Disability Blog Carnival #14 -- Firsts

Welcome to the 14th Disability Blog Carnival! There's been much blogworld sharing of posts about disability recently because of the second annual Blogging Against Disablism Day on May 1. This will be a nice carnival here, but really, everyone (us small-time bloggers, that is) pulled out the stops for that event, which was beautifully organized by Goldfish. I'm still reading a few of the BADD posts each day and reveling in the wealth and diversity of experiences that nevertheless reveal our common humanity.

The theme for this carnival is "Firsts." I chose that as a theme because I've been dwelling lately on how nondisabled folks relate to those of us who identify as or are visibly disabled and how little we're talked about from their perspective. It made me think of how first interactions can shape us and our beliefs, how our first connections between personal experiences and those of someone else can be so enlightening and encouraging in understanding the world. (Studying racism and the civil rights movement before disability theory and the social model were available kept me sane and connected to the world as a teenager.) First accomplishments can be problematic for disabled people as a group if the lone achiever is touted as a supercrip and made to represent the stifling stereotypes of "saintly" or "courageous," but they can also open minds. And doors.

Angelo Suriano was the first paraplegic musher to compete in and finish the Iditarod. Photo description: On a snow-covered road, a man in a grey winter coat and black hat is pulled on a dogsled by seven huskies. Though Suriano is standing in the photo, he reportedly has a small seat for when he gets fatigued.

Firsts

Glenda Watson Hyatt writes on how transformative new experiences can be in Firsts Expand Our Comfort Zones So Dreams Are Reachable posted at Do It Myself Blog.

Wheelchair Dancer examines the many ways she has broken new ground personally, in her family and her community as a "woman of disability and colour" in First posted at Wheelchair Dancer.

Andrea recollects when, at age nine, her abilities weren't being recognized in school and she first tried to advocate for herself in First Foray at Andrea's Buzzing About.

Photo description: A close-up of a bronze plaque reads "In commemoration of the first public curb ramp and in recognition of those who have fought for equal access in every community. 25 years of working together, 1972-1997, City of Berkeley and Center for Independent Living." Flickr credit: marymactavish

Emma ponders what it means when the little old lady who stereotypically needs help crossing the street offers it to the gimp in A new low posted at The Life and Times of Emma.

Kestrell has news of the world's first universally inaccessible game in Game Over!: the world's most (intentionally) inaccessible game posted at Ex Libris. Yep, that's universally inaccessible.

And Kestrell also announces the upcoming first issue of a new journal in disability studies, the first issue available online for free (!) in Journal of Literary Disability to go online in late May posted at Ex Libris.

Last year, Canadian teenager Jenna Lambert became the first disabled swimmer to swim across Lake Ontario. Photo by Lynn Rees Lambert. Photo description: A white teenager with red hair swept up in a ponytail smiles, posing with hands resting on a white fence. She's wearing a red one-piece swimsuit and there's an indoor pool behind her with several swimmers doing laps.

Romeo Vitelli writes about the T4 eugenics program, which was a first step in the Nazi's Final Solution, in T4 posted at Providentia.

Penny Richards presents details of the first documented developmentally disabled people (siblings) in the American Colonies in Mara and Benoni Buck of Jamestown, Virginia posted at Disability Studies, Temple U..

Also, Penny Richards looks into the origin of the term "TAB" -- "temporarily able-bodied" -- in In Search of....the first TAB posted at Disability Studies, Temple U..

Dr. Annalu Waller, a computer scientist and expert in augmentative and alternative communication, is also Scotland's first disabled woman Episcopalian priest. She was ordained in 2004. Photo description: A head-and-shoulders pic of Waller, a white woman with short dark hair, sitting in an empty auditorium somewhere in Brussels. She's wearing a navy suit jacket with a blue-printed blouse underneath, and there's a nametag badge attached to the suit jacket.






David Gayes shares the childhood memory of his first realization that cerebral palsy would limit his physical abilities in First Loss over at Growing up with a Disability.

Ettina questions what happens after the first person of an identity group achieves something, and how to increase equality if that achievement is used as a token success in After the First One posted at Abnormaldiversity.

Karen writes about a Deaf travel agency marketing the first cruise where the entire ship, carrying over 4,000 travelers, will be devoted to deaf and hard of hearing vacationers in Deaf Freedom Cruise 2007 posted at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World.

Ruth Harrigan posts about how each encounter with strangers can be a unique, first experience in Close encounters of the first kind posted at WHEELIE CATHOLIC.


Politics, Social Observations & Rants

Autistic Bitch from Hell discusses Hillary Clinton's alliance with the troublesome organization Autism Speaks in Hillary Clinton's Final Solution posted at Whose Planet Is It Anyway?

Cindy Sue Causey looks at the ugly ableism of commentator Neal Boortz in his proposed solution to the quiet hybrid cars that endanger blind pedestriaans in Personal to Neal Boortz :: Meet your future, er, Don Imus.. posted at Six. Almost Seven...

Manxome offers a rant that asks "Why can't a patient have a copy of her medical records?" in Arrgh posted at Climacteric Clambake.

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking recently rode in a zero-gravity plane -- a first for him. But Googling shows a woman was reportedly the first disabled person to travel in zero-g back in 2005. Photo description: Hawking, a white man with sandy-brown hair, wears a blue jumpsuit and floats horizontally inside a plane. In homage to Isaac Newton, an apple floats in mid-air nearby. Video of Hawking's flight.

Chris Bray discusses national health policy in the UK and a survey revealing the belief by many medical professionals that "lifestyle choices" should impact who pays in health services, state power, and social control (3) posted at historiblogography.

Joel Smith presents some thoughts on the value of work and the need for supportive environments in Importance of Work posted at NTs are Weird.

Fey Stranger notes the absence of large print books for readers of science, history, philosophy and other deep subjects in yet another "separate but not equal" moment: large print books posted at Fey and Strange.

Philip Dawdy presents an excellent round-up of posts on Cho Seung-Hui coverage in That Guy: A Cho Roundup posted at Furious Seasons.

Karl Dean says he is the first disabled person in Britain to get a college degree entirely with the use of a "head pointer" device to complete his work, including a 10,000 word dissertation on augmentive and alternative communication systems. Photo description: Dean is in the foreground wearing a head pointer strapped to his head, and his laptop sits on a table in the background.

IronJawedAngel shows a YouTube video example of "well-meaning ableism" in Hmmm.... posted at She Speaks. (Video description: Basically, this is ten minutes of a guy talking straight to the camera. There's some strange and awkward editing where he turns between two cameras, and he does include an inset of a disabled guy's video toward the beginning. The audio is clear and seriously cringeworthy, though given my own recent rant on nondisabled people not talking about their fears and prejudices of disabled folks, I appreciate parts of this and find it really worthy of discussion.)

Jeff McNair asks why he can't just be friends with residents of a grouphome -- he has to be fingerprinted, and a "certified volunteer," before any interaction in being certified as a volunteer posted at disabled Christianity.

Michael McGrath of Britain is the first disabled explorer to have visited both the North and South Poles. Photo description: While McGrath can and did walk for much of each trek, the photo shows him in a sunglasses and a bright blue parka with fur-trimmed hood sitting in a manual wheelchair next to the shiny ball on a red and white striped post that apparently signifies the south end of the planet. He was there in 2004 and the photo shows a British flag planted in the snow behind him. The surrounding landscape is flat with a hard perma-frost snow cover and the sky is blue with just a wisp of clouds.


The Personal

Lauredhel presents a "coming out" first post about her hidden disability. Or she presents a rant. This could have gone in either category above, but she also writes about the personal experience of coming to terms with a new lower level of energy in Stop and think: invisible access for invisible disabilities posted at Hoyden About Town.

Kim quotes Robert F. Kennedy, Aeschylus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to answer a late night question in a bar in Reprise: What's it like to have one leg? posted at Larvatus Prodeo.

Leticia Velasquez writes about the tricks and difficulties of raising a restless disabled child, and her commitment to stand up to doctors who want to do just one more test in My Private Struggle posted at cause of our joy.

Tokah Fang ruminates on a common humiliating experience of disability and the behavior of nondisabled folks in Oops? posted at From Where I'm Sitting.

And that concludes this edition. Thanks to everyone who participated, and thanks to Penny Richards for the creation and continued fostering of this project. Submit your blog article to the next edition at Ryn Tales, where the theme is "Disability & Family." Here's the carnival submission form. Deadline is usually the Monday before the Thursday carnival.

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