Music For A Friday Evening: 25 Years Ago ...

I’ll try to keep my comments from sounding too much like an old fart on YouTube.

It’s hard to describe the mixture of feelings watching old video clips from the 1989 Moscow Music and Peace Festival. First of all, it happened in that really short few years when the Russia was still the Soviet Union, a nominally Communist superpower, but in the process of more or less voluntarily loosening up and generally saying “fuck it” to the whole world domination thing. Then of course there are the hair bands. On of them was Bon Jovi, which is still a going concern, but one of my favorites for a little less than a year was, oddly, Cinderella. Let’s just say I think their music aged a lot better than their look. Two years later, the likes of Nirvana took over everything, and I’m not sorry … but I still sort of get a kick out of these guys once in awhile. And it really does look like those Soviet kids are having a great time. I wish things could have gone smoother for them.

Join The Lexicon Project!

There is something I would like to add to the Disability Thinking Blog, and I’d like some help with it.

One of my favorite blogs for general political discussion, from a particular point of view (generally liberal / progressive), has a three-part “Lexicon”, which gives funny, insightful “definitions” for all sorts of formal and informal terms related to politics, and particularly how politics are discussed on the Internet. You can check them out at these links:

Balloon Juice Lexicon:

• A-H
• I-P
• Q-Z

What I have in mind is a similar Lexicon for disability-related issues, culture, and Internet discourse. Here are some of the terms I'd like to start with:

Disability Lexicon

Ableism / Disableism

People First Language

Spoon Theory / Spoonie

Handicapped

Differently-Abled

Appropriation / Appropriative

Intersectionality

Medical Model

Social Model

Reasonable Accommodation

Accessibility

Universal Design

Autism Speaks

Neurotypical

Intellectual Disability

Retarded

Advocacy

Center for Independent Living

Assisted Living

Olmstead

ADA / Americans with Disabilities Act

Nursing Home

Home Care

Personal Assistance Services

Sheltered Workshop

Supported Employment

Developmental Disability / Developmentally Disabled

Special Needs

IEP / Individualized Education Plan

Special Education

Vocational Rehabilitation

Physical Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Assistive Technology

Devotee

Microaggression

Stimming

I’d like it if all the definitions could have a somewhat humorous, sarcastic tone, but also be more or less accurate. Or, at least accurate from a more or less “social model”, “crip culture” perspective. For that reason, I have mostly left out disability types, since I can’t really think of any sarcastic things to say about them at the moment.

Would anyone like to take a stab at any of these definitions? Would this even work? Should use a different approach … maybe straightforward, without sarcasm?

Thought Balloons

Wouldn’t it be great if people in real life had thought balloons you could see while talking to them, especially in tense chess game situations like job interviews? I wonder what we disabled people would read in job interviews if we has such powers, so we could see all that goes unsaid?

"You might be “adequate” for the job, but you can’t really be the best, can you?"

“The last thing I needs is to hire another 'high maintenance' employee."

"I feel awkward and anxious around you."

“If I hire you, sooner or later, I'll say or do something wrong that will get me in trouble."

"You say you can do the job but I don’t think you really know what you’re talking about."

"There’s something strange, something a bit 'off' about you that I just can’t place, and I don’t know how to ask you about it.”

"How can you possibly do this job with the disability you have?”

The next question is, what would employers read in our thought balloons?