Crippled is a necessary and well-researched book exploring the impact of austerity in the UK on disabled people. The book's chapters look at disability with respect to poverty, housing, work, independence, women, and children. It is a difficult read due to some of the personal testimonies of diasabled people are distressing, but ultimately the injustices described should fuel your fire to demand change from the government. The author concludes saying that we are at a tipping point, and I agree. The ways disabled people are described, perceived, and treated uses language similar to facist regimes and is bordering on eugenics/genocide. The book focuses on austerity introduced by coalition government in 2010, but covers important legislation and cultural changes all the way through the 20th century and up to the end of 2018. When you reflect how disabled people have been affected by the pandemic post-2018 the points raised are vindicated.

The reason I docked 0.25 off the rating is because there is surprisingly little time dedicated explaining the nuance and inconsistency in defining disability and the differences of disabled peoples' experiences e.g, mental vs physical, invisible vs visible etc. Even the definition and use of the word 'vulnerable' has much debate within the disability community depending if people subscribe to the medical model or social model of disability. As such the reader hears some of these inconsistencies throughtout the book, which aren't wrong, but could have benefitted from being clarified.