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MIT Reads: Disability Visibility: Home

MIT Reads Fall 2023 Book Selection

About the Book

"It is not Disability 101 or a definitive 'best of' list. You may be unfamiliar with some terms or uncomfortable with some ideas presented in this book–and that’s a good thing! These stories do not seek to explain the meaning of disability or to inspire or elicit empathy. Rather, they show disabled people simply being in our own words, by our own accounts.” - Alice Wong (p.xx) 

 

"A raw, emotional collection, an investment in the power of storytelling to foster vibrant connections, and an unapologetic rejection of ‘internalized ableism’... The 37 powerful stories in Disability Visibility reveal the depth of everyday courage and the extraordinary human capacity to find humor in the face of life’s adversities.” - Shelf Awareness

 

"[C]elebrates the lives of disabled people while making a powerful political statement about the need for disability justice, representation, and an end to violence in all forms... the stories in Disability Visibility are ultimately a rousing call to action.” - Brenna Swift, Disability Studies Quarterly

 

Borrow the book from the MIT Libraries here or click over the book cover.

ADA 30 In Color

#ADA30InColor is a series of original essays on the past, present, and future of disability rights and justice by disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) writers.

Featured

Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, writer, media maker, and consultant. She is thePhoto of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled woman in a power chair. She is wearing a black blouse with a floral print, a bold red lip color and a trach at her neck. In the background is a gray cement wall. Photo credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography. founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Alice is the editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people, as well as Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today, an adapted version for young adults. Her debut memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life is available now from Vintage Books. Disability Intimacy, her next anthology, will be out in 2024. From 2013 to 2015, Alice served as a member of the National Council on Disability, an appointment by President Barack Obama.

 

Photo of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled woman in a power chair. She is wearing a black blouse with a floral print, a bold red lip color and a trach at her neck. In the background is a gray cement wall.

Photo credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography.

A white woman with short hair and an occluded cataract on her right eye wearing purple hearing aids and a pearl necklace, looking with raised eyebrows at camera between trees. Elsa Sjunneson is an award winning Deafblind author and editor living in Seattle, Washington. Her fiction and nonfiction writing has been praised as “eloquence and activism in lockstep” and has been published in dozens of venues around the world. In 2022 her book, Being Seen won the Washington State Book Award for biography and memoir. She has been a Hugo Award finalist nine times, and has won three Hugo awards, an Aurora Award, and  and a BFA award for her editorial work. When she isn't writing, Sjunneson works to dismantle structural ableism and rebuild community support for disabled people everywhere. Her work includes her debut memoir Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, her Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla novel Sword of the White Horse, and her episode for Radiolab “The Helen Keller Exorcism.”

A white woman with short hair and an occluded cataract on her right eye wearing purple hearing aids and a pearl necklace, looking with raised eyebrows at camera between trees.

Photo credit: Lis Mitchell, 2021.

Britney Wilson, an Associate Professor of Law and the Founding Director of the Civil RightsProfile photo of Britney Wilson, a black woman with dark curly hair, wearing glasses and smiling. She is standing in front of a gray background wearing an olive blazer and a necklace. and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School, has had a remarkable career marked by her impactful advocacy of issues such as racial justice, discriminatory policing, immigration detention, the school-to-prison pipeline, and fair housing. With a background in law and a strong commitment to civil rights, Wilson's tenure at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) involved litigating federal civil rights class actions, addressing issues like excessive fines, discriminatory policing, and disability rights, with a focus on home and community-based services for individuals with disabilities. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Wilson has leveraged her experiences to become an influential voice at the intersection of race and disability, contributing to various prominent publications and testifying at both local and international governing bodies, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her academic contributions, artistic talents, and current research interests in civil rights history and legal history demonstrate her multifaceted and profound impact on the fields of civil rights and disability justice.

Profile photo of Britney Wilson, a black woman with dark curly hair, wearing glasses and smiling. She is standing in front of a gray background wearing an olive blazer and a necklace. 

Photo Credit: Unknown