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The Person who Arrives is a weaving of stories, art, and poetry that makes space for another way of conceptualizing disability and of being present to disabled children and students in our schools and in our lives. It is an invitation to consider the ideas and concepts of disability studies (DS) and the importance of including the perspectives and lived experience of disabled people in guiding our practice as educators and parents. It is a journey that encourages the reader to explore their biases, attending to the influence of ableism, the importance of the language we use, the models and constructs we draw upon, and the ways that these inherently shape our approach, understanding, and response to disability.
With a far too rare combination of honesty and humility, and an understanding that nothing matters more than lived experience, Leah Kelley invites us to learn along with her. By masterfully illustrating her research with real-life narratives bursting with insight, she makes her work not just accessible, but deeply compelling.
- Jess Wilson, Diary of a Mom
This book has huge breadth, is filled with memoir and art and theory and advocacy, and yet Kelley's book never leaves the immediate concerns of students out of the picture.
- Jay Dolmage, Ph.D., Academic Ableism, Disability Rhetoric
Unique in its presentation and moving in its scope, The Person who Arrives succeeds in being inclusive of nonspeaking folx, LGBTQIA, Indigenous, Asian, Black, Brown, mad community, wheelchair users, among many others often forgotten in the greater neurodiversity conversation.
- Kerima Cevik, The Autism Wars
We would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in creating more inclusive schools and communities, and anyone who is interested in deepening their understanding of disability and neurodivergence!
- Emma Van der Klift and Norman Kunc, Talk to Me, Being Realistic isn't Realistic.
Leah Kelley swirls concepts, experiences, and emerging and shifting historical and personal understandings into a "must read" and "must study" text for-as she suggests in the title-teachers, parents, and pretty much anyone else who thinks they truly care about social justice. I've never read anything like it; neither will you!
- Jacqueline S. Thousand, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, California State University San Marcos
