Disability Visibility

First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

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.

"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

Contributors: Alice Wong, Harriet McBryde Johnson, Talila A. Lewis, Maysoon Zayid, Ariel Henley, Jen Deerinwater, June Eric-Udorie, Jeremy Woody (as told to Christie Thompson), Jillian Weise, Liz Moore, Ricardo T. Thornton Sr., Sky Cubacub, Haben Girma, Diana Cejas, Sandy Ho, Keah Brown, Keshia Scott, Jessica Slice, Elsa Sjunneson, Zipporah Arielle, A. H. Reaum, Rebecca Cokley, Alice Sheppard, Wanda Díaz-Merced, Mari Ramsawakh, Shoshana Kessock, Ellen Samuels, Reyma McCoy McDeid, Britney Wilson, Lateef McLeod, Eugene Grant, Patty Berne (as told to Vanessa Raditz), Karolyn Gehrig, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna- Samarasinha, Jamison Hill, Stacey Milbern, s.e. smith, & Harriet Tubman Collective