Our Shared Shelf discussion

Hello OSS Members!

For January and February we will be reading Disability Visibility by Alice Wong as we explore the topic of Disability Awareness.

According to the World Bank, one billion people, or 15% of the world's population, experience some form of disability, and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. Some are visible, some are hidden—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings while celebrating and documenting disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love.

Our Community Engagement Leaders Tristen and Erika explain why this book was chosen:

"With this book readers get to hear first-person viewpoints on a wide variety of disabilities and a wide variety of disability justice issues. I also like that this is very recently published and that a lot of care was taken in the curation of voices to ensure that there was diversity among the backgrounds of those invited to share (although they do generally reflect USA experiences). I like that this book is written in personal stories that are easy to connect with and has lots of resources that can act as a springboard should someone be further interested in a certain topic."

Thank you for joining us! And as always, we are excited to hear what you think!

- The OSS Mods

Eager to read it to broaden my awareness!

Thanks, I'm in!

Go for it i'm also in UPSers

Half way into reading this! It's great how each essay is personal and easy for the reader to understand. However, some formats of the essays are a bit confusing and hard to understand. Overall, very informative and eye-opening.

I joined late here, but I am excited to be part of reading this book.