Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Bev at Asperger Square 8: How the Grinch Tried to Steal Autistic Self-Advocacy

Each autistic person deserved life a lot…
But the Grinch, who lived outside of Reason,
Thought NOT!
The Grinch hated autism, every season
He liked to chelate cats and give dogs HBOT.

He thought all he could with his tiny green head
About how to prove they’d be better off dead
Until it occurred to him how to derail
Every self-advocate, make them all FAIL. […]

* Liz Spikol at The Trouble with Spikol: Human Rights Violations at Psychiatric “Hospital”

If you haven’t heard of investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, that’s a shame. I hadn’t heard of him either until Joe sent me a link to his latest expose on an inpatient facility in Accra, Ghana.

* Kenguru: The Car You Have All Been Waiting For (via Uppity Crip)

The first ever electrically powered vehicle designed especially for wheelchair users will become available in the UK soon.

– Driven directly from a wheelchair – access is via the rear-opening tailgate and steering is by motorbike style handlebar (joystick option will be available in time). Your own wheelchair is secured within the car by an interlocking device

– The current design allows parking rear end to the pavement for easy access and it is an ideal solution to drivers who only undertake journeys to local shops and services

– Because of its weight the Kenguru is classified as a scooter and therefore only a scooter driver’s licence is required to drive Kenguru

* The West: Wasps put sting in wheelchair sports

Adam Hart is a battle-hardened veteran of his sport. The 34-year-old is in training to represent WA in the National Electric Wheelchair Sports competition – for the 19th time.

* High Gloss Blue: This Is GOOD Design: An Accessible Treehouse

Located around the corner from Atlanta in Rutledge, Georgia, every summer Camp Twin Lakes welcomes kids with special illnesses, disabilities, and other challenges that would exclude them from partaking in this most celebrated summer ritual elsewhere.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Arachne Jericho at Tor.com: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Fiction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

A survey of the tropes, stereotypes and more realistic portrayals of PTSD on the page and screen, from The West Wing to Lord of the Rings.

* haddayr at no_pity: “I don’t really expect much of YOU . . . “

“I sometimes use a wheelchair,” I told her, and I started to explain that some people with osteoporosis who seem fine are in danger of falling, and some people with emphysema need scooters, etc., but she interrupted me.

“Well,” she said. “You have MS. I don’t expect much of YOU.”

And then, when she saw the look on my face and after I said: “Well, I certainly expect much of myself,” she said: “I don’t want to be politically incorrect!”

* Asahi.com: EDITORIAL: People with disabilities

The government established a policymaking committee where more than half of all the members will be people with disabilities. The committee is headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

The committee’s first job is to consider comprehensive new welfare legislation to replace the Services and Supports for Persons with Disabilities Act, which the Hatoyama administration has pledged to rescind at an early date. The law, which came into force in 2006, has proved very unpopular among people with disabilities. That’s because of the requirement that people with disabilities should, in principle, pay 10 percent of the costs of the welfare services they receive.

* Steve Carter at Examiner.com: Disability discrimination claims are up by 10%, EEOC expects continued increase [see also law.com: EEOC Will Get $23 Million to Reduce 70,000-Case Backlog]:

The number of disability discrimination claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased more than 10 percent last year, and that number is expected to grow in 2010, thanks to the ADA Amendments Act. […] The commission said the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act also brought more charges. […] The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which became effective in November, is also likely to increase the number of complaints filed next year, as is the possible passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

* AdelaideNow: Disabled children forced to wait ‘years’ for essential equipment

Novita Children’s Services states there are already 400 children waiting for 700 pieces of equipment and a support group says some parents are in “total despair” over the growing problem.

The average waiting time for children is 40 weeks, but varies depending on the type of equipment.

* The Age: New building rules to improve accessibility

All new homes would be built with features designed to make them more accessible to the elderly and those with disabilities, under proposed building rules for Victoria.

The changes would include a clear path from the street to an entry, wider doorways and halls, a toilet suitable for people with limited mobility and reinforced bathroom walls for grab rails.

* AFP/Google: TV presenter sorry for calling Boyle ‘retarded’

On Monday Television New Zealand upheld complaints against Henry and the broadcaster said he never intended to offend people with disabilities.

“I am sorry that some people have taken what I said in a way that I never intended,” Henry said.

In the original broadcast, Henry quoted from a magazine article which said Boyle was “starved of oxygen at birth” and suffered an intellectual disability. “If you look at her carefully, you can make it out,” Henry told viewers.

* Voxy.co.nz: Banking Services For Older And Disabled People Improved

The main areas covered by the guidelines are:

improving access to banking services including initiatives such as low tables and teller counters, user-friendly ATMs, meeting spaces and queuing aisles able to be used by wheelchairs, power assisted entry doors, layout and signage suitable for customers who are partially sighted staff, training to cover disability awareness including spotting signs of financial abuse, express tellers and queuing by numbers, observing international W3C web accessibility best practice standards, and easy to read information in alternative formats, including easy read, large print, Braille, DVD, including NZ Sign Language, and audio.

The voluntary guidelines will be reviewed in three years.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Janine at StroppyBlog: Legal Step Forward on Disability Rights

The delicious irony in this particular case, the employer concerned was a firm of solicitors, who appeared to think they should not be excessively punished for mistreating an employee with a disabled kid.

Mrs Coleman, a legal secretary, gave birth in 2002 to a disabled son who required specialist care. She claimed that her employer refused to allow her to return to her previous job when she came back from maternity leave; refused to allow her to work flexibly; and subjected her to abusive and insulting comments about her child.

* amandaw at Three Rivers Blog: I have one question for you.

Where have you been for all the women stuck in nursing homes and institutions and all the women who are managing to live independently who will have their services taken back from them and be forced to move into nursing homes and modern institutions?

Because this is just as urgent an issue. And just as timely: it is being considered in the current health-care reform package. This one. This same one with Stupak (or analog). This same one you are fighting to improve for the sake of women.

Where have you been for years on the Community Choice Act?

* Rebecca at The GFCF Cookbook: Every celiac’s nightmare

News spread quickly: there was a gluten-free bread vendor, Great Specialty Products, with a table at the fair. His name was Paul Seelig, and he baked his loaves one small batch at a time in his Amish kitchen with all fresh ingredients delivered from his family farm in Ohio. His table was full of samples that were met with rave reviews by celiacs and non-celiacs alike. The bread was so good. It tasted just like real bread. It was crusty and soft and chewy, just like a good loaf of bread should be. […]

We jokingly began to call Paul “The Bread Alchemist.” We ordered two more times within a two week period, eager to try everything he sold.

And when Malachy, our little celiac, broke out in a strange rash two days after our first order, we didn’t make the connection. We thought he had chickenpox. We continued to buy and eat the bread, and the rash spread all over his body. Our pediatrician was mystified. Bug bites? A viral rash? Nothing made sense.

We weren’t the only ones in the community getting sick. […]

Paul was re-packaging Tribeca Oven’s bread and selling it as gluten-free Great Specialty Products bread.

IN THE NEWS: Special Travel Edition!

* The Consumerist: Man In Wheelchair Unimpressed With Greyhound

Along with being ignored and forgotten on the buses during many rest stops, I experienced wheelchair lifts which were barely operational that briefly trapped my chair, doors that would not close unless the driver banged on part of the frame with a hammer, and finally, a wheelchair lift door which would not open, which trapped me on the bus for over 12 hours. That required a mechanic and support personnel to fix at a station. Oh yes, and one driver who strapped down my chair when I boarded, who refused to release my chair at rest stops, since I “should have had an attendant” and “it wasn’t his job”. From my position, I wasn’t able to reach the release buttons, and was stuck.

* Sydney Morning Herald: Airline ‘erred’ on aid dog

Tiger Airways has admitted it blundered, again, after it told a disabled woman she couldn’t fly on the airline because it does not carry medical-alert dogs.

The disabled woman complained to the Human Rights Commission after she was told the only assistance dogs the airline allowed were seeing-eye dogs – a stance that is at odds with the airline’s own policy published on its website.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes warned that airlines faced government regulation if they did not establish plans covering disabled travellers’ needs.

* wcbstv: Disabled Man’s Ordeal Leads To Bus Matron’s Arrest

Rivera didn’t arrive home Wednesday night. His special needs bus, ironically named Outstanding Transport, should have dropped him in East Harlem, but investigators found him almost a day later — miles away in a Brooklyn bus yard. Sources tell CBS 2 HD Rivera was strapped in his seat directly behind the driver’s seat. […] The source said Hockaday admitted to knowing that Rivera was still on the bus when it was locked up on one of the coldest nights of the year. Her rationale for leaving? She apparently didn’t want to be late for church.

* The Star: Company helps blind travellers

For me, an experienced traveller who is blind, this was my 26th country, my first time on South America, and I was excited about the places I was about to visit. […]

Liz Frankland, one of my fellow participants observed: “There are plenty of sighted people who find it strange that a blind person would want to travel anywhere, but they seem to overlook the pleasure and excitement of being indifferent places thanks to the atmosphere.

“It can be quite exhilarating being in a busy city like Lima, just to be there. Looking around and drinking in the noise and scents of a market, particularly in somewhere so different as Peru, is really interesting, especially when there is food we never see at home.”

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist language of varying intensity.

*Chicago Tribune: Disabled mom fighting to keep her son

Can a quadriplegic woman be a good parent? Her ex-boyfriend filed a custody suit that says no. […]

In September, Trais sued O’Neill for full custody, charging that his former girlfriend is “not a fit and proper person” to care for their son, Aidan James O’Neill. In court documents, Trais said O’Neill’s disability “greatly limits her ability to care for the minor, or even wake up if the minor is distressed.”

O’Neill counters that she always has another able-bodied adult on hand for Aidan — be it her full-time caretaker, live-in brother or her mother. Even before she gave birth to Aidan, O’Neill said, she never went more than a few hours by herself. […]

Howard LeVine, a Tinley Park attorney not affiliated with the case, said Trais’ concerns are legitimate and may hold legal weight. “Certainly, I sympathize with the mom, but assuming both parties are equal (in other respects), isn’t the child obviously better off with the father?” LeVine, who has specialized in divorce and custody cases for the last 40 years, pointed out that O’Neill would likely not be able to teach her son to write, paint or play ball. “What’s the effect on the child — feeling sorry for the mother and becoming the parent?”

* neeners815 at Her Voice: Pain

But we leave for vacation in three days and I’d really like to not leave in pain. Who am I kidding? If I have to be in pain, I’d rather it be somewhere nice and warm with the sound of waves and the beautiful blue ocean.

* katta: Some clues on how not to write deaf characters

The disability fanfic site has uploaded a bunch of stuff, so I’ve been reading quite a lot, and there are a couple of things that bother me.

Well, okay, a lot of things bothered me, but I do deliberately seek out these fics, so I’ve mostly learned to go LALALA at the badness, especially the very common badness like magical recoveries or undue sappiness.

But in this rant, I thought I’d limit myself to a couple of annoying trends in stories about deaf people.

* Amanda Forest Vivian at I’m Somewhere Else: ASD Savants/Disability Redemption transcript

I do think the idea of redemption is also around in the conversation about Asperger’s an high-functioning autism. And what I mean by redemption is the idea that if someone has a disability, if they’re good at something else, it’s okay that they have a disability.

* Cricbuzz: Kashmir’s disabled cricketer dreams of India match

Akseer Abbasi thought his childhood dream of playing cricket for Pakistan was obliterated when his cousin accidentally shot him in the knee and he lost his right leg 15 years ago.

Life took another turn for the worse when a devastating earthquake razed his family home in 2005, but the emergence of a disabled cricket league in Pakistan has revived his hopes of playing for his country. […]

For years Pakistan’s disabled cricketers were shunned, given little or no outlet for their sport. “Whenever I tried to play cricket, my street fellows discouraged me,” said Farhan Saeed, who is missing a left leg and bowls by running, taking a jump and landing on a crutch.

“Then I heard there would be trials to select a disabled team for Karachi and I got selected, and since then I haven’t looked back.”

* NRC Handelsblad: Disabled poster boy banned from rail stations

Not Normal, an art-exhibition focussed on the position of disabled people in society, which opened in Amsterdam on Wednesday has immediately sparked controversy. The exhibition features pieces by 80 visual artists, whose work all evokes the same question: what constitutes normality? And who decides what is normal and what is not?

An answer to the latter question came more quickly than expected. The Dutch national railway company NS refuses to display posters advertising the event at its train stations. The poster in question features a nude sculpture British artist Marc Quinn made of Stuart Penn, a British stuntman and amputee.

The NS defended its decision citing fear of customer complaints. According to a spokesperson, the NS’ stations should be “a pleasant place” for passengers. “We feel this poster is too confrontational and unfit for the public at large,” the spokesperson said.

description: A white sculpture reminiscent of the Ancient Greek tradition, on a plain black background. The sculpture is of a young man, naked, standing on his left leg. His right leg, with what appears to be an above-knee amputation, is raised in the style of doing a karate kick. His right arm is raised, bent and clenched in a fist; his left, with an above-elbow amputation, is by his side.

* synecdochic: six things make a post

[on replacing ableist terms at Wikipedia; synecdochic’s working on “Wheelchair bound”] I’ve gotten up to item 180 260 out of 822 on search results (which don’t seem to be updating), if anyone else wants to pitch in. “Confined to a wheelchair” is another good target, with 349 results as of now.

* eruthros: Casual Ableism

2. “She just won’t go to sleep at her bedtime.”
“Kids today!”
“Well, she’s on some medication that makes her agitated.”
“I don’t care how strong the medication is, you have to make it clear that there are LINES that she can’t cross. Bedtime is bedtime.”

Yes, guys, side effects can be reduced if authority figures make rules! Also, rules and lines are the same for everyone, regardless of circumstances!

* Angry Black Bitch: From the soap box on the topic of autism…

Autism is not a childhood disorder.

Autistic kids do not grow out of it. I don’t give a shit about celebrities who claim otherwise or books that speculate about blah, blah and another blah.

The current reality is that autistic kids will become autistic adults.

The Jamaica Gleaner: Taxing even the blind – Disabled community outraged and saddened

Members OF the disabled community are both outraged and saddened by the recent decision by the Government to impose general consumption tax (GCT) on essential items used by persons with disabilities. […]

[Virginia Woods, executive director of the Jamaica Society for the Blind] said this could mean that the organisation might have to start charging a small fee for canes, which it does not want to do because many blind people are struggling to make ends meet.

* China View: China relaxes driving restrictions for disabled people

China’s Ministry of Public Security on Thursday issued an amendment to driving license rules, giving more disabled people the rights to sit behind the wheel.

Those with disabled right leg or both legs but able to sit up independently are allowed to drive small-sized automatic transmission cars which are specially designed for them, according to the new rules which will take effect on April 1.

The present regulation only allows those with disabled left legs to drive.

* Boston.com’s The Big Picture, 2009 in Photos:

Photo shows Wadee Daoud, a five-year-old Palestinian boy with a visual impairment, at the Helen Keller Center for blind and visually impaired children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, September 10, 2009. Wadee is reacting to light after a teacher opened window blinds. He is wearing glasses with thick lenses and perfectly round frames. His eyes are very wide, echoing the circle of the frame. His hands are pressed to his face in seeming delight.

* Raising My Boychick: “A study in endurance and ableism”

I am in a Pathology lecture at massage school, listening to my life described with words like “unbearable” and “debilitating”. Tonight the class is supposedly studying “Mental/Emotional Conditions”; I am studying endurance and ableism, the grain of the table, the depth of my cheek before I chew through to a vascular layer and taste the copper tang of blood.

The juxtaposition of an article whose subtitle calls depression “This Debilitating Condition” and whose first paragraph says “the stigma that this disorder once carried no longer stings” is almost unbearable.

* Winnipeg Free Press: Groups say Alberta government cutting programs for the disabled to save money

Alberta’s plan to cut about $12 million from its People with Developmental Disabilities program is scaring disabled people and their families. […]

Groups affected include People with Developmental Disabilities, Calgary Society for People with Disabilities, Springboard Centre for Adults with Disabilities and the Alberta Association for Community Living.

Wendy McDonald, president of the association, said Premier Ed Stelmach’s government is going after the most vulnerable people in Alberta and their families. McDonald noted that just last month Stelmach promised to look after such groups. She called on the government to reconsider.

* Sydney Morning Herald: Blind student tops HSC subject

Ria, a blind student who topped NSW in Indonesian Background Speakers, only migrated to Australia from its northern neighbour in 2007.

Unable to see since she was five, the student from Sydney’s Open High School has been proficient in Indonesian braille for many years.

But after moving to Australia, the inspirational teenager not only had to learn English but English braille.

[image source]

* Wired: Obama Sides With Blind in Copyright-Treaty Debate

The Obama administration announced Tuesday it supports loosening international copyright protections to enable cross-border distribution of special-format reading materials for the blind, a move that puts it at odds with nearly all of U.S. industry.

The government announced its support for the underlying principle of the WIPO Treaty for Sharing Accessible Formats of Copyrighted Works for Persons Who are Blind or Have other Reading Disabilities.

* Knowledge Ecology International: “Who on earth would oppose a treaty to facilitate access to information and knowledge to people with reading disabilities?”

This article outlines and excerpts a series of responses to the proposed copyright treaty, including the posturing by the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] and RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America], as well as more sensible responses from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other groups.

* King5.com: Outrage over handicapped parking signage

[posted purely so you can play Accessible-Parking Ableism Bingo! with the comments. How high can you score?]