Month: November 2021

A Journey in Theory

DellFrog3 Comments

When I signed up for a class about “Disability Rhetoric” I was apprehensive. I was interested in learning more about disability, but I had never encountered rhetoric. I remember searching the definition of rhetoric every day for the first two weeks of class. Once I moved past my fear of rhetoric it was time to tackle the concept of disability. Our first assignment with “The Kids Are Alright” immediately challenged my perceptions of disability, forcing me to confront the overcoming and sympathy (read: pity) narratives that had been taught to me. One of the earliest quotes from my journal is in response to an article by Simi Linton. “But we have failed as a society by expecting abnormality and inability of people who are disabled.” While I still believe this is true in some respects, I don’t think I gave enough credit to the disability community. In today’s world, disability is far more visible than it was even as I was growing up, in large part due to the activism around making the world more accessible and sharing the narratives of people with disabilities. I think this also calls into question definitions of normal and ability, ones that I hadn’t considered at the time of writing that line.

Surrounding the conversation of Disability Visibility as a whole: “It is the way of understanding more about the world and how empathy is the answer when you have more knowledge about the vastness of diversity and the vastness of disability.” I had never encountered the narratives of people in Disability Visibility, and I had never encountered the drastic actions that we saw present in disability activism stories like in Crip Camp. The narratives we encountered were not all sunshine and roses. I don’t like reading sad stories, but there is a difference between a sad story and a provoking narrative that I encountered in this course. Stories like “Unspeakable Conversations” and The Kids Are Alright aren’t necessarily triumphant stories, but they aren’t sad stories either. They are stories that show multi-faceted people experiencing life. And it was refreshing to get a narrative that went beyond my expectations unapologetically. These authors weren’t writing to pander to the nondisabled community, they were writing for themselves.

I hadn’t really encountered a lot of theory outside of educational theory, and seeing disability theories and applying them to literature and media has helped me develop a greater sense of critical analysis. Being able to develop these skills and knowledge has been instrumental in shaping the path of my future. I have learned new perspectives from my peers and been revived in my hope for teaching. I think this quote from October summarizes my thoughts of the class pretty well. “It is where people begin to learn and break free of prior discourses and develop new concepts in conjunction with other like minded people.” I could not be more grateful for the knowledge, theory, and connections I have learned in this class. It also showed me that I can bust out writing much more confidently than I had expected. I am proud of where I have come and I look forward to how I can use this experience in my future.

Major Project Proposal

Isabelle SLeave a comment
  1. The community of memes
    1. To analyse how disabled people have established communities online, crip space online and how it functions, its benefits and limitations, how comedy and the relatability of memes are used to foster unity and even spread information.
  2. To what extent have memes within online spaces help foster disabled communities?
    1. I want to think about online crip space, online disability communities and the thought process behind comedy and memes, and how this is used to create rhetoric. I personally will be going through the process of making memes myself to better understand how they are made and I will also use examples of other memes made by the community. I will analyze their rhetoric and also the general community and the role that online space has in influencing how we think and talk about disability.
  3. Product design
    1. Digital design with collage of images interlaces with analysis (maybe consider making a video essay?)
    2. Use several sources, both primary and secondary. Scholarly and non-scholarly.
      1. Examples of actual online rhetoric by and from these spaces.
    3. For a text-imaged based project:
      1. Start with an introduction, general information, and use memes when supporting a certain topic.
      2. Analysis is more focused on the online space and communities and less the memes, maybe also dig into how comedy is used to foster community
      3. Or: 
        1. Start with the memes then explain their rhetoric, use further in-depth analysis of their meaning to transition into the more scholarly stuff
        2. Analysis is more focused on comedy and art, shared knowledge and community
      4. Try to connect memes and evolution to disability and “normalcy”
    4. For if I want to do a video essay
      1. The writing would be more casual, or at least hold more of my speaking voice and less my academic voice. 
      2. I would need to use a lot more images and footage.
      3. Start with an attention grabbing intro, then analysis of memes and finish with a “so-what?” or what they do for online spaces, and why this is important for disabled people.
      4. I have no idea how long it would actually be.
  4. Production plan
    1. Read parts of “Bending over Backwards” first 
    2. Then look into information about the actual communities, what is the general vibe of subreddits, tumblr posts, tweets, etc.
    3. Look for memes: I want to look at chronic pain, migraine and insomnia memes first.
    4. Then look into bigger communities, like the autistic community (look into #actually autistic on tumblr).
    5. Have the memes by second meeting, or at least some examples 
    6. Have a rough draft by the 29th.
    7. If I do a video essay, I need to find footage for the visuals, then record the commentary. I also don’t know how many words would make a minute, this depends on how fast I talk, how I edit the video, what pauses I make, etc.
  5. Consultation
    1. I’m okay with meeting at the week already planned to have the second and third meetings. The source “Bending Over Backwards” is going to be very helpful for me, and any other sources about online crip space and online disability community would also be really helpful. 
    2. I don’t know how to cite social media posts, if you could maybe get me a guide to how to do that, that would be really helpful.
  6. Citations
    1. “Bending over Backwards” by Lennard J. Davis
    2.  “Access Imagined: The Construction of Disability in Conference Policy Documents” by Margaret Price
    3. “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds” by Cobett Joan O’Toole (they/them)

Crip Camp: History From the Mouth of Its Forgotten Victors

Isabelle S1 Comment

Crip Camp was released in January of 2020, and features footage of campers in 1971, and the disability rights movement in 1973. I bring this up because of the major historical richness this film possesses. This film’s most prominent focus is on community. The hardships these people faced in their everyday lives was relieved during their visit to Camp Jened in 1971, and it is through the bonds formed there, and the accommodation and social environment of that space that the people there realized that they no longer wanted to be “in a world that wasn’t made for me”. They banded together in 1973 and protested for the passing of the 504 plan, which was being jeopardized at the time as people discussed if it was really necessary. 

So much of the value in this film lies in how personal story — and even footage — is used to cast a more in-depth light on the history of disability. All too often disability rights and disabled people are written out of history. But here we see their role up close. The footage from Camp Jened in 1971 is literally shot from the perspective of campers. We see the intimate lives of the campers, their physical needs, their discussions, their fun camp activities. Very quickly the audience could tell that people were happy and free at the camp. The narration also emphasises how different it was from the “outside world”, how disability was not an irregularity or something to be mocked, shunned or stared at, it was normal, expected, and there was an overwhelming amount of understanding in such a place. This contrasts with the fight they must undertake two years later, as they protest for the 504 plan. However, we still see that same sort of community unity during these protests. Everyone’s needs are considered, and people care for one another. There is compraderie in people planning what to say, making places to sleep, delivering food, fasting, heating and electricity, all sorts of specific conditions for living that everyone must be considered when making these decisions. It was a smaller protest, and a very personal one. This personalized account of such a historical event — especially an event that was avoiding publicity and has been for the most part less known outside of the disabled community — really makes the audience (particularly a nondisabled audience) quickly understand the importance of such protests.  

One quote that stood out a lot to me was, “The problem was not with disabled people, the problem was with nondisabled people.” My keyword reading was on ableism, although it was titled “ability”, it discusses how the term “ability” came to be what we now know it as today. It seemed to start as a measurement of what a person was able to do, and usually was legally used to benefit men who owned property. To not “be able” was to be disabled, and to have less value socially. This disabled term was applied to pretty much everyone other than property owning men. This would later evolve into being applied specifically to bodies that were given less value because they were not able to produce as much profit. I go more in-depth for how this is messed up in my keywords RAB, but I think in relation to Crip Camp a lot of similarities could be drawn. The general concept of a body being valued as “lesser”, of a person’s presence and their necessary accommodations that would be needed, is explored a lot in Crip Camp. There is a lot of contrast to how people’s lives were before the 504 plan was passed, and before, and the change between the historical footage and today are impossible to ignore.

There is a lot of value to this video being shown in class to high schoolers. Not only does it open students up to unique perspectives, some of which nondisabled students in your class may not have known about, but it also provides an important historical context to American history, one that is often overlooked or only briefly touched upon. This in-depth telling of history by the actual people who lived and experienced it is also extremely valuable, it is in a way timeless. I mean timeless in that it is extremely valuable to have a historical documentary that includes the actual people that lived through such events. Years from now, people will be able to hear the thoughts and insight of the actual protesters and campers. I think that’s really valuable.

Some notable quotes:

“The problem was not with disabled people, the problem was with nondisabled people.”

“I was in a world that wasn’t made for me.”

“I don’t think I felt shame for my disability. What I really felt was discussion.”

“Schools and even hospitals didn’t want to spend the money to make their buildings accessible.”

We Can’t Go Back RAB

Isabelle S1 Comment

Summary: 

“We Can’t Go Back” is a statement that Ricardo Thornton made in front of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He starts off by explaining his own personal history with institutions for people with mental disabilities, and he goes on to focus his argument onto the detriment that this standard created. He explains that people wouldn’t treat him with respect, people believed that he would never have a life worth living, how people prevented him from living his own independent life, and controlled him. He then goes on to explain how, upon leaving the institution, he still faced similar issues in group homes, but that over time, with support from his community, he was able to learn and gain independence and reclaim his own life. He now lives with his wife Donna, who he also met in a group home, and they have a son, who also has grandkids. They are both financially stable and have had successful careers, but that is only through the support he received from his community and the tools that he was given to find this success, that he was able to achieve any of this. He ends the statement with a call to end institutions, and to support disabled people by protecting them from such places.

Quotes:

“I’ve seen people with severe disabilities who have grown and accomplished great things given the right support.” (Thornton 87)

“The time needs to be over for people to be sent to institutions because there aren’t opportunities in the community or because people think it’s cheaper or more protected.” (Thornton 88)

“The one things that is special about me is that people believed in me and in my potential to learn in spite of my disability, and they took the time to help me learn.” (Thornton 89)

Reflection:

One of the more powerful themes of this statement is how important community is and how external support systems are needed to solidify internal support systems. It is very clear that Thornton believes that anyone could achieve a great life if given the right tools and support, and he uses evidence from his own life and experiences to support this claim. I really like how he went about this because it directly contrasts the “support” that he received at institutions, it further shows to his audience how harmful institutions are, especially since a lot of his personal story has an underlying current of recovering from such an upbringing. I really like how he orchestrates his argument, it leaves little room for doubt on the harm of institutions. It does a really good job at the end to call the audience to action, to end institutions and forcing people against their will into programs, but to protect disabled people from this.

Nurturing Black Disabled Joy RAB

Isabelle S2 Comments

Summary: 

Keah Brown writes about her relationship with hope and joy, and the arguments and assumptions that she faces as a black disabled woman who many assume will never be happy because of her disability. She writes about how disability is almost always presented in the media as a cis white man in a wheelchair, and how she is never seen in the media, even though she very much exists in the real world. She discusses how she found joy in spite of her previously negative mindset that she had prior to the winter of 2016, and how joy is not something you could just expect someone to start feeling, but that it has to be nurtured, it’s work. She makes it clear to the audience that she does not feel joy everyday, that she doesn’t expect anyone to, but that associating disability with joy, pride, hope and love, will change public minds for the better. She explains her hashtag #disabledandcute, and how if focuses on finding joy in the little things, of continuously taking time out of your day to actively think positively about yourself.

Quotes:

“Instead they think of cis white male wheelchair users who hate themselves, because that is so often the way that pop culture depicts us.” (Brown 118)

“I may not find joy everyday. Some days will just be hard, and I will simply exist, and that’s okay, too. No one should have to be happy all the time — no one can be.” (Brown 119)

“I was once a very self-deprecating and angry person who scoffed at the idea of happiness and believed that I would die before I ever saw a day where I felt excited at the prospect of being alive” (Brown 119)

“Forcing myself to reroute negative thoughts with positive ones. Instead of saying what I hated about myself, I spoke aloud what I liked about myself.” (Brown 119)

Reflection:

Brown’s outlook on life, and her optimism is almost contagious in this essay. She does a really good job of setting the stage on the issue she sees and ends it with a very great call to action that encourages readers to think more positively about themselves and disability. I was impressed with how she predicted possible counter-arguments (or what nay-sayers would claim) by directly addressing them, and also explaining how important and necessary joy is. Her stance on joy having to be worked on and nurtured, and not just coming naturally to people, is very nice to hear. Instead of telling her audience to “Just feel joy, stop feeling upset”, which is what I have always worried about when it comes to essays on how to feel joy, Brown is realistic in her methods and expectations. This piece also works as a much more critical piece on the social expectations of disabled people, the expectation that disability equals misery and suffering. Her methods of tackling these issues are very efficient and well developed, and the personal aspects of her own story are used to further support this argument. 

Community Over Institutions

Turnip Friend2 Comments

“We Can’t Go Back” by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.

Summary:

This piece begins with speaker Ricardo T. Thornton Sr. stating the statistic that close to 92,000 people still live in institutions and large public and private facilities for people with intellectual disabilities despite their quality of life being so poor as a result of the harmful structure of these facilities. As someone who grew up in an institution, Thornton describes how no one ever attempted to teach the residents anything or all them to make any decisions for themselves. Even as basic information as who they were related to wasn’t something the staff thought they should know, and Thornton describes how he didn’t know he had a brother and sister living at the institution with him. Thornton goes more into depth about his life story, from leaving the institution to marrying his wife who is another person with an intellectual disability. Both him and his wife are important, active, and productive members of their communities and advocate for change, because all people are more able to thrive in community environments where they are supported by others, have a expectations placed on them, and are given opportunities to enjoy their lives in the way they want to and make their presence known to a community audience.

Quotes:

“People need to have high expectations for people with disabilities because then they’ll give them opportunities to learn and grow” (Wong, 87).

“When I was at Forest Haven, I had a chance to go to the cottage that had the people with the most severe disabilities, who mostly stayed in bed all day. Someone at Forest Haven got a grant so that we went in, gave people musical instruments, and played music while they played along. They loved it and never wanted to go back to their beds” (Wong, 88).

Reflection:

The section I most emotionally connected with in this piece is where Thornton describes how those living in the cottage who had the more severe disabilities at Forest Haven were given the opportunity to use musical instruments and engage with each other and others in a fun and expressive way. The fact that they were only able to do this because of a one time grant and afterwards they had to go back to their previous way of life is incredibly disturbing. I think a lot of nondisabled people don’t understand that for people with disabilities, their human desires for entertainment, expression, and connection are not eliminated. People might say that those with severe disabilities are safer and better off staying in bed all day, but refuse to recognize that many may only stay in their beds all day because their environment given them no compelling avenue to interacting with a community, nor the emotional bandwidth to fight against those in charge.

Institutions vs. Community

unsureunderwaterobot1 Comment
  1. The title and author of the source 

Ricardo T. Thornton, “We Can’t Go Back” 

  1. An objective summary of the reading 

Thornton begins by stating their credibility as someone who has lived in institutions and battles the inequitable (nonexistent) support system in the United States. They explain their experience in institutions, specifically Forest Haven. They explain the dangers of living in an isolating environment in which individuals are not encouraged to engage in the community. Thornton explains the transition out of the institution and into group homes, then family living. They explain their involvement with Special Olympics. They use this involvement as an example of just how capable disabled people are. Out in community, Thornton is capable of so much more than when they were at Forest Haven. The chapter is summed up and given agency. The author closes by explaining how essential support and opportunity is for folks (especially mentally disabled folks) to grow.  

  1. 3 or more quotations (with page numbers) 

“When people are given a chance to grow and contribute, they grow and contribute” (Thornton pg. 88). 

“Segregating people is always bad; people never grow in those places and are safer and happier in the community” (Thornton pg. 89). 

“In the institution I didn’t get to think for myself. The staff thought for me and made all my decisions. For a long time, no one expected anything of me” (Thornton pg. 85). 

  1. A personal reflection naming 2 or 3 take-aways from the reading 

I was drawn to the distinction that the author made between “the institution” and “the community.” Thornton makes a strong comparison between living institutionally and freely. I think I take advantage of the ways community comes so easily to me. I am given opportunity after opportunity to grow and contribute, which so many folks are not. I was struck by one of the authors closing remarks, “the only thing that is special about me (in comparison to other people with mental disabilities) is that people believed in me and in my potential to learn in spite of my disability, they took the time to help me learn” (Thornton pg. 89). This quote connects closely with the social model of disability. It is the world around the disabled that makes them that way. 

De-Centering Whiteness to Make Room for Black Joy

unsureunderwaterobot1 Comment
  1. The title and author of the source 

Keh Brown, “Nurturing Black Disabled Joy” 

  1. An objective summary of the reading 

Brown begins by identifying themselves as a Black woman with CP, who strives toward joy in a world that assumes its absence. She states her argument that emphasizes inclusion within (and outside) the disabled community, in a way that de-centers whiteness. Popular culture sees disability through the lens of a cishet white man who is a wheelchair user and hates his life. This image is a monolith and erases the author; she aims to combat this. Her end goal is joy and the agency to live fully. Using the hashtag #DisabledAndCute, Brown broadcasted her joy. She says that her perspectives often leave people angry or confused, but that. The quote is included below, but she states that days in which joy is absent, it is important to remember, feeling at all is a gift. 

  1. 3 or more quotations (with page numbers) 

“No one should have to be happy all the time- no one can be, with all the ways in which life throws curveballs at us. On those days, it’s important not to mourn the lack of joy but to remember how it feels, to remember that to feel at all is one of the greatest gifts we have in life.” (Brown pg. 119) 

My joy is my freedom—it allows me to live my life as I see fit. I won’t leave this earth without the world knowning that I chose to live a life that made me happy, made me think, made me whole. I won’t leave this earth without the world knowing that I chose to live.” (Brown pg. 120) 

In response to readers who were confused, frightened, or angry, “… reacted defensively because they’re not centered in my story– because I am calling for inclusion that decenters whiteness.” (Brown pg. 118) 

  1. A personal reflection naming 2 or 3 take-aways from the reading 

I thought this reading was a brilliant depiction of intersectionality (intersectionality or die). The author takes note of their identity and experiences, then forms an educated notion that centers the lives of those who most frequently experience marginalization. She is aiming to reframe thinking; away from cishet white guys, to Black disabled womxn; away from the despair life may throw at you, to the joy that exists! I hate commenting on this, but this piece was very accessibly digestible (even my old-fart of a father could read this and gather something from it). Brown successfully drops knowledge and encouragement, while challenging the reader to be better. 

Communal Success

turtle1 Comment
  1. We Can’t Go Back by Ricardo T. Thornton Sr.
  2. At the beginning of the piece, Thornton recalls growing up in institutions where every decision was made for him. He talks about his sister died in an institution before talking about joining the community outside of it and what the adjustment was like. He met his wife, they had a child, and grandchildren. He goes on to talk about how he advocates for disability rights and is very successful in life because he was given the opportunity to grow.
  3. “Segregating people is always bad; people never grow in those places and are safer and happier in the community.” (89). “When you live in the community you make friends that support you and help in your advocacy.” (87). “I am here representing the ninety-two thousand people who are still living in institutions and large public and private facilities for people with intellectual disabilities” (85).
  4. This reading had a lot of solid takeaways. The main one being that institutions are ineffective and simply a way to segregate and separate people from the community. This was meant to be seen as a solution but it did more damage than good and it’s just a way to push ideas of who should and shouldn’t be involved with the community. I think another big takeaway I gathered was the importance of community when it comes to disability. The support, love, and opportunities are endless and help people live full lives full of the greatest things in this world.

Self Love and Fleeting Joy

turtleLeave a comment
  1. Nurturing Black Disabled Joy by Keah Brown
  2. This reading was about Brown’s journey to finding joy in life. It is Brown’s journey to being unapologetic in terms of race and disability, fighting the stereotypes and choosing life instead of allowing misery and anger to take over. Throughout the piece, Brown also argues that joy and hope are precious and that they need to be held onto and found in every day life. We must choose to live.
  3. “Unfortunately, we live in a world that believes joy is impossible for disabled people” (117). “So I live as unapologetically as I can each day.” (118). “Instead of saying what I hate about myself, I spoke aloud what I liked about myself.” (119).
  4. I personally did not enjoy this reading as much as I enjoyed others within this collection. I thought it felt rather out of place. I understand self love and choosing to live life and find joy is a big part of the disability experience but I felt like it didn’t focus on the disability aspect as much. I felt like I didn’t get much out of it, the takeaways are ones we hear as children all the time. I understand that it’s different in terms of race and disability but that wasn’t spoken about much in this piece. So my first takeaway is that we don’t always look for joy in life, but we should. My second would be that happy, colored, people with disabilities need to be made prominent in pop culture in order to end stereotypes that people with disability are negative and not embracing life because of it.