Weekly Wrap-Up
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I’m getting back into the daily blogging habit, and getting used to the new website!
Disability Blogger Link-Up
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Here is another Disability Blogger Link-Up for your posting and reading pleasure. What's been on your disability-related mind over the last couple of weeks? What new insights into the disability experience do you have to share? Post them here! Come back later on and read what others have posted. And let others know about the linkup, especially other disability bloggers you know about.
To make the links easier to for readers to browse the posts, in the “Your name” blank, please type the title of the article you are posting. In the "Your URL" blank, paste the URL address of the item. Like this:
Name = Title of your article.
Your URL = Link to your article.
Then click the "Enter" button. That's it!
A note about multiple posts:
If you have more than one item you want to post, please feel free. However, keep in mind that these linkups open every other weekend. Plus, Two Thirds Of A Planet runs a Link-Up every other weekend. So there’s no need to post all of your best, favorite stuff all at once.
This Link-Up will close at Midnight Eastern on Sunday. The next Disability Blogger Link-Up will start Friday, January 29, 2016.
Throwback Thursday
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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?
#SOTU4PWD - 2016
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Once again, disability bloggers and activists dusted off the #SOTU4PWD hashtag, and live blogged the State of the Union Address, adding comments from a disability perspective. Alice Wong at Disability Visibility Project has also again provided a great Storify summary of the evening's Tweets:
Yes, I tweeted. I couldn't help myself, and the speech was so neatly structured that the tweets nearly wrote themselves:
Disability issues relate to all four of the President’s big questions about our future. #SOTU4PWD
— Andrew Pulrang (@AndrewPulrang) January 13, 2016As a citizen interested in politics, who proudly worked for President Obama's election both times, I thought it was a lovely speech. It felt like a fitting and even energizing summary of everything the Obama Administration has been about ... both what it wanted to be, and what it actually was.
As a voter with disabilities, I was again somewhat disappointed, insofar as the President never so much as mentioned disabled people, much less disability policy.
I am never quite sure how to feel about this.
On the one hand, I can't honestly foresee a day anytime soon, maybe ever, when a disability issue will rise to the top tier of issues that must be discussed in a State of the Union Address. I'm not even sure that's wrong. Nor am I certain that our issues would benefit from a significantly higher profile, given the ableism still rampant in society, and how quickly complex policy topics can be misconstrued and misunderstood. We may do better, in the long run, if our big policy issues remain the relatively quiet purview of disability activists and a handful of policy wonks.
On the other hand, that all seems like cynical, defeatist nonsense. At least a few of our issues are legitimately of national importance ... education for one, long term care for another. These issue overlap with the everyday concerns of people outside what we call the "Disability Community," to include everyone with a child and everyone over 65, or with loved ones over 65. Plus, there's nothing wrong with a significant minority, of, say 49 million people, asking the rest of society to focus for a minute on issues unique to us.
What really puzzles me this year is why "people with disabilities" have so far mostly been left off the list of "groups" politicians mention when they do those familiar rhetorical runs meant to illustrate the diversity of the American promise and experience. People of all races, genders, incomes, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations ... and people with disabilities. Except that people with disabilities have been left off this year, by Presidential candidates and by the actual, current President. We've always been an afterthought, but it seems like just a few years ago, it was de rigueur for politicians to give disabled people a shout out at that particular moment an the average address or stump speech. It might be a small matter, but that little omission gets louder each successive time. Is it just an accident that we've been left off the list lately? Or, is there something else going on?
I honestly don't know.
Links to past State Of The Union Address articles at Disability Thinking:
"Impact Winter"
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The long-delayed, procrastinated, and re-thought episode of the Disability.TV Podcast will be posted on Wednesday, January 27. The subject will be Season 6, Episode 9 of The West Wing, “Impact Winter.” The West Wing is available on DVD, and through Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Apple iTunes.
Future episodes of the Disability,TV Podcast will post on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Two weeks before, I will announce the topic, so listeners can watch the show or episode in advance if they want. These podcasts will be spoiler-full! I will talk about whatever is necessary in order to fully explore the disabled characters and disability stories featured in each podcast episode. Listeners will probably get the most out of these episodes if they watch before listening. However, I hope to make sure that pre-watching isn’t necessary. I have been turned on to many great TV shows and movies by listening to commentaries about them, spoilers and all.
It’s up to you. Watch before, or after. Either way, join me in examining and appreciating interesting … if not always good … depictions of disability on television.
Thinking Today
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Every now and then, I post my thoughts on an under-developed idea … something that isn’t ready for a more complete article, but that I want to “get out there” anyway. I call it “Thinking Today.”
There are more developments with “The Mighty.” Unfortunately, things are getting worse, not necessarily its content, but how the management is treating the disabled writers who are trying to change the site, including those who have made good-faith efforts to engage rather than just condemn:
Oops, The Mighty did it again...and again...and again
Cara Liebowitz, That Crazy Crippled Chick - January 11, 2016
An open letter to The Mighty: being mighty outspoken means getting mightily shut out
Carly Findlay - January 12, 2016
Based on these two pieces, I have a question and an analogy:
Question:
Why does “The Mighty” even have a special private Facebook group for contributing writers? What I mean is why does a website designed to publish formal articles spend any time and resources at all on a separate comment section just for its writers? Is “The Mighty” an online magazine, or a therapy service? It seems like a guaranteed headache and hotbed of infighting, over important things, mixed in with petty bickering.
Analogy:
Suppose a group of white liberals obtained some generous capital investment to set up a high-quality website, the purpose of which is to improve white people’s attitudes towards black people. They invite people they assume to be “like minded” on “race relations” to submit articles, and they go out looking for good articles to publish. Over time, the site begins to develop a personality … which turns out to be something like the white liberal / pro-civil rights mindset circa 1975. There are lots of articles about “good” black kids “rising above” poverty and crime to become doctors and lawyers. Other articles praise black sports heroes and famous musicians … while carefully avoiding any who present a jarring, challenging image that might make white people uncomfortable. All of the articles are nominally “pro” black people, but most black people who read the stuff can’t stand it because it represents, at best, a particular approach to racial justice that is way past its sell-by date. When they criticize the site and try, from the outside and from the inside, to redirect it to a more inclusive, sophisticated, and black-centered orientation, the white contributors complain they are being silenced, that their views or race count, too, that white people have their own struggles with race that deserve to be heard. Others simply can’t comprehend why black people might not like what they are writing. After all, they’re good liberals, right? And what’s wrong with focusing on athletes and musicians and notable high achievers? What’s wrong with being positive? Why do you always harp on problems and conflicts? As far as social justice issues are concerned, that’s all very well, but nobody wants to read “negative” stuff like that. It’s not uplifting! There’s an audience for this kind of thing; we’re just serving it. As an extra bonus, there are tons of white writers patiently and impatiently explaining to black writers what words they should and shouldn’t use to refer to themselves.
That’s what I think is going on with “The Mighty,” only in the realm of disability. In retrospect, none of it is surprising, though that doesn’t make it any less disappointing and frustrating.
Weekly Reading List
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‘Can I cry now?': Dallas DA, who grappled with mental illness, survives effort to remove her
Jamie Thompson, Washington Post - January 8, 2016
This is one of the more interesting cases I have read about disability discrimination in the workplace. It’s interesting because it involves an elected official who could only be removed through some kind of public hearing process. It may also be another of the kind of workplace situations I saw a lot when I worked in Independent Living … in which disability was used as the more socially acceptable reason to try and get rid of someone people didn’t like for more mundane, personal reasons. It sounds like the DA had a significant but temporary mental health crisis, which she may not have handle quite perfectly at the beginning. But the real problem is that she pissed off a lot of people in the more or less normal course of her job. For all I know, Ms. Hawk may be an awful, vindictive person, but pissing people off seems like a pretty common side effect of being a District Attorney regardless. Her mental health crisis supplied an excuse to dump her, but fortunately, it sounds like the hearing judge saw it this way too and ruled in Ms. Hawk’s favor.
Hillary Clinton's autism plan shows just how far the autism rights movement has come
Dylan Matthews, Vox.com - January 8, 2016
Dylan Matthews continues to do excellent, important work, covering autism issues from a neurodiversity perspective, in a mainstream news outlet. And I have to say I am genuinely impressed with the scope of Clinton’s plan, not so much as an actual plan, but as an indicator of how she regards disability issues.
The Disability Integration Act – Fact Sheet
ADAPT - January 5, 2016
I want to hear all of the presidential candidates say whether or not they support this bill or one like it, and explain what it is. That’s important. If you don’t understand how outdated long term care policies and practices keep disabled people stuck in nursing homes when they don’t want to be, you’re missing a major chunk of what disability policy is about.
Three Articles, Three Kinds of Advocacy
Ari Ne’eman, Sometimes a Lion - December 31, 2015
More essential reading for anyone involved in disability advocacy and activism. I am a categorizer by nature, so of course I'm interested in Ne'eman's breakdown of three distinct types of disability advocacy. What I appreciate most, though, is that all three kinds assume that we want to accomplish something concrete, not just be heard. Self-expression and catharsis sometimes seem to be high priorities in disability activism, and I'm not sure that's always a good thing. But as this article suggests, disability activism can be both emotionally satisfying and achieve solid, substantial goals.
#365dayswithdisability
Two Thirds Of The Planet - December 31, 2015
As I have noted elsewhere, I’m going to try to do this. I’ve always loved the idea of taking photos of everyday life, but I’ve never felt really comfortable with it. Mostly I find myself thinking that the things I take photos of are uninteresting, and kind of pathetic. I probably just have to make myself do it more. Having a project like this helps, too, since it’s meant to celebrate the every-day. Don’t expect many selfie’s though. I appreciate their value, and what they mean to people to take them, but it must be one of those generational things that makes it hard for me to participate. So, pictures of food and the view from my car it is!
#365dayswithdisability
/Another contribution to the #365dayswithdisability project.
Weekly Wrap-Up
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It's actually been a bit over a week since the Disability Thinking blog moved over to the new Disability Thinking website, at its new address: www.disabilitythinking.com. So, this will be a bit more than a weekly wrap-up.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Moving In
Friday, January 1, 2016
Disability Blogger Link-Up
Monday, January 4
More Election Blogging
Weekly Reading List: "The Mighty" Edition
Tuesday, January 5
#365dayswithdisability
Wednesday, January 6
What Would Mom & Dad Do?
Thursday, January 7
Guns And Mental Disability
Throwback Thursday
Friday, January 8
#365dayswithdisability
Saturday, January 9
Best Video On Accessibility Ever
Best Video On Accessibility Ever
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Most of the disability-related stuff I find on my Facebook news feed comes from disability activists and bloggers. No slight on them intended, but the best thing I’ve run across in months seems to be an entirely random find. It’s a video that I found by chance from a totally unrelated music video. It caught my eye because I recognized the Super Mario Brothers graphics from my early, short-lived video game career. So I clicked on it to see what it was about, and discovered this brilliant, persuasive, delightful video promoting accessibility. It’s by an Israeli firm called Yedioth Ahronoth, which is categorized on Facebook as a Media/News/Publishing company, with no apparent connection with disability.
אם לסופר-מריו היה כיסא גלגלים: צפו בסרטון המבריק שיצרה חבורת תכל'ס כדי להגביר את המודעות לנגישות
Posted by ידיעות אחרונות Yedioth Ahronoth on Tuesday, December 29, 2015
There’s so much to admire here. Let me mention just two particular points.
1. Mario uses a wheelchair sometimes, and crutches sometimes. That reinforces an important “next level” aspect of disability awareness … that disabled people aren’t just wheelchair users, and accessibility is important for people who walk, but have other kinds of disabilities.
2. The video says it’s time for accessibility, because “It’s not the ‘80s anymore!” Obviously, this is a play on the fact that the video is reminiscent of a late ’80s video game, while at the same time drives home the point that accessibility isn’t a new idea, and that our standards for wheat’s considered acceptable accessibility should be higher than they were back in the day, when many of us were kids or teenagers … or not even born yet.
And the message is so smoothly, happily delivered. It’s righteous, but not angry, empowering, but not syrupy. Just fantastic.