By Anna on 5 December, 2010
I know I’m not alone in being aware that there are people who still insist – despite all evidence to the contrary – that disability rights activism sprung into existence the moment they were first irritated by someone saying “He, that’s ableist”. I like that editors at Wikipedia have worked hard to develop the disability portal, and that Wikipedia’s policies about editing mean that anyone can edit to expand and clarify disability-related articles.
Posted in language, media and pop culture, meta, representations | Tagged wikipedia
By s.e. smith on 26 November, 2010
Usually I relish picking apart a crappy article in the news for this feature, but today, I want to take a moment to rant about a phenomenon so widespread in the media that I don’t feel fair singling out one poor journalist for my ire. I’m cruel, but not unreasonably so. Also, I had a [...]
Posted in 101, language, media and pop culture | Tagged journalism, stop doing this
By abby jean on 17 November, 2010
I came across this on tumblr and rolled my eyes so hard they just about fell out of my head. I feel like I should get bingo just for looking at it: The text reads “Even though autism can cripple communication, Paul managed to overcome his disability and save a teens Life. Seeing a 17 [...]
Posted in For Cereal?, language, media and pop culture
By Chally on 1 October, 2010
Gentle reader, be cautioned: comments sections on mainstream media sites tend to not be safe and we here at FWD/Forward don’t necessarily endorse all the opinions in these pieces. Let’s jump right in, shall we? First up, something close to my heart as a user of Sydney public transport from Jo Tamar at Wallaby: Accessibility [...]
Posted in language, media and pop culture, recommended reading, representations, social attitudes | Tagged australia, Ireland, media, media and pop culture, Paralympics, transportation, United Kingdom, United States
By s.e. smith on 21 September, 2010
Emily Yoffe has really been striking out in the advice sweepstakes lately, but she redeemed herself in this week’s livechat, when a reader wrote in to say: Q. Dealing With the R-Word: How can I respond to people who use the word “retard” or “retarded” as derogatory term in my presence? I have two beautiful [...]
Posted in 101, Dear Imprudence, language | Tagged Dear Prudence, Emily Yoffe, r-word
By s.e. smith on 2 September, 2010
Up today, a Global Surf News feature on ‘challenged athletes’ competing in Duke’s Oceanfest, a surfing event held in Hawaii. Oceanfest celebrates Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian surfing legend, and the event is used to raise funds to support scholarships for Hawaiian athletes. This year’s event featured an exhibition by disabled athletes participating in AccesSurf, an [...]
Posted in 101, accessibility, language, media and pop culture, social attitudes | Tagged adaptive aquatic sports, adaptive sports, surfing
By s.e. smith on 16 August, 2010
Something that I see coming up a lot in discussions about language is the argument that, by asking people to refrain from using words that refer to disability as pejoratives because they reinforce the idea that disability is categorically bad, people engaging in discussions about language are saying that disability is a bed of roses [...]
Posted in autonomy, bodies, identity, language
By s.e. smith on 21 July, 2010
As soon as I saw the headline ‘Local overcomes disabilities‘ pop up, I knew this article would be worthy of a ‘Today In Journalism’ feature at FWD, because, folks, this article has it all. I’m not going to blame Judy Sheridan, the author, for the title, because most journalists don’t write their own headlines1; the [...]
Posted in For Cereal?, language, media and pop culture | Tagged ableism, disability tropes
By s.e. smith on 6 July, 2010
Ableist Word Profile is an ongoing FWD/Forward series in which we explore ableism and the way it manifests in language usage. Here’s what this series is about: Examining word origins, the way in which ableism is unconsciously reinforced, the power that language has. Here’s what this series is not about: Telling people which words they [...]
Posted in 101, Ableist Word Profile, identity, language | Tagged ableism, disability euphemisms, special, special needs
By kaninchenzero on 23 June, 2010
My [biggest] fandom is White Wolf’s Exalted. I’ve complained about it before and I’ll complain about it again. I build characters because it’s fun and I often spend a lot of time working at it trying to make a person rather than a collection of attributes. Right now I’m working on a character who I [...]
Posted in accessibility, creative work, i'm right here, intersectionality, language, othering, representations, social attitudes | Tagged ableism, exclusion, media and pop culture, problematic attitudes, social treatment
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