Sunday, May 4, 2014
Blogging Note
It may be a few days before I can get back to proper blogging, because I am neck deep in a grant application. Stay tuned for a few smaller posts, and expect tips for combatting Systemic Ableism to appear on Wednesday.
Weekly Wrap-Up
Monday, April 28, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Friday, May 2, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Best Article On Inclusion
Paula Kluth, Richard A. Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand - ASCD - December 2001 - January 2002
This article was linked in a Tweet from the excellent Think Inclusive website. It is the best article I have ever read on the basics of Inclusion … both the legal requirements and the educational philosophy. Note that it was written almost 14 years ago, but it feels like it could have been written today. Why are we still “debating” this? I also noticed that in the article, parents are assumed to want inclusive education for their kids with disabilities. Yet, it seems like there are still a lot of parents who are as unfamiliar with and confused about inclusion as many teachers and administrators.
The central misconception about inclusion seems to be that it means that all disabled students will be pushed to "keep up" academically with the nondisabled students, which is NOT the point. Some disabled kids probably do need the bar raised higher, but that is a different issue. Inclusion is about equal integration and participation, not necessarily equal performance.
Read the whole article … it’s very good!
Ending Ableism: Part 1 - Well-Meaning Ableism
In a post from last month, I explored the problem of Well-Meaning Ableism. Here are five ways you can help:
1. Speak about disability plainly, concretely, and specifically
Forms of the word “disability” are your safest bet when referring to any kind of unspecified physical or mental impairment. When referring to individuals, it is probably best to say “person with a disability”, although more and more of us are gravitating towards “disabled person” as our preferred term. Steer clear of more elaborate words, phrases, and spelling that seem like they were designed by committees to make disabled people feel better. Avoid “differently-abled”, “disABILITY”, and “special needs”. Of course, you should also avoid terms that are especially negative, like “wheelchair bound”, or “suffers from …”. No matter how you feel about “banning” words, “retarded” is by now just an insult, and you should never use the term again unless you have to quote someone. Disability terms should be accurately descriptive, and should not be weighed down with either negative or positive value judgments. Just speak neutrally about disability matters.
2. Don’t focus on our disabilities, but don’t deny them either
Look, but don’t stare. Don’t fixate on our disabilities, but don’t ignore them. Healthy interest is fine. Morbid curiosity is offensive and easy for us to spot. Most of us don’t like to talk about our disabilities all the time, and we all have interests that are at least as interesting if not more than our disabilities. At the same time, it’s problematic to tell a disabled person, “I don’t think of you as disabled”. The intention may be good, but the fact is that disabilities are real, they have an impact, and they are woven into our lives. You can’t really “see past” our disabilities, any more than you can "see past" the red-colored threads in a multicolored carpet. In any case, literally forgetting we have disabilities can pose real problems, too … like when a group of friends decides to go to a restaurant that isn’t wheelchair accessible because they forgot to consider that one of them uses a wheelchair.
3. Let pictures speak for themselves
This advice is meant to address a fairly narrow phenomenon, but one that has become a large part of the average person’s exposure to disability ideas … disability photos and slogans in social media. It is usually photos of a disabled person doing something either athletic or otherwise surprising compared to a conventional idea of what disabled people can do. These photos are usually accompanied by an “inspiring” slogan that underscores the value we are supposed to take from the photo … courage, perseverance, faith, triumph of the human spirit, even the reality of miracles. Sometimes, the message is also a backhanded slap against negative values such as laziness, selfishness, and self-pity. “This quadriplegic is painting a beautiful picture with his mouth … what’s your excuse?!” It is something of a trend, and a regrettable one. Some of us call it “Inspiration Porn”. The problem isn’t so much the values being extolled, it’s that we become icons and symbols rather than people. Our names don’t matter, and there’s no way of really knowing much of anything about the person in the photo. They rely on the us believing that disabled people mostly live lives of suffering and hardship … that’s why the photos are so awesome! At the same time, it is helpful for disabled people of all kinds and styles and personalities to be visible in popular culture. So, one solution is simply to show the photos but leave out the slogans. Let viewers interpret what they are seeing. It’s much better to prompt people to think freely about images of disability than to cram a packaged “message” down their throats.
4. Don't assume you know who is and isn't disabled, or what someone's disability is
It happens every day. A person with a disability that isn’t immediately visible parks in a handicapped space, and a well-meaning defender of the disabled gives them a dirty look, or worse, because they assume the person isn’t disabled. A child with a learning disability needs extra help in school, and people sneer and complain that their day, “bad kids” weren’t just labeled “disabled” and given special privileges. An adult with an unusual gait and impaired speech is spoken to as if they were 5 years old. A restaurant manager thinks it’s her job to decide whether a dog is a pet or a service animal. There is no one solution to these situations, all of which are harmful and insulting when they occur. The main message is to be careful and open-minded in developing your knowledge and opinions about disability. Disabilities are more than just wheelchairs and guide dogs. There are as many different kinds of disabilities as there are people with disabilities, and pretty much any “rule of thumb” you come up with to generalize about disability is going to fail you. Disability isn’t a club or a profession, and it is no-one’s job to police membership.
5. Listen to disabled people
The classic example of this is a wheelchair user waiting to cross at an intersection. A stranger approaches and asks if they need help crossing. The wheelchair user says, “No thank you”, but the stranger insists, grabs onto the chair, and starts wheeling the person across the street. This type of situation often has a second phase, in which the wheelchair user shouts, “I said no!” or “Stop!”, and the good samaritan takes offense at being yelled at and having his generosity rejected. The whole scenario, and others like it, point to how subtle stereotypes of disabled people rob them of agency. Even people who feel friendly and charitable towards disabled people often find it hard to deal with them when they act differently than expected … when they have individual wishes, desires, and opinions of their own … when they aren’t appropriately grateful. Another related problem is when people try to fathom the mysteries of disability through every means at their disposal, except asking disabled people and trusting their answers. This happens a lot with doctors and hospitals, which already have a built-in vigilance about “noncompliant” patents, which seems to intensify when the patients have long-term, underlying disabilities. But it also happens in other settings. Basically, our adult competence and rationality seems to always be one or two short steps away from being discounted, as if having a disability somehow makes us more susceptible to fantasy and self-delusion. You don’t have to check all of your skepticism at the door. Just remember that most of us do know what’s going on with ourselves, even if the things we report sound incredible, and even when communicating with us is difficult. Being routinely consulted, listened to, and believed would for most of us be a marked improvement in our lives.
Tomorrow: What you can do about Systemic Ableism.
Friday, May 2, 2014
"3 Ableisms" Series Followup
About a month ago, I posted a three-part series on what I see as the three main kinds of Ableism:
Starting tomorrow I will be posting some followup ideas on how to avoid and defeat the “3 Ableisms”. I’ll try to keep the tips simple, practical, and easy for anyone to implement. As always, I will also welcome readers’ comments and suggestions.
A Little More About Shaq ...
Andrea Peyser, New York Post - May 1, 2014
Looking back at what I wrote yesterday about Shaquille O’Neal’s bully-style mockery of Jahmel Binion, I feel like I didn’t fully communicate how terrible I think Shaq’s behavior was. As Mr. Binion points out in the linked New York Post article, it’s not so much that he insulted an individual … though that is bad enough. It’s that Shaq modeled terrible, and really harmful behavior that affects millions of people every day who have disabilities that make them look “weird”.
I endorse pretty much all of Andrea Peyser’s recommendations, with one exception. If, in fact, Mr. Binion very much wants oral surgery, then sure, it was be nice if Shaq would foot the bill. But, I think it would be a bad idea for Shaq to focus on cosmetic surgery as an amends for his taunting. The whole point is that nobody deserves to be mocked that way, no matter how they look. Curing or masking disability is not the answer to ableism. Helping make people look more “normal” would be dodging the real issue, and in a way validating the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with people who don’t fit conventional standards of beauty.
I don’t know whether Shaq is a particularly good writer, but if he’s at all good at it, it might be more valuable for him to right an Op-Ed on why it is wrong to judge and mock people based on their physical appearance … perhaps tying the theme in to his possible experiences as an African-American, and as an incredibly tall person. Don’t think for a minute that huge guys like Shaq haven’t experienced stigma for their size, along with fame and fortune for their basketball skills.
So yeah, I, too would like to see more than an apology.
P.S. I said it before, I can't emphasize enough how much more meaningful this disability news story is because the disabled person in question has a unique voice, with a very specific point of view.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Admiration, With A Difference
Smart Ass Cripple - April 27, 2014
By now the routine should be pretty familiar. Smart Ass Cripple writes about some disability-related thing we talk about all the time, but he nails it in a few paragraphs and it may never have to be written about or discussed again.
This time, he looks at a unique aspect of admiration for disabled people. People admire them, but inherent in their admiration is that they would NOT want to be like them.
Just read the article; Smart Ass Cripple says it best ...
Famous People Making Faces
Robbie Couch, Huffington Post - April 30, 2014
What is this story about? What are we supposed to take away from it? What is important about it?
- Rich celebrities we admire for specific talents often turn out to be stupid, awful people.
- People who are members of socially marginalized groups can be just as oblivious as anyone else about stigmatizing people from other marginalized groups.
- After famous people do personally cruel things in a public way, they have to apologize publicly within a reasonable amount of time. The longer they take to apologize, the more the scandal snowballs. On the other hand, although everyone knows that these apologies are a ritual, they seem to work anyway.
- It is possible that a majority of Americans still think it’s okay to make fun of people who look strange, as long as they can’t immediately define their specific strangeness. Did Shaq, in that moment when he pulled a face, actually think of Mr. Binion as a disabled person, or as just a “weirdo”? Maybe we are in a transition phase, when a whole bunch of people are surprised to find that making mean fun of certain kinds of "odd" people is socially akin to racism, sexism, or homophobia.
- I find it interesting that for the first few days after this story broke, practically the only outlets covering it were recognized right-wing sources … The New York Post, The Daily Mail (UK paper), The Daily Caller. The Huffington Post is the closest thing to a “mainstream” outlet that seems to have bothered with the story. Is that just a coincidence. If not, what’s the deal? Do right-wing outlets get a bigger kick out of exposing the bad behavior of African-American celebrity athletes? Do more liberal-leaning outlets overlook prejudice directed at disabled people? Maybe it’s a little of both?
- It could be argued that Shaq’s fame makes his public behavior influential and therefore worse, because his individual ableism may encourage more of it on a grand scale. I think that might be a real concern, especially since it was a social media thing that would extremely easy for people to emulate and turn into meme. I hope that doesn’t happen, but we will probably find out one way or another over the next few weeks.
- Some of the articles on this incident refer to it as "bullying". I don't think it quite fits the usual definition, but I think it puts people in mind of a very real variety of childish / adolescent bullying directed specifically at disabled kids. Mimicking someone's odd appearance, voice, or movements is just the sort of "innocent" razzing that escalates fast, to the point where a kid will spend years learning to not hate his or her body, and parents who desperately want their kids to get a complete education will start to think that separate schools might be not just equal, but better ... simply for an anticipated end to bullying.
- Some of the articles on this incident refer to it as "bullying". I don't think it quite fits the usual definition, but I think it puts people in mind of a very real variety of childish / adolescent bullying directed specifically at disabled kids. Mimicking someone's odd appearance, voice, or movements is just the sort of "innocent" razzing that escalates fast, to the point where a kid will spend years learning to not hate his or her body, and parents who desperately want their kids to get a complete education will start to think that separate schools might be not just equal, but better ... simply for an anticipated end to bullying.
- I am glad, again, to see that Mr. Binion has a voice and real agency in the story. He is more than a silent, abstract victim. I like how he emphasizes that Shaq was a hero of his … making connections between the public and personal aspects of the incident.
What do you think? Is there more to this story, or is it mostly just another example of famous people behaving badly?
What do you think? Is there more to this story, or is it mostly just another example of famous people behaving badly?
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Photo Of The Day
Follow the link to a few more photos, and an explanation. You might call it Peer PT.
Book Preveiw
I just received my copy of Criptiques, the "crip culture" anthology edited by Caitlin Wood. I haven't gotten very far in the book, but based on Wood's introduction, I am 99% sure I am going to love it:
"Crip is my favorite four-letter word. Succinct and blunt. profane to some, crip packs a punch. Crip is unapologetic. Audacious. Noncompliant. Crip takes pleasure in its boldness and utter disinterest in appearing "respectable" to the status quo. It's a powerful self-descriptor, a cultural signifier, and a challenge to anyone attempting to conceal disability off in the shadows. Crip is anti-assimilationist and proud of it. Crip is outspoken with no patience for nonsense. Crip is my culture and where I want to be."
For months, I have been trying to figure out how to describe the fundamental differences between disabled people who are part of "crip culture", and those who even when they are generally positive and hopeful, still seem to view their disability as an unwelcome, barely tolerated guest. Caitlin Wood does such a great job of explaining the "crip culture" perspective that it took my breath away.
I can't wait to read the essays, and I expect I'll have more to say as I go.
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