Andrew Pulrang, Gotta Watch It! - September 25, 2014
I just posted my review of the second episode of “Red Band Society”. It’s getting a bit better, with some welcome small doses of reality.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Ken Jennings' Tweet
 | KenJennings Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair. 9/22/14, 2:52 PM |
A few thoughts:
- A great many “ableist” comments are sort of true if viewed from the twisted perspective of an especially ignorant or shallow non-disabled person. This Tweet, however, is not only insulting, it is transparently wrong. The conclusion is the direct opposite of the experience of just about every person who has seen a "hot" person in a wheelchair “Hot" people in wheelchairs usually make people feel happy, optimistic, even (ugh) inspired.
- There are hilarious comedians who have disabilities who make truthful, self-depracating jokes about disability, but I cannot imagine any of them riffing on how sad it is when disabled people are also really attractive.
- There are hilarious comedians who have disabilities who make truthful, self-depracating jokes about disability, but I cannot imagine any of them riffing on how sad it is when disabled people are also really attractive.
- I find it fascinating that Jennings took the trouble to make his joke gender neutral.
- Based on a perusal of Ken Jennings’ Twitter feed, he seems to be a nerd who desperately wants to be a duedbro. I saw several other jokes there about sexy ladies, none of them worth more than a chuckle, and only mildly, generically offensive. A real, live misogynist would find them pretty tame. I suspect he hit on this one because he’s literally brainstorming every oddball, vaguely sexy “observation” he can think of, and then rotating them directly into his feed.
- There are at least three commenters who are offended that people are offended. Because of course there are.
- Most of these jokey kinds of things don't offend me personally. They don't wound me. What bothers me is a larger question. Why is it still mostly “okay” to make jokes about disabled people?
- As of this moment, there were 180 Retweets and 367 Favorites for this Tweet, and about 70 negative comments. So, I guess Jeopardy's Ken Jennings must be right.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Buy It - "Sherlock", Season One
So, the question is … Is the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes disabled? Is he autistic? Is he, as the character himself asserts, a “high functioning sociopath?” If he is one of these things, and not just a weird genius, does it change how we appreciate the character and the TV show?
Whatever. It’s tons of fun, especially Season One.
"Gaslighting"
Yesterday, I finally looked up the precise meaning of a term I’d heard dozens of times before, but never really understood. The term was “gaslighting”, as in, “to gaslight someone”. It describes a type of psychological abuse, and according to Wikipedia, it is named after a film that depicts the practice.
As I understand it, “gaslighting” is when one person deliberately makes another person question his or her own perceptions and sanity, by repeatedly telling the person he or she is crazy, stupid, or irrational, or by engineering situations so that they actually seem so bizarre to the person, that it reinforces the idea that they have lost their minds or can’t trust their own thoughts. Reading about it in exact terms, I realize that I have seen it happen to disabled people, though I don’t think it has ever happened to me personally, and I desperately hope that I’ve never done anything like it to anyone else.
I was prompted to look up “gaslighting” by a Tweet from Heather Ure, @heatherurehere, who frequently writes about how people with various forms of autism are often victimized in this way. If you stop and think a moment, it makes a terrible kind of sense that people who actually have cognitive impairments or differences, who have already internalized doubts about their own mental reliability, would be vulnerable to someone deliberately encouraging them to doubt themselves.
The main thing I wonder now is whether we should use the same term, “gaslighting”, for both deliberate and unconscious forms of this phenomenon. The effects are awful and corrosive either way, but I can imagine people doing this to others, not out of malice or desire to deceive, but maybe out of an over-active sense of responsibility to govern other peoples’ rationality and self-awareness.
I think we all need to be alert to this risk ... not just of being the victim, but of being the perpetrator. There is a difference between giving someone we perceive to be struggling a “reality check”, and destructively undermining their self-confidence. It’s even worse if the person really does have difficulty understanding things as they are. If it's hard to keep your head together, more self-doubt doesn't help, and reminding someone for the umpteenth time that there's something "wrong" with them isn't truth-telling. Usually, it's just thinly veiled cruelty.
Monday, September 22, 2014
More Advice For Businesses
How To Fix Your Service Experience For Customers With Disabilities -- What Kanye Should Have Learned
Micah Solomon, Forbes - September 14, 2014
Newspaper and magazine articles offering tips on serving customers with disabilities are pretty common, and usually quite bland. Maybe that is because providing good service and equal access to disabled customers is really pretty simple. Still, I liked this article more than most of the genre. I also really appreciated how Mr. Solomon connects with the Kanye West story … something lots of people have heard about, but who may not go beyond a surface-level outrage. Since Kanye is nothing if not a businessman, what he did should be understood as bad business as well as poor social awareness.
I’ve got a few pieces of advice for businesses, too. Again, none of it is particularly new or innovative. The problem isn’t that nobody knows how to serve people with disabilities. The problem is the lack of follow-through.
Here are my ideas:
1. Put accessibility on all of your “To Do Lists". I say “all” of your To Do Lists, not just one special To Do List, because you need to consider physical accessibility and individual accommodation strategies for all of your functions and events, and re-evaluate constantly. And you have to add us to your lists, because history has shown that for some reason, disabled people are among the most easily and frequently forgotten constituencies.
2. Tell employees it’s okay for them to break some rules and procedures if it will allow them to help a disabled customer. Good policies are no good if they aren’t implemented, and that’s done by employees, rarely by one boss. Don’t try to create a plan for every contingency. Instead empower your employees to be responsive to what each customer needs, including those who have disabilities.
3. If your business’ image is “retro”, “vintage”, “quirky”, or “hipster”, make sure it isn’t also “inaccessible”. Charming little businesses housed in 150 year old business districts are trendy and feel progressive, but they are often far less accessible to disabled people than the dreaded “big box” stores out in suburbia. Old-fashioned front stoops and a narrow little doors with cute brass knobs may be are like “disabled customers not wanted” signs. Some businesses may not have much of a choice of locations, but if you do, and if you’re putting money into decor, think about investing in accessibility. And then do it.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
ADAPT Little Rock Protests ... What They're All About
This is a really well-edited video that explains last week's ADAPT protests in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I feel like ADAPT protests always risk conveying sensational images without adequately explaining what they are protesting. To the ordinary observer, not familiar with disability policy, ADAPT protests can look spectacles whose only object is excitement and personal empowerment for its participants. ADAPT protests certainly are both exciting and empowering experiences. For disabled people, especially, there is something really ... special ... about using our physical differences and uncompromising presence to make useful nuisances of ourselves.
However, ADAPT is also an utterly practical, disciplined organization, laser-focused on very specific policy goals that are at the heart of what most concerns disabled people ... getting the help we need to survive, but with the personal control and autonomy we need to thrive as well. There are well-tested, proven, cost-efficient ways to do this that work for people with all kinds of very "severe" disabilities, and that do not involve nursing homes or similar "facilities".
That's my favorite part of this video montage, the local reporter who perfectly described ADAPT's point. We don't want more facilities that protect and control us. We want services that we control and that liberate us to live and work in our own communities like everyone else.
Weekly Wrap-Up
History, Red Band, and Game Of Thrones.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Friday, September 19, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
In The Driver's Seat
Charisse Hogan, Shared Abilities - September 20, 2014
I wish Charisse’s video had been available when I was young.
I learned to drive during my Senior Year in college, which isn’t really all that late, I know. At the time, though, it felt like I was finally getting around to trying one of the few things I had put off in my life specifically and solely because of my disability. It was scary and alluring at the same time. And the first, most important obstacle actually to experience the physical sensations of driving. After literally only about 10 minutes of tentative driving in an empty parking lot, with an instructor and a driver’s seat piled high with with text books and pillows, I knew that driving was going to be possible. In fact, I quickly got the feeling that it wasn’t even going to be that difficult. Before that, I couldn’t imagine doing it.
Maybe that’s a disability thing. We have a little more trouble imaging in doing certain things other people do, and there are both physical and psychological hurdles to even trying.
I was also very fortunate not to be tied in with a formal training program of any kind. I hired a local high school driving instructor who also had a talent for adaptation. He worked up the measurements for changes to the driver's seat and pedal blocks, which a local car customization shop implemented. Of course, I didn’t have any neurological issues to deal with … for me it was mostly about my height. I often wonder how things would have gone for me if I had needed adjustments more completed than a lifted and tilted seat.
Anyway, given the scheduling difficulties she mentions, it’s great that Charisse started the process early. If she gets her license this year, she’ll have gotten it a year earlier than the age I got mine.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Disability.TV Podcast - Game Of Thrones, Part 1
On this week’s episode of Disability.TV, Alice Wong and I discuss Tyrion Lannister, the most prominent and loved of many disabled characters on “Game Of Thrones”. You can find Alice’s commentaries on disability issues and popular culture at the Disability Visibility Project, The Nerds Of Color, and on Twitter @SFdirewolf.
Upcoming Podcasts
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
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Video Of The Day
It seems appropriate to embed this Amputee OT video, seeing as how two of the main characters on “Red Band Society” are amputees. Another detail I didn’t mention was that Leo never wore a prosthetic in the Pilot, at least not that I noticed. Since it isn’t clear how long ago his leg was amputated, so maybe he’s not ready for one yet, but it could be just another authenticity fail on the part of the writers.
Red Band Society - Pilot
I just posted my review of the “Red Band Society” Pilot episode. There are lots of flaws here, but with luck, some of them could turn into assets if the writers have the understanding and courage to make it happen. I think those of us who have disabilities, and had them in our youth. will find enough here to keep us engaged, and not entirely consumed with nit-picking.
Andrew Pulrang, Gotta Watch It! - September 18, 2014
Stay tuned. I’ll be reviewing every episode of this first season, on Thursdays after Wednesday night airings.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Meanings Of "Special"
Arianna Prothero, Education Week - September 16, 2014
This is one of the best articles without a definite axe to grind that I have read about inclusion vs. self-contained special education.
I have a feeling that one of the factors influencing why some parents of disabled kids move away from inclusion, towards "special", disability-focused charter schools is that people with different backgrounds and life experiences have different ideas of what "special" means.
To some, "Special" is:
Notable, remarkable, tailored, individualized, enriched, prestigious.
To others, "Special" means:
Stigmatized, ostracized, relegated, segregated, sheltered, excluded.
Some peoples’ experiences of “special” are positive, suggesting consumer goods and services that are individually crafted, made to order, as opposed to manufactured and standardized.
Others understand “special” more in terms of unwanted attention, deprivation, even punishment.
Sometimes, the word “special” drips with irony and smarm. It's a euphemism. It's supposed to be a good thing, but isn’t always meant that way.
Other times, it’s more straightforward. Sometimes "special" really means "better" or "exceptional".
For some of us, the idea of "special" schools will always have a sinister connotation. For others, "special" schools suggest students who are cherished and given generous attention, with the most advanced and expert educational techniques.
The flip side, of course, is that some view "mainstream" public schools as the most promising way to ensure inclusion and capability in adult life, while others see them as rigid, bureaucratic institutions where anyone different is neglected and uniqueness is ground down into bland conformity. Or worse, they are ultra-competitive and socially ruthless, while "special" schools are safe havens where especially sensitive, atypical students have a better chance to thrive.
All of these images and feelings are in active play, related to but also separate from verifiable, quantifiable facts about how education of kids with disabilities works, what it does and doesn’t do for them, and how it succeeds and fails to meet parents’ needs and expectations.
I find whole topic complicated and upsetting.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Buy It - Game Of Thrones, Season One
If you haven't watched the show, what are you waiting for? And don't forget to tune in to my Disability.TV Podcast discussion of disability on "Game Of Thrones", with Alice Wong (@SFdirewolf), posting this Friday, September 19.
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