Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 14 - Ironside (2013)

Kamilah Proctor and I conduct a postmortem on the short-lived 2013 remake of Ironside, starring Blair Underwood. We discuss our histories with the original Ironside and the new, compare notes on what we liked and didn’t like in the new version, and speculate on what might have been … and what still could be with this still vital TV character with a disability. Special thanks to Rebecca Coakley of the National Council on Disability for suggesting Kamilah as a guest host. You can find Kamilah on Twitter @KamilahProctor, and at the Martin M.S. Alliance Foundation.

If you haven't already, listen to my solo review of the original Ironside, in Episode 3 of the podcast.

Another Blogging Note ...

I'm taking a short blogging break, from now until Monday, November 3. It's got nothing to do with that difficult post I mentioned yesterday. It's just that I'm working on a grant proposal for my local CIL, and I want to have the bulk of it done before the end of this weekend.

I will, however, finish and post the Disability.TV podcast featuring my discussion with Kamilah Proctor, about the 2013 Ironside remake. That will still come out Friday.

Blogging Note ...

I am working on some kind of blog post about that recent case in the United Kingdom where a judge ruled that a mother had the right to order a stop to care and feeding for her disabled daughter in a hospital, leading to the girl's death. She wasn't "brain dead", and she wasn't on mechanical life support. She died because the hospital, at her mother's request, backed up by a judge, stopped giving her food and water.

As I say, I am working on a blog post about this, but right now I'm having trouble being coherent about it. So, it will just have to wait. Maybe tomorrow.

Bullying

Obama Administration Clarifies Anti-Bullying Protections For Students With Disabilities

Joy Resmovits, Huffington Post - October 22, 2014

I have often wondered why I was never bullied in school.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that I should have been picked on mercilessly. I was very short and weak. I looked weird. I wore glasses. I was brainy and nerdy. I went to high school in a semi-rural, semi-suburban community in the early 1980s … decades before diversity and tolerance became prominent concerns in public schools.

Yet, I can’t recall a single incident of bullying, based on my disabilities or anything else. Not everyone liked me, but that’s normal. To my knowledge, I was never picked on because of my differences, and my relations with classmates never caused more than occasional anxiety or stress. It’s possible that people talked about me in bullying ways behind my back. But if I never became aware of it, then who cares?

If I escaped bullying because of things that I did right, I have no idea what they were.

If it was because of things my school did right, I don’t know what they were or whether their practices would be applicable today.

Was it because my disabilities were only physical, not mental or cognitive?

Were kids in the ‘80s nicer than they are today?

Was I just lucky to attend an especially harmonious, well-adjusted high school?

I know that to people who have directly or indirectly experienced bullying, this is an enviable mystery. But it feels like a mystery well worth trying to solve, since stopping or curtailing bullying seems to be such a puzzle. Most articles on the subject focus on simply recognizing bullying and deciding to fight it. Few offer any hints about how to do it … for schools, parents, or even disabled students themselves.

P.S.: This is the 1,000th post at Disability Thinking.

Home Care, Overtime, & Unintended Consequences

Raise Pay for Home-Care Aides? Disability-Rights Groups Say No Way

Josh Edelson, Bloomberg Businessweek - October 23, 2014

CDPAANYS Report: The High Cost of Overtime – with Solutions

Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State - October 24, 2014

This is one hell of a mess of an issue, and the headline on that Businessweek article is horribly misleading. Here’s how it breaks down:

- Most disabled people who use home care don’t pay for it out of pocket. It’s usually paid for by Medicaid. Medicaid sets the pay rates, so if you are disabled and get home care through Medicaid, you have no control over how much your aides are paid. You can’t give them a raise, and you can’t, on your own, start adding overtime to their paychecks. In fact, under Medicaid, you don’t write the paychecks at all.

- Aides should be paid for overtime. Or, rather, they should be paid more overall, and have better benefits. Most disabled people agree, and would love to be able to pay their home care aides better. But again, most disabled people have no control over what their aides are paid.

- Medicaid is a joint federal / state program, but rates and budgets for home care are set by states. So, while the federal government certainly has the authority to insist on aides being paid for overtime, it can’t force states to increase their home care budgets to pay for the increased costs. If they do, then fine. But states that don’t respond to the mandate will have to cut or cap hours of service. As both of these articles point out, the 50 states have different budgeting schedules, so even under the best case scenario, at least some states won’t increase their budgets until well after the overtime mandate goes into effect.

- A few of hours a week less service can truly make the difference between independence and being forced into a nursing home. Home care programs already pare services down to the absolute minimum for each individual person served. Most disabled people can’t just “make do” with less aide time. It’s not a psychological thing. Home care aides aren’t like security blankets, there to make disabled people feel safe. Arbitrary reductions in services upset the whole foundation of disabled peoples' independence.

- Home care aides are not butlers, maids, or cooks. They aren’t quite the same as nurses in a hospital, either. Home care work lies somewhere in between. But the key thing to keep in mind is that for the people who need it, home care isn’t optional. It isn’t a luxury. It makes independent life in the community possible, not just easier.

- There are probably ways to make this work for disabled people while also increasing pay to home care workers, but getting it all done, in every state, before the overtime mandate is due to kick in is a long shot.

Apart from the actual damage this whole thing might do if it isn’t handled correctly, it is a prime example of what can happen when well-meaning policy wonks … with a lot of good instincts … don’t know squat about how disability-related programs actually work.

Sadly, this mainly technical problem threatens to pit disabled people against workers, and vice-versa, when in fact both constituencies have so much in common.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Awareness, Employment, and More Politics ...

Sunday, October 19, 2014

• Tipping

Monday, October 20, 2014

• Awareness For What?
• Disabled Character Face-Off: Second Round

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

• Questions For Candidates

Thursday, October 23, 2014

• Employment Talk
• Podcast Co-Hosts Wanted!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

• Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 13 - Mini-Cast
• Tweet Of The Day

Tweet Of The Day

FDR and pals!

The History and power of our community @crippower @ADALegacy @ADAYouthMatter pic.twitter.com/AMzHjkNXz3
— ADA Legacy Tour (@ADALegacyTour) October 24, 2014

Disability.TV Podcast - Ep. 13 - Mini-Cast

In this Mini-Cast I make a pitch for more guest hosts, take stock of how the podcast has done so far, and look ahead to the TV shows I want to talk about through the winter and into spring. Help support the Disability.TV Podcast by making a Paypal donation, or shopping at the Amazon Affiliate links on the Disability Thinking Blog. You can also leave comments there, or email them to: apulrang@icloud.com. Plus, take a moment to post an iTunes review or Tweet what you liked about the episode. Subscribe at iTunes or Stitcher.

Podcast Co-Hosts Wanted!

So far, I have worked with four fantastic guest hosts who talked with me about disabled characters on TV for the Disability.TV podcast.

Maddy Ruvolo and I compared notes on the paraplegic ex-quarterback Jason Street on Friday Night Lights.

It took two episodes for me and Alice Wong to do justice to the many disabled characters on Game Of Thrones.

Cheryl Green and I cofessed our love-hate relationship with Glee to the podcast listening public.

And next Friday’s show will feature a detailed postmortem on the 2013 remake of Ironside, with co-host Kamilah Proctor.

The podcast is off to a great start, but there are lots more shows I want to talk about, and I’m looking for people to discuss them with me. It’s a pretty simple process. We have a roughly hour-long Skype discussion about the TV show in question and how disabled characters and disability themes play out. Are they stereotypical, groundbreaking, realistic, inaccurate, three-dimensional, flat, cliché, original, uplifting, or revolting ... helpful to the cause, or horrific?

Or, more simply, do you like the show and its disability depictions or not?

Here’s a list of shows with disabled characters I plan to cover in upcoming podcast episodes:

Parenthood

Sherlock

Red Band Society

Breaking Bad

Star Trek ... selected episodes of any or all of the series

American Horror Story: Freak Show

The West Wing

Life Goes On

I Claudius

Push Girls

Deadwood

Carnivale

Derek

My Gimpy Life

Little People, Big World

Let me know if you are interested in any of these shows, and if you might be willing to co-host the podcast with me. My email address is: apulrang@icloud.com.

Employment Talk

Disabled Girls Talk Episode 2: Employment

Maddy Ruvolo and Emily Ladau - October 20, 2014

Maddy Ruvolo and Emily Ladau discuss what it’s really like for young disabled people to be looking for work right now. They are joined by Maria Town, of the Youth Policy Team at the Office of Disability Employment Policy and the CP Shoes blog and Twitter feed.

Maddy, Emily, and Maria are realistic about the dire employment rates and barriers to improvement, without being too depressing. Best of all, they go way beyond the usual bullet points and problematic clichés about disability and employment … employers just need to “look past” our disabilities … they should hire us because we’ll be more loyal than non-disabled workers … we’re all totally ready to work and we never have any problems as long as we’re given a chance.

They talk about transportation barriers, how important those “first jobs” are for teens with disabilities, and the fact that sometimes, our disabilities really do interfere with our ability to work to full our full capacity.

This podcast is well worth a listen. I can’t wait to hear their next episode!

Questions For Candidates

It's mid-term election time here in the USA. All seats in the House of Representatives are open. A third of the Senate seats are open. Plus, there are legislative and executive elections (judicial, too in some places), in states, counties, and municipalities all over the country.

Apart from the usual angst about "negative campaigning" and "partisanship", the most frustrating aspect of mid-term elections is that voter turnout is always much lower than years when the President is up for election. Yet, electing Members of Congress is probably more important, not less.

Another sad fact is that disabled people still vote at a lower rate than most other constituencies. A lot of that is due to inaccessible polling places. I suspect the new wave of Voter ID laws will have a negative effect as well. I also believe that too few disabled people can easily identify how their disability experience translates into meaningful policy issues and, therefore, votes. The other side of that coin is that few candidates are ever challenged to come up with thoughtful, specific positions on disability issues. Nobody asks, so they don't have to think about it.

So, how about we ask? Here are some ideas that should be relevant enough no matter where in the U.S. you happen to live.

Ask candidates running for the House or Senate:

"What is your position on Sheltered Workshops?"

"What is your position on paying some disabled workers less than Minimum Wage?”

"Do you support the ABLE Act?”

"Do you support ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?”

Ask candidates for state office (legislator, governor):

"Do you know this state’s current percentage of disabled students in regular classrooms vs. the percentage in separate classes? What would you do to improve these numbers?"

Ask a similar question about Long Term Care in your state ...

"What percentage of nursing home eligible people are in nursing homes vs. the percentage getting support services in their own homes? What would you do to improve these numbers?"

Ask candidates for local office (county legislators, town or city councils, mayors, commissioners, etc):

"What can local / municipal government do to improve accessibility throughout neighborhoods, villages, towns, and cities?"

"What role do you think local government should play in meeting the needs of elderly and disabled citizens?"

Other issues you might want to bring up as partly disability issues:

Street and sidewalk maintenance, including snow removal where applicable.

Public transit and regulation of taxi companies.

Any well-known accessibility problems at major public facilities in your area.

Any proposed new nursing homes or sheltered workshop facilities.

Ask how “Community Development” programs are addressing accessibility issues.

If your state hasn’t done so already, ask about whether candidates would support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which can help many disabled people access vital services they have previously been denied because they just miss income qualifications.

When you ask questions about disability issues, don’t let on upfront what you think about them. It is important for candidates to know that, “I support the disabled” isn’t a position. Elected officials should learn enough about disability issues to have specific opinions about them. But again, they won’t unless we insist on it.

Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Second Round

Becky Jackson beat Artie Abrams in the first round.

The second round features two TV doctors who both have disabilities. Which do you like best?

Dr. Gregory House

House, M.D.

Actor: Hugh Laurie

Disability: Chronic pain, walks with a cane, prescription drug addiction.

Role on the show: Lead character of the show.

Dr. Kerry Weaver

ER

Actor: Laura Innes

Disability: Unspecified mobility impairment, always walks with an arm crutch.

Role on the show: One of the principal doctor characters in a large ensemble cast.

Voting in this round will be closed Monday, November 3, 2014.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Awareness For What?

Pink breast cancer awareness ribbons sell because they don't really say anything

Danielle Kurtzleben, Vox.com - October 20, 2014

For the second day in a row I’m recommending a seemingly unrelated article that I think actually does relate to disability.

A lot of what’s said here about the colored-ribbon approach to social campaigning applies to a good portion of what we call “disability awareness”. The term and many of its most widely-used techniques tend to be so vague and content-free that anyone can support them, no matter how they actually treat disabled people or view disability and disability policy. One thought I picked up from the Vox.com article is that maybe that’s okay. Maybe it’s good for the disability community to maintain a “big tent” that allows the maximum number of nominal supporters. Maybe there’s something to be said for disability simulations, inspiration porn, and bland corporate “disability awareness” seminars … at least for some folks.

I think what bothers me about these approaches is that they seem to crowd out other initiatives that are sharper-edged, challenging, and focused on specific change of the kind that makes life better for disabled people, and often meets real resistance. It seems like energy spent on becoming more “aware” of, say, Down Syndrome, tends to draw attention away from efforts to transition and close sheltered workshops, even if the two perspectives often agree on the issue. The general public will almost always prefer a feel-good, non-confrontational appeal with no moral dilemmas or hard choices involved.

I’m not saying that everything about disability always has to be confrontational. Heck, personally, I hate confrontation. But sometimes it can’t be avoided, and if you avoid it, you also avoid the kinds of changes that improve peoples lives, not just their “awareness”.