Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity

A comprehensive assessment of the field of Disability Studies that presents beyond the medical to dig into the meaning

From public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake.

Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society creates--the normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state.

Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.

Author: Simi Linton
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 01/01/1998
Pages: 203
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.40w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780814751343

About the Author
Linton, Simi: - Simi Linton is Founder and President of Disability/Arts, an organization devoted to working with artists and cultural institutions to help shape the presentation of disability in the arts and to increase the representation of work by disabled artists. She is also Founder and Co-Director of the Disability Studies Project, a curriculum development project at Hunter College in New York.