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New Works by Writers with Disabilities Hit Publisher Lists
By Alex Green
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Apr 03, 2020
There is a popular phrase among people with disabilities across the United States: “nothing about us without us.” As the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches in July, a spate of new and forthcoming titles suggests that this idea may be taking hold in the publishing industry.
In Being Heumann (Beacon, out now), disability civil rights leader Judith Heumann vividly describes how disability rights activists fought for changes that were resisted by many but are common sense today, including curb cuts, elevator regulations, and universal special education. Born in Brooklyn in 1949, Heumann contracted polio as a child and has used a wheelchair since. In the ’70s, she led a major sit-in—the subject of the newly released Netflix documentary Crip Camp—that paved the way for the ADA, and she later rose to positions of prominence, serving as a U.S. assistant secretary for education and later in the State Department as the first special advisor for international disability rights.
What she hadn’t done was write a book. “People for years have been telling me to [...]