Wow indeed.
Anyone interested in the cultural space occupied by the disabled body in America should read the book Extraordinary Bodies by Rosmarie G. Thomson.
In this book she “skillfully examines how the figure of the disabled body has been used in literature in different periods as a marker or boundary line for defining what the ‘normal’ body is or should be. The disabled figure operates to displace anxiety from more ‘normal’ folks, and in the process shows how what we consider to be normal functioning changes across historical periods and cultures.” Cultural criticism at its best.