Sensitive to the D-Word: A Disability Discrimination Test
Updated March 5, 2021 When you mention the D-word (discrimination) in connection with people with disabilities you get the funniest reactions. People sort of wince, they cringe, they even get angry and question your conclusions. It’s as if they have accepted the concept of discrimination against other groups, such as racial minorities, women and aboriginal…
Like Me: Finding My RA Community and Why It Matters
Updated November 12, 2022. Being different is both external and internal. Being the only person who looks a certain way set you apart in a group, designates you as Other. Even when the members of the group are your friends, there is something that makes you feel set apart. Finding your community, the people who…
A Very Special Victim: Why I Stopped Watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Updated April 19, 2021 I stopped watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit a long time ago, after a blogger names Twisty (who alas seems to not be publishing anymore) described it as Law & Order: Mutilated Women’s Unit and just couldn’t get that out of my head. Earlier this week, I happened to see…
Worthwhile Endeavours: A Poem about Disability Stigma
Updated November 10, 2021 There is so much stigma surrounding getting disability support. Not only do you have to prove to the syetem that you’re essentially legally dead, but others judge you for not working and treat you with suspision if you dare to enjoy your life. My poem Worthwhile Endeavours is a reaction to…
Effortless: What Walking Looks Like to Someone Who Can’t Walk
I was 14 the last time I walked on my own steam and I did so with crutches and what felt like knives slicing through my joints at every step. Years of untreated juvenile arthritis had ravaged my body. Thirty years later, walking no longer makes sense to me – I have no muscle memory…
Pluck: The Myth of Overcoming Illness and Disability
Updated July 14, 2024 The other day, as I was doing preliminary research for how I’d to spend my two allotted monthly credits at Audible, I came across a new release called Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope, which looks pretty interesting. I haven’t fully made up my mind…
Rated PG for Nudity: Diving Deeper Into My Story
Updated September 26. 2024 I’ve been thinking a lot about getting naked lately. Not the regular kind of unclothed – sorry to anyone who’d started drooling and to those of you who covered your eyes, you can read on without trepidation. I’m talking about the kind of naked that shows the real you – or…
Adaptation: Disability Doesn’t Have to Be a Tragedy
Updated March 10, 2021 What happens when someone gets a disability? Practical matters aside — and there are a lot of those — it is an emotional roller coaster of shock, depression, grieving, and it can take a long time to adapt and adjust. Most people do. Of course not all, but most. This, however,…
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