Resources

Irving Kenneth Zola (ed.), Ordinary Lives
Apple-Wood Books, Inc., Cambridge-Watertown, 1982.

From Irving Zola's introduction:

"Of course, most people are born into the world of the non-disabled. We only become disabled or learn we are physically different later. We are socialized into the same world as everyone else, with many of the same expectations as well as prejudices. Thus having a disability or disease, or living with someone who has, does not automatically qualify us either to be an expert witness or a writer. For this anthology, I have chosen authors who, while writing about disease and disability, are also writing about the human condition. The sources of my selections are diverse and include autobiographies, essays, novels, short stories, and poetry. I hope that whatever else they are, these are good stories -ones that make you laugh, or cry, or think about what you've read."

Zola, Irving Kenneth, Missing Pieces: A Chronicle of Living with a Disability, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1982.

From Irving Zola's introduction:

"I am by professional training both a social observer and a psychological counselor. Yet for over two decades I have succeeded in hiding a piece of myself from my own view. Given the obviousness of my physical handicap this has taken some doing."

This book is about Irv's encounter with Het Dorp, the 'pioneering' horizontal ghetto for disabled people in the Netherlands, and his own disability.