Claiming Disability : Knowledge and Identity

Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplines--queer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studies--without a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant. --Michelle Fine, City University of New YorkClaiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era. --Lennard Davis, author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the BodyProvides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education. -- Laurie R. Lehman, Educators for Urban MinoritiesFrom public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake.Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society creates--the normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state.Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.

Simi Linton is Associate Professor of Psychology in the Division of Education at Hunter College.