Monday, October 6, 2014

"Cliff Notes"

One of my favorite (non-disability) bloggers recently did a post consisting of a list of one-line statements he called the Cliff Notes of his blog archives … a very abbreviated summary of what his blog has been about over time. It got me thinking about how I would summarize the Disability Thinking blog so far.

Disabled people are people … not symbols, angels, or tests of other peoples’ character.

Ableism is an actual thing, not just a collection of irritating habits and social misunderstandings.

A whole lot of people who should know better, based on their other political and social views, are still way behind the curve on disability issues.

Disability-related services and supports should be simpler and more direct (fewer middlemen). More plentiful would be good too, but simpler and more direct is probably more important.

Disability issues involve questions of fundamental human rights, not just minor policy tweaks and infrastructure improvements.

It matters what words we use to talk about disability, but sometimes we spend too much time worrying about it ... maybe.

I don’t like “inspiration porn”, but I do like disabled people who go out of their way to make bold visual statements projecting disability pride and confidence.

My life as a disabled person has been pretty good, and very lucky.

There are a lot more amazing disability bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters than I thought when I started this blog.

No comments: