If you’re currently able-bodied, you might not know how your classmates and neighbors with disabilities live. Yeah, I said “currently able-bodied”, because a lot of us will end up facing issues as our bodies get older and older. Unless you die young, you probably don’t have a disability yet.

There’s a lot to talk about when you talk about people with disabilities and how society affects them, and the author makes a fair attempt to cover all of it at least a little. Some of it is surprisingly cheerful (“the homelike, supportive atmosphere of group homes has been well received”—perhaps I’ve heard secondhand stories only from people who disagree) and some of it is realistically gritty (“there are laws and then there is justice, the latter being not so easily attained”).

The Disability Experience was written for teens who are currently able-bodied. That’s not a bad thing on its own, but readers who are disabled might find that assumption a bit unwelcome. People with a mobility impairment might be reading this to learn more about blind people.

The author (in my advance copy, at least) uses a lower-case d in “deaf” except at the beginning of a sentence, which contrasts with the Deaf custom of using a capital D to refer to Deaf culture, Deaf languages, Deaf education, and using a lower-case d only when talking about being deaf as an impairment. The pre-publication version also says “person with autism” instead of “autistic person”.

I’m hoping that issues like these can be corrected; as of yet I can’t recommend this book without reservations.

I am grateful to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free advance review copy.