Join a Conversation on the Meaning of Access and the Disability Rights Movement on Wednesday, April 17.
Reading, MA—Following his program, Blindness As Identity/In Society, Aymon Langlois, a scholar-activist and educator with roots in Reading, will discuss the meaning of access, the disability rights movement, and more on April 17 at the Reading Public Library.
Traditional social models of disability make a distinction between “impairment” (i.e. body-mind limitations) and “disability.” These models assert that a prejudiced society disables people with impairments through inaccessibly designed environments. Beginning in the 1960s, the disability rights movement realized redress of this inaccessible environment design with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But what could access mean today? What might post-ADA social models look like?
April 17 | 6:00 pm | RPL Community Room | Registration is not required
The series will conclude with Disability in Religion and in the Wider World on a date to be announced soon. The final installment will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading.
Langlois holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Skidmore College. His writing has appeared in Evening Street Review, JAKE, and Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. His debut essay collection, Ugly Feet, OCD, and Other Intimations of Resistance: A Narrative Suite on Disability and Masculinity, is forthcoming from Anxiety Press. Langlois is Assistant Director of Accessibility Services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
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The Reading Public Library is committed to evolving together to strengthen communication, equity, collaboration, and learning in our community. Our mission is to be a center and resource for learning and civic engagement. We provide a place and platform of, by, and for the people who can benefit as individuals as well as contribute to the well-being of the community. We work to achieve these goals and commitments by focusing on education, equity, accountability, and access.
