CREDENTIALED DIETETICS PRACTITIONERS WITH DISABILITIES GET THE JOB DONE

Baxter and Harris discuss the challenges disabled people face working in the dietetics field.

In their debut collaboration, the authors tell stories highlighting the difficulties disabled people encounter working as dietetics practitioners in settings like hospitals, universities, day care centers, prisons, government agencies, and private companies. Fifteen of the book’s chapters are autobiographical accounts from both Baxter and Harris, along with a variety of contributors telling their own stories. According to Harris, up to a quarter of the United States population has some kind of disability (“If you or a member of your family do not already have a disability, you and/or a family member will more than likely experience disability at some point in the future”), and yet nothing approaching this percentage is represented in the dietetics field, where disabled professionals represent only a tiny portion of the workforce. The narratives the authors assemble here illustrate both the shortcomings of many institutions in accommodating the needs of disabled people and also the successes “disability culture” has achieved in challenging negative stereotypes and focusing on “empowerment, community, and the human experience by emphasizing the strengths, creativity, and contributions of disabled people.” Harris recounts her journey to becoming a gastrointestinal dietician and shares the insights she gleaned along the way about the public dimension of her condition: “If I (or anyone else) would benefit from support, or a mobility aid, or whatever, I should get it if possible,” she writes. “No one benefits from my suffering or your suffering.” Harris and Baxter’s inclusion of a variety of experiences in addition to their own is effective; through the different voices and viewpoints expressed here, disabled readers may find more of their own experiences reflected in these pages, and nondisabled readers will receive insights into a world they’ve likely never considered. The result is both eye-opening and very useful on practical levels.

An involving, multivoiced look into the lives of disabled diet specialists.