Prose

Cheryl Marie Wade’s essays, columns, speeches and articles helped shape the idea of disability culture. Her prose writing is collected here, from journalism to memoir and short stories, and more will be added.

• Comes a Time for IndependenceBecoming a wheelchair user at sixteen, and finding independent living. 1985.
• Creating a Disability Aesthetic in the ArtsWhat disability art is, through the work of the artists she admired. 1994.
• Creating a New Language of Our OwnOn the power of language, and the words disabled people use for themselves.
• Disability Arts Take Center StageA newspaper piece introducing the Bay Area’s disabled artists.
• Disability Culture RapHer best-known essay: disability as a culture, with a history and heroes of its own. 1992.
• The Dishonoring of FDROn the Roosevelt memorial’s erasure of his disability. 1997.
• DreamsOn learning to call herself a writer, and finding Wry Crips. 1986.
• EveningA short story: an evening in the life of a family, seen through a young girl, Alice. 1983.
• The FriendA comic tribute to an unlikely companion. 1986.
• IdentityHow she came to claim a disability identity, from the hospital ward to the stage. 1994.
• Independent LivingHow the independent living movement changed her life. 1986.
• It Ain’t Exactly SexyOn needing help using the toilet, and the shame that keeps disabled people silent about it. 1991.
• Thoughts on the ‘Right to Die with Dignity’Why the push for assisted suicide threatens disabled people. 1997.

If you hold material by Cheryl Marie Wade, or know of other publications by her, please get in touch.