Ableism and Wonder

In this article, Disability Rights and Resources outlines appropriate behavior, conversational cues, and common courtesies to internalize and enact when spending time with a person with a disability.

“Is there anything you wanted to know about me?”

“I felt alone and tried to hide it...”

“People will make fun of her in school...”

“Being in a wheelchair, you're always protected by this chair. There's armor between you and the opposite sex.”

Felipe Morales' telling account of an encounter with a blind woman on the streets of Washington, D.C. was recorded for This I Believe. The NPR project features brief personal essays in which people from diverse backgrounds discuss how their values affect their daily lives.

Following a presidential debate in 2012, Ann Coulter referred to President Barack Obama as a "retard" in one of her tweets. Stephens, a 30-year-old man with Down syndrome wrote this open letter to Coulter in response to her hurtful and uninformed comments.

To cover is to downplay aspects of our identity that make us different from mainstream society. Kenji Yoshino argues that, although we live in an age where the law prohibits many forms of discrimination, people still face pressure to hide who they are.

In his essay, Bacon provides some high-level insights into the past of America’s deaf, as well as the current culture and some potential challenges that lie ahead.

Journalist Christopher Solomon writes of his interview with Kevin Connolly, a writer, photographer and medal-winning skiier, who was born without legs.

Michael and Cathy Hoffman recount how their son with Down syndrome is included on the middle school soccer team and how his teammates and opponents show support in a way that leads to his first goal.

This short film portrays a man in need, seated on the edge of a busy street with a sign reading: "I'm blind. Please help." When a woman stops to rewrite the message on his sign, she shifts the perception of passersby.

“Ava is an ambitious teenager who owes much of her inner strength to a dance studio in South L.A. Founder Lula Washington and her daughter Tamica are professional dancers — and they are role models as well as teachers. At their dance school, African American children learn to respect themselves, their bodies, and their cultural traditions. The young dancers also defy stereotypes by mastering ballet. The dance program cultivates self-discipline and mutual support that enables girls like Ava to flourish even when their families are facing hard times.”