Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity

by Simi Linton

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814751336
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Series:	Cultural Front , #14
Pages:	203
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplines—queer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studies—without a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant."

-Michelle Fine,City University of New York

"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era."

-Lennard Davis,author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body

"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."

-Laurie R. Lehman,Educators for Urban Minorities

Editorial Reviews

"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."

Educators for Urban Minorities - Laurie R. Lehman

"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era."

Lennard Davis

"Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplinesqueer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studieswithout a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant."

Michelle Fine

" Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era."

-Lennard Davis,author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body

"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education.”

-Laurie R. Lehman, Educators for Urban Minorities

"Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplines—queer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studies—without a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant."

-Michelle Fine,City University of New York

From the Publisher

Linton (education foundations and counseling programs, Hunter College) focuses on the fact that the definition of is a matter of social debate and cultural construction. She argues that not only does disability studies deserve a place in curriculums, it is in fact central to the humanities. In the process of making this argument Linton discusses our divided society and the divided curriculum that mirrors it, applications of the discipline to the non-academic world, and the future scholarship that is needed. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."

Educators for Urban Minorities