Arntzen Sucks and It’s Zine Time

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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, and I was appalled by what I noticed (that I don’t have to navigate in my bodymind).

For my project, I will be compiling 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 fulfill our constraining, ableist ideals, you are not welcome here.”  

The zine I am making will break down these institutionalized ideals and offer insight on rhetoric of space. Rhetoric of space is so important to me, personally. I find deep relation to the space I inhibit and value in the power of design. In class, I was struck by the chapter in Disability Visibility, The Beauty of Spaces Made by and for Disabled People. This chapter emphasized the importance of space and what it tells us. Space means so much more than just the architecture of a building the design of a sofa. It is atmospheric and transcendent. It is rhetorical. And for that reason, I will be looking at not only physical space, but educational and social/relational space as well.

My final product will be handmade! I will cut a piece of printer paper, fold it, and fill each page with nuggets of gold from my research. Because a zine can only hold so much information, I hope to write a short essay elaborating on my findings as well.

So far, I have done research and light sketching. I know the general format that my zine will take and am gathering the content. I spent some time researching rhetoric of space, the inequitable systems of education, and inclusive spaces. I recently went to Arntzen Hall and did some firsthand investigating. I recognize that my observations came from a singular place of ignorance. I can only gather the information I think to gather! I play a part in this research in a way that may prevent comprehensive data. I am working through that as I continue to gather data. In a true research project, I think I would hope to include perspectives of folks with disabilities, but because of timing and my current capacity to take on more work, I will have to settle with my perspective only.

Moving forward, I will finish compiling research and piecing together what I learn reading with what I experience in Arntzen Hall. I will be concise in my summary and explain my findings through storytelling and images on the 8 allotted pages of a typical zine.  

Current summary of zine: 

  • Page 1: Title Page – Image of Arntzen Hall 
  • Page 2: Intro to Arntzen, Rhetorical Space, and Disability Studies 
  • Page 3: Outline summary of what will be included 
  • Page 4: Breakdown of physical space 
  • Page 5: Breakdown of intellectual space 
  • Page 6: Breakdown of social/relational space 
  • Page 7: Reinforce what was learned  
  • Page 8: Closing notes and sources 

Beyond These Walls

DellFrog1 Comment

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

Summary: Thornton begins with introductions and starts his speech with his early history of living in an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. He talks about how knowledge of his family who lived in the same institution were kept from him and the death of his sister. He talks about leaving the institution and society’s perception of him living in a group home, then to how he started his own family. He continues speaking about how people with disabilities deserve opportunities to learn and grow and his family’s work experiences. Thornton talks about the necessity for community and support, and how people with disabilities have great potential when they are supported. Thornton implores his audience to support people with disabilities and help them learn and grow. He concludes by arguing against segregation and institutions, and says that we need to move forward with our communities, not backward.

Quotes:

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

“I believe that people can do anything if they’re given the opportunity and support” (88).

Reflection:

I think Thornton uses a really concise speech that works well to ask an audience to support and care for people. It is tragic that as a society for so many decades we had (and continue) to segregate people in many different ways. The institution is just one way of segregating the disabled community from the non-disabled community. I was happy to hear Thornton’s story of success but I know that the reality is so many people in institutions don’t get the chances that he did. Society has collectively decided that the best way to “support” people with disabilities is to put them in special places with people who work to support them. And on paper, that sounds great. But in reality, it creates even more barriers to the human experience by making disabled people feel inhuman. Having all choice and opportunity stripped from you because of your ability or lack thereof is inhumane. I agree with Thornton’s plea to end institutional living and instead focus on community support. I think one of the best ways to do that is through education and the sharing of stories. We cannot move forward as a community until we hear the voices of everyone in the community. And it is equally as important for us to work together to create a better opportunity for the people around us, giving them support and breaking down barriers, choosing to lift each other up instead.

The New Joy

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“Nurturing Black Disabled Joy” by Keah Brown

Summary: First Brown talks about how disabled communities are typically barred from experiencing joy or hope. Brown is unapologetic about her joy and proceeds to talk about the aftermath of publishing her first book. Brown counters the arguments against her book through realizing that the reason the readers were upset was because the book was not centered on their experience. She talks about starting her movement #DisabledAndCute and how it enabled her to start living life unapologetically. Brown continues to talk about how she searches for joy and hope and ends with sharing her joy with the world and commitment to living her life fully.

Quotes: “So I live as unapologetically as I can each day- for myself, of course, but also for those who will come up after me, who will walk through the doors I hope to break down” (118).

“On those days, it’s important not to mourn the lack of joy but to remember how it feels, to remember that to feel at all is one of the greatest gifts we have in life” (119).

Reflection:

I think that Brown’s essay is a great example of how transformative joy and hope can be. I think for a lot of people, disabled people especially, there can be a compulsion to cling to the dreary. As someone with mental illness, I know that there were plenty of times in my life when I said, “I am too depressed to be happy”. And the moments that I did feel happiness later became twisted because my brain inserted facts that did not exist, marring my perception of whatever had just made me happy. But the moment that joy is sought after and accepted is transformative. Not only can it help your own mental health, but it can help the mental health around others too. It is important to pursue joy in your own life, not only because you deserve it but also because you deserve to share your joy with others. Joy and hope are contagious, and recognizing joy in others creates a sense of belonging and hope for a positive future. You can recognize when things are difficult or painful, you can validate those feelings as they come. But it is important to train yourself to understand that those feelings won’t last forever. That it is okay, even desirable, to have hope for the joy that is to come. I know that the concept helped pull me out of some dark spaces, and I have also used my search for joy to help fuel others, recognizing that living is a community process, and we all help each other one step at a time.

Major Project Feelings & Frustrations

LimboLeave a comment

Reminder: 

My project is centered around the idea of relationships in/across disability. To explore this, to educate myself and others I am using mainly anecdotal pieces for perspective. Through this journey I hope to re-direct people’s minds when they think of disability or how they treat a loved one.I’m going to have main sections that will have subsections of information I find relevant for each, some might be longer than others for personal interest sake. The main sections will be Family Relationships, Romantic, Friendships, and a section on Sex/Sexuality (relationship with self). I would like to include mental and physical disabilities since I’m interested in both. Subsections might include a chosen theoretical approach to look at the subject from, important concepts not talked about enough, and why it matters to know the information or what it means. I intend to do a slideshow presentation with different complimentary embedded media forms (I.e., pictures, videos, music).  

Progress: 

So far, I have some resources I’m considering using for information and stories to cite. Additionally, I might try to find scholarly articles with certain statistics but I don’t want this to be heavy research-based and like a story-telling approach more.  

Sexuality/Sex: 

Vice’s Sexual Healing: Inside the World of Medically Assisted Sex 

Robert McRuer’s Sex and Disability  

Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’ 

https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/  Easterseals Blog 

Romantic: 

Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’ 

https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/  Easterseals Blog 

*For both Family & Friendship I am trying to decide between a few YouTube videos/interviews to take from but haven’t made a final decision yet* 

Worries/Questions- 

One main concern is how I go about sharing the information and what I share. I want to be able to recognize my status of privilege here, and that I am not “studying” a group of people/ a community I am not a part of. With that in mind, I thought taking from certain approaches or a main one (DS and rhetorical lens as we’ve been learning about) would help reduce that impression and everything stays respectful and educational. I want this to feel insightful and interesting enough to answer certain questions while posing others. I’m having a hard time with resources that I think are solid but I also find it interesting the results I’m getting as they are telling themselves. I’m debating reflecting on it in the presentation, how ignorant some related searches were or how hurtful titles were. I believe the media will be the easiest part to incorporate and the most fun for this though which is exciting.  

The Eyes of the Monster

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My final project is an academic analysis of monstrosity and disability. Initially I was planning on looking at the history of the monster through a disability lens, but instead I have decided to take 3 forms of media and analyze how they use disability to portray monstrosity. Specifically, I am looking at Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera musical and the children’s book, Wonder.

As of today, I am a little less than 3000 words into this essay which aims to be about 4000 words, or 15-20 pages after formatting and citations. My goal is to get the final 1000 words before this coming Monday, and then work on reformatting and adding additional citations as needed. I am using the theoretical framework of the “recognition” (and by proxy, misrecognition) theory in politics and using it under a disability framework as well as work from Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and her work with freaks, staring, and disability. I really like the theory of misrecognition, as it gives power to the viewed and talks about the nature of bias and power dynamics in literature and media.

Right now my biggest challenge is getting everything to sound academic. My ultimate goal is to get this completed to submit for graduate application. I am struggling to get all of my analysis to sound coherent, but I do have quite a bit of analysis complete, especially for The Phantom of the Opera.

This project is showing me that there are a lot more cases of monsters as othering for literature and beyond. I really struggled narrowing down my sources and what works I wanted to focus on. It gives me hope if I end up pursuing this as a doctorate thesis, I have a lot of works to choose from and even more frameworks to view them through.

My questions would be:

How do you view facial deformity? Do you have any references of monsters in literature that act as characters of disability?

Some work that I have already completed, I will spare you 3000 words worth of work. So here is a bulleted example of some analysis that I am looking at for my work.

This is from my introduction:

When one thinks of the monster as a deformed body or a portent of misfortune, it draws connections to the Victorian entertainment of the Freak Show. The Freak Show was often put on as a traveling expedition featuring monsters and freaks of nature, creatures who were not meant to exist but walk among the populace. The “beings” featured in these Freak Shows were often people with visible, physical disabilities. Ranging from dwarfism, to limb difference, to the “stretchy skin” side effects of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, the majority of the attractions of the freak show were not monsters or freaks, but in fact people with disabilities. These shows were invitations to stare at the other, creating a barrier between the “normal” audience and the abnormal, “monstrous” freaks that lay spectacle. 

This is from the analysis of the Phantom of the Opera:

  1. The Phantom is accustomed to such reactions, later even mentioning that his own mother reacted in a similar fashion. From birth the Phantom is misrecognized as a monster, a creature, a phantom. Phantom is defined as a ghost or a figment of the imagination, simulating that because of Erik’s disability, he isn’t even granted the semblance of humanity’s existence and is instead immediately recognized as a monster. 
  2. Throughout the opera, the phantom is given metaphors of being “of the night” which can be understood as both being hidden, away from the light, and the only things that happen in such dark places are acts of evil. So by proxy, the phantom is evil through his existence and his disability.

If you want to see more, I have tons. Let me know!

Where I’m At So Far

Isabelle SLeave a comment

My project is about online disability communities and how memes are used to create rhetoric and foster relatability and understanding. I also want to look into how online crip space and anonymity play a part in these communities. I want to present the information through a digital form, either through a text-image based post much like the posts I’m seeing in my research, or through a video essay, where I would use a more conversation voice in my writing. I would be writing a script instead of an essay.

With some of my research so far, I’ve found out a lot of things I didn’t really consider. A really interesting part of this project that I found out was that there seems to be 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. I wasn’t all that aware of these two spheres, or at least I didn’t really notice them until I was doing research for this project.

The main struggles I’m facing is choosing if I do a video essay or not, and also the social media aspects of this assignment itself. While it is enjoyable to see these online communities, I also find social media really draining and don’t really use it personally. Depending on what app I use, there are drastically different vibes and a lot of posts could be discussing really bad negative experiences. Which is not to take away from the actuality of these experiences, but a lot of apps are arithmetically going to be focusing on the most extreme or polarizing posts, so often it is difficult to find posts about pride without them being touched by negativity. There is also the immediate nature of social media that is to be considered, in-depth discussion could be harder to come across on instagram and twitter, because the format of the apps are limited. Reddit is more likely to have long posts, and things like podcasts and video essays are more in-depth as well.

I’m going to show to memes in class though. If I can.

Sketch of Major Project: Disabled Representation in Charity Foundations

Turnip FriendLeave a comment

My main focus for the major project is an analysis on how charities and fundraisers have chosen and currently choose to represent people with disabilities in their efforts to acquire funds that would provide them with accommodations and services. This essay will focus specific attention how sponsors, non-profit directors, and the general public respond to different organizations and their success rate compared to the levels of ableism and inspiration porn forced upon the people utilizing these organizations. A source I’m going to utilize is the short documentary “The Kids Are Alright” paying close attention to how the Muscular Dystrophy Association set the precedent for charities for disabled people and how it has influenced organization operations today. A couple of these foundations I’m looking into include Smile Train and Autism Speaks because I’ve heard a lot of negative things about them. Another foundation I will focus on comparing to these is GoFundMe because it functions very differently than traditional charities and brought a new set of issues to the table in how people are able to gain the support they need.

So far my project is going well in that I’ve collected most of the sources I’m going to draw from other than images taken from the sites. So I am focused on working on my arguments in relation to the information and bringing in images as needed. Right now the thing I’m trying to figure out is how to best organize my ideas. I generally know that I want to start off talking about “The Kids Are Alright” and reference one or more of the readings we’ve gone over in class in order to qualify some arguments. Then perhaps going off of that framework I will delve into the specific ways the other foundations poorly represent people with disabilities and/or how the organizations take advantage of those they represent, though I’ll have to do more research before getting into those issues. I’m having trouble organizing our past readings in my head, are there any specific ones related to representation that anyone thinks would be useful for me to utilize in my arguments before I go through all of them again in depth?

Disability in the Laboratory

DjellibeybiLeave a comment

I’m working on writing a paper on accessibility in Chemistry labs. It was a broader topic, but I decided to narrow it down to my discipline because a general overview of disability and science is too broad, but hopefully a look into the specific branch of chemistry, and more specifically on Chemistry labs, that I might be able to learn something interesting. Here’s what I’ve got so far, which isn’t very much and definitely not complete, but it’s something.

Introduction

People with disabilities have been a long part of the scientific discourse and discovery for centuries. John Dalton (1766-1844), who was colorblind, was one of the first people to scientifically study colorblindness and it’s causes, as well as being an influential chemist, physicist, and geologist. Charles Steinmetz, a mathematician, and physicist, had Kyphosis, a condition that made him look according to the Smithsonian, “four feet tall, his body contorted by a hump in his back and a crooked gait, and his stunted torso gave the illusion that his head, hands and feet were too big.” He was the first to describe the law of hysteresis, which was influential in the development of alternating- and direct-electrical current technology (AC and DC). And yet, perhaps the only disabled scientist you probably know is Stephen Hawking.

I was brought into this discussion with an essay presented in the book “Disability Visibility” written by Wanda Diaz-Merced titled “How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars” (the essay was originally presented as a Ted talk, an astronomer who developed blindness during her college studies, and found a way to translate graphical data to sound, a process called sonification.  

  1. A look around the narratives presented by American Chemical Society
    1. Krystal Vasquez, “Excluded from the Lab”
      1. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000869161/disabled-scientists-are-often-excluded-from-the-lab
      1. Krystal Vasquez does talk about access in conferences, which is a good tie in with Margaret Price’s “The Construction of Disability in Conference Policy
    1. Annemarie Ross
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpLzkDdulw
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hni7BxQM7c8
  2. A look at the guidelines presented by the ACS
  3. Perhaps a look into the chemistry labs and how they make their labs accessible. (Field Trip! This could fun!) See how Western complies with these guidelines.
    • Here’s some picks of the disability amenities presented in the lab that I work in:

We Can’t Go Back -RAB response

Djellibeybi2 Comments

An essay derived from a statement presented before the United States Senate Committee on Health, education, Labor and Pensions on June 21 2012 from Ricardo T. Thornton Sr. Ricardo discusses his life experience in an institution, Forest Haven in Washington D.C.. He and many of his family and loved ones had been placed in institutions like Forest Haven, and he was very familiar with the abuses that take place when rights are not respected between client and caretaker. When he was able to leave Forest Haven, he lived in group homes where he met his future wife, Donna, and began to develop a good life for himself because he lived in a community which encouraged him to succeed. When given the opportunity, Thornton believes the disabled can succeed in society and that it is not good to separate the disabled from the community and any opportunity to succeed.

Quote:

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

“I hear people say that some people are too disabled to live in the community, but I’ve seen people just like the people just like the people still in institutions who do so much better in the community – because no one expects you to do anything in the institution but survive.” Pg. 87

“Segregating people is always bad; people never grow in those places and are safer and happier in community.” Pg. 89

I thought that this essay was very well written. I would have loved to listen to this guy read his speech. Maybe it’s available online. The guy seems like an amazing person, and I wouldn’t mind meeting him, to be honest.

Nurturing Black Disabled Joy -RAB response

DjellibeybiLeave a comment

A short essay into the personal experience of Keah Brown, a black woman with cerebral palsy. She talks about feeling joy and happiness as a black person with disabilities. She explains a little about her personal life, having written a book about her personal experiances, called “The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me” as well as being a progenitor of the hashtag #DisabledAndCute in 2017. She points out that she chooses to be happy as a disabled person. She wants to be remembered and noticed for the joy that she left in this world.

Quotation:

“Embracing my own joy now means that I didn’t always.” -Pg. 117

“I wondered why this positive message would elicit such negative reactions, and I could come up with only one reason: these readers, both disabled and not, reacted defensively because they’re not centered in my story – because I’m calling for inclusion that decenters whiteness” -Pg. 118

“Calling out ableism, racism, and homophobia in marginalized communities through my writing. It means that I’ve literally stopped apologizing for the space I take up on stages or in the airport.” -Pg. 118-119

Reflections:

While I can appreciate the sentiment that she is trying to make, there’s some things in this essay that kind of got to me. One is her idea that people are uncomfortable with her being a happy disabled person because she is black. Why should that be a problem? There are plenty of black people with disabilities – I know a few personally. And then she talks about how black people are represented in the media. I’m generally one who doesn’t care about representation in the media. Since when has media been an accurate reflection of human life? It gives the whole essay a narcissistic tone that is difficult for me to enjoy or ignore. Even so, I’m glad Keah Brown was able to share her thoughts – it’s obviously making a difference in the lives of many disabled people, and I can appreciate that.