Abstract

Social history is only one kind of history. Still, it is exactly the type of history that disability demands to be told, especially due to the universality of the disability experience. Doris and Frieda Zames remind us that “handicapism” is the only “ism” we all will experience if we live long enough. Although disability will always arguably be about physical differences (of body, mind, intellect, personality, etc.), its universal nature means that it should logically be the king/queen of identity politics, while it has long been the pauper. This story helps explain why that was and is today, and what America’s unique and sometimes unpleasant role in the story is. This text attempts not just to represent the American experience with disability but the American experience. The further we move away from 1990 and the passage of the ADA, the less that demarcation seems to be distinct and dichotomous, and the more America seems to be an abject case study of identity possibility in flux, placed squarely at the intersection of the rational and irrational, the qualitative and quantitative, the old and new, the individual and collective, and at the nexus of classic liberalism and neomodernism. In fact, the ADA was reauthorized in 2008, an indication of the constructivist nature of disability policy. This book is intended to be useful and informative, whether as a classroom textbook or as a conversation starter on the coffee table. It also uses the unique tools of the social historian to tell the story.