Disability Futures

Billions of emojis are sent every day on social media and on messaging services like Whatsapp. Despite ongoing efforts to make emojis more diverse with different skin tones and same sex couples, there is just one to represent disability – a wheelchair-user sign, often used as an accessible toilet sign.

We think this isn’t good enough. So we hope that our 18 new emoji designs will inspire Unicode, the organisation that oversees emojis, to represent disabled people in a positive way.

Check out our emoji designs below. You can download the images on a desktop by right clicking on them and clicking ‘save image as’. You can then share your favourite emojis as an image on social media.

These aren’t proper emojis just yet, but you can still share the Jpegs. Alternatively, just share this blog post. 

When I’m more balanced that fear dials down, but it’s still there.

The fear is balanced by the joy I experience being neurodivergent.   “Neurodivergence” is a positive reframe on having a “mental illness” diagnosis.   I generally think the diagnoses in the DSM have about as much legitimacy as horoscopes.   For me, that means they do line up to a degree, but it can be harmful or at least unhelpful to take them too seriously.   My diagnosis is Bipolar.   I have experienced acute mania and severe depression, and have had to endure four involuntary hospitalizations.

My experience of psychiatric “treatment” is an institutionalized oppression just like the other forms of power that haunt me and others.    I can’t do anything to change those forces.  At least not by myself. That’s about collective action.   Psychiatry needs to be dismantled and rebuilt, like all other systems of coercion and control. 

But what can I do?  12 step recovery has given me a great deal of serenity—largely through its foundational building block—the serenity prayer.

Accessible books will soon become more available to millions of people around the world, now that a groundbreaking treaty has been ratified.

In late June, Canada became the 20th nation to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty, which will significantly increase the number of braille and audio books available to people who are visually impaired or otherwise unable to read print materials.

“This is a game-changer for people who are blind, especially in developing countries,” said Dave Power, president and CEO of Perkins School for the Blind. “Access to books is core to our mission as educators, and we know that the Marrakesh Treaty will enable more people with visual impairments to meaningfully participate in school, employment and culture.”

With Canada’s action, the Marrakesh Treaty becomes binding on the 20 countries that ratified the treaty, including India, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Australia and Brazil. The treaty formally goes into force on Sept. 30, 2016.

The United States has not yet ratified the Marrakesh Treaty. The Obama administration sent the Marrakesh Treaty to the Senate in February 2016 and urged that body to ratify it. Perkins has information available for individuals who want to advocate for ratification.

Getting to be a valued member of the community should be the norm for all kids — but for kids with autism, it is too frequently not the case.

Jensen Caraballo shares his story of being institutionalized in a nursing home as a teen. Jensen spent over five years living in an institution, and he wasn’t the only one… according to research, more than 200,000 non-elderly people with disabilities in the U.S. reside in nursing homes. Join the fight for freedom of people with disabilities, and support the Independent Living Movement.

"I believe that losing my hearing was one of the greatest gifts I've ever received," says Elise Roy. As a disability rights lawyer and design thinker, she knows that being Deaf gives her a unique way of experiencing and reframing the world — a perspective that could solve some of our largest problems. As she says: "When we design for disability first, you often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm."

The U.S. Department of Education announced today a new process to proactively identify and assist federal student loan borrowers with disabilities who may be eligible for Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) loan discharge. This effort was called for by President Obama in his Student Aid Bill of Rights, which details measures to make paying for higher education an easier and fairer experience for millions of Americans. The Higher Education Act allows for loan forgiveness for borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled. By proactively identifying and engaging borrowers who may be eligible for TPD loan discharge, the Department is fulfilling its commitment to ensure that borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled have the information needed to take full advantage of the debt relief to which they are entitled.

"In 2012, the Administration took steps to streamline the process to allow for Americans who are totally and permanently disabled to use their Social Security designation to apply to have their loans discharged. But too many eligible borrowers were falling through the cracks, unaware they were eligible for relief. Borrowers like one such woman whose side effects from her breast cancer treatment left her totally and permanently disabled. After repeated attempts, she finally received a disability discharge—seven years after her first application," said U.S. Education Under Secretary Ted Mitchell. "Under the new process, we will notify potentially eligible borrowers about the benefit and guide them through steps needed to discharge their loans, helping thousands of borrowers. Americans with disabilities have a right to student loan relief. And we need to make it easier, not harder, for them to receive the benefits they are due."

The REV UP Campaign is coordinating a National Disability Voter Registration Week to increase the political power of people with disabilities while also engaging candidates and the media to recognize the disability community from July 11-15, 2016.

Click this link for an online voter registration form courtesy of RockTheVote!

Check out this article by Sarah Blahovec for more information: National Disability Voter Registration Week Is Coming. Here’s Why It Matters.

From July 11-15, tweet your story with:

“I #CripTheVote because_____________.”

Some things to consider when tweeting:

• What does political/civic participation mean to you?
• Why is it important that disabled people get involved politically?
• What issues are you most concerned about this election?
• What message do you want to send the candidates and other elected officials about the power of the disability vote?

The Supreme Court outlined the reasoning in its 58-page opinion as follows:

Although the State does not have a 
legitimate interest in preserving a painful and debilitating life that will imminently 
come to an end, the State does have a legitimate interest in providing positive 
protections to ensure that a terminally ill patient’s end-of-life decision is informed, 
independent, and procedurally safe. More specifically, the State has legitimate interests in (1) protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession; (2) protecting vulnerable groups—including the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons—from the risk of subtle coercion and undue influence in end-of-life 
situations, including pressures associated with the substantial financial burden of end-of-life health care costs; and (3) protecting against voluntary or involuntary euthanasia because if physician aid in dying is a constitution alright, it must be made 
available to everyone, even when a duly appointed surrogate makes the decision, and 
even when the patient is unable to self-administer the life-ending medication.

On June 25th, I saw Finding Dory after reading many positive reviews and recommendations from my disabled friends. I wasn’t disappointed. There was so much to unpack and process when I got home that I decided to write this review/essay.

I tip my crip hat to the artists, writers and directors of this latest gem from Pixar.

Warning: Spoilers to Finding Dory, Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3