Aspies For Freedom

I wanted to share this wonderful website. If you guys haven't heard about it, you should check it out! The website is Aspies For Freedom

I think it is refreshing to find individuals who do not feel a need to cure or prevent any disability. Please check it out!

Veterans with Hearing Loss

I have worked with Maggie Casteel in the past and know that she is a wonderful advocate and a great person! Maggie wrote a blog post concerning hearing loss, specifically with our men and women serving. It is very interesting and I wanted to share her blog post with everyone!

Is disability a punishment?

I couldn't let this one go by. Please read this blog entry first.

I was going to comment on the blog; however, ironically, it has been "disabled." Fear is a motivator for a lot and continues the cycle of stigma and marginalization against minorities. Hoping that someone acquires a disability because they are rude to someo...ne with a disability isn't going to change anything. It's like hoping a racist person is hurt in some way by someone else who is racist against another group. It just doesn't make any sense and continues the cycle.

This view of God punishing people is the medical model approach to disability, where the individual is blamed and "must have done something wrong to be punished." Disability is NOT a punishment. The social model of disability views disability as a societal responsibility. Disability only exists if there is something in the environment that prevents the individual from accomplishing a task altogether or in a different way (that's where accommodations come in). For example, an individual who does not have the ability to use their fine motors skills doesn't have a disability unless they have an occupation that requires them to use their fine motor skills.

Changing people's attitudes towards disability is the biggest hurdle people with disabilities face.

And so it goes...

I am sorry again for the lack of blog posts. Things have been really busy lately with midterms, assignments and work.

I will say that I have very exciting opportunities arising! Over the summer, I have two practicums to complete: an AT practicum and a counseling practicum. I will complete the AT practicum here at work, but I am extremely excited about my counseling practicum.

I am going to be doing this at a local non-profit agency in Pittsburgh, working with the president of the agency. She already has a project for me and several other plans. This particular practicum is only 100 hours, but I am going to be there two days a week from 8-4:30, to soak up a wealth of information. I am particularly excited because I am extremely interested in advocacy and policymaking. The president has a lot of connections with politicians and within the disability community, so this is going to be a really great experience. I am hoping to may be even complete my 600 hour practicum next summer with the same agency.

I also wanted to share this article, which I think serves a great purpose in helping children understand disability being apart of life. I have seen the Easter Seals' curriculum and I really feel it is great! Check it out here - it's called Friends Who Care.

In A World Where People Say We Can't...

we are showing that we can and we do! Life should not be about what we cannot do, but what everyone brings to the table. Everyone has potential and this should not be stifled!

I don't know if you have heard of Aimee Mullins, but here is a story and presentation covered by CNN. It is about 20 minutes long, but is completely and totally worth watching if you are at all interested in disabilities.

The R-Word

I am sorry that I have been MIA for a little while. There's been a lot going on. Okay, on to the entry! :)

So, if you know me at all, you know that I absolutely hate the R-word. I tell people all the time to choose another word. It just grates on your nerves after a while. I know some individuals who throw the R-word around just because they know it bothers me. I just don't understand how people just don't get the message. And then, I thought about it. The people that are throwing around the R-word, are probably the same people throwing around any other racial slur. They are saying those things because they get a rise out of people and they just really don't care. They don't care about the efforts of you and me, who try to alert people to the effects their words have on others.

Yesterday, I posted this to facebook. And one of my friends left this in response. Please take a minute to look at both.

Now, I agree that John McGinley should have probably chosen his words better for the PSA (or at least whoever created it). I can see why feminists are upset. I, too, am not exactly thrilled that a PSA was made to alert people of the power their words that insult people with intellectual disabilities, by insulting women at the same time. Hypocrisy at it's finest, right? I don't; however, think that this should take a way from the full meaning of the main message of spread the word to end the word, which is for people to stop using the R-word in a derogatory manner.

I just don't understand what's so hard about not using the word.

Curing Disabilities?

While snowed in this week, I have had a lot of time to catch up on school work and to think...yes, lots of time to think.

Last Wednesday, we had a lecture on Developmental Disabilities. Included in this topic is autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Our presenter questioned us on what we thought could be causes of the increase in diagnoses of ASD. A couple weeks ago I wrote about the Westernization of diagnosing disabilities.

So in class, I proposed the question "Are we, in a sense, creating disabilities? Are there more diagnoses around the world because they are using our system to diagnose and treat disabilities?" Apparently, this was an interesting question, but no one had a comment. This question got me thinking, "why do want to cure disabilities?" "What is the motivation?" When I propose this question, often times responses are "Well, why wouldn't you want to cure disabilities?" I think often times people assume that when one has a disability they are suffering, and that the disability causes the suffering. This view point is that of the medical model. However, if one looks at the social model of disability, isn't trying to cure disabilities the exact opposite of what we would like to do in the disability community? And exactly what is meant by "curing" disabilities? I am all for finding treatments that will help individuals live their lives more fully, but if we are talking about "getting rid of people with disabilities," then I don't agree. If we look back throughout history, one would find that people with disabilities were subject to cruel experiments, the eugenics movement, forced sterilizations, had no rights as citizens, etc. They weren't seen as humans and they had no rights. Why would I be "for" curing disabilities? Isn't curing disabilities just another way exclude people with disabilities from society?

Individuals with disabilities currently face systematic barriers, negative attitudes, and are repeatedly excluded from society and their communities. If you are familiar with disability studies, then you are also aware that a person's environment makes an impairment a disability. Someone who has their right arm amputated who's career is in retail, will not have as much difficulty as another person with the same injury who is a pianist. Environmental factors increase a person's functional limitations. However, just because someone needs more support for their functional limitations doesn't mean that they do not lead full lives and that they are not worthy of living!

I like to think that our society has made vast improvements in the treatment of individuals with disabilities. However, with individuals around the world who continuously throwing around the R-word (if you haven't seen this, please watch it), abusing individuals with disabilities, doctors who continuously recommend babies be aborted because they may have a disability, continuously housing individuals in psychiatric hospitals, etc. it is hard to identify the positive changes in our society. How can we say our society is moving toward inclusion and acceptance if our society isn't walking the walk that they talk?

Here is an interview with Harriet McBryde Johnson. She was an attorney and great activist/advocate in the disability community. She wrote Unspeakable Conversations. In fact before her death in 2008, she published a great deal and I encourage you to research her yourself if you are intrigued!

Should we cure disabilities? I personally don't think so. Is it at all ethical to cure disabilities? I personally don't think so. What do you guys think?