What I'm Thinking About Today

Blogging Note: I am going to start doing more posts that are short, underdeveloped sketches of stuff I'm thinking about from day to day. Eventually, I hope to get into a routine of blogging every day, with only one or two fully-developed essay blogs per week. I welcome feedback!

I found my way to a Jezebel article about different styles of commentary in online journalism. Opinions, Arguments, Hot Takes, Trolling. It has me thinking about how disability blogging and social media matches up with broader online genres and habits ... good and bad.

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In yesterday's post about Inspiration Porn, I linked to an article in the UK's Daily Telegraph, about a wheelchair using man who choked to death in a McDonalds, right in front of staff and other customers who didn't take any notice until it was too late. It was clearly a terribly sad thing to have happened, and it doesn't reflect too well on bystander indifference. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like there are two very distinct shades of "bad news" disability stories. There's stories of injustice, which prompt the reader to ask why and think about how things might be better. And then there are stories that mainly encourage readers to scold, risk risk, and disapprove of individual wrongdoers, and lament a perceived decline in general morality and virtue. I am wondering if there’s more significance to this difference. Do people who gravitate towards the more individual-condemnation variety of “bad news” disability stories have different overall ideas about disability than those who focus more on stories of systemic awfulness?

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Inspiration Without Inspiration Porn

First read this …

Young Woman's Treatment Of Disabled Vet At Walmart Goes Viral (Photos)

Charles Roberts, America News - November 11, 2015

… and marvel at the stunning insensitivity it took for this woman to congratulate herself for doing a good deed, after “stubbornly” overruling a disabled veteran who said several times he didn’t need or want her help, and forcibly helping him anyway. It takes a lot for a news item to stun and offend me personally, but this one had me swearing aloud to my iPhone.

Now read Dominick Evans’ terrific blog post about the story:

Inspiration Porn Is Out Of Control

Dominick Evans - December 16, 2015

Yes, it’s “Inspiration Porn” again. Why are we so bothered by people who are just trying to be kind? Why won’t we leave it alone?

Because it keeps happening, it’s genuinely disturbing, and people keep finding ways to make it even worse.

Still, I hate being a sourpuss. Just because I loathe sentimentality, doesn’t mean that all sentiment is wrong. Just because I don’t exist for your inspiration, doesn’t mean it’s wrong to feel inspired by whatever happens to inspire you. The alternative to Inspiration Porn isn’t gross negligence, like stepping over a disabled man choking to death in a McDonalds. There are decent, acceptable ways to be decent, kind, and helpful to disabled people.

Can you do a "good deed" for a disabled person without offending them?

Is it possible to do inspirational stories about disabled people without being smarmy and condescending?

Yes and yes!

First ask, "Can I help you?", and then respect the answer. And if the answer is "No thank you," or even just plain "NO!", don't take it personally. How each disabled person answers depends on many factors. I’m not often asked if I need help. When I am, I usually say, “No thank you, I’ve got it” because I’ve got it. Sometimes I say, “No thanks,” then pause a moment, survey my situation, and say, “Actually, yeah, that would be great, could you …?” and then I tell the person exactly how they can help. Sometimes, I say, “Yup!” right away, and hand them the whatever that I’m trying to carry while inching my way down some stairs. The point is, it’s fine to ask, I call the play, and the only really offensive thing is if you don’t listen to my answer.

What about pictorial depictions of bravery, kindness, perseverance, inspiration, like Facebook memes or YouTube videos?

Never snap a photo, never shoot a video about a disabled person without the disabled person's consent. It doesn’t matter that you admire the thing you are depicting. It doesn’t matter that you do it to make people happy or uplift them, or teach them a lesson about gratitude. What matters is the result, and if the disabled person isn't on board with the situation or being used in your little morality play, any good you think you’re doing will be undone.

Above all, make sure the disabled person has a voice in the story or scenario or whatever it is you’re focused on. If you write about an actual, named, identifiable disabled person, ask the disabled person to comment and include what they say. You’ll discover pretty quickly whether they think the situation is amazing and remarkable, or pretty standard and nothing to crow about. And that should be your guide on how to think about it, too. Follow the disability rights movement motto: "Nothing about us without us."

If you focus on a disabled person overcoming adversity, ask questions about that adversity and why it is there. Stories of individual courage and character are uplifting, but disability discrimination and hardships don't happen in a vacuum. The problems disabled people face usually come from or are made worse by the bad choices and neglect of actual people and institutions that should be challenged. Battling institutional ableism doesn’t translate so easily to cute Facebook posts that make people go, “Awww!” but that’s part of the point. And anyway, fighting discrimination IS inspiring!

Finally, remember that not every disabled person craves "going viral." Most disabled people just want to get on with life. Believe it or not, many of us strongly prefer anonymity! Most importantly, we all want to be treated as people, with three full dimensions, unique points of view, and complex feelings, not cardboard cutouts employed to symbolize abstract values, or tools to make you feel swell and become Internet-famous.

But what if I can’t follow all these conditions and still tell my story?

Simple … just don’t tell the story! Sometimes, a little restraint is the best, most uplifting gift of all.

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Fun With Fallacies

A couple of weeks ago, I was catching up on back episodes of a podcast called The Light Bulb, when I ran across one about logical fallacies. The hosts, Alastair Stephens and Lani Diane Rich were talking about them in the context of understanding popular culture, but I started thinking about how logical fallacies crop up in discussions about disability. Alastair and Lani referred to, Your Logical Fallacy Is, a beautifully designed website explaining the most common fallacies, with examples of each.

I am still struggling to think of how these mistakes in clear thinking happen specifically in disability dialogs. I’m sure they do happen, not just from non-disabled people arguing against the disability rights perspective, but within the disability community itself. I don’t think we are immune from deceiving others, and ourselves, even when we are basically right about disability matters.

Here are a few of the more obvious examples of disability-related logical fallacies:

No True Scotsman

Changing the definition of something in order to dodge a valid criticism. Otherwise known as moving the goal posts.

Disability example:

A: Autistic people can’t communicate and need constant supervision.

B: Well, I am autistic and I am articulate and mostly able to look after myself, so your idea of autism is too narrow.

A: You are articulate and competent, which means you can’t be autistic, so you have no authority to speak about autism.

Appeal To Authority

Arguing that something is true simply because an authority says it is.

Disability example:

I’m not sure if this is a proper example of this or some other fallacy, but I always feel uncomfortable when we back up some argument about disability with the fact that we have disabilities ourselves. It seems like an Appeal to Authority to me. Of course, it works both ways. Medical and disability professionals are always relying on the power of their credentials to convince us that our instincts are wrong. The key in both cases is that it’s an Appeal to Authority when neither side bothers to make any other kind of argument, and just relies on authority alone.

Slippery Slope

A modest, acceptable step will inevitably lead to a much bigger, more obviously objectionable and unintended outcome later on.

Disability example:

The first example that comes to mind is Assisted Suicide. Those of us who oppose it … including me … often argue that more modest, narrowly-defined legalization laws that many people support would lead eventually to much broader practices that most people now would oppose. Today’s law allowing terminal cancer patients in intractable pain to end their lives, would lead to quadriplegics and other disabled people feeling pressured to die in order to save their families cost and trauma. It’s a fallacy because people are capable of making decisions between one type of thing and another, and the first step on a continuum doesn’t always lead inevitably to the last.

Arguments against disability rights laws like the ADA often include the Slippery Slope fallacy, too. Alarmists argue that prohibiting obvious and avoidable disability discrimination will lead to disabled people thinking they are entitled to do any kind of job they want … blind people flying passenger planes and the like.

As Alastair and Lani were quick to point out in their discussion, knowledge of logical fallacies is unfortunately often used as a rhetorical weapon to impress or intimidate opponents. It’s also easy to misuse these concepts to not only question other peoples’ ideas, but to destroy them and humiliate the people who have them. Harping on logical fallacies is just plain annoying ... a lot like mansplaining and ablesplaining. It’s also important to remember the Fallacy Fallacy … the idea that if an argument contains a logical fallacy, it must be wrong. Sometimes, the slope really is slippery. Sometimes authorities are right. Sometimes it's appropriate to change or clarify how something is typically defined.

The true value of knowing about logical fallacies is that they can help all of us become more aware of the most common ways we misinterpret the world and even our own thoughts and feelings. Being aware of them doesn’t mean being a slave to them. It does mean that we at least try, and some point, to put our thoughts and feelings through a bit of self-examination and critical analysis. We may or may not decide to change course as a result, but it’s always better to be a bit more aware of what we are doing … as well as of what other people are saying.

What are your “favorite” disability-based logical fallacies? What kinds of logical goofs do we, and our opponents, make most often?

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Questions About Inspiration Porn

Wright State Student with Cerebral Palsy Welcomed Into Sorority

Kelly May, Fox 45 - September 29, 2015

I am working on a definition of Inspiration Porn to beef up what's in Wikipedia, and maybe add to the Urban Dictionary. It's taking longer than I thought, so until I finish, here are a few questions:

1. How much of the problem with Inspiration Porn is its tone and message, and how much is about how the disabled subjects are included or excluded? Which is more of an issue, the content or the method?

I think we tend to assume that when disabled people are more fully involved in news stories and other media projects about disability, then the messages will be better because of their involvement. I'm not sure that's true. For instance, this article about a college student with Cerebral Palsy joining a sorority seems to have her full cooperation, yet it still feels like Inspiration Porn. If, as everyone in the story says, Lauren's inclusion isn't unusual or subject to any special circumstances, then why is it a news story?

2. Would this story be more newsworthy if the reporter had asked some more probing questions?

For instance, is Ms. Reder's admission to a sorority a first? Is it rare? Or, is it fairly routine at this university? If it's a first or very rare, why is that? If it's quite common, how does that compare with similar houses at other universities? How many disabled students participate in rush, compared with the non-disabled student population? Are certain kinds of houses more or less likely to include disabled students? How do these patterns and practices compare with other kinds of diversity?

Or, if they really wanted to make this a personal story, how about asking why Lauren wanted to join a sorority? Why this one and not another? Did she plan to rush, was she invited, or was it a spur-of-the-moment thing? Will she live in the house, and if so, is it accessible enough?

3. How did this actually become a news story? Did a reporter hear about it and decide it would make a great human interest story? Did the sorority's leadership initiate reach out to the TV station? Was Lauren an enthusiastic or reluctant participant? Does she have any concerns about how her story is being told and interpreted?

4. I am a bit confused about the role of news worthiness in identifying Inspiration Porn. We criticize stories and memes that suggest something a disabled person does is remarkable, because we rightly say that should be unremarkable. At what point do we stop noting a thing that is rarer than it should be, because calling attention to it somehow reinforces that rareness? Or, is this actually part of a different argument over whether to focus on individual moral qualities or on just and unjust policies and practices?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out whether Inspiration Porn ... which let's admit, we are all defining on the fly ... is a binary thing, or is it a blurry continuum? There seem to be a lot of borderline cases that may or may not be fairly termed Inspiration Porn, and since it's a pretty harsh criticism, I feel like maybe we should firm up our definition a little.

More to come ...

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Brainstorming

I keep a running list of potential blogging topics. At least once a week, I go through and add new topics, and erase or rewrite topics I’ve changed my mind about. Here is what’s on my topic list today:

• Disability policy questions for election candidates.
• Tips for being a disability advocate without being an asshole.
• How I really feel about my disabilities.
• A preference for passion or policy?
• The difference between advocacy and activism.
• Notes for people who think ableism isn't a problem.
• My take on "Political Correctness."
• Which is worse, opposition or ignorance?
• Discredited ideas about disability.
• Intentions don't matter, except that they sort of do.
• How disability issues differ from other kinds of policy issues.
• Exploring pessimism and optimism in disability culture.
• "Educating" people is a profession and a calling, not an obligation.
• Is there a "Disability Agenda?"
• Exploring the different neighborhoods within the “disability community."
• Inspirational disability stories that don't make me want to throw up.
• I wish I could talk to my parents about how they dealt with my disabilities.
• Checking my privilege, disability edition.
• The disability version of “respectability politics."
• My take on “Intersectionality."
• The evolving arguments for disability rights.
• My most embarrassing disability-related moment.
• What do disabled people fear most?

What should I write about over the next few weeks? I would also like to learn about how other disability bloggers decide what to write. Please add your thoughts below!

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Dueling Dualisms

It seems like 90% of disability blogging is about a few fundamental questions:

1. Is disability mainly a disadvantage to overcome, or a social identity to embrace and explore?

2. Which is more important, making better disability policy, or increasing awareness and acceptance?

3. Should we try to be as open and understanding as possible with non-disabled people, or should we draw and reinforce strict social boundaries to protect ourselves?

Most disability blogging either poses versions of these questions or asserts answers to them. What other basic either / or questions make up the current disability conversation?

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Checking My Privilege

Several weeks ago, fellow disability blogger and Facebook friend Dominick Evans posted his answers to a checklist on privilege. The idea is that you start out “standing” at the midpoint on a scale of social and economic privilege, then take steps forward, backward, or stand still, according to your answer to each question. The questionnaire isn’t designed specifically for disabled people, but I think it produces a fairly accurate, honest picture of relative privilege.

Here are my answers. As you will see, my disabilities subtract fairly little from an overall surplus of privilege. For what it’s worth, my score feels more or less correct to me.

1. If your parents worked nights and weekends to support your family, take one step back.

     No. Stay.

2. If you are able to move through the world without fear of sexual assault, take one step forward.

     I’m not sure my confidence is justified, but I don’t think about it, so Yes. Step Forward.

3. If you can show affection for your romantic partner in public without fear of ridicule or violence, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

4. If you have ever been diagnosed as having a physical or mental illness/disability, take one step back.

     Yes. Step Backwards.

5. If the primary language spoken in your household growing up was not English, take one step back.

     No. Stay.

6. If you came from a supportive family environment take one step forward.

Yes. Step Forward.

7. If you have ever tried to change your speech or mannerisms to gain credibility, take one step back.

     Maybe a little bit, due to disability, but on balance I would say No, I have never really felt a need to adapt in any cosmetic ways. Stay.

8. If you can go anywhere in the country, and easily find the kinds of hair products you need and/or cosmetics that match your skin color, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

9. If you were embarrassed about your clothes or house while growing up, take one step back.

     No. Stay.

10. If you can make mistakes and not have people attribute your behavior to flaws in your racial/gender group, take one step forward.

     No. I have many times felt that mistakes and shortcomings were attributed to my disabilities. Stay.

11. If you can legally marry the person you love, regardless of where you live, take one step forward.

     I am going to say No, because of how marriage adversely affects disability benefits. Stay.

12. If you were born in the United States, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

13. If you or your parents have ever gone through a divorce, take one step back.

     Yes. Although it happened when I was a young adult, my parents divorced. Step Back.

14. If you felt like you had adequate access to healthy food growing up, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

 

15. If you are reasonably sure you would be hired for a job based on your ability and qualifications, take one step forward.

     No, I’m not sure of this, because of my disabilities. Stay.

16. If you would never think twice about calling the police when trouble occurs, take one step forward.

     Yes. Although police behavior concerns me, I don’t personally feel like I am at greater risk. Step Forward.

17. If you can see a doctor whenever you feel the need, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

18. If you feel comfortable being emotionally expressive/open, take one  step forward.

     No, not entirely. Stay.

19. If you have ever been the only person of your race/gender/socio-economic status/sexual orientation in a classroom or workplace setting, please take one step back.

     Yes, I have been the only disabled person. Step Back.

20. If you took out loans for your education backward.

     No. Stay.

21. If you get time off for your religious holidays, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

22. If you had a job during your high school and college years, take one step back.

     No, not really, and certainly not by necessity. Stay.

23. If you feel comfortable walking home alone at night, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

24. If you have ever traveled outside the United States, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

25. If you have ever felt like there was NOT adequate or accurate representation of your racial group, sexual orientation group, gender group, and/or disability group in the media, take one step back.

     Yes. Step Back.

26. If you feel confident that your parents would be able to financially help/support you if you were going through a financial hardship, take one step forward.

     Yes. It happened more than once. Step Forward.

27. If you have ever been bullied or made fun of based on something that you can’t change, take one step back.

     Not often, but Yes. Step Back.

28. If there were more than 50 books in your house growing up, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

29. If you studied the culture or the history of your ancestors in elementary school take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

30. If your parents or guardians attended college, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

31. If you ever went on a family vacation, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

32. If you can buy new clothes or go out to dinner when you want to, take one step forward.

     Most of my life, Yes. Now, No. Stay.

33. If you were ever offered a job because of your association with a friend or family member, take one step forward.

     Yes. Step Forward.

34. If one of your parents was ever laid off or unemployed not by choice, take one step back.

     No. Stay.

35. If you were ever uncomfortable about a joke or a statement you overheard related to your race, ethnicity, gender, appearance, or sexual orientation but felt unsafe to confront the situation, take one step back.

     Yes, regarding disability, and I felt uncomfortable about confronting the person. Step Back.

RESULT: I am 11 steps ahead of where I started.

This questionnaire is pretty good, but it could be better at measuring disability factors. For example:

1. For disabled people, not having had a job during high school or college is usually a competitive disadvantage, rather than an indicator of privilege, as question 22 seems to assume. I’m not sure how to fix that for scoring, but it should be addressed.

2. Disability should be added as a possible factor to many of these questions where they aren’t already.

3. Add a question about being able to easily purchase clothes that fit properly and preset you in a stylish, professional manner, which is hard or impossible to do for many disabled people.

4. Add a question about whether you need direct, one-on-one help with essential everyday tasks in order to function. This is something that some, but not all disabled people need, and is a disadvantage in terms of privilege, even when daily help is available, because it is a major life factor other people simply don’t have to deal with.

None of these adjustments would change my overall results very much, but they would make this a more useful questionnaire overall.

This thing isn't meant to make you feel bad, no matter what the outcome. It's more of a self-awareness and thinking tool. Give it a try.

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What’s The Next Big Victory for the Disability Community?

The Supreme Court’s decision affirming gay marriage nationwide has me wondering whether there are remaining unresolved issues that are as significant for disabled people as gay marriage is for the LGBTQ community.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 qualifies. So does the Olmstead Supreme Court decision that came out of the law later. Although full implementation is very slow and ongoing, those are milestones of our past. What big items are on the disability community's "To Do List?"

Some of my Twitter friends and fellow disability bloggers are noting that many disabled people still can't marry, for legal and bureaucratic reasons. For example:

@POTUS next step is to remove the penalty so people with disabilities can keep needed services and still get marry http://t.co/TKYXHdSYAb

This tweet referrs to “marriage penalties” built into Social Security and other income support programs that make it practically impossible for many of us to marry. Then there are the developmental disability support programs and "group homes" that discourage or outright prohibit marriage and cohabitation.

In both cases, it's not that marriage is illegal for disabled people, it's more like an official disincentive, sometimes an extremely powerful one, that makes marriage a practical impossibility. IF you choose to get married or live together as a couple, THEN we will reduce or stop your support services.

In both cases, it’s also entirely possible to fix the situation by passing laws to address the problem directly. A law could make it illegal for developmental disability programs to refuse service to clients/consumers who decide to marry or live together. A law could specifically affirm cohabitation rights in any sort of long term care facility, including “group homes.” A change in law or regulations could make it so individual Social Security benefit amounts and eligibility for other programs wouldn’t change when recipients marry.

As potential victories go, these are bit wonkish and hard to explain. They aren't as emotionally resonant as yesterday's marriage equality victory, but they probably should be.

A few other longstanding disability issues come to mind.

Ending developmental disability exceptions to minimum wage would be another major victory for the disability community, and possibly more feasible than closing all sheltered workshops. Decisively undoing work disincentives would be fantastic, too, but probably complicated and hard to achieve in a political environment where lawmakers think we are paying out too much in disability benefits. Progress there may have to come piece by piece, one careful legislation at a time.

“Entitlement” is a dirty word these days, both politically an socially. But we might want to rethink that, an explore whether disabled people should have an absolute entitlement to certain key assets … health care, higher education, a drivable car. Solidifying a right to any one these would be a major victory and game-changer for disabled people.

Most of the rest of our problems are either social, and not responsive to legislation … like everyday ableism and workaday bureaucracy, or related to existing laws that suffer from partial enforcement … like the accessibility provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Olmstead Supreme Court decision.

Aside from dealing with marriage penalties and barriers, and aside from better ADA and Olmstead enforcement, what new disability rights milestones are on the horizon? What major, specific changes do we want to celebrate in the next few years?

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How Many?

- How many disabled people despise sentimental “Inspiration Porn?" How many think inspiring stories about people overcoming disabilities are pretty cool and encouraging?

- How many disabled people refer to themselves as “disabled,” how many use Person First language, ("person with a disability"), and how many prefer terms like, “physically challenged,” “differently-abled,” or “special needs?"

- How many disabled people actively hope their disability will be cured someday? How many aren't interested or would turn down a cure?

- How many disabled people consciously or unconsciously try to hide some aspect of their disability from public view or knowledge?

- How many disabled people view themselves positively as disabled people, and how many mainly think in terms of making the best of a bad situation?

Believe it or not, I think about questions like this while waiting to fall asleep. You could say the questions "keep me up at night."

The question is, are there credible answers to these questions? If not, how could we find them?

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Making Accessible Campaign Propaganda (ahem) Materials

'Candidates should encourage disabled people to vote' Minister says

BBC News - March 26, 2015

I am not aware of anyone in the United States making a high-profile, publicized attempt to produce political campaign materials specifically for voters with intellectual disabilities. It sounds like a worthwhile thing to do, and a pretty interesting task.

For one thing, there are so many types and shades of intellectual disability ... which I believe is what the BBC means when they say, "learning disability".

And how, exactly, does one "translate" a party platform so that intellectually disabled people can understand it? What does "simplifying" mean? Do you take out all the metaphors and colloquial phrases? Do you use shorter words and fewer compound sentences? How does "large print" help an intellectually disabled person with (most likely) normal eyesight?

Or, is it about more than grammar and font size? Are there social studies texbooks designed to teach adults with intellectual disabilities what "liberal", "conservative", and "libertarian" mean? Do you try to alert intellectually disabled voters to opaque, misleading slogans that all sound good, even when they contradict each other?

I would really like to learn more about this.

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Newbie FAQs: Introduction

There’s this line of thought within Disability Culture, which says that one of the oppressions we experience is the expectation that it's always our responsibility to "educate" non disabled people ... that our first response to offensive, annoying comments or actual discrimination should always have the tone of a patient, caring teacher. How can a non-disabled person with no personal connection to disability know the right thing to do if we don’t tell them?

There are good reasons why so many of us see this as another form of oppression.

First of all, the response, “Teach me! I need to learn!” usually comes from the source of some painful encounter with ableism. Second, more often than not, the person saying this should actually know better. For example, any business owner who claims ignorance of the ADA, which will be 25 years old this July, is either grossly lazy or lying. Also, it really shouldn't take much in the way of social science or diversity training to realize customers with disabilities should be spoken to directly, not through the non-disabled person who is with them. Third ... and in all honesty this is probably the most common reason ... we just get tired of explaining the same things to people over and over again, year after year, decade after decade.

We are tired of constantly having to answer those same “Frequently Asked Questions”.

On the other hand, there is some merit in the old saying, “If you want something done right, better to do it yourself.” As sick as we are of being everyone’s unpaid disability sensitivity trainer, do we really trust others to do it for us?

As for the questions themselves, are they really things everyone should just know, instinctively? Or, are we expecting too much to come naturally to people, at least in regard to disability “awareness”?

If only there was some sort of network or communication tool we could use to answer these questions once and people could just read them. Wait a minute …

Let’s start with the questions. Here are some of the questions I hear most often from non-disabled people … and a few with disabilities, too. (Note: I will try to phrase these questions as I have heard them, sometimes using terminology I wouldn’t normally use myself).

Why do you call yourself “disabled"? Isn’t that a negative term?

Why are so many businesses and buildings still not handicap accessible? Isn’t that against the law?

What's wrong with being “inspirational”?

What’s wrong with special schools, group homes, and day care programs for the disabled?

Isn’t it unrealistic to close sheltered workshops? Most of those people will never be able to get a real job. In a workshop they’re at least busy, socializing, and making a bit of money. 

Isn’t it okay, if someone’s really severely disabled, for them to decide they don’t want to live anymore? Isn’t it all about dignity and choice?

How can it be better to place special needs kids in regular classrooms, where there’s no way they can keep up and the teachers have a hard enough time teaching all the normal kids? 

Isn’t there a lot of abuse of the term “disabled” these days?  I mean, parents getting their kids labeled so they can collect SSI, and unemployed adults getting their doctors to declare them disabled so they can collect Disability. This is a big problem for real disabled people, right?

Just between you and me, it’s different with mentally challenged people, isn’t it? I mean, they can’t be independent like you, can they? 

I broke my leg skiing last year. I had a cast for three months and had to go around on crutches. So I know what it’s like to be disabled.

If we really want city councilors to understand accessibility problems, why don't we make them spend a day in a wheelchair? That would teach them!

Over the next several weeks, I’ll try to answer each of these FAQs. I would love to see other, similar questions that you hear a lot from people who are “disability newbies”. I invite you to post them in the comments below!

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What’s Gonna Happen In 2015?

In answer to yesterday’s New Year’s Day question … Here are five things I think might happen in 2015. Because I don’t really know how each of them will unfold, they are questions rather than predictions:

1. What will Congress do to shore up Social Security Disability funding? Can we possibly hope to see new funding allocated without another round of panicky stories about how SSDI is full of fraud and “out of control”?

2. Will The ABLE Act get a real, robust test, with lots of diverse families and disabled people opening accounts and using them for a wide variety of purposes? Or, will it be used mainly by wealthier families as a slight improvement on Supplemental Needs Trusts?

3. Will we see a major shift in public opinion against Sheltered Workshops, a backlash in defense of them, or will this issue remain a debate taking place mostly within the disability community?

4. What will happen to home care in the United States when the new overtime rules go into effect? Will it improve things for both workers and the people they serve? Or, will states and agencies just respond by cutting hours of service, harming disabled people and their home care aides?

5. Will the general public start to view the murder of disabled kids at the hands of “stressed” parents in a different light? Or, will these incidents still be discussed mostly as sad stories of parents frightened by the future and unable to get the “support” they say they need?

You can probably tell how I hope these things pan out. But, while I tend to be pessimistic, I really don’t know what will happen. Maybe nothing will happen at all. Maybe things will turn out for the worse on all of these issues. But maybe, against odds, some good will emerge.

What do you think?

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Question for the Disability Community

What do disabled people find funny, ridiculous, affectionately eye-rolling about other disabled people, or about disability culture as a whole? What makes us laugh at ourselves?

Please share your answers in the comments below.

Bullying

Obama Administration Clarifies Anti-Bullying Protections For Students With Disabilities

Joy Resmovits, Huffington Post - October 22, 2014

I have often wondered why I was never bullied in school.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that I should have been picked on mercilessly. I was very short and weak. I looked weird. I wore glasses. I was brainy and nerdy. I went to high school in a semi-rural, semi-suburban community in the early 1980s … decades before diversity and tolerance became prominent concerns in public schools.

Yet, I can’t recall a single incident of bullying, based on my disabilities or anything else. Not everyone liked me, but that’s normal. To my knowledge, I was never picked on because of my differences, and my relations with classmates never caused more than occasional anxiety or stress. It’s possible that people talked about me in bullying ways behind my back. But if I never became aware of it, then who cares?

If I escaped bullying because of things that I did right, I have no idea what they were.

If it was because of things my school did right, I don’t know what they were or whether their practices would be applicable today.

Was it because my disabilities were only physical, not mental or cognitive?

Were kids in the ‘80s nicer than they are today?

Was I just lucky to attend an especially harmonious, well-adjusted high school?

I know that to people who have directly or indirectly experienced bullying, this is an enviable mystery. But it feels like a mystery well worth trying to solve, since stopping or curtailing bullying seems to be such a puzzle. Most articles on the subject focus on simply recognizing bullying and deciding to fight it. Few offer any hints about how to do it … for schools, parents, or even disabled students themselves.

P.S.: This is the 1,000th post at Disability Thinking.

Questions For Candidates

It's mid-term election time here in the USA. All seats in the House of Representatives are open. A third of the Senate seats are open. Plus, there are legislative and executive elections (judicial, too in some places), in states, counties, and municipalities all over the country.

Apart from the usual angst about "negative campaigning" and "partisanship", the most frustrating aspect of mid-term elections is that voter turnout is always much lower than years when the President is up for election. Yet, electing Members of Congress is probably more important, not less.

Another sad fact is that disabled people still vote at a lower rate than most other constituencies. A lot of that is due to inaccessible polling places. I suspect the new wave of Voter ID laws will have a negative effect as well. I also believe that too few disabled people can easily identify how their disability experience translates into meaningful policy issues and, therefore, votes. The other side of that coin is that few candidates are ever challenged to come up with thoughtful, specific positions on disability issues. Nobody asks, so they don't have to think about it.

So, how about we ask? Here are some ideas that should be relevant enough no matter where in the U.S. you happen to live.

Ask candidates running for the House or Senate:

"What is your position on Sheltered Workshops?"

"What is your position on paying some disabled workers less than Minimum Wage?”

"Do you support the ABLE Act?”

"Do you support ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?”

Ask candidates for state office (legislator, governor):

"Do you know this state’s current percentage of disabled students in regular classrooms vs. the percentage in separate classes? What would you do to improve these numbers?"

Ask a similar question about Long Term Care in your state ...

"What percentage of nursing home eligible people are in nursing homes vs. the percentage getting support services in their own homes? What would you do to improve these numbers?"

Ask candidates for local office (county legislators, town or city councils, mayors, commissioners, etc):

"What can local / municipal government do to improve accessibility throughout neighborhoods, villages, towns, and cities?"

"What role do you think local government should play in meeting the needs of elderly and disabled citizens?"

Other issues you might want to bring up as partly disability issues:

Street and sidewalk maintenance, including snow removal where applicable.

Public transit and regulation of taxi companies.

Any well-known accessibility problems at major public facilities in your area.

Any proposed new nursing homes or sheltered workshop facilities.

Ask how “Community Development” programs are addressing accessibility issues.

If your state hasn’t done so already, ask about whether candidates would support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which can help many disabled people access vital services they have previously been denied because they just miss income qualifications.

When you ask questions about disability issues, don’t let on upfront what you think about them. It is important for candidates to know that, “I support the disabled” isn’t a position. Elected officials should learn enough about disability issues to have specific opinions about them. But again, they won’t unless we insist on it.

Tipping

Tipping the Scales of Justice

Judge John Hodgman, Episode 158

This is a bit off-topic, but bear with me. I’ll bring it all back to disability issues.

This episode of the fantastic Judge John Hodgman podcast is about tipping … that is, who one is expected to give a gratuity, how much, and why we give tips at all. “Judge” Hodgman, his “Bailiff” Jesse Thorn, and the married couple who are the “Litigants” discuss:

- who actually receives the money from tips (it’s not just your waitress)

- whether it is a reward for good service, or an expected component of service employees’ pay

- which services are you supposed to tip

- whether tipping low or stiffing service workers actually teaches them any lessons (what do YOU think?)

- how much should you tip

When Judge Hodgman also pointed out that generous tipping is an investment in better service, with people and places you plan to use frequently, it made me wonder whether good or bad tipping habits can affect service to customers with disabilities.

I don’t travel a lot, but when I do, I make sure to have a bunch of $5 bills on me just for tips. I’m not talking about tips for waitstaff so much, but in airports, it makes life a whole lot easier. True, I could probably get by purely on asserting my right to accommodations. On the other hand, the people who always have to carry out reasonable accommodations are the lowest paid and least respected people in the industry, and I feel like the extra money works for them, and frankly their improved attitude and more personal commitment to, say, getting me to the gate or hauling my bags off the baggage claim belt, works for me.

Of course, many disabled people can’t afford to be “generous” tippers. Sometimes, that can’t be helped. Nevertheless, I would recommend disabled travelers to budget as much as possible for tips when they plan a trip. Certainly don’t forget about it and just hope you’ve got a little extra cash when the time comes to give the lady pushing your wheelchair a tip.

The other problem is that some of us may actually be kind of clueless about tipping, from lack of experience or because nobody ever bothered to give us the lowdown on tipping customs. It seems like an important independent living skill, but one that probably gets forgotten a lot.

So, fellow disabled readers, what are your tipping experiences and practices?