Everyone Can Win: Opportunities and Programs in the Arts for the Disabled

The authors advocate the arts as more than therapy, as a constructive and enjoyable way for the disabled to explore untapped creative potential and possibly even find a career. The Allens (she is the author of Sports for the Handicapped; he wrote Undercover Teacher), parents of a son with severe learning disabilities, have painstakingly compiled a much-needed, wide-ranging reference book. This moving compendium of interviews with teachers, educators, performers and students of drama, dance, music, writing, poetry, photography and painting is complete with listings of experts, programs, publications, organizations, networks and associations as well as information on special machines to help the disabled adapt and on how to ""voice index'' for the blind. The abundance of valuable data is slightly marred by the authors' hammering away in each chapter at their thesis that the arts can enrich the lives of the disabled. Too often the stories are told from teachers' viewpoints, with only a few lines from the students, and the prose is weighed down by heavy-handed attempts to be inspirational. (May)