By Sasha Feather on 28 December, 2010
The song “Wonder” by Natalie Merchant is one of my favorite songs. I regard it as a disability anthem. Here is the music video of the song in which the singer and many women and girls sing along to the music. The women and girls are a variety of ages, body types, and races. At least one of the people in the video has Down Syndrome. I love everything about this song. It is joyful, it centers the narrative on the disabled girl/woman’s experience, and it pokes back at the abled people–doctors and journalists– who are so fascinated by her.
Posted in introspective, media and pop culture, Videos
By Anna on 27 December, 2010
Dale Mitchell, Ethos Executive Director. He looks to me like he’s a white man in his 40s.: We’ve heard about homemakers going in, taking out a bible and having the elder pray, and asking for forgiveness.
Lisa Krinsky. She’s a white woman in an office surrounded by files, and works for LGBT Aging Project,: And to be cured. It’s not too late for you to be cured of this. They go back in the closet. She might misstreat me or abuse me.
Posted in age, disability activism, gender, intersectionality, life changes, relationships, sexuality, social attitudes, Videos | Tagged aging, documentary, Gen Silent, LGBT, transcript
By Anna on 23 December, 2010
I don’t have a t.v. at home so I don’t actually watch a lot of advertisements, but when I do, there’s one thing I notice: Unlike the rest of my life, advertisements only include people with evident disabilities when they want to make some sort of point.
I’m really bothered by this. I know, I know, it’s advertising. We also don’t get excited about brighter brights in our laundry and aren’t followed around by wind machines when we get new shampoo. It’s certainly not supposed to represent “real life” in any way, because it’s all fantasy to sell you stuff. But part of what advertising sells us is ideas about people. And part of what I think it sells us is that disability is a punishment, a novelty, a metaphor, or a joke.
Posted in gender, invisibility, media and pop culture, representations, television, Videos | Tagged advertisements, advertising, disability, self esteem
By Anna on 14 December, 2010
Interviewer: There’s a suggestion that you were rolling towards the police in your wheelchair. Is that true?
JM: I think justifying a police officer pulling a disabled person out of a wheelchair and dragging them across a concrete road is quite ridiculous and I’m surprised that you’ve just tried to do so.
Interview: So that’s not true, you were not wheeling yourself towards the police.
JM: Well I can’t physically use my wheelchair myself. My brother was pushing me. I think it’s quite obvious from the footage that I was 100% not a threat to anyone.
Posted in activism, blaming, media and pop culture, news, resistance, Videos, violence | Tagged budget cuts, cuts, jody mcintyre, police violence, transcript, tuition increase, UK
By s.e. smith on 12 December, 2010
Here is something you may not know about me: I enjoy hang gliding and paragliding. There are few things in this world I love quite as much as jumping off a mountain. It’s an experience that’s kind of hard to explain to people who haven’t done it, most of whom look at me highly askance [...]
Posted in Videos | Tagged disabled sports, para-paragliding, paragliding, wheelchair users
By Anna on 15 October, 2010
I think it will help immensely because I get to do other things. There’s a whole world of possibilities that I haven’t even tried that I’m willing to try. Work in OMNI, maybe help the staff with stuff like scheduling and I’ll be more independent and just … just do more things, like… like… go for a walk on the sea wall, or with one of my workers, or just, you know, experience new things.
Posted in Videos | Tagged assistive technology, autobiography, Equipment and Assistive Technology Initiative, Vancouver, wheelchairs
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