People with disabilities have forged a group identity.  We share a common
 history of oppression and a common bond of resilience.  We generate art, music, literature, and other expressions of our lives and our culture, infused from our experience of disability.  Most importantly, we are proud of ourselves as people with disabilities.  We claim our disabilities with pride as part of our identity.
     We are who we are:  we are people with disabilities.

Steven E. Brown
MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE, 1996
(Re-published in Steve's 2003 book, Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: 
Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride