Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, coeditor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female and Proud!

• ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsI  Close Encounters with the Clueless1 Who’s Harilyn?2 Birth, Mine3 Close Encounters with the Clueless4 The Beggar and the Cripple5 The Stare 6 Always the Other 7 Why I am Not Inspirational8 HomeII On Leaving Home9 Wedding Day, 193310 Dancing11 Exploding Beans12 My Sister13 Adolescent Conversation14 On Leaving Home15 Hideous Shoes16 Driving High17 Eli18 My Father, Myself19 Driving away from HomeIII On Not Looking in the Mirror20 Walk Straight!21 On Not Looking in the Mirror22 Facing My Face23 Meditations on Speech and Silence24 Daring Digits25 Right-Hand Painting26 Being Only One: Some Meditations on SolitudeIV What's a Woman?27 What’s a Woman?28 He Was the One29 Blank Page30 Buying the Wedding Dress31 First Date32 First Night33 Mixed Couple34 Sylvester35 Faces of Eve36 Tough Bird37 Hand in HandV Why Claim Disability?38 Finding My Way 39 Keeping the Distance40 That “Inspirational” Label41 Token of Approval42 Disabled Women’s Community43 The Story of Betty, Revisited44 Listening to Myself45 Activist Sisters46 Toilet Troubles47 My Mentoring Project48 Why Claim Disability?49 Broken Silences50 Eulogy for My Nondisabled Self51 Eulogy for My Freakish Self52 Ode to My Disabled Self

"I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even more rare: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness, and so helps us to discover our own. Don't Call Me Inspirational is irresistible to read, honest, insightful and universal."-Gloria Steinem"Don’t Call Me Inspirational is stunning, a pleasure to read. Rousso’s outstanding book is both a beautifully written memoir about growing up in the 1950s and a critical historical analysis of disability politics. The author moves through her life, diving into gender/sexuality/embodiment/disability politics with grace and honesty. Nothing is simply resolved; rather, it is lived, moved through, engaged, struggled over, and then revisited."-Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York