Reminder! Helen Keller Mythbusting Blogswarm!

Adoption, Race, Disability and the Vaule of People

You see, my parents got a discount on my adoption for two reasons. The first one was that I am black. Black babies weren’t as popular in 1990, so I was in foster care for a while. The other reason they got a discount was due to the fact that I was supposed to be intellectually challenged, and had a few physical issues. Not being a white, healthy infant lowered my price.

I think this says something interesting about whose bodies we value. We don’t value black bodies or disabled bodies. Thus, in order to encourage potential adoptive parent to look at children like me involved lowering my adoption fees, my cost. This feels wrong. I will say that my parents didn’t put any preference for race on their application and there were only a few disabilities they didn’t feel able to handle.

In Which Everything Takes Rather Longer Than I Thought

How this fails to work in Open Source is that Open Source is a community. A reputation economy, as the nerds are so fond of talking about, but also a group of likeminded people who chat and bond and stuff. You know what they bond over, in large part? Women’s bodies. Tits, how much they like them. Bitches and how crazy they are. You know, locker room stuff. Guy culture. The sort of male homosocial bonding that is how guys grease the social gears (in the US, anyway). You know something? People with tits can’t be a part of that conversation! Because they are being talked ABOUT. They are not the ones doing the talking! They are the thing that is being used to prove how well we all get along. This is where women have to decide whether or not they want to try to be “one of the guys” too. Some groups are gracious enough to let their token female do that, as long as she is willing to join in the girl-bashing. Some groups are not that gracious but are still kind enough to let their token female become the hackysack in the girl-bashing party. They’re willing to let her demonstrate her loyalty to the group by putting up with being kicked around! It’s very nice of them. But should she ever try to say that This Shit! It is Not Okay! Well then she is a killjoy, a frigid bitch, ruining everyone’s fun, girls have no SENSE OF HUMOR and guys are SO PUT UPON and ZOMG PC POLICE!!1! What is this world COMING TO when no one can have a FRIENDLY CONVERSATION without someone telling them they are offending puppies or something!

Are you a crip and/or someone with a chronic illness that is going to be in Detroit this summer for the Allied Media Conference and/or the US Social Forum?

We know that for many of us, access is on our minds when it comes to traveling, navigating the city, movement spaces, buildings, sidewalks, public transportation, rides, the air, the bathrooms, the places to stay, the pace, the language,the cost, the crowds, the doors, the people who will be there and so so so much more.

Would you like to be connected to a network of crips and our allies/comrades who are working together to create collective access?

Fact is a feminist issue

When reading a lot of scientific dissection of bad science, I’d get outraged but I’d also want to go further – WHY are these stories being written in the way they are? Why is so much scientific reporting in the mainstream press so piss-poor? A lot of the above writers list deadline-pressures, budget-slashes at national newspapers, lack of specialist journalists etc. But as journalists churn out health and science stories under undeniable pressure, they are all too often also resorting to and replicating tired and lazy stereotypes.

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Feminist Critique

Borderline Personality Disorder – a feminist critique
By Anji Capes | 11 June 2010, 14:32

Among my many diagnoses, I have what is known in the UK as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (Of The Borderline Type), known elsewhere as Borderline Personality Disorder. BPD is described by Wikipedia as “a prolonged disturbance of personality function … characterized by depth and variability of moods.” It manifests in many ways, including rapid cycling mood swings, ‘self-destructive behaviour’, black and white thinking, disassociation and extreme fear of abandonment.

BPD is a serious mental illness and is difficult to diagnose. Unfortunately it is also well-known as being used by psychiatrists and mental health professionals as a way of labelling ‘difficult’ or ‘problem’ patients – I know at least one woman who was threatened with a diagnosis of BPD by a mental health professional because she wouldn’t do as she was told.

Three-quarters of patients diagnosed with BPD are female. I’ve spent some time since my diagnosis wondering why that is, when one would expect the split to be roughly 50/50.

Marches & Training in Sweden

The March for accessibility was conducted in Sweden on Saturday 29 May 2010. Despite bad luck with the weather, almost 3,000 people joined the marches at 31 locations around the country.

Only a few days after the march, the ministry of Integration and Gender Equality announced a proposal that the Swedish discrimination act should include a new provision prohibiting discrimination in the form of lack of accessibility for persons with disabilities. The act is proposed to take effect in 2012. But first, all concerned should have the opportunity to have their say.

European Surf Week For Persons with a Disability, Belgium

There are still some places available for European surf week from 22-28 of August in Willebroek, Belgium. The event is held by the Belgian organisation Recreas and personal assistants are welcome so that you can learn to surf with your personal assistant.

Double Dare

If I could, I would dare them too look in her eyes. There is hurt there. Deep, deep hurt. I would challenge them to look deep in those eyes, oh trust me, I would if I could.

She is reaching out from behind others. Her staff has stopped to speak to me, thank me for my lecture. I had just spoken about the teasing and bullying of people with disabilities. About the pain that that damn word ‘ret@rd’ causes. About the need for people with disabilities to have skills to understand teasing and the need for us all to rise in protest at the use of hateful words used with the intention of hurt.

Headlines:
US: Boy with special needs misses graduation ceremony because of clothing “The Vance County mother of an 11-year-old boy with special needs says her son was forced to miss his fifth-grade graduation because of the clothes he was wearing.”

Canada: CNIB Pondering Human Rights Complaint Over Transit Service “Duncan Williams of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind says his organization has been working with transit officials to improve service for partially sighted or blind riders.” [Halifax, NS]

African Doctor Fights Eye Disease “The physician who leads a Calgary charity’s work in Africa hopes to open the public’s eyes to a nasty, but treatable, disease that’s stealing the eyesight of millions of people in the developing world.”

Photo by Grant Neufeld, used under a Creative Commons License.

Disability Disclosure Online

We have all heard stories about people who have lost their jobs because of pictures that surfaced on the Internet that show their after-hours behavior. A similar, but unfortunate tale is the one of the individual with a disability who is denied employment or resources because of someone’s assumption about that person’s disability which they uncovered on the Internet. Though this is not always the case, it illustrates how imperative it is for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, to decide what, when and how they disclose. You have to be aware of everything you say and do on the Internet. Here are some general guidelines that are important for all online users, including people with disabilities, to keep in mind.

Via @disability on twitter: Interview with Brock Waidmann

Many in the disability community have been calling for Hollywood producers to cast real people with real disabilities in roles where the disability has little or nothing to do with the plot. The people behind the Paul Reiser Show, a series which will soon be broadcast on NBC, will apparently do just that. Twelve year old Brock Waidmann has been cast in the role of Zeke, one of Paul Reiser’s two sons on the show. This interview with Brock Waidmann took place by email over a couple of weeks in June 2010. This is Brock’s first ever interview.

Light Headed, weak-kneed: Both the Man and the Ban

This is why today, Good As You is participating in a blogswarm with AMERICABlog, AKAWilliam.com, Bilerico Project, Blabbeando, Change.org, DailyKos, David Badash, Firedoglake-The Seminal, Joe Mirabella, LGBTPOV, Mike Signorile, OpenLeft and Rod 2.0. We, as a coalition, are asking you to submit public comment in support of revising the discriminatory and medically unwarranted FDA lifetime ban on blood donations from any man who’s had sex with another man (MSM) since the time when the first Star Wars was on the big screen (1977).

What I just told someone who didn’t match current autism stereotypes.

Kanner saw a bunch of people and grouped them together. He observed some things about them. Some of the observations were accurate. Some were more conclusions than true observations. Then he came to conclusions based on both types of observations. Many of his conclusions were false. (Note: Most of Kanner’s patients would today have a high chance of being diagnosed as AS and all but maybe one or two fit at least one definition of high functioning. Several went on to college. There are many modern myths about who these people were.)

The next person came along and put more people into the category of autistic. These people included people who appeared like Kanners patients appeared, people who were like Kanners patients were, people who appeared like Kanners conclusions, and people who were like Kanners conclusions.

US State Dept announces new passport rules for transgender people

“Sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance,” [the State Department] said in a statement.

From June 10, “when a passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will reflect the new gender,” the statement said.

Law Enforcement Braces For Wave Of Autistic Young Adults [I’m really struggling with this article. It’s an investigative piece about law enforcement and both tasering and shooting of autistics. It tries to balance a few different viewpoints. I’m not sure it does that in a way that’s necessarily effective. There’s reference to “waves” of autistics, and a sense of emergency about this. I don’t want people to go into the article unaware that that is there.]

Indeed, individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism encounter the police on less than ideal terms far more often than does the general population. They are about seven times more likely than others to have “contact” with law enforcement, autism expert Dennis Debbaudt, the author of Autism, Advocates and Law Enforcement Professionals, and Dr. Darla Rothman wrote way back in April 2001, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.

[Related: Tybee Police ‘apologetic’ for Tasing autistic teen]

Two Years: Reflecting

So many of these conditions need more awareness! So many are poorly understood and under-researched/under-funded. So many involve patients whose experiences are not validated by our society or even their own loved ones (especially true for the “invisible illnesses”). Many patients are accused of exaggerating or of having “psychosomatic” illnesses. I struggle with how to give fair time to each of these illnesses. Which way should I turn? Which illness is facing the most pressing issues? Which illness is having an awareness day/week/month? How can I best help the causes that are dear to me? What is the most efficient use of my time?

Where should I go next when there is so much to do?

Headlines:

New Zealand: Autism a learning preference, not a disability “New Zealand schools should view autism as a learning preference, rather than a difficulty or disability, says UK educationalist Neil Mackay.”

“Automatically labeling autistic students as disabled, rather than recognising and responding to their unique and preferred ways of learning is not only limiting but also damaging. Placing a focus on preference rather than disability enshrines the right to be autistic.”

China: Foxconn to up wages again at suicide-hit China plant

A total of 10 workers have committed suicide at the company’s base in Longhua, southern China this year. They were all young migrant workers, among the millions of people who leave the poor hinterlands of China for the boom towns of the south and east coastal areas.

Another worker died late in May from what his family said was overwork, a claim the company denied.

The string of deaths have focused attention on working conditions in a region experiencing growing labor unrest and have triggered investigations by Apple and other big Foxconn clients, including Dell Inc.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs called recent suicides at the plant troubling but said last week the site was not a sweatshop.

Canada: Restraint technique led to Hyde’s death: lawyer. “The death of a mentally ill Nova Scotia man who fell unconscious after struggling with jail guards was the result of a dangerous restraint technique that stopped his breathing, a lawyer for the man’s family told an inquiry Wednesday.”

Namibia: Are Namibian Women Being Forcibly Sterilised?* “A landmark court case, alleging that HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilised in Namibian state hospitals begins in Windhoek’s High Court on Jun. 1. Human rights groups claim the practice has continued long after the authorities were notified.” [Via bonesarecoralmade]

US: Douglas signs guide dog bill “Gov. James Douglas has signed a bill into law that increases civil and criminal penalties for those whose pets attack guide dogs for the blind.”> [Via Service Dogs: A Way Of Life]

Photo by Justin A. Wilcox, used under a Creative Commons License.

[Redacted]

Trigger warning.

I have [redacted]. I am a clinically depressed woman who doesn’t always take her antidepressants or go to the doctor when scheduled or do what she’s supposed to, and I have [redacted]. [Redacted] is one of those things where, if you have it, (according to the local prescriptivists) you need to see a doctor and stay on antidepressants and take care of yourself so that [redacted] doesn’t become [even more redacted]. I’ve heard arguments about [redacted], saying that people with depression coinciding with [redacted] don’t have any rights to their autonomy any longer, that they have, just by having [redacted] have turned in their bodies as forfeit to whomever is deemed as having medical authority over themselves. We are no longer autonomous, because people just don’t trust those with [redacted] to not [even more redacted].

Poverty, Worklessness… and the #DLA

But the report then doesn’t note the factors which lead to these institutional barriers: it appears good enough to note 24% of disabled people have no formal qualifications or that over half are not in work and offer no reasons for this. The effect is to create a suspicion whichs fall on disabled people as not trying hard enough to gain a qualification or get a job – something it is convenient not to correct in order to maintain the overall narrative.

(Similarly, pupils with Special Educational Needs face some of the most significant barriers to educational achievement it is possible to face. However, the only mention of pupils with SEN in the report (in the educational disadvantage section) is to note that 9.2% of pupils with SEN are ‘persistent absentees’, compared with 2.1% of pupils with no SEN.)

Thus, if you want to build a narrative, it is perfectly possible to do so. Taking this approach, at best, the report draws the wrong conclusions based on the evidence available; at worst, it is willfully ignorant.

Audio Tours of Popular UK Destinations Presented By RNIB

On my trips in the past I have participated in guided tours. Some have been better than others, but I think that having a tour with the blind in mind would be the best. There are a lot of visual cues that tour guides rely on. Also, by having the tour be self guided, blind and sighted patrons can take as much time as they need.

Queer Tropes

As many of you know, June is the month of LGBTQ Pride and I couldn’t think of a better time to call out a few tropes that inundate comics and media when it comes LGBTQ characters/themes.

Tropes that if I never see again for the rest of my existence, I’d be eternally grateful.

While this by no means covers every trope/issue/fail, it definitely hits the major ones.

Take thorough notes, I’m gonna move fast, and this will not be pretty.

Too Deaf For The Gym?!

They replied that they needed confirmation from my doctor that as a deaf person it was safe for me to exercise.

I felt annoyed, mildly insulted, and completely inconvenienced, as this means asking one of my friends to call my doctor to request a note, as funnily enough I can’t do this myself.

Victory for Transgender People in Wisconsin Prisons

Prison doctors in Wisconsin, as in some other state prison systems, have for some time provided hormone therapy for some transgender prisoners, since hormones are part of the accepted medical treatment for many transgender people. Back in 2005, after the Wisconsin legislature got wind of this practice, it passed the “Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act,” which barred state prisons from providing hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery to transgender prisoners. The new law over-rode the medical judgment of prison doctors and cut off hormone treatment. The ACLU, in partnership with Lambda Legal, sued immediately, securing a preliminary ruling that any prisoners already on hormone therapy could continue their treatments. Senior Staff Attorney John Knight, along with ACLU of Wisconsin Legal Director Larry Dupuis and lawyers from Lambda Legal, tried the case in the fall of 2007.

It took a few years to get a decision, but it was worth the wait.

Recommended

Even more curious is the immediate slippage from nobility to “legal incompetence” and “mental institution.” Don’t know what to make of that. Some thoughts. You can be declared “legally incompetent” and not be “confined.” I cannot believe that having spent some time in a residential care facility invalidates (deliberately used) your capacity to be and value as a citizen. And if it doesn’t, why does immigration need to know? USCIS doesn’t ask about all medical conditions requiring residential care…. And what of “legal incompetence?” I have no idea what the implications of this are for immigration. I know a little bit about what it entails in the area of family law and medical self-determination, but immigration? Beats me. Suppose, however, that the answer is yes. That you were declared “legally incompetent” midway through the application process and that at the time of interview, your status was not determinable and that you might never be able to affirm your desire to become a US citizen. Does that invalidate your application? How much does being able to communicate that you still wish to become a citizen affect your application, if, say, you would qualify on all other grounds?

Hugging Problems

Recently I was thinking about hugging and remembering what physical affection was like at the ASD school where I interned last summer.

I remember the last day I was there I asked my favorite kid, R.D., if I could hug him. He said yes, but when I put my arms around him he didn’t put his arms around me. I remember that this was something I did at his age, and it was because I saw hugs as an opportunity to get my whole body squeezed tightly. But I also wonder if, given the culture of the school, R.D. felt that he had the right to say he didn’t want to hug.

Headlines:

UK: Dangerous Psychiatric Patients tracked with GPS: Potentially dangerous psychiatric patients are being fitted with GPS tracking devices to prevent them absconding on day leave.

US: Removing ‘Retardation’ from New York State Agency: For the second time in a year, New York legislators are considering changing the name of one of the only state agencies in the country with “retardation” still in its title.
See Also: Push To Eliminate ‘Mental Retardation’ Contentious In Holdout State

New Zealand: Auckland’s newest all-access playground opens: This unique playground features an inclusive, all-access play space that is accessible to children of varying abilities, including disabled children.

Description: Bright yellow button: Disabled People Want Jobs! Employment Equity Now!

PSA: Opt-Out Required to Prevent Your Yahoo! Mail Contacts From Being Used for Social Network

Earlier this week, Yahoo! announced a plan to try to leverage its Yahoo! Mail users’ contacts into a social network of friends who will receive your Yahoo! Updates. Once the most visited website in the world, Yahoo! now ranks fourth worldwide, reaching about a quarter of all Internet users each day. Like Google Buzz’s ill-fated launch using Gmail contacts, Yahoo! wants to jump start its social networking plans with the hundreds of millions of people who already use its email and messenger services.

While Yahoo! made some effort to avoid the worst aspects of the Facebook and Google Buzz privacy controversies, ultimately the plan conflicts with two principles of the EFF Bill of Privacy Rights for social network users. The program will begin a roll out next week, and Yahoo! users need to opt out if they do not wish to participate.

Prayer will not cure my blindness

In the last two months I have been approached not once, but twice by young men who want to cure my blindness by praying for me. I must first tell you that as a non-believer, this made me very uncomfortable. To be nice I allowed the prayers to take place. Both times the young man was surprised that my blindness had not been miraculously cured.

Princess in the City [Please note comment rules before commenting at Seeking Avalon]

And just as I was beginning to understand the level of boredom and lack of focus that might lead individuals to think getting drunk is an amazing idea – It occurred to me, that Sex and the City is a 21st century fairytale.

To be specific, a 21st Century Fairy Tale for white, cis, het, currently able bodied western, North American, Christian leaning/familiar women.

Should disability be funny?

Should we laugh at disability? I’d like to make myself clear… I believe teasing, taunting and mean spirited gestures have NO place in our world. But is there such thing as “good clean funny”? Sarah Palin was outraged at Family Guy when the character Chris dated a girl with Down Syndrome, but Andrea Friedman, the actress who voiced the girl has Down Syndrome herself and is an advocate for people with disabilities. Friedman said herself she felt a good sense of humor is healthy and that she positively portrayed a person with a disability.

You can’t come in if you are a wheelchair user!

We parked up and had a look about and decide on somewhere to eat, I couldnt find a dropped curb so my OH and the lad went in first and were being show to a table and the chairs were being pulled out for them by a waiter when I entered, the manager told me I couldnt go in because they didnt have room for wheelchairs but Im welcome to sit outside!

I ask him why I couldnt go in, we dont allow wheelchairs he said, I asked why again, we dont have much room , I asked if he knew that was illegal and he said so what and I lost my temper after about 5 minutes of disableist insults, he said my Oh and lad were welcome but unless I could walk to the table I wasnt and either I sat outside or we all do we wernt welcome.

Headlines:

US: L.A. Unified to shutter 200 classes, campus for disabled students: The schoolchildren will be transferred to other classes, sometimes meaning longer commutes to other schools. It’s part of the beleaguered district’s attempts to deal with a $640-million deficit.

The Philippines: DepEd laments failure of House to ratify Special Education Act The Department of Education (DepEd) expressed its disappointment on Saturday after the House of Representatives failed to ratify the Special Education Act of 2010 due to lack of quorum during its last day of session last Friday.

Canada: Margaret Trudeau open about disorders Margaret Trudeau does not seem like someone who suffers from bipolar disorder, as she jokes candidly about dinners at 24 Sussex Dr., and speaks openly about meeting Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and their life together.

US: E.C. Glass Graduating Senior Sees Past Her Disability Yes, this article is as bad as you think it is. The witty pun is totally because she is blind, and it’s so amazing that a blind person is graduating from high school. But I include it because people don’t really seem to think these articles exist.