Michelle Nario-Redmond’s Ableism: The Causes and Consequences of Disability Prejudice is a comprehensive review and an incisive critical analysis of theory and research on stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination toward people with disabilities. From a multi-faceted investigation of the roots of ableism to a theoretically and empirically grounded analysis of strategies for social change, this book is a sophisticated and compelling examination of ableism and its consequences. Readers new to the study of disability as well as experienced disability studies scholars will benefit from Ableism, which offers its readers a wonderful introduction to and analysis of many critical concepts in social psychology. Those who are deeply familiar with the social psychology of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination in the domains of race and gender will find new meaning in that work when viewed through a disability lens. With end-of-chapter discussion questions/activities and the voices of disabled people present throughout, this book is more than a means to understanding ableism, it’s a guide for dismantling it. A theoretically and empirically sophisticated social psychologist, a committed mother of a daughter with a physical disability, and a trusted ally in the disability studies community, Nario-Redmond is extremely well positioned to take on the task of organizing, synthesizing, and critically analyzing the research literature on ableism. She has given us a tremendous gift by having done just that.
Joan M. Ostrove
Macalester College
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Professor of Psychology and Director of the Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching
Categories: reviews
