Disability Futures

The guide offers information and advice on nearly 70 commonly used words or terms — from “able-bodied” to “confined to a wheelchair.” It is being released to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Thursday, Dec. 3. The day of observance aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

Note to Self:  If you use an electric wheelchair, know the weight and the type of battery that it takes.  If you hit turbulence during the flight, you won’t have to ponder if you guessed wrong and obsessively wonder if the weight of your chair is going to bring down the plane.  As a bonus, resist the urge to wake up your friend sitting next to you who hasn’t slept for 24 hours, to ask him what the hell is happening during said turbulence.

Note to Self:  Watch the flight attendants.  If they are not panicking, you don’t need to either.

Note to Self:  If you are lucky, you’ll get to sit in First Class or the front of the plane because it’s easier than having to drag your butt back to Coach.  The snacks aren’t any better but you may get a hot towel and the seats are choice.

Note to Self:  If you happen to be in the last row by the bathroom, resist the urge to charge admission.

NDY board member Bill Peace has been writing more on his blog Bad Cripple. Two of his recent posts last 2 touch directly on NDY concerns.

In You Can’t do That, he describes the ways in which individuals and society focus hard on what he “can’t” do:

The instant negativity attached to disability is raised to a higher level when serious, life threatening illness is at issue. Cancer is bad. All illness is bad. Terminal illness is the worst–a tragedy. Terminal illness is the worst because our very existence is threatened. For some, the response to mortality is primal fear. Fear I get. I have felt primal fear and have had life threatening illnesses. I have almost died more than once. Primal fear however can be overcome with reason.

Read the rest here.

In The Disability Experience, he discusses the weirdnesses – from the annoying to the scary – in being a disabled person in this culture:

It saddens me that the input of people with a disability is so often ignored or dismissed out of hand. When I assert that assisted suicide legislation represents a serious risk to people with a disability, the elderly, and terminally ill I am accused as having an agenda. Sorry but no. I have no agenda. I have an educated opinion based on a detailed knowledge of disability history that should be part of the discussion about assisted suicide legislation. I also grew up on various neurological wards as a child and learned a few things about how hospitals operate. I had a physician offer to end my suffering by foregoing life saving antibiotics. Like many others with a disability, I have something important others need to hear. Don’t talk to me about safe guards built in to assisted suicide legislation. Don’t talk to me about dignity. Don’t talk to me about autonomy.

Read the rest of it here.

More information for educators can be found here.

“…wonderfully original look at bodily variations…” — B. Ruby Rich, Film Critic and Professor of Social Documentation

“An ethical and philosophical mind-bender…” — CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival

“Fascinating, humane, and provocative reframing of conceptions of ‘normal’ bodies and ‘disability.'” – Gina Maranto, author of Quest for Perfection

“… a highly entertaining, as well as visually and intellectually stimulating presentation, . . . it is highly recommended both to academics and the general public.” —  Journal of Responsible Innovation, Film Review by Stevienna de Saille, March 6, 2014. (Entire review is available for free online.)

“I screened Fixed in a disability studies-focused course I co-taught this past semester…  The students absolutely loved the film; they found itcompelling and complicated, and it helped transform their understandings about bodies, disability, technology, ethics, economic justice, disability rights, etc. I *highly* recommend it.”  — Joan M. Ostrove, Professor, Department of Psychology, Macalester College

“‘Fixed’ is a “must see” film for anyone interested in technology solutions for people with disabilities, especially those who are learning about, exploring, or designing new ones. It expertly illuminates the debate surrounding human enhancement and transhumanist philosophies, while giving a clear voice to those who might be the most impacted–people with disabilities and their ongoing struggles within an “ableist” culture.” –Ray Grott, Director, Rehabilitation Engineering Technology (RET) Project, San Francisco State University, and President-Elect of RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America)

The Disability Visibility Project, in partnership with Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), will be hosting a Twitter chat on Sunday, December 6, 5 pm Eastern/ 2 pm Pacific, “How Ableism Is – or Isn’t – Skewing ‘Choice’ on Bioethics & End-of-Life Debates.”

Follow the conversation:

Check out the live-stream: http://twubs.com/AssistedAbleism

or

Search #AssistedAbleism on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=%23AssistedAbleism

To participate:

Follow @DisVisibility on Twitter

Follow DREDF’s @IngridTischer on Twitter

Use the hashtags #AssistedSuicide #AssistedAbleism when you tweet

Disparate impact discrimination, which can occur without ill intent on the part of the person discriminating, is not unheard of in non-disability civil rights law – the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has long recognized it and the Supreme Court ruled on a case earlier this year affirming the Fair Housing Act covered this kind of discrimination.

Social justice theorists often refer to disparate impact as institutional discrimination. To make things less clunky, let’s refer to disparate treatment as malicious discrimination and disparate impact as institutional discrimination. 

Institutional discrimination is written into the Americans with Disabilities Act to a much greater degree than in other civil rights statutes, which generally require some form of class action litigation or statistical analysis showing widespread negative results before a disparate impact claim can be made. The ADA, in contrast, allows for an individual redress of institutional discrimination – the right to demand a reasonable accommodation from an employer, program or place of public accommodation.

A brief video compiling some of the funnier things people say to you when you are in a wheelchair. Most have happened directly to me, others are common occurrences!
PS- most people that say these things truly mean well, this isn't a dig, or meant to be offensive- just some light hearted humour!

During the Campaign for America’s Future Awards Gala in October 2015 the President of the National Education Association (NEA), Lily Eskelsen Garcia, made the following statement:

“We diversify our curriculum instruction to meet the personal individual needs of all of our students the blind, the hearing impaired, the physically challenged, the gifted and talented, the chronically tarded and the medically annoying.”

"We don't need to make our facility accessible because we never have disabled people here!"

Parent/teacher to disabled child: "No, don't associate w/ other disabled children! You're better! 

X: What would you do if your spouse had [my disability]?

"Seasonal depression doesn't exist! Just learn to love winter and quit the self-pity!"