Monthly Disability Reading List - September 2019

Three things about disability I read last month …

No, Bringing Back Mental Institutions Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
Maggie Koerth-Baker, FiveThirtyEight - August 27, 2019

It’s always helpful to review the hard data disproving the connection between violence and mental illness. So many people think it’s just common sense, but it just isn’t.

Do All Disabled People Think The Same?
Jubilee, YouTube - September 1, 2019

The answer is “Of course not!” but it’s fun to see it dramatized by real disabled people in fun exercise.

Marca Bristo, Influential Advocate for the Disabled, Dies at 66
Glenn Rifkin, The New York Times - September 8, 2019

When I was starting out working at a Center for Independent Living, just starting to learn about the Disability Rights Movement, Marca Bristo was one of the first names I learned, and the first personal story I heard about.

Banana slicers and pre-peeled oranges: “useless” products can help people with disabilities
s. e. smith, Vox.com - September 20, 2019

One of the most useless stages almost every disabled person goes through is judging ourselves lazy for using even the simplest conveniences, helpers, and shortcuts to make our lives easier. It’s so wrongheaded, so wasteful, and so, so common. But it doesn’t come naturally. We learn it from the blithely judgmental attitudes of the society around us.

Will You Still Love Pete, tomorrow …
Rebecca Cokley, Medium - September 23, 2019

I have watched a lot of reaction videos where YouTubers watch and react to “Game Of Thrones.” They all love Tyrion. Most reactors’ admiration for the character, and for Peter Dinklage, seems deep and nuanced, and neither condescending nor sentimental. So I am cautiously optimistic that Dinklage and his character Tyrion really have broken some ground that won’t be covered up again.