The Miracle Worker, a play by William Gibson, explores the early education of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan The play confronts the issues of the link between language and communication, and the struggles of both student and teacher to make that link.

Brian Clark's play Whose Life Is It Anyway? examines the idea of allowing individuals who are impaired to make decisions for themselves through the story of Ken Harrison, a sculptor. After he is involved in a car accident and is paralyzed from his neck down, all Harrison can do is talk. He says he wants to die; in the hospital, he makes friends with some of the staff, and they support him when he goes to trial to be allowed to make his own decisions, even if those decisions include ending his life.

In This Sign...