- Posted by Crippled Monkey
- 2 May 06, 12:40 PM
Yesterday's (BADD) looks to have been a tremendous success, with well over 100 sites from across the blogosphere taking part. All hail for coming up with the idea, and then ensuring - with assistance from Ouch's very own - that the whole event ran so smoothly.
As for Monkey, I spent the day in front of my computer monitor going square-eyed through excessive blog-reading. It's impossible to mention every BADD entry here, but these are just a few of the ones I spotted,
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"I was reminded of the often experienced mixed societal messages you get if you have a severe disability: sometimes you have to prove that you're sooooooooooooo disabled, and other times, it's, 'Oh, the power wheelchair? I was just feeling a little tired today ...'"
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"Cripple, Crip, Spastic, Spacker, Mong ... All words I use now, I know, terribly un-PC, offensive even. About 3 months ago I had some right on person try to lecture me for calling myself those names after my leg gave way in Tesco and I ended sprawled on the floor."
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"[Disablism is] about most non-disabled people reading this thinking smugly that they'd never do anything like that to me. If that were true, I'd never have to stand up on public transport."
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"Mental illness and violence are different things. Using the same words to describe both, or borrowing a word from one to use to discuss the other all do an incredible disservice to the 1 in 4 people in Britain who will experience mental distress at some point in their life."
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"Add me to the list of disgruntled blind chicks. Add me to the list of disgruntled queer blind Jewish first-generation American working class white post-graduate entry-level yuppies who can't go into a group meeting or space 'for all' without turning every head in the room (and not in that hot, kinky sort of a way)."
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"Dialogue. We need to have dialogue. Simple, respectful interchanges between everyday people. People who aren't ashamed or stressed out by the disabling condition they live with. People who are willing to train their children (and themselves) that people who look or act different are not circus side shows."
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"I will never forget the first time my daughter was discriminated against because of her disability. She was only 18 months old. I remember feeling stunned and shocked and in disbelief at such ignorance."
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"... with the rise of inclusive education maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our future generation is being educated together and we must stand up and challenge those who shout that there is no place for disabled children in mainstream education."
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"'First we'll deal with homophobia /sexism / transphobia / racism, then we'll deal with ableism.' I don't have time to wait for you. You don't either, actually. You'll wake up one day, probably a lot older but maybe sooner than you think, and something about your body won't be working the way it was the day before. And then you'll wish you said something about that broken elevator or flight of stairs that lead to someplace you need to be."
So that was Blogging Against Disablism Day. Same time next year, everyone?
Updated: herself has sent through some recommended entries worth checking out. posted about the autism community; looked at disablism in literature; wrote about access to various forms of media for blind, deaf and deafblind Germans; wrote about how true equality means not always being nice to people; and came up with a very funny post about 'people first' language. Oh, and last but by no means least, BADD's very own celebrity endorsement: a post by comedian Richard Herring on his blog.
