Disability Futures

TSA Agent Kruze : “Was the surgery worth the pain?” — Medium

Yesterday, I was harassed by a group of TSA agents after disclosing my disabled status while seeking the special assistance queue.

My name is Brittany, and I am a woman with an invisible disability.

Well, not entirely invisible: I have a one and a half foot scar down my back where I was cut open twelve years ago. It’s not as visible as it used to be, but it’s certainly still there. When you’re open for six hours, having your spine cranked from an S-curve to a mostly-straight line with the medical equivalent of a tire jack, the mark tends to stay.

I don’t use a wheelchair, because I can walk. I can stand, and sit, and exercise, and crouch. But as often happens with a full spinal fusion, it hurts to do any of those things for too long, and I often can’t do them at all. I use the ADA line at the airport to expedite screenings, since I cannot stand still for long while holding my bags without pain, and bending down to remove my shoes takes time and involves a risk of hurting myself by throwing out a muscle or pinching a nerve.

I’ve had a series of bad encounters with the TSA over the years. Generally, it’s one or two agents who don’t know how to handle passengers with disabilities; irritating, embarrassing, or disconcerting, but generally small incidents. Yesterday, however, I had the most insulting, widespread, and unprofessional encounter with the TSA that I’ve had to date.

An Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My Marriage

http://goo.gl/kxPQq8

What happens to your relationships when your emotional perception changes overnight? Because I’m autistic, I have always been oblivious to unspoken cues from other people. My wife, my son and my friends liked my unflappable demeanor and my predictable behavior. They told me I was great the way I was, but I never really agreed.

Several T.M.S. devices have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of severe depression, and others are under study for different conditions. (It’s still in the experimental phase for autism.) The doctors wondered if changing activity in a particular part of the autistic brain could change the way we sense emotions. That sounded exciting. I hoped it would help me read people a little better.

They say, be careful what you wish for. The intervention succeeded beyond my wildest dreams — and it turned my life upside down. After one of my first T.M.S. sessions, in 2008, I thought nothing had happened. But when I got home and closed my eyes, I felt as if I were on a ship at sea. And there were dreams — so real they felt like hallucinations. It sounds like a fairy tale, but the next morning when I went to work, everything was different. Emotions came at me from all directions, so fast that I didn’t have a moment to process them.

Before the T.M.S., I had fantasized that the emotional cues I was missing in my autism would bring me closer to people. The reality was very different. The signals I now picked up about what my fellow humans were feeling overwhelmed me. They seemed scared, alarmed, worried and even greedy. The beauty I envisioned was nowhere to be found.

Poverty and Disability in America Matter

http://goo.gl/i4ZSff

People with disabilities face many barriers to economic success — low expectations, discrimination and a complex public support system that often limit employment opportunities and upward mobility.

Poverty and disability are intricately related. It is troubling to note that 25 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), adults with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty as those without a disability. This broad statistic, though compelling, masks important differences in the poverty rate among demographic groups who face additional economic challenges — women, members of minority groups, people with lower levels of education and assorted age groups.

The disparity in the poverty rate between people with and without disabilities grows with age: among those 18-30 years old, the poverty rate is 21 percent for those without disabilities and 32 percent for those with disabilities; among those 30-45 years of age, 12 percent without disabilities live in poverty, as compared to 33 percent with disabilities. Among those 45-64 years old, nine percent without disabilities live in poverty, compared to 26 percent with disabilities.

When it comes to gender, women with disabilities are overwhelmingly more likely to live in poverty. This gender disparity, coupled with the disability disparity, results in a poverty rate of 31 percent for women, compared to 26 percent for men.

People of color, both with and without disabilities, are more likely to be living in poverty than the Non-Hispanic White population. This racial disparity, when coupled with disability, results in nearly 40 percent of African Americans with disabilities living in poverty. The largest disparity in poverty between those with and without disabilities is among Non-Hispanic Whites, at 25 and 10 percent, respectively.

Finally, the poverty rate is highly correlated with educational attainment for people with and without disabilities. That is, the poverty rate declines as educational level increases. However, the economic disparity between those with and without disabilities grows as education levels increase. For example, 58 percent of African American women, 36 percent of Latino men, 34 percent of young (18-30) Non-Hispanic white women and 36 percent of older (46-65) African American men, with less than a high school education, live in poverty.

Let's Talk About Intellectual Disabilities: Loretta Claiborne at TEDxMidAtlantic

https://goo.gl/IwdgQI

Loretta Claiborne's story is remarkable — from Special Olympian to inspiring speaker and advocate for others. Her work has ranged from supporting people with disabilities to working to help end bullying. In 2000, Walt Disney Productions created The Loretta Claiborne Story. "I figured if my story could change a person's mind about another person, or especially a child's mind about another child, then it was the right thing to do," Claiborne says. Loretta is a world-class runner and gifted motivational speaker who happens to also be a Special Olympics Athlete and a person who has an intellectual disability.

The Fountain of Stupidity

http://goo.gl/9fsmXy

I’m about to turn 60 and here’s what I’m wondering: At what age does the average human no longer look back at where they were 10 or so years earlier and say, “Boy, was I a dumbass.” Do people who are 90 say, “When I was 80, boy, was I a dumbass?” Do people who are 120 say, “When I was 110, boy, was I a dumbass?”

Because I’m still doing that. I look back ten or so years and I’m in awe of what a dumbass I was. And that’s my beef with the fountain of youth. Everybody automatically assumes that if there was such a thing we’d all just jump in the water and splash around and everything would turn out jolly. We’d all be 18 on the outside but remain wise, enlightened elders on the inside. That’s how it’s romanticized in movies. But I don’t know. It seems to me that it would have to be a package deal. You can’t revert to being 18 again physically without reverting to being 18 again in every other way. So you jump into the water and splash around and your body becomes young and supple but you also turn into a dumbass.

AAPD is honoring Alice Wong, with an AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Awards

https://goo.gl/Widb33

The annual prize recognizes individuals with disabilities who “exemplify leadership, advocacy and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.”

Wong works at the Community Living Policy Center, a rehabilitation research and training center housed at the Institute for Health & Aging at the UCSF School of Nursing.

“Disability history and culture isn’t recognized or documented in our society, and yet we’re everywhere,” said Wong, who has spinal muscular atrophy. “You just have to notice.”

Wong is being honored for her work in creating and managing the Disability Visibility Project (DVP), which she launched in 2014, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. DVP is an online community resource dedicated to documenting the stories of people with disabilities.

Originally intended to be a yearlong project, DVP continues to thrive in an ongoing community partnership with the national oral-history organization StoryCorps. Participants are encouraged to create and share their own stories to document their lives and what matters to them, without any editing or interference. DVP also creates an online space where people can come together and have thoughtful conversations via Facebook and Twitter.

TDF and The Broadway League launch new website "Theatre Access NYC" (www.theatreaccess.nyc) - Breaking Barriers to Broadway!

https://goo.gl/neCEpY

A one-stop site of accessible Broadway performances for theatregoers with disabilities

Theatre Development Fund and The Broadway League are Breaking Barriers to Broadway with the launch of Theatre Access NYC, www.theatreaccess.nyc, a new website designed to assist theatregoers with disabilities in finding accessible performances of Broadway productions.

This website is a way to help theatregoers with physical disabilities or autism and other sensory sensitivities find Broadway shows with the particular type of accessibility service they require. Theatre Access NYC is an intuitive, user-friendly show finder that allows users to filter and sort through dozens of Broadway shows based on accessibility, and provides details including dates, times and ticket availability for accessible performances.

“We are pleased to be part of Theatre Access NYC, in collaboration with Theatre Development Fund, which will bring more people with disabilities to Broadway. Our goal for the new website is to provide all theatregoers who want to experience our shows an easy-to-navigate place where they can find extensive information in one location,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League.

“It’s at the heart of Theatre Development Fund’s mission to do what we can to make theatre accessible to all who want to attend, no matter what the barrier,” said Victoria Bailey, TDF’s Executive Director. “Theatre Access NYC will make it easier for New Yorkers and visitors with these functional needs see more theatre.”

Alison Kafer lectures on disability equality

http://goo.gl/kP61kI

The lecture “Haunting the Edges of Social Justice: Disability Across Movements” which touches on how disability relates to social movements and social justice was presented by Alison Kafer, PhD, professor of feminist studies at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas on Thursday, March 17 in Halle Library.

Kafer, who teaches feminist, environmental, and race and ethnicity studies said that she hopes that her lecture will teach people to look at disability in a new way and get more involved in activism.

“I want students to think about disability in relation to other movements, gain new strategies to do cross movement work and think about disability as a political category that has effects on people’s lives,” she said. “Many students are interested in social justice, I hope that conversations like this foster social activism.”

Schumer Announces Bill To Give Disabled Option To Choose Home Care

http://goo.gl/QhZoNb

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer today visited Wildwood Programs in the town of Guilderland, promoting legislation he says would empower disabled people.

Schumer said it is fitting he is announcing a new initiative during March, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. The Democrat would like to see the disabled have the option to receive help rather than be institutionalized. "People with disabilities should not be denied the choice to receive at-home care and support services. We should not discriminate against the disabled, which is a hallmark of our society. And so this system needs to be fixed. So today I'm calling on Congress to pass new legislation which I have authored, called 'the Disability Integration Act,' because we have to do everything in our power to make sure that those with disabilities have the resources needed to live and thrive in the comfort of their own homes or their own communities, if they so choose."

From Home Fires to Hurricanes, A Digital Disaster Kit is Key

http://goo.gl/oRxpG4

“Seven times a day, someone dies in a home fire. Every 40 minutes, an injury from a fire is reported,” said Russ Paulsen, Executive Director, Community Preparedness and Resilience. “Most people don’t realize that, in a fire, you may literally only have two minutes to get out of your home. Making sure you have access to important documents—like copies of your drivers license, lists of emergency contacts and insurance information—will help right away and in the long term.”

Original copies of important documents should be kept in a safety deposit box away from home. Photocopies of these documents, along with contact lists and disaster plans, should be placed with disaster supplies and in emergency evacuation kits. Additionally, a digital disaster kit should be created by saving digital copies on a password-protected area of an Internet server as well as on a secure flash (thumb) drive that can be kept on a key ring or quickly slipped in a pocket. The goal is to be able to access these important files wherever and whenever needed.