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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Sasha Feather at Access Fandom: Better microphone use at conventions: a report

Microphone use: pretty good, but myself and others definitely encountered able-bodied privilege in the form of people claiming their voices are good enough, loud enough, and gosh darnit mics just aren’t natural. In smaller rooms, mic use was worse than in larger rooms. Some people were “mic hogs” (not good at sharing or passing microphones); therefore more mics would be better for 6-panelist panels. Some people gestured with the mics or held them too far from their faces. I believe this shift in culture will take several years but we are off to a good start.

The Quixotic Autistic: Fröken Salander & Me: How a misanthropic computer hacker will change autism in literature and life (Potential spoilers for The Millennium Trilogy)

It’s not just revolutionary because it has a character with autism. It has a person with autism as one of the main characters (I don’t think the word ‘protagonist’ is proper here) and often narrates using her point of view. Usually when this is attempted, it’s clumsy and ham-fisted, and filled with overly flowery prose about connecting to the outside world, or else presents the person as a narrow-minded tabula rasa with no personality, only a long series of ramblings regarding interests in very obscure subjects (I’m looking at you, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time!) Salander however, is given the full force of a well-developed personality, and while she is presented with savant-like abilities, she is shown to be tormented by them, her photographic memory in particular.

Astrid: Open Letter To My Body

I am autistic. Autism affects the way I perceive stimuli. For example, I tend to be somewhat hypeersensitive to noise. However, my autistic way of perceiving also relates to my internal sensations. When I feel a physical symptom or sensation, I cannot always localize it or describe its intensity. For example, I have dealt with abdominal pain for about three years now, but it took me forever to recognize firstly that it wasn’t normal, and secondly, to localize the pain. Sometimes, I perceive ordinary sensations, such as hunger, as painful. When I deal with pain at the same time, it all adds up and overwhelms me. Overload further impairs my perception of internal and external stimuli by either agravating or diminishing sensation.

BlindGal: My First Accessible Cell Phone

Last week I purchased my first accessible cell phone, and I can’t believe I waited this long. I have been a cell phone user for over 8 years, but not until now have I been able to do anything but make and receive calls. You may be thinking that should be enough, but with all that cell phones can do, I was really paying for features I couldn’t use. I couldn’t even tell who was calling me or if I had messages waiting for me. Thanks to Apple and their commitment to making their products accessible to all their customers, the Iphone 3gs is opening new doors to me.

Forced Migration Review: Disability and Displacement (Free download)

It is not common practice to include people with disabilities among those who are considered as particularly vulnerable in disasters and displacement and who therefore require targeted response – yet statistics tell us that up to 10% of all displaced people will have a disability.

The 27 feature theme articles in this issue of FMR show why disabled people who are displaced need particular consideration and highlight some of the initiatives taken (locally and at the global level) to change thinking and practices so that their vulnerability is recognised, their voices heard – and responses made inclusive.

At Access Tourism NZ: Colombia Nears Goal to Become World’s First Country with Accessible Bus Rapid Transit Service in Every Major City While NZ Lags

The June 201 Access Exchange Newsletter reports that Colombia is amongst world leaders in providing Accessible Bus Rapid Transit services for people with disabilities (PwDs). Meanwhile in New Zealand, The NZ Tourism Guide (one of our largest tourism guide websites) advises that “most urban transport buses are not equipped to cater for the disabled.”

“If the world’s megacities are to be livable places in years to come, the Colombian approach to public transit is likely to be a big part of the solution. Access to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by passengers with disabilities, which means better access for everybody, is a cutting edge feature of this solution” says Tom Rickert of Access Exchange International

New Straights Times: Magazine took away my date (via email)

I wish to highlight an incident where a disabled person was discriminated against.

Anti-Rec (although some points for actually talking to blind people when developing the show): DVR Playground: Setting his sights on a new challenge, Christopher Gorham Talks COVERT AFFAIRS

Actor Christopher Gorham relishes a challenge.

Or at least that’s the distinct impression one walks away with following some time spent with the actor on a recent visit to the set of COVERT AFFAIRS, USA’s latest summer series in which he plays blind CIA operative Auggie Anderson.

Exciting and daunting. Particularly when one takes into account the added responsibility Gorham signed up for which has the actor putting a very public face a blind/visually impaired minority that unfortunately gets little to no exposure on primetime television. A responsibility that not surprisingly is not the least bit lost on the well spoken actor.

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence: Stop Law Enforcement Violence

WHAT IS “LAW ENFORCEMENT VIOLENCE?”

We use the term “law enforcement violence” to reflect an analysis that includes police brutality by local, state and federal police, as well as immigration enforcement officers, Border Patrol, private security, and military forces. We use the terms “police brutality” and “law enforcement violence” alternatively to mean the same thing.

The Next Disability Blog Carnival will be at Brilliant Mind, Broken Body! Kali’s looking for submissions to be in by August 18th.

At Transportation Access: Harry’s Transportation Woes Live On

A month before activist Harry Wieder was tragically struck and killed by a taxi, he sent a 26-paragraph email to the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) telling the agency that parking and transportation regulations were progressively making his life more difficult.
Wieder, a paraparetic dwarf who drove a car for 40 years, said the rise of pedestrian malls on public streets prevent drivers with disabilities from directly accessing sidewalks, and that an increase in “No Standing” and “No Stopping” signs in the past few years have blocked parking at places including Lincoln Center, the Stonewall Bar and the West 47th Street Diamond District, where his family works.

L^2 at Dog’s Eye View: Not as We

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the day Willow and I were matched at Leader Dogs for the Blind. Since Willow’s retirement last March, as well as increasingly for six to eight months before that, I have been navigating my world as “I” not as “we” and yes, it has been a bit lonely.

Since Willow almost always lead the way on our daily adventures, it was tough to start leaving her behind. On those rare occasions during our partnership when she didn’t go along it always felt odd, like something was missing. But since she retired, I’ve had to go it alone all the time, while I continue to wait to be matched with a new guide dog.

Terajk did up a transcript of an interview with Dr. Shana Nichols about autistic girls and women at Transcripts for Everyone: [Note: There is mention of murder through domestic violence at the beginning of this transcript]

Just remembering the young girl I was working with, I spoke to my supervisor and I asked: “We’re not seeing a lot of girls. There are a lot of families out there who have nowhere to turn to. There’s no resources for them. Could I start a group this summer for girls? A girl talk group, for them to learn how to call each other on the phone, learn to have a party, work on conversation skills.” It was a huge success. We had so many families contact us. The moms themselves were just so happy to have finally found a community of other families who were sharing their experiences with them. The girls themselves had been in social skills groups where they were the only girl. They often were just beyond thrilled, and as part of that group, I began to explore a lot of the issues that I’ve seen girls and women face: whether it’s [unknown] issues, puberty, interest in dating, mental health and anxiety, really low self-esteem. From there it just really took off.

Moving to New York was the launching point, where I began to work with a couple of my colleagues. We continued to develop our girls’ program, and I finally just said: “Enough is enough. There are no resources out there for parents of girls and for clinicians. So it’s time for us to write the book.”

Life, plus one (service dog)

Hudson is my service dog, a 3 year old labradoodle who I have been with for almost a year. I actually break one of the rules our trainers set out for us – when Hudson and I are in the house, Hudson is almost never on a leash, because he’s so well behaved. With very rare exceptions (like really needing a drink or to go outside), Hudson never leaves the room I’m in, and never runs to anyone or anything, so I don’t worry about him not being leashed. Unlike most service dogs, Hudson has very little interest in the outside world, so he’s not about to run to the doorbell or run outside given the opportunity.

So here’s what a normal day looks like, living with Hudson.

Leah Jane at Quixotic Autistic:We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that (s)he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

It’s not just the fact that they are humiliating these children in the public sphere that is problematic, or insulting them in front of all, with words like “empty”, “husk”, “broken”, “sickened”, “damaged”, “stolen”, “near dead” and “ill” being liberally applied. The very fact that children, particularly when it involves nonverbal children, are being used as pawns to advance the political/social agendas of adults is downright sickening. Children are not the property of their parents, to be displayed at their whim, or used as a bargaining chip in an ideological debate. They are individuals, and yet, their freedom and their power to decide their destiny is often marginalized due to the wishes of adults who hold power over them, whether it be parents, teachers, or caretakers. Especially concerning disabled children.

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Doug Draper at Niagra at Large: Thorold, Ontario Amputee Has His Artificial Leg Ripped Off By Police And Is Slammed In Makeshift Cell During G20 Summit – At Least One Ontario MPP Calls The Whole Episode “Shocking” [via several sources, thank you!] [Trigger Warning for Description of Police-related violence]

The 57-year-old Thorold, Ontario resident – an employee with Revenue Canada and a part-time farmer who lost a leg above his knee following a farming accident 17 years ago – was sitting on the grass at Queen’s Park with his daughter Sarah and two other young people this June 26, during the G20 summit, where he assumed it would be safe.

As it turned out, it was a bad assumption because in came a line of armoured police, into an area the city had promised would be safe for peaceful demonstrations during the summit. They closed right in on John and his daughter and the two others and ordered them to move. Pruyn tried getting up and he fell, and it was all too slow for the police.

RELATED: Amnesty International: Sign Petition: Independent review of G20 security needed

Mia at Leaving Evidence: Reflecting on Frida Kahlo’s Birthday and The Importance of Recognizing Ourselves for (in) Each Other

I often think about Frida and what it means to recognize each other, as disabled queer women of color. I don’t know if Frida would have described herself as “disabled;” if she would have even used that language, that thinking. Would she have thought of herself as what we understand as “queer,” using whatever language and words she chose around her open bisexuality? I don’t know.

I found Frida when I was young, and it seems I have been continuing to find her my whole life. Frida was originally introduced to me when I was a young teenager as a feminist symbol; as a “strong woman of color artist.” As one of the few non-black woman of color thrown in amongst majority white women, I remembered her. It was only later that I found out she, like me, had polio as a child and about her bisexuality.

Dave Hingsburger: Marching for Respect (See footnote for image & video descriptions) [1. There is a video and two images at this link. The images are of card that reads “Words hit like a fist” with a rainbow background on one side. The other side reads “Walk by any school yard. There are two words that kids hurl at each other. ‘Retard’ ‘Faggot’. Words intended to hurt us simply because we want to ‘be’ who we ‘are’. Words hurt. We all know that. We join in the fight for a society that welcomes all. And besides, what is more ‘gay’ than knowing the real ‘R’ word is ‘Respect’. Join us in eliminating hate from speech. vitacls.org”.

The video description: A Pride Parade held in Toronto. The street is lined with cheering spectators waving their hands. The video opens on people marching with a large banner that says ‘Living in 3D.’ More people walk past holding a variety of signs that are difficult to read because of the poor video quality, and we see a powerchair user motoring along with them. Many of the marchers are wearing rainbow clothing or ornaments and at least one sign says ‘straight but not narrow.’ More people march by and a small bus approaches, with a powerchair user moving alongside. The side of the bus reads ‘Care Toronto: Caring for Seniors and People With Disabilities’ and it has been decorated with a rainbow pride flag. (description by s.e.smith)]

Our goal was to get as many as we could into the hands of those watching the parade. There were millions of people watching. We had to wait for nearly two hours to start marching, so I went up and down the line and found as many marching groups as I could that I thought really could use the cards, teachers federations, summer camps for kids, disability transport services, the works. I approached them, told them who Vita was and what our message was and handed out the cards.

Goldjadeocean: A Data point

Asking for accommodations for disability is a complicated thing. Sometimes it’s easy, it’s simple, it’s understandable. Sometimes, it gets you in even more shit.

I have a mobility impairment. One leg is shorter than the other; my short leg has a small foot that doesn’t fit well into shoes. Walking long distances on uncertain footing (like normal street pavement) stresses my damaged knee, and increases the already-good chances that I will misstep, fall, and damage my weak ankle.

…

I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (or, I had it–I no longer meet diagnostic criteria for it). I am generally good unless I am triggered in one of the specific areas my obsessions fall into–gory violent injury, or “creepy crawlies” (insects, arachnids, reptiles, fish). Being triggered, for me, can cause obsessions (repetitive unpleasant thoughts I cannot get rid of), heightened anxiety, or visual and tactile hallucinations.

Federal Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Woman Represented by Lambda Legal After She Was Fired By Georgia General Assembly

Late Friday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Lambda Legal client Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female.

BendyGirl at Disability Voices: DLA: Clearing Up Confusion

DLA is a NON means tested benefit and this will not be affected by the proposed changes. DLA is a basic recognition that to be disabled means to bear extra, unavoidable costs. DLA is in two parts, a care component and a mobility component. DLA is not an out of work benefit, had they wanted to the Cameron’s would have been entitled to claim DLA for their profoundly disabled son Ivan. Many of those in receipt of DLA work in either full or part time roles, which they would not be able to do so without the extra financial support DLA provides. The costs of disability don’t go away because someone is able to enter the workplace, if anything the costs associated with disability often rise when someone is working as they have less time and energy to deal with daily living tasks than they did when they were not working.

Belleisa at Racialicious: Whose allowed to tell the tale? (And which tales should they tell?)

McFadden argues that many black authors, aside from the few who have crossed over into the mainstream, get relegated to the “seg-book-gation.” She does acknowledge that black writers have an easier time getting published than they used to, although the op-ed slips in and out of preachy academic theory (she mentions colonialism). But her initial argument, about authorial authenticity and which authors get the better marketing support for the same types of stories, takes a quick dive into condescension.

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Blog Posts:

Katja at Broken Clay: Denise Through the Looking Glass

Let me start by saying that entering the world of disability (or alternative mobility) is a little like going through the looking glass, or moving to a foreign country. And like moving to a foreign country, things will work out better if you do some research in advance.

Tasha Fierce at Red Vinyl Shoes: Out of the (Gene) Pool: Disability and Biological Children:

People seem to think that when you have a disability that you could possibly pass down to a child, it’s their business to recommend that you refrain from having children. This is often disguised as fake concern for the well-being of the potential child-bearer, such as in cases where medication would have to be stopped due to the risk of harming the child in utero. Or, maybe they feel that it would be wrong for you to continue a bloodline that is tainted with disability, so they just have to speak up. Never mind that plenty of people who don’t personally have a disability are carriers of genes that may lead to disability. Disabled minds and bodies are viewed as acceptable topics of casual conversation, and your personal medical and life decisions are subject to critique and judgment. Basically, you’re a bad person if you make the decision to have a child despite the chance it will be defective like you.

SeekingFerret: [No Title]

But that wasn’t what I heard. I heard a Christian put a Jew on the defensive by reminding her that no matter how high she reaches, she still will be a minority in this country. I heard Senator Schumer, another Jew rendered uncomfortable by the question, jump in quickly to explain away the joke, to make sure it wasn’t taken the wrong way. I heard a nasty question, inadvertent or not, handled with a reasonable amount of tact by way of a reflexive display of “New York humor.”

And just once, I’d like to see this addressed for what it is. A minor but still noxious form of antisemitism. Jews are “allowed” to be funny. It’s one of the designated defense mechanisms they haven’t taken away from us. But they look down on us for it, sneer at the Jewish sense of humor and how nasty and edgy it is.

TorontoEmerg at Those Emergency Blues: Blatchford Bashes Health Care and Misses the Point [Part II]

This is the elephant in the room that no one will talk about: providing proper care for seniors is going to take significant and sustained expenditures now and into the future. In short, good care for seniors = higher taxes. I’m sure it will be a very cold day on Satan’s front porch before you would see Christie Blatchford, or even the editorial apparatus of the Globe and Mail, argue for that.

Daniel at Different Spokes: Travel Log: Shame On You, Savannah, GA!

During the second leg of our trip, we ventured to historic Savannah, Ga. to take in the sights. Beware, disabled travelers: do not take a trolley tour of Savannah! Not only was the fleet of trolleys not fully accessible (the one we used had no lift), but there was not even a place to put my wheelchair once Derin lifted me into my seat. We ended up taking the chair apart and storing it at our feet. Even more horrifying was the driver asking if I wanted to just leave my wheelchair with the ticket agent and pick it up once we returned. She failed to mention that the trolley lets off sightseers in a different part of town than it picks them up; So I’d be trying to tour the city without my chair…brilliant.

Access Tourism New Zealand: Catering for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Makes Good Business Sense

During Deaf Awareness Week (28 June – 4 July 2010), the UK Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) is reminding businesses, shops, and services to seize the opportunity to expand their customer base by ensuring they are fully accessible to the 9 million people in the UK who are deaf or hard of hearing. This includes businesses in the tourism, hospitality, and travel sector. RNID is the largest charity in the UK working on hearing loss

Petitions:

Toronto Call: No More Police State Tactics

We the undersigned call for:
1. The immediate release of all those detained
2. A full campaign to defend the civil rights of those facing charges arising from this extraordinary policing regime, especially those facing excessive charges and/or punitive bail conditions that criminalize, limit mobility, and curtail rights in the long term.
3. An independent public inquiry into police actions during the summit, including disclosure on the role of police infiltrators leading up to and during events, and the chain of command for the extraordinary crackdown on legal rights and protests.
4. An end to the targeting of anarchists by the Conservative government and the police.
5. The resignation of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair

News Media:

Canada: CBC [Mainstream Media] : New resource aids families after youth suicide

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Dave Hingsburger: Disability Blog Carnival 67: Proud Voices!

People are proud of writing that comes from a place that’s often deep and secret. People are proud when they manage to put into words anger, fears, terror, tears, love, longing, regret, fury … I found myself going on a real journey here. My intros are brief, the blog is long. We have a huge number of contributors. I’ve only used the names that appear on the blog. These appear in no order, I did not attempt to group them, I did not attempt to make them flow. I think the haphazard way they bring up various topics works.

Jedifreac: It sucks to be right, it sucks to be right

Yesterday and today, Paramount screened The Last Airbender to Racebending.com for free as kind of an olive branch, and also to show us just how diverse the movie is–to prove us wrong. I’m a big bundle of emotions right now, I guess. Here’s the conversation I had with Ken about the movie, since he is better at ‘splainin feelings and stuff.

While we had a lot of concerns about racial sensitivity going in, we at least had some idea of what to expect. It was pretty much as bad as we thought. The poor way the movie treated women and feminism–in comparison to the animated series–other hand, floored me. I just…yeah. If you were expecting M. Night’s version of Airbender to at all reflect the way the animated series treated gender, well…

Stan at Teen Mental Health Blog: What Next?

If I had a dollar for every hour that a patient with a mental health crisis had to wait to be seen by the emergency physician in many of the hospitals that I have known, I could have retired a wealthy man. Why is it that people who have a mental disorder end up at the back of the line? Surely it can not be because of stigma in health providers? Surely it can not be because of inefficient care pathways? Surely it can not be because of inadequate numbers of mental health providers?

Links via Delicious (Thank you kind contributors!)

Matthew Palumbo at The Other Baldwin: Guest Post: Thoughts on Visual Disability

Another notable mention regarding activities with respect to visually disability regards movies and television programming. No matter the screen, even up close, I can’t ever make out everything that is going on. Thus, I largely rely on my wife, or a friend, to clear up those things I miss. Subtitles are a biggie for me in this regard. Interestingly enough, though, the exception to this issue comes when watching cartoons. The bright, vibrant colors of a cartoon seem to work well with my vision and, thus, I largely catch all that transpires in them. CGI and live action, though, are very hit-or-miss.

Mary Bullstonecraft at Hysteria:Rethinking Access, Rethinking (my) Feminism

Yes, yes, Justice Breyer. Anyone can use the steps to access the court. Anyone can walk under those grand “equal justice under law” columns. Anyone can access justice just by skipping up the front entrance.

Except, just kidding, they can’t. And we can see that they can’t if we just look at the Supreme Court’s illustration of the new entrances above, which is included with the New York Times article reporting otherwise. There, on the left: “This entrance is wheelchair accessible.” The main, grand, marble entrance–the one promising equal access, equal justice–isn’t equally accessible. It’s not accessible to people using wheelchairs, people with disabilities that make walking up giant marble staircases a problem, or people with children in strollers, or people who are several months pregnant, to name a few. People in these circumstances have always had to use the side entrance, the symbolically denigrated entrance. And the fact that using the same entrance as these people is cause for poetic outrage should make us stop and think a bit.

Videos

All videos have transcriptions.

By Mia at Leaving Evidence: Video: Crip Sex, Crip Lust, and the Lust of Recognition [Transcript available at source]

Recently, I met up with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ellery Russian for an evening and got to capture some of our musings, sharings and stories. Whenever i get to hear crip stories, i am entranced. i love hearing our words (all of them, in whatever way they come tumbling out) and feel ever-so appreciative, especially knowing how long i went without ever hearing any of our voices tell our own stories and stumble through sharing and asking and loving. It’s so important for us to tell our stories–to each other. As much as we can. There are so many different stories that we have to tell about (queer) crip sex and about our relationship to crip sex, to sex period, to sexuality and more. Our stories are so different and complex and they all have value–we have value. Much love and gratitude to Leah and Ellery for sharing some of your stories, knowing that it’s not all of your story.

By Lisa at A Voice For Neli: Neli Tells His Story [Transcript courtesy of terajk at Transcripts for Everyone]

I have been searching my heart, mind and soul trying to figure out why this has happened to my son. I feel so powerless as a mother. We are supposed to protect our children, yet, I couldn’t save him from this. I’ve been living in sheer torture since the events of 24 May 2010. Now my son, who had a future is locked away due to police harassment and brutality. And in spite of my best efforts, I have not been able to get any news outlets to bring this story to light. I pray every day and I hope every day that we will be delivered. Neli is holding on, but each day he is gone like this, I’m losing a little part of him.

Comment is Free

Comments are not disability-friendly.

Disability Living Allowance Exists for a Reason

Why should I again prove my disability to satisfy George Osborne?

Disabled People are Not Scroungers

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com

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 and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

Blog Posts

A Stitch in Time Can Sometimes Cost You Nine

My friend was curious about Disability Living Allowance. ‘Why’, he asked, ‘in a time of such financial crisis are we paying people just because they are disabled?’ ‘Surely there’s no need for that payment when we have an NHS to provide medical care and local authorities to provide social care?’

Why indeed?

Disability Living Allowance is one of the most misunderstood and yet most practical and vital benefits we have in the welfare state. It is NON means tested, so it can be claimed by anyone who meets the required standards for needing assistance with either a care component or a mobility component.

Inkstone: I Guess I Still Have A Post In Me

I guess we should glad they didn’t slap a blue-eyed, blond-haired white girl on the covers, huh?

But make no mistake; this is insulting. At least with a symbolic motif cover (a la the Twilight covers), you can pretend race is not a factor. Instead, here, we’re given a girl whose face is obscured by shadow. That way, the publisher can say, But she could be Asian. It’s ambiguous!

Except it’s not ambiguous. We know what they’re doing. It’s a flimsy attempt to put a person on the cover while also masking any identifying features that could “scare” away potential buyers. Do you know what message that sends? Not only are we taught that our stories aren’t worth telling, not only are we taught never to expect to see our faces represented, we’re now being told that if we are represented, we should be ashamed of our features. That our eyes, our cheekbones, most of our faces scare away potential readers. That to reach a different and wider audience, we must be sacrificed because no one would want to read one of our stories if they knew ahead of time what they were getting.

When Aspergers Becomes Cool

So is Asperger’s “cool” now, as Moby seems to think? Is it merely geek chic, the undiagnosed condition that may have afflicted Mozart and Einstein? Not if you ask the thousands of people who struggle every day to function at work and school in a society that may view them as quirky, but doesn’t really understand how difficult it is to exist when you are, essentially, always speaking a foreign language. Or is it more likely that people share (even in some small way) the suspicion that this is all just a trendy camouflage, and agree with stand-up Denis Leary’s allegedly comic observation that “your kid is NOT autistic. He’s just stupid. Or lazy. Or both.”

January 23 to be designated Ed Roberts Day in California?

Now, naming a day for Ed Roberts won’t enforce any neglected accessibility laws, or improve Medi-Cal coverage, or keep anyone from using ableist language. But maybe schools will invite disabled performers to lead the celebration; maybe scout troops will learn to build good ramps or install clear signage on the day; maybe newspapers will seek out community activists for soundbites or more; maybe maybe maybe.

Dear My Dentist

When you then do some manipulation for TMJ, and I explain to you that I’m willing to try TMJ treatment for migraine, although I have tried it before in the 1980s (see: “tried everything”), and that my reaction to the TMJ manipulation may be exaggerated because I have skin sensitivity so severe that I cannot wear glasses, this would be a really bad moment to press on my forehead to see. My leaping back and screaming “OhmyGodpleaseDON’T” should indicate to you as much. An abject apology here would have been good. Because I warned you of my medical condition, and you, being NOT A NEUROLOGIST, ignored it.

Xbox 360 Kinect: Good for Disabled Gamers, But Not for Gaming, Yet

I don’t have to tell you that most of the Kinect will be largely useless to most of you reading this article. The entire point of Kinect is to get you and your friends off of the couch and more active while playing video games.

That is an impressive idea in theory; unfortunately it really hurts your average disabled gamer who can’t get out of the wheelchair, let alone the couch. In order to know whether to be excited about this device, you’re going to have to take an inventory of your disability.

If you have use of everything but one arm or one hand, like most one-handed gamers, Kinect will still be playable for you just as is the Wii. But if you are unable to play the Wii or have a more severe disability – this new system is going to be rough.

Headlines

United Kingdom: Mayor failed to consult DPOs over new Routemaster design “But when asked what consultation had taken place with disabled people, the mayor of London’s transport advisor, Kulveer Ranger, said: “Consultation has already taken place with London TravelWatch [the watchdog representing all transport users] and later this year a full mock-up of the bus will arrive in the capital, which will provide a good opportunity for groups representing disabled people to see the bus for themselves and feed back their opinions.” [Via Arbitrary Constant]

Canada: Ombudsman ‘distressed’ by treatment of children “Dozens of Ontario families are still being asked to give up custody of their special needs children in order to get the care they need, Ontario’s ombudsman said Tuesday.”

Events

Future Sex Panel at BFI in London

The BFI is hosting a panel on “science fiction as a playground for feminist and queer artists” on 2 July at 6.30pm

If you’re on Delicious, feel free to tag entries ‘disfem’ or ‘disfeminists,’ or ‘for:feminists’ to bring them to our attention! Link recommendations can also be emailed to recreading[@]disabledfeminists[.]com