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

Anxiety Girl, by Natalie Dee. Seen at Learning Log.

Danger Room blog at Wired – [US] Military’s Mental Health Treatment Leader Stepping Down

The director of the military’s top center for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries is resigning, after ongoing criticism of the facility’s inability to cope with the thousands of troops suffering from the “signature wounds” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton announced the decision to staffers at the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) on Monday, ProPublica is reporting. The center is at the crux of the military’s massive efforts in bolstering both psychological and brain injury-related diagnostics, treatment, prevention and research. Sutton was instrumental in creating the DCoE in 2007, and has held the top job ever since. The timing of her departure, which has yet to be publicly announced, is another indication of the armed forces’ messy, mismanaged mental health program.

restructr! – Keanu Reeves Is More Awesome Than You Think

Paul also told me that Keanu once explained to him why he was getting so many action roles. He had injured himself at some point and had fused vertebrae in his upper back or neck, so when he turned his head, his shoulders and chest tended to follow, because of his limited flexibility. “It makes me look dynamic, rather than disabled” was his explanation.

The Tyee – Canada Short Changes Mental Health

“There is a fundamental structural problem with the Canadian health care system,” former Senator Michael Kirby told a conference on Health of the Homeless today. “Mental health and addiction represent roughly 35 per cent of the disease burden in Canada, yet these illnesses receive only about 5 per cent of the resources,” said Kirby, who now chairs the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Kirby argued that this structural problem costs Canadian taxpayers dearly, and diverts treatment from other health care.

Sunshine Coast Daily – [Australia’s Sunshine] Coast Gets Funs Shot In Arm for Mental Health

MENTAL health services on the Sunshine Coast have received a $1.5 million shot in the arm. Queensland Disability Services Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland Health had identified the Sunshine Coast region as a priority area for mental health services. The funding will benefit two non-government organisations providing support to Coast residents recovering from mental illness.

Sydney Morning Herald – Call to Change Disability Bias of Migration Law

MICHELE NISINGIZWE breaks down when she speaks of her mother in Rwanda. The 28-year-old migrated to Australia with her sister seven years ago, fleeing genocide and rape. But the sisters, of mixed Hutu and Tutsi ethnicity, were unable to bring their mother because she had a disability. Gunshot wounds sustained in a civilian attack had maimed her legs. This week the federal government said it was overhauling migration laws that could refuse people on the grounds of a disability. Regulations caused a furore when they threatened to expel a German doctor, Bernhard Moeller, in 2008 because his son had Down syndrome. In the same year, a husband and wife working as renal nurses in Brisbane had to return to Britain because one of their four children had Down syndrome.

sasha_feather at access_fandom (DW): Institutionalized Access

So for disabled people, suddenly the world is a lot harder to navigate because it is not designed for people with disabilities. It is designed for the “default” or unmarked human. This is a practical concern but it also sucks because it is discrimination. But this does not have to be so!

We can institutionalize access and incorporate universal design into our lives and events even in small ways. Language, attitudes, blogging practices, choosing accessible venues, listening to people and prioritizing access.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times): Suicide is called 12th casualty of BP oil spill [trigger warning for discussion of suicide]

Tracy Kruse, 41, noticed that her sturdy husband had started to lose weight and was having trouble sleeping. He usually spent at least $30,000 outfitting his two boats for what he had thought would be a bountiful summer guiding his loyal clientele to the best fishing the rich gulf waters had to offer, said brother Marc Kruse, 52, who works for a corporate manufacturer in Mobile, Ala.

Two weeks ago, Kruse went to work for BP, turning his 50- and 40-foot boats, the Rookie and the Rookie II, into what the oil giant calls Vessels of Opportunity. He was never given a day off.

Judy Foreman (Los Angeles Times): Understanding restless legs syndrome

In recent years, the neurological condition has been linked to increased hypertension, stroke, erectile dysfunction, higher death rates from kidney disease, possibly Parkinson’s disease and fibromyalgia, and perhaps other problems as well. RLS affects 12 million Americans, according to a National Institutes of Health website, though some researchers think the prevalence is higher and some, lower.

Sady at Tiger Beatdown: Dirty Girls and Bad Feminists: A Few Thoughts on “I Love Dick”

I mean: This is basically how every terrible thing in the history of humanity has started, the decision that there’s an Us and a Them and the former is good and the latter is bad. Doing it in the name of lofty principles doesn’t mean you’re not doing it; it just means that when the problems — the self-falsification, the repression, the insistence on ideological purity rather than self-examination or originality or thought — creep up on you, you’re less likely to notice them and more likely to rationalize them. Because your aims really and truly are good.

spastigirl at dot_gimp_snark (LJ): Are You Having a Laugh? No, Not Much

It’s a shock to realise people may well look at me as an unjustified user of resources because I don’t have a physical accommodation (wheelchair, cane, crutches, service dog) to take with me everywhere. I always used to think people would assume the truth, that my disability doesn’t show much, but obviously there are beady little eyes everywhere ready to file me away as Not a Real Gimp.

Static Nonsense at I am Not – Exceptionally Creative [discussing the new study concluding that creativity and schizophrenia are related]

Awareness, be it of mental illness or physical disability, includes all of the effects, not just positive or negative. To ignore one in favor of the other strips the depth from the experience, and strains us not just individually, but as a whole. The experiences of an individual being erased doesn’t just harm them, but all of us because then the support and awareness that we all need to thrive are strained. And sometimes, they’re not offered at all.

Paja – Tangible Communication

We’re planning to create some ways of tactile communication, especially for people with impairments (physical or visual). For example, a squeeze on a stress ball generates a ‘Hello’ on a display to a person along with a tactile feedback on a glove, by way of inflation. The same principle can also be used the other way, where a typed mssage like ‘Hello’ inflates the respective Braille bubbles on a surface of the receiver.

Change Blog – Families [in the US] with Disabled Members Aren’t Raking It In

A new study published by the National Association of Social Workers shows that households that include an adult with a disability earn less per year and have a lower net worth than families without a disabled member. In studying more than 16,000 households, including more than 4,000 with a disabled adult, researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Social Work and the University of Haifa in Israel found that regardless of family structure (single parent, married, etc.), households with disabled members faced obstacles, including attaining suitable housing and accommodating employment, that kept them from earning at the same level as households that didn’t include a disabled member.

Square 8 – Executive Functioning Blues

I put the items into a list. I categorize the list: Work Stuff (my job), Other Work Stuff (things I have promised to do that are also work, but I don’t necessarily get paid for them), Home Stuff (chores and bills), and Phone. Phone goes at the top of the list, then the bottom. Get it over with? Put it off until I forget or find it doesn’t matter anymore? Or just move it around? Phone goes to second on the list. There are a number of items under Phone and this is a problem. If I get to the first item under Phone today, I’ll consider it a victory. I realize that one of the Phone calls will be of an automated nature. I make that one right away, but it doesn’t count. I highlight it anyway, but I know better. I toy with the idea of sorting the rest of Phone into the three other categories, according to what the call is about. No, Phone deserves its own place in the Purgatory of the list, third place out of four.

Partners in Health – Wheeling Around Haiti

With knobby mountain bike tires and a sturdy, specially designed steel frame, Whirlwind’s RoughRider wheelchairs enable its occupants to go where conventional wheelchairs cannot, wheeling over broken pavement, rocks, roots, mud, and ramp-less curbs that are common  throughout Haiti and other developing countries. In fact, the non-profit organization designed the vehicles in collaboration with wheelchair riders in over 20 developing nations. The resulting design is a winner, at least for Lelan. “When we first rolled the new RoughRider into her yard, she began clapping and said, ‘Thank you, thank you, now I can go to church,’” recounts Whirlwind’s Rachel Kishton. “She took to her chair quickly and was downright fearless while rolling around her patio. She quickly started figuring out how to move into and around her house.”

Sweet Perdition – The Right Kind

Somtimes I’m the right kind of person; other times, I’m not. There is “good” or “bad” behavior involved, no secret way to stay on the right side of personhood. There are only the whims of others; whether you line up with them or not, ultimately, has nothing to do with you. You can be privileged to be the right kind of person, sometimes, but it is no skill you possess, nothing you have done. The only thing you or I or anyone else can do is stop chopping people up into pieces, into kinds. And when we are the right kind of person, we can recognize our luck-our privilege-for what it is.

It’s really warm in Halifax. I wish I had a cool pool to slip in to….

Photo by dblackadder”, used under a Creative Commons License.

How To Fight Ableism: Some Easy Steps

On most of the vectors where I have privilege, if somebody could point me to real, concrete ways I could help with local, immediate effect — that is, not donating to charities, or writing letters to advertisers, or pointing out the prejudices of bloggers or television shows — I would like to think I’d love that information. So I thought it might be valuable to gather together some ways in which able-bodied people can do something about ableism in the world. Then, next time a person is feeling frustrated about ableism, and is thinking about doing some signal boosting of, say, some crappy thing the writers did on the latest episode of Glee, maybe that individual would have the option of committing to spending the same amount of time doing some more concrete fighting of ableism. Not that I’m critiquing the kind of signal boosting that a lot of us do on the blogosphere! But I’m assuming some people would find utility in hearing about other things they could do that might be useful.

Disability and the Curing Thereof

So. Something that struck me about the Cured Disability is that very often, it was framed as a sort of… reward. Or a gift. In some cases, something good character A was doing for character B, sometimes even without asking. And char B was of course OVERJOYED and had no problems with this at all, even when they’d had this disability for a very long time.

And that? Bothered me.

Possibly more than the actual curing itself.

Because, I’m realising, what I want to see is ambivalence, mixed feelings. If you’re going to go there, if you’re going to cure a character, I want to see them have to struggle with what that means for them afterwards. Because disability isn’t objectively always bad, and lack of disability isn’t objectively always good, especially when we’re talking about a character who has been disabled for a long time suddenly losing that. (In fact, this entire post is about people who have been disabled for a while – I’m not familiar with acquiring a new disability but I suspect the same issues wouldn’t apply.)

way simplified story in pictures: ADD/ADHD chemistry

Medication might be a costume, in that sense, something you put on and take off when it doesn’t fit anymore, or it might be something that — like wearing your favorite clothes under an overcoat — isn’t necessarily visible to anyone else but is part of the fundamental you. I think that balance of “is this simply a manner of ‘being'” or “is this ‘being’ in itself” is something we each have to deal with, on our own, but I disagree strongly with the idea that medication makes you not-you. It may alter you to the degree that friends do a double-take at first, but a split-second of not-recognizing doesn’t mean they don’t recognize you at all. It just means they were expecting a uniform on a day you’re wearing flip-flops. The you that’s the true you remains at the core.

However, I certainly don’t have all the answers. I doubt I even have a third of them. I only have what I’ve been through and the questions I’ve raised and tried to address, given that most of my life has consisted of not a single medication ever really working with any degree of success. In most cases, not even that much. Makes for a bitter reaction sometimes, if anyone thinks to compliment me for having the strength to make it through without “relying on drugs”. Really, I’d like to be able to rely on medication, I want to say; doing all the work myself leaves me feeling naked under that overcoat, to totally mix my analogies.

But all the same, what I’ve learned, I’ve learned, and what I’ve got is at your disposal. It’s up to you to pick and choose whatever may also help you in turn.

EHRC calls for disability hate crime evidence

Since then, the EHRC has been doing excellent work in its Formal Inquiry into disability-related harassment in Britain. On Monday, the Commission launched its request for evidence of how public bodies – such as councils, the police, transport operators, and schools – have dealt with issues relating to disability harassment.

If we are to address the issue of this continuing blight, we must understand the scale and scope of its current impact and how people respond to it. Thus, if you have any examples of disability-related harassment that you’re willing to share with the EHRC, or know of a local disabled people’s organisation who could help collate such examples, I urge you to get in touch with the Commission.

Study Blames Childhood Behavior Problems for Victimization to Abuse

Now, in the most recent issue of Child Maltreatment, I came across an interesting study. The study examines whether internalizing and/or externalizing behavior problems in children lead to increased victimization to sexual abuse, caregiver maltreatment, and peer abuse, independent of past victimization and adversity. The results are clear that mainly children with both internalizign and externalizing behaviors are at high risk of all three types of victimization. Elementary school children are especially vulnerable to bullying, while young adolescents are more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Children of all ages are extra vulnerable to caregiver maltreatment.

….

However, I have some problems with some of the language used in the article.

Trans Woman Delphine Ravisé-Giard’s breast size dictated by French civil court

Delphine Ravisé-Giard is a long-serving member of the French Air Force who transitioned in 2007. The Air Force has been respectful and reasonable about her shift in presentation, immediately reflecting her gender accurately and with apparently very little sturm und drang.

But in trying to transition legally, she is facing bigotry and ever-moving goalposts. The civil court handling her legal change is intimately policing her body and demanding that she get specific kinds of surgery. Originally, the court demanded that she get SRS. They have thankfully backed off that, but their new requirements? Not much better.

Vinux: Linux for the Visually Impaired.

Headlines:

U.S.: Blind Students Sue Law Schools Over Online Applications “Three blind students and an advocacy group have sued four California law schools, arguing that their online application system is not accessible to blind students.”

Switzerland: Disability Theme Park Divides Disabled “How easy is it to buy a bus ticket from a machine if you are mentally disabled? How hard is it to cross a busy street if you are visually impaired? The exhibition at the Paradrom is designed to answer such questions. Arndt Schafter is from the organisation which is developing the project.” [There’s a recording of some sort on the site, but I can’t hear it so I can’t tell you what it says. I think it’s the article itself.]

U.S.: Clustering of Group Homes Alarms Neighbours “Some Washington, DC residents are questioning how much is too much after learning that a single section of the city houses over 40 percent of its group homes for those with developmental disabilities.”

I am having difficulties accepting we are halfway through June.

[Via the gimpgirl community on LJ] Couple Exchange Vows in Central Park

When two partners who receive SSI benefits get married, Medicaid reduces those benefits to 75 percent of the total that both individuals received prior to marrying. As a result, many couples with disabilities, like gay and lesbian couples, seek domestic partnerships or live together without formalizing their commitments.

Activist Danny Roberts, who was unable to attend the ceremony, sent a recording of his opposition to the policy. On it, he told a story about meeting the woman he loves at the Empire State Building observatory at a protest.

“We allow ourselves to be demeaned into begging for what we need to live,” Roberts said about the receipt of Medicaid. “If we comply, we can’t marry the ones we love. It’s not illegal but it is essentially suicide.”

Books for the Blind, Not A Liberal or Conservative Issue

One week ago we at Planet of the Blind wrote a post decrying New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s budget plan calling for the elimination of the Garden State’s lending library for the blind. The so called “Talking Book” program (which is directed and administered by the United States Library of Congress) has been recording and distributing books for the blind since the great depression and they have done so with remarkable professionalism and devotion. Recorded books for blind and physically disabled readers are not your average commercial audio books. They are recorded and developed in ways that allow blind readers to access the same books you might read in your public library and in effect this service makes it possible for borrowers to read far more printed material than one might find in the audio books section of your local Barnes and Noble. Talking Books represent the nation’s library, and in a very real sense they represent our nation’s conscience.

Yet it was inevitable that we would receive a vituperative comment from a reader who identified himself as being conservative (for so we must presume given his disdain for “liberals” who, he argued, support government waste.)

More Detroit Disability Justice Happenings

They say 20,000+ social justice activists will be traveling to Detroit this week for the Allied Media Conference (17-20), US Social Forum (22-26), and the Hip Hop Congress Conference (26-28). A lot of communities are using this time to organize and people are coming in on every mode of transportation possible: bikes, buses, caravans, planes… It will be the first time (that I know of) that a large number of disability justice folks will be gathering together to be in community with each other, build shared politic, and strategize about how to incorporate this new framework into our lives and our work. It has taken a year of finding resources and planning to make the events below happen, hope you can join us!

Don’t Have Answers

The DSM and the ICD almost go out of their way to pathologise queer people, although there is no longer any diagnosis of Homosexuality. The DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10 do, however, pathologise trans identities (Gender Identity Disorder, Transsexualism, Dual-Role Transvestism) and asexuality (terminology varies considerably). They also pathologise a number of consenting sexual practices like fetishism, BDSM, making “obscene” telephone calls. And, because there wasn’t enough heteronormative fail already, they also pathologise anxiety due to not knowing if you’re gay or straight (Sexual Maturation Disorder), and having non-long-term relationships (Sexual Relationship Disorder). Notably, there is no disorder of Being An Unmitigated Heterosexist Shit Disorder, so we can safely conclude that heteronormativity is a factor here.

For some time, there has been a campaign to have Gender Identity Disorder (GID) removed from the DSM-V.

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I am terrified of that moment. As most people I know are. I know women that haven’t ever gotten a pap smear, ever once in their entire lives, because of that moment. This is not an unusual terror.

Now that “health care” is going to be available to more of us…I can’t help but wonder. How many of us won’t go to the doctor any damn way–because the doctor and “help” and “health” is predicated on terror? Or a type of test taking? You take the test and you pass! Or, you take the test and you die!

Shiyiya brought my attention to We Are Enabled By Design at the Design Museum in London, UK.

“We are Enabled by Design” is a one day event, looking to reframe the ageing and disability debate by focusing on Design for All.

We believe the world is made up of people who have a range of abilities, with each person having their own personal strengths and qualities. We are passionate about harnessing these strengths to empower people to live as independently as possible. Design for All taps into this by focusing on meeting the needs of as many people as possible, to make either a product or service accessible. By mainstreaming accessibility, this can help to remove any stigma attached, while making people’s lives that bit easier and in turn more manageable. For us, Design for All means accessibility for the masses.

Headlines:

Complaint Box: Assumptions “Maneuvering through New York City as a person with cerebral palsy can be a constant irritation. Just making my way down subway stairs at rush hour, with people breathing down my neck, is holy terror. But it is not the physical strain of steps and crowds that is my main source of anxiety. It is the naïve, inappropriate and sometimes downright mean comments that people make.”

Textbook describing Down Syndrome as “Error” triggers debate “Books used by seventh graders in Bridgewater, Mass. schools describe Down syndrome by saying “the extra chromosome is the result of an error during meiosis.” The section on the chromosomal disorder also uses the term “mental retardation.””

Reminder: We have a Delicious account! If you tag entries “disfem” or “disfeminists”, or “for:feminists”, this will bring items of interest to our attention. Thank you!