“Distinguishing Disability offers a detailed and engaging overview of trends in disability classification, the social dynamics behind category development, and the complex legal system that evolved in response to new conceptualizations of disability as well as past problems with the delivery of special education services. Most importantly, it illustrates how special education works distinctively for children of privileged and disadvantaged social classes. Ong-Dean infuses sophisticated sociological theories about privilege creation and the effects of parents’ cultural capital with poignant quotations from his interviews with parents of each class. He draws from a breadth of studies that are outside the typical parameters of special education research; therefore this book is of particular importance to insiders who think narrowly about their field. Distinguishing Disability should be read by parents, teachers and administrators, lawmakers, and scholars of sociology and disability.”

Ellen A. Brantlinger, Indiana University

“A careful, rich, and compelling story of how parents’ class privileges determine whether kids labeled ‘disabled’—LD, ADHD, autism, Asperger’s—wind up on the ‘low road’ to a segregated special education dumping ground or on the ‘high road’ to an array of special services, benefits, and support. A must-read for parents, educators, policy makers, and scholars interested in the complex interplay of money, culture, and institutional practices that transforms a system based in democratic impulses into yet another example of the perpetuation of social inequalities.”

Sharon Hays, University of Southern California

"Distinguishing Disability is a well-argued and supported account of the class divide in the special education process of disability diagnosis and accommodation in public schools. . . . Ong-Dean uses a range of methods to amass an impressive amount and variety of evidence to support his claims."

Contemporary Sociology