Showing posts with label disability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disability. Show all posts

Thursday, July 14, 2022

[anglican diocese of edmonton > finding our way]

 The Anglican Diocese of Edmonton has just released a document "Finding Our Way", which summarizes what our new (as of Sept 2021) Bishop has heard and how he wants to move forward. 


Graphic with central circle "The Gospel at the Center", the next circle with the five primary principles (Transformative Discipleship, A Calling for All, Outward Focus, Collaborative Partnerships, and All Relations), and the outer circle with the 12 specific goals. Full text for specific goals in linked PDF.

The document outlines 5 principles and 12 specific goals, some of which are specifically related to relations and reparations with Indigenous peoples, affirmation and full public support of LGBTQ2S+ siblings, and increased accessibility not just for buildings but also programs, vocabulary and ways of working.

Tuesday, May 03, 2022

[my dearest friends project]

 

Heading: The My Dearest Friends Project. Black background with white chalk drawing of many people with many different disabilities.

Created by DisArt and Oaklee Thiele, the My Dearest Friends Project is an international, disability-led art collaboration archiving disabled stories. The collected stories are featured as part of various exhibits, and the writers are compensated for their contribution. The site includes video and audio resources, and features the amazing drawings of Oaklee Thiele (see image above as an example).

Sections include:

  • Submit a story
  • Demand access, 
  • Exhibits
  • Disability History
  • Youth Resources
  • and more...

I would like to say that the drawings that appear throughout this site are a real treasure, as is watching some of the videos in which Oaklee is creating drawings. The video I watched was descriptive - meaning, along with the closed captioning that captured the words the narrators and speakers spoke, another voice described what was happening on screen. This is something that is not often done, but useful to be more inclusive for those who are visually impaired.

https://mydearestfriendsproject.org/

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

[the awakeners - Indigenous people with disabilities who are artists]

 "My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back." Louis Riel, Metis Leader 1885. Black background with white text.


"Louis Riel's prophecy is coming to pass! The Indigenous artists are the Awakeners!

That's certainly what you'll witness in this 6-part, 1 hour documentary series in both English and French (12 Eps in total) in which Canadian acclaimed, indigenous singer and song writer, Laura Vinson embarks on a journey to meet extraordinary Indigenous people with disabilities who are artists. Laura's sudden loss of her mentally challenged sister, Noreen, combined with her own challenges with an anxiety disorder, plus the progressive loss of her hearing cause her to have a great deal of empathy and respect for those Indigenous and disabled people who are often underappreciated and underestimated." (from http://theawakeners.ca/)


Read more about this incredible project: http://theawakeners.ca/

Watch the series here: https://www.ami.ca/category/Awakeners/episodes

Note: at the point of posting, I have finished watching the first episode. I learned a lot and it also challenged some of my unconscious biases.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

[takiwatanga]


Screenshot of tweet by @WFarahslt. 18 Jan 2022. Tweet says: "Takiwatanga" is the Maori word for autism and it means "In their own time and space".



When I saw this tweet the other day, I thought to myself, this is an amazing word! How cool that the Maori had a word for people who are autistic. 

Turns out, that the word was created in 2017. While that did surprise me, it doesn't make it any less legitimate. Language is a living thing and in this case, Keri Opai, a civil servant, worked with the Maori disability community to create about 200 words and phrases specifically for mental health, addiction and disability.

About the word for autism, Keri Opai says
"The word I have coined in te reo Māori for autism is ‘Takiwātanga’. It is a derivation of my phrase for autism: “tōku/tōna anō takiwā” – “my/his/her own time and space”."

 

Read more about how this word came to be in Keri Opai's story (video and text): https://www.altogetherautism.org.nz/a-time-and-space-for-takiwatanga/

Read the short BBC article on this project: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40493398

Check out the very cool language glossary, featuring te Reo Maori <> English translations, word collections, plus phrases and proverbs: https://www.tereohapai.nz/

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

[what it's like growing up transgender and Deaf]

Text "What it's like growing up transgender and Deaf" on a blue background with a smiley winking face, above an image of Blake Culley, a male-presenting white person, brown hair and trim beard, wearing a green v-neck T-shirt. Person is doing sign language and the closed captioning below says, "This is my name sign".

As part of Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19), I'd like to let you know about this video of Blake sharing their story of growing up Deaf and transgender. 

This is an important piece because most people's lives are not one-sided ... and because disabled people are often overlooked when discussing other dimensions such as race or sexuality.




You can learn more about Blake at:

Tuesday, September 07, 2021

[feeling through - film]

This is a pretty cool short film, featuring an unhoused youth and a DeafBlind man. 

"After a late-night chance encounter with a DeafBlind man on a New York City street, writer/director Doug Roland wrote the award winning short film, Feeling Through. Doug knew from the start he wanted to cast a DeafBlind actor to star, so he partnered with Helen Keller Services to realize that mission."

(from the website).

While casting a DeafBlind actor to play a DeafBlind character might seem like the logical thing to do, too often this does not happen and able-bodied people are cast to play disabled people.

 Watch this short film and read more about it at: https://www.feelingthrough.com/

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

[illustrations and photos of people from minoritized groups]

Graphic of group of black men and women in office, from Black Illustrations.com


Minoritized groups are often under-represented in images, whether advertising, magazine articles, or generic images used in reports and brochures.

BlackIllustrations.com is one site that offers illustrations of Black people in different contexts, including office, medical, STEM, education and more. Some sets are free; others have a cost.

https://www.BlackIllustrations.com


Education Pack promo image, from BlackIllustrations.com, showing Black people in a variety of educational contexts and activities

(Above: some education-related images from BlackIllustrations.com)


Picture of seated Black man holding his child, and holding a children's book. Photo from nappy.co
nappy.co is a site that has excellent photos of Black and Brown people, free, for commercial and personal use. 

Collections include Tiny Humans, "Breathe, Stretch, Shake, All Hands, Black in Green Spaces, Food for the Soul, Women at Work, The Perfect Holiday, All Black Lives Matter, I's Married Now, and Good Hair.

https://nappy.co


The Gender Spectrum Collection

A non-binary femme with blue hair, on the phone, in a gender neutral bathroom with blue tiles and a sign indicating Gender Neutral Washroom. From Vice Gender Spectrum Collection. CC BY-NC-ND4.0
Vice Gender Photos Collection
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

"The Gender Spectrum Collection is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives."

https://genderphotos.vice.com/

Sunday, August 30, 2020

[a kids book about racism]

 A Kids Book About is a company creating a new kind of kids' books -- ones that focus on the content and ideas. Here's what they say about their approach:

The first thing you’ll notice about our books is that they’re different. We wanted to create books that treated kids like they were smart and spoke to them straightforwardly and honestly. Our books emphasize color, layout, and type to help kids apply the stories to their lives instead of only thinking of the characters in the book. Our books are twice as long as most children books, enabling a deeper dive on each subject. Our books are honest and don’t shy away from the most difficult aspects of each topic.



We bought a copy of "a kids book about racism" and love it! It is very well written and laid out, and I recommend it.

They have similar books on about 20 topics, including bullying, empathy, failure, belonging, and cancer. If you buy one on a different topic, I'd love to hear how you like it -- use Comments below.

Check them out and order directly from them at:

https://akidsbookabout.com/collections/kids-books/products/a-kids-book-about-racism

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

[social justice books]


Screenshot of Social Justice Books' Booklists page, showing 2 rows of the 10 rows of curated booklists

Social Justice Books calls itself "the best selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, YA and educators," and looking at their site makes it obvious that their claim is true.

The site includes curated booklists, an excellent Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, and more! The booklists (the above picture 14 of the over 60 booklists available) include almost every culture imaginable as well as broader topics like culture/language, hair, holidays, etc.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

[indefinite arts centre]

screenshot of home page for ourIAC.ca - Our Indefinite Arts Centre. Picture of woman holding up art work.


The Indefinite Arts Centre, based in Calgary, is Canada's oldest and largest disability arts organization. Here's what they say on their site:
We are proud to be Canada’s oldest and largest disability arts organization, founded in 1975 and now serving close to 300 artists per week in our 11,000+ square foot studio and gallery space in southeast Calgary.

Yes, our niche is to serve artists with disabilities, but our vision is to provide them with a platform to stand strong on their merits and their efforts – as artists. Throughout our website, we hope to give you a glimpse into how we provide artistic training, creation and exhibition opportunities for our artists – and at the same time, advocate for more meaningful, inclusive arts policies that shine the light on the creativity of artists living with disabilities.
Read more about them at https://indefinitearts.com/


Tuesday, May 01, 2018

[the limitations of welcome]


Evangelicals for Social Action recently published "The Limitations of Welcome: An Interview with Amy Jacober", who authored a book called Redefining Perfect: The Interplay Between Theology and Disability.

Some quotes from the interview:
Concurrently, Jacober reconstructs a far more hopeful and healing vision of the church, one that goes beyond making space for those with disabilities by merely providing accessible parking or seating or other accommodations. Instead, Jacober contends that Scripture invites us to honor the gifts those with disabilities can bring to communities in reciprocal, right relationships—gifts that can be used in worship, in discipleship, and in vocational calling.

This includes the paradigms we’ve created for what church leadership looks like. Real change will not happen within churches until those with disabilities are “absolutely” reflected in leadership, Jacober said. And this will not happen until people redefine how we traditionally view Christian leaders, theologians, and teachers.

Read the rest of the interview.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

[OpenDyslexic typeface]


OpenDyslexic is a new open source font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. The typeface includes regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic styles. It is being updated continually and improved based on input from dyslexic users. OpenDyslexic is free for Commercial and Personal use.


Available at: https://opendyslexic.org/




Note: there are some book readers which are being designed to allow the user to change various view settings, including font size, font type (the poeticcomputation example offers OpenDyslexic as one option), spacing between lines, and more.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/90144268/designing-a-book-that-fits-in-your-browser-window

http://poeticcomputation.info/ sample site where you can change font to this one, etc.

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

[the gift of fragility]


Jean Vanier, in Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness, writes:

I am interested in an ecclesial vision for community and in living in a gospel-based community with people with disabilities. We are brothers and sisters together, and Jesus is calling us from a pyramidal society to become a body.

and

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 that God has chosen the weak, the foolish, and the crazy to shame the clever and the powerful; he has chosen the most despised, the people right at the bottom of society. Through this teaching we see a vision unfold in which a pyramid of hierarchy is changed into a body, beginning at the bottom. One might ask if that means Jesus loves the weak more than the strong. No, that is not it. The mystery of people with disabilities is that they long for authentic and loving relationships more than for power. They are not obsessed with being well-situated in a group that offers acclaim and promotion. They are crying for what matters most—love. And God hears their cry because in some way they respond to the cry of God, which is to give love.


These quotes are from Chapter 1, The Fragility of L'Arche and the Friendship of God. Read the rest of the article based on chapter 1.

Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness is a new book by Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier.

Find out more about the book on the IVPress website.










Thursday, August 20, 2015

[re-imagining disability]


Debbie, Amanda, Gordy on left; Robin on right. Portraits by Warren Pot. From his FB page.

Portraits of L'Arche Daybreak members by Warren Pot. See more of them here.

Related to this, Professor Pamela Cushing discusses how photographs tell a story, and can also accomplish ethical work and confer the dignity of full personhood on their subjects.

Here's an excerpt:
However, photos can also accomplish ethical work. They can influence how we think about people who are different from us. Formal photos like portraits can be particularly transformative since they disrupt public expectations. The subject of a portrait is recognized as worthy of being photographed. The format implies that you are worthy of contemplation and commemoration. So the very acts of staging and taking the photos symbolize their membership in a valued group – those who ought to be gazed at.
(source, emphasis added)

Read her succinct and interesting post here.

Monday, January 26, 2015

[you don't say... campaign by duke university]


"I don't say Illegal Alien" image. You Don't Say campaign by Duke students.


"You Don’t Say? is a campaign founded by senior Daniel Kort and juniors Anuj Chhabra, Christie Lawrence and Jay Sullivan that aims to raise student awareness about the offensive nature of phrases and slurs used in everyday conversation through photographs shared using an online campaign." (source)

The latest part of this campaign features 41 student-athletes, who were each asked to choose a phrase that mattered to them.


Check out a lot more photos.
Additional photos of Cornell University students doing a series of similar ads.

Read more background info.

Follow on twitter.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

[thoughts on ableist language and why it matters (resource)]

ableist language and why it matters
You might never have even thought that sentences like "He was blind to the realities of his flaws"  or "Legislative changes crippled the economy" could be offensive to some people, but they are.

Ableist language is the use of words like lame, blind, crippling, retarded, and more to describe people or situations that have nothing to do with ability. I recently came across a well-written article on ableist language, written by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg.

She addresses ten questions about why ableist language matters. Here is one of the questions she addresses:

5. I would never use the N-word because people of color are part of an oppressed group. But disabled people aren't really oppressed. Are they?

Yes, disabled people are members of an oppressed group, and disability rights are a civil rights issue. Disabled people are assaulted at higher rates, live in poverty at higher rates, and are unemployed at higher rates than nondisabled people.

We face widespread exclusion, discrimination, and human rights violations. For an example of what some of the issues are, please take some time over at the Disability Social History Project.
From 10 Questions About Why Ableist Language matters, Answered (source)

What I really appreciate about the article is Cohen-Rottenberg's grasp of the deeper issues behind these questions, including historical contexts and narratives, and the succinct and clear way she responds to them. Check out the rest of the article to learn more!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

[tim's place - a gift to the world]



Video link

This is a "feel good" story about Tim Harris, a young man with Down Syndrome, who had big dreams and they came true. Quite amazing. But there's two other things that are worth mentioning:

The personal touch that comes from Tim hugging almost everyone who comes in the door. 

How different from the fast food restaurants that we frequent! And perhaps also different from "the peace" at church where many only shake hands and some do not even look into the other's eyes.

Secondly, in the video, Tim says, "I do not let my disability crush the dreams. People with disabilities, they can do anything they set their minds to. We're special. We are a gift to the world."

We do not often think of those who are different from us, and especially those who are at the margins, as a gift to the world. They are also a gift to the church, making it a richer place, yet how often do we think about this? And how broad and deep are we willing to see the gift as being?