Author: turtle

Disability in Gaza

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Author’s Statement 

            A lot of the work I have done throughout my years at Western Washington University has been oriented towards Palestine and the occupation. I wanted to find a way to talk about disability in the context of Palestine, it was something I thought of a lot throughout the course. As a Palestinian woman and activist, I see a lot of disability in the context of war. Children, adults, seniors who peacefully protest for the right to their land and end up getting attacked and physically disabled as a consequence. I became curious about how disability effects people as a result of violence. What are the effects on children? What is medical treatment like if it is so sparse? How many people end up disabled due to occupation in Palestine? I decided to narrow my focus to the Gaza strip, the most impoverished and targeted region in Palestine. My aim with this paper is to widen my understanding of disability in the context of war as well as connect with readers on an emotional level about the topic through a creative essay. I learn best when I can personally connect or become emotionally touched and so I would like to try to get my readers to connect on that level as well as through a factual, analytical essay. 

Disability in Gaza 

            Disability is not a topic that is typically studied within the school system in the United States. While many of the people around us are affected directly and indirectly by disability, it is not often we here about the experience of those with disability. Due to this lack of knowledge, it is difficult to take on an advocacy role for the disability community. In this paper, I will be taking a closer look at disability caused specifically by warfare and violence and its effects on mental health on the people of Gaza. 

            Palestine has been under Israeli occupation for the last 73 years. Throughout this occupation, Israel has broken 23 international laws of warfare, which are created and enforced by the United Nations, repeatedly. These include the targeting of children, elderly, and people with disabilities, the use of illegal weapons, chemical warfare, and more. An example of this can be found in an article by Human Rights Watch, “A March 2019 UN Commission of Inquiry report found that Israeli forces fired on people with disabilities, among other identifiable groups, “knowing who they are,” although protesters did not pose an imminent threat in the vast majority of cases they investigated, making those killings unlawful.” (Human Rights Watch).  Consequently, many Palestinians acquire physical disabilities because of violence and to make it even more dire, they do not have access to the medical care that they need due to the fact that Israel decides what materials, medicines, and people enter and exit the Palestinian territories. I will be looking at the occupied territory of Gaza, a sliver of land that now serves as a large, open-air prison for about two million people. The people of Gaza cannot leave by land, if they come within fifteen feet of the fence, they are shot and killed. If they try to leave by boat on the Mediterranean Sea and their boats will be shot down by the Israeli enforced barricade along the coastline and survey it twenty-four hours a day. With less than 4% of the water being drinkable, constant bombings, and electricity that only lasts four hours a day (if that), surviving is almost impossible, let alone living. 

            Let’s start out by looking at a few statistics. Statistics on warfare in Palestine are very difficult to find due to the fact that people and information are not allowed in or out of Palestine under Israeli imperialism. AlJazeera, a Middle Eastern news website writes, “About 48,000 people in Gaza, or about 2.4% of the population, have a disability. More than one fifth are children.” (AlJazeera). If you do the math, this means that of the two million people in Gaza, 9,600 are disabled children being overlooked by Israel and the United Nations. According to the Human Rights Watch, “The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) notes that 498,776 Gaza residents, or 25% of Gaza’s population, experience psychological distress and have a mental health condition.” (Human Rights Watch). It can be inferred that a lot of that psychological distress is caused by living in danger every day while also trying to find ways to survive. They have to worry so much about where their next meal is coming from, or when they will have access to electricity for heat and light, the basic needs a human has and because of that, they cannot focus on healing their trauma and instead it becomes worse. This results in mental health issues that can become debilitating quite quickly without the help of professionals. The Human Rights Watch also notes, “In 2018 and 2019, according to the UN OCHA, 156 Palestinians had limbs amputated after being wounded by Israeli fire during demonstrations along the fences separating Gaza and Israel” (Human Rights Watch). This is only one form of violence among many. 

            A lot of the issues that people with disabilities face are made significantly more difficult, sometimes impossible, due to the occupation. The first example of this is lack of electricity, “The effect of recurring power cuts on people with disabilities who need light to communicate through sign language, or electric lifts or scooters to get around.” (AlJazeera). With getting little as four hours of electricity a day, due to Israeli control of the only power plant in Gaza, it makes it difficult for people who are visually or audibly impaired to communicate with those around them. This becomes a large problem when the people of Gaza are constantly at risk of being bombed throughout the day. If one cannot see or hear the bombs and they have no light to communicate through sign language with people around them, it becomes a large complication in terms of their safety as well as their mental health. Without being able to communicate with others, people are also isolated and separated from their community and their support system. Not to mention the fact that those in electric wheelchairs are incapable of moving around for days at a time. With no means of transportation, how are they supposed to take care of themselves and their families? The many restrictions, especially those on supplies and travel, placed on the Palestinian territory also takes a large toll, “The restrictions prevent people from getting training and prevent outside experts from entering Gaza.” (Human Rights Watch). Doctors cannot be trained to give medical care to those that need it and if they did have the training to do so, finding the medical supplies is another hindrance they face. The lack of access leads to a lack of medical support that many need in order to survive, especially those constantly being threatened by violent acts. Without that support these people cannot stay healthy, let alone thrive and find joy in life. They do not have the means to succeed or to be given the chance to thrive, “The Israeli-imposed electricity crisis, shortages of assistive devices, and an inaccessible physical environment, block people with disabilities from living independently and fully participating in their communities.” (Human Rights Watch). We have seen the power that community brings to a person with disabilities’ life. They get opportunities to thrive, to live, to believe in themselves. They have support for any sort of trauma or negative thoughts or feelings towards their disability by being part of a community. This is seen as a luxury in Palestine, something a lot of people with disabilities do not have access too. For a child, traumatized from war with no access to medical assistance, and living in fear being cut off from their community is the cherry on top of a mountain of destructive problems they must face. 

            Children are also greatly affected by war; it causes mental health issues as well as emotional and physical health. When a child undergoes disability as a result of violence, it will inevitably change them in a physical, emotional, and mental capacity. Nirmala Erevelles writes about the effects of wartime on people within the disability community, “Children exposed to war experience post- traumatic stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, psychophysiological disturbances, behavioral problems and personality changes, as well as physical traumas resulting from injury, physical deformities, and diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and parasites.” (126, Erevelles). The toll it takes on the mental, physical, and emotional health of a child is dramatic. It can change the way they see the world, cause them to live in a state of constaniut fear. A lot of these mental health issues can also become debilitating and affect their everyday life. R. Srinivasa Murthy records the following statistics, “In a series of studies during the last 10 years from the Gaza Community Mental Health Centre, the most prevalent types of trauma exposure for children were witnessing funerals (95%), witness to shooting (83%), seeing injured or dead strangers (67%) and family member injured or killed (62%).” (Murthy). The majority of children in Palestine suffer from trauma and other mental health issues that affect their everyday life. Disability caused by war causes them to grow up quicker, have a more negative outlook on life, and destroy their dreams of a brighter future. According to this article, at least 10% of these children will be left with mental health issues that will negatively affect their ability to function as a person. Without the assistance to manage and deal with these issues, as well as the physical ones caused by war, they resort to a life of misery and helplessness that they do not have the tools to push through. 

            In the end, for those that become disabled or are disabled during war and in the face of violence, simply surviving is a challenge. With lack of resources and medical knowledge, it can become impossible to survive, let alone thrive. “The sheer scope of this violence should be difficult to ignore, and yet it is ignored; its invisibility is justified by the imperialist/neocolonial state that aims to regulate and control differences seen as disruptive to the “natural” order of global civil society.” (Erevelles, 131). We need to put a focused light on those struggling with disability that call for the help of others. We cannot turn a blind eye to those who cannot fight for themselves, we must advocate and educate those around us in hopes of making a difference for the lives of these people, these children. They are human and they deserve the attention, support, love, and community that we all do in this life. 

Works Cited 

Al Jazeera. “Gaza: Life ‘Extraordinarily Difficult’ for People with Disability.” News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 3 Dec. 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/3/life-in-gaza-extraordinarily-difficult-for-disabled-hrw. 

“Gaza: Israeli Restrictions Harm People with Disabilities.” Human Rights Watch, 21 Apr. 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/03/gaza-israeli-restrictions-harm-people-disabilities. 

Hall, Kim Q. Feminist Disability Studies. Indiana University Press, 2011. 

Murthy, R Srinivasa, and Rashmi Lakshminarayana. “Mental Health Consequences of War: A Brief Review of Research Findings.” World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), Masson Italy, Feb. 2006, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472271/. 

Inherently Beautiful

            We spend our childhood, our lives, being told what our bodies should look like. That they should be thin and fit, covered in muscle and a delicate layer of tan skin. That women have elegant curves, shaping them to look like a sand filled hourglass. Breakable and ethereal. Men must be made of unbreakable muscle, the six squares on their stomach symbolizing strength and sex. This is what matters the most. The way the body looks in the eyes of the beholder, the way it feels so soft and perfectly smooth when pushed against another. We take hours out of our day to go to the gym, sweat dripping from our bodies as we aim for an unattainable goal. We restrict the food we eat in order to make sure our diet doesn’t hold us back from getting there. We miss out on so much of life trying to fulfill this standard. The one we set for ourselves without asking why? What for?  

            You know those moments? The ones that seem to wake you up from a dream, one you don’t notice you’ve spent so long stuck in until someone snaps their fingers in front of your face and you’re suddenly awake? Well, I had one of those moments in the beginning of college and it felt like a stinging slap in the face. For me, that awakening came in the form of a film. 

            Gaza Fights for Freedom, a documentary being shown on my college campus. I was asked to go and answer questions about the occupation of Palestine after the film was shown to a group of students and faculty. I know why they asked me, to me it was just another job I’d been asked to do as a member and a voice for the Palestinian community. A role the school decided I should fulfill based on nothing but the blood running through my veins and the olive color of my skin. I remember how hard it was to watch the film. I remember swallowing the burning vomit rising up the back of my throat as pictures of dead children, their crimson blood creating pools in the cracks of broken, gray cement, filled my vision. I listened to the piercing screams of the children of Gaza as they cried out to a world that never bothered to listen to them. They fought for their right to exist, their right to breathe, the right to be seen as a human being instead of an infectious disease that needed to be wiped out. I remember clenching my sweaty hands until my fists turned white, fighting the urge to cry as I watched these people die, people whose names would never be known, who the world would never mourn. 

            I remember Ali. Ali is a nineteen-year-old Palestinian, when I looked at his face, at his eyes, he looked startlingly like my cousins. He had a passion for basketball. He played every day with his friends on a broken court covered in dust and debris from bombings. He was an incredibly smart kid, studying history and dreaming of leaving Gaza to attend college and earn a degree. He wanted to provide and save his parents and his siblings so that they might have a better life. Ali decided to join his people at the front lines, peacefully protesting at the wall between Gaza and Israel. He was yelling for his freedom, waving a flag covered in forest green, royal red, clean white, and regal black The flag rippled proudly as the wind blew through it. Ali was standing to tell the world he was there, that he deserved to exist. Ali got shot in the leg with an illegal Israeli made bullet. The bullet erupted in his leg, sending shrapnel through his flesh and muscle, ripping it to shreds. His ears rang, blood was everywhere, pain coursed through his body until it slammed against the cold ground and his eyes closed. The next thing Ali knew, he was waking up in a makeshift hospital, now with only one leg and a small chance of surviving the next few months with no access to medical treatment. 

            Somehow, Ali survived and for that he was grateful. His amputated leg recovered without infection. During his interview in the film, Ali spoke about his body. The way that he is grateful that it recovered, as sad as he was about losing the ability to walk, to play basketball, his body was still his and his voice still worked. Ali continues to find ways to go to these peaceful protests, even after losing his leg in such a gruesome and cruel way, turning his life in a direction it shouldn’t have gone. Ali said his body was a tool, a means of movement. His tool may have been damaged but that is no reason to accept defeat, to accept misery or pity. I remember salty tears running over my lips as I saw him smile, a kid the same age as me who never took his body or health for granted. 

            I felt nothing but admiration for Ali. I never felt pity or sorrow. In a way, I was jealous. Jealous that he was wise enough to realize something that I never did. That the body is simply a tool. It’s a vessel for something so much more important, so much more valuable. It’s the casing that holds a bright soul. A soul with a purpose, a soul with a destiny and an impact. The vessel can be broken but the soul remains intact. There is no reason to have sadness or pity when you cross the street and see a child in a wheelchair or crutches. There is no reason to feel pity for someone who’s vessel is a little bit different than our own. Their soul is intact. Their soul is fighting. Their soul is valuable and unchanging. That day I promised myself I would smile. I would forever smile at those society frowns upon, at those that people deem unnatural or unwanted. I will smile, knowing their soul is colorful, bright, and smiling back at me. 

            I made another promise that day. I promised to appreciate my own body. The way it looks, the way it moves. I will appreciate every scar, every stretch mark, and every step I take. I am lucky enough to have this beautiful casing for my soul. It deserves much more than a trip to the gym every day or a juice cleanse. It deserves ice cream, naps, and to be appreciated for doing what it was always meant to do. To hold my soul. Isn’t that beautiful in itself? 

The Journey of Turtle

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I think the first important moment in this class that I want to discuss is Sins Invalid. The film was beautiful and it really stuck with me throughout the course. I wrote in my journal, “The art they created was beautiful, emotional, and I found myself incredibly inspired by their authenticity.” I am a very artistic and creative person, I spent a lot of my time on the stage growing up. I understood the stage as a place to express yourself and your experience, to show the world a piece of your soul and hope to get them to understand. I think this was the first moment I truly began to understand the experience of those with disability. It was the first time I was able to connect and relate to their experience. I understood their need for love, acceptance, to be seen in a different light. I felt like there was a crack in the foundation of my original understanding of disability after watching the film.

Another big moment throughout the course for me was understanding the disability community in terms of a marginalized group. This was another way I managed to relate and empathize with this community as a person belonging to another marginalized group. I wrote in my journal, “For marginalized groups, we crave the feeling of belonging because it is this notable experience that fills us with pure joy”. I remember the moment I was truly accepted as a Palestinian woman and how much joy and success I felt when it happened. I remember that longing slipping away and now I understand why the disability community yearns for it so strongly. I was able to understand their need to belong, to find a place that would accept them as people. I have spent a long time looking for the same thing, I understand their feeling of displacement and need for acceptance. I think a trend I’m starting to see in my personal journey is the need to connect personally and find understanding in that sense in order to truly widen my knowledge.

I think the last moment I want to discuss is masquerading. The entire need for the concept upsets me. I had learned about masquerading before in previous classes applied to different groups. Every single time we discuss it, it angers me. I hate that we live in a society that makes people feel like they can’t be authentically themselves. That they need to hide their disability, race, religion, background, or aspects of their personality in order to be treated in a respectful way by others. I wrote, “It is incredibly damaging to a person’s identity. At the same time, those that do choose to pass if they can are shamed by their community as hiding or being ashamed of themselves when they aren’t. This whole concept feels like a double ended sword.” I remember being infuriated for the rest of the day after this conversation in class and carrying that anger with me for the rest of the day. I made a promise to myself to make sure that every person I encountered or built a relationship with would feel comfortable being their authentic self around me without feeling at risk of disrespect or discrimination by me. I want everyone around me to feel safe to allow themselves to be nothing more than what they are because that is more than enough.

Communal Success

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  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

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  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.

Stress and Overthinking

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So my project is going pretty well. I decided on my topic and I decided to write more of an essay/informational piece on disability as a consequence of war. I decided to add another creative non-fiction essay on the topic as well and the experience/terror that comes with children being harmed by war.

Something I’m struggling with is the creative essay. I want to put pieces of my own life into it as well as my reaction and feelings towards children disabled by war. It’s hard to put the information along with emotion in an effective yet creative way. The informational part of the project is a lot easier, it’s just interpreting and analyzing a bunch of research. I’m trying to think of it in terms of an analysis response through the lens of a student and the second is an emotional response as a Palestinian youth. I feel like I am overthinking it a little too much, it could also just be the stress part. I feel like it’s hard to gage how long a paper is enough or how much information is enough. I don’t like not having enough parameters and at the same time I love having so much creative freedom. I know it’s all going to turn out great and how I want it too, I’m just stressed about it.

Camp and Politics

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Crip Camp is a very insightful and informational documentary. I think this movie should be seen by students for multiple reasons, a large one being the understanding of activism. Activism is the taking of action, specifically in a political or social setting. The film highlights the ins and outs of a disability activist group and how they went about advocating and fighting for their rights and the changes they wanted to see in the world. I think this is important because all of their actions as a group were nonviolent. They relied on sit-ins, hunger strikes, and information to change the minds of politicians and citizens in America. Not only that, but the film also shows how different groups of people come together for common causes. To support and learn from each other, an example of this is the Black Panthers group providing meals for the disabled who were protesting inside a political building for over twenty days, “A broad array of nondisabled ally groups supported the twenty-five-day occupation by disability activists of the HEW regional headquarters in San Francisco.” (23).

I think this is important for students to learn because it not only gives them the inspiration to fight for what they believe is right in a nonviolent way but how to advocate and help the community around them in order to improve the lives of others. The film shows a sense of community and comradery throughout the film that is a valuable thing for a child to learn and understand, find happiness in a community, relate to others, and be able to learn from them. I think this documentary will also teach high school students about disability and what it is to be disabled. It’s an accurate representation of the experience of those with disabilities and widens children’s minds to how to incorporate them into their lives, to look at their peers and the people in their community as people first, not defined by their disability the way society often phrases it.

Project Proposal

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  1. Title
    1. My central question Is what is the effect of becoming disabled as a child as a result of war and what that does to their mental state. The proposed product is a creative piece about these children’s lives and experiences.
  2. Central Question
    1. I’m trying to understand and put my feet into the shoes of the people my age in my country that have become disabled due to standing up for their rights and independence. I want to understand what this does to their mentality.
  3. Product Design
    1. This project is going to look like a creative non-fiction piece that forces readers to connect and learn about what it is like to be a child with a disability due to war. It will be influenced by my experience as a Palestinian woman and the research I have done for this project.
    2. I think the structure will come to me as I research, it is going to have a lot of my personal thoughts and feelings influencing the piece and so I think I’m just going to write and see what comes out and go from there.
    3. I really want to explore the mentality here. I want to know how exactly it feels to be a disabled child as a victim of war, and then to be targeted because of that disability. I want to know what it does to know the medical attention that you need, you’ll never get. I want to see what it does to know you can be permanently scarred for standing up for your right to survive.
  4. Production Plan
    1. I’m going to start by researching, then write everything I feel and want to say out before editing and organizing it into a coherent creative piece. (I know this isn’t super planned out but my creative pieces work best when they aren’t.
  5. Consultation
    1. I think it would be the most helpful to meet with Andrew towards the end of my project when I have the working pieces and I am trying to sort my thoughts out. I want input and perspective on my writing and its effectiveness for the reader.
  6. Citations
    1. http://humanityjournal.org/issue11-3/a-deep-and-ongoing-dive-into-the-brutal-humanism-that-undergirds-liberalism-an-interview-with-jasbir-k-puar/
    2. https://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/no-end-sight-seven-years-war-syria-children-disabilities-risk-exclusion
    3. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-palestine-israel-war-disability-children-school

The Debate of Humanity

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Unspeakable Conversations by Harriet McBryde Johnson

This personal essay is about an attorney, Harriet Johnson, and a professor, Peter Singer. Singer believes in the killing of children before they are born or at birth if they are determined to have a disability or medical issue that will lower their quality of life. He also believes in assisted suicide if a person becomes so cognitively impaired that they can’t be considered a person anymore. Harriet, as a member of the disabled community, actively works against this ideal. In this essay, Singer invites Harriet to speak at Princeton and she shares her experience as a disabled person traveling and debating publicly with Singer on whether or not his ideas are morally right or should be legalized.

Something I want to point out is this question that Harriet seems to get a lot, “If I had to live like you, I think I would kill myself” (7). I was astounded to read this, how do people think it is okay to say this to someone? At the same time, Harriet has lived this way all her life, she doesn’t know anything else. Just because a life is different than your own doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, and Harriet makes that clear. That these stereotypes are just ran with even if they aren’t true, no one cares to dismantle them.

Another quote that stuck with me was at the very end, “I am still seeking acceptance of my humanity.” (27). At first, I thought this was a very dramatic statement. When I consider it further, it really isn’t. Harriet had to argue her right to simply be alive and breathe the same air as everyone else. She had to attempt to convince an audience that she and others with similar conditions deserve to be alive, that they aren’t mistakes. No one should have to defend their humanity like that, it’s absolutely ridiculous. It just continues to horrify me every time I go back and read or think about this sentence.

Sexuality, Race, and Community

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To me, Disability Studies is a term used to describe the study of disability in terms of social, political, medical, economic, and educational structures. Disability Studies focuses on analyzing and education oneself on what it is to be a part of the disability community and the discrimination, segregation, and marginalization that they receive. Alice Wong writes, “Disability is sociopolitical, cultural, and biological.” (xxii) in the introduction of Disability Visibility. Disability is so much more than that though, as she later writes, “Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance, and joy.” (xxii). I feel like my definition of Disability Studies has come to a more full understanding over the last few weeks and I hope it will continue to do so.

As we move forward with this class, I hope to address many things. I feel as if I have more questions every time I leave the classroom. When I really think about it, the main things I am interested in are international. How do we compare in our societal and political treatment of the disabled community with other countries? How might we do better on Western Washington University’s campus for our peers who identify as disabled? I would also like to talk about lack of resources for children, like the kids in Gaza who are made disabled as a result of war and do not have access to what they need. I am from Palestine and every day I see and speak about people who have become disabled as a result of war and their fight to survive, now on a different level, as Israel continues to deny them the medical attention and supplies they need to survive. In terms of that, I also wonder about international law. I do know that there is an international law of war that protects the disabled community from targeted violence. Are there other laws like this? How well is this law maintained, especially considering we cannot always physically see or observe another person’s disability?

The first topic that really connected with me was sexuality in terms of Disability Studies. I had not really thought about the sex life and/or sexuality and what that entails for people from the disability community. In society’s eyes, they are undesirable and unwanted, they are not sexual beings. Humans are sexual beings, we crave love and physical affection from those we think highly of, members of the disabled community or human first and therefore have the same urges and experiences that others do, whether society is willing to admit that or not. I really connected with the documentary Sins Invalid because of the message it had. People of all colors, sexuality, creative method, and disability were on a stage taking back what is rightfully theres. They took back their sexuality and tore down the misconceptions that society gives us. The way everyone put their feelings, thoughts, and souls into their art made it feel so vulnerable and so incredibly touching. I want to continue to push past misconceptions created by society, to educate others, and push the boundaries down so that we can have more open discussions about sexuality in our communities, to normalize disability in terms of sexuality and embrace it instead of the ideas that society has put in our heads.

The second topic that I connected with was race. I have spent a lot of this class making connections to my experience as a marginalized person due to my race. I have been able to see similar ways that I, as an Arab, have been discriminated against that is very similar to the discrimination that the disability community faces. Later, we did a reading from Keywords for Disability Studies where I read the chapter on race. I learned about the problems of connecting race and disability and why making these comparisons can be very detrimental for the disability community and their goals. The book says, “The act of correlating race and disability is often fraught with violent and oppressive overtones.” (145). I’ve learned a lot about why I shouldn’t make this comparisons and how detrimental it can be, that these overtones will be assumed about the disability community if we keep making these connections and that can hinder their goal. In the end, I think this society requires deeper understanding of the terms ‘race’ and ‘disability’ in order to be able to compare and contrast without risk of misconceptions. Without creating these definitions, how can we move past these overreaching comparisons that create negative assumptions and make it difficult to work with race and disability in context of each other. Sometimes, we need to start at the basics in order to be able to move forward.

The third topic I took particular interest in was community. As a marginalized person of color living in the United States, I’ve had my fair share of imposter syndrome. I did not feel like I belonged anywhere, no one around me had many shared experiences or understanding for my culture, faith, or race. Throughout this class so far, we have been exposed to this feeling of belonging. Through the documentary, Sins Invalid, and the book, Disability Visibility, we have been able to see the power community holds and how big of a difference it makes to surround yourself with people that can empathize and understand your struggles, pain, and joy. In Disability Visibility it says, “Members of many marginalized groups have this shared experience touchstone, this sense of unexpected and vivid belonging.” (272). I found my community at Western and I remember that overwhelming feeling of belonging, of finding my family. I have come to notice that we do not have many safe spaces for people with disabilities to create communities and find empathy, comfort, and belonging with each other. I want to learn more about how we can create and use these spaces to best help the people within our community. Everyone deserves this feeling of belonging, a community to fall back upon and as a school, as a country, and in this world we need to put more emphasis and effort on creating these safe places for communities to develop and thrive in order to be a happy and productive society.

Works Cited

Adams, Rachel, and Benjamin Reiss. Keywords for Disability Studies. NYU Press, 2015. 

Wong, Alice. Disability Visibility. Crown Books for Young Readers, 2020. 

The Power of Personal Narrative

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Disability Visibility is a collection of personal essays edited by Alice Wong. The goal of this collection is to offer insight and perspective into what it is like to have a disability. The stories share different people’s experience with disability and how society’s misconceptions and mindset towards those who are disabled has come to effected them in positive and negative ways. Each story is deep, personal, and offers a new lens into a life experience that many people are not familiar with or haven’t thought about. This collection causes us to self reflect on the way that we see and treat others in our society and community versus how they wish to be treated and seen as. It breaks down stereotypes and offers first hand accounts of what it is to be marginalized, discriminated against, and the obstacles that are faced (the obstacles we may not have originally thought of facing) when one has a disability. Not only this, but the book also focuses on people marginalized by their disability finding the spaces where they feel belonging, “Members of many marginalized groups have this shared experiential touchstone, this sense of unexpected and vivid belonging” (272).

The audience is meant to be people who are interested in learning more and breaking down their own misconceptions of disability and disability studies. Those who read it will come out with a new perspective and outlook on the disability community. This book is meant to be read by those interested in the experience of being a part of the disability community, to learn more about what that entails and what the benefits are from finding a place where one belongs. It’s about watching other people’s perspective towards their disability, religion, society, politics, and more change, “When I walk into that church service, I am not the believer that I used to be.” (58).

This communication is done through personal essay, the stories and memories of those with disability that deem these moments as valuable and worth relaying. The social expectation of this form of communication is that each essay offers a vulnerable, personal story, that contains some sort of lesson the writer learned and feels needs to be shared and learned by others. Often, these are stories from childhood that have stuck with and influenced us our entire lives, “I am ugly. There is a mathematical equation. to prove it. Or so I was told by they that sat behind me in my seventh-grade art class.” (39). These narratives are usually told in a story telling form and don’t follow an academic structure. They can be poems, essays, even verse.

In the end, I loved this book. It changed my perspective and made me look at disability and the disability community in another light. I was able to connect with the writers both personally and emotionally. I feel like I’ve been opened up to a new community and I would definitely rate this a 5 star read.