Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Prom Thoughts And Regrets
Huffpost Good News - April 29, 2014
Here we go with another disability-related prom story, with some similarities and key differences from the story I commented on yesterday. I guess prom and disability is a potentially rich vein for melodrama, uplift, and regret.
I never attended the prom. I slightly regret it now, mostly because I know part of the reason I didn’t was that I just assumed the whole scene wasn’t “for me”, because of my disabilities. However, thinking back to the way I looked at things then, I can’t imagine actually putting myself through the traditional Prom routine. I can definitely picture going if attending solo to hang out with friends had been a socially recognized option, but as far as I knew at the time, it wasn’t. I certainly can’t picture going the tux, limo, corsage route, unless maybe me and a girl had decided to do it as a semi-goof. The whole traditional “formal” dating scene was something that I was excluded / excluded myself from, partly because of my disability and piss-poor body image, but absolutely partly because I didn’t buy into that scene anyway. If I’m honest with myself, it’s hard to pinpoint where one part of my attitude ended and the other began.
This is a good example of why it's ridiculous to talk about our disabilities and our “true” selves being separate, or whether we would jump at a cure if one was available. I can’t really separate my viewpoint on high school social life from my identity as a disabled person. My disabilities didn't fully determine my outlook, but they heavily influenced it.
Would I have gladly become a high school jock or Prom King candidate if I hadn’t had disabilities? Did I turn out nerdy, intellectual, and bookish because those are all mental pursuits, where physical strength and stamina don’t matter? I have no idea. I might as well wonder what I'd be like if I had grown up in Soviet Russia, or had been born in 15th Century Venice. In that sense, my disabilities and I are inseparable.
I do know that there are quite a few things I might have enjoyed that I avoided trying because they seemed like too much hassle, as I saw because of my disabilities. I'm not sure if the prom is one of them, but there are definitely things I regret not trying because of my disabilities. Maybe some other time I will make a list.
Someone could write an interesting Disability Studies thesis on students with disabilities and the traditional American high school prom. I wonder if anyone has done a comprehensive study of different high schools’ policies and practices around proms and other dances, and whether any of them consciously try to be more inclusive of students with disabilities. I would also love to see a survey of “human interest” news stories about disabled kids attending the prom.
If you have any disability-related Prom experiences or thoughts, please share them!
Monday, April 28, 2014
Questions Not Asked
I am feeling a little better now, so let’s give this a shot ...
Nineveh Dinha, Fox 13 Salt Lake City - April 25, 2014
First of all, credit where it’s due … Fox 13 included an actual quote from Kaidn Shield. We heard a little bit of what the disabled guy in the story is actually thinking. Granted, it wasn’t so much an evaluation or personal opinion on the subject … it was more of a factual report on what he expects to happen at the Prom. That’s still a lot better than the heartwarming disability stories where the disabled person is a voiceless object.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure there’s any way to cover a story like this without it coming off as condescending. I think what’s really missing here is some acknowledgement that there are bigger issues involved.
- Why, exactly, is Kaidn often “left out” of school activities? His mother says that his disabilities prevent him from participating, but he doesn’t appear to have any significant physical impairments, so is it social stigma that’s really at issue? Taylor Roberts is planning on studying Special Education and disability work … what is her theory? What would she do to improve disabled kids' overall inclusion in schools?
- Have Taylor and Kaidn known each other for a long time? What do Taylor’s friends think of what she’s doing? Has anyone made any snotty remarks or questioning of her motives, and if so, how would she reply?
- Does the school create any barriers, even inadvertently? For instance, do students have to have a date to come to Prom, or can they come solo and just have fun with their friends? That might take some of the social pressure off for all sorts of kids who for various reasons aren’t ready to “couple up”.
I suppose the reporter might have asked these or other substantive question, but there wasn’t time to fit them into the segment. It would be nice maybe to get a followup story that focused on the social forces that affect kids like this everywhere.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Weekly Wrap-Up
Monday, April 21, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
A Piece Of Our History
Ollibean - January 24, 2013
For those might not be aware, Ed Roberts was as close to a “Father” as the Independent Living Movement has. He had pollo as a child, and for the rest of his life he used a wheelchair and needed equipment like an iron lung or respirator to breathe. He and some of his fellow disabled students started an activist-oriented, DIY disabled students organization at UC Berkely in the late ‘60s. That organization formed the basis and model for the hundreds of Centers for Independent Living all over the United States, serving people with disabilities of all ages and all degrees and kinds of disabilities.
The “504 Rallies” were a nation-wide wave of protests to put regulatory teeth into the first comprehensive disability rights law in the United States -- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The rallies are widely recognized as the true beginning of the Disability Rights Movement … mass protests and sit-ins at Federal offices organized and carried out by disabled people themselves, not their families or professional allies.
Ed Roberts gave the speech almost exactly 37 years ago, April 30, 1977, after sit-ins lasting 3 weeks resulted in full implementation of Section 504. Do read the whole thing at the link above. Here are a few of the parts that mean the most to me:
"We have to begin to think very clearly, that what we need to do is help raise the consciousness of our fellow Americans with disabilities, to help them come out from behind, from the back wards, from the institutions, from the places, the garbage heaps, of our society. We have to stop the warehousing, the segregation, of our brothers and sisters.”
"We have begun to ensure a future for ourselves, and a future for the millions of young people with disabilities, who I think will find a new world as they begin to grow up. Who may not have to suffer the kinds of discrimination that we have suffered in our own lives. But that if they do suffer it, they’ll be strong and they’ll fight back.”
“ … we, who are considered the weakest, the most helpless people in our society, are the strongest, and will not tolerate segregation, will not tolerate a society which sees us as less than whole people. But that we will together, with our friends, will reshape the image that this society has of us."
"We are no longer asking for charity. We are demanding our rights!”
"And we will march ahead together. And nothing will stop our achieving equal opportunity, and the right to move about freely in this society.”
"We will storm the schools and open them up. We will be sure that each person with a disability who has special needs has the money and the power to gain what they need to move them back into the mainstream of society. And we will assure a future for the millions of people who are not now disabled. You know, you come to think of it, that we are assuring a future for a lot of people we don’t know at all, and who don’t know that their future may be, very similar to ours.”I don’t know whether to feel great or terrible that these words from 37 years ago are still bracing, even radical. They crackle with energy and purpose and specificity, in a way that vague feel-good generalities about “awareness” just don’t. Sadly, though we have made progress, a lot of the goals Ed talks about remain unfulfilled.
Sorry everyone. I’m just feeling old and nostalgic today!
Photo Of The Day
From The Perks Of Being Disabled Tumblr blog, via Just Rollin On. The Perks Of Being Disabled is on a roll, so to speak, posting lots of photos like this of customized wheelchairs.
"Criptiques" Podcast
I finally listened to the first Criptiques Podcast, featuring an interview with one of my favorite disability bloggers, Emily Ladau. Emily and her podcast interviewer, Catlin Wood, say during their discussion that they are making each other nod their heads a lot, especially describing being visibly disabled in college and only gradually coming to feel connected with a disability community or "crip culture". I nodded so much I worried my head would fall off.
We need more disability-related podcasts like this.
The podcast accompanies the recent publication of Criptiques, by Caitlin Wood, an anthology of essays on disability by people with disabilities. I look forward to the next episodes. And I ordered the book, too.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Deaf And The Police
I’m a not legal expert, but this all seems like good advice for Deaf people dealing with the police. Quite a lot of it could be helpful for people with other disabilities as well … including mobility impaired, cognitively impaired, and mentally ill people. I found it interesting that on the YouTube page for this video, a sizable minority of the commenters were down on this video. Most of them I believe are Deaf themselves, based on the context and tone of their remarks. Basically, they seem to be saying that Matlin’s advice won’t work because the police are either actively hostile or completely irrational. That’s an understandable view if you have had your rights violated by police, but I don’t think it necessarily negates the advice. She’s not saying to Deaf people, “Behave yourself and everything will be fine.” She’s saying be cautious, understand a bit of where the police are coming from, and use good sense and proper timing in fighting for your rights.
Disability News
It has been awhile since I did a post on random disability-related new stories. Here are three that caught my eye:
Michelle Diament, Disability Scoop - April 22, 2014
It is hard to tell, but it sounds like the couple’s case was dismissed on technical grounds, not on the actual issue. That’s what a dismissal means, I think; the judge doesn’t rule on the question, which means it remains undecided. That is a slightly better situation for the plaintiffs, Forziano and Samuel, than if the case had been fully heard and a decision rendered. On the other hand, it is puzzling why the judge felt their discrimination case was based on their marital status rather than their disabilities. Did their attorney do a poor job, or make the wrong legal arguments? This is an important case with implications for all intellectually disabled people living in group homes. Do these residents have an absolute legal right to marriage and cohabitation, just as they have a right to food, shelter, and disability-related care? I hope it gets fully heard so they can at least know where they stand.
Paul Walsh, Star Tribune - April 24, 2014
As with the similar Starbucks incident a few months ago, I doubt that it’s McDonald’s corporate policy to bar service animals from their restaurants. What these incidents seem on the surface to have in common is on-site, middle management staff who are poorly trained and maybe a little drunk with power. Given how badly these large food service companies treat their workers, I kind of hate to sic Human Resources on them, but it’s probably the true answer to this continuing problem of basic, entry-level disability rights not being respected. It is also worth noting that lawsuits may be the most effective way to get these incidents treated seriously by corporate headquarters.
Michelle Diament, Disability Scoop - April 25, 2014
Yesterday, I followed Ari Ne’man’s Tweets from FDA hearings on this issue. I don’t like it when the disability rights movement portrays opponents as mustache-twirling villains, but the people using this shock devices in "aversive therapy” seem pretty chose to evil. On the one hand, I can accept that that they may in fact be working with extremely difficult people with communication and behavioral problems that are extremely hard to deal with. On the other hand, they seem to rely on the same kind of premise that military and intelligence agencies use to justify torture. They ask us to accept the premise that the only alternative to their rather nasty practices is some kind of unthinkable disaster. For “torture” it’s an act of terrorism. For the Judge Rotenberg Center it’s violence and self-injury. The thing is, in both cases, the premise doesn’t hold up. They have shoddy evidence that what they’re doing is effective, and a different view of what autism is seems to produce better results using gentler methods and probably a bit more acceptance of “abnormality”. Also, I think it is important for people to understand that this is not about “shock therapy” used to treat other mental health conditions like depression. That probably should be banned, too, but it is more clearly a treatment. What the FDA is considering banning is shocks used to change behavior through painful punishment. Basically, it’s like training your cat, except that instead of water from a squirt gun, it’s painful electric shocks, and it’s not a cat, it’s a human being … a human being who’s disability specifically messes with how they process stimuli, and their ability to understand things and communicate. I can’t help thinking that on some level, this practice boils down to angry, frustrated practitioners repeatedly punching a button on a remote, yelling, “Act normal, dammit!” through gritted teeth.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
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