Disability is a novel that probes deeply into the world of the severely disabled. Often told in a broken shorthand, it describes a government run institution where patients, caregivers, and the state itself seem malformed and dysfunctional. Teri and Cleo are minimum-wage nurse-aides in a ward for severely disabled children. They are expected to care for their patients within a system where funding is continued only if therapy produces improvement. But the state-paid therapists know their patients cannot improve. To keep the money flowing, the nurse-aides must "see" and chart significant improvements, forcing Teri and Cleo to maintain hopes they recognize as increasingly unrealistic. As their personal failures begin to emulate the travesties occurring in the ward, Teri and Cleo gradually succumb to the collapse of their own balancing act.