Biathalon (live)
2:00 AM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Sled Hockey, Team US vs. Russia
3:00 PM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Monday, March 10, 2014
Necessary But Not Sufficient
I heard a phrase the other day that struck a chord with me, that I think can help us deal with the idea behind that infamous Scott Hamilton quote:
“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
The phrase I heard was, “… necessary, but not sufficient.”
I think this more properly expresses the role of mental attitude for disabled people. Having a positive, optimistic attitude is probably necessary for achieving independence, happiness, or whatever is your definition of success. But attitude alone isn’t enough to overcome the real barriers we encounter. A positive attitude may be necessary, but it is not, by itself, sufficient.
Now, what constitutes a “positive attitude”? That is another question entirely.
Oscar Pistorius: Which Kind Of Horrible Person Is He?
Associated Press - March 10, 2014
It has been a year and a few weeks since Oscar Pistorius was arrested for the alleged premeditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The trial is finally fully underway, so we are hearing again about what was either a massively tragic accident, or a terrible, barbaric crime. I don’t have much to say that’s relevant to a disability blog, and only a few thoughts of any kind:
1. I am more persuaded than I was at first that it might really have been an accident. That Pistorius vomited in court on hearing the details of his girlfriend’s wounds doesn’t sound like the reaction of a deliberate murderer. In fact, his overall behavior in court seems exactly like how a person would react if they had accidentally killed their significant other in a bloody and gruesome way. I am not saying that I’d be ready to acquit him yet, but his story seems more plausible to me now than it did right after Steenkamp was killed.
2. If it was an “accident”, it certainly won’t be what anyone would call an “innocent mistake”. It seems like whatever else he is, Oscar Pistorius is a gun nut … and a reckless one at that. It sounds like he is exactly the kind of guy who loves to show off his newest firearm to friends, family, and maybe especially slightly horrified pretty women. Evidence mounts that Pistorius is the kind of guy who will act all reverent and masterly about his weapons, assuring people that they are perfectly harmless if you know what you’re doing … “See, it’s not loaded, here, I’ll show you …” BANG.
3. Also, I understand that South Africa has a lot of violent crime including “home invasions”, but what kind of siege mentality causes someone to fire multiple shots into a bathroom with a closed door, when you never actually saw who is on the other side … and you know your girlfriend is in the house with you?
So, unless he’s a cold-blooded murderer, or a man with a hair-trigger temper and a gun fetish, then he’s one of those massive assholes who mostly go through life doing no more damage than pissing people off, but who occasionally run into situations where their toxic obsessions, fears, and arrogance … plus the right weaponized tools … combine to produce life-taking and life-ruining results.
All of which probably has noting at all to do with his disability, or his athletic abilities. We say it all the time. Disability doesn’t make people noble or angelic. We come in all varieties, good, bad, and tragically stupid.
Representing Men
As I have noted before, there seem to be a lot more photos of women with disabilities looking amazing and sexy, than there are of men. Is the “selfie” trend mostly a woman thing? I don’t know. In any case, that’s why I was so excited this morning to find this Tumblr blog, which is simply photos of men in wheelchairs, in a variety of situations, clothes, and moods. Thankfully, there are no captions, and no obvious point being made, other than to provide representation. Yes, there are all kinds of guys who use wheelchairs. Yes, they do all kinds of things. Yes, they have a variety of personal styles and attitudes. Here they are.
I think this gets at why disabled people who hate “Inspiration Porn” still post and share photos of disabled people. We aren’t inspired by the specific scenes, or by blandly positive slogans, so much as we are tickled to see so many different people with whom we share the disability experience. We don’t all work in the disability field, or have access to a large in-person disability community. Once in awhile, it’s helpful to see confirmation that the statistics are correct … there are a lot of us out there, even if we don’t meet other disabled people most days. And frankly, though I do enjoy looking at those photos of fantastic disabled women, I occasionally feel that the male disabled population is somehow missing from the Internet disability community.
“hot guys in chairs” is a welcome corrective.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
I Can't Stand Watching "Parenthood", But I Can't Stop Watching It
Yesterday afternoon I started watching last week’s episode, which I believe picks up on the idea of Adam and Christina starting up their own school for kids with Asberger’s, but I cut it off ten minutes in and went to do something else. I found myself disagreeing in a very deep, instinctual way with just about everything coming out of Adam and Christina’s mouths. Mind you, I can’t quite explain what was wrong. As I have often felt about this fascinating storyline … which has run through the entire 5 year series … the depiction of Asberger's seems to be reasonably accurate and free of truly ugly stereotypes. However, something is just a bit “off” about Adam and Christina’s approaches to Max. They are portrayed as more educated and enlightened than most, but no matter what they are dealing with, something always seems to be missing from their calculus.
I feel like "Parenthood" is capturing some important truth about parenting kids with disabilities ... something possibly uncomfortable. But, I can't quite articulate it yet.
I feel like "Parenthood" is capturing some important truth about parenting kids with disabilities ... something possibly uncomfortable. But, I can't quite articulate it yet.
Then there is what I still believe is a hidden irony of the Max storyline. People with Asberger’s are supposed to be self-centered and lacking in empathy. That’s the stereotype anyway, and probably the most common understanding that laypeople have about Asberger’s and other types of Autism. Yet, time and again, it is Adam and Christina who seem to me the ones who are self-centered and cut off from Max's feelings. The evidence is subtle, but on so many occasions the real "issue" at hand was Adam or Christina's pride, fear, dreams, and craving for "normalcy", not Max's needs or wishes. And they seem entirely unaware of it, which I find both irritating and transfixing. I think there’s a good chance, too, that the writers, (including show-runner Jason Katims who has an Autistic child), aren’t aware of this, either. There is a layer of meaning there that nobody intentionally added, and I'll bet a lot of people haven't noticed.
From a cultural criticism point of view this is heady stuff, and fun to try and pick apart. But from a disability standpoint it can be utterly exasperating. Sometimes, like yesterday afternoon, I just don’t have the gumption to grit my teeth through it.
In case I’m not clear, I love “Parenthood”, and think that its portrayal of Max is extremely valuable. If nothing else, it paints a pretty accurate picture of what passes for enlightened thinking about Autism these days, among people with a little bit of knowledge about it and lots of good intentions. Plus, there are other stories going on, too. Max and his family are only one part of the large Braverman clan, all of whom have both endearing and annoying qualities. I’m sure I’m not the first to say something like this, but anyone who makes Amber cry, I want to punch them in the face. It’s that kind of show.
I’ll try to wrap it all up and come to some conclusions when the current season is done.
Winter Paralympics - Monday, March 10
Alpine Skiing (Super G) (live)
2:00 AM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Paralympics Day 3 Coverage
12:00 Noon Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Weekly Wrap-Up
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Thusday, March 6, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Winter Paralympics - Sunday, March 9
Cross-Country Skiing (live)
1:00 AM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Paralympics Day 2 Coverage
11:00 PM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
A Parking Problem (That Should Have Been) Easily Solved
Jon Yates, Chicago Tribune, “What’s Your Problem?” - March 9, 2014
So many barriers that individual disabled people face are easy to solve, except that nobody in a responsible position will focus on it for ten minutes and make a decision. Here, a court worker with MS has a really hard time walking from where she’s allowed to park her car, into the building where she works. She identifies a specific, practical fix for the problem … let her and a couple other disabled workers in the same building use some handicapped spots in a much closer lot normally reserved for judges and other bigwigs. These handicapped spots apparently usually go unused anyway.
The problem is either that she doesn’t know who is the right person to talk to in order to get a decision made, or that there is nobody in that particular workplace who is responsible for such decisions and knows that they are. It took the intervention of a newspaper, and the head of the whole Chicago court system, to get the situation resolved. Without knowing anything else about the case, several thoughts occur to me:
• Municipalities and some municipal departments are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act to have an appointed ADA Coordinator, a manager within the organization who handles all accessibility and disability accommodation problems. Does the Chicago Court System have an ADA Coordinator? What about the City of Chicago?
• I can also easily imagine a situation where there IS an ADA Coordinator for the court system, but the person either doesn’t realize they are, or they have been poorly trained for the job and / or nobody listens to them. “Oh, by the way Joe, you’re our ADA Coordinator now. I dunno, some disability thing …”
• Note that the solution they came up with, which seems fine by the way, nevertheless does NOT involve letting disabled workers park in the VIP lot. It sounds like it would have been fine, but I’ll bet those spots are massively coveted perks in that bureaucracy, and they’re not about to hand them out just because they make practical sense!
• It would be easy to see this as a fairly minor problem. But, the quotes from Ms. Walsh’s daughter highlight how an “inconvenience” can quickly become a serious barrier. Ms. Walsh’s family are worried about it already. What if she did fall on the ice one day? Would she really injure herself? Would her continued employment there become an “issue” in her family, causing more anxiety because she’d be worried about them being worried? “Little things” like this can snowball quite quickly. It’s one reason why we sometimes here what sound like ridiculous stories of disabled people losing a job because of something silly like parking, or lack of a really simple accommodation.
• This thing of plowed snow being piled into handicapped parking spaces is so widespread that carelessness alone can’t be the only reason for it. I suspect that it is a fairly common idea floating around public works departments and facility maintenance crews that, a. There are too many handicapped spaces overall, b. They go unused “all the time”, and therefore, c. It’s perfectly fine to plow snow into handicapped spaces since “everyone knows nobody uses them”. It’s just a hunch, mind you, and you’d never get anyone to admit on the record this is what they think.
• I hope someone in the local EEOC office looks into how Ms. Walsh’s inquiry was handled. It’s possible they weren’t quite as rude as the article portrays. Also, I would agree that this kind of problem really is too small for the EEOC … not small in importance, but small as in easily solved without lawyers and a federal agency. The EEOC staffer should have helped Ms. Walsh solve the problem herself.
• What the Chicago Tribune reporter did to get the problem solved is exactly what Centers for Independent Living are meant to do. Chicago is a big city, with more problems like this than 12 CILs could handle, much less one, but I still wonder why it took the Chicago Tribune to solve this problem.
• Come to think of it, the article offers virtually no useful advice as to who to consult if similar disability accommodation problems crop up in other workplaces.
There are enough disability-related problems that are legitimately hard to solve. Can't we at least get our acts together to fix the easy stuff?
There are enough disability-related problems that are legitimately hard to solve. Can't we at least get our acts together to fix the easy stuff?
Friday, March 7, 2014
Doors
The first time I wrote anything about my disability for public consumption, I wrote about the difficulties I had with heavy, hard-to-open doors in my high school. It was supposed to be funny, and I guess it was, at least to other highschoolers, because classmates would still occasionally mention the article two or three years later. I can’t honestly remember whether the doors got any easier, or if peoples’ behavior changed for the better, but I think maybe a few people got a taste of what life with disabilities was like. I think they learned that what I found to be problematic was something they’d never thought of.
Winter Paralympics - Saturday, March 8
Alpine Skiing (live)
1:00 AM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Opening Ceremony (taped)
1:00 PM Eastern
NBC
Paralympics Day 1 Coverage
5:30 PM Eastern
NBC Sports Network
Friday Favorites
I’m starting a new thing. Every Friday I will highlight three of my favorite disability-related websites. Occasionally, like today, I will add a bonus site that isn't about disabilities, but that might be useful to disabled people.
I first read columns by Mike Ervin in New Mobility Magazine, back in the early ‘90s, when I was a shiny new employee at a Center for Independent Living. I had always admired columnists, especially funny ones, and it meant a lot to me then to see a columnist with a disability who took disability as his main topic. I lost track of him after a few years, and then I read a blog post by Roger Ebert, in which he raved about this hilarious disability blogger calling himself “Smart Ass Cripple”. I visited the blog right away, and read several posts, one after the other. I laughed a lot, and also thought I noticed a familiar theme or two. What finally really tipped me off was his reference to his Alma Mater, the “Sam Houston Institute for Technology”, (SHIT), which is what he called the institutional care facility he lived in during his youth. After exploring the nooks and crannies of the blog, I finally discovered that yes, Smart Ass Cripple = Mike Ervin. Nice to see you again!
Smart Ass Cripple isn’t the only disability blogger with my kind of dark sense of humor. What makes him better than most is that most of his posts have not one, not two, but at least THREE layers of meaning. His stories are deceptively simple, his jokes sometimes corny. But soon you notice the meaning under the surface. Then, after maybe reading it again, or perhaps a half hour afterwards, you realize that he’s made a third, quite radical and often serious point. We all should be reading Smart Ass Cripple, and remember … think about it while you laugh, and let the deeper meanings sink in.
This is one of the very first Tumblr blogs I subscribed to, mainly on the strength of a series of ultra-short, Twitter-style statements about the perils and pitfalls of life in a wheelchair … “Wheelchair Problems”. These were presented with large, plain font lettering, centered in solid color boxes in a variety of primary colors. It was a very simple, very effective series and a great way to structure a disability blog. After awhile I started seeing fewer of these “Wheelchair Problems” boxes, and more diary-type blogging … still very short and sweet … about the blogger’s everyday life comings and goings. She started posting photos of herself, confirming that she is a fairly young woman who uses a manual wheelchair. I had guessed that, due to the tone and style of her writing. It’s not that her writing was poor or immature … far from it. It's just that she sounded like a smart, observant teenager, perceptive in some ways, but inexperienced in life. Soon, she started a lot about getting ready to leave home for college. Since then, most of her posts have been about this new adventure, told in little snippets of her daily life, with stories about her small victories and frustrations not just wheelchair-related, but of all kinds. She’s also got a great Twitter feed that you need to follow as well (@forrestgimpp).
I read Wheelchair Problems because for her casual, personal writing style, which says a whole hell of a lot while only rarely saying anything “important” in and of itself. I also read her because it reminds me of when I was first going to college, so her writing makes me feel a bit old and a bit young at the same time.
Think Inclusive is my newest favorite disability website. It isn’t an individual blog, but more like a news or magazine type website. It is run by a Tim Villegas, a Special Education teacher who is committed to “Inclusive” education. I have only sampled a small portion of the articles on this website, but it is crystal clear that it has a very progressive, student-centered, and disability-positive point of view. While there are certainly pros and cons to how divisive the disability world is becoming, especially concerning kids with disabilities and their education, the divisions are real and have meaning, and it is great to see a site geared towards other “professionals” that clearly takes sides … and the side I would choose. At the same time, there’s no “anti” flavor to the site. There are ideas and even groups the site’s contributors oppose, but what we read about most is what they believe in, and take the time to back up with real-life evidence and perceptive, compassionate writing.
I am interested in all sorts of disability issues, but I have a particular passion for how children and youth with disabilities fare in school and in their families. I feel like in “Think Inclusive” I have found a place where I can trust the motives, and learn more about a disability topic I care about.
Bonus: How To Adult
This is a fairly new YouTube series, with only 3 episodes so far, but I think it’s going to be a winner. The title is pretty much all you need to understand the premise. It is an informational series for young adults, soon-to-be adults, and anyone who missed out on any the stuff adults are supposed learn about. It is for people of any age, but from the tone and style, I’d say the main audience is supposed to be “young people”. In fact, if the presenters aren’t careful, they could overdo the slang, quick cutting, and pop culture references. I’m pretty far removed from youth culture myself, but several times I wondered if the presenters might even be a few years out of date in their style. Still, it’s a great idea, and I look forward to seeing more videos.
How To Adult isn’t about disability, but I think disabled people need this kind of thing more often than most. Many of us, particularly those of us who grew up with disabilities from childhood, overlooked these practical little skills while we struggled with “more important things”. We might have done wonders to graduate from high school or college, assemble a support network, and piece together resources to achieve independence, but then find that we don’t know how to wash our clothes properly, or how to introduce ourselves to a neighbor. How To Adult may offer us another painless way to learn the stuff we should already know.
More favorites next Friday!
Thursday, March 6, 2014
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