Schedules

The Schedule Talk

It Keeps Going - August 20, 2014

(Via the Wheelie Wifee Tumblr blog)

This blogger goes on my favorite disability blogger list because she focuses on practical ways to combat depression, aimlessness, and inactivity … risks I think disabled people face more than most. This is especially true for those of us who do not have jobs. There are usually good reasons why we don't, but whether or not you are even in the market for a job, it can get really depressing when it seems like you have nothing to do every day.

I would like to note three more benefits for disabled people of making and using a schedule, beyond the benefits discussed in the article:

1. It keeps you ready for the rhythms of employment, in case the right opportunity comes along to get back to the workplace.

2. It provides you with coherent answers to job interview questions about what you’ve been doing while unemployed.

3. If you need to apply for disability-related benefits, a detailed daily schedule can help document the extent and limits of your activities.

For my schedule, I use Apple Calendar and Todo, applications that work on my Macintosh computer and iPhone.

Disability.TV Podcast - Friday Night Lights

On this episode of Disability.TV, Maddy Ruvolo and I discuss the critically acclaimed series about the high school football town of Dillon Texas, and one of the longest running and nuanced disabled characters on TV, Jason Street. You can find Maddy on Twitter @maddyruvolo, and at the Disabled Girls Talk Podcast, which she hosts along with Emily Ladau.

Upcoming Podcasts

September 19

Game Of Thrones - Part 1

Guest Co-Host Alice Wong

September 26

Mini-Cast

October 3

Game Of Thrones - Part 2

Guest Co-Host Alice Wong

October 10

Mini-Cast

October 17

Glee

Guest Co-Host Cheryl Green

October 31

Ironside (2013)

Guest Co-Host Kamilah Proctor

Click one of the links to subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or Stitcher.

Pistorius Verdict - Part 1

Oscar Pistorius trial: Why murder was ruled out

BBC - September 11, 2014

The BBC quotes from the judge’s initial decision, that Oscar Pistorious is not guilty of premeditated murder, but that she will pass a sentence on him tomorrow for “culpable homicide”:

"The accused had reasonable time to reflect, to think and conduct himself reasonably.

"The accused knew that there was a person behind the door, he chose to use a firearm which was a lethal weapon, was competent in the use of firearms as he had received training," she said.

The judge also took time to reject the defence arguments that Mr Pistorius is more likely to confront danger because of his disability - both his legs have been amputated.

"Vulnerability is not unique - There are many people in this country without any form of security at all," she said. [Emphasis mine]

Whatever else comes out of this case in the end, this rather oddly worded statement nevertheless addresses the disability issue pretty effectively. Disability can certainly be a vulnerability when it comes to the threat of physical violence. However, it would be too much to give everyone with a verifiable vulnerability extra leeway to shoot people. Each case should be judged on its individual merits, and there are many situations where disabilities aren’t vulnerabilities at all.

That, coupled with the fact that the judge says Pistorius did not act reasonably, actually says quite a lot.

4 More Tips For Parents

TALKING TO KIDS ABOUT DISABILITY (AND VOLDEMORT)

Mary Evelyn, What Do You Do Dear? - September 5, 2014

This is a terrific article with great advice for parents of disabled kids, and kids with disabilities themselves. Slack-jawed stares and uncomfortable questions are often the first and most frequent encounter disabled people have with the social stigma of disability. So, I would like to add four more suggestions for parents on how to help their children handle disability-related pointing, staring, and asking.

1. Age makes a difference ... the age of your child, and of the person doing the pointing, staring, or asking. If you child is older than the person asking the questions … if your child is a teen and the other kid is 5 years old … it's a good opportunity to help your disabled child take on age-appropriate responsibilities. Teach them that as the older child, they should be a little kinder and more forgiving to the younger child than they might want to be. Help them recognize situations where they can help make someone more comfortable with and respectful about disability.

2. Help your child recognize situations where frank disability questions are okay. For example: doctor’s appointments, certain educational settings (though not necessarily all of them), and dealing with police, firefighters, and EMTs.

3. Empower your child to establish appropriate personal boundaries. Teach them effective, constructive ways to respond when people cross those boundaries. Let your disabled child know they have a right to be treated respectfully, and that they don't have to put up with everything from everybody, even from adults, just because they have disabilities and need help and supports that most other people don’t. It’s good to be appropriately grateful. It’s dangerous to feel beholden.

4. Help your disabled child develop effective and efficient ways to explain their disabilities to others. Having a brief, straightforward answer to the most “frequently asked questions” can be practically helpful, and give one added confidence.

AHS: Freak Show Trailer

Another trailer for American Horror Story: Freak Show.

A few thoughts on this particular brand of “problematic” disability depiction:

I have seen depictions of disability on TV that disturbed me, but didn’t piss me off. I generally don’t mind disability depictions that are upsetting. It’s disability depictions that feel wrong and harmful that bother me.

On paper it is a simple matter to distinguish between what’s in the actual “text” and what is “meta”. For instance, if a AHS “Freak Show” includes scenes where audiences gasp and swoon on viewing physically deformed people on display, the text itself is offensive, but the show may or may not be criticizing the behavior of the freakshow audiences, portraying them as ignorant or nasty. It's possible to have a progressive depiction of regressive behavior. But what if we, the audience at home, not only tut-tut about those old-timey rubes and their insensitive attitudes, while at the same time we also kind of join in their morbid curiosity about lookin’ at freaks? The lines blur, and writers can get away with a lot by insisting that they are just commenting on things as they are, or were.

I hope freak shows don’t become the next hipster affectation or Steampunk theme. People should know about the times, not so very long ago, when people both cynically and sincerely believed that gaping at deformed people was enlightening, like participating in science, appreciating the wonders of nature. But I don’t want people to start thinking it’s okay again, even nostalgically.

What's To Be Done?

2 Teens Arrested For Beating Mentally Challenged Delaware Man

CBS Philadelphia - September 7, 2014

I never know how to approach these kinds of incidents.

I am usually a “systems" kind of person. I’m generally more interested in the beliefs, practices, and social structures that lead to stuff like this than I am in the moral depravity of the perpetrators. However, sometimes it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they’re just evil … or that they have momentarily given in to evil, whatever that might mean. Or, maybe this is one of those unspeakably sad instances where one group of people used to being abused and reviled by a hostile society gets a momentary jolt of rough power out of abusing and reviling another person who is powerless in society for other reasons.

Also, I can’t help thinking that neither the man’s physical and emotional pain, nor the kids' disgusting glee at beating him, is the worst thing about this. The worst thing may be how it reinforces the belief by some people … especially families of disabled people … that inclusion and community integration are dangerous, idealistic dreams, and that the best thing for intellectually disabled people is to be sheltered, protected, and supervised at all times.

It gets harder to argue “the dignity of risk” when this kind of thing continues to happen. Sheltering isn’t the answer, but the path to greater freedom and inclusion is not smooth.

Meanwhile, what's to be done with the teens who did this? What's to be done with anyone who does anything like this to an intellectually disabled person? In situations like this, finding the right balance between punishment and education is much harder than usual. I want desperately to do both to the full.

Disability.TV Podcast - Supplemental

Updates, listener feedback, and a request for help!

Disabled TV Character Survey - Update

Some favorites are starting to emerge in the Disabled TV Character Face-Off. 16 of the 32 characters in the initial survey have votes, and a few of those have quite a few … most notably, Dr. Gregory House, Sheldon Cooper, and Walter White, Jr.

That’s only based on 9 people taking the survey, though, and I would like to get at least 20 peoples’ votes before setting up the character one-on-one “face off” brackets.

So, if you haven’t voted already, please do … just click here!

(P.S.: It occurs to me that I should probably say that this survey isn’t a marketing tool. Nobody will get your contact information for any purpose. I have no way of knowing who voted, unless you say so in the comments. It’s just an opinion survey … nothing more).

Another Podcast Update … And Request

I just finished a Skype discussion with Maddy Ruvolo, one of the co-founders of the Disabled Girls Talk podcast, about the disabled characters in Friday Night Lights. It was so much fun and comfortable, and the results so much better than my solo reviews, that I may stop doing solo reviews entirely.

I have tried five times to record my podcast episode on the new Ironside, and I just can’t get through it. Not because the new Ironside is a complicated show … it’s definitely not,  or because I don’t know what I think about it ... it’s a pretty straightforward show. I just think I do better talking about TV shows and disabled characters with someone.

Which leads to my request. I do eventually want to do a podcast on the new Ironside, so I’d like to find someone discuss it with me, using Skype. If you watched any of it last fall, you’re ready to go. If not, you can watch it on your computer using Hulu.com. I can’t pay you, but I will be happy to promote your blog, podcast, Twitter feed, or whatever you have that you would like to promote to an audience interested in disability issues.

It’s fun! And despite my struggles with it, the new, late, lamented Ironside is fun to talk about. If you’re interested, just send an email to: apulrang@icloud.com.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Telethons, characters, and fundamentals.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

• Disabled TV Character Face-Off - Survey

Monday, September 1, 2014

• Two Views Of Autism
• Buy It: “The West Wing"
• This

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

• Telethon Thoughts

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

• Normal People Sick

Thursday, September 4, 2014

• 5 Fundamentals Of Disability Awareness
• Recommended: “Our Birth Story”

Friday, September 5, 2014

• Podcast Update
• Picture Of The Day

Picture Of The Day

From The Life Of A Chronically Ill Babe Tumblr blog, via King Mom.

Podcast Update

At the rate I'm going, I anticipate uploading the next Disability.TV podcast sometime tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are a few links about the subject of tomorrow’s podcast … the new version of “Ironside”:

Ironside - Internet Movie Database

Ironside - Metacritic

Disability Thinking, “Full Review: Ironside”

Here’s an excerpt from TV critic Alan Sepinwall’s brief review:

"This Ironside is a hunk (the bullet wound that took the use of his legs left him functional in other areas) and an iconoclast with his own special headquarters and team of detectives who get to play by their own rules and give heartburn to the traditional NYPD command. Despite a committed, angry performance from Underwood, and a very good one from Brent Sexton as Ironside's grief-stricken ex-partner, a lot of the show plays like a parody of hard-boiled cop show cliches.”

Check in tomorrow to see where I agree and disagree, a little less than a year later.

Also, don’t forget, you can subscribe to the Disability.TV podcast using iTunes or Stitcher.

Recommended: "Our Birth Story"

One of the gulfs between disabled people born with their disabilities, and parents of kids with disabilities, is how we think about the birth itself and that first discovery of disability. While all of us with disabilities can understand, intellectually, that it had to be one of life’s worst moments for our parents, we don’t want to dwell on that, because somehow that implies that we are one of the worst things to happen to our parents. We know that's not true either, but that can be hard to remember, given how many parents talk about it.

Meanwhile, special needs parents crave some recognition and understanding about what they went through … a connection and empathy that might be impossible for other parents to give. Even we, their children, can’t fully connect, because we have our own complicated issues with “that day” in the hospital.

All of which is just an overlong introduction to an extraordinary podcast episode I just listened to. It is called “Our Birth Story”, and it is the latest installment of Sawbones: A Marital Tour Of Misguided Medicine.

Sawbones is hosted by Justin and Sydnee McElroy, husband and wife. Justin is a podcaster and comedian, and Sydnee is a physician. Together, they take a humorous look at some of the bizarre twists and turns of medicine throughout history. Lately, several of their shows have been related to reproduction and birth, because Sydnee was pregnant with their first child. This episode is a departure because it is about their actual birth experience, and it is only funny in the sense that these two can’t help being funny … otherwise it is an amazingly vivid description of what happens to parents when things don't go according to plan in childbirth.

Their little girl Charlie is fine, so their experience isn’t a direct parallel to disability. However, I really felt that regardless of the ultimate outcome, Justin and Sydnee had a lot to say that I’m sure parents of kids with disabilities can relate to, especially the “white knuckle terror” of knowing something is wrong and being powerless to do anything about it … and not even being told what’s happening. At the same time, Justin and Sydnee are smart and level-headed people, so they are able to view their experiences with at least some objectivity, which makes the podcast bearable and informative.

Listening in my car, I though a lot about my parents and their "that day" ... including my father, who was a Pediatrician.

I would be especially interested in what any special needs parents think of the podcast.