Instead, we will destroy the mold and change the world to make sure there is room for everyone. Disability, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and must be defined as continuous. The disabled are the only minority group anybody can join at any time. This said, the average number of Americans with physical disabilities is 49 million, including many within the growing ranks of the elderly. Hardly self-pitying, disability culture celebrates disability and finds expression in literature, poetry, dance and, most pointedly, in a slashingly dark humor.
Disabilities are central to such visions.
We claim our disabilities with pride as part of our identity. The consciousness shift can be traced back to 1962 when Edward V. Roberts, who became a quadriplegic after contracting polio, was admitted to the University of California. He had to sue to do it, just as in the same semester James Meredith sued to become the first black person to gain admission to the University of Mississippi. Roberts went on to set up a center at Berkeley to enable students, and then the larger community in the Bay Area, to help the disabled find homes, jobs and services. He died in 1995.