Disability Futures

In honor of our Badass Disabled Women from earlier this year, here’s an all-new set of people who are making political noise (complete with enough links to fill up an afternoon, you’re welcome). And best of all, there are so many more of us out there than I can cover in one article — so this list will unfold in multiple volumes. That’s how hard we’re killing the game.

Let’s start with eight exemplary trailblazers who are preparing the way for you.

Tammy Duckworth

“I will go to work in the Senate looking to honor the sacrifice and quiet dignity of those Illinoisans facing challenges of their own. After all, this nation didn’t give up on me.”

https://masonlife.gmu.edu/video-life/life-video-laura

Text Transcript:

[Sound of people talking at a bar]

[Clapping]

Nina G: My friend Dave, when he introduces me, he says, “What can I say about Nina that wouldn’t take a really long time for her to say about herself?”

[Music 01 begins: Fast-paced drumming with piano/keyboard, fun]

I say that I’m America’s only female stuttering stand-up comedian and I’m America’s favorite because I really am the only one. Like, I’m the only stuttering stand-up comedian in the U.S. and in fact I used to — when I first started doing comedy, I said I was the world’s only, but there was a woman who popped up in England, um, so I cannot use that “world’s only” anymore.

Alice Wong: And are there certain words where you know you’ll stutter a little more, so if you want to emphasize a certain word, but you know you’ll stutter, will you kind of reshape the structure of what you will say?

Nina G: You know? I try not to. I try not to. But there is one, one sentence that I do say that I know that I stutter more on this sequencing, and it works well comedically. And so, it s the only time that I stutter for a comedic emphasis which is… orgasms and stuttering have a lot in common because they both take a hell of fucking long. (laughter) So…

The wildly popular map app will now tell you whether locations are suitable for people with access needs — and it’s thanks to a group of Googlers who worked on the feature in their “20% time.”

It’s a famous policy of the Californian search giant: Employees can spend 20% of their time working on other projects unrelated to their main jobs. Gmail, AdSense, and Google News all started as 20% projects. These days, Google employees need to get permission from managers to get this time, and most don’t do it. Google HR boss Lazlo Bock says it has “waxed and waned” over time. But some still do — and Rio Akasaka is one of them.

By day, Akasaka is a product manager on Google Drive, the cloud file-hosting service. But in his 20% time, the Boulder, Colorado resident is a product manager working on accessibility features for Google Maps.

For the last year, he has worked with a team of contributors (between five and 10 of them, all in all) on introducing accessibility guidelines to Google Maps. The map tool already displays some information about venues and locations, like busy-ness, opening times, reviews, and atmosphere. Alongside this, it will now display information about their suitability for people with access needs.

How does Google Maps know? It sources the answers from its “Local Guides” — Google Maps users who answer questions about the places they visit on everything from cost to quietness. Earlier this year, queries on accessibility were added to the questions asked to these users, and with millions of answers, Google now feels confident enough to start displaying the results on its listings.

The only citizens who have no legal protections against non-emergency restraint and seclusion are our kids while they are at school. This fact has resulted in students being locked in what amounts to closets and sensory deprivation rooms for hours on end, sometimes having to defecate and urinate on the floor or on themselves.

The use of restraint and seclusion practices in non-emergency situations is robbing students, especially those with disabilities, of their safety, dignity and opportunity to learn.

Lt. Governor Calley has worked relentlessly over the past year and through the lame-duck session to ensure these much needed reforms are approved.

For more than 25 years I have been assisting teens and adults with intellectual disabilities and the families, schools, agencies, state governments, law enforcement, and courts that support them, to untangle the confusing web of facts, fears myths, laws and unique learning strategies that surround social development and responsible expression of sexuality in our culture for individuals with intellectual disabilities and unique learning styles.

“Today’s actions are an example of the FDA considering flexible approaches to regulation that encourage innovation in areas of rapid scientific progress,” said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D. “The guidance will support consumer access to most hearing aids while the FDA takes the steps necessary to propose to modify our regulations to create a category of OTC hearing aids that could help many Americans improve their quality of life through better hearing.”

House Bill 4724, introduced by Rep. Lisa Lyons, and Senate Bill 1114, introduced by Sen. Wayne Schmidt, would create a seventh path to absentee voting. Prior to the election, a lawfully registered and qualified person could apply for an absentee ballot with their local clerk, if they do so in person and subject to the same security and ID procedures that guard our process on Election Day. This requirement would apply each time the person desires to vote using this new path.

The time is right for secure absentee voting because Michigan’s plan to do so increases integrity and security. The legislation calls for the same identification requirements as on Election Day before voters may cast an absentee ballot.

“Aspergers Are Us” first made headlines in 2011 as the first comedy troupe comprised entirely of men on the autism spectrum. Now the troupe is the subject of a new documentary, also titled “Aspergers Are Us,” which was released on iTunes this week and will be available for streaming on Netflix in December.

“I had come across an article about [‘Aspergers Are Us’] and I loved everything about them,” director Alex Lehmann told The Mighty. “Their energy, their sense of humor, everything drew me in. Their troupe defied my preconceptions of autism, which meant I could make a movie where I was asking a question instead of presenting an answer.”

The documentary follows the four friends, who met at summer camp when they were younger, as they prepare for their final show together as “Aspergers Are Us.”

“[W]e hope people become interested in us as comedians and want to see us be funny on stage,” Britton said. “Much less importantly, we hope people stop tokenizing Aspies and see us as a legitimate comedy troupe.”Comedians Jack Hanke, New Michael Ingemi, Ethan Finlan and Noah Britton have grown accustomed to performing in front of audiences, but the spotlight is about to get a lot larger for the members of the “Aspergers Are Us” comedy troupe.