Tagged with: advocate awareness disability rights Several weeks ago I wrote an entry about the documentary film Wretches and Jabberers. I unfortunately missed the viewing that I discussed in that entry, but was so excited when it played again last week. This time I made sure to be there!
Tagged with: advocate Cerebral Palsy disability discrimination If you are Catholic, then the “Blessed Sacrament” is part of every Mass. Receiving the Holy Communion is an important part of Catholic, and other Christian, beliefs. What if a priest were to decide you were not able to comprehend what Holy Communion means? Can a priest look inside to read a person’s heart and make such a judgment call? Well, one priest in Texas did just that and refused to give communion to a child with cerebral palsy.
Tagged with: accessibility accessible advocate disability research Even though inclusive education has increased, many kids with disabilities still feel excluded during playtime and recess, leaving them on the sidelines as observers and not active participants. Researchers from the University of Leeds engineering and sociology departments are working together to make playtime fun for all kids by taking out the barrier often present when a child has a disability.
Tagged with: advocate awareness disability rights I recently came across a really interesting conversation in response to a blog post on http://persephonemagazine.com/. The title of the blog post was “A Day in the Life of a Fourteen Year Old Boy with Autism.” I had never read anything on this blog before, but the title of this post caught my attention. It is written by a woman who has a son with autism – and she takes on his persona – speaking and communicating thoughts as if she is him. While the post itself was interesting, what I found most interesting were the comments on the post. You can read them for yourself here at the end of the post.
The current discourse, which caters to the support for the advancement toward a ‘cure,’ is a highly controversial topic within the disability rights community. Yet when the discussion towards finding a ‘cure’ arises more often than not very little tribute goes to activists with disabilities who speak against the need for a ‘cure’.
Tagged with: advocate airline disability Johnnie Tuitel is an advocate and motivation speaker with cerebral palsy who was traveling to a give a speech in Kansas City to the National Self Advocacy Conference about people with disabilities. Johnnie’s wheelchair had been tagged, taken to be loaded as baggage, and he was already seated when a U.S. Airways gate agent returned with a narrow aisle chair to take Johnnie off the plane. Johnnie said people were pointing and staring at him. He was embarrassed and “humiliated” when U.S. Airways removed him from the flight because he was “too disabled to fly.”
