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In 2020, Pamela Block, Allison C. Carey, and Richard K. Scotch published Allies and Obstacles, which examined the tensions and connections between disability activism and parents of children with disabilities. In Family and Disability Activism, they continue to examine these issues with a focus on the path-breaking advocacy by marginalized activists with intersectional lived experiences.

Family and Disability Activism reveals how families and disabled people who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA2S+ understand issues of rights versus justice. Contributions by Deaf and disabled activists emphasize the frequent need for either care or independence. Other chapters show how members of the disabled community and their families must navigate systemic issues of segregation, institutionalization, and access to special education services differently depending on their ethnic and racial identities.

Expanding the conversation about disability, kinship, biological and chosen families, and activism, this volume amplifies important voices in the fight for disability rights.

Contributors: Erin Compton, Diane Compton, Jaclyn Ellis, Laura LeBrun Hatcher, Elena Hung, Bridget Liang, Jenelle Rouse, Cheryl Najarian Souza, Jeneva Stone, Roger A. Stone, Lisette E. Torres, Grace Tsao, and the editors

The Sāmoan concept of tautua is the cultural practice of service—to family, village, church, and nation. For Juliann Anesi, tautua includes an ethical responsibility that extends to caring for people living with disabilities. Anesi learned this value from her aunty Sina, who was instrumental in founding two schools for youths in the mid-1970s—Aoga Fiamalamalama and Loto Taumafailike. These schools were designed for students like Sina’s son Gele, students excluded from private and public education because of intellectual or physical disabilities.

Tautua recounts how the Indigenous community organized and resisted ableist paradigms in colonial institutions by changing the education system to a more inclusive environment. Anesi explains how funding was arranged for the schools through NGOs. She also uses oral histories, personal narratives, archival documents, and newspapers to offer insights about how students experienced oppression and erasure as well as shame and sexism in their communities.

Highlighting advocacy and belonging, Tautua argues that these schools for students with disabilities centered Sāmoan concepts of service, advocacy, and self-determination in an attempt to decolonize elementary education. In doing so, Anesi shows what disability activism in Sāmoa can teach us about educability, school inclusion, and collective care.
 
In the series Dis/color