Weekly Reading List

It felt like a back to basics week ...

Ableism on the Left
kpagination, Paginated Thoughts - August 13, 2016

Liberals and disability rights: Why don't they 'get it'?
Mary Johnson, Ragged Edge Magazine - January 26, 2004

It’s possible to overstate the idea that progressive movements don’t understand or respect disability rights. It can often seem like there’s not much difference between the Left and the Right on disability issues. That’s not true. There are fundamentals in play that make the Left a more logical home for disability activism. But that’s exactly the reason why it’s so perplexing and vexing that it isn’t a better home than it is. These two articles … one brand new and one two-part older piece … give a valuable overview on what the problems are, and why disability activists sometimes spend more time complaining about the Left than the Right.

Disabled woman turned away from disability assessment centre because she couldn’t use stairs
Harry Cockburn, Independent - August 12, 2016

This sounds like a made-up parody of ableism and accessibility problems. It’s not a parody. It’s real, and fairly common, if not typical. There’s a reason why people still use the phrase “Kafkaesque.”

This woman was thrown out of a Brighton pub ‘for being disabled’
Miranda deLarbi, Metro.uk - August 10, 2016

Ableism is as much about deep-seated dislike of “weird people” as it is about bureaucratic neglect of physical accessibility. Most disabled people are “weird” in some way, and people feel justified in excluding is for that reason, even when they agree that deliberate disability discrimination is wrong.

On Vulnerability as a Disabled Person
Carrie, Autostradale - August 8, 2016

I relate to so much about this. Internalized ableism is strong. Becoming aware of it and dismantling it is powerful.

Personal Responsibility
Mike Ervin, Smart Ass Cripple - August 10, 2016

Haven’t we all fantasized about taking accessibility into our own hands … doing a little vigilante access modification? I certainly have, but I never thought about connecting this implausible but delightful thought with the fundamentally conservative idea of “personal responsibility.” As usual, Smart Ass Cripple crafts a hilarious “bit” out of a profound truth.