Judy Small, on her "Mothers, Daughters, Wives" recording, has a lovely--but not syruppy--song about the ways in which people with disabilities can open one up to wider wisdom, wonder, and understanding. I'm not entirely sure of this, but I think the title may match the first line of the refrain, which begins "I'm learning how to speak with my hands..." (a reference to sign language). There's also a song called "Born on the 4th of July", in which the narrator is a disabled veteran. I don't know the singer/songwriter, but it's extremely well-written. Veteran's songs and war-response songs often deal with the theme of disability, and I'd suspect many American Civil War-era songs touch on the issue if you're willing to look beyond recently-written material. I can think of a few Irish songs as well, like "Johnny We Hardly Knew You", which may not address the issue of disability in any comfortable way, yet offer an important "reality check" about the way in which people with disabilities are forced into begging, even here in this "civilized" nation and time. I have two siblings with multiple disabilities, so I'd love to hear of other songs, myself. I'm sure I'll think of five more as soon as I sign off, but the scholar's mind is an unreliable thing... Oh, blast. That reminds me. I have to go write a paper!

--Cuilionn, whose sister has a t-shirt that says "Not being able to speak is not the same as having nothing to say."