When I was little, one of my favorite activities was flipping through the JCPenney catalog. I'm not exactly sure why I enjoyed the simple activity so much, but I used to spend hours running my hands over the smooth pages and oohing and ahhing over the toys, clothes and just general shiny, happy people staring back at me.
Maybe I thought it was one giant magazine? Who knows, but I was always disappointed when I'd see only one or two models in wheelchairs. Sure, I suppose I should be glad my people are represented, but it seemed that all the people-in-wheelchair shots were reserved for the children's section of the catalog. I'd rarely ever see a career woman in a blazer smiling in her wheelchair, or a stockbroker with his briefcase showing his pearly whites while seated.
That's why I immediately fell in love with the work of Jes Sachse, a 25-year-old Canadian model and artist. She, along with photographer Holly Norris, have launched the spoof project American Able as a way to show how invisible women with disabilities are in advertising and mass media in general. I just love how they describe the project:
eived as ‘undesirable.' In a society where 
