. As someone with a lot of experience with disabilities and learning a lot of this from an early age, i fear that people would read this book and feel guilty rather than empowered to make a change.
If you have had a different experience in life and don’t know much about disabilities, this would be a good book for you but keep in mind that it can sound harsh at times. I think a change in tone would have been beneficial at times. -
This is a book everyone can benefit from reading. I learned so much!
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As both a mother of a developmentally disabled child and as a clinician who works only with this group, I found this book to be a new and helpful tool for all of us. It is helpful to me when advocating for my son but also as a clinician who cares about the population that I serve. It would be a great resource to the staff and families who care for this group as well. Reading through the history of the treatment and access to basics like education was interesting. It is incredible how far things have come, albeit, slowly. I have worked in a facility (similar to Willowbrook, but not with the terrible conditions) and have seen the pros and cons of this institutional approach. Our facility has also closed and seeing the lives that the former inpatients, now community residents, are living has been a blessing.
I think my favorite quote from this book and takeaway message is: "Disabled lives are worth living." This couldn't be more obvious of a point and yet more necessary of a point. Sadly, many people consider disabilities as a reason to not give the same care or consideration or respect to those who are affected by the disabilities, as they would give to an abled person. I have come across this many times in my work. In caring for some of the most profoundly intellectually and developmentally disabled folks, I have seen other healthcare providers fail to act as though these are people, often claiming "poor quality of life" (their presumption because the patients are different from themselves) as a reason to not give the same urgent care. And yet, I can say that there has never been one person with a disability that I have interacted with who was not worthy of love, respect, and dignity. I think this is a message that we all need to keep close when saying, thinking, or doing something that might be disrespectful to this community. Then apply the same to all communities, even those different from ourselves. As with most people, we find some common ground in which to build a relationship and that is no different here.
Thank you for the eARC and good luck to the author on her writing and her advocacy.
Highly recommend. I will have this as a recommendation for all the caregivers that I interact with when seeing folks with developmental disabilities.
#DemystifyingDisability #NetGalley #TenSpeedPress -
Dora the Explorer inspired book about disability.
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What I mean by Dora the Explorer inspired, is:"Still with me? Great?"
"Phew! If this feels like a lot to taken in, that's okay."
"I'm really glad that we stuck together through this learning process, but here's the thing-- the process isn't over."
I get that Ladau is trying to be reassuring and informal, but it comes off poorly mostly because the book as a whole is well written and mostly in third person.
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Which brings me to another gripe of mine, the shifting point of view. We go from formal third person when discussing disability generally, to first person when Ladau connects issues to her personal experiences, to second person when Ladau teaches (Dora Mode).
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And here's my bigger problem with the book, it's "one woman's take on disability" while also marketed as a "practical, intersectional guide offers all readers a welcoming place to understand disability as part of the human experience." Do you see my issue here? I went into this book thinking it was broad in scope and yet it clearly is not.
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I really wanted to like this but alas. -
This is a basic, actionable guide to disability and how to treat disabled people, primarily for non-identifying disabled people. As someone decently familiar with disability literature, I found it too simplistic in places and craved deeper dives, but I also realized this book wasn't really written for me, a disabled woman already familiar with all the topics she discusses. This is a quick listen on audio.
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I was really disappointed with this book. Some of it was good, there is a need to call out people when it comes to their discrimination of individuals with disabilities but, the view point came from a liberal standpoint and there was too much push with the LGBTQ and how members of that group get discriminated even more because they have disabilities.
Long and short, some good, some not great. All in all, watch how you talk to people with or without a disability. -
This book provided many thought-provoking ideas that now seem obvious, but weren't to me before I read this. I will definitely be implementing some changes to my language going forward. Detracting a star due to feeling like there was a lot of excess fluff in this book - it could've been a bit shorter. Overall would definitely recommend.
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Its an interesting book that everyone should have a flip through at some time cause it really shows that disability is obviously so much more than a special parking spot for old people. The amount of prejudice and unfairness involved in the history of disability and employment is pretty astounding it's like people think not having legs makes you stupid??? Like does closing your eyes make you deaf???? No. And there shouldn't be a reason to be sterilizing disabled people like why is that even a thing wtf
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informative, engaging, and approachable! i wish i owned it so that i could’ve highlighted some parts thanks libraries 🙄
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I think everyone should read this. I know the author said not to think of it as an etiquette book because that seems too formal and rigid, but it really does function well as something to reference occasionally in the same way an etiquette book would be used. It was well written, well organized, easy to understand, and (given the breadth of the subject matter) pretty thorough and wide reaching. Very recommended!
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Book club pick
I read this for a book club at work. It was good because the chapters were well organized and easy to read, which made for productive discussions each week. Highly recommend! -
This is an important book. One thing I noticed-that may have been intentional- is that I was able to read it on a plane when I didn’t have easy access to my reading glasses.
Our society is ableist and we need to work on educating ourselves so we can be and do better. This book is an excellent jumping off point.
