Over the years and around the world, especially in low-income countries, I’ve heard my sisters and brothers with disabilities express incredible frustration with the lack of employment among people with disabilities. Their aggravation is warranted: on average, across the globe, 44% of disabled persons are working, while 75% of people without a disability are employed.

An aging woman, hands rough from a post-polio life spent pulling herself around on the earthen floor of her roadside store in western Kenya, has no government assistance by which to achieve an education or gainful employment. She and her family live at the intersection of disability, gender, poverty, and Western capitalism.

After our first week in Belfast where we worked to set up interviews with local Deaf people about their experiences in the system of justice, the two of us took a break and flew to London for two days.

Nothing could dampen the excitement of the two-week journey that we were about to embark on as we met at Newark International Airport for our flight to Belfast, Northern Ireland (“Norn Iron,” as the locals say). 

Refugee (/ˌrefyo͝oˈjē/)- n. a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.

Crip, Deaf and Dumb, Deformed, Freak, Gimp, Idiot, Imbecile, Lame, Lunatic, Maniac, Mongoloid, Moron, Mute, Nuts, Pinhead, Psycho, Schizo, Spaz, Sperg, Stupid, Tard, Whacko