Week 22: Famous Ted Lasso Shortbread & Demystifying Disability

Why this book?⁠

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Emily shares her lived experience and provides lots of great practical advice. She starts with the definition of disability and then moves onto how disability is portrayed in the media. She has a great list of what to say and what not to say.⁠

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Here are my insights:⁠

Don’t dance around disability: just say disability⁠

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She has a great chapter on the history of disability starting from the 1900's to today's disability justice movement⁠

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Chapter 5 has so many practical tips on disability etiquette like Don’t try to help without asking first and do not pray over disabled people. Yes, she shares how she was in a hotel having breakfast and a girl asked her mom if she could pray for her. Everyone was watching and Emily shared how mortified she was. Do not do this.⁠

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The media is powerful and she shares how she was in multiple episodes of Sesame Street. Gosh I loved Sesame Street as a kid. ⁠

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Did you know that according to research people with disabilities only represent 3.1%?⁠

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And in her final chapter she talks about how you should not try on disability for the afternoon. She shares how in college she was asked by a friend if she could borrow her wheelchair for a disability awareness event.⁠

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This book was fantastic and I loved the stories. It is an easy, clear succinct read and highly recommend this book if you are wanting to understand disability more. ⁠

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