I was looking for this
I Googled "Obama wheelchair" earlier tonight in hopes of perusing pictures of Obama meeting disabled Americans on the campaign trail, but I couldn't find one. Just a cartoon of McCain in a wheelchair driving himself off of a cliff -- apt but ableist. (Yes, I know a wheelchair is not representative of all people with disabilities, but it's the quickest way to find a visual and it does represent my physical impairments.)
A similar search for "McCain wheelchair" shows that same cartoon repeatedly, McCain feeling up a seated guy's face (presumably faith-healing a military vet) and pushing his wife Cindy's chair after she had a minor stroke back in 2004. There are also McCain-less photos of disabled people getting arrested outside his Washington, D.C. office earlier this year when they tried to impress upon him the need to support our freedoms with the Community Choice Act.
So Google didn't much help me feel very represented.
And then I wander over to The 19th Floor and Mark has a photo of himself and then-Senator Obama from 2005. Image description from Mark's post, but go check out the photo, if you can:
a February 2005 photo of me and then-Senator Obama taken in the tunnels under the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Obama is standing to my left in a charcoal suit, leaning forward slightly and smiling at the camera. I'm wearing a leather jacket over a shirt and tie, my facial expression entirely too serious.Excellent. Now I can back slowly away from the computer and go to bed.
4 comments:
Cool. 3am, I too shall sleep soundly now.
I hate to be a spoil sport but during the election I found a disconnect between the Obama campaign well reasoned policy statements and position on disability issues versus wheelchair access at events. I tried to attend events and could find not information about wheelchair access on line. When I contacted event organizers they had no idea if there was wheelchair access. Multiple phone calls later no information about wheelchair access could be found.
One thing I noticed about Obama's acceptance speech -- in a public park, right? not on a luxury hotel's lawn dressed with weird iconic banners reminiscent of the Third Reich? -- was that the huge television screens allowing everyone in the crowd to see the Great One speaking also incorporated ASL translators.
I know it's not what you were looking for precisely. Still, and with no concept of how many other types of disabled people were even able to get access to the park, I did appreciate that little mote of inclusiveness.
William Peace: I'm not really surprised by that, partly because it's a such a tiresomely typical oversight but also because a campaign is a traveling show. When you called to ask about access, did you contact the Obama campaign or the venue itself? Sometimes even those venues are hopeless with information.
I did think I'd find some pics from rope lines or something. Not even a line-up of obviously disabled veterans for McCain.
Sara: Yes, the big screens were necessary for everyone, I think, with such a huge crowd. I read recently that Sen. Harkin of Iowa, when speaking at the Democratic Convention in Denver, came out and signed in ASL a bit first. I didn't see that at all, but that's exciting too -- one of the most committed Congressional members on disability issues speaking directly to Deaf people.
I also heard via listserv that disability activist Marca Bristo was maybe 20 feet from the podium in Grant Park, so at least she managed upfront wheelchair access for that historic event. I did not see her or anyone in a wheelchair while watching on tv, though.
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