Monthly Reading List - February 2018

Five disability-related items I read in February, 2018:

'Our Lives Are at Stake.' How Donald Trump Inadvertently Sparked a New Disability Rights Movement
Abigail Abrams, Time Magazine - February 26, 2018

This is a sharp and unusually thorough overview of current disability activism. I’m not just saying that because I am in the article. Okay, a little bit because I’m named in the article. But it is the kind of article I would give a newcomer to disability rights, to give them a broad overview.

Being Disabled Is A Job
BeingCharis, June 14, 2017

The title alone is worth recognition. The blog post itself makes a great case for adjusting how we think about disability, work, social value, and money.

1st day of having a home health aide
Adventures In The Mandatory Smoothie Cleanse - February 25, 2018

The blogger is an online friend of mine. Her recent posts reflect the mixed feelings disabled people often have when they start using home care for the first time. It’s one of those times when we are confronted by the apparent contradiction between our can-do rhetoric and the reality that independence often means something slightly different for us than it does for other people, or than it used to mean for ourselves.

Why Black Disability History Matters
Vilissa Thompson, LMSW, Ramp Your Voice - February 27, 2018

February was Black History Month. As a white disabled person, I feel like any explanations I attempt, as to why conversations about race and black history belong in disability rights, are going to be either simplistic or overly intellectualized, and possibly wrong to boot. This feels like a much better, more authentic explanation that's both accessible and right.

What the Neurodiversity Movement Does—And Doesn't—Offer
Emily Paige Ballou, Thinking Person’s Guide To Autism - February 6, 2018

I find the "autism wars" between different understandings of autism are incredibly exhausting. Which is saying something since I am neither autistic myself nor do I have a close relative with autism. Imagine how it is for autistic people and, I suppose, their families too. This article goes a long way towards dismantling a lot of the heated rhetoric that tends to obscure the fact that "neurodiversity" is much more than a fringe theory, but is a valid ... possibly the most valid ... way of understanding autism.