By abby jean on 16 July, 2010
s.e. smith recently passed on a question from a Dear Prudence column (3rd question down) that, well, actually gets things right. We were both pretty surprised! The question asked is shockingly similar to my own situation, but I swear I didn’t write in to ask it. The questioner writes: I work in a social-services-related field and [...]
Posted in accessibility, activism, Dear Imprudence, justice, mental health, policy, social attitudes | Tagged social services
By s.e. smith on 8 July, 2010
Despite the attempts at sunny forecasts being made by commentators, it’s pretty clear that we are in a recession, that we have not hit bottom, and that things are not going to get better soon. In the United States, all of the indicators are pointing firmly toward ‘shit is bad, folks.’ The unemployment rate1 is [...]
Posted in class issues, events, policy, politics, poverty | Tagged ADAP, aids, AIDS Drug Assistance Program, Recession
By s.e. smith on 7 July, 2010
(Photo by Flickr user Steve Rhodes, used under a Creative Commons license.) Here in the United States, we are in the midst of a midterm election cycle, and given that campaigning for Presidential elections basically starts two years in advance, we are about to start ramping up for the 2012 Presidential election, which looks like [...]
Posted in accessibility, disability activism, policy, politics | Tagged elections, voting
By abby jean on 27 June, 2010
Ezra Klein, a columnist in the Washington Post who focuses on United States health policy, recently wrote a post about electronic medical records, arguing that it is absurd that we have not yet adopted their use: The fact that it’s 2010 and we’re having a conversation about how to move records from paper to computers [...]
Posted in policy
By abby jean on 23 June, 2010
Did you know that being poor puts people at greater risk for disability? And that people with disabilities are more likely to be poor? And that there’s a very strong relationship between poverty and disability, the worst kind of vicious circle? Well, you probably do, especially because we talk about it a lot here, but [...]
Posted in blaming, class issues, intersectionality, policy, poverty
By abby jean on 21 June, 2010
From a post at Change.org: According to a study (pdf) by the Commonwealth Fund, in 2007, 33 percent of working-age women, compared to 25 percent of men, faced medical bills that left them unable to pay for food, rent or heat; caused them to take out a mortgage on their home or take on credit card [...]
Posted in class issues, feminism, gender, intersectionality, policy, poverty
By s.e. smith on 17 June, 2010
Starting in the 1990s, cancer rates in China began rising at an astounding rate. By 2007, cancer was accounting for one in five deaths in China. Similarly rapid increases in cancer rates are being seen in many other nations that are in the process of industrialising. Once considered a disease of the industrialised world, cancer [...]
Posted in class issues, events, global, justice, policy, politics, poverty | Tagged cancer, cancers, child labour, China, environmental issues, environmental policy, factory towns, human rights, industrial pollution, industrialisation, international trade, labour rights, occupational illnesses, pollution
By s.e. smith on 14 June, 2010
Of the most pervasive myths about anti-discrimination legislation is that the passage of the legislation somehow magically puts a stop to the discrimination, making everything hunky dory. This myth is most commonly believed by people who are not personally impacted by the discrimination that legislation was designed to address. It’s unfortunately a pretty easy myth [...]
Posted in accessibility, justice, policy, politics | Tagged discrimination, service animals
By s.e. smith on 9 June, 2010
Content warning: This post contains discussions about abuse of people with disabilities, including physical assault and the use of restraints. Last week, a major civil rights lawsuit was settled in Pennsylvania when seven families agreed to accept five million United States Dollars to resolve a case they filed against a teacher and her superiors, arguing [...]
Posted in autonomy, bodies, justice, policy, politics, poverty | Tagged abuse, autism, autistic children, education, restraint
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