Sunday, August 17, 2014
Buy It: "Parenthood" Season 5
Weekly Wrap-Up
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Back To School Advice for Disabled Students
It’s almost back to school time, so I think now would be a great time for me to offer some unsolicited words of wisdom and advice to students with disabilities. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I may be 47 years old and I haven’t been a student for over 20 years, but I am disabled, and have been all my life. Besides, I really only feel about 17, so the “youths” will definitely want to listen to me, right?
Okay, here we go.
- One in awhile, think seriously about what you are doing in school. I’m not talking about taking your assignments, tests, or homework seriously. I’m talking about taking time out to consider what you are going to do with your life when school is finished. What do you want to do? What can you picture yourself doing? Is school sending you in that direction? Do you have a serious say in how your education is planned out? Or, is it just your parents, counselors, and teachers who decide what’s happening?
- Find and make friends with other students with disabilities. Make other friends, too, but other disabled friends can play a different, important role in your life. Students with other things in common hang out together in school, and some even advocate for each other in an organized way. Why not disabled students?
- Don’t lock yourself in your room until Spring, but at the same time, don’t feel pressured to socialize the way others think you should. You should feel totally free and welcomed to go to school events and parties, or not, if you don’t want to. There is no “correct” or “normal” way to “do” social life.
- Don’t try to reduce the stigma of your disability by calling it something different and making fine distinctions between “your” type of disability and “those other peoples” disabilities. "I’m differently abled not disabled." "I’m only physically disabled, there’s nothing wrong with my brain!" "My disabilities are actually very mild, so I don’t need any help." This kind of thinking is problematic, a waste of energy, and it doesn’t work.
- It’s understandable sometimes to hate your disability. Just remember that when you hate your disability … your body, or your mind … in a way you are just hating yourself. Don’t do that.
- Learn to tell the difference between the pain of your disability, and pain caused by how other people treat you because of your disability. They are different things. They have different sources, and different remedies.
- If you are going to work on reducing your disability … like walking more smoothly or speaking more clearly ... do it because you feel it will make your life easier, not so you will “fit in” better with everyone else.
- If the other students don’t know much about your disability, consider explaining it to them. People can be meaner and less sensitive to disabilities when they seem like secrets. You don’t owe anyone an explanation, but removing some of the mystery about your disability can help people get to know you better.
Finally ...
- Make the most of your years in school. Not because education is so important, though it can be. Make the most of school because it is the last time when your well-being and handling your disabilities will be other peoples’ responsibility. This is the best time to explore, try things out, experience both failure and success. Don’t just count the days and try to get school over with … use the time to the fullest.
So now I ask others with disabilities … What advice would you give to disabled students heading back to school?
Friday, August 15, 2014
Disability.TV - Ep. 2, Ironside (Original)
Next episode: Friday, August 22: Mini-Cast.
A reminder, you can click here to subscribe to Disability.TV at iTunes.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
George Takei Followup: Good Enough For Me
Gril With The Cane - August 14, 2014
I am Sarah Levis, the blogger at Girl With The Cane is a Facebook friend, so I first saw George Takei’s apology on her Facebook page. Today, she posted more about it on her blog, linked above.
I agree with Sarah. This was a genuine apology, given for all the right reasons. I hope my earlier post didn’t give the impression that I had “written off” Sulu entirely. I was disappointed. But part of my point was that it’s something very particular about ableism right now (as opposed to most other -isms) that it is not widely recognized and is often still abused by otherwise “good” people. I didn’t blame Mr. Takei for posting the meme. I only felt he’d fallen short of recognizing the meaning behind it. And now he has done that. That’s good enough for me.
Like Sarah, I, too will probably have more to say soon about the people who STILL gripe and whine about “political correctness” of all sorts. I wonder if the tenor of some of their comments in defense of him is part of what clued Takei in that he might be on the wrong side on this one?
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Disability.TV Update
This Friday I will post the first full episode of the Disability.TV podcast, with a review of the original Ironside television series, starring Raymond Burr.
I am also exited to announce that I have some great guest hosts for several of the upcoming podcast episodes:
I am also exited to announce that I have some great guest hosts for several of the upcoming podcast episodes:
August 15 - Ironside - the original series with Raymond Burr
August 29 - Ironside - the new series with Blair Underwood
September 5 - Friday Night Lights
With guest host Maddy Ruvolo of the Disabled Girls Talk Podcast.
September 19 - Game Of Thrones: Tyrion Lannister
With guest host Alice Wong of the Disability Visibility Project.
October 3 - Game Of Thrones: Jaimie Lannister, Bran Stark, and others.
With guest host Alice Wong.
October 17 - Glee
With guest host Cheryl Green of Who Am I To Stop It?
October 31 - My Gimpy Life
November 14 - The Big Bang Theory
With guest host Sarah Levis of Girl With The Cane.
On Fridays in between, look for Mini-Casts with podcast news, quiz answers, feedback, and related short topics.
Each episode will be posted here on the blog, and also on the podcast’s own website. You can also subscribe in iTunes, so you will automatically get each new episode downloaded to your computer or mobile device. Click here to get to the Disability.TV listing in iTunes.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Where In The World?
The Visitors Map widget on the lower right of the blog tells me that while most Disability Thinking readers are in the United States, there are a respectable number of readers from all over the globe. Plus, the American readers aren’t all clustered in the Northeast where I live. Here’s a little snapshot:
48 states + District of Columbia
Top 10 states
California
New Jersey
Ohio
New York
Texas
Illinois
Washington
Virginia
Massachusetts
Minnesota
51 countries
Top 10 countries, other than the United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Germany
Argentina
France
Ireland
Philippines
India
New Zealand
Video Of The Day
This seems like an important thing for people to look at today.
Via the Just Rolling On Tumblr blog.
Two Disability Cultures
I sometimes think that many of the conflicts within the disability community are less about specific disagreements than about peoples’ different responses to sentimentality on the one hand, and irony on the other. It’s almost like there are two disability cultures.
One is sustained by positivity, inspiration, and aspiration, and is either indifferent to or uncomfortable with discussions of policy and advocacy. The other “side” is fueled by injustice, collective action and identity, and a sort of world-weary cynicism about where disabled people really stand in the world. And they are either indifferent to or revolted by heartwarming stories of personal optimism and spirituality.
One is sustained by positivity, inspiration, and aspiration, and is either indifferent to or uncomfortable with discussions of policy and advocacy. The other “side” is fueled by injustice, collective action and identity, and a sort of world-weary cynicism about where disabled people really stand in the world. And they are either indifferent to or revolted by heartwarming stories of personal optimism and spirituality.
The only time the two cultures seem to cross is when we occasionally unite to share heartwarming, inspirational stories about prominent disability rights advocates, like Justin Dart and Judy Heumann. Otherwise, our two tribes seem to be carrying on entirely different conversations.
Monday, August 11, 2014
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 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.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Buy It: "I Claudius"
I plan on covering "I, Claudius" next Spring in my new podcast, Disability.TV.
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