This thoughtful collection addresses the issues faced by women with disabilities, examines the social construction of disability, and makes suggestions for the development and modification of culturally relevant therapy to meet the needs of disabled women. Written in an accessible style with a minimum of jargon, this book provides clinical material from the perspectives of psychotherapists, clients, personal assistants, and health administrators. Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities also highlights the importance of considering age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in its examination of feminist approaches to assessment, psychotherapy, disability management (coping), and discusses how the Americans with Disabilities Act impacts employment and education for women.
This thoughtful collection addresses the issues faced by women with disabilities, examines the social construction of disability, and makes suggestions for the development and modification of culturally relevant therapy to meet the needs of disabled women. Written in an accessible style with a minimum of jargon, this book provides clinical material from the perspectives of psychotherapists, clients, personal assistants, and health administrators. Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities also highlights the importance of considering age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in its examination of feminist approaches to assessment, psychotherapy, disability management (coping), and discusses how the Americans with Disabilities Act impacts employment and education for women.
This book mainly explores the lived experiences of six women, including the author herself, with physical disabilities in China. The book provides in-depth descriptions of each woman's experiences in different aspects and analyze the commonalities and differences in their experiences through their life courses. The book explores answers to some of these questions: How do physically disabled women make sense of their experiences? What are some of the empowering and/or disempowering moments/events in their lives, if any? What are disabled women's experiences in terms of education, employment, relationships, family life, and social activism? How does some of the disabled women in the book become motivated and mobilized to work on disability issues? This book serves to amplify Chinese disabled women's stories and make their presence more visible. Too often, dominant narratives and depictions of disability are written by people without disabilities, while disabled people's voices are either invisible or secondary. Sadly, this phenomenon is not new and disability advocates have been faced with these types of narratives for quite some years. To have one's own voice and speak up is to claim subjectivity, agency, and power. Different stories told by women with disabilities themselves can enrich our understanding of disability and gender. These stories have the potential to challenge dominant and oppressive narratives prevalent in our ableist societies. The stories included in this book could provide space and potential to connect with disabled people (people with either visible or invisible disabilities) elsewhere. Women's empowering experiences and encounters shown in this book could inspire relevant stakeholders to think of ways to better understand and support disabled women in their environments. This book will have wide implications for readers not only in China, but also in other parts of the world. Many disability stories of exclusion and/or empowerment of the world are still hidden and not reflected upon. The author invites readers to reflect on their own experiences and how societies have impacted the life courses of individuals with or without disabilities in their respective social, political, economic, and cultural environments. Cultural and social change around disability can start with anyone who are touched by genuine stories of vulnerability and reflexivity, as the ones to be shared in this book.
“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 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. Activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 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.
This vital exploration of the ways society overlooks—and fails—young women with disabilities and chronic illnesses is an “essential read for . . . those wondering how to be a better support system” (Library Journal). Michele Lent Hirsch knew she couldn’t be the only woman who has dealt with serious health issues at a young age, as well as the resulting effects on her career, her relationships, and her sense of self. What she found while researching Invisible was a surprisingly large and overlooked population—and now, with long COVID emerging, one that continues to grow. Though young women with serious illness tend to be seen as outliers, young female patients are in fact the primary demographic for many illnesses. They are also one of the most ignored groups in our medical system—a system where young women, especially women of color and trans women, are invisible. And because of expectations about gender and age, young women with health issues must often deal with bias in their careers and personal lives. Lent Hirsch weaves her own experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality and inequity, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic, Lent Hirsch explores the challenges that all women face.
Hidden disabilities are real. Just ask Scooter, survivor of two traumatic brain injuriesone from a 1976 car accident and the other related to a 2009 fall. Limited cognitively, Scooter suffers from memory loss and chronic pain. Still, Scooter is living proof that after a sudden life change, it truly is possible to overcome adversity, find joy and forgiveness, and become a stronger person. In her inspirational narrative, Scooter shares a glimpse into the events before, during, and after her second life-changing injury as she attempted to find her way back from the darkness of amnesia and into the light of healing. As she battled physical discomfort and psychological challenges that involved all aspects of perception, thinking, reasoning, and memory, Scooter details how she relied on an archangel physician to provide the tether to reality and much-needed structure while she bravely battled many obstacles to reclaim and rebuild her life as an intelligent and resilient single mother. Missing Frames shares the true story of one womans journey through unseen health challenges as she finds peace and strength amid pain and suffering and raises awareness about invisible disabilities.
Mary Grimley Mason describes the viewpoints, struggles, strategies, and triumphs of eighteen women with a range of physical and sensory impairments. She relates how each came to terms with her disability and achieved self-identity and self-sufficiency in an able-bodied world. Drawing on thirty extensive interviews, Mason skillfully interweaves her own experience of childhood polio with the voices of impaired women across generations and from diverse race, ethnic, class, and work backgrounds. Although each woman's story and perspective are unique, the compelling narratives in this illuminating and teachable volume reveal shared concerns and feelings about the ways in which the disabled see themselves, how others perceive the impaired, and how our workplace culture perpetuates the double hindrance of gender and disability discrimination. The women profiled here express in their own words the process of claiming their disability and integrating it into their identity, the adjustment to various dependencies and caregivers, and approaches to coping with social discrimination and marginalization. They also discuss overcoming such obstacles in the workplace as an employer's refusal to grant an interview, lack of accommodations after employment, and negative stereotyping on the job or in job placement. In these accounts we meet, for example, Debbie, born with cerebral palsy, who struggled to get her family to accept her as she is; Barbara, born with orthopedic problems, who confronted her mother's fear that she would not be employed or find a husband; and Adrienne, blind from birth, who aggressively confronted discrimination in the workplace through litigation. Taken together, the stories of these ordinary yet remarkable individuals build a sense of community. Working against Odds tells disabled women that they are not alone in grappling with the tremendous barriers to independence and helps able-bodied readers understand the challenging life choices and work experiences of those with impairments. As a whole, the insightful book offers an intimate view of disability history and issues in America.
In this book leading writers and activists reveal the many ways feminism can and must acknowledge disabled women for the benefit of all. The premise of the book is that disabled women have been marginalised by a male-dominated disabled movement.
