Inside the Little Plastic Castle

Declaration of Interdependence from queerspacepunk (aka emmett)

A tiny snippet from a lovely thread

i want to be asked to come over and help put my friend's kids to bed as casually as they might text their spouse and ask them to pick up milk on the way home

i want to stop and pick up milk for another friend because i know their spouse hates the grocery store

i want to buy fruit that i dont like because it's on special and i know people who do

i want to pass lemons over the fence and to take my neighbours bins out when the forget

i want group chats instead of rideshare apps, calls in the middle of the night because someone's at the hospital, lonely or hungry or both

i want to do the dishes in other people's houses, extra servings wrapped in tinfoil and tea towels so it's still warm when you drop it off, a basket of other people's mending by my couch

i want to be surrounded by reminders that 'imposing' on each other is what we were born to do

https://queerspacepunk.tumblr.com/search/interdependence

Today I learned there are graphic resources—icons and banners—on the Archive of Our Own!

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Banners%20*a*%20Icons/works

(Sadly AO3’s metatags don’t create RSS feeds, so I can’t add one here.)

New DW community for people who archive information from the web: datahoarders

timeasmymeasure provides resources for would-be archivists without tech skills: https://datahoarders.dreamwidth.org/3299.html

Of particular interest to me:

AO3 Downloader: a life-saver for any person who has thought, "God, I wish I could download all of my bookmarks, but that would take sooo long to do individually." Another Github download which is saved by its thorough instructions!

Patrice Jetter is a force of nature. She’s joyous in her clothes and her hobbies (sewing, painting, model railroading) and her confidence in small acts of kindness. She found love with Garry Wickham and they want to marry. They can’t afford to because they’re both disabled. Marriage would end their access to US Federal health insurance and income support.

( Why I loved it and trailer )

Wow I loved this doc! Is there anybody out there?, 87 minutes, UK, 2023. Directed by Ella Glendining, in English with precise captions and audio description.

Blurb:

Born with a rare disability, filmmaker Ella Glendining wonders if there is anyone who can share the experience of living in a body like hers. This simple question—one which non disabled people take for granted, leads to a journey to not only others who live like her—but to the realization that meeting them changes how she views herself in the world, as well as many surprises along the way.

Glendining includes archival footage of her own childhood (older videotapes with flashing lights across the bottom of the screen) as well as horrifying evidence of rank bigotry that disabled kids in the UK. She talks about loving bodies, her own and others’. She documents accepting parenting from her own youth and with her own child, as well as the challenges of wanting to have a "perfect birth" (no drugs, no knives). She demonstrates access intimacy and cross-disability solidarity, interacts with one great doctor and one surgeon-on-a-mission to normalize kids through massive pain, and finally answers the title question yes! meeting three people with bodies similar to hers. I got bi vibes from the doc but I don’t remember her explicitly coming out. In this extensive interview at Diva Magazine, she does explore her bisexuality: https://diva-magazine.com/2023/11/13/ella-glendining-is-there-anybody-out-there/.

I want every parent of a kid with orthopedic impairments to watch this film today, before they ponder any more "treatments." It would also be a great discussion starter for a classroom or activist group.

( Where to watch and trailer )

https://thesqueakywheel.org lives to snarl about the bullshit disabled people in the US deal with daily. Today's headline feed, for example:

• Urologist Gives Personalized Rock Sculpture to Patient for Passing Kidney Stone in Record Time
• Goodwill Raises Disabled Employee Wage from 7.25 to 15 (Cents per Hour)
• New SSI Application Shreds Itself Upon Completion

Inclusive Stick Figure Family Features Woman’s Immortal Pressure Sore

[Image of van's rear window, with white sticker evoking a chalkboard scrawl of 4 humans and the sole of a human foot with a big frown]

( 150-word excerpt )

Back in July 2021, I raved about James Morrison’s NYT Op-Doc short film "Look me in the eye." I’m thrilled the New York Times has published three more of his short films.

First up: I Stutter. But I Need You to Listen focuses on writer John Hendrickson, a writer who stutters.

Morrison’s 8:15 film (pro captions and audio description) shines with visual representations of stuttering, while demonstrating what happens during disfluency and how quickly we can become better listeners.

direct YouTube link

( play it here )

The audio description script is narrated in synthetic speech, which is an odd choice.

( more on Hendrickson )

I've often used eyeglasses to explain how society constructs the lines between "disabled" and "nondisabled." There's almost zero stigma for people who need glasses (in the developed world) -- some people wear them just because they look nice, with plain lenses. On the other hand, using mobility support devices is such a spoiled identity that "she's using that as a crutch" conveys scorn and disdain.

My glasses (in icon) -- which were the best looking and most comfortable I've worn in sixty-one years -- broke 17 days ago. Of course they're no longer made, and my eyeglasses guru reached out to all her distributors and nobody had a pair just laying around.

This really bummed me out: I felt almost as powerless as when my wheelchair breaks. The good news is I have a functional backup pair, so it's not as disabling.

Thanks equally to gentle nudges and desperation, I've been exploring the world of online glasses. (My that sounds dignified. More realistically: I've been obsessively browsing for hours.) Wow howdy they are inexpensive! I doubt they could handle my complicated daily-wear prescription, but I might try them for my single-vision computer/beading distance glasses.

I realized I was extra-vulnerable to failed-AT gloom because I broke my four-year news fast. I'm returning to that boundary. I'm not happy about it. Once I was unhappy about not being able to hike more than 1/4 mile. Now I accept it without thinking.

thanks to Susan & Teddy Fitzmaurice, with grants from a wide variety of folks, ADA 30 - Michigan is a festival of disability voices. They're currently at week 4 of 9. Until 27 September, you can attend their daily free programming, mostly 2pm CDT (1900 UTC).

These are all virtual events. Closed captioning and ASL interpretation will be available for all. Audio description will be added for primarily visual events. There is no cost to participate. But you will need to register at Eventbrite to get a password

registration link is labeled "Eventbrite" at the home page[1]

https://mi-ada.org

Don't let "Michigan" stop you: program includes items of world-wide interest, such as personal narratives, advocacy strategies for IEPs, history lecture, accessible movement and dance, films, and much more!

I particularly recommend today's session with Tom Olin, Photojournalist of the disability movement. He was there for the noisy disability activism in the US, for the last 40 years. (24 August 1900 UTC)

Too many to list them all; this one looks great

True Inclusion is Revolutionary: Disability Inclusive & Accessible Organizing Practices

Learn with member Dessa Cosma how Detroit Disability Power is mobilizing Detroit’s disability community to fight for inclusion, rights, and respect, alongside and included with mainstream activists and protesters fighting for justice. (3 Sept 2020 1900 UTC)

[1] home page is also the landing page for all events, with a single link via workshop title. Very accessible information design -- thanks to Susan's lived experience with intellectual disability.

From "An Unquiet Mind," s.e. smith's excellent monthly column at Catapult.co which explores disability identity and its interaction with the world at large.

What If Accessibility Was Also Inclusive?

“This was fine for someone else,” someone frustrated at being asked to accommodate me says, as though I am not an expert on my own self, as though all disabled people have the same needs. Why isn’t this thing that someone who isn’t you found perfectly acceptable enough? We spent all this money on it. As though being disabled does not in itself confer a literal body of knowledge, an expertise, a skill, an awareness of precisely what I need—because I have spent a lifetime fighting for it. I have a mastery of myself, a master’s degree in myself, yet I am followed, everywhere, by reminders that myself is too much. https://catapult.co/stories/what-if-accessibility-was-also-inclusive-column-unquiet-mind-s-e-smith

I adore s.e. smith’s viewpoint and way with words! Two other essays introduced me to myself.

The small beauty of funeral sex

OMG! It’s not just me who finds death sex so highly charged.

There is a thing that happens with those adjacent to death that many people seem to be afraid to speak of, perhaps because it feels startling and shameful when it happens to them for the first time. Perhaps because no one speaks of it, they assume they are alone in this, perverse, broken. But those of us in the know are well aware that funerals—memorials, celebrations of life, transition ceremonies, Passages (always with a capital P)—are absolutely the best places for hooking up.

https://catapult.co/stories/the-small-beauty-of-funeral-sex-essay-s-e-smith

When disability is a toxic legacy

s.e. smith nails the concept of "debility," something I struggled to understand last year at the SDS conference. When impairment is the result of trauma — whether that’s state or personal violence, especially due to marginalized status — the social model of disability isn’t enough.

Talking about how environmental disparities can contribute to disability becomes complicated as a disabled person who is proud and confident in my identity.

https://catapult.co/stories/when-disability-is-a-toxic-legacy-se-smith

I met s.e. smith through FWD: Feminists With Disabilities, an excellent group blog that’s further proof that longevity is not equal to value. Later I had the good fortune to meet s.e. in person. I’ve always admired smith’s ways with words, and I was delighted but not surprised to learn that three of smith’s monthly columns at Catapult won a 2020 US National Magazine Award.

Explore s.e. smith’s stuff at https://www.realsesmith.com/

You’re So Brave I’d Rather Be Dead

I love Barry Deutsch (aka Ampersand)’s cartoon style: ligne claire with bodies that look real, including many fat folks like him. Most recently is his excellent 6-panel cartoon on the endless theme of non-disabled people telling us "I’d rather be dead than live your life."

https://amptoons.com/blog/?p=25717
Images with full description as well as DVD commentary on how he came to create it.

NYTimes Sunday Magazine in Paper Braille!

Since August 2016, the NYTimes has published a Disability op-ed at least monthly.§ The vast majority of contributors bring a social justice perspective on living with impairment in a disabling society.

The NY Times’ Sunday Magazine this week is an all-disability issue, celebrating the ADA’s 30th anniversary. Thanks to yourlibrarian for letting me know they’ve been making a newspaper-wide push for accessibility, including producing braille editions of the Sunday special. (I was pleased to discover that they’ve been captioning all their videos for the last few years.)

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/the-new-york-times-special-section-on-disability-is-available-in-braille-and-audio-and-has-its-own-style-guide/

Mighty Painters Tape

One of the joys of working on WisCon access was deploying blue painter’s tape to create a reality that worked for all of us. Blue tape marks wheelchair parking spaces in program rooms, front row seating for those who need it, and keep-clear aisles to improve traffic flow.

My favorite podcast hosts an article on painter’s tape creating physical distancing in public spaces

Absent context, images from the Tape_Measures feed on Instagram could look like a series of art interventions. In light of a global disease outbreak, though, they are clearly signs of the times showcasing how a low-budget tool can help reinforce social distancing practices.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/roll-tape-documenting-ad-hoc-measures-to-encourage-social-distancing/

tape_measures

Better Batteries, Better Wheeling

New Mobility magazine focuses on wheelchair users, particularly power. I published an article there in 1999! Now published by the United Spinal Association It’s free, it’s got lots of detailed information, and stories from wheelers around the world. (Sadly not a lot of service-journalism on wheelchair manufacturers. They would be the #1 advertisers, of course.)

This article explores the fundamental differences between the very heavy deep-cycle marine batteries in traditional powerchairs, and the much lighter laptop-like lithium batteries powering the Whill CI, SmartDrive, and the new under-60 pound folding personal mobility devices.

[gear hacker] Mackay estimates he gets 30 miles on one charge, which is about the same distance he expects from his supplemental 24-volt, 75-amp-hour, lithium-ion marine battery — but the similarities stop there. The lithium-ion one weighs 70% less than its lead acid counterparts. Additionally, the two power sources deliver their charges very differently.

Lithium-ion batteries maintain max power output until they are depleted, whereas lead-acids put out less power as they near empty, resulting in a noticeable slowing of the chair. “In my experience, the lithium-ion battery gives me the same range as lead-acid. But because it puts out full power until it quits, it gives me an average of 1 mile per hour extra speed over a course of 20 miles,” says Mackay.

https://www.newmobility.com/2020/07/better-batteries-better-wheeling/

§ Marking a welcome 180° swerve away from the Times I grew up with — where the only disability coverage appeared in the heart-breaking inspo-porn-fest that was the NYTimes Neediest Cases.

The Crip Camp documentary celebrates a hippie-run summer camp where many disabled people discovered the power of crip community. Audio-described trailer at the end.

As a follow-on, the producers are running the Crip Camp Official Virtual Experience.

Ninety minute online seminars on Sunday afternoons through the end of August, featuring disability justice leaders from all over the US. They’re foregrounding black, indigenous, and people of color. (Commonly abbreviated BIPOC, which I initially read as "bisexual")

The Zoom presentations will have ASL and captioning, and you can address other access needs on the sign up form.

https://cripcamp.com/officialvirtualexperience

There's an accompanying private Facebook group, too.

( click for Crip Camp trailer )