Monday, September 28, 2015

Weekly Reading List

Picture of a stack of multicolored books
Elizabeth Picciuto, The Daily Beast - September 23, 2015

Ari Ne’eman, Sometimes A Lion - September 20 & 26, 2015

Kathleen McLaughlin, SF Gate - September 26, 2015

Sophie Quinton, The Pew Charitable Trusts / Stateline - September 17, 2015

All 5 articles deal with employment of disabled people, in particular, the increasingly outdated practice of routing them into lesser, lower-paid, “sheltered” employment. This is a foundational issue for the disability rights movement. It’s also a sort of litmus test for service providers and others who want to be our allies. Are they willing to recognize that yesterday’s way of doing things … though maybe the best we could do at the time … may not be acceptable anymore? Can they turn their back on familiar ideas and assumptions, and embrace a new outlook? It’s not as easy as it sounds in a blog post, but it is essential.

Plus, as Ari Ne’eman points out, disabled people, too, need to take a leap now and then, and we don’t always step up and do it right away.

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