#Ideas4Hillary … And For Everyone Else, Too

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If you’ve ever had an idea about how disability-related laws, programs, and policies should be done differently, anywhere in the United States, tell it now to Hillary Clinton, who actually asked for ideas on disability policy in her speech in Orlando this Wednesday, September 21. Go to her website and submit your ideas there. Or, if you use Twitter, type out the short version of your idea and include the hashtags #Ideas4Hillary and #CripTheVote. For good measure, add Clinton’s Twitter handle: @HillaryClinton.

And after you’ve done that, share your ideas with the other Presidential candidates, Donald Trump, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson.

@realDonaldTrump
@DrJillStein
@GovGaryJohnson

Disability policy doesn’t have to be partisan, and good ideas are worth talking about with anyone who seriously wants to be President.

Have a look at some of the ideas people have already posted:

Weekly Reading List

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It’s been awhile since I did one of these. I’ll try to get back into a weekly routine.

More elite athletes who are disabled should use their platform to promote social awareness
Brett Smith, Business Insider - September 9, 2016

Within this article about disabled athletes and their feelings about disability activism, there's a good overview of the variety of responses disabled people in general have to "disability issues."  It underscores the fact that it's quite common for at least some disabled people to live sheltered, even privileged lives. This can then give them a distorted perception of what the disability experience is actually like for most disabled people. That, in turn, allows the more optimistic and / or apolitical among us to view disability activism as unnecessary and even distasteful. I write here from experience as well as from this article.

Why Won’t They Let Me Swim? A Bendy’s Guide to the Paralympic Eligibility Problem
Sam de Leve, Medium - September 12, 2016

This is an incredibly detailed look at how athletes with disabilities are classified in Paralympic sports to make competition as fair and comparable as possible ... and how the system systematically fails entire subsections of the disability community. It's very technical, but Sam makes it readable and understandable. Best of all, they do something that to me is relatively rare in disability activist writing. Sam powerfully asserts that something is wrong, but doesn't claim to know exactly how it should be fixed. Even if you're not interested in the controversy, Sam's explanations help add context to any Paralympics viewing you might have done, or might do via highlight clips on YouTube or other streaming video.

Teen Makes ‘Sit With Us’ App That Helps Students Find Lunch Buddies
Elyse Wanshel, Huffington Post - September 12, 2016

I think this is a good idea. I say I think, because it's a particular kind of practical solution to a social problem ... a technical workaround that doesn't necessarily confront the root of the problem. The thing is, it's easy as an adult disability activist to want to focus on confronting the systemic ableism of the lunchroom, while sidestepping the day to day question actual disabled students face ... who can I sit with? Of course, sometimes systemic social problems can be lessened by indirect action ... by, for instance, disabled and other marginalized students using an app to locate students who will be receptive to them. There's a risk of self-absorbed do-gooding, too, since the app relies on non-marginalized students consciously reaching out. But having faced the lunchroom dilemma myself, I think it's worth the risk. Plus, there's no reason why marginalized students can't take control of the app themselves, and use it to create their own lunchroom communities.

Stunning photos capture the life of a mum with muscular dystrophy
Ellen Scott, Metro UK - September 7, 2016

Someone on Facebook asked how this story is any different from what we call "Inspiration Porn." It's a good question, and I answered this way: 1. She's a conscious participant in crafting the presentation about herself. 2. It has a subtle, muted approach, not loud, obvious, blaring. 3. The theme is about a disabled person living her choices and happy with them. 4. It doesn't spell out a moral betterment message primarily for non-disabled people. 5. It doesn't glorify the kindness of non-disabled people. So in some ways, "Inspiration Porn" is a matter of taste and style, as well as who and what is centered in a story. In other words, "Inspiration Porn" is more than just stories of disabled people with a positive feel. Or, maybe it's just disability stories any given reader with disabilities happens to like or dislike instinctively.

Telling Myself the Truth: 5 Strategies for Fighting Internalized Ableism
Carrie, Autostraddle - September 19, 2016

It seems like the advice here is that dealing with internalized ableism requires a lot of homework. I'm not sure whether this is hopeful or discouraging. It suggests that disability pride isn't something you can just discover spontaneously. On the other hand, at least there are things we can do about it that will make a difference in how we feel about being disabled.

Another Election Activities Update

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About all I can think of right now is the election, so here’s an update …

#CripTheVote

Sep 19, 7 pm EST: Twitter chat
Political participation and first-time voters
Guest hosts Rock The Vote and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

This will be the ninth scheduled #CripTheVote chat, this time focused on new voters with disabilities and how people new to political involvement can go beyond voting and fully participate in the political progress. One of the subtexts of #CripTheVote is the idea that it would be a good thing for more disabled people to vote and get involved in elections. I don’t think this is a particularly controversial idea, but there certainly are people who disparage political action and don’t think voting is important. Some people go further and say or imply that it’s a bad thing to participate in what they consider a fundamentally corrupt, exclusionary, inaccessible system. I’m not sure we can answer those objections, but I do think we can help people get over the more practical, informational, and motivational barriers to involvement.

Sep 26, 9 pm EST: Live-tweet
First Presidential Debate
Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Moderator: Lester Holt, Anchor, NBC News

We are close to the final stage of the campaign, the Fall debates. I have dreaded every new stage of this campaign. That's not because I hate politics; I love politics. I think it’s partly because of how flawed the candidates are this year, combined with having been kind of spoiled over the last 8 years by having at least one candidate to support who’s fundamentally an amazing and enjoyable candidate to have in your mental space. I am working on a theory that we all get one politician in our lives who we can really relate to, and the rest we can merely support in the “leader of my particular team” sort of way. I’ve had my political hero, so I don’t mind too much supporting a candidate I feel lukewarm about. But the lack of spontaneous enthusiasm I feel makes the worst aspects of political discourse and news a lot harder to take.

Sep 27, 5 pm EST: Twitter chat
Media Representation of Disability in 2016 Election
Guest host Rooted in Rights.

By far the most fascinating part of the 2016 General Election campaign has been the way disability has come to prominence, and the trickiness of how to interpret that and use it productively, without falling into the many rhetorical traps that open up whenever disability is discussed in the wider public. How do we highlight our struggles while avoiding looking like helpless victims? Is more attention always a good thing? Is being offended the worst thing in the world? How do we thread the needle between gaining a voice in politics and being exploited for partisan political purposes? These are the kinds of things we will discuss as we look back at the campaign so far, and think ahead to where we want to go in the future.

Blogging

I am still writing blog posts on disability in the election for the Center for Disability Rights. It’s among the most fun and challenging things I have ever done. I’m looking forward to reading all of them over again in chronological order after Election Day. Here are the newest posts:

Asking Donald Trump
August 11, 2016

Asking Hillary Clinton
August 24, 2016

The Disability Integration Act
September 14, 2016

Republican Support for DIA
(Paired with Emily Munson)
September 14, 2016

Disability Blogger Link-Up

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It's been awhile since we had a Disability Blogger Link-Up, so here ya go!

If you are new to this, click here to see previous Disability Blogger Link-Ups.

As always, to make the links easier for visitors to browse, 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!

Except for one more note:

In the past, I have allowed a few folks to post links to disability owned or related online stores, businesses, or fundraising efforts. I'm going to stop doing that. Those efforts are all great, and maybe they should be collected in a different by similarly styled linkup, but they're not the purpose of THIS linkup. Disability Blogger Linkups are for sharing writing about disability.

This Link-Up will close at Midnight Eastern on Sunday. The next Disability Blogger Link-Up will start Friday, September 23, 2016.

Weekly Reading List: The Paralympics

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The 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio start tomorrow. I wrote a bit about the Paralympics back in July and again in August. Tonight, instead of trying to sum up all of my thoughts and come up with a Grand Unified Theory of disability sports, I’m just going to collect some of the more recent articles that together I hope present a varied picture of what to make of the Paralympics. The central issue is that they instinctively feel like a Good Thing for the disability community, but there are many contradictions about the games themselves and how they are understood both by the disability community and mainstream society.

Let me start out by quoting Sam de Leve (@ChaiKovsky), who left a comment on my first post on the Paralympics:

"A note: Paralympics are super-duper NOT run by disabled athletes. There are a significant number of disabled people involved in the running of it (though with a very limited range of impairments), but athletes have very little influence over the problematic policies of the Paralympics.

"From an inside perspective, the Paralympics are also medical model af. Athletes are regularly required to submit to intrusive physical exams, and only those who can "prove" their impairments can participate. And only certain types of impairments: whole classes of impairments are considered ineligible for participation, in part because the IPC considers those impairments more fakeable. Rather than try to determine disability, or even just believe disabled people are disabled, the Paralympics excludes all disabled people with those impairments. Those athletes are left in a limbo: unable to compete against able athletes, but prohibited from competing against their peers. There is minimal ability to appeal such decisions, and very little leverage to use against the IPC to encourage them to become more inclusive. The IPC is terrified of the prospect of disability faking, and with that comes punitive policies, just like *every other disability policy* we encounter in our lives.

"Ultimately, regardless of whether or not the Paralympics are better or worse than the Special Olympics, they're regressive as hell to a modern disability politics."

And now, some other readings about the Paralympics from several different perspectives:

Paralympics preview: A look at all 22 sports
CTV News - September 5, 2016

An overview of exactly what sports the Paralympics include …

A Paralympian Races to Remove Obstacles for the Next Generation
Kelly Whiteside, New York Times - September 1, 2016

The kind of personal story that both the Paralympics and Olympic games seem to thrive on … interesting and uplifting from an individual perspective, but hard to interpret in terms of sports news OR an understanding of disability in society …

Media cautioned over use of 'superhuman', 'brave' and 'heroes' in Paralympics reporting
Tony Connelly, The Drum - September 5, 2016

Finally, an explicit recognition that it’s quite easy to lapse into a type of “inspiration porn” that often overshadows the positive messages about disability the Paralympics are partly designed to send …

The Olympic & Paralympic Games? Excellence Divided
Mik Scarlet, Huffington Post - September 5, 2016

Why don't we just add the Paralympic events to the Olympics and be done with it?

Rio Paralympics 2016: When 'The Superhumans' came to London
Saj Chowdhury, BBC - September 6, 2016

Looking back at the 2012 Paralympics in London, and whether they really changed popular perceptions about disabled people in everyday life. The answer, an equivocal “yes and no.”

James Corden's Ode to The Paralympics
Channel 4 (UK), YouTube - September 2, 2016

The Olympics of all sorts are pumped full of splashy emotionalism and uncritical enthusiasm, so maybe it’s okay for the Paralympics to be overly poetic and yes, “inspirational.”

Monthly Wrap-Up: August, 2016

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What Am I Working On? What Am I Thinking About?

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Red three-dimensional question mark inside a cartoon thought balloon

As I recently mentioned, I am in the process of resetting my blogging routine. I think I’ve got a pretty good pattern laid out for typical weekly blogging activities. Now I’m thinking about what I want to blog about over the next several months. Here’s a look at my notes:

Unfinished business ...

Finish and post the 3rd of the "Three Threats to Disabled People Today" series ... about Assisted Suicide. Trying so say something about it that hasn't been said already, and trying to be clear what I really think and feel about it.

Finally do that long overdue post about revisiting "Inspiration Porn" ... trying to say something new about it, something that deals with why it's a problem, but that also acknowledges why people are attracted to it. I've still got a partial draft I wrote back in April.

Explore the way some people view disability primarily though a spiritual lens, maybe as a third Model of Disability alongside the Medical and Social Models.

Get going on an "I Used To Think" series, about various ways my views on disability and disability activism have changed over the course of my life.

Then, going forward ...

Try to understand the main divisions and differences within the broadly defined disability community. We agree a lot on specifics, like policy changes we'd like to see, but we are often miles apart in temperament, interest, definitions, experience, etc. How much are we divided by real ideological differences, and how much are our conflicts and failures to connect simply outgrowths of peoples’ personalities, likes, and dislikes?

Thinking ... or rather worrying, I guess ... about how disability activists in blogging and social media can be honest and appropriately critical about disability in today's society, without being mean or heartless. It seems like there's always a risk of challenging but positive discussions descending into sanctimony, scolding, and personal axe-grinding. Or, am I just concern-trolling?

Figure out how disability activists and people who are excited about disability culture can reach out to disabled people who are not engaged in either movement or community … who don’t care, or claim not to care, about any sort of disability community or disability issues. What drives them away, and can we do anything about it? Should we even try?

Is it possible to bridge the gap between adults with disabilities who are disability-conscious, and parents of disabled kids who rub us the wrong way, and who apparently find us extremely annoying? How much of this conflict is about different ways of understanding disability, and how much is a deeper and more inherent disconnect between parents and kids, between people doing parenting now, and people who have in the past been on the receiving end of “Special Needs parenting?”

Are there ways for individuals with disabilities to pursue practical strategies for life with disabilities in an ableist world, while avoiding internalized ableism and the futility of too much “respectability politics.”

And, after that sentence, is the terminology we create and use to describe our experiences helpful, or off-putting and jargon-y? If it’s both, how do we find the right balance.

Is that enough to go on? I’m open to other ideas!

Housekeeping Update

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My work schedule has changed, and will probably, (hopefully!), change again in a month or two. As a result, I am going to scale back my blogging a bit. Here's the plan for the next few months ...

I will aim to do 3-4 blog posts per week, generally on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

I'll keep doing Weekly Reading Lists on Mondays, and the Disability Blogger Link-Up on alternate Fridays.

Around the first of each month, I will post a Monthly Wrap-Up with links to all of the previous month's blog posts.

I still want to try some kind of YouTube-based Vlog, I hope starting in January, 2017.

Let's see how that goes. Ideally, this new routine will increase the quality of my blogging a little, and keep me from getting too frazzled and prone to procrastination.

Weekly Reading List

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Two shelves of multicolored books

Lots of great reading last week …

EDITORIAL: Killings reflect deeper issue of how society sees disabled people
The Asahi Shimbun - August 29, 2016

It took awhile to for the Sagamihara killings to penetrate any part of the public consciousness, other than as another “bizarre tragedy in foreign parts.” A few disability writers and activists have tried to wake people up to the heinousness of the crime, and the frightening and fairly common mindset at its core. It’s good to see one of Japan’s most prominent newspapers do an editorial on this. I like what it says, and it means something extra somehow that it’s presented as an institutional opinion, not one columnist’s personal view. Institutional ableism needs, above all, to be recognized by institutions.

Another Letter to Young Cripples
Bill Peace, Bad Cripple - August 24, 2016

I could have written a blog post like this, comparing my life growing up with disabilities in the ’70s and ’80s, grateful for things that have changed, objectively or the better, but also in some ways for the worse, unintentionally or not. I, too, sometimes feel like the “younger generation” of disabled people spend too much time fighting what I sometimes thing is “trivial,” while so many major, material injustices remain. I’m not sure I agree with all of Bill Peace’s points, or what they mean, but I feel like I get something of where he’s coming from. Of course, on one level, it’s just the inevitable feelings of nostalgia and age-induced disapproval everyone from every background and identity develops sooner or later. That doesn’t means these are invalid feelings. Maybe it means that whatever else they are, they are common and unsurprising.

I’m Raising a Kid With Microcephaly. Here’s What the Media Gets Wrong
Elizabeth Picciutto, The Daily Beast - August 24, 2016

Elizabeth does a great job of providing some context and nuance to what sometimes seems like an all-or-nothing standoff between total disability positivity and a more catastrophic view of disability. It is possible to experience life with disabilities as generally happy, and disabled kids as a gift, just as all children are gifts … while also reasonably hoping that fewer people have to have disabilities, and fewer parents have to have children with disabilities. It’s also important to understand that when we talk about disability as a scourge, it is, in fact, “a punch in the gut” to disabled people and the families that love them. It would be really nice if we could talk about both sides of disability with some sense of proportion and sensitivity.

Why the Olympics and Paralympics are still separate events
Will Heilpern, Business Insider - August 17, 2016

I’m not sure what I think about the idea of merging the two Olympics … which to me mainly means adding Paralympic sports to the roster of sports in the Olympic Games. Aside from the “logistics,” it seems to me the main “con” to merger is that fewer disabled people would probably end up being able to compete. The corresponding “pro” is that it would be another step away from viewing sports … or anything disabled people do … as therapy. It may be therapeutic, but at it’s best, it’s competition for it’s own sake. It’s the thing disabled athletes do, not a preparation for something they might do, or become. This article hasn’t convinced me either way, but I think it’s an important step to discuss the idea.

Vogue Brazil digitally removed limbs from actors to promote the Paralympics and completely missed the point
Jenée Desmond-Harris, Vox.com - August 27, 2016

I read the justifications given for why it was okay for professional models to do Paralympic promotional photos that are altered to make them look disabled. Once you’ve done something like that, it’s got to be hard to say, “On second thought, that was really messed up and I shouldn’t have done it.” Still, you have to work hard to make it okay. This is one of those bad disability-related practices that deserves no response other than, “Really?!”