Disability Visability
By: Alice Wong
Summary
"Disability Visibility," contains 17 stories about people with different kinds of disabilities. These people share challenges they've learned to live and what accomodations that help them do so with. Some people tell about other inspiring disabled phenomenons and how they've become a great example of how a disabled person can be just as successful as a nondisabled person. Some people express their challenges with feeling left out and wanting because they can't do soem things that other nondisabled people can. There are a few mentions of bullying and how other kids would make fun of their disability or their accomodation when they were younger.
What I, the reader, has learned after reading this book
I picked up this book hoping to learn more about the challenges disabled poeople have to work with everyday. This book has made me aware that there are a lot more technological accomodations than a wheelchair such as an ACC (Augmentative Alternative Communication). I've learned that ACC is a device that has symbols, letters, and words that people with speech disabilities can use to say what they want to. Another thing I've learned, is that some disorders can be helped be using medication, but people have to try different version to find the one that works for the way their disability appears. The last thing I'm going to mention is that guide dogs are often seen as an animal that leads a blind person in the direction that they are told to go. This is not true because guide dogs and their owner work together as one and not as seperate creatures. The guide dog makes sure their owner doesn't run into things, but the owner gives the dog directions on where to go. Overall, this book has shown me that disabled people are incredibly strong in overcoming obstacles and learning how to navigate their way through life with some help on the way.
Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty First Century by Alice Wong (Excerpt)
Alice Wong's podcast cover
Another book by Alice Wong
Alice Wong
About the Author
Alice Wong was born with spinal muscular atrophy(a neuromascular disorder). It's where the nerve cells in her brain and spinal cord break down. As a result from this, the ability to walk was taken away from her from around the age 7 or 8. She wears a nasal mask fro her BiPAP machine which helps provide her enough ventilation. Recently, over the summer of 2022, her lung collapsed and she underwent multiple painful sugeries to get a chest tube. She then was given a nasogastric tube, but this made complications with her BiPAP mask and made it leak. Then the nasogastric tube stopped working, so she was put on TPN which delivers her food through her veins. She also got a suction catheter in her throat.