Saturday Slumgullion #7

• Mark Siegel of The 19th Floor comments on the courting of disabled voters in Maryland by Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich. Ehrlich's blind running mate, Kristen Cox, and his record on serving disabled constituents both suggest he may even be committed beyond election day.

• Wheelchair Dancer has an excellent list of do's and don'ts on "How to push a wheelchair" that covers everything I would have thought of and more.

• A British man visiting Florida set off airport alarms, was strip searched and perused by sniffer dogs, all because he'd had radioactive iodine therapy six weeks earlier. Via Ouch!

• John Kelly at NAG checks out a different sidewalk configuration to see if it makes wheelchairs and their users any happier than the trendy brick that can be so painful to travel over.

• Femimonkey at Live Journal's Disabled Rage briefly explains how cell phone companies make their technology inaccessible to the blind when it wouldn't have to be.

• A Japanese insurance company claims several Japanese travelers pronounced "brain dead" in Canada and the United States recovered back at home. Of the nine clients the company talks about, the three who were flown home improved while the six who remained in Canada and the United States died.

• Stephen Kuusisto of Planet of the Blind comments on an old Rolling Stone interview he read where John Lennon expresses disgust at seeing cripples sitting up front at a Beatle's concert. Lennon imagined they were there to be healed. Imagine that.

• Sara at Moving Right Along cracks me right up with a picture of herself. It's the first photo of the post.

• Joseph at Deaf in the City discusses sentimental myths about the ability to hear and how much hearing people actually get out of the music they enjoy.

• Along the Spectrum provides a brief review of the Joss Whedon flick Serenity that examines the relationship between River and her brother Simon in terms of how one should treat someone with autism.