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Beryl: The Making of a Disability Activist
Beryl Potter was a reserved working-class mother of three living a decent life, or so it seemed, when a harmless slip and fall marked the unravelling of everything that she had known about herself and the world around her. Over the course of six years, she endured unimaginable pain. As doctors raced to save her life, her limbs and eyesight were taken from her one by one. In the span of a few years, she lost nearly half her body, her financial security, her home, her husband, and any semblance of a recognizable future.
A survivor of more than one hundred surgeries, a dangerous opioid addiction, and multiple suicide attempts, Beryl Potter devoted herself to bettering the lives of other people with disabilities and made a tremendous contribution to disability awareness from the 1970s to 1990s. In this unparalleled biography, Dustin Galer demonstrates how Beryl Potter seemed to crack the code of the social system that oppressed her. By wading into the weeds of her complicated life before and after her accident, Galer leaves readers with a complex portrait of a woman who defied and challenged gender and disability norms of her time, paving the way for disability justice.
A survivor of more than one hundred surgeries, a dangerous opioid addiction, and multiple suicide attempts, Beryl Potter devoted herself to bettering the lives of other people with disabilities and made a tremendous contribution to disability awareness from the 1970s to 1990s. In this unparalleled biography, Dustin Galer demonstrates how Beryl Potter seemed to crack the code of the social system that oppressed her. By wading into the weeds of her complicated life before and after her accident, Galer leaves readers with a complex portrait of a woman who defied and challenged gender and disability norms of her time, paving the way for disability justice.
- GenresNonfiction
318 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 29, 2023
Long before the advent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Beryl Potter did some of the most important pioneering disability rights activism. In this comprehensive and thoughtful biography, Dustin Galer resurrects a lost story of dignity, advocacy, and triumph. An important contribution to both disability studies and history, Galer painstakingly crafts a book that is both scholarly and personal.
October 9, 2025
Excellent biography about a warrior woman and the important topic of accessibility. (There were no curb cuts in the 1970s!) We have come a long way but, there is still a long way to go. Bravo Dustin Galer!
March 3, 2024
Fascinating story about a woman I should have known about.
Oh how far we’ve come, but oh my… still so far that we have to go.
I have some issues with the writing and editing. And I wish there had been more in the way of analysis... but I get that the author's focus was on Beryl herself.
3.5 rounded up to 4
Oh how far we’ve come, but oh my… still so far that we have to go.
I have some issues with the writing and editing. And I wish there had been more in the way of analysis... but I get that the author's focus was on Beryl herself.
3.5 rounded up to 4
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews