As is the nature of democracy, we all live dependent on others.
We all care for others and are cared for by others.
(…) We are interdependent beings.
As historian Linda Kerber has pointed out in her analysis of the sexist elements of the American ideal of individualism, “The myth of the lone individual is a metaphor, a rhetorical device.
In real life, no one is self-made, and very few people are completely alone.” In reality, dependence is not a bad thing.
Dependence exists at the heart of every human life.
Dependence creates community and democracy.
--- p.19~20, from “Introduction”

Most indigenous communities did not have a word or concept equivalent to today's term 'disability'.
Indigenous researchers and activists Dorothy Lonewolf Miller (Blackfoot) and Jenny R.
Joe (Navajo) says some indigenous tribes define disability based on social relationships rather than physical conditions.
In indigenous cultures, disability was something that occurred when someone had no or weak connections to the community.
Even if an individual has a defect, a disability arises only when that person is unable to participate in the reciprocal activities of the community or is removed from those relationships.
For example, if a young man with a cognitive impairment has the ability to carry water, he may be a talented individual.
If so, that was the man's talent.
If you can fulfill your role well in a community that needs water, you can live as an important member of the community without stigma.
He participated in reciprocal activities and lived in balance.

--- p.41~42, from “Chapter 1”

Among European women in North America, Hutchinson and Dyer were threats to religious, political, and gender hierarchies.
According to John Winthrop, the monstrous sins they committed were literally manifested in the monstrous beings that developed in their wombs, and giving birth to these creatures proved that the women were sinners.
As Winthrop argued, the baby's deformed body symbolized the mother's sin.
It was believed that the more heinous the sin, the more monstrous the baby's body would be transformed.
As a result of women's challenge to both patriarchy and theological authority, not only Dyer and Hutchinson's bodies, but also the bodies of their stillborn children, were profoundly transformed and horrified.
For European colonial settlers, disability was a material reality, but it also functioned as a powerful metaphor and symbol.
--- p.82~83, from “Chapter 2”

The concept of disability has been used to justify legally established inequalities.
After the American Revolution, there was a proliferation of private and public institutions that defined and organized people with unfit bodies. (…) The process of creating institutions and increasing related regulations was accompanied by the definition of “normal” and “abnormal,” “ableness” and “disability.”
Citizens who were deemed mentally ill, incompetent, or physically incapable of supporting themselves financially were increasingly institutionalized.
There has also been a growing trend of restricting voting rights on the grounds of mental incapacity.
Federal and state governments have begun to tighten immigration laws that restrict the entry of people with disabilities.
When a person was considered unfit but was deemed to be salvageable or worthy of being saved, he or she was given the opportunity to be educated.
--- p.116~117, from Chapter 4

The history of disability in America, like American history as a whole, is a complex and contradictory story.
It is a story about plundered land and bodies.
It's a story about right and wrong, about devastation and destruction, about defeat and stubborn persistence, about beauty and elegance, about tragedy and sorrow, about transformative ideas, about the reinvention of the self.
In the words of white, disabled, queer writer and activist Ellie Clare, “It’s a brave and uproarious story about reclaiming our bodies and changing the world.”

--- p.316~317, from Chapter 8