Let’s Make A Deal

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Icon of 3-D stick figures, one red, one blue, shaking hands over a conference table
The #StopAbleism2015 hashtag got me thinking. What would a workable end to ableism entail?

For most of my adult life, I think I have had in mind some kind of deal, a social contract between disabled people and the rest of society. Something like:

We (disabled people) agree that the rest of you (mostly non-disabled people) don't have to know about our specific disabilities, anticipate our accommodation needs, or understand how we feel about being disabled. In other words, you are all off the hook from having “disability awareness". We’ll even forgive the stupid things you sometimes say about disability, as long as it's clear you're not being intentionally mean or provocative.

In return, we expect that our communities and everyday routines will be accessible to people with all kinds of disabilities. Simply following established accessibility standards and adopting a few basic customer service strategies would be a great start. It doesn't require much special knowledge or training … and we’re happy to help you figure it out if you have questions. These things should happen pretty quickly, without constant prompting or advocacy from us.

For the stuff we don't expect you to anticipate … needs that are very specific to each of us and our unique disabilities … all we ask is that you remain open-minded and flexible. We will tell you what we need and what works for us. All you have to do is listen and do what we ask, within reason, safety, and your own abilities.

To put it more simply:

We won't expect you to know and understand everything about everyone’s disability, and we won’t hold you responsible for perfect social behavior at all times.

We do expect you to do all that you can do to accommodate us, with tools and techniques that are widely and easily available. We also expect you to listen to us and use us as guides on how to treat us.

This "deal" is based on a fairly simple premise:

Access > Awareness

How does that sound?

Weekly Wrap-Up

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Illustration of a weekly calendar with a red pin
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Monday, December 29, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015

#StopAbleism2015

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3-D blue hashtag symbol
Next week I plan to start a series of post intended to repeat then answer Frequently Asked Questions I have heard from people curious about Disability Culture and Disability Rights. I have heard them mostly from non-disabled people, but from plenty of disabled people, too. I hope that over time, these collected FAQs will serve as a partial introduction to disability for the uninitiated.

Another way to learn about disability from the disabled person's perspective is to get on Twitter and browse some disability-related hashtags. Right now, there's a really great one going on ... #StopAbleism2015.

Like most hashtags, the quality and relevance varies. Some restate familiar themes, often really well. Others may seem extremely specific and / or obscure. On the other hand, one of the most important things for newbies to learn about disability in society is that the subject is extremely broad, and properly inclusive of things you might not think relate to disability at all.

#StopAbleism2015 ... have a look!

Addendum: @SFdirewolf has complied a Storify collection of the #StopAbleism2015 hashtag. Check it out if you have limited time, or don't use Twitter.

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What’s Gonna Happen In 2015?

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2015 in red 3-D numbers
In answer to yesterday’s New Year’s Day question … Here are five things I think might happen in 2015. Because I don’t really know how each of them will unfold, they are questions rather than predictions:

1. What will Congress do to shore up Social Security Disability funding? Can we possibly hope to see new funding allocated without another round of panicky stories about how SSDI is full of fraud and “out of control”?

2. Will The ABLE Act get a real, robust test, with lots of diverse families and disabled people opening accounts and using them for a wide variety of purposes? Or, will it be used mainly by wealthier families as a slight improvement on Supplemental Needs Trusts?

3. Will we see a major shift in public opinion against Sheltered Workshops, a backlash in defense of them, or will this issue remain a debate taking place mostly within the disability community?

4. What will happen to home care in the United States when the new overtime rules go into effect? Will it improve things for both workers and the people they serve? Or, will states and agencies just respond by cutting hours of service, harming disabled people and their home care aides?

5. Will the general public start to view the murder of disabled kids at the hands of “stressed” parents in a different light? Or, will these incidents still be discussed mostly as sad stories of parents frightened by the future and unable to get the “support” they say they need?

You can probably tell how I hope these things pan out. But, while I tend to be pessimistic, I really don’t know what will happen. Maybe nothing will happen at all. Maybe things will turn out for the worse on all of these issues. But maybe, against odds, some good will emerge.

What do you think?

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Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year in big, 3-D red letters, with confetti

I thought about doing a 5 Predictions For Disability World in 2015 post, but honestly entire years go by without anything truly significant happening in the disability community as a whole. There are always plenty of stories of individual triumph, tragedy, and injustice, but real, tectonic changes in the conditions under which we live are very rare.

What do we think? Will anything really big happen in 2015?

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“Like” on Facebook

Disability.TV Podcast: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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Logo of the podcast, photo of an old style tv set with disability symbols on the screen
The most notable development for me in 2014 was the start of the Disability.TV Podcast. Beginning in August, several guest hosts and I dug into disability depictions on several TV shows of the past and present. All of the podcast episodes are available on the main podcast site, and through free subscription using iTunes or Stitcher. If you want to jump right to the TV show discussions, here is the list so far:








I plan to go back to weekly episodes sometime in January, 2015. Which TV shows with disabled characters should we look at the year ahead? What other related topics should we discuss? I would really appreciate you letting me know by taking the Podcast Direction Survey.

Meanwhile, look for the next episode this coming Sunday, including my list of the Top 5 Disability On TV Events of 2014.

Mind The Gap

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m kelter, invisible strings - December 22, 2014

This is a wonderful piece. It’s one of the very best I have seen addressing the radical differences in how some people view autism as compared to others.

One of the striking things about disability in society is that there are unusually wide gaps between different schools of thought and practice on disability. I’m not even counting the people who are openly hostile towards disabled people … like the eugenicists who think we muddy up the gene pool, or the grouches who can’t stand it that disabled people get all these “special privileges”. Set them aside completely, and you still have tons of people who all absolutely mean well for disabled people, in their own minds, yet are miles apart on what that actually means and what should be done. Disability seems to be one of those things that really demonstrates how people can look at exactly the same thing and come to completely different conclusions about it.

It’s not just autism, either, though the gap there seems to be truly massive. There are similar gaps over long term care … (Nursing homes and group homes, or individualized supports at home and in communities?) … education … (Push hard for higher achievement and independence, or make disabled kids as happy and protected as we can?) … and employment … (Build sheltered workshops and “day programs”, or provide one-on-one coaching and support in real workplaces?).

Again, there are also truly greedy bastards, resentful cranks, and evil predators, too, but even among the “good folks”, there’s a shocking lack of coherence and agreement. I’m not even saying that’s all bad. It can be productive to have real, substantive arguments over any kind of policy. It’s also much better to have intense, divisive arguments than to have only one, unquestioned policy that’s terrible. It makes communication and understanding a lot harder, though.

Disability.TV - Ep. 17 - Mini-Cast

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Disability.TV podcast logo
In which I return from a long hiatus to talk about some listener feedback, ask you for input into what shows to cover next, and generally attempt to get back into a weekly podcasting routine.



 As promised in the episode, here is the original comment Tweet from Amanda, and the video comments she posted a couple of days later. The video, in particular, explains her concerns in more detail.




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