Every week, I find myself inundated by disability news and information…and I love it. Of course, I don’t mean that I love it when I come across stories of discrimination or mistreatment, or when I read articles that – in my opinion – misrepresent disabled people. Rather, I value the opportunity to access the wealth of resources and opinions on disability that the Internet has to offer. As a bit of an experiment, I’d like to share a round-up of disability-related articles and blog posts from this past week that resonated with me or piqued my interest. I hope you’ll find some food for thought within my lists.
The idea for this was inspired by the amazing monthly posts on disability news from Down With Dat, a wonderful blog focused mainly on Down Syndrome. I highly recommend you check out the list as well as the rest of the blog! (I actually just discovered that my post on the Michael J. Fox Show is included this month!) I’ll be sharing a much more brief list than what can be found on Down With Dat, limiting it just to what I’ve found over a one week period, and I’ll include a brief explanation of why I choose to share each piece.
Articles
- Spurned Bride Turns Wedding Into Party For Disability Group – Now, I’m not usually one for “inspirational” stories related to disabilities, but this is actually wonderful to read how a negative can be turned into a positive.
- Airlines mishandle wheelchairs, strand disabled – I’m always worried about traveling with mobility equipment, and unfortunately, this definitely reinforces those worries. However, I think the video accompanying the article is quite well done (except I don’t see closed captioning). It does not sensationalize traveling with a disability, it includes perspectives from disabled people, and it highlights airline travel problems without heavily playing the pity card. Do you agree?
- Countering Discrimination – But Why Is Disability Discrimination Still Rife in 2013 in the UK? – Provides some all-to-common examples of discrimination that occur due to social attitudes, and calls on the UK government and disability organizations to campaign for “promote awareness that if someone has a disability then it does not mean that they are any different to ‘normal’ people.”
Blog Posts
- A Cup Holder that Holds too Much or Not Enough – This post is by a wonderful disability advocate who I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with. She shares an experience of being stigmatized because of her disability that shows just how far societal attitudes must go to end disability discrimination. Her writing resonated with me for hours after I read it.
- Taking up too much space – I actually can’t quite put into words how strongly I connected to this post. It encapsulates emotions that I experience time and time again when I’m out in public and I’m tripped over, asked to move, over-looked, used as an armrest, etc. There was a bit of a sense of relief that I shared with the writer as she let it all out.
- Spina Bifida: Q & A (Week 2) – Mary Evelyn, the blogger at “What Do You Do, Dear?,” is writing posts every week this month answering questions about spina bifida based on her experiences with her son, Simeon, as part of Spina Bifida Awareness month. The reason I love this is that she’s inviting curiosity and encouraging open-mindedness, which is a key to disability acceptance. Also, Simeon is super adorable and the blog has great photos!
I hope you found some interesting new reading material here! Let me know if you’d like me to continue doing this, and perhaps I’ll make this a weekly or bi-weekly venture. If I missed anything you think is worth checking out, please don’t hesitate to share it with me!
To keep up with Words I Wheel By, like the Facebook page!
