Course Journey Narrative

Isabelle S9 Comments

This course journey has been really eye opening to how much disability and non-disability impact my life and the lives of others. After watching Crip Camp, I wrote in my journal about how I wish I had been taught about this historical event when I was younger, when my history classes went over civil rights movements. I think this digs into why a part of this course has been bittersweet to me. Because if I hadn’t taken this course I likely would have never learned about the history of disability and the impact it makes on the rest of society – despite most of my family and even myself having out own disabilities. However, I’m also really happy to have been able to see so much pride and community regarding disability. The film Sins Invalid was really special to me. I wrote about how seeing artistic expression of disability, and the behind the scenes of such creative works, was really powerful and beautiful. 

A reading that really stood out to me was the one on Disability and Mythology. I wrote about how Daredevil is supposed to be disabled, but he “makes up for his disability” by being able to sense people more accurately than a person with sight. I think this notion of making up for something could be seen in so many other aspects of the world. How people value others is a really odd thing, and I think it ties into the concept of normalcy and the normal experience. Overall, looking closely at disability, and going so in depth on one topic, has been really captivating and I feel really well versed in this topic. My main goal at the start of this class was to learn how to better represent disabled people in writing, seeing as I want to go on to jobs using creative writing, and I think this class has helped me extraordinarily in preparing for that, but it has also opened my eyes to a whole new academic world, and social and cultural world as well.

For some reason I can’t forget what Lily said during an early class discussion on accommodation; that people lack accommodations not because people don’t care, but because there are so many different types of people that have to be accommodated, and that it takes time to hear from everyone. I feel like this is a positive notion that I want to keep moving forward. That people really do want to help disabled people. I think this type of thinking brings hope for the future.

Memology and the Complexity of Online Space

Isabelle S10 Comments

Artist Statement:

In this project I look at online space, the rhetoric of memes, its connection to disability, and the way that comedy relates to all of these topics. For a baseline I did a lot of research in online spaces, from blog posts on tumblr to tweets and comments from both twitter and instagram. A troubling thing about the internet and my collection of sources is that so many things are chares across platforms, and it could be almost impossible to find who was the original creator of the image or phrase. I discuss this more in-depth later in this project, but did include the usernames of the people I was able to find that did create the original image. Many of the things I discuss come from my own observations from looking at the internet and disability communities online, especially with the knowledge and skills I attained through this class. Looking at online space through the lens of disability has been a very eye opening experiance for me, and looking more into the way that knowledge and rhetoric come into being within these communities has been a really fascinating and introspective exercise for me. 

Memology and the Complexity of Online Space

Rhetoric online is very diverse, and for the untrained mind might even be indecipherable. There are many etiquettes and rules to follow, mostly safety procedures put in place to protect users anonymity. However, in recent years these unspoken rules have grown less common, with a sort of emphasis on commodifying the self taking more focus in online communities. This is in part due to the rise in online influencers who occupy the space between celebrities and everyday creative people, and in part due to consumerism and an emphasis on the self being profitable and marketable (Keeping in mind this also runs through a more individualized westernized online experience). This is one reason why we see a lot of changes in online crip space, and why it matters where these spaces are. The medium of social media changes depending on which platform you are occupying. Twitter is oriented towards short, bite-sized posts, and much like Instagram and Facebook as well, popularity, or the big numbers, are mostly status-based. And sites such as TikTok, Reddit, Tumblr and parts of Youtube, are merit-based, which is to say engaging with an audience is going to be favored. This further ties into the commodification of the self, which is further encouraged by such sites which allow for the audience to further engage with the people behind the screens. Additionally, there appears to be a sort od distortion occurring socially regarding the society’s mentality about the body and mind. But what if you aren’t looking for the big numbers? This is what a majority of social media users experience, so we see smaller communities’ creating rhetoric on these apps as well. All of this context is important to keep in mind because it does influence the rhetoric of the sites. 

For the sake of this project, I want to focus on the length and depth of rhetoric on social media, and how this fosters communities online. I went into this project thinking that the length of discussion usually mirrors its nuance, so it is unlikely to see very complex experiences captured in short-hand, brief posts. However, after reading more into the origin of memes and their connection to genes and evolution and knowledge, I have realized that they are absolute goldmines for rhetoric. 

The similarities between genes and memes are ever-present, in that they both want to survive and multiply. And while genes produce this to a biological level, memes so this on a cultural one. Memes rely on complex online contexts, some of which span decades, and it is through this collective knowledge that people online are able to create new meaning in the form of new meme formats or altering and mixing other meme formats. Thus, you get something a bit like this:

[a figure with a snake image on its head gestures to a stock image of a boot, below it instead of subtitles is the image of a man’s face, captioned “It’s free real estate”]

This is an example of a meme that uses the collective rhetoric of memes to create new meaning. The base of this image is the pigeon man meme, where the man points at a butterfly and asks, “Is this a pidgeon”, however, this format is being used to convey the phrase, “Theres a snake in my boot.”, where the snake takes on the rhetorical contextual position of the man and gestures to an image of a boot. This is given further complexity by using the “It’s free real estate” meme, which takes the place of the caption of the meme. Thus, the viewer could derive from this image that the snake is asking to the boot, “Is this free real estate?”. This meaning is only achievable through a lot of context that the viewer may or may not have. It is built on the online cultural knowledge that pre-dates the creation of this specific meme, and it is through the collective knowledge of people online that this rhetoric is able to take shape. The people who may know the meaning behind such an image are specifically people who have spent time online, to the outside viewer this is a picture of utter nonsense with no meaning. 

It is this shared knowledge that people are able to decipher and derive meaning. I am going to analyze more memes from the disabled community to show how rhetoric is created online using memes in the disabled community. 

[An animated man points to his side, followed by many repeated images of himself glitching, the caption also glitches with him, making the words, “Is this aaaaaaaaaaaa”]

This meme, captioned by “brain fog be like”, uses the base knowledge of the meme  format we saw earlier, and uses editing of the original template to communicate something similar to the experience of brain fog. The meme repeats the image of man and the caption much like a windows error page, which to some users is a perfect example of explaining what brain fog feels like. The original image was likely found online by user chronicpainlife on tumblr, where they reposted it with their own caption to recontextualize it and give it new meaning. 

Much of the images we see online are posted and reposted on nearly every other social media site out there. There are countless tumblr images on twitter, twitter images on reddit, and reddit comments posted to instagram, this is a side effect of the wild nature of social media. Much like graffiti art, online memes are usually open source, in that anyone could come along and change it and adapt it to their own liking. It is also common to see people steal images, repost images, and for people to communicate that the original post is not theirs. It is less common to see people online claim to own something that is not theirs, often because it is hard online to get away with such things, but also because it has become normalized for rhetoric online to be dumped into the shared pool of the online space. Which may seem to contradict what I said earlier about commodifying the self online, but in online space there is a nuanced and fluid movement to the expectations of when a person should show themselves to the world, and when someone is expected to only show their art and not the person behind it. This is likely a result of so many different types of people being a part of a community. This topic however also brings me to my next meme: 

[A scene from the movie Up, the old man gives the scout a badge, the old man is labeled “me”, the child is “character I like” and the caption is “I would like to award you the highest honor I can bestow”, the badge is labeled “autism headcanons”]

This meme uses the format from the movie Up, where the rhetor draws emphasis on their pride for their identity by giving it as a badge to the “character I like”. I find this format to be particularly bittersweet because it touches on the pride of a character being disabled, but also draws attention to the lack of good representation in the media for disabled people. Headcanons are personal, there is no expectation for people to see it as the truth, or canon, of a piece of media. However there are often times where a headcanon becomes so popular that they become more widely accepted among a community.  The rhetoric of a piece of media changes via the audience, which before the internet it would have been very difficult to have reached the scale it could reach now. Oftentimes these sorts of headcanons arise because people don’t see themselves represented in the media they consume, or they see the writer’s subtext and decide to bring it to the forefront. Perhaps a character demonstrates characteristics of an autistic person, but it is never outright said that they’re autistic, or perhaps it is heavily implied but the word is never used. This leaves a gap for the actual community to fill, that people on the outside might not fully recognize and see. While it seems fairly agreed on that there needs to be actual disabled people in media for everyone to see, it is unfortunately a rarity to actually find, so I have seen several posts in these online disabled communities talk about the joy they feel from seeing themselves in a character, while also feeling the loss of being cheated out of representation. 

[two spidermen point at eachother, captioned “when you spend hours researching adhd because you’re adhd made you hyperfocus on adhd”]

While we touch on the theme of disability pride in memes, we also should look at the theme of relatability. Often online memes are used for comedic purposes, and this comedy comes in many forms. We have seen examples already of comedy that comes from unique formatting and relatability and also that comes from pride, and the pursuit of representation even at the price of altering the very piece of media that you love.  This meme is an example of comedy found through relatability, which in the online disabled community is most often aimed at the audience of other disabled people. This meme uses the spiderman pointing meme template., where rhatroically the audience could either be shown two things that seem different but are infact similar, or they could derive rhetorically that the two topics represented by the spidermen pointing are perpetuating one another’s being. It delves into the cyctlical loop that alternate realities and clones themtaically touch on. This latter rhetoric is used in this meme, which becomes more clear through the caption. The “when u” is used often online and is a indicator that this meme is effective more through its relatability, instead of lets say shock value, inside humor or cringe comedy (there are far more types of comedy but there are the more common types seen in memes). 

[a cartoon person reaches out to a ball labeled, “motivational memes”, behind them in the second panel a blob creature wraps its arms around them, it is labeled “ableism”]

It is difficult to look at disability memes and not talk about the theme of ablism, and dealing with ablism. The theme makes a lot of sense, making fun of people who harm you or perpetuate harm onto you or your community is both a way to reclaim power back from ablists, and to communicate what is and isn’t ablist in the first place. Often times memes could be a basis for complex discussion. Through my research is because very clear to me when joining a new online community what are the common things or phrases that people have to deal with, and what they would prefer instead. Often times it becomes laughably ridiculous to see how many people have been told the exact same things by different people, then I began to realize that this was probably a result of the previous cultural basis that people built their predjudices upon. This meme is one example of this taking effect.  It uses a two frame online comic format to show the hope a person feel in receiving or pursuing a seemingly positive thing, then the dread that comes in realizing that a negative things is either attached or disguised by said positive thing. This image‘s referance to “motivational memes” could be several things. From what I’ve found in online communities, it could either be referring to motivational posts that promote societal views on productivity that align with constantly being available to exceed in your work, or it is  eferring to  motivational videos that show disabled people exceling in something that “makes up” for their disability. Both of these are harmful for the disability community and being able to joke around the negative feeling’s such concepts invoke provide a sort of comfort in the relatability of disagreeing with such concepts. 

[A man looks at a burger and smiles, the man is labeled, “able bodies people in desperate need of motivation”, the burger is labeled, “disabled people”]

This meme is a specific example of the latter motivational meme that I explained previously. The captioning of this image is very specific in the ablism that it is poking fun of. This format is more ambiguous however. The man looking at the burger could be assumed to be overjoyed at a very messy food, or it could invoking the image of hunger and commodity that “able bodied people” point towards disabled people in their need to feel motivated. The image is more open to interpretation, but it also uses a similar rhetorical format to many other templates. 

[two women cry, point and appear to be yelling at a smug and angry cat, the women are labeled “put your hearing aids on!” and the cat is labeled “you’re not worth the batteries”]

This final meme deals with themes of ablism, but also unlike the last two images we’ve observed bites back directly to the ablists. Here the rhetor uses the salad cat meme format, which depicts two women yelling angrily at a cat sneering back. The cat could seem prideful, unremorsful, and unwavered in the face of being yelled back. The image itself depicts a rather ridiculous situation, and the captions are used to show the argument between the ablist and the disabled person. I am confident in saying that this meme depicts with both ablism and pride. The two women are almost always demonstrating panic, anger and foolishness, but the cat often is used to represent a variety of attitudes. Sometimes the cat is used to communicate facts, sometimes its anger or exhaustion. The cat’s emotions are usually interpreted through the context of the caption. And in this example, it protests against the idea that people with hearing aids always need to have them on, for the sake of making nondisabled people’s lives easier, something that people with hearing aids do not owe to anyone. This meme also in a way separates the prosthetic, or the accommodation, from the person. Where the first panel implies that hearing aids are something the person cannot part with, that it is necessary for their existence, the second makes the distinction that it is simply an electronic divide. Rather than explaining that the person does not want to engage with you, the second panel draws attention to the batteries instead of the ability to hear more.

We’ve looked at lot at the rhetoric of disability memes, but what impact do these have within the disability community online? When it comes to the disabled community online, there is an expansive amount of information to be found. Within my research I have found two spheres of communities in these spaces. There are a lot of posts that are informational, that are more oriented towards non-disabled people, or people who are new to the online community. They could be helpful to newly-disabled people or people who need information on how to support their disabled friends. The second sphere is more focused towards people in the community. It is founded on the basis that the information found in the first sphere is already known fairly in depth. This foundation is used to have more nuanced discussions, share more specific experiences, and where a lot of the memes are found. For instance, the migraine memes use words like, “brain fog” and autism memes discuss “masking” without feeling the need to explain these words because it is expected of the audience to already be familiar with these terms — usually the audience is people within these communities. There is a generalized knowledge based on common experiences that is used to create relatability and quickly convey a lot of rhetoric. It is the context of this rhetoric that allows it to take shape. 

There is a distinction to be made between yourself in the physical world, the “irl-self”, and the online-self. The anonymity that comes with being online, coupled with its more accessible nature, makes online crip space something very fascinating to consider. Social media is accessible from anywhere with the internet, so long as you have a phone or computer, which makes it especially quick and easy to access. It also is a unique space in how it is usually optional to interact with. While not always, jobs and school might require you to be plugged into a device, social media sites and entertainment are something people are able to walk away from, which unlike inaccessible physical spaces, or kyrotic spaces, is an advantage that online spaces provide. However, some downsides are notable. Lighting of screens could be especially harsh and things like eyestrain and flashing lights are still things people have to look out for. It is not a perfect, all accommodating space, and often the experience of being online is influenced by what people and sites you interact with. Disabled people will still see ablism online, but also will be able to connect with a wide community of people with similar experiences to them. Additionally the rhetoric found online is extremely unique, and heavily relies on the shared knowledge of people that already exist online, so it could be difficult for outsiders to get a grasp of what information is being communicated and why. I think that the shared cultural knowledge however allows for very fun ways to connect with people, and while the speed and complexity of being online could become overwhelming, there is a comfort to being able to turn off your device and step out of that space should you need to. 

Relationships Throughout & In Disability Final Project

Limbo3 Comments

https://show.zohopublic.com/publish/kn44jb40693a580b64adaac601cdc4a93af8d

Author statement:

I would like to begin with a small statement about my background and how that not only influenced this whole project but my approach to it as well. I’m currently a psychology major with an interest in pursuing a career in mental health like a therapist. With that, viewers are going to notice vocabulary and emphases that will be obviously geared towards psychology or inspired by it. The reasoning behind this, besides my own bias here, is I truly do believe that people can learn a lot about others if they have the psycho-social skills to do so and that begins with simply having empathy as well as an open mind. I titled it in the project itself, but education really can be empathy. I humbly admit and recognize that even the field of psychology falls short when it comes to disability in many ways. One of the ways I noticed quickly can be language used. I am guilty in taking part in the ignorance at times, so this project was not only a way to educate myself better along the way but hold myself accountable in order to reject ableism instead of continuously upholding it.

Why I chose this focus comes down to a few reasons. I enjoy making connections with people so relationships in general are important to me so naturally I like learning about them, mainly how to strengthen them. Throughout my time taking a course on Disability Studies, one of the things that caught my attention the most would have to be the idea that rhetoric is made up of relationship and therefor relies on them. I believe we create rhetoric and work with it in unique ways. I learned many different forms of communication during this class and project that helped people grow in relationships. People can be very flexible and always open. If anyone is to take anything away from my piece, I hope that it is to embrace your own humility and care for others around you not just physically but emotionally (yes, even if you happen to not have a direct relationship with them). The cliche is true, you do not know someone’s story or what they can do and to limit someone off of brash societal expectations upholds the very systems that destroys their social mobility by restricting access.

With kindness and gratitude, please enjoy this explorative piece.

Major Project: Accessibility in the Chemistry Department

Djellibeybi4 Comments

Artist statements:

In this major project, the stories of two female disabled chemists are analyzed to discern what are the major barriers for disabled Chemists in the laboratory. The info obtained through these narratives are then used to analyze one of the chemistry labs in the Chemistry building at Western Washington University, (this is not representative of all labs on WWU campuses. It is merely a look into one lab.). There are two main ways Western can improve accessibility in the lab. 1) Create a more accessible environment, with broad clean halls, wheelchair accessible work environments, and more comfortable instruments. 2) Encourage disabled scientists to develop a support network in the scientific community.

The paper was originally designed to be a multi-disciplinary look into the narratives in the scientific community, but due to time restraints, the focus was narrowed down to accessibility in the Chemistry lab, and how these principles can be applied to Western’s labs. You will find the completed project attached to this post in a pdf.

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Braided: Weaving Together Rhetoric of Space, Disability Studies, and Arntzen

unsureunderwaterobot3 Comments

Artist Statement:

Three years ago, I helped with the annual Global Health conference on Western’s campus. The theme was Criminalization of the Body, meaning we investigated why, how, and in what ways certain demographics experience marginalization of the body. One of the demographics we spent time on was the disabled community. Ironically, the conference was held in Arntzen Hall, arguably the most ableist building on campus. From there forward, I took notice of the potentially inequitable structures on campus.  

For my project, I compiled a zine that elaborates on the ableist characteristics of Arntzen Hall. Arntzen Hall was built in the late 60s and still stands as one of the most trafficked buildings on campus. It houses the largest lecture hall on campus, making it a hub for intro classes. Arntzen Hall stands as an example of the discriminatory rhetoric of space at WWU. There are countless other examples that piece together a message for Western staff, students and visitors, and that message is, “if you don’t fulfil our constraining, ableist ideals, you are not welcome here.”  

Terms:

Author’s note: many of these terms are nuanced beyond one definition; the definitions listed below are not stagnant or complete

  • Zine: Informal, small magazine, typically 8 quarter pages
  • Space: the tangible, spiritual, “atmospheric”, and contextual environment made up of relationships; persuasive place, cultivating e(a)ffect
  • Disability Studies: as defined by O’toole, Linton, Dolmage, folks in Disability Visibility, Brueggemann, Siebers, Johnson, and so many others, disability studies take on many hats; it is a field that challenges the normalization of being and embraces embodied rhetoric, centering the voices and stories of disabled folks
  • Arntzen Hall: A building on Western Washington University’s campus, constructed in the 60s; houses the largest lecture hall at WWU

Weaving Together Rhetoric of Space, Disability Studies, and Arntzen:

The importance of space extends beyond the physical makeup of infrastructure. Space cannot and does not exist in a vacuum; it has rhetorical power that produces and is produced by canonical perspectives. Often, the canonical perspective is designed by and for nondisabled people. The rhetorical power of space and the social model of disability braid together beautifully to give us a comprehensive look at ableist design. The social model of disability is explained by Bess Williamson as a model that sees the structures of the world as the producers of disability (Keywords For Disability Studies). This means that without the “space” we create, disability does not even exist; for example, a 3-story building that only has stairs (no other means of getting floor to floor) suggests that only folks who walk belong on the second and third floors. This example is a simplistic breakdown of rhetorical space, but as I am learning, rhetorical space can be philosophically complex, and even more complicated when trying to combat ableist structures (they are everywhere!).

Rhetorical space includes conceptual space as well; for example, time, communication, capacity for belonging, knowledge/education, and so much more is implied by space. In this research I hope to push the bounds past just “inclusive design” and into all-encompassing ideas of spatial equity. Throughout the past couple years, I have been looking into the distinction between inclusion and belonging. Any space can include tangible aspects of “inclusivity”, but what does it mean to create a space of true belonging? This project has given me further insight on belonging (and lack thereof).

Throughout this process, I was able to dive into the nuances of disabled space/time. The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning, written by Titchkosky, dives into the complexities of space and its meaning-making tendencies.The author writes, “Disability is a way to make disruptions to the normative order sensible, and it does so even for orders steeped in the norm of disruption itself, such as moving; classroom design; and any other space/time issues” (Titchkosky pg. 47). The term “disruptions” came up frequently throughout this reading. Disrupting the “norm” is revolutionary, but for so many it is just living. Students and faculty members have made disruptions to Arntzen Hall since the 60s, but there is much more work to be done, in the physical, intellectual, and intimate/emotional space that Arntzen provides. I hope to portray the undisrupted aspects of Arntzen to draw attention to the importance of looking at rhetorical space through a disability studies lens. I do not offer alternatives, as it is beyond my scope of understanding, but I hope to find ways to pass on the microphone to folks living the disruption.

 I do navigate the university with mental/learning disabilities, but I am not physically disabled; because of this, I am unable to accurately see all the ableist structures in place. I do not embody the disruption I am arguing for, but I hope to articulate it in a way that respects those who do.

Zine: Page 1

Page 1: Image description
            Cover page with title across the top reading, “Braided: Weaving Together Rhetorical Space, Disability Studies, and Arntzen Hall”. Below the text is an image of two trees in front of a large building (Arntzen Hall). Between the trees is text that reads, “Notice! The door is closed: Arntzen’s structural design closes the door to so many. Let us learn how!”

Page 1: Author’s note
            The theme I chose for this zine is “braiding/weaving”. This theme stems from a concept brought to me by author, professor, and equity expert, Anu Taranath. Anu believes justice is a braid; it is a woven piece of art that contains multitudes of creativity, logistics, and humility. The theme is present throughout my images and dialogue. The primary braiding in my zine is of the concepts: rhetorical space, social model of disability studies, and the tangible building, Arntzen Hall. Weaving together these concepts, I aim to introduce and give examples of the physical, intimate/social, and intellectual space in Arntzen Hall.

Zine: Page 2

Page 2: Image description
            The title says, “Acknowledgements – No matter of words could pay proper respects to the Indigenous peoples of this land: Nooksack, Coast Salish, Lummi, and Duwamish peoples. They have and continue to watch over and tend for the land and waters in which WWU settles.” Below the text is an image of mountains cascading into the ocean as the sun sets. Below the image is a text that reads, “Additionally, I have a nondisabled body – I must acknowledge how space has privileged me and skewed my scope of Arntzen Hall. This zine was compiled via observation and academic reading, not first-hand experience.”

Page 2: Author’s note
            Arntzen Hall will always be an inherently imperial space. It is a settlement on Indigenous land, built by the colonial structures of academia. Academia is wildly inaccessible to people from diverse backgrounds, especially folks who intersect with disability. In acknowledging that Arntzen unrightfully sits on stolen land, I hope to draw the audience’s attention to the deeper systems of oppression that perpetrate the ableist features of Arntzen Hall and Western’s campus. Ableism, white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy run rampant through the physical, intimate, and intellectual spaces at Western. The foundations of Arntzen are grounded in genocide and erasure, the design and rhetorical impact of the building follows suit.
            Although I do navigate university with mental/learning disabilities, I am not physically disabled; because of this, I am unable to accurately see the ableist structures in place. I do not embody the disruption I am arguing for. My second acknowledgment is in hopes of recognizing my own positionality in this project. I cannot see what does not impact me or those around me. I took notes, pictures, and spoke with friends openly, investigating ableist aspects of Arntzen, but this zine and my research is not comprehensive or complete. I hope I articulated that in a way that respects those who are impacted everyday by the inequitable structures at Western.

Zine: Page 3

Page 3: Image description
            The title reads, “Meet Our Key Players”. Three “Hello, my name is…” tags stagger across the page. The top one is rhetorical space, then disability studies, then Arntzen Hall. The text says, “Through this zine, we will be observing 3 types of space in Arntzen Hall through a disability studies lens.” A sketch of glasses is in the lower right corner. Next to it is text reading the three spaces: “1. Physical, 2. Intimate/Social, and 3. Intellectual.”

Page 3: Author’s note
            Introducing each “key player” in my zine was more difficult than I anticipated. Aside from Arntzen Hall, these are expansive concepts that would need pages upon pages to truly define. I hoped this page would pull together my idea of braiding; I have included so many ideas on such few pages, ideally this page acts as a summery, explaining how they all fit together.

Zine: Page 4

Page 4: Image description
            The title says, “Physical Space-”. Below the text is a women’s restroom sign. An arrow notes that the sign does include braille, but maps, the elevator, and signs leading to the 5th floor did not. Below the restroom sign is a sign that reads, “closest accessible RR is one the 1st floor of the environmental building”. An arrow points to that sign and notes, “sign is on the 5th floor of Arntzen: 4 floors and 1 building away from this RR.” Text at the bottom of the page reads, “Rhetorically, this sign uses the imperial gender binary- an intimate aspect of one’s identity. The same imperial structures that built Arntzen’s ableist infrastructure.” piece

Page 4: Author’s note
            I chose physical space as the first of the three spaces because it is the easiest to explain/understand. We are all capable of calling out designs that are not wheelchair friendly or visually accessible. The women’s restroom sign stood out to me as the most impactful image. It embodies the imperial influences of ableism and heteropatriarchy. Disability studies is intersectional, so I included bits about the violence of the gender binary in addition to my analysis of the ableist design in Arntzen. When I was strolling around every floor in Arntzen, I was appalled by how few accessible restrooms there were. Additionally, I could not find a single gender-neutral restroom. I got to the fifth floor and saw it was no different; four floors and an entire building away from an accessible restroom! The physical space of Arntzen Hall does not only influence the amount of time it would take a wheelchair-user to get to an adequate restroom, it influences the amount of time they must miss class/work. Space and design work rhetorically in expansive ways.

Zine: Page 5

Page 5: Image description
            The title says, “Intimate Space – Intimate/Social space is made up of tangible designs that produce conceptual ideas – the mainstream lecture hall design produces ableist ideals, stemming from hierarchical discourse.” Below is an image of the Arntzen Lecture Hall 101. Arrows point out that it is the biggest hall on campus. The text notes that the accessible seating is in the back of the class, furthest from the board and professor. It notes how the seats are assembled in a way in which students do not interact with anyone but the professor, giving the professor all the power.

Page 5: Author’s note
            Intimate/social space is a bit more nuanced than the physical space. Arntzen 101 is set up in a rank-and-file system, meaning the seats are situated in columns and rows. Every chair faces the same direction toward the front, where the professor/instructor is. It is well accepted that classrooms have a front and back, no matter where the door may be, creating a hierarchal structure of closest to power, and furthest. The dynamic that is produced by and from a classroom set-up is one of dominance and submission. The language itself, “front” and “back”, is entangled with hierarchy and hegemony. Hegemony, as explained by Marx, is produced by the superstructures in place that conceal inequitable distribution of power. A classroom acts as a superstructure, leading the teacher to power and the students to oppression (for a lack of other language).  

The space of a classroom was designed—produced, to uphold specific dynamics, rules, and boundaries, but it also produces dynamics, rules, and boundaries. These dynamics of hierarchy pertain to all students, but those who are disabled take the brunt. In the image I drew, I noted that the accessible seating was only in the back, furthest from power. This is an isolating design that rather than includes/immerses disabled folks, segregates them.  

Zine: Page 6

Page 6: Image description

            The title says “Intellectual Space – Whether it be academic or not, space informs our existence.us. Arntzen hall assumes so much about its attendees; it assumes nondisabled body, nondisabled means of communication, nondisabled way of processing. The building, like so many university halls around the US was produced by and continues to produce white, nondisabled, academics.” Below the text is an image of a nondescript white man and text that reads, “Arntzen was a white man who was deemed important enough to have a building named after him” “that building was then designed by a white man from Seattle named Ibsen Andreas Nelsen. That same building produces thousands of nondisabled, white academics every year”

Page 6: Author’s note

The space in Arntzen Hall is dark (or florescent), outdated, and uncomfortable. Unsuitable for learning. I thought for so long how to best portray the intellectual space. Academia is often normalized to be for nondisabled, white people. I chose a man, despite white women being the largest demographic of college attendees because white men have held the historic representation for intellectual space for so long. I chose to draw Arntzen himself (or what I think he looks like; I could not find any images of him).

Zine: Page 7

Page 7: Image description
            The final page is titled “Other Observations – of physical, intimate/social, and intellectual spaces in Arntzen Hall and their rhetorical impact: (all through a disability studies POV). Braiding Together Disability Rhetoric and Arntzen Hall,” There are images of a braided money tree, a door handle and a sticker reading, “Automatic Door Caution,” a door with brick flooring, and a rigid desk. Arrows point to the images noting that the handle is hard to grip, the “automatic” door was not function 2/3 times I visited, and the desk is for a thin, nondisabled body. One note, pointing to the desk says, “What does this furniture tell its audience? What are the constraints?”

Page 7: Author’s note
            This final page is simply a compilation of honorable mentions. I spent a lot of time observing Arntzen and gathered far more insight than what could be included in a zine. As I observed Arntzen Hall, I took photographs and made notes of what I saw. Throughout this process I was unsurprised, yet incredibly disappointed by what I found. Moving forward I hope to continue taking note of the ableist spaces around me and how they influence folks’ lives. I hope to consider the disruptive and revolutionary lives of those consistently fucked over by ableist spaces

Questions to Ponder Moving Forward:

How do we cultivate space beyond just inclusion into true belonging?

How does access play a role in being a student at Western? In the school of Humanities?

What does spatial equity look like to you? Might there be opposing equitable spaces? How do we balance these oppositions?

Work Cited

Dolmage, Jay Timothy. “What Is Metis?” Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1, 2020, https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v40i1.7224.

Keywords for Disability Studies, edited by Rachel Adams, et al., New York University Press,
2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/lib/wwu/detail.action?docID=3564341.

Titchkosky, Tanya. The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning. University of Toronto Press, 2011.

Wong, Alice. Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2020.

A Disability Studies Analysis of Autism Speaks

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Artist’s Statement:

The results of the research I conducted for this piece was far more shocking than I ever expected when I sat down to write it. Before looking into the organization Autism Speaks’ rhetoric and representation of autistic people on their website, I knew there would be issues. Autistic communities everywhere denounce this organization as a hate group but I did not realize how sinister their practices really were until I began to analyze their positions through a disability studies lens. As an autistic individual myself, I have a tendency to miss subtext and take the words of people and organizations at face value. What I found is that Autism Speaks wants people to take their word at face value and assign them authority over how autistic people need to be treated. However, because much of my piece is snapshots of tweets from autistic individuals around the country who have been hurt by their practices, my hope is that those who interact with Autism Speaks will begin to see through their façade of supposedly compassionate practices which hide their radical commitment to eugenicist ideology. One of the issues I’ve found with academic research is the lack of colloquial jargon that would allow everyday people to access the information presented. This is why my inclusion of these tweets from autistic people are so central to this piece, because when disability studies can be learned about and understood in familiar terms, it can then also reach far more people than it would have otherwise.

A Disability Studies Analysis of Autism Speaks

by Rachael Howson

The organization Autism Speaks was “founded in 2005 by Bob and Suzanne Wright after their grandson was diagnosed with autism” (Henkel). When considering these details about the origins of this institution, it makes sense that today none of the board of directors of this advocacy group are autistic, with nearly all of them either having family members who are autistic, or have no publicly recognized association with individual autistic people outside of those they market treatments and services to. This distinction is important because through the creation of their advocacy group, they centered the perspectives of neurotypical people, or non-autistic people in their advocacy instead of centering it around the voiced needs of autistic people themselves. Naturally, because the board of directors have no personal experience with autism, the aspect of their mission that states that they want to “increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism” in the world is unqualified because they themselves do not understand and accept autism in the way advocacy groups formed by autistic individuals do (Our).

This aspect of the organization’s leadership is no coincidence nor simply a byproduct of its origins. In fact, the career section of the Autism Speaks website clearly defines the organizations workplace culture and a specific list of “five core competencies” expected of employees if they are to contribute to the organization. These competencies include, building collaborative relationships, professional behavior, results driven, customer orientation, and flexibility. While characteristics might seem like easy to embody characteristics to non-autistic people, the organization is pointedly excluding autistic people who among other criteria are usually characterized as having social deficits including communication, lack of eye contact, “difficulty reading facial expressions and body language, difficulty understanding the rules of conversation” and group dynamics among others (Common). Likewise, autistic people are known for cognitive rigidity which presents as literal and absolute thinking, black and white expectations, “rules with little interpretive room, and a preference for predictability” and strict routine (Cognitive). As an organization that claims to strive to help autistic people, they should be one of the most autistic-friendly environments for autistics to work in. However these requirements are blatantly anti-autistic and exhibit the same ableist practices that these autistic twitter users describe as inaccessible work environments in a thread about having to choose to leave or losing a job due to a workplace that was not autistic-friendly:

ALT: Tweet from @17shadesofpurple “I lost two jobs that I was fantastic at. I was told flat out that I wasn’t a good fit “socially” and they had to weigh that against my top performance. Guess what won. Both times.”

ALT: Tweet from @Beczabu “Can’t handle the constant noise and rowdiness of co-workers. Makes me want to run and hide. And they seem to love making me feel bad about myself.”

ALT: Tweet from @pippa_louise “Yep. More than 18 jobs in 11 years and it’s impossible for me to work as I never last more than 3 months. For me it’s a lot of things that overload me but mainly social relationships I struggle massively with x.”

Along with their workplace intolerance for autistic people, another key facet that sets Autism Speaks apart from effective autistic led organizations is that they adhere strictly to the medical model of disability. The medical model sees disabilities as a defect within an individual’s body or mind that can be diminished or corrected through medical intervention, and emphasizes the importance of treatments and intervention for autistic people so as to address the “specific needs of each individual.” This is shown from their use of the smallest objectionable choices like the organization’s use of the phrase “people with autism,” to their larger offenses such as their unrelenting support of ABA therapy, which has been proven to cause PTSD in autistic people. The non-profit organization and publication “NeuroClastic,” which supports autistic people and their families through cataloguing “the experiences, insights, knowledge, talents and creative pursuits of autistics,” has stated publicly that Autism Speaks is a hate group (Bettin):

ALT: Tweet from NeuroClastic “Autism Speaks is a hate group. They have done and continue to do irreplaceable harm. They know the statistics about autistic suicide rates. They don’t care. They’re still pushing autistic conversion therapy which contributes to devastatingly high autistic suicide rates.”

When considering Autism Speaks’ use of the phrase “people with autism,” understanding that person-first language is a “linguistic prescription which puts a person before a diagnosis” and is “intended to avoid marginalization or dehumanization when discussing people with a chronic illness or disability”  is essential (Person). In many situations when referring to people with disabilities, person-first language is seen as the preferred etiquette in order to show respect to the humanity of those being referred to. Therefore, many would believe that this convention should also apply to autistic individuals. However, disability first language, which is in direct opposition to person-first language, is widely seen in the autistic community to be preferable. This is despite person-first proponents’ claims that ingrained ableism often leads to people seeing a person’s disability before their humanness, which is why person-first language is necessary. Autism Speaks abides by the person-first perspective despite the widespread agreement from the autistic community that “Autism is not an appendage…. autism is a way of being,” which Jim Sinclair states in his piece, Don’t Mourn for Us. Therefore the idea that autism is “an alternative neurology which reflects humanity’s natural neurological diversity, not as a mental disorder” leads to the conclusion that autism shouldn’t be described as something that a person has (Howard). Autism Speaks’ language implies that autism can be separated from the individual despite public backlash, which directly aligns with their ultimate goal of teaching autistic people how to be neurotypical in order to find “solutions” for their autism, under the guise of helping them “reach their full potential” (About). It should also be noted that their use of the term “solutions” only appeared in their mission statement in 2016, after public pressure to remove the word “cure” from their vocabulary regarding autism. 

Expanding upon Autism Speaks’ perspective on “solutions” for autism, their statement that “Autism Speaks’…. public service advertising campaign stresses the importance of recognizing the early signs of autism and seeking early intervention services” and “Appropriate screening can determine whether a child is at risk for autism as young as one year”  is particularly revealing of their commitment to the medical model of disability (Learn). This framing of autism as something that must be stopped in its tracks lest it overcome the “normal child hidden behind” their disorder shows the organization’s lack of awareness of how the autistic community advocates for the wider culture to understand and treat them (Sinclair). Under the organization’s section labeled “Learn the Signs of Autism,” they has a list of qualities that indicate autism in children of all ages including but not limited to “loss of previously acquired speech, babbling, or social skills,” “unusual and intense reactions to sounds, smells, tastes, textures, lights, and/or colors,” “restricted interests,” “avoidance of eye contact,” and “resistance to minor changes in routine or surrounding” (Learn). When describing autism through the medical model of disability, these kinds of negative traits come to the forefront as necessary for making a diagnosis because the medical model requires “deviation from the norm” as qualification for disability. However, if organizations like Autism Speaks wanted to actually improve the lives of autistic people, they would take inspiration from groups like “NeuroClassic” which work to adapt the social model of disability to neurodivergent labels instead of researching how best to mold them into caricatures of “normal people.” The social model functions on the idea that “the problem is not in the child and their impairment, but in the social and attitudinal barriers” produced and enforced by the society in which they live (Social). As explained by “Brooke Winters” on twitter, disability does not lie within the individual, but within the environment.

ALT: Tweet from @brookewinters23 “The social model of disability defines being disabled as something that happens when accommodations aren’t made and environments aren’t accessible. Autistic people are not disabled by autism. We are disabled by an inaccessible world. Autism is not a disorder.”

As an example of their adherence to the medical model is the organization’s research goals. Under their Research Programs section of the website, Autism Speaks lists these goals, the top one being “seek the causes and types of autism.” Underneath this, they highlight the database called MSSNG (pronounced as “missing”) that was created as a collaboration between Autism Speaks, Google, and the research community “to create the world’s largest genomic database on autism” (MSSNG). This database holds the genetic information donated by over ten thousand people and families “affected by autism.” Autism Speaks’ reasoning for creating this collaborative project is “to speed the development of more effective and personalized interventions for autism and its associated health conditions” (Hand). This approach of Autism researching how genetic intervention could be utilized in the future once research by MSSNG has enough evidence of specific autistic genes is highly reminiscent of the United States’ history of involuntary sterilization of disabled people pushed by the eugenics movement which acquired considerable momentum in the early 1900’s. While Autism Speaks has stated that they do not support eugenics, with no further elaboration, it should be noted that eugenics is defined as “a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population” (Eugenics). Instead of sterilizing autistic people, they are using the donated genetic information to uncover the genetic causes of autism so that they may be edited or eliminated as a form of “intervention.” This goal of identifying autistic genes would also be used by parents to select embryos without the genes as put forward by Doctor Diana S. Fleischman, a psychologist and professor at the University of New Mexico whose field of study include the study of disgust, human sexuality, and hormones and behavior. It is the view of Doctor Fleishchman and many of the other researchers that fighting neurodivergence at its root rather than having to treat autistic people after they are born is a more effective solution, by removing neurodivergence from the gene pool as described by “myk says ho ho ho” on twitter. 

ALT: Tweet from @mykola “Apparently people are down with removing adhd from the gene pool. You can bet how this person and her followers might feel about autism. This is why google’s MSSNG project is so awful, because these fuckers would really do it.”

In response to tweet from @sentientist “Say, for the sake of argument, that Lisa has a form of attention deficit that has a specific genetic basis. She struggles to focus for long periods. Lisa does IVF and chooses and embryo that doesn’t have this genetic deficit to implant. What do you think of what Lisa did?”

However, the autistic community widely recognizes this as a form of genocide particularly because autism is becoming more commonly understood to be a “‘neurological culture group’ than a social disorder or a disability” as stated by “Autvntg” on twitter:

ALT: Tweet from @autvntg “I am of the opinion that…. it is more useful to view autism as a sort of neurological cultural group than as a social disorder or a disability. Autism, cures, genocide.”

The term “genocide” usually refers to the destruction of an ethnic, national, religious, or racial group. However, the destruction of disabled people have always been a key feature of genocides targeted towards these listed types of group. For example, during the Third Reich, Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger who studied autism and eventually had “Asperger’s Syndrome” named after him was crucial part in the genocide of autistic individuals during the Nazi Regime. His job was essentially to sort the autistics into two groups, the intelligent and useful one who would be later classified as having Asperger’s Syndrome, and the others autistics who were considered genetically inferior because they were unable to perform labor or were seen as incapable of social conformity, and so were referred by the doctor to Vienna’s Am Spiegelgrund clinic which was a center for child euthanasia. “Asperger supported the Nazi goal of eliminating children who could not fit in with the Volk: The facist ideal of a homogeneous Aryan people” (Baron-Cohen). Partially because of his Nazi affiliations and recent studies that reject the differentiation between Asperger and Autism, members of the autistic community on twitter such as “Ghost of Bumplings Past” beg that the wider community stops using the term Aspergers. While Autism Speaks’ no longer uses this term to describe any of the individuals they treat because of public pushback, it should also be remarked that the differentiation is no longer useful to the organization. Now that they have the ability to receive genetic information from donors, they no longer need to rely solely on research recorded during in person medical evaluation post-birth, to decide whether the autistic individuals’ families would be better off without them as Hans Asperger did. 

ALT: Tweet from @Not_CharLatte “reminder that the Autistic community is begging you to stop using the term Aspergers. Hans Asperger was a Nazi who experimented on Autistic children. Aspergers because the term for folks on the spectrum who were able to work and therefore “didn’t deserve to immediately die.”

In regards to an ever growing autistic community whose collective neurotype is considered worthy of destruction by this more potent form of eugenics, an understanding that a culture is defined by “the behaviors and beliefs, characteristics of a particular group of people” becomes especially important as Autism Speaks continues to push their belief that environments do not need to be changed to increase accessibility, but instead that autistic people need to change in order to fit their environment more effectively. Their primary tactic for spreading this belief is through their preferred treatment called Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA therapy, which is on the top of Autism Speaks’ list in their treatments and interventions section of the website.   

Therapy can be defined as either “the treatment of a disease or disorders, as by some remedial, rehabilitative, or curative process” or as “any act, hobby, task, program, etc. that relieves tension.” These two definitions are important because what the autistic community refers to as “stimming” refers to “self-stimulating behaviors, usually involving repetitive movements or sounds” is widely proven to be a “protective response to overstimulation, in which people calm themselves to block less predictable environmental stimuli” (Stimming). Stimming therefore, is a form of therapy, and yet Autism Speaks’ promotes a type of therapy more akin to conversion therapy to correct this naturally therapeutic behavior exhibited by autistic people because it is seen as abnormal behavior. When autistic people are not allowed to stim, which is an essential emotional regulatory tool for many autistic, oftentimes internal tension builds until the individuals are forced to relieve said tension through other less healthy means such as self-harming or depersonalization as described by twitter user “Alice (ae/aem)” in response to their experience with ABA abuse where their adopter refused to allow them to engage with any stimuli that lead to the performance of autistic traits:

ALT: Tweet from @TheHorrorOf97 “My adopter was a psychologist. He took my most compelling things away. Music. Toys. All to try and force behavioral changes. What happened? I started to develop sever depersonalization and started self harming cuz I was using toys and music to stim, and they were seen as fun.”

ABA Therapy has been widely documented as harmful to autistic people because it teaches them to “hide sensory pain, and increases the likelihood of PTSD and suicidality in autistic people.” The goal of ABA therapy is to decrease problem behaviors, and increase desired behaviors through positive reinforcement whereby approved behaviors are encouraged by offering a reward as a stimulus. As stated by “art twink” on twitter, this form of therapy leads to immense guilt in individuals when they care for their needs without first doing something deserving of a reward:

ALT: Tweet from @art_twink “You know what ABA gave me? Immense guilt every time I give myself a “reward” without completing a task first. And by rewards I mean things like going to the bathroom, eating, doing anything other than keeping my body Very Still.”

When compared to effective dog training tactics, it is clear that they “largely stem from the same principles- teaching children or dogs to behave in a desired manner” such as in the case of giving a dog a treat for sitting down or rolling over (Natasha). The only difference is that most dog training tactics recommend a person first remove the pet from the environment that is causing them stress, whereas ABA therapy forces autistic people to endure those environments and ignore the stress signals they produce, which often leads to autistic masking. This goal of teaching autistic people how to pretending to be neurotypical, or from the perspective of the therapist- having the autistic child understand how and why they must not act on their autistic traits- stems from the assumption that the “children simply won’t do things and need to be incentivized” rather than assume that “autistic kids can’t do what they’re asking them to do” or understand that “what they’re asking them to do is painful” (Why). As explained by twitter user “E”, this type of therapy is nothing more than a legal form of human obedience training.

ALT: Tweet from @QueerDeaf “#SayNoToABA because I was a DEAF child who had my HANDS taped together for stimming. You cannot convince me it isn’t abuse/all about controlling another human being to the fullest extent without consequences. #ActuallyAutistic #AutisticPrideMonth”

Part of the reason why ABA therapy is so widely used is because autistic traits are seen as unexplainable to neurotypicals, and therefore meaningless, though autistic people have written at length about the meanings and reasons for different autistic behaviors. This narrative that autism is an inherently mysterious, puzzling, and complex disorder is why the blue puzzle piece logo created by the Autism Society of America has lasted so long as a symbol for autism, which Autism Speaks continues to utilize. The puzzle piece is also representative of Autism Speaks’ commitment to searching for answers, or to find the key piece of the puzzle that will make autism make sense to non-autistics. Likewise, the color of the puzzle piece is indicative of the higher rates of diagnoses of male autistics than female autistics because the criteria for the diagnosis was based on how it appeared in males rather than how it presented in everyone on the gender spectrum which led to a gender bias which also led to the assumption that autistic males are considered “more autistic” than autistic females (Crosman). As explained by twitter user “Shelby James Champion,” even if the puzzle piece logo began as a albeit misguided way for neurotypical people to respect the complexity of autism and was used as a symbol for positive research, now that it is close to solely associated with Autism Speaks, the symbol is widely regarded as having no use to the autistic community because of its tainted history.

ALT: Tweet from @shelbyjchampion “The reason I passionately dislike the puzzle piece symbol is because it categorizes us as “mysterious” or “puzzling”. It is largely associated with the infamous organization Autism Speaks. I had a very bad experience growing up with that organization.”

With the immense levels of misrepresentation and ableist rhetoric about autism that Autism Speaks puts into the world, it becomes necessary to recognize who their intended audience is and why this audience has allowed the organization to receive millions of dollars in donation every year. This specific audience which is widely discussed in autistic circles are the so-called “Autism Martyr Mommies” who present themselves as victims or celebrate themselves for being able to raise an autistic child who are regularly described as far much more difficult to raise than non-autistic children. While Autism Speaks also advertises to other groups of people for financial support, the community support created by mothers of children with autism through message boards, clubs, and social media groups is unparalleled. This demographic is useful to cater to because mothers traditionally expected to be the parent who deals with the medical matters of their children and has the most concern for their health, safety, and wellbeing. Therefore when an organization like Autism Speaks recommends that parents scrutinize their children for seemingly concerning signs of autism such as “little to no warm, joyful, engaging expressions, little or no babbling, and little or no response to name,” which could present themselves as early as a few months old, these caring mothers react to the organizations’ fear-mongering just as the organization intends, by viewing Autism Speaks as the authority on how to best care for their disabled child. 

Likewise, this choice of audience leads to an overemphasis on the voices of caregivers in regards to the wellbeing and needs of disabled individuals as a whole which in turn gives the organization more authority as one of the the leading researchers into Autism Spectrum Disorder despite none of the organization’s board member’s being autistic, as mentioned earlier. Disability rhetoric is centered around who has power in conversations about disability, and just like with issues about race, class, gender, and other societal power dynamics, those who are in control of the narratives surrounding these issues are the ones who will be most able to exploit them and the marginalized groups whose voices are left behind. As twitter users “Liz Both Dinosaurs Bernstein” and “Ultra Violet Rae” explain, organizations who care more able the parents of autistic individuals than the autistic people themselves continually silence them despite their supposed goal of advocacy, which is more often than not a front for money-grabbing and eugenics propaganda.

ALT: Tweet from @yeralizard “Sooo many organizations and individuals that purport to advocate for autistic people yet continually silence us when we criticize them just prove more & more that they care more about autism martyr mommies than they do about us.”

ALT: Tweet from @UltVioletRae “Glob give me the patience to survive the autism mommies during the rest of autism month. The audacity. The victimhood. The eugenics. The torture as treatment. This month is supposed to be for us, yet they make $ for eugenics off our struggles, and silence us. Nauseating.”

In the faceoff against organizations like Autism Speaks, the question boils down to, how can communities center autistic voices in order to create accessibility within schools, workplaces as well as remove the veil of inaccurate, ableist rhetoric that surrounds conversations about autism. How can our world be changed so that autistic individuals are not harassed, abused, manipulated, and controlled by others on the basis of the way they function as a representative of their neurotype? How can the rhetoric that infantilizes autistic adults, assumes certain capabilities and a lack of other capabilities be changed so that neurotypical people respect autistics as much as they would other non-autistics? 

“Corvid Working on comms” says to stop lighting it up blue for Autism Acceptance month, and supporting organizations like Autism Speaks. 

ALT: Tweet from @corvidcactus “small doodle because today is #WorldAutismDay and #AutismAcceptanceMonth. I’m autistic. please do not “light it up blue” or support orgs like autism speaks. listen to and uplift autistic voices. acceptance is more important than awareness. #ActuallyAutistic”.

“Punny and Pup” says to stop supporting films and media that advertise unsafe methods of helping autistic people regulate themselves and do not try to educate yourself about autism through popular media.

ALT: Tweet from @pupkittyfan1: Sia’s film about autism is very dangerous, in the movie the autistic character is restrained and held down, this method is very dangerous and can harm Autistic ppl when they’re having a meltdown. Many Autistic ppl have spoken against this movie so please listen to our voices.”

As “Sarah Boon #StopTheShock” says, believe those around you who confide in you the possibility that they are autistic regardless of your level of understanding or awareness of the neurotype and their behavior. 

ALT: Tweet from @Saraheboon “Hi, I am an autistic woman (yes we exist). Autism is often misrepresented in the media dramatically, which was one of many reasons why I didn’t get diagnosed until 24. Please listen/empower autistic voices when it comes to representation.”

Lastly, as “Kyle” says, listen to the autistic individuals in your life and at all costs, do not speak over them.

ALT: Tweet from @TigerDropped “Good morning and happy #AutismAwarenessMonth. As someone on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed when I was 14, I send nothing but love & support to my fellow autistic people. Remember to listen to our voices & don’t speak over us. And daily reminder: fuck Autism Speaks.”

Works Cited

“About Us.” Autism Speaks, https://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us. 

Alice (TheHorrorOf97). “My adopter was a psychologist. He took my most compelling things away. Music. Toys. All to try and force behavioral changes. What happened? I started to develop severe depersonalization and started self harming cuz I was using toys and music to stim, and they were seen as “fun”. 1 May 2021, 23:44 UTC. Tweet

art twink (art_twink). “You know what ABA gave me? Immense guilt every time I give myself a “reward” without completing a task first. And by rewards I mean things like going to the bathroom, eating, doing anything other than keeping my body Very Still”. 4 Apr 2021, 14:03 UTC. Tweet 

Autvntg (autvntg). “I am of the opinion that … it is more useful to view autism as a sort of neurological culture group than as a social disorder or a disability.” Autism, cures, genocide”. Oct 9, 2018, 4:51 UTC. Tweet

Baron-Cohen, Simon. “The Truth about Hans Asperger’s Nazi Collusion.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 17 May 2018, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-hans-aspergers-nazi-collusion/. 

Bec J (Beczabu) “Can’t handle the constant noise and rowdiness of co-workers. Makes me want to run and hide. And they seem to love making me feel bad about myself”. Feb 18, 2018. 22:06 UTC. Tweet.

Bettin, Jorn, et al. “Neuroclastic.” NeuroClastic, 6 Dec. 2021, https://neuroclastic.com/. 

Brooke Winters (brookwinters33). “The social model of disability defines being disabled as something that happens when accommodations aren’t made and environments aren’t accessible. Autistic people are not disabled by autism. We are disabled by an inaccessible world. Autism is not a disorder”. Nov 16, 2017, 2:16 UTC. Tweet

“Cognitive Rigidity in Autism – Nurture Pods.” Nurture Pods Pte Ltd, 31 May 2019, https://www.nurturepods.com/cognitive-rigidity-in-autism/#:~:text=Some%20traits%20characteristic%20of%20the%20cognitive%20rigidity%20found,is%20welcome%20to%20the%20autistic%20child%2C%20even%20comforting. 

“Common Traits.” Autism Citizen, 9 May 2018, https://autismcitizen.org/autism-a-learners-guide/common-traits/. 

Corvid Working on comms (corvidcactus) “small doodle because today is #WorldAutismDay and #AutismAcceptanceMonth. I’m autistic. Please do not “light it up blue” or support orgs like autism speaks. Listen to and uplift autistic voices. Acceptance is more important than awareness. #ActuallyAutistic” Apr 2, 2021, 6:47 UTC. Tweet.

Crosman, Cassandra. “The ABLEIST History of the Puzzle Piece Symbol for Autism.” In the Loop About Neurodiversity, 1 Dec. 2019, https://intheloopaboutneurodiversity.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/the-ableist-history-of-the-puzzle-piece-symbol-for-autism/.

E (QueerDeaf). “#SayNoToABA because I was a DEAF child who had my HANDS taped together for stimming. You cannot convince me it isn’t abuse/all about controlling another human being to the fullest extent without consequences. #ActuallyAutistic #AutisticPrideMonth”. 5 Apr 2021, 5:53 UTC. Tweet

“Eugenics.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#:~:text=Many%20countries%20enacted%20various%20eugenics%20policies%2C%20including%3A%20genetic,or%20forced%20pregnancies%2C%20ultimately%20culminating%20in%20genocide.%20. 

Hand, Dr. Brittany, et al. “Research.” Autism Speaks, https://www.autismspeaks.org/research. 

Henkel, Dani, et al. “7 Reasons to Not Support Autism Speaks.” The Odyssey Online, 5 Aug. 2020, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/7-reasons-not-support-autism-speaks. 

Howard, Brian. “’Autistic Person’ and ‘Person with Autism’ Are Not One and the Same.” TheHill, 9 Nov. 2021, https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/580597-autistic-person-and-person-with-autism-are-not-one-and-the-same. 

Kyle (TigerDropped) “Good morning & happy #AutismAcceptanceMonth. As someone on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed when I was 14, I send nothing but love & support to my fellow autistic people. Remember to listen to our voices & don’t speak over us. And daily reminder: Fuck Autism Speaks”. Apr 1, 2021, 2:19 UTC. Tweet. 

“Learn the Signs of Autism.” Autism Speaks, https://www.autismspeaks.org/signs-autism. 

Liz Both Dinosaurs Bernstein (yeralizard) “Sooo many organizations and individuals that purport to advocate for autistic people yet continually silence us when we criticize them just prove more & more that they care more about autism martyr mommies than they do about us”. Feb 10, 2021, 7:50 UTC. Tweet.

MSSNG, https://research.mss.ng/. 

Myk says ho ho ho (mykola). “Apparently people are down with removing adhd from the gene pool. You can bet how this person and her followers might feel about autism. This is why google’s MSSNG project is so awful, because these fuckers would really do it”. Apr 8, 2021, 19:28 UTC. Tweet

Natasha, et al. “7-Step Formula to Easily Change Unwanted Dog Behavior.” The Online Dog Trainer, 30 Nov. 2021, https://theonlinedogtrainer.com/7-step-formula-to-easily-change-unwanted-dog-behavior/. 

NeuroClastic (NeuroClastic) “Autism Speaks is a hate group. They have done and continue to do irreplaceable harm. They know the statistics about autistic suicide rates. They don’t care. They’re still pushing autistic conversion therapy which contributes to devastatingly high autistic suicide rates”. 22 Nov 2021, 8:31 UTC. Tweet

“Our Mission.” Autism Speaks, https://www.autismspeaks.org/our-mission. 

“People-First Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language. 

Pippa Louise Berry (pippa_louise) “Yep. More than 18 jobs in 11 years and it’s impossible for me to work as I never last more than 3 months. For me it’s a lot of things that overload me but mainly social relationships I struggle massively with x”. Feb 18, 2018, 9:03 UTC. Tweet.

Punny and Pup (pupkittyfan1) “Sia’s film about autism is very dangerous, in the movie the autistic character is restrained and held down, this method is very dangerous and can harm Autistic ppl when they’re having a meltdown. Many Autistic ppl have spoken against this move so please listen to our voices”. Jan 23, 2021, 10:02 UTC. Tweet. 

Sarah Boon #StopTheShock (Saraheboon) “As #ActuallyAutistic is trending…. Hi, I am an autistic woman (yes we exist). Autism is often misrepresented in the media dramatically, which was one of many reasons why I didn’t get diagnosed until 24. Please listen/empower autistic voices when it comes to representation”. Nov 20, 2020, 7:10 UTC. Tweet.

Siebers, Tobin. Disability Aesthetics. The University of Michigan Press, 2010. 

Sinclair, Jim. “Don’t Mourn for Us.” Don’t Mourn For Us, https://www.autreat.com/dont_mourn.html. 

Shelby James Champion (shelbyjchampion) “The reason I passionately dislike the puzzle piece symbol is because it categorizes us as “mysterious” or “puzzling”. It is largely associated with the infamous organization Autism Speaks. I had a very bad experience growing up with that organization”. 7 Apr 2021, 14:10 UTC. Tweet

“Social Model of Disability.” Social Model of Disability – an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/social-model-of-disability. 

Ultra Violet Rae (UltVioletRae) “Glob give me the patience to survive the autism mommies during the rest of autism month. The audacity. The victimhood. The eugenics. The torture as treatmetn. This month is supposed to be for us, yet they make $ for eugenics off our struggles, and silence us. Nauseating”. Apr 19, 2021, 7:54 UTC. Tweet. 

“Why ABA Therapy Is Harmful to Autistic People.” Autistic Science Person, 4 Nov. 2021, https://autisticscienceperson.com/why-aba-therapy-is-harmful-to-autistic-people/#:~:text=ABA%20therapy%20also%20rewards%20autistic%20children%20to%20hide,to%20poor%20mental%20health%20and%20even%20increased%20suicidality. 

17 shadesofpurple (17shadesofpurple). “I lost two jobs that I was fantastic at. I was told flat out that I wasn’t a good fit “socially” and they had to weigh that against my top performance. Guess what won. Both times”. Feb 18, 2018, 18:27 UTC. Tweet.

Facing the Monster: An Analysis of Disability and Misrecognition in Literature

DellFrog2 Comments

My name is Tommie McPhetridge and I am the author of “Facing the Monster: An Analysis of Disability and Misrecognition in Literature”. I drafted this essay because I am inspired by the monster narratives that are pervasive in modern literature. Specifically, I think that it is fascinating how monsters have changed from creatures of doom to beings of hope and possibility. I wanted to do further study into the nature of monstrosity, choosing disability studies to narrow my focus of understanding monsters and disability in literature. Throughout this project, I struggled to narrow my field of study to just two representations in literature. At the beginning, I had over thirty representations of monsters and disability that I wanted to look into. In the end, I chose Frankenstein due to its fundamental status as monster literature and Wonder to be its foil. There is not a lot of commentary about disability in children’s literature and I wanted to be part of the start of that path of research. Finding theories that would support my analysis of these novels was simple, I started looking at theories that touched on identity and otherness in society. Once I read about recognition theory and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s studies on freaks and disability, I knew that they would be perfect for this project. I hope that this project will remain a pseudo-living document that I can expand upon in the future, as I believe there is a lot more to say about identity, disability, and monstrosity in media.

The project itself is linked below and requires a download due to the text length and formatting.

Facing-the-MonsterDownload

Looking Back at English 401

LimboLeave a comment

This class overall was a new experience for me in a very beneficial way. It felt like an appreciation for re-learning what space and language means in a multitude of different forms that also convey “new” ways (new to me) of representation for each. Throughout my journey I learned to reinforce certain ideas I previously had gaining more confidence in my critical-empathetic thinking skills, un-learn language that could be harmful and preventable through more thoughtful engagement, and challenge others around me to do the same with education. Something that I struggled with at times is integrating and separating my own background and schemas into these subjects. I was never a perfect ally to the disabled community but that was due to my own in-experience with the subject as a whole. I quickly found out there is a lot of overlap with certain language and thought processes when it comes to psychology and disability studies. However, I am not the first to point out that aspects of psychology have disregarded or otherwise disrespected the community in many ways.  

Language would be a huge addition to the intersect as well as differences with psychology and disability studies. Traditionally, I am not completely familiar with the neurobiology side of psychology nor is it my main interest. However, I do know some of the neurobiology that can follow different conditions of the mind. I even teach a peer support group on mental health and for one day we learn a small bit about biology. When we discuss how harmful the medical-biology focus can be with disability I immediately followed along. I’ve witnessed the inconsiderate take that doctors can have at times and the ill use of specific words/phrases when talking to a patient. What stuck out to me is it can be slightly different with mental health. As an aspiring therapist, I want my future patients to know that it can be empowering to learn about why they are reacting to things the way they are and how that works but strictly only if they desire to know. Education is empathy and it starts with learning about oneself. That is bound to look different for everyone so while some may want to learn, others will not and that is okay.  

I believe that key themes and specific ideas stuck with me throughout this quarter. The biggest one would have to be kairotic spaces. It was nice to immediately note that Andrew uses all of the teaching techniques that was included in the piece about how to make the classroom a kairotic space. I think it can be useful later in my life and therapy. Additionally, I think it would be interesting to read about how kairos/kairotic space works within different relationship dynamics too. Another big theme I enjoyed was learning about the intertwine between rhetorical analysis and disability studies. After learning about rhetoric last quarter, I was invested and seeing it applied to something social justice and community based kept me engaged.  

We continuously tried to define disability studies. At the beginning of the quarter, I wrote with not so much confidence that disability studies, “Interacts with the rhetorical through occupying spaces implicitly and explicitly. Like rhetoric, disability studies will always be changing and moving with/throughout the human body. It pays no mind to the physical form of the body or abilities because that is never a guaranteed constant.” Now, I would say with confidence that disability studies aims to challenge its audiences through an embodied rhetoric that cannot truly be captured or accurately placed into a definition. It changes and moves with rhetoric and adapts its abilities with engaged participants like kairotic space.  

Masks: an Exploration of Normalcy

Tuesday1 Comment

During this class, my peers and I encountered a reading called “Disability as Masquerade” by Tobin Seibers. As I read this piece, I could immediately picture a physical expression of the concept of masquerade and how it interacts with society. So naturally, I had to make my envisioned sculpture. Masquerade as a concept is interesting because it unable to exist without something we rely on socially, culturally, and politically: Normal. Because of its reliance on normal, Masquerade is the perfect place to begin to integrate conversations of Normal Theory into the Disability Lens. Many scholars in disability studies critique how normalcy is used to perpetuate ableism but rarely do focus on what normal is and how it functions. In our discussions in class, we, the authors of this blog, have hit on the idea of deconstructing normal.  We have consistently hit a wall when attempting to come up with a way go about deconstructing normal. After some reflection, I could not think of a better place to start deconstructing normal than exploring the relationship between normal, masquerade, passing and society. This discussion inspires you to continue the exploration I started here in your daily life.

English 401: A retrospective look at the past three months.

Djellibeybi4 Comments

From your beloved friend, honorable man, dearest of scientific minds who exist on the liberal plain.

To the dearest Readers, Beloved in all forms and municipalities.

Greetings.

It is a requirement of this academic course on disability rhetoric that I present to this humble assemblage, an account of my experience of this course over the last three months. This is not a comprehensive look into the entirety of my time involved in this course, but rather a qualitative look back into the nature of the topics involved, the intellectuals I had the pleasure of interacting with, both in written, virtual, and physical forms. This should be an exhilerating experiance for all peoples involved, so let us digest the following info.

I was not certain about a lot of the experiences I would gain from this class; it was very little comfort that I was the only male of my species, the genus homo discipulus, in my course. It was some small relief that my teacher was the only male of his respective species, Homo Lectoris, so we could convalesce on our shared experiance of being the only ones of our kinds as he navigated me through his home planet, Panepistimio-Taxi.

It was a topic that I had an interesting, having had a brother with moderately severe autism, but was not particularly knowledgeable about. I found the professors lectures style was very engaging, using multiple forms of media to engage with the students in different ways. The videos where definitely interesting, with films such as “Crip Camp” and “Sins Invalid” (Which I have to admit, was difficult to watch for me – the only time I felt uncomfortable in class). The text, Disability Visibility was a very interesting collection of short essays and stories from different disabled people from different perspectives and backgrounds, and I thought it was fascinating. My favorite was Blind Astronomer Finds a Way to Hear the Stars, which talked about disabled scientists in the scientific community. This essay inspired me to look into disability in my field, which is Chemistry. I’ve also thought the academic papers where interesting, though I often didn’t have that much time to read through them all the way. Much of the discussion on these papers did help with catching up with anything I missed though.

Learning about how disability affects society, personal relationships, thoughts, academia, etcetera, was very fascinating. It gave me a few ideas on how to become the new dictator of this new world. But other than that, I thought this class was extremely thought provoking, especially on my biases and opinions, and I definitely involved into a more advanced disciple.

Sincerely,

Future lord of the universe.