Recommended Reading for January 5th

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post.

staticnonsense at I Am Not: You

Telling me that I need to look at the word usage differently, as a given culture or society’s accepted usage or slang, does not erase these experiences. They do not magically disappear. They will always be a part of the person and yes, such usage can trigger them and cause harm. It also does not magically show me your perspective or why I should understand it or change my perspective to match it.

What would be awesome as a magical ability is being able to show you:

* Why the use of such words is a problem for me.
* The experiences that I have gone through that result in this problem.
* The emotional and/or physical turmoil that result from such experiences.
* Why what you’re assuming is bullshit.

abfh at Whose Planet is it Anyway? Autism Speaks Loses UK Affiliate

To briefly sum up the debacle, before releasing the I Am Autism video in September to widespread condemnation from disability rights groups, Autism Speaks had presented its text as a “poem” at a May meeting with British supporters in London, where it was received with about as much enthusiasm as a heap of decomposing Thames flotsam. After that, having apparently concluded that it didn’t matter what the Brits thought and that no propaganda was too extreme for the United States, Autism Speaks went ahead and created the video anyway. Not only did it suffer a major media embarrassment as a result, it also lost an international affiliate, as the UK nonprofit group that had been a branch of Autism Speaks has now formally cut its ties with its former parent organization and has renamed itself Autistica.

Although the newly renamed group seems to be just as interested in genetic research as the old one, it seems to have at least enough sense not to openly advocate eugenics.

cripchick: my five fav tools to dialogue about justice:

below are tools that i use in workshops that have proven to be really helpful. i use these because they shaped the way i view things. most of these deal with how to talk about ableism, access, the kind of activists we want to be, and the importance of making our movements relevant to people on the margins. i am posting this in the spirit of sharing— really hope you will send me stuff (zines, poems, activities, icebreakers, songs) you use either for yourself or others, too. here’s to a new year.

UPI: Mom of 9 sues for unwanted sterilization [More at the Boston Herald.]

Tessa Savicki, 35, whose children range in age from 3 to 21, said she provided an intra-uterine device to healthcare professionals to be installed after her last Caesarean-section, but they instead performed a tubal ligation, which Savicki said she had not authorized, the Boston Herald reported Sunday.

Savicki’s nine children were fathered by several men. She is unemployed and receives public aid for two of the four children who reside with her, receives supplemental security income because she has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, her mother has custody of three of the children, and two of her children are no longer minors, she said. […]

“I take care of my kids. I love my kids. I was not ready to make that kind of decision (for permanent sterilization),” she said.

Sandy Lahmann in the Summit Daily News: Disability 101: Does one voice make a difference?

However, in my experience, the biggest problem for people with disabilities is not a lack of ramps or elevators or whatever. The biggest problem is people’s attitudes. The attitudes of the able-bodied are the biggest barriers of all. Because they don’t get it. They don’t understand. […]

But the consequences can also be just daily, annoying things that happen every time a person with a disability goes out in public. Recently the annoying thing I am dealing with is that, because I use a wheelchair, everyone seems to want to touch me. I am continually patted on the shoulder.

BBC: Mobile breast screening unit has wheelchair access

A new mobile breast screening unit which will allow women wheelchair access is being launched. Breast Test Wales said the £140,000 unit, which has a large covered lift, will allow wheelchair users to enter the mobile unit safely. […]

Dr Rose Fox, deputy director of Screening Services Wales explained: “Until now, many of the women who were unable to climb the steps of our mobile units have had to travel long distances.

BBC: Secret film uncovers ‘disabled hate crime’ in Wales

Some disabled people in Wales are suffering abuse and threats for no other reason than their disability, an investigation by BBC Wales has found.

Secretly recorded footage for the documentary Why Do You Hate Me? shows a wheelchair user being mocked and threatened in a bar. In another incident a mother and daughter film an attacker smashing every window on their mobility car.[…]

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Kier Starmer QC, admitted that the justice system did not always get it right when dealing with so-called disability hate crime. He said: “I think there are lots and lots of incidents of disability hate crime. I think we haven’t collectively picked them up and investigated and prosecuted them in the way we should.”

One thought on “Recommended Reading for January 5th

  1. Wow, thank you so much for the link! I’m a little surprised, I haven’t written in a long, long time. I hope my entry can be of help to people. Writing it sure helped me.

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