Mattlin, Ben

Ben Mattlin is a journalist, essayist, and author. Born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital muscle weakness, he is a lifelong wheelchair user. His books include Miracle Boy Grows Up and In Sickness and In Health, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Vox, and on NPR. In Disability Pride, Dispatches From a Post-ADA World (Beacon Press), Mattlin weaves interviews and reportage to explore how disability attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He traces the generation that came of age after the ADA reshaped America and how it influences the future. He lifts the veil on a thriving disability culture – from social media to high fashion and Hollywood to Broadway – showing how the politics of beauty for those with marginalized body types and facial features is sparking widespread change. He also explores the movement’s shortcomings, notably the erasure of nonwhite and LGBTQIA+ people that helped give rise to disability justice. Written without anger or pity, Disability Pride is a revealing account of an often misunderstood movement and identity, and an inclusive reexamination of society’s treatment of those it deems different.