When "Despite" Is Really "Because"

Why do police keep seeing a person’s disability as a provocation?

Harold Braswell, Washington Post - August 25, 2014

This is a good article on a timely and important topic. I would only add one thing.

I can't prove it, but I suspect that many police and a great many ordinary citizens think that mental illness is actually a justification for deadly force, not a reason to avoid it. It might not always be a conscious belief, but I think a lot of people still associate mental illness (a.k.a. "crazy") with unpredictability and violence. We say, "He shot the man, even though he was mentally ill", while on some level, it's really, "He shot the man because he was mentally ill, and therefore scary and threatening."

Unless this powerful prejudice is directly confronted and refuted with ironclad information and alternative strategies, this kind of thing is going to continue to happen to mentally ill people. I have somewhat higher hopes for change in how police deal with intellectually disabled people, like Ethan Saylor.

There's plenty of stigma to go round, but I think mentally ill people get the worst of it.

Photo Of The Day

Students with disabilities visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, 1922.

From the Metropoitan Museum of Art, via the Disability Visibility Project.

When Headlines Get It Wrong

Disability keeps man from riding roller coaster

Susan Hogan, Channel 12 WPRI - August 25, 2014

Let's be clear, shall we? Six Flags and their rules kept the man from riding the roller coaster, not the man's disability. The disability had something to do with it, but it was the company's decision. Whether or not the decision was unjustified is another question. I suspect they are a bit too cautious, particularly when partial leg amputation imposes relatively little in terms of practical impairment. But either way, it was an institutional decision, not a natural consequence of disability. That is a huge conceptual difference that people often get wrong get wrong all the time.

The Ice Bucket Challenge ... What's Next?

The other day I pretty much telegraphed that I wasn't going to argue about the Ice Bucket Challenge, and I'm sticking with that, more ore less. I have an idea though.

It's sort of a followup to the Ice Bucket Challenge that answers some of what bothers me about it, without contradicting or refuting it. Maybe if we find the right social media strategy it will catch on. Here's the idea.

We ask everyone who has participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research to take an additional step ... a pledge that they will never again knowingly patronize a business that isn't fully wheelchair accessible.

Many people with ALS are wheelchair users. Encountering barriers to full, free mobility is one of the daily hardships of having ALS. So, in addition to helping fund better treatments for ALS, those who would also take the Accessibility Pledge would be helping people with ALS live better lives through equal access to their communities. One thing I like about it is that It sounds easy to promise, but it would force people to realize how difficult it actually is to stick with, because so many places are NOT wheelchair accessible.

It's also perfect for celebrities, because of the power they and their friends have to make an economic impact on businesses.

We could try to come up with a similar stunt to go along with it, but I don't think that would be necessary. We would be targeting people who have already done the Ice Bucket Challenge. We want to piggyback, not copycat. We want to say, “You have shown you care about people with ALS. Here’s another way you can help."

The first step is probably a Twitter hashtag, and maybe some parallel Facebook action, making sure to target celebrity Ice Bucket participants by name.

So, how about it? Can we get influential people to take the #AccessibilityPledge?

Writing Process Blog Hop

This is my response to a Blog Hop that came to me via Emily Ladau of Words I Wheel By. 

What am I working on?

Aside from actual blogging, I am working on my new podcast, Disability.TV, which is about how disability is portrayed on television. It’s going pretty well, I think, though I am much better and more comfortable writing than speaking. So far I have reviewed the original Ironside (the one with Raymond Burr), and this week I’ll be discussing the new Ironside, starring Blair Underwood). I have some guest hosts scheduled as well, which I think will make the podcast much more lively.

Meanwhile, I am starting a part-time job as a writing tutor at a local community college. I really hope I end up being good at it, because on paper it’s the perfect job for me … not too many hours, involves writing, and it helps people I greatly admire, people working really hard, often against formidable obstacles, to further their educations.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

When I started the Disability Thinking blog over a year ago, I promised myself that I would write something on it more or less every day, barring illness, life interruptions, and the occasional day off to enjoy sunshine. One of my blogging role models is Duncan Black, who has been running his political commentary blog Esctaton since 2002. He posts at least 3 or 4 things every day. Sometimes it’s just a single thought, expressed in a few sentences. In fact, he almost never writes essay-length posts. A lot of his posts are responses to stuff he’s read. I do that, too. I want to make Disability Thinking a place where you can visit every day and be pretty sure to find something new to read about disability. It won’t always be brilliant or even very original, but there should always be something to think about or read further about, and I cover a lot of topical ground, from politics to popular culture.

Why do I write what I do?

Why disability? Because a. I have had disabilities all of my life, b. I spent over 20 years working in the disability rights / independent living field, and c. there are a LOT of things I haven’t figured out yet about disability. Also, it seems like the field of disability blogging is comparatively small. It isn’t nearly as small as I thought it was when I started out, but it still feels like all of the “serious” (i.e. consistent) disability bloggers in the world could meet in a medium-sized meeting room.

How does my writing process work?

It all usually starts by jotting down ideas for longer essay posts and shorter observations at various times during the day, using the Apple “Notes” application for the Mac and iPhone. I usually have 4 or 5 topics going that eventually might become posts. Every morning, I also check out news items and other bloggers’ posts related to disability, sometimes queueing them up to read later. These might inspire the posts where I link to articles and other blog posts, and add some comments or ideas of my own. I have a list of bloggers I read all the time, I check Twitter, Tumblr, and somewhat less often Facebook. I also have my Google News page set to highlight stories related to disability. This is a pretty effective tool, expect for the articles mentioning professional baseball players who are on “the disabled list”.

Once an idea reaches a certain state of completeness in my mind or my notes, I usually write it in about an hour or maybe two. Then I spend about half an hour or so editing, add graphics when possible, and post. I try to post at least one piece of writing by early afternoon, and one other item … an interesting picture, video, or brief thought … by dinnertime. I also cross-post most things to my Tumblr site, and I post links to everything I do to Twitter.

This process works for me, in that I have mostly managed my goal of daily activity on the blog. One thing I’d like to improve is my editing process … ideally giving most longer pieces a full day to edit before posting. That takes willpower, though, and so far I’ve had a hard time resisting that “Post” button.

This is a Blog Hop, and I am tagging the following disability bloggers: Ellen Seidman of Love That Max, Christina Stephens the AmputeeOT, and Sarah Levis of Girl With The Cane. I look forward to seeing their responses!

Buy It: "The Other Sister"

This film is underrated, despised, actually, by most of the pop culture enthusiasts and movie critics I respect. The reason, I think, is that it is an unusually pure example of a bad movie with very good disability depictions at its heart. Yes, once again we have non-disabled actors portraying disabled people. To be sure, Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi go overboard and seem to have their eyes fixed on intensely craved Oscars. At times, the characters’ adorableness drifts into condescension. Yet, through it all, we get a strong statement in support of freedom, integration, and the dignity of risk for people with intellectual disabilities. Plus, if you care to dig a little deeper, the film can prompt interesting discussions about disability and social class. At the very least, this should be required viewing for anyone applying for direct care and support jobs in the developmental disability field.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Followups, weirdness, and some of the finest disability stuff on the Interwebs.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

• Buy It: “Parenthood” Season 5

Monday, August 18, 2014

• Light Blogging Day / Video

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

• Two Disability Cultures - Followup
• Video Of The Day: Inclusion

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

• More Disability Podcasts

Thursday, August 21, 2014

• Weird

Friday, August 22, 2014

• Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 2.5, Mini-Cast
• Video Of The Day ... ASAN Speech

Saturday, August 23, 2014

• Podcast Notes & Previews
• Arguments Not Worth Having

Arguments Not Worth Having

Watching the “Ice Bucket Challenge” phenomenon become the hit social media trend of this summer, I have decided to start a new series on this blog: Arguments Not Worth Having.

Here are three right off the bat:

1. Goofy disability awareness or fundraising campaigns.

2. The unbeatable popularity of fundraising for cures.

3. Language that likens disability to war or a fistfight.

I haven’t fully worked out the criteria for determining which arguments I believe are not worth having, but they involve some combination of the following factors:

- The thing is something disability-related that non-disabled people really like.

- A non-trivial number of disabled people seem to like it, too.

- The thing is something I don’t like, or I think it’s silly, or I feel uncomfortable with it, but it doesn’t really offend me.

- I could make a logical, consistent argument against the thing, but I would really have to work at it, and the argument would have at least two or three distinct layers to get through.

- The likelihood that anyone will be convinced or even understand my thinking on the thing is below 20%.

- There is a 90% possibility that at the end of the argument, I will sound like an over-educated, unemotional robot with no human feelings or sense of humor.

- The thing is stupid, but not harmful. The consequences of leaving the thing alone are low.

Podcast Notes & Previews

Four episodes in, and I am fairly pleased with how the new podcast is shaping up. At the same time, I am much more aware of where I need to improve. For instance:

• When I'm recording just my own voice, I'm better reading an exact script. I'm not good speaking extemporaneously. I can't seem to find the "flow". I would be a terrible rapper. The problem is that this makes the actual content sound less interesting. It’s also a lot of work writing out everything I’m going to say, and that leaves less time and attention on thinking about what I actually think about the shows I am reviewing.

• On the other hand, I am really looking forward to doing reviews with guest hosts, the first of which is with Maddy Ruvolo, of the Disabled Girls Talk Podcast, to discuss "Friday Night Lights”. I hope that a conversation will sound more natural than a monologue, and lead to smarter insights and personal reactions.

• I think that in my first full review, I tried to answer too many questions, and make too many observations. I need to come up with a format where each TV show or character review deals at most 3 or 4 main points, or themes, or measures of quality. Expect experimentation with format in the next few episodes.

• Over the next few months of shows, I hope to explore some basic questions about disability on television … like why “representation” of disability matters, whether “offensive” depictions can do good, and whether it is possible for a show to address real life disability issues directly without being preachy.

If you haven’t listened to any of the podcast episodes yet, give them a try. You can listen in several different ways:

1. Listen here at the Disability Thinking blog, using the embedded players, like these:

2. Visit the Disability.TV page

This is a separate page just for the podcast. There’s a tab link for it at the top of the Disability Thinking blog. The Disability.TV page looks like a blog, but you won't find anything on it except for each episode, dated and organized, with an embedded player. It’s a convenient place to see all of the podcast episodes listed in order.

3. Subscribe, with iTunes or Stitcher

These two services operate a bit differently, but they both automate things so you always have new episodes ready to listen as soon as I produce them. And, you can save them, delete them, or reorganize them on your computer or mobile device however you like.

Upcoming Episodes of Disability.TV:

August 29
Ironside (New Series)

September 5
Friday Night Lights

Guest Co-Host Maddy Ruvolo

September 19
Game Of Thrones, Part I

Guest Co-Host Alice Wong

October 3
Game Of Thrones, Part II

Guest Co-Host Alice Wong

October 17
Glee

Guest Co-Host Cheryl Green

Full reviews are every two weeks. In between, I'll continue to do Mini-Casts, shorter episodes with a variety of bits like listener feedback, surveys and quiz questions, and special topics related to disability and popular culture.

Please do leave comments and suggestions for making this podcast better!

Video Of The Day ... ASAN Speech

One of my favorite things about the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is the way they speak about the rights, dignity, and experiences of autistic people within the context of a broader disability experience. In this speech, Ari speaks of the experiences and concerns of people with Blindness, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and other disabilities as comparable with Autism, without ever actually making that specific point.

This is one of the best, most emotionally resonant, hard-hitting disability rights speeches I have ever heard.

Via the Autistic Self Advocacy Network Tumblr blog.

Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 2.5, Mini-Cast

This week's Disability.TV podcast is up. It’s a “Mini-Cast” in which I take a look at “disability tropes, narrative markers we can use to map out how disability is portrayed on TV, using the excellent resource, TVTropes.org.

Next episode: Friday, August 29: Ironside (New Series).

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to Disability.TV at iTunes, or with Stitcher.

Weird

Disabled people aren't weird. We're normal ... just like everyone else. Nothing to see here! What are you looking at?

Of course, we ARE weird. The point is, it's okay to be weird. In fact, under the right circumstances, being weird can be kind of fun. That includes even disability-weird.

More Disability Podcasts

Here are three more disability-related podcasts I’m exploring:

The Think Inclusive Podcast

A terrific podcast on reforming Special Education, with a strong pro-inclusion orientation. Many of the episodes are interviews with education experts and inclusion advocates. The podcast is hosted by Tim Villegas, who runs the Think Inclusive website. I recommend starting with Podcast #010 How Long Can We Wait For Inclusive education?, featuring Tim's interview with Dr. Cheryl Jorgensen. Their conversation ends up being a strong and complete introduction to the central question facing advocates of inclusion ... why are kids with disabilities still so often educated in segregated settings?

Disability Now - The Download

This is a British podcast similar to the BBC's "Ouch!" show, but with somewhat more emphasis on disability policy in the British government. My tentative though on listening for awhile is that UK disability policy is simpler and less layered than in the US, but not easier, or even much better for disabled people. The podcast also covers aspects of disability culture and practical adaptation.

Hash It Out With Jane

I have only listened to one episode ... Jane Hash's interview with the creator and star of "My Gimpy Life", Teal Sherer ... but I'm hooked already. Jane is a great interviewer and picks great guests to talk with. Her style is pretty straightforward, but with a bit of an "alternative" bite. Even if you don't immediately get some of the "in" jokes and references to disability community notables, it's easy to get into the spirit of things with Jane and her guests. So in a way, the podcast is another good introduction to at least part of the disability culture community.

All three podcasts are available to subscribe in iTunes.

I'm still looking for even more active disability podcasts. If you know of another one, or are thinking of starting one, let me know in Comments or by email.