People with disabilities assert ‘common identity’

More and more frequently, people with disabilities are attacking discrimination, writes Joseph P. Shapiro, discussing a new “common identity” for people with disabilities. “Rejected is the traditional mindset that it’s up to the individual to overcome his or her own physical limitation,” Shapiro writes at the Washington Post. “Instead, according to the disability rights movement, it is not so much the individual that needs to change — but society.” Quoting Judy Heumann of the World Institute on Disability: “Disability only becomes a tragedy when society fails to provide the things we need to lead our lives — jobs opportunities or barrier-free buildings, for example. It is not a tragedy to me that I’m living in a wheelchair.”