Rosalyn Darling offers a sweeping examination of disability and identity, parsing the shifting forces that have shaped individual and societal understandings of ability and impairment across time. Darling focuses on the relationship between societal views and the self-conceptions of people with mental and physical impairments. She also illuminates the impact of the disability rights movement, life-course dynamics, and race and gender in creating a diversity of disability identities. Her seminal work reveals the remarkable resilience of individuals in the face of profound social and material barriers, at the same time that it enhances our understanding of the construction and experience of "difference" in our changing society. CONTENTS: Introduction. Stigma and Acceptance over Time. Societal Views and Self-Conceptions. Intersecting Identities Among Women and African Americans with Disabilities. The Disability Rights Movement and Identity Politics. The Diversity of Disability Orientations. Measuring Disability Identity and Orientation. Identity over the Life Course. Disability and Identity: Past, Present, Future.
