Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

NYT Arts Beat: ‘Family Guy’ Voice Actor Says Palin ‘Does Not Have a Sense of Humor’

Image: Andrea Fay Friedman, who has Down syndrome, was a voice actor in a recent episode of “Family Guy” criticized by Sarah Palin.

One person who supports the “Family Guy” staff is Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actor and public speaker who played Ellen in that episode. Like the character, Ms. Friedman also has Down syndrome.

In an e-mail message sent on Thursday to The New York Times, Ms. Friedman wrote:

” I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm.””

ninjanurse at Kmareka.com: Talking Back to Sarah Palin

You may agree with her or not, but it’s good to remember that people with Down Syndrome are not God’s innocent angels sent here to teach us something about life, but actual people who have their own lives to live. Trig Palin will grow up, and I hope he will have a good life. Sarah Palin better hope she doesn’t pick up the NYT some day and see a best-seller called, ‘Drafted–My Life on the Campaign Trail When Mommy Went Rogue’, or ‘Going Rough–Missed Naps and Noisy Crowds in Days that Made History’. At least it’s not ‘Vice-President, Dearest’ –not yet.

Ally G. at The disABILITY Enlightenment Project: disABILITY Simulations

I know I came out of that exercise feeling frustrated and discombobulated. Also oftentimes people will come out of those simulation activities thinking to themselves “gosh, I’m glad I am not stuck in a wheelchair all day” or “I feel sorry for people who are blind.”

Feelings of pity or “glad that’s not me…” are not the aim of disability rights advocates.

Marie Claire/Yahoo!7: The Battle for Care that’s Pulling Families Apart

When news broke that Australia’s only boarding school for disabled kids was set to close, it exposed once more the heartbreaking lack of support for their families. […]

The issue made headlines last November, when reports surfaced that Kingsdene Special School in NSW – the only weekday boarding school for sev-erely disabled children in Australia – may close due to the charity Anglicare having to withdraw financial support. Parents expressed their fear that if the school shuts, they may have to make the same heart-rending decision as Anita to abandon their child to DoCS.

New York Times: Countless Lost Limbs Alter Life in Haiti’s Ruins

More than a month after the earthquake, thousands of new amputees are facing the stark reality of living with disabilities in a shattered country whose terrain and culture have never been hospitable to the disabled.

Some remain in hospital tents swarming with flies; others have moved to makeshift post-surgical centers; and those who healed quickly, like Ms. Jean, have been discharged to the streets, where they now live. All need continuing care in a nation with no rehabilitation hospital, few physical therapists, no central prosthesis factory since the quake and a skeletal supply of crutches, canes and wheelchairs gradually being reinforced by donations.

“The situation for newly disabled persons is very delicate,” said Michel Péan, Haiti’s secretary of state for the integration of the disabled. “They urgently need not only medical care but food and a place to live. Also, we cannot forget those disabled before the disaster who, because of their handicap, are having trouble getting access to humanitarian aid.

Ewa Hess, Hennric Jokeit at Eurozine: Neurocapitalism [Perhaps we need a new warning category for “obfuscation”… ~L.]

It may seem uncanny just how closely the narrow path to scientific supremacy over the brain runs to the broad highway along which capitalism has been speeding for over 150 years. The relationship remains dynamic, yet what links capitalism with neuroscience is not so much strict regulation as a complex syndrome of systemic flaws.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Image: Marky Mark (Mark Bekir) in a black First Flight Crew T-shirt.

accessibleARTS: First Flight Crew breaking into the scene:

The eight piece hip hop crew from all over Sydney is managed by Accessible Arts’ Creative Programs Coordinator, Alison Richardson and was formed in 2009 as a result of a series of workshops with Victorian based music organisation Club Wild, further development with Powerhouse Youth Theatre and all under the guidance of hip hop artist, Morganics.

Wheelchair Dancer: Passing By:

At the studio where I take classes when I am in NYC, the elevator isn’t ADA accessible: it’s painfully small. So small that there is always a line, well, a press of people waiting to go upstairs. It continues to amaze me that hyperable-bodied dancers who are about to go and dance for hours on end take the elevator. But they do, and so, when I was using my previous (wider) chair, I had to get there even earlier than the rest; I had to stand up, dismantle my chair, limp in, hold the door, drag the pieces in behind me and then reassemble the thing. It’s the sort of disability performance I didn’t want people to see.

staticnonsense: at I Am Not: A Punishment:

I am not a punishment to be bestowed upon anyone, much less my caring and supporting family. I know your beliefs strongly state otherwise, but they do not represent the reality of the situation.

My mother’s medical decisions and past choices are hers. They are not anyone else’s business. It is not our place to judge her for her decisions, especially when one does not know or one doesn’t need to know the reason why. No matter her decisions in the past, she is an infinitely caring person that has been behind me every step of the way through the trials and tribulations of my life.

IP at Modus Dopens: Why separate resources ain’t good enough:

There’s a pervasive myth that annoys the hell out of me, and I hope you’ll excuse me while I get it out of my system: it’s the idea that it’s ok for an institution to put in new inaccessible facilities as long as it also has some accessible ones elsewhere.

Really, no.

Why why why do we have to have one set of facilities for the “normals” and another set for the “freak show”? It’s humiliating, and it’s not even useful. If you’re putting in a facility from scratch, it’s often the case that you can put in something accessible for the same cost as something inaccessible. So it’s not even easier to put in two sets of facilities rather than just the one. This is just another way that we center the experiences of currently non-disabled people

PS News: Red tape cut enables disabled veterans:

Ex-Service personnel with disabilities who access income support are to be spared medical reviews at Centrelink for their Disability Support Pensions. […] Mr Griffin said TPI pensioners currently had to endure repeated Job Capacity Assessments to keep their Disability Support Pensions.
He said these assessments were “unnecessary”, as the veterans had already been through a rigorous assessment process to access DVA benefits.

Brisbane Times: When the ability to act is what counts :

Actors with a disability playing characters with a disability have been particularly prominent in Australian films this year, including Matthew Saville’s feature Noise and Clubland, which stars Brenda Blethyn. […]

Rick Randall, director of The Other Film Festival, Melbourne’s trail-blazing festival of “New cinema by, with and about people with a disability”, says roles remain few and far between in Australia. “There are a few films with minor roles played by people with disabilities, but there’s still a long way to go. The major problem, though, is that we’ve got a shrinking film industry so it’s really hard for new players to get a foothold.”

Young agrees, adding that it’s vital that disabled people are making the work as well as starring in other people’s. “When we write about our own experience, we bring something to it that non-disabled people rarely manage to capture,” she says.

New York Times: Doing an About-Face on ‘Overmedicated’ Children :

[Judith Warner] sallied forth to interview all the pushy parents, irresponsible doctors and overmedicated children she could find — and lo, she could barely find any. After several years of dead ends, missed deadlines and worried soul-searching, she was forced to reconsider her premise and start all over again.

“We’ve Got Issues” is the product of that unusual cycle. Journalists who cobble together enough anecdotes to support a preset agenda are all too common, and presumably Ms. Warner could have managed to do just that. Instead, she actually let her research guide her thoughts.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Cowra Guardian: Fearnley nominated for world sports award:

Former Charles Sturt University student Kurt Fearnley has again been recognised as one of the world’s greatest athletes by being nominated for a prestigious Laureus World Sports Award. […] Fearnley received his first nomination for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award in 2007 but was beaten for the title by German skier Martin Braxenthaler. This year Fearnley will be joined by the captain of the Australian men’s Wheelchair Basketball team Justin Eveson in the race for the title.

frolicnaked at RH Reality Check: Endometriosis and “Why Don’t You Just…?”

Today, a close friend asked me how I was feeling, to which I said, “It’s bad enough to need the Percocet today.” I suppose her response shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did. “How can you work when you’re on those drugs?”

From there, I made the mistake of: a) continuing the conversation, and b) saying what I actually thought. “Isn’t the better question, ‘How do you work with debilitating pain?'” Because while I lament that I’m not necessarily more functional on narcotics than in 10+ pain, I know damn well that I’m not less. And you know, a lot of people I know don’t seem to register that, but they’re quite happy to share their opinions about what they think I shouldn’t be doing.

Brie at Feminists with Female Sexual Dysfunction: Guest Post – On the social construction of sex

There have been small steps taken to change the assumption that all women have the same sex life. But they are small steps. Whenever I talk to a friend about my sex-life or lack-there-of they are confused and don’t really understand. We have short 20 minute specials in the middle of the day, or on newscasts that only a select few are made aware of. Half of the specials that I have seen in the last few months I only knew about because the National Vulvodynia Association emailed me about them. And any attempt by network shows to highlight these problems, while appreciated, never quite get it right. ABC has tried, on a few occasions, to show women dealing with sexual dysfunction but the diagnosis and treatment happen so quickly it paints a false picture of the realities of the condition. We can’t expect miracles overnight I guess.

Philosopher Crip: Crip Conversations: When Activism and Scholarship Converge:

The following is an interview I conducted with my good friend, Bethany, who recently launched the blog CripConfessions.com.[…]

Bethany: CripConfeesions fits into my overall work because I am devoted to raising awareness and creating social change for disabled people. Through blog posting, I hope to add to my other work by providing a personal glimpse into my nuanced reality. I want more people to understand that disability is not a personal tragedy, but is an artful way of being. Of course, as a sexologist, I also want people to see disabled people as desirable and viable sexual/love partners so I hope some of my posts make some people realize how deliciously sexy disabled people are. CripConfessions then is just one part of the overall revolution of consciousness I seek to be a part of.

Miss Banshee: Defining Disability:

So why do I feel shame at saying I get that government check every month?

I guess it all has to do with how you see, or don’t see, disability. You can’t see my sickness. I can walk, and talk, and smile, and PRETEND everything is fine, and I do. You never SEE that I have a chronic illness. It’s all safely tucked away in my head, and I’ve spent the vast majority of my life seeing that it stays there, away from the world, my filthy, dirty secret. That I have a chronic, lifelong mental illness.

The Age: Family fought immigration laws for daughter

Australian migration laws tried to keep out a budding gymnast who delivers meals for charity. Cailan Ford-Weinberg was four when her Down syndrome was determined to be too heavy a cost on the healthcare system for her family to move from Britain, an inquiry into the migration treatment of disability heard.

After a lengthy $5500 appeal, the 15-year-old now has a shot at representing Australia at the Special Olympics and is well recognised in her community of Upper Ferntree Gully for volunteering with Meals on Wheels. […]

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said the laws were outmoded. ”They make crude guesses and the assumptions they make about people with disabilities are only negative,” he said.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Tiffiny at Disaboom: Jake Sully wheelchair action figure gets razzed:

And perhaps the most ironic/amusing detail of the wheelchair Jake Sully action figure is it’s ability to stand, including having moveable ankles, hips, and knees. Oh sweet irony indeed!

WHEELIE cATHOLIC: Disability humor: How does it feel to be the only nondisabled person in the room?:

In fact, I’d hate to be a quadriplegic who didn’t have a sense of humor. but it’s a lot different for me to make a joke about my disability than to be turned into a joke by someone else. […] Nondisabled people sometimes say they don’t understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate disability humor (i.e., jokes that demean, objectify, label and dehumanize people with disabilities). But these nuances aren’t so hard to understand.

laughingrat: Psychology as Social Control, part zillion:

The whole DSM thing is really being discussed right now. Most of the stuff I’ve seen sounds like perfectly legitimate outrage; some of it actually expresses gratitude that certain mental states are being listed, because then, the reasoning goes, insurance companies will actually pay for their treatment. […] Don’t even get me started. Depression and complex PTSD are, as far as the Man is concerned, all in your head. Insurance coverage, my fat crazy ass.

Michael Isam at the Flagler College Gargoyle: Disabled students are invisible to able-bodied students:

Try negotiating those hallways on crutches, using a cane for balance or in a wheelchair.[…] But then there are those absorbed people blocking the entire walkway while they discuss the beautiful sheen to Rodney’s teeth. “Aren’t they just fabulous? You know his parents flew in a specialist from Switzerland just to clean them.” When you attempt to be polite and say “Excuse me”, they just look at you as if you crawled out from under a rock and how dare you interrupt this earth shattering important conversation.

Bob Williams at The Washington Post [Letters]: How to talk about disabilities:

What is glaringly missing from the debate over the epithet “retard” in The Post [” ‘Retard’: The language of bigotry,” op- ed, Feb. 15] is the voice of anyone with a disability who spent a lifetime enduring such garbage.

NewsMail: Disabled swing burnt in attack

The $25,000 Liberty Swing, designed for wheelchair users, was burned overnight on Wednesday in what Bundaberg Regional councillor Mary Wilkinson said was a “senseless act of vandalism”.

“We’re just shocked and shattered about the whole thing,” Cr Wilkinson said. “That swing was provided after an enormous amount of effort and donations by the community and Variety Queensland.”

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Oddly Specific: Note the Braille

Description: A closeup of a black sign on a wooden door reading, in Roman orthographics, “Caution. This door opens outwards. Please do not stand directly in front of the doors.” Beneath that is Braille text, presumably for the same message.

rachelmanija at The Neon Season: A User’s Guide to PTSD, Part IV: Postscript [WARNING: mentions child abuse, suicide, domestic violence, PTSD]

Two years ago I wrote a set of posts called “A User’s Guide to PTSD.” They attracted a lot of attention, and several people friended this LJ in the hope that I would write more in the same vein. I pointed out that I write about mental illness approximately once every two years, so it could be a long wait. If any of them are still reading, I hope they enjoy this follow-up. If you missed the first set, I’ve linked them below.

ABC News: Conjoined Twins, Together Forever

At the age of 45, the Schappell sisters are believed to be among the oldest living conjoined twins in the world. If one died before the other, they say, the survivor would choose separation- but only under that circumstance.[…]

The example they’ve set with their lives has influenced how some experts think about a decision many take for granted: that conjoined twins should be separated if possible.

MSNBC: Disability-free world may not be a better place

As some families with a Down syndrome child have noted, fewer kids with Down may mean fewer public programs, fewer resources in schools and for housing and less political clout. If some genetic diseases begin to fade away, will society’s willingness to provide support for the diminishing numbers of those born with such diseases fade as well? And are we headed to a time when parents who choose not to be genetically tested find themselves condemned as morally irresponsible parents?

The Washington Post: Va. families fear more cuts to services for the disabled

Proposed cuts to Virginia’s Medicaid program could make that waiting list even longer, Wooten said. The waivers fund a variety of services that help people with disabilities continue to live in the community, such as supported employment, companion services and nursing care, Wooten said.

With the support they receive through the school system, the Mays said they are able to care for their son without state aid. Sam May attends the Davis Career Center at Marshall High School, where he learns life and career skills and is able to work in a company’s mailroom.

If her son cannot get state-funded services when he graduates, Kathy May said she is not sure what the family will do. She and her husband work full time, so one of them likely would have to quit to care for him. Without two incomes, they probably would have to sell their home and move, she said.