About the Book
Irregular People briefly describes the unfinished sixty year journey
of persons who are disabled from the darkness of prejudice to the bright light of acceptance
as equal members of society. It also tells the stories of several irregular people whose
personalities are both remarkable and unforgettable.
The stories are organized in five chapters.
Chapter One: an introduction to the story teller, her personality, and the origin of the
title Irregular People.
Chapter Two: a brief history by decades from 1930 to 1990, focusing on attitudes towards
persons who are disabled, and the degree of progress towards acceptance during the sixty
years in question. Each decade features a short vignette illustrating the degree of
acceptance or lack thereof.
Chapter Three: stories of interactions between individuals who are disabled and the story
teller. These stories have humour, pathos, success and failure. They tell about the day
to day struggles that persons with disabilities face in their attempt to be accepted as
valuable beings.
Chapter Four: three stories that summarize the struggle of persons who are disabled. One
story examines a popular myth about persons with Down Syndrome; one story talks about the
kind of abuse that is perpetrated by their service providers against persons who are
disabled; one story examines the result of today´s rehabilitation practitioners to force
community inclusion upon both persons who are disabled and the community.
Chapter Five: the story teller´s conclusions on being an irregular person and the
lessons
that can be learned from knowing and working beside other irregular people.
About the Author
Janet Fehr was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and for the first part of her life
worked as a multi-media advertising copywriter. She made a career change several years
ago to the rehabilitation field and now works as a support person for people who are
developmentally disabled. She currently lives in Calgary with her husband.
