RIGHTS, REMEMBRANCE, AND THE RECONCILIATION OF DIFFERENCE

Rights in American society present a paradox-critics increasingly asse rt that proliferation of rights is undermining Americans' sense of com munity, yet scholars continue to document Americans' reluctance to ass ert formal legal rights. We explore the meaning of rights in American society by describing the intersection between the evolving civil righ ts of a previously excluded minority, culminating in the Americans wit h Disabilities Act of 1990, and the personal histories of two individu als who might potentially invoke or benefit from such rights. Tracing the life stories of ''Sara Lane'' and ''Jill Golding'' from childhood through adolescence to adulthood and employment, we relate the everyda y relevance or irrelevance of law to important elements of the reconst ructed past-the development of self-concept and of one's place in rela tion to the social mainstream. The article, which is part of a larger project involving a more broadly based interview sample of adults with disabilities, analyzes life stories to critique familiar assumptions about the perceived conflict between rights and social relationships a nd about the mobilization of law. It also offers an innovative approac h to the study of law and legal consciousness by involving Sara Lane a nd Jill Golding in the analysis of successive drafts and by including their reactions to what the authors have written.