Slumgullion #49

The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by Californian Jarek Molski on whether he is a "vexatious litigant" no longer allowed to sue businesses over disability access without first seeking court permission. I've written about Molski in the past, here and here.

Popular Mechanics magazine includes a wheelchair design in its Top 10 Innovations of 2008. The winners, California Institute of Technology engineering students, have started the non-profit Intelligent Mobility International and are currently trying to lower the cost of their wheelchairs from $150 down to $40. (For the unaware, a folding lightweight manual wheelchair bought by any major vendor in the U.S. can easily cost a couple of thousand dollars.)

Rebalancing the scales of justice -- Columnists at the Guardian details how the U.S. Supreme Court has dismantled consumer protections against health insurers and what Obama must do to halt and reverse the damaging effects. Here's the up-shot, but see the column for details of what the Scalia Court has done to consumer health rights:

As the new president rolls out new proposals for ensuring health and economic security, he should not ignore the court's drive to roll back existing safeguards. If he acts fast, he could score some significant early wins, and send a clear signal that the new sheriff in town is serious about justice for ordinary citizens. Early in this Congressional term, it could be possible to legislatively "fix" decisions that distort major laws like Erisa (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and the Civil Rights Act equal pay guarantees upended in the Ledbetter case. His agency heads can rescind the mass of Bush administration regulations and policies that pre-empt vital state legal protections. His justice department can press the federal courts to faithfully construe laws in line with their original reformist purposes, and stop importing stealth deregulatory designs recently in vogue. Most important for the long-term, the president, together with allies in the Senate, can sensitise new judicial nominees to the priority of robust enforcement of guarantees protecting Americans' pocket book needs.

The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently ruled that driving is not a "major life activity" under the ADA. Kellogg v. Energy Safety Services Inc. originates in rural Wyoming, where as stated at Workforce Management, "public transportation is virtually nonexistent and distances between towns are measured by hours rather than miles." The same conclusion about driving was reached back in 1998 and 2001 by the 2nd and 11th Circuit Courts, respectively, but passage of the recent ADA Amendments Act means that the logic behind this ruling should no longer apply to similar cases in the future.

Disabled rabbit gets a wheelchair -- The article says the American company that makes pet wheelchairs sells some for disabled pet skunks too. This will be something I ponder now and then for a while.

Woman in wheelchair sued after being hit by truck -- Apparently her being hit (while attempting to cross at an intersection that didn't have a crosswalk) caused a couple thousand in damage to the truck. The comments to this article aren't for the faint of heart: The prevailing sentiment seems to be that a woman in a wheelchair has no business in the street.

British film censors label new film with the warning that it contains "disability themes" -- Imagine any other group of citizens being considered troublesome enough to warrant a warning label: "Women doing girly things" or "Beware: Black folks!"

British teen wins right to refuse heart transplant -- One of a number of news stories out of the UK recently that focuses on assisted suicide and the "right" of people to die.

"Noel, is life really not worth living?" -- Ouch podcast host Liz Carr addresses Noel Martin, a man paralyzed in a 1996 attack by Neo-Nazis, who plans to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide. Carr says:

I know when people read your story, many will agree that yes, if they were in your situation then they would want to die too. Most people are so scared of illness, of disability, of getting older, that wanting assisted suicide is seen as an entirely rational desire. What scares me is that views like these will also be held by the doctors, the media, the courts, the government and all the others who have the power to decide if we live or die.

I'm sure by now you know how I feel about assisted suicide. Until the day when good quality health and social care are universally available regardless of age, impairment, race, gender or location, I believe there is no place for legalised assisted suicide.

I just think it's too easy for a society to promote assisted suicide as a right rather than work to overcome the barriers to supporting older, ill and disabled people to live fulfilled and valuable lives. Forget the right to die, isn't it more urgent that we campaign for the right not to be killed?

See also Bad Cripple and Secondhand Smoke for more on Noel Martin.

Then read a contrasting story, also out of the UK -- Sue Garner-Jones, a British teacher who has been paralyzed since an automobile accident 34 years ago, responds to the much publicized Swiss suicide of a former rugby player called Daniel James. By Swiss suicide, I refer to Switzerland's practice of legalized assisted suicide that an estimated 900 Britons avail themselves of each year. Garner says:

People make their own decisions about how to live their life. But there’s a lot of talk about bravery and courage for people who were opting out of living their lives. I didn’t like the inverse of that.

To call this action ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘selfless’ implies that those of us who battle on are ‘cowardly’ and ‘selfish’, which is unfair and untrue.

Here's the skinny on Daniel James. All this has been huge news across the pond. We've been a little self-involved with our elections, I suppose.

Slumgullion #48

Just a few good links. That's all you need, right?

Bush cuts outpatient Medicaid services -- You heard about this parting gift from our Commander 'n' Thief? The Wonk Room at Think Progress has the details:

After arguing that legislation to cut over-payments to private insurers would “harm beneficiaries by taking private health plan options away from them,” President Bush, on Friday, “narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.”

In which the Netherlands endangers reproductive freedom -- Sylvia at Problem Chylde writes about a proposed bill that wants any woman deemed unfit to parent to be forced to take contraception for two years or any children she bears will be taken away from her at birth. I followed one link backward from Sylvia to a column for the Toronto Star to a blog post at Disaboom -- isn't it nice to know someone at a major daily reads a crip site?

Where neurodiversity meets feminist theory -- Lindsay at Autist's Corner has a three part series where she assesses an article by Kristin Bumiller titled "Quirky Citizens: Autism, Gender and Reimagining Disability" in the summer issue of the women's-studies journal Signs. Interesting writing from a blogger I hadn't found until now.

Slumgullion #47

Michael Bérubé is back in action at his place:

I’m not going to rely on concepts like ‘intrinsic human worth,’ but I can try to learn a little from history. And let’s imagine that we might have learned—very slowly, very gradually, because as a species we’re really not very bright about such things—that every attempt to banish some humans from the category of rights-bearing beings, every attempt to lop off some members of the human family, has had vicious and catastrophic results. So let’s say that we’ve learned to err on the side of caution, and include every human born, just to avoid these past catastrophes.

Flea at One Good Thing presents a reader's email on autism and schooling.

The ADA Amendments Act was signed into law a couple of weeks back. You heard about it, right? No?

Wheelchair Dancer on "ElderSpeak, RaceSpeak, DisabilitySpeak":

Words have effects. Detrimental effects; they can transform you into someone else's negative image of you. True enough. I'd like to see this go fullscale. I'd like to see recognition of the power of language to create negative space in which others must live, must see themselves, and must accept if they are to gain access to some of the basic needs of everyday life. Why limit the discussion to just senior citizens? We know it is true for people of colour; I (and I suspect many of you) know exactly how this kind of language works for disabled people.

"Gallaudet's New Aesthetic of Openness" at the Washington Post:

Since its founding 144 years ago, Gallaudet's separation has been driven by the belief that the deaf were better off immersing themselves in their own culture. Their insularity is symbolized by the eight-foot-high fencing and thick stone walls that line the university's perimeter.

But the school intends to begin removing those barriers in part because of recruiting challenges and a younger generation that desires more integration into the broader world. The shift also reflects cultural changes and technological innovations that have made it more inviting for deaf people to navigate realms beyond their own, said Fred Weiner, the university's executive director for program development.

"When my parents grew up in the 1930s and 1940s, there were negative views of people with disabilities, and it drove the community inward," said Weiner, who is deaf. "What you see is a reversal. You have a more diverse America. You see technological advances. There are still challenges, but you have so much more access, and that's why students are saying they want to be part of it."

Slumgullion #46

A random collection of links, starting with blog posts on Palin and disability:

Sarahlynn at Yeah, But Houdini Didn't have These Hips wraps up her assessment on the veep and presidential candidates' stances on disability with a look at Sarah Palin's actions on disability issues (as opposed to her convention declaration of a "friend ... in the White House"). See her posts on Obama, Biden and McCain. Also, her initial reactions to Palin's nomination as McCain's running mate.

In a "Memo to Governor Palin," Penny at Disability Studies, Temple U. responded to Palin's RNC speech, and she includes a link round-up of other disability bloggers on Palin's statement that her having an infant with Down Syndrome gives parents of special needs children "a friend and advocate in the White House."

More on Palin's RNC speech from early September at Shakesville: Shapeling and Shaker Sweet Machine write on "Disability, Parental Martyrdom, and Reproductive Choice."

At Feministing, drahill writes: "Undecided: Sarah Palin, Disability Rights, and Abortion."

In a guest commentary at Patricia Bauer's disability blog, Paul K. Longmore also responds to Palin's announcement by writing on What Kind of Advocacy Do Americans with Disabilities Really Need?"

By the way, since she took point on bringing publicity to the ableist humor in the summer comedy Tropic Thunder, Patricia E. Bauer's News & Commentary on Disability Issues has become a must-read for me. She's always thoroughly covered the latest news, but comments have become especially lively as well.

Back to Shakesville, where Melissa McEwan recently requested:

I just wanted to take a moment to ask that we all please refrain from using the term "McLame" in comments. It's ableist, and therefore violates the tenets of the safe space.

I know I set a terrible example, because I once used it myself, but it was pointed out to me that I was being an asshole, so I don't use it anymore, and I'm sorry that I did.

My comments on that:

YAY! Yay to working for ableist-free safe space. Seriously.

Also, though he'll never label himself so, McCain is a candidate with significant disabilities, so referring to him as "McLame" does matter. It's not just rhetorical play.

Slumgullion #45

Yeah, I'm still here. I got new eyeglasses this weekend, and while it may take a few days to adjust to the bifocals (!) I hope to be spending less time squinting and more time online again.

In the meantime, this is the news I'm catching up on today:

"What happens when chronically ill kids grow up?" -- A June article in the Houston Press explains the gap in health care for disabled children who come of age. It's an important topic I haven't seen covered in such depth before, but, hello... the "first large generation of chronically ill pediatric patients to reach ­adulthood"? I'll be 40 in October, and I'm really tired of hearing how all the seriously disabled children before now died before needing adult health care. We're here. We've been here. A number of us have even been blogging online for quite some time. It's just that we're mostly invisible to the mainstream media.

"Girls parents and agency face charges in starvation" -- Danieal Kelly of Philadelphia was 14. She died in 2006 and the charges have just now been filed. Mark at The 19th Floor writes about Danieal and the grand jury indictment (pdf file with one very graphic photo) of nine people for her needless suffering and death.

"Immigrants facing deportation by U.S. hospitals" -- From a NYT series on how the government and others "compel illegal immigrants to leave the United States." Here's an excerpt:

Eight years ago, Mr. Jiménez, 35, an illegal immigrant working as a gardener in Stuart, Fla., suffered devastating injuries in a car crash with a drunken Floridian. A community hospital saved his life, twice, and, after failing to find a rehabilitation center willing to accept an uninsured patient, kept him as a ward for years at a cost of $1.5 million.

What happened next set the stage for a continuing legal battle with nationwide repercussions: Mr. Jiménez was deported — not by the federal government but by the hospital, Martin Memorial. After winning a state court order that would later be declared invalid, Martin Memorial leased an air ambulance for $30,000 and “forcibly returned him to his home country,” as one hospital administrator described it. . . .

Mr. Jiménez’s benchmark case exposes a little-known but apparently widespread practice. Many American hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance. Medicaid does not cover long-term care for illegal immigrants, or for newly arrived legal immigrants, creating a quandary for hospitals, which are obligated by federal regulation to arrange post-hospital care for patients who need it.

American immigration authorities play no role in these private repatriations, carried out by ambulance, air ambulance and commercial plane. Most hospitals say that they do not conduct cross-border transfers until patients are medically stable and that they arrange to deliver them into a physician’s care in their homeland. But the hospitals are operating in a void, without governmental assistance or oversight, leaving ample room for legal and ethical transgressions on both sides of the border.

Indeed, some advocates for immigrants see these repatriations as a kind of international patient dumping, with ambulances taking patients in the wrong direction, away from first-world hospitals to less-adequate care, if any.

“Repatriation is pretty much a death sentence in some of these cases,” said Dr. Steven Larson, an expert on migrant health and an emergency room physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “I’ve seen patients bundled onto the plane and out of the country, and once that person is out of sight, he’s out of mind.”

"Taking the long way around" -- From Oceanside, California, an example of how higher gas prices and budget cuts that have led to more crowded public transit is pushing wheelchair users off the bus. We'll be hearing more stories like this, I suspect.

"Her new role is fighting old label" -- Ms. Wheelchair America is interviewed by the Houston Chronicle. Beauty contests for disabled women have been covered here before, but I do like the approach to her new job that the current Ms. Wheelchair America, Michelle Colvard, seems to be taking. She says:

They're two main ways that the media portray women who have disabilities. It's either kind of passive, needing help, victim, suffering. You hear a lot of those words, wheelchair-bound, these negative-word connotations. ... On the other hand, women with disabilities who have done pretty well for themselves are put up on a pedestal. I think sometimes that's a bad thing, too.

Slumgullion #44 -- Voter ID edition

Here's a bunch o' links on the issue of voter identification, specifically photo ID, and how it impacts disabled people and other folks:

"Take This And Weep" -- Steve Kuusisto at Planet of the Blind comments on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling allowing Indiana's requirement of photo ID for voters in that state.

"The (GOP's) War on Voting Right" -- Perry Dorrell at Brains and Eggs offers a collection of statistics on which Americans are most effected by photo ID requirements. (The League of Women Voters says up to 11% of Americans lack photo ID.)

"More of the Same" -- Mark Siegel at The 19th Floor notes that the story of a South African woman who was denied ID because she has no arms and local bureaucrats required her to submit fingerprints isn't dissimilar from his own experience five years ago here in Minnesota. In both cases, disabled people clearly weren't expected to ever show up and participate in their community as officials had given absolutely no thought to their existence.

"The Politics of Mobility" -- Ruth Harrigan at A Different Light relates the recent story of the elderly nuns in Indiana who were turned away from the polls for lack of proper ID to lack of mobility for many different Americans.

"Is the Supreme Court trying to swing the election?" -- Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman at AlterNet write about how the ruling on Indiana's photo ID requirement disenfranchises mostly Democratic voters.

"Was Justice Stevens' Water Spiked?" -- Archcrone at The Crone Speaks wonders what the hell Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was thinking when he joined the majority in the vote.

"Voter ID law disenfranchises Americans" -- Mai Thor writing for the Minnesota Daily also summarizes the impact of the Supreme Court ruling.

Got another link about photo ID and voting? Share it in the comments.

And here's an important new(ish) link to check out:

Crimes Against People With Disabilities is a new blog designed to document and catalog the crimes often considered unrelated to disability prejudice and ableism. It joins the recent UK Disability Now magazine Hate Crime Dossier in an effort to connect the stories of abuse and death to show the larger picture of hate crime against the disabled.

Best of 2007

I wasn't going to offer a Best of 2007 list of my posts this early because I'm an optimist and I like to think genius may strike me in the next three weeks. But for those who may be reading my writing for the very first time, here are five of what I think are my best blog posts of 2007. Plus a couple bonus posts.

Blind Rage and the legacy of Helen Keller -- Because I originally began The Gimp Parade to review books about disability, and more importantly, because Blind Rage is a fantastic book by a disabled feminist about the world's most famous disabled feminist.

I am tired -- My expression of how last winter's Ashley X debate affected me and the disability community online.

Miss Ability lays down on the job -- Recently, feminist blogs have written about the beauty contest Miss Landmine Angola. Here's my take on another beauty pageant for disabled women.

Anniversary -- Escaping institutionalization -- A personal story of perhaps the biggest drama of my life.

Is Roger Ebert a disability activist? -- When I wrote this, I inadvertently prevented comments to the post, so I never learned what others think about Ebert's "activism."

Bonus link: Because language use came up in comments to my Alas intro post, here's a blog entry on that topic: Linguistically disabled?

And because sometimes I amuse myself, my best blog headline of the year: Yes, the road to hell is paved, but that doesn't mean it's accessible

I'd nominate Cilla Sluga's post at Big Noise about Ruben Navarro as overall Blog Post of the Year.

Who would you nominate? And why?

Cross-posted at Alas, A Blog

Mini-Slumgullion #43

Shiva at Biodiverse Resistance has written a great post in honor of last week's Transgender Day of Remembrance Remembrance: "Trans liberation and disability liberation: a necessary alliance"

Ms. Crip Chick riffs off of recent critiques of women's studies programs that offer only token examples of women of color by discussing token committee membership experiences or what she calls "crip on a stick"

Ms. Crip Chick also writes on the intersection of queerness and disability

Mik Danger at Coffee and Gender posts on the use of the ADA to provide physical and financial safety against trans hate and discrimination in "In and Out of My Body"

Grace at Heroine Content, a blog for feminist critique of film and television, looks at Million Dollar Baby

Cilla Sluga at Big Noise writes about the difference between offering help and teaching empowerment in "No Short Cuts"


Image description: A poster from Northland Poster Collective. On a beige background with a woodcut texture, bold black text reads "If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. -- Aboriginal Activist Sister"

Slumgullion #42

A hodgepodge of links from my email files:

Kenny Fries writes "Running outside of his lane" on Oscar Pistorius in the Washington Post. Also a Post poll on whether Pistorius should be allowed to compete in the Olympics.

The Denver Post on comedian Josh Blue, an article that shows how to cover the lives of disabled folks and discuss their impairments without resorting to inspirational or supercrip themes. (Bonus points if you can pick out the sentence that bothered me, though.)

Commentary in the Toronto Star: "Chance to stop crippling kids" by Helen Henderson on language and disability.

"Braille literacy flags, even as technology makes it more urgent" in The Christian Science Monitor

Kathi Wolfe writes "Get proud by practicing: The ADA's anniversary is Independence Day for 'queer crips' " at the Washington Blade.

"No indictment in Katrina hospital deaths," the Associated Press report.

"Roger's Battle," coverage of Roger Green's fight against the state of Georgia's practice to send disabled children using ventilators to out-of-state nursing homes when they reach the age of 21.

"With a defendant afraid of heights, stairwells and elevators, court goes alfresco" in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel covers an example of apparently well-mannered and businesslike acceptance of ADA accommodations needed by a woman coming to court.

At The Bygone Bureau, an article by Kevin Nguyen on an accessible sailing program in Boston.

Laura Hershey on "The Dilemma for Disabled Authors" at BeyondChron reviews three books about disability: Anne Finger's Elegy for a Disease, Stephen Kuusisto's Eavesdropping and Georgina Kleege's Blind Rage. (I discussed Kleege's book a while back, here.)

Slumgullion #41

A link list to five blog posts you should see:

At Writhe Safely, "Damn, feminists" discusses the tendency of feminist activists to overlook mental health issues and specifically the case of Simone D., which, as flawed plan points out should have all feminists up in arms, writing letters, making phone calls:

Crickets chirp at what’s happening in your own back yard; not a single post in the feminist blogosphere about Simone D., New York Hispanic woman with an impressive story of injustice and a rather pressing need for acts which activists can and are being urged to do on her behalf in the activist way they pride themselves on. Given the right conditions. Which are what again?

At The Trouble with Spikol, Liz looks at PETA head Ingrid Newkirk's attack on Michael Moore's weight. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole, excellent piece:

“Congratulations from PETA on the reviews for Sicko,” Newkirk wrote. “Although we think that your film could actually help reform America’s sorely inadequate healthcare system, there’s an elephant in the room, and it is you.” This was followed by Newkirk’s advice that Moore convert to vegetarianism. She wrote: “As they say at Nike (sorry!): ‘Just do it.’”

I was horrified—as were many others who read the letter. PETA later claimed that where Newkirk was using the “elephant in the room” metaphor, she was merely invoking a commonplace idiomatic expression rather than commenting on Moore’s girth. But that’s bullshit.

She could’ve just as easily put it in other words, but PETA has always prioritized cleverness over compassion. I’m sure she and her staff were thrilled when they thought of that one. What a zinger!

Newkirk’s decision to co-opt the debate about Moore’s film is preposterous. Sicko creates an essential opportunity to galvanize activism on the subject of healthcare, and given the reality that Moore histrionically illustrates in his film, we can’t afford to waste this moment.

At The Joy of Autism, "Are We Listening?":

It is rare to sit in a room with so many other autistic people, some walking back and forth in the lunch room humming to themselves in a heightened perhaps even ecstatic state, where I can only imagine in other less accepting settings, would be frowned upon. When I came to squeeze into the small space where this young man hummed to deposit my lunch tray, he politely moved away to make room for me, extremely aware despite the fact that others would believe otherwise.

When I saw him next time in the leisure area, he was asking others to play a board game with him. Other autistic kids were hanging out together, and sprawled themselves out on couches in front of the TV, not unlike other teenagers. Around the grounds, people wore badges that indicated if they wanted to talk, if they would only talk to people they knew, or if they did not wish to talk at all. There were many times I wanted to flip my own badge that indicated the latter – as I am a person who likes to absorb and observe, yet have been taught to socialize and be diplomatic and suffer from a compulsion to keep that impression going. Although it’s a skill I’ve acquired, I still find it exhausting. I wished that those badges existed at the many functions I have attended, where most people pretend to be something that their not, or interested in things that others say that they actually have no interest in at all. I consider all the wasted time I’ve had to spend doing "small talk." and all the time I spend in explaining life as we know it to people who don’t have the time to understand.

At ChronicBabe, "How asking for help has brought me closer to friends":

My friends sometimes forget that I am in pain, and for the most part, I'm glad my friends forget about it. The last thing I want is for my pals to walk around, worrying about me, thinking every time they see me that I'm a mess.

But because I've learned to live with pain, I don't always say anything about it. I might take a day off because I don't feel well, but I don't announce it to the world. I might need somewhere to sit when we go out, but I find it myself most times. There are days when I can't walk very far, or I'll go out with girlfriends and I can only dance to a couple songs. But I don't whine about it.

Because I'm relatively quiet about the pain I live with, people forget I have it, especially my friends.

At Bums & Bellybuttons, "The Day I Became Different":

....When I was about 5, I learned that I was different. When I entered the restaurant with my parents, a young boy (about my age, I guess) stood up and repeatedly announced to the entire population, "She's in a wheelchair!" Needless to say, staring commenced. Pairs and pairs of eyes swiveling toward me, a little girl, cute in her party dress, suddenly not the girl she was five seconds before she came through the door. Even thinking about it 20 years later makes me want to claw my skin.

It had never occurred to me to realize that sitting down made me fundamentally different than just about everyone I encountered. No one else seemed to notice, so why should I? My parents didn't make a big deal out of it, unless it was for my own physical safety. It just was as it was.

Slumgullion #40 -- Let's Hear it for the Boys edition

Most disability bloggers seem to be women, but the mens got good things to say too:

"My guide dog is about to retire" by Damon at Do Your Worst:

My guide dog Liam, who I've had for seven and a half years, will be retiring at the end of this week. He's now nine years old. Liam is a bit of a stressy sensitive dog so this seems the best time to retire him.

So, what does this mean. It means that Damon has to go back to using a white cane - something he hasn't done since leaving school in 1991.

"The Pitfalls of Pity" by Gordon Cardona at Gordon's D-Zone:

It was when on the local newspapers and media I get to know that my best friend had received a prize for ‘helping his poor crippled friend’ (me that is). I was speechless and betrayed. At first I blamed my friend for it and said I wouldn’t trust him any more. But then I knew that it was all about the way society viewed people ‘like me’ that was the cause of it all.

I suddenly felt inferior and felt betrayed by my teachers, my schools and all the institutions that supported this prize. Sadly, this prize goes on every year and guess what? Non-disabled boys and girls still receive this prize for ‘being friends’ to their disabled ‘less fortunate’ friends.

Was it only last September that Mark Boatman at NodakWheeler escaped from a nursing home? The vent-using quadriplegic had to leave his home state to do it, but since he moved to neighboring Montana he's got a pet dog, seen The Rolling Stones in concert, and now he's heading off to college. Check out his adventures in the many photos he posts.

"On Being Married to Big Foot" by Stephen Kuusisto at Planet of the Blind:

She can clean dog hair off the kitchen floor in less than two minutes with her feet. This is a kind of domestic dancing that even the ancient and labyrinthine Gods and Goddesses of Knossos would take their hats off to, but of course they didn't have hats, which is probably why they died out if you stop and think about it.

"Livin’ la vida corta" by Michael Bérubé at Pandagon:

And I hope I haven’t given people the sense that everything is just wonderful with Jamie all the time, and that Down Syndrome isn’t such a big deal if you just take the Right Attitude. (There’s a little story in the DS community about how having a child with DS is like winding up in Holland when you’d planned to go to Italy, and while this story serves the crucial function of reassuring new parents that their lives are not ruined or blasted or just plain over, it’s really not a very good analogy, in the end.) There’s a reason why so many Jamie Stories involve me taking him on trips or playing golf with him or going to aquariums and zoos with him: it’s not like he has friends. Oh, people are mostly very nice to him, and kids greet him cheerily in school and in town, and his teachers and aides like working with him, because he’s a great kid. But he doesn’t have the kind of social network other fifteen-year-olds do; he doesn’t do sleepovers and play dates and just hanging out. (When Nick’s friends were here last month — and Nick’s friends are absolutely wonderful to Jamie — I told Jamie he could stay up until midnight and hang out with them. After a few minutes he came into my study, sat down, and said dejectedly, “I don’t know how to hang out.” I explained that he didn’t really have to do anything at all; he could just sit in Nick’s room and listen to what everyone was saying. But, of course, he was quite right. You have to know how to hang out before the invitation to hang out makes any sense.)

Slumgullion #39 -- The Jack's Back Edition

Yes, some coverage of Kevorkian's release and the assisted suicide debate:

Colleen Carol Campbell at the Ethics and Public Policy Center -- "Disturbing Lessons from the Case of Dr. Death":

In America, the "futile care theory" that says resources should not be wasted on patients with poor prognoses is gaining traction; the theory's applications can be deadly. In 2005, 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre had been hospitalized for only eight days when her Massachusetts state custodians began fighting to remove her ventilator and feeding tube. Doctors had diagnosed her condition as a persistent vegetative state, but Poutre recovered before they could euthanize her.

Most Americans believe that the terminally ill should be free to reject excessively burdensome treatments with dubious benefits or unreasonable costs relative to benefits. But laws that propose suicide as a solution to human suffering reinforce the message that the disabled, depressed and severely ill are burdens who can find dignity only in death.

David Kessler at The Huffington Post -- "Paging Dr. Kevorkian":

So I do understand the argument of why not regulate it and make it safe; but, I also remember whenever we haven't been able to achieve something such as when we couldn't go to the moon, we didn't say -- well, we can't do it so let's just blow it up. Or, before we could successfully do heart or kidney transplants we never said not let's keep trying; let's just let them slip away quietly. Our answer should never be, if we can't improve care -- let's find a way to help them die quicker.

At F.R.I.D.A. (Feminist Response In Disability Activism)-- "FRIDA members on Jack Kevorkian":

I've just seen a list of Jack Kevorkian's assisted suicides, and the vast majority of them are women - at least 70% of them. Many of them were not terminally ill. One of the women that he helped to die is Judith Curren - she was 42 and suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. During the weeks before her suicide, she was assaulted by her husband. Perhaps this experience and her despair may help to explain why she wanted to end her life.

I am surprised that the gender element is missing from analyses and commentaries in the press.... Why is it that more disabled and ill women want to die than men? Gender doesn't seem to part of the analysis in the press at all.

Apparently, the National Organization of Women, amongst other feminist organizations, support the availability of assisted suicide. But there are also feminist arguments against it.

Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press -- "A face-to-face with a defiant Dr. Death":

He likened what he had done to a doctor who had to cut off a patient's leg to get rid of cancer. "Unfortunately, the patient must lose a life to end the suffering."

As we spoke, I heard intelligence, self-assurance, even arrogance. What I didn't hear was humanity. He didn't seem to think much of the human race. He likened life to "a tragedy." He quoted famous people saying they wouldn't bring babies into this world. When I said that would wipe out mankind, he said, "What's wrong with that?"

I began to sense a man who was more interested in death than life. Death was his academic passion, and sick patients were part of that academic pursuit, like lab rats.

Mini-slumgullion # 38 -- Announcement-y stuff

Via Penny:

Cindy Sue at Six Almost Seven announces plans to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Olmstead decision at the Georgia State Capitol. The 1999 Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C and E.W ruled that Georgia must work toward placing institutionalized disabled citizens in community settings rather than simply warehousing them. It's one of the few certain judicial victories resulting from the ADA and it's had huge, far-reaching implications for disabled people's lives and for public policy. The anniversary is June 22. What are you planning?

Via Connie at Planet of the Blind:

[With]TV -- A new television channel "of, by, and for people with disabilities... and everyone else." Details at POTB, and also at the [with]TV website.

Via Editor David Bolt:

The Journal of Literary Disability's first issue is now available online. (!) Seriously -- ! Stephen Kuusisto co-wrote one of the articles, and they all look interesting and exciting. Once I get a chance to read I'll no doubt be commenting on what's there.

Ode to Sitemeter

Okay, not so much an ode as a list of things it has led me to today:

1) This little ad from the Official Sponsor of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee. The link to it reads "This ad shows the real limitation of paralympic athletes." That's pathetic as an introduction, for a number of reasons, but the little ad is clever in a web-tech-ish way. Steering a manual chair isn't nearly that hard though, even for the wimpy-armed, like me.

2) Under the category of Things That Totally Flippin' Freak Me The Hell Out.

3) Someone's Google search for "prosthetic legs for formal situations" led here, which I am certain proved unhelpful. But some other hits for the search are truly fascinating.

Vivian Sobchack writes about "Real Phantoms/Phantom Realities: On the Phenomenology of Bodily Imagination." It's incredibly dense prose, but interesting:

In the summer of 1993, as the result of a recurrent soft-tissue cancer in my thigh, my left leg—after three operations, literally as well as metaphorically, "a drag"—was amputated high above the knee. Here, taking a phenomenological approach, I want to attend to the extraordinary and radical expansion (not merely the presumed reduction) of my lived body's articulations of itself during the post-operative period when I was supposedly "missing" a leg and the subsequent period in which I learned to use and then "incorporate" my prosthetic leg. Indeed, during this time (as well as in the retrospective period in which I prepared this presentation), my body became for me an intimate "laboratory" in which I could examine, test, and reflect upon the experience and dynamics not only of so-called "phantom" sensations, but also of the relations between my body image and my bodily imagination, my body and language, and between the visible and invisible aspects of an irreducibly subjective and objective experience.

And an article on amputees and prostethic limbs written in 1999 for the New Statesman:

The September issue of Dazed and Confused magazine, guest-edited by the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, featured the model Aimee Mullins, whose legs were amputated below the knee in infancy because she was born without fibulas. She had not one pair of prosthetic legs, but several. On cervine carbon-fibre pins, she is a paralympic runner. She has pairs for swimming, windsurfing and parachuting, the last with shock absorbers. Although the designs of Mullins's various prostheses are striking, their paradoxical effect is to ensure that her disability is not the first thing people notice about her. Making further mockery of her disability, her "social" legs are a couple of inches longer than her real ones would have been. "Differently abled" is not a happy euphemism even by the low standards of the politically correct phrase book, but in innovations like these the term gains real meaning.

4) Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson by Susan Burch and Hannah Joyner is finally available for pre-order. The book isn't out until this fall, but I'm looking forward to it since I wrote about Wilson last October. Eventually, I plan to review it.

Slumgullion #36 -- The deranged killer edition

The Republic of T -- How to Create a School Shooter:

Am I blaming the victims of the VA Tech shooting? No. I’m blaming the guy who picked up the gun and shot them. He did what he did; what he chose to do, but after, hearing about his experience in high school, seeing his videos and reading among his words “You made me do this,” I almost think he was shooting at everyone who’d ever mistreated him, or that he perceived as mistreating him; as well as those who laughed at the bullying, saw it but did nothing about it, or even approved of it.

I’m also saying that we as a people, as a society, have to stop our part in supporting the social systems and conventions that end up creating people like Cho and the others. Or, as Amy Traub said, “our attempt to understand doesn’t end with the casting of moral blame,” but with recognizing that there are things we can do, things we can change about our culture and our society if we choose too, that i help prevent more tragedies like this one. If that’s what we want.

Autism Vox -- On Some Comments about Cho Seung-Hui (lengthy comments on this post too):

Mention of Cho Seung-Hui possibly being autistic has been circulating on the internet throughout this week. Some charged exchanges have arisen on some blogs in regard to this; fears have been expressed about what such a connection—-of autism to what happened at Virginia Tech on Monday—might mean for the public perception of autism, and of autistic people in particular.

Respectful Insolence -- Vaccines caused the Virginia Tech rampage? (Via Autism Vox):

Never mind that blaming autism for the rampage is bad enough, but Moses has to compound the vileness by implying that vaccines can turn children into killers. Never mind that there is no good evidence that the mercury in thimerosal in vaccines in any way contributes to the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders. Never mind that the latest statistics from, for example, California show no decrease and, indeed, a continued increase, in its autism caseload in 3-5 year olds in the first quarter of 2007, now four years since thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines other than the flu vaccine, when by now, if mercury causes autism, we should have seen a huge decrease in the caseload. Never mind that there's lots of other evidence that shows no link between vaccines and autism.

MindFreedom -- I was a college student "mental patient":

As with any overwhelming tragedy, I'm also worried about what is waiting in the wings. We here at MindFreedom are pro-choice about people's choice to take psychiatric drugs, and when I was in college at one point i begged for antidepressants. However, after any major catastrophe, people experiencing prolonged despair and trauma and overwhelm and extreme differences and passion within this highly-conformist society... can end up on drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs, and more drugs, for years, decades and even life, all without adequate advocacy, information and alternatives.

The immensity, intensity and volume of the tsunami of psychiatric drugs hitting our young people -- both in and out of school -- is so outrageous, so potentially devastating, that it amounts to the Greenhouse effect of the mental health system. Currently the mental health system and our society are in denial. No "Al Gore" has emerged to go campus to campus, showing a slide show about how brain structures can be harmed from long-term high-dosage psychiatric drugging... and how there are better and more sustainable ways to help young people with mental and emotional distress and differences.

Writhe Safely -- Here It Comes:

People believe evil and psychosis are synonymous because we live in a system where evil acts can be pardoned by reason of insanity. Sometimes they come together in the same person, insanity and evil, check.

But to conflate the two is a logical fallacy, psychosis is not evil, and it doesn’t cause evil. Correlation does not imply causation, I assume most people understand this fundamental scientific principle. A person can suffer (and I do mean suffer) from psychosis without doing evil, and a person can do evil without exhibiting psychosis. But when evil and psychopathology co-exist in the same person we’re in for a shitstorm. A coercive, lock-em-up and throw away the key toldyaso shitstorm.

The Trouble with Spikol -- Tech Trouble:

Now that the photos and videos and writings have been released, it's reasonable to assume that Cho Seung-Hui suffered from serious mental health problems. But it's not that simple. It would be unfair to state, without elaboration, that Seung-Hui was mentally ill. That tars all mentally ill with the ol' violence brush--a damaging and innacurate perception that contributes mightily to the problem of stigma. It's too absolutist to say that.

Would it help, then, to identify the kind of mental illness he suffered? I don't think so. Whether he was chronically depressed or had OCD or anything else, the diagnosis cannot explain what he did. Yet I suspect that people will want a diagnosis because they're desperate for answers: Why did he do what he did? What makes a person do this?

Yet Another Never Updated Blog -- Don't draw the wrong lessons from Virginia Tech's misfortune:

The point is, we don't need to abandon recent efforts at inclusion and de-stigmatizing of people with mental illness. What we need is to take violent crime seriously, and understand that violent crime does indeed include intimidation, stalking, and arson. They aren't youthful errors. They aren't jokes. They aren't just little things that should be ignored. They are steps on a ladder of violent escalation.

I hope that all colleges will learn from this, not that mentally ill people are dangerous, but that crime is dangerous.

The Blogenberry -- Fallen records... fallen students:

I think the events at Virginia Tech are no more understandable than the events at the University of Texas in 1966. The eerie randomness of shootings and mental illness in a society awash with weapons and violent mythology. A giant state school campus that is a training factory with aggressive recruiting of students from all races and backgrounds is going to come with its share of alienation. In global terms what is the context of this event? 32 dead can hardly match the nearly 200 dead in a single bombing in Baghdad (including 17 U.S. soldiers) this week. Yet there were no network anchors in Baghdad, no ribbons and candles and live broadcast vigils from Baghdad. No scrapbook for Baghdad even though its carnage is not unrelated to the random horrors at Virginia Tech.

Despite tantalizing talk of warning signs and disturbing behavior there is no real way to stop a Seung-hui Cho bent on slaughter just as there is no way to stop an Islamic terrorist, self-proclaimed martyr (recorded on videotape) on his way to heaven via the suicide bomb express. Suicide attackers in Austin, Oklahoma City, Baghdad or Blacksburg leave no real insights into their motives or lessons for preventing the repeat of their crimes. What they do leave are grisly, vivid mementos for the scrapbook. The attackers themselves have joined the ritual of their own deadly aftermath.

Mini-Slumgullion #35

Lots of people think politics don't really matter,
but if you're one of the poor and disabled people
who have to rely on the government,
politics can kill you.

Nick Dupree -- "I Feel messed Up":

This country has been slashing programs for the poor and disabled for over a decade like it has no consequences, or worse, as I detailed in Fighting Cuts, Demanding Universal Health Care, they think that cutting off services benefits them--that it is a great thing. It isn't. It doesn't benefit you. It is evil. I believe this is the fifth 21 cut-off death in the city of Mobile alone, that I know of. The disability community in the South feels under siege. Know that there's still a developing, worsening situation with home care policy in America as more and more people turn 21 and find the supports they need just aren't there.

Politics is not a game. The disregard (or outright cruelty) of politicians can kill.

The latest news on Baby Emilio Gonzales:

A judge granted a family's request to keep their critically ill baby alive, ruling Tuesday that the boy should not yet be removed from life support as the hospital planned.

Children's Hospital of Austin has been caring for 17-month-old Emilio Gonzales since December, but it says its medical efforts are futile and the child is suffering. It invoked a state law that allows hospitals to end life-sustaining treatment in such cases with 10 days notice to the family.

Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales, 23, challenged the decision, and the judge agreed to block the hospital's move for at least nine more days.

"He may not live that long, but that's nobody's choice. That's my choice. And that's God's choice. Nobody can say, 'No we're going to take him off, that's it,'" she said. She says her only son isn't unresponsive, and that he smiles and turns his head toward voices.

Probate Judge Guy Herman set another hearing for April 19 to consider Emilio's case.

The boy has health coverage through Medicaid, and the hospital contends money is not part of its decision. Its concern, hospital officials said, is the boy.

Michael Bérubé at Pandagon on "Testing, testing":

There are people who oppose abortion except when the fetus has a significant disability; there are people who support a woman’s right to abortion but oppose prenatal screening on the grounds that it will lead to a revival of eugenics. And, as I point out in the essay (by way of the work of Rayna Rapp, who’s written a terrific book on the subject):

the ultra-orthodox Hasidim in New York are strenuous promoters of prenatal genetic screening because Tay-Sachs disease — a genetic disability so excruciatingly debilitating that it sometimes seems as if it were invented by bioethicists as an extreme limit case — occurs disproportionately often in Ashkenazi Jews.

You can learn more about Tay-Sachs here, if you like — and then you can think about whether you would seek to bar prospective parents from screening for it. Interestingly, Rapp points out that while otherwise politically and culturally conservative Jewish groups (one of which advocates prenatal screening and conducts arranged marriages) have embraced screening for Tay-Sachs, the Catholic Church (OK, folks, here it comes) in New York City owned the airspace rights to a new hospital building under construction and demanded that “genetic counselors be barred from working in the new maternity service to be located there.” So while some religious traditions can be downright extremist, it’s not as if all religious conservatives agree about this kind of thing. Nor is it the case that all opponents of screening are conservative; some of them are disability-rights activists whose politics are generally feminist and socialist.

It's a weird choice of quote just above since Bérubé's post has lots of thoughtful aspects to it, but I just felt compelled to highlight that last sentence: "Nor is it the case that all opponents of screening are conservative; some of them are disability-rights activists whose politics are generally feminist and socialist." Those of us who are feminist disability-rights activists possessing impairments/disabilities are often disbelieved or dismissed when our political opinions appear to align with conservative beliefs. I say "appear" because I think that's a failing of those liberals who can't see the politics of choice in all its incarnations, particularly the ones that don't directly concern them. But anyway.

Another interesting aspect of the discussion Bérubé starts with this post at Pandagon is that the comments are overwhelmingly about gayness being something one is born with. As a topic, that's intriguing, I suppose. As a topic shift, it's tiresome and irritating. I haven't added to the conversation over there yet (so I've little excuse to complain, perhaps), but I invite everyone to do so.

Mini-Slumgullion # 34

Joshua Kors at The Nation -- "How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits":

Jon Town has spent the last few years fighting two battles, one against his body, the other against the US Army. Both began in October 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. He was standing in the doorway of his battalion's headquarters when a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet above his head. The impact punched a piano-sized hole in the concrete facade, sparked a huge fireball and tossed the 25-year-old Army specialist to the floor, where he lay blacked out among the rubble.

"The next thing I remember is waking up on the ground." Men from his unit had gathered around his body and were screaming his name. "They started shaking me. But I was numb all over," he says. "And it's weird because... because for a few minutes you feel like you're not really there. I could see them, but I couldn't hear them. I couldn't hear anything. I started shaking because I thought I was dead."

Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town's neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready.

But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town's wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.

Town is not alone. A six-month investigation has uncovered multiple cases in which soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits. The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans' rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals.

They say the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers like Town and that it's doing so for one reason: to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses.

Journalist Stuart Hughes, who blogs at Beyond Northern Iraq, writes for the BBC News on Heather Mills -- "Heather: Amputee Inspiration or Irritation":

Even when I had two legs I was no dancer, so the idea of fox-trotting, tangoing or cha-cha-cha-ing in front of an audience of millions is unthinkable to me.

And aside from the issue of whether she is merely trying to rebuild her tarnished image after her bruising separation from Sir Paul McCartney, I admire her determination to take on the bipeds at their own game.

One gambling website is taking bets on whether Mills' leg will fall off during the series, pointing out her prosthesis "must fall off, not be purposely taken off, during a dance routine for all Yes wagers to be graded a win". If you want a betting tip from me, put a tenner on her prosthesis staying firmly attached.

The current generation of prostheses are secured with tightly-fitting silicone liners fitted with pins or suction seals, which roll onto the skin like a sock. The chances of Heather's flying into the audience during a high kick are precisely zero.

Jean Chambers at Philosophy Now reviews Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership:

The ‘frontiers’ of Frontiers of Justice are three social frontiers at the edge of the political community as it has been defined by social contract theorists such as Rawls. The early social contract theorists Thomas Hobbes,John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau posited free and independent men, roughly equal in power, living at first in a pre-social ‘state of nature’. Such men would have had little reason to form a society and submit to the authority of laws unless they could individually benefit from giving up their absolute liberty. Therefore the only social contract they could rationally agree to would be a mutually advantageous one. But this familiar scenario has tended to exclude from the resulting polity anyone who it might not be mutually advantageous for such men to cooperate with – anyone who is not free, not equal, or not independent. Nussbaum claims that people with disabilities, citizens of other nations, and non-human animals have thereby been banished by contract theorists to the frontiers of social justice.

People with disabilities may not be free or independent; and those with severe mental disabilities may be unequal. Nussbaum argues that such people should nevertheless be considered full citizens entitled to dignified lives, even if no one could gain from cooperating with them. She notes that the social contract tradition has always denied the reality of dependency, despite the obvious fact that everyone is dependent on others during infancy, old age, injury, and illness. Historically women have done most of the largely unpaid work of caring for dependents, so by ignoring women, the social contract theorists conveniently evaded the thorny issue of justice for dependents and caregivers. Nussbaum argues that justice for people with disabilities should include whatever special arrangements are required for them to lead a dignified life, and the work of caring for them should be socially recognized, fairly distributed, and fairly compensated.

Big badass slumgullion #33

Blog posts and news reports all mixed together... slumgullion-like:

The Gray Panthers of San Fransisco blogs about managed care and assisted-suicide:

...The California Association of Physicians Groups, an organization that represents Northern and Southern California Permanente Groups and lobbies for “groups practicing in the managed care model” (http://www.CAPG.org), have recently come out with letters to the Legislature and press statements strongly advocating for assisted suicide in California.

Will assisted suicide proponents finally admit that a quick hundred dollar lethal prescription is vastly cheaper than offering extended care over the long haul?

Diebold sues Massachusetts for selecting a competitors voting machines over theirs. Judge denies Diebold's request to block bid. --Via Sara

Merge of schools for blind and deaf students opposed in Oregon. Also in Ohio. I've been following the controversy about this on a listserv, but Stephen Kuusisto of Planet of the Blind weighs in here.

In the NYT: Trafficker of Healer? And Who's the Victim? -- On pain treatment

From NPR, artist Lisa Bufano finds creative inspiration for dance in being a double amputee. Video of some dance segments also available at the NPR link. Visual description of photo at left by Gehard Aba: Caption from NPR "This 2005 piece, Fancy, was commissioned by the University of Linz. In it, Bufano wears stilts fashioned from red, Queen Anne-style table legs."

Also from NPR, the Healing Waters Project, which provides fishing as a therapy for wounded war vets.

At Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac (I know, but the poem he presents is somebody else's, not by his bigoted self) -- "How to Tell If You're a Participant or a Staff (A Handy Guide for Day Programs)" by David Moreau

Diary of a Goldfish on "As no questions, hear no lies" -- Goldfish weighs in on strangers' questions about impairments.

Bioethicist Arthur Caplan and Michael A. Devita (whom I don't know anything about) write about a transplant surgeon being investigated for "hasten[ing] the death of a 26-year-old patient in order to harvest his organs more quickly to ensure they would be transplantable."

On how the relay phone service for the deaf is used by con artists and the people hired to do the relay cannot legally interfere:

Operators vary in their estimates of scamming prevalence, but most agree that con artists chew up roughly a third to half of their workload, at times even more. Because of confidentiality rules set down by the FCC, relay companies say they can't monitor or estimate the number of abuse calls.

"If we did just legit calls, our office would be closed. The managers tell me, 'if it weren't for those calls, you wouldn't have a paycheck,' " says one operator in New Castle, Pa., who wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job. She has worked at an AT&T relay center for more than a decade and is putting her children through college on her wages.

At TomPaine.com, "Cutting Native People's Health Care":

American Indians have access to federally-paid health care based on hundreds of treaties the United States signed with Indian nations, under the accepted federal practice of more than 100 years and as a requirement of the trust responsibility the U.S. owes the Indian nations to care for their welfare. Indians have not, however, received their fair share of federal health care, especially in light of this heightened duty. In fact, a July 18, 2003 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights entitled “A Quiet Crisis” found that

... the federal government’s rate of spending on health care for Native Americans is 50 percent less than for prisoners or Medicaid recipients, and 60 percent less than is spent annually on health care for the average American.

Clearly, the United States is not fulfilling its treaty and trustee responsibility to provide health care to American Indian people.

From the NYT: "Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head?" -- On auditory hallucinations

From The New York Review of Books: "A Track All His Own" -- On "outsider" artist Martín Ramírez. The image just above, created in 1954, is a drawing by the artist of a horse and rider in profile, with both the horse and some lines drawn around them in box-like progression to create an illusion of depth in shades of purple. The rider seems to be wearing chainmail and I find the drawing reminiscent of ancient Greek drawings on pottery and murals. The horse has one front leg kicked up high. More on the artist and his history as a schizophrenic and immigrant from Mexico here and here.

Simi Linton at Disability Culture Watch offers a heads-up that next week's Law & Order: Criminal Intent on NBC Tuesday evening will feature some Deaf actors:

I know that they hired many Deaf actors and that their process (of development, casting and production) was extraordinary.

From The Stranger, an anonymous column on the Iraq war and disability fetishism:

And thanks to George W. Bush—and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and corrupt Republicans and ineffectual Democrats—there are going to be a lot more amputees around for me to see as sexual beings. During the Vietnam War, two American soldiers were wounded for every fatality. Now, thanks to advances in body armor and battlefield medicine, 16 U.S. soldiers are wounded for every fatality. That means fewer depressing military funerals and more sexy disabled vets, more Bryan Andersons and Marissa Strocks.

From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and article about local Muslims trying to balance culture and faith. Among several other conflicts, some devout Muslim taxi drivers refuse to transport people with service dogs:

Airport commissioners have expressed concern about cabbies refusing to pick up fares because of Islamic prohibitions against carrying alcohol. They also worry that Islamic rules about dogs might prompt drivers to decline rides when 300 visitors with guide dogs attend the American Council of the Blind convention in Minneapolis this summer.

Abdinoor Ahmed Dolal, a Muslim cab driver from Kenya, was stunned by the commissioners' concerns. The Qur'an places high value on assisting the disabled, he said. So Dolal says Muslim cabbies have offered to give blind conventioneers free rides to Minneapolis, forgoing the $30 fares as a sign of good will.

"The issues we have are so simple and have nothing to do with extremism or fanaticism," Dolal said. "We are Muslims and we are Minnesotans and if we sit down and listen to each other, we can work things out."

The cover story of the latest Weekly Standard: "Identity Politics Gone Wild: The Deaf Culture Wars at Gallaudet University" -- The tone of this conservative piece seems partly to be that taxpayers don't need to pay for this school, but it's also very critical of Deaf culture as an identity.

Slumgullion #32

Some bloggy goodness:

Funky Mango writes about the "One Million for Disability" campaign across the European Union. There's a petition too, aimed at collecting at least one million citizens’ signatures because, as stated in the draft European Union Constitutional Treaty, the EU must respond to a call from a million or more citizens demanding action.

A review from the archives of Autism Diva on Mozart and the Whale. I recently saw the movie about a romance between two people with Asperger's, and as I wrote elsewhere:

One of the things that struck me is that it is a film about people with Asperger's and it's not mediated by someone without autism. You know, there's no Tom Cruise to Dustin Hoffman's Rainman. There's no nondisabled character within the story interpreting or analyzing the main characters. I thought that was important and refreshing.

Mark Siegel at The 19th Floor writes in "Its Capital is Cripopolis" about a new study that shows disabled people hold the same prejudices about other disabled folks as the nondisabled do. The study itself is interesting too.

Ricky Taylor at RidorLIVE.com covers the radio show where comedian Lisa Lampanelli ridiculed Deaf people. Yep, on radio, where they couldn't immediately respond:

Lisa Lampanelli: I was always [wondering] if God would maybe think my act was awful and make me deaf so I cant do comedy no more, ’cause that’s why people are deaf; ’cause god hates them.

Male DJ: Now, listen, Lisa.

LL: God hates deaf people, what is wrong with you?

Male DJ: There are gonna be a lot of deaf people there.

LL: Oh, I hope so.

Female DJ: Well there will be. There’s a college within RIT [Rochester Institute of Technology] that’s specifically for deaf students.

LL: Don’t you think deaf students, could be maybe just retarded, and they’re trying to sneak by saying they are deaf?

Male DJ: Lighten up a little bit.

Liberal Catnip on "The Politics of Powerlessness":

It seems that unless you have a large, visible wound or a tumour you can flash on an x-ray, they simply cannot accept that you might actually suffer from pain and other equally annoying symptoms every day. And, even if we did have those things to show them, they seem to always come up with a story - either theirs (which is not similar) or someone else's (like Lance Armstrong's amazing feats, for examples) as proof that you should just get over it, rise up and live a normal life. You're either a loser or a hero. There is no middle ground. Oh, and the fact that you can write a few words on a blog is apparently proof of your power to have a career in journalism or professional writing. (Little do people know about the agony that intermingles those blog posts).

They're wrong.

The effect that sort of attitude has is the infliction of oppression. That's the broader topic here - that there will always be those with more power who use it to demean and attempt to control others.

Liz at The Trouble with Spikol on "Intent to Kill?" about mental illness, intent to kill, and an insurance company refusing to pay on a murdered woman's policy.

Charles Dawson at The Meanderings of a Politically Incorrect Crip writes "Sitting on the horns of a dilemma is painful and not only if you have piles" about a disabled woman in the UK who won a court case against a personal care company that refused to lift her in and out of her wheelchair.

Katya at Broken Clay often travels for business and always has accessibility adventures to share.

Slumgullion #31

From the Army Times: Army holding down disability ratings

The National Council on Disability on the Winkleman Scotus case on the rights of parents to represent themselves in IDEA cases:

At stake is the extent of access to IDEA rights and protections for seven million children and youth with disabilities. NCD affirms that in the nearly three decades that NCD has monitored IDEA, it is clearly established that parents are a main enforcement vehicle for ensuring compliance with IDEA. The statutory scheme of IDEA makes parental involvement and access to legal services integral to the protection of a child's rights under IDEA. In conducting its series of evaluative studies on education, NCD has consistently received reports from parents about their inability to find or afford lawyers to assist them with receiving the full benefits of IDEA for their children. NCD also has found through its research that families with children with disabilities are overrepresented among poor populations. NCD notes that there is a severe shortage in Ohio of attorneys with expertise in IDEA, and that the Ohio Legal Rights Service accepts a small percentage of requests by families for legal representation. Thus, it is critical to maintain the ability of parents like the Winklemans to pursue on their own legal recourse if they disagree with administrative decisions regarding the education of their child and cannot find or afford an attorney. NCD also appreciates the position of the U.S. Solicitor on the matter, who has submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Sixth Circuit holding is "inconsistent with the plain language, structure, and purposes of IDEA."

From Inside Bay Area: Computer glitch denies thousands of seniors and disabled Californians their Medicare benefits

Consent decree will ensure disabled people receive power wheelchairs:

The named plaintiffs, who all live in Medicaid-funded nursing homes, filed the original complaint for themselves and other nursing home residents who were denied or not provided medically necessary motorized wheelchairs. Without power wheelchairs, they were not able to get around independently or access the services they would need to leave the nursing home and live in the community. Unable to use public transportation, go to a movie, or visit friends and family, these residents spent many days confined to their beds.

Roel Villareal, one of the original plaintiffs, who, since the complaint was filed in 2004, has been approved for a power wheelchair, said, "Everyone who needs a wheelchair should have one. Without a wheelchair, I spent most of my days in bed, unable to do anything on my own. The motorized wheelchair gives me the choice to visit family and friends as I please and live more independently." Mr. Villareal's situation is similar to thousands of other nursing home residents in Illinois.

From the Air Force Times: Democrats reject health care fees for vets

From the Janesville, Wisconsin Gazette: Despite ADA, accessibility still lacking:

Steve Pribbenow, a handicapped accessibility consultant who is himself disabled, hears it all the time.

The Americans With Disabilities Act means nothing to people until it means everything.

Matthew Hathaway of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Stop lights, signal posts may block wheelchair users (In other news, sky is blue.)

From the LA Times: Disabled woman is able ally for parents -- Despite the headline this is a good article about a disabled lawyer and mother who defends disabled parents from losing their children:

[Carrie Ann Lucas] is one of a handful of attorneys in the country whose specialty is representing disabled parents like herself. Her mission: making sure they get the same chance as everyone else to be moms and dads.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15% of all parents with children in the household have some disability. These parents are far more likely to have the government try to take their children away. Even Lucas lives in fear that social services may seize her children. She knows the sorrow of losing a child — a 7-year-old girl whom she wanted to adopt was taken from her after a difficult court fight.

From Kestrell at Blind Bookworm -- North Carolina bill proposes paying sterilization victims $50,000:

Rep. Earl Jones (DGreensboro) and Rep. Larry Womble (D-Winston-Salem) are primary cosponsors of a bill in North Carolina that would authorize the state to pay $50,000 to victims of state-sponsored, involuntary sterilizations targeting those with disabilities from between 1929 and 1974.

Approximately 7,600 individuals were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program from 1929 until 1975 when the practice was stopped. North Carolina is one of over 30 states that had such programs.

From the Baltimore Sun: Visually impaired student fights for legislation to help get texts for college courses

From The Washington Post: Bus firm prohibited guide dog, suit says

From the BBC News: Colorado woman astonishes doctors by waking from six-year coma

From the NYT: Veterans face vast inequities over disability:

Staff Sgt. Gregory L. Wilson, from the Texas National Guard, waited nearly two years for his veterans’ disability check after he was injured in Iraq. If he had been an active-duty soldier, he would have gotten more help in cutting through the red tape.

Allen Curry of Chicago has fallen behind on his mortgage while waiting nearly two years for his disability check. If he had filed his claim in a state deploying fewer troops than Illinois, Mr. Curry, who was injured by a bomb blast when he was a staff sergeant in the Army Reserve in Iraq, would most likely have been paid sooner and gotten more in benefits.

Veterans face serious inequities in compensation for disabilities depending on where they live and whether they were on active duty or were members of the National Guard or the Reserve, an analysis by The New York Times has found.

Also from the NYT: I'm not your "girl," Gramps -- Not really dis-friendly but this is about home health care aides, a job falling disproportionately to women of color:

Theirs is the fastest-growing occupation in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though still unlikely to keep pace with the demands of an expanding 85-and-over population, and the hordes of baby boomers not far behind. It is, arguably, the occupation that most directly affects the day-to-day quality of life of the nation’s frail elderly.

Yet the women who spoon-feed someone’s mother or diaper someone’s father are largely invisible and often disrespected. The workshop — no supervisors welcome — was an opportunity for this silent work force to be heard and to enjoy the camaraderie that isn’t part of their normal, isolated work day.

A webcast of Stephen Hawking lecturing at UC Berkeley