Nothing About Us Without UsDisability Oppression and Empowerment

Abstract

This book is a ringing indictment of disability oppression, which, it states, is rooted in degradation, dependency, and powerlessness and is experienced in some form by five hundred million persons throughout the world who have physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. This book provides a theoretical overview of disability oppression that shows its similarities to, and differences from, racism, sexism, and colonialism. The book's analysis is illuminated by interviews conducted over a ten-year period with disability rights activists throughout the Third World, Europe, and the United States. The book finds an antidote for dependency and powerlessness in the resistance to disability oppression that is emerging worldwide. The interviews contain stories of self-reliance and empowerment evoking the new consciousness of disability rights activists. As a latecomer among the world's liberation movements, the disability rights movement will gain visibility and momentum from the elucidation of its history and its political philosophy of self-determination, which is captured in the title of the book. The book expresses the conviction of people with disabilities that they know what is best for them.