Bad Name, Promising Show

I just ran across this British TV series called The Specials, a reality TV show about five young men and women with intellectual disabilities, who share a house. The show will be coming to the OWN Network here in the U.S. in September. There is also a Web Series on YouTube.

It’s a terrible name … “The Specials” ... which I very much hope is meant to be ironic. What little I have seen of the show suggests that it probably is, because although these peoples’ disabilities are quite apparent, they are not shown to be either helpless or one-dimensional. The other thing that occurs to me is that there is something about British language and culture that seems to help keep sentimentality under control. It’s not cynical or anything, and there are some scenes between these supportive friends that do look heartwarming, but not in the revolting, gooey way a similar show would likely turn out here in the U.S. I can’t prove it, it’s just a feeling.

Something Close To Home

DISABILITY HISTORY: ACCESS FOR MONTREAL, JULY 25, 2014

Disability Visibility Project - August 10, 2014

I wish I had known about this protest to make Montréal, Quebec’s Metro system more accessible. 

I live only an hour south of Montréal, and it is my favorite city, but it’s not lost on me that some of its charm comes at the expense of accessibility. It especially bums me out that the Metro is so lacking in access, because in every other way, I love Montréal's Metro!

From this article, I also found a cool Tumblr site by the local group that organized the protest, Access4mtl (Access for Montréal) . They also have a Wordpress site, Accessible Montréal. There are some really great photos there, and this map showing just the portion of the metro that is wheelchair accessible is an amazing piece of persuasive art. I’ll set it next to the actual, official Metro map used n Montréal, to show how effective it is.

 

By the way, if you haven’t visited the Disability Visibility Project lately, or you haven’t been there yet, what are you waiting for? Whether or not you are able to participate by going to a recording site, reading the fantastic guest blog posts and profiles of media partners gives a great overview of what the disability activist community looks like today. There’s something new there pretty much every day, so you need to “Bookmark” or “Favorite” it so you can add the site to your daily website rounds.