Monday, October 5, 2015

Weekly Reading List

Picture of a multicolored stack of books
For this week’s list, I picked 5 excellent pieces that I would describe as “Disability 101.” They don’t break any new ground or dig deep into disability culture, but together they would make a good introduction to modern disability life and thinking.

Elizabeth Cooney, The Boston Globe - October 5, 2015

This article covers just about all of the main concepts required to understand what “accessibility” is really about. It’s not just a bunch of obscure, nit-picky regulations. Each rule and each measurement standard relates directly to how disabled people live, and have a direct affect on whether or not we can get around in our own neighborhoods, towns, and cities.

Karin Hitselberger, Claiming Crip - October 1, 2015

There are lots of disability etiquette lists out there, covering pretty much the same things. What makes this one notable is that Karin offers “dos” for each one of her “don’ts.” I think that’s something we forget to do much too often.

Emily Ladau, The Disability Dialog - October 2, 2015

Emily does two very important things here. She raises the very difficult and extremely important issue of what happens to disabled people in personal and public emergencies. In doing so, she also underscores the fact that disabled people, ourselves, are equally responsible for planning emergency response, or failing to do so.

Andrew English, The Telegraph - October 2, 2015

At first I didn’t quite understand what this woman does, but when I finally got it, I was fascinated. It seems there’s a program in the UK that gives disabled people some kind of allowance specifically for transportation. You can use the money to pay bus fares, subway rides, or a driver. Or, you can use the funds to help buy or modify a car to make it drivable. Obviously, the amount of the allowance is crucial, and I wonder if you can choose to save up the allowance for a bigger purchase. But the model sounds great because each person can decide how to use the funds in a way that works best for them.

Alexander Presthus, CP Experience - September 30, 2015

Boy, did I nod my head a lot while reading this! Even though Alex focuses on Cerebral Palsy, what he says here I think is totally valid for youth with all kinds of disabilities. Parents of disabled kids should read this blog, too.

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