Throwback Thursday

One year ago in Disability Thinking: About Photos.

My feelings about posting photos of disabled people had already changed this time last year, and it's now hard for me to believe that I really did used to scour the disability sites for random photos of disabled people to post. I always paid attention to the sources, and provided links back to originals, so I'm not too embarrassed about copyright or consent issues. What seems strange to me now is that I was so tickled or buoyed by seeing and sharing pictures of disabled people. I was just starting to dig into Inspiration Porn at the time, too, and I think I saw some troubling connections, but now it seems obvious that it all relates to a need for external validation, and to a barely examined, hidden well of self-loathing. Maybe it's a phase we all go through, learning to feel good about our appearance. Eventually, awesome pictures of disabled people lose some of their awesomeness, and become just plain pictures.

But just because I've moved on, doesn't mean cool disability photos aren't important to others. And everyday life photos by disabled people, including selfies, seem to me to serve a different purpose ... more like self-expression, less like heavy-handed propaganda for some entry-level version of "disability awareness."

Two years ago in Disability Thinking: Shopping While Disabled.

Inaccessible businesses isn't just an issue that won't go away, it's an issue that never really seems to move into a new or more advanced phase of progress. Each new business that is accessible is a marker of progress, of course. But the fundamental facts of the battle haven't changed since the ADA passed in 1990, at least here in the US. Are any revolutionary ideas out there in the disability community that might help us take a significant leap towards full accessibility?