The Difference That Disability Makes

Reviews / Votes

"Rod Michalko's superb book, The Difference That Disability Makes, is a nuanced and compelling contribution to the growing field of disability studies in the humanities. By using personal narrative and the lived experience of disabled people to mount critical analysis, Michalko uncovers the social construction of disability and challenges the received cultural assumptions and stereotypes that limit disabled people. But Michalko's unique and revealing contribution to disability studies is his incisive interrogation of the concept of suffering-perhaps the most pervasive characteristic attributed to people with disabilities. Michalko demonstrates brilliantly that we people with disabilities do not suffer our impairments so much as 'we suffer our society.'"-Rosemarie Garland Thompson, author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture "This is a savvy and provocative analysis of the cultural structures undergirding the reception of disability in contemporary North America (particularly of blindness). Michalko creates a compelling analysis of disability as a cultural construct and as a meaningful phenomenological category of identity and experience. There is a wonderful weave of theoretical and personal insight that makes The Difference That Disability Makes a joy to read and an important contribution to the academic field of disability studies. Such a combination is rarely found."-David Mitchell, Director, Ph.D. in Disability Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago "Michalko advances contemporary scholarship not just by his reflections on the underlying grammar of our everyday talk on 'suffering' and on 'persons with disability' but by the self-exemplifying nature of his own text. The Difference That Disability Makes will make as important a contribution to theoretical developments on the 'self' as it will to our understanding of disability."-C.N. Doran, Department of Social Science, University of New Brunswick "...thought-provoking; it makes a refreshing contribution to disability studies and will be of great interest to scholars and students in the field."-The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology "[Michalko's] book is not only an important contribution to the emerging discussion on disability identity formation, but it is also a cautionary note about depoliticizing disability within such entities as university service units for disabled students. Michalko concludes with a passionate call to 'come out' as disabled and stop being caught up in the seductive power of the 'normal'."-Choice "[A]n important contribution to the fields of disability studies, psychology, and sociology...This book is a must read for academics interested in the field of disability studies."-The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare "As is evident from the issues they raise, both [The Difference That Disability Makes and Why I Burned My Book] take a more provocative stance regarding disability-one that is vastly different from how disability has been traditionally discussed in educational contexts... Together both books can provide a beginning toolbox to challenge educators and researchers to take another look at our practices and assumptions about disability."-Educational Researcher "...well worth exploring...to see how a thoughtful surveyor of this terrain moves along his journey."-Review of Disability Studies