No Pity

Jerry's Kids. The Special Olympics. A blind person with a bundle of pencils in one hand and a tin cup in the other. An old woman being helped across the street by a Boy Scout. The poster child, struggling bravely to walk. The meager, embittered life of the "wheelchair-bound." For most Americans, these are the familiar, comfortable images of the disabled: benign, helpless, even heroic, struggling against all odds and grateful for the kindness of strangers. Yet no set of images could be more repellent to people with disabilities. In No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, Joe Shapiro of U.S. News & World Report tells of a political awakening few nondisabled Americans have even imagined. There are over 43 million disabled people in this country alone; for decades most of them have been thought incapable of working, caring for themselves, or contributing to society. But during the last twenty-live years, they, along with their parents and families, have begun to recognize that paraplegia, retardation, deafness, blindness, AIDS, autism, or any of the hundreds of other chronic illnesses and disabilities that differentiate them from the able-bodied are not tragic. The real tragedy is prejudice, our society's and the medical establishment's refusal to recognize that the disabled person is entitled to every right and privilege America can offer. No Pity's chronicle of disabled people's struggle for inclusion, from the seventeenth-century deaf communities on Martha's Vineyard to the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992, is only part of the story. Joe Shapiro's five years of in-depth reporting have uncovered many personal stories as well. You willread of Larry McAfee; most Americans, assuming that a quadriplegic's life was not worth living, supported his decision to commit suicide rather than cope with a system that denied him the right to work or make his own decisions. Here, too, is the story of Nancy Cleaveland, a fif

This book was suggested by a friend. I have bipolar and I am Deaf. The Deaf part is a minor inconvenience if you ask me. The bipolar part is a huge obstacle. To be honest I was kind of feeling sorry for myself. What did I do to deserve such a thing as Bipoar etc. A friend suggested I empower myself and read books that show that I can deal with it and put the pieces of my life back together. Hence this book.
The title says it all. No Pity. It is true. Disabled people do not want pity but rather an equal chance to do what non disabled people take for granted. For example Deaf people want equal communication access. They do not want any special privileges just the chance to do the same job with the same pay and such as hearing people. Physically disabled people want equal access to public transportation so they can get to their jobs and be independent.
The part that really made me think was the section on mental retardation. I along with 99 percent of the population had always though people with mental retardation needed special help. This book tells otherwise. It shows that people with this can and do lead independent lives. It also goes to show that what people think and the reality is sometimes two completely different things.
That ties in with the major theme of this book. That non disabled peoples attitudes and not the actual disability is what holds most disabled people back. The author gives example after example of this. He also includes a section on ADA and how most businesses and people balk at the idea when in reality they just need to get creative and provide simple and affordable ways to accommodate people. He also shows that the ADA has even helped non disabled people. That when the rights of disabled people are implemented we all benefit.
This is a book I would recommend everyone read. If not for the enjoyment factor but for the education factor.