Norton Shorts Series by Ashley Shew, Tiya Miles, Ruha Benjamin

A manifesto exploding what we think we know about disability, and arguing that disabled people are the real experts when it comes to technology and disability.When bioethicist and professor Ashley Shew became a self-described “hard-of-hearing chemobrained amputee with Crohn’s disease and tinnitus,” there was no returning to “normal.” Suddenly well-meaning people called her an “inspiration” while grocery shopping or viewed her as a needy recipient of technological wizardry... moreA manifesto exploding what we think we know about disability, and arguing that disabled people are the real experts when it comes to technology and disability.When bioethicist and professor Ashley Shew became a self-described “hard-of-hearing chemobrained amputee with Crohn’s disease and tinnitus,” there was no returning to “normal.” Suddenly well-meaning people called her an “inspiration” while grocery shopping or viewed her as a needy recipient of technological wizardry. Most disabled people don’t want what the abled assume they want—nor are they generally asked. Almost everyone will experience disability at some point in their lives, yet the abled persistently frame disability as an individual’s problem rather than a social one.In a warm, feisty voice and vibrant prose, Shew shows how we can create better narratives and more accessible futures by drawing from the insights of the cross-disability community. To forge a more equitable world, Shew argues that we must eliminate “technoableism”—the harmful belief that technology is a “solution” for disability; that the disabled simply await being “fixed” by technological wizardry; that making society more accessible and equitable is somehow a lesser priority.This badly needed introduction to disability expertise considers mobility devices, medical infrastructure, neurodivergence, and the crucial relationship between disability and race. The future, Shew points out, is surely disabled—whether through changing climate, new diseases, or even through space travel. It’s time we looked closely at how we all think about disability technologies and learn to envision disabilities not as liabilities, but as skill sets enabling all of us to navigate a challenging world. less

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary HubAn award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England... moreNamed a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary HubAn award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women’s basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World’s Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers’ champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs. This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races―and the landscapes they loved―at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women’s independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them―and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today. 11 illustrations less

Imagination isn’t a luxury; it’s a vital resource and a powerful tool for our collective liberation. A world without prisons? Ridiculous . Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible . A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams . Exactly. Princeton professor Ruha Benjamin believes in the liberating power of the imagination... moreImagination isn’t a luxury; it’s a vital resource and a powerful tool for our collective liberation. A world without prisons? Ridiculous . Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible . A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams . Exactly. Princeton professor Ruha Benjamin believes in the liberating power of the imagination. Deadly systems shaped by mass incarceration, ableism, digital surveillance, and eugenics emerged from the human imagination, but they have real-world impacts. To fight these systems and create a world that works for all of us, we will have to imagine things differently. As Benjamin shows, educators, artists, technologists, and more are experimenting with new ways of thinking and tackling seemingly intractable problems. Drawing from the work of these visionaries―including Black feminists, climate activists, Afrofuturists, and troublemakers of all sorts― A Manifesto explores the possibility and practices required to imagine and create more just and habitable worlds. 7 illustrations less