Crip space

The Crip Camp Revolution: Making Spaces Accessible

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The common American student has very little exposure to disability studies in public education. This lack of curriculum is unacceptable and narrows the minds of young folks across the country. Many of those who do know about disability studies are living it first-hand. Imagine what it’s like as a student who never sees their own experience taught about in the classroom; how isolating that would be. There are dozens of methods that can be used to accurately portray disability studies, but all come from a place that centers disabled voices. Crip Camp is a documentary produced by a disabled man about disabled people. It is the perfect film to introduce students to the world of disability.  

 Crip Camp retells disability through the lens of a revolution—the revolution of access. What begins with a couple of disabled kids at summer camp (Camp Jened), leads to a national headline celebrating the triumph of a 28-day sit-in in a Berkeley Federal Health, Education, and Welfare building. The documentary tells the story of how those kids went from singing songs with a bunch of hippies, to sleeping on federal grounds in protest of their federally sanctioned mistreatment in the US.  

Camp Jened, where it all started, was a revolutionary space. It was a crip space that allowed campers to be fully themselves. Keywords for Disability Studies defines “access” as “the power, opportunity, permission, or right to come near or into contact with someone or something”. Camp Jened was accessible. It provided power, opportunity, permission, and the right for the campers to be unapologetically themselves; and that is why it is revolutionary. This disability revolution was not because of pity for non-disabled people, but rather, because of impassioned, driven, and brilliant disabled folks themselves. Crip Camp is highly relatable, not just for disabled folks, but for any high schooler looking to make a difference.  

Crip Camp provides a deviant perspective of disability. It portrays disabled kids and adults in a way that is anti-normative. It successfully tells a story of disabled high schoolers as they are (which again, is revolutionary). This exposure is essential for high schoolers, as mainstream media often portrays disabled folks as inspirationporn or pity parties. The documentary accurately depicts the campers at Jened in a way that humanizes them, much unlike how they were treated outside the camp. It features segments of their patience, sexual exploration, messing up, desire for popularity, and daily needs through a disability studies lens.  

Accessibility, like that within Camp Janed (and that portrayed throughout the entirety of Crip Camp), is worth fighting for. The advocates in this film bring the audience on their journey of fighting. The revolution is not going to be handed over, Crip Camp tells a story of fighting for justice in a country that claims freedom. Several events are included in the documentary, including the month-long sit-in, the “capital crawl” in demand for ADA, and countless other protests; these events are historic markers to progress in our country. They are hopeful, encouraging, and ideally leave activists hungry for even more! Crip Camp pushes the limits; the limits of spaces, of people, of government. And I push you to use it in your classroom.  

Disability Visibility: Action of Humanness

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“Contribution, innovation, relation, condition, completion, devotion, identification, regret, burden, belief, wrong, right, rebuild, beautiful, embodied”, all words used to describe Disability Visibility. Disability Visibility is a compilation of “first-person stories from the twenty-first century” written about disabled folks, by disabled folks. This mosaic of anecdotes was pieced together by Alice Wong. Each story differs greatly. Authors explain their individual experiences of being disabled in a world built without them in mind. Despite each story being personal to the author, the overarching theme of the book remains consistent. From narratives about navigating medication as a woman with bipolar disorder, to stories about the shame casted on a young, Black girl growing up in a religious household, Disability Visibility amplifies the voices of folks silenced in our world.  

Disability Visibility is written for a wide audience of folks both disabled and not. It acts as a learning outlet for nondisabled people to hear stories told by people living with disabilities first-hand. It gives disabled people an opportunity to tell their stories and exist in communion with one another. A concept explained in the story The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People is crip space; “Crip space is unique, a place where disability is celebrated and embraced—something radical and taboo in many parts of the world and sometimes even for people in those spaces” (smith pg. 273). Disability Visibility is a crip space, of sorts. It is a space where disabled folks can express themselves without the ableist pressures of our society.  

Each story grapples with the idea of disability, for example, from Incontinence is a Public Health Issue—and we Need to Talk About It, “I didn’t feel disabled, as it were” (Ramsawakh pg. 175). Or from When You are Waiting to be Healed, “I was learning to navigate the world as a young Black woman, and I did not feel I had the right to claim a disability” (Eric-Udorie pg. 56). Both stories have unique plots, characters, settings, and emotions, but themes remain the same throughout. The entire book carries parallel agencies. The most prevalent is to share the non-fetishized, pity-free stories of disabled people.  

Alice Wong compiled these essays and short stories as individual accounts that created a sense of communion. Jamison Hill’s chapter, Love Means Never Having to Say… Anything, discusses their partnership with a woman named Shannon. Both Shannon and Jamison are disabled by the same illness (although it has manifested differently in their bodies). Jamison writes about how transcendent disabled love is and how having a disabled lover has been incredible. They write, “…but Shannon and I take care of each other in ways I never thought possible” (Hill pg. 265). This story portrays the larger concept of Disability Visibility. The disabled community can take care, despite the world not reciprocating. The story, and book as a whole shows the disabled community in action. The story avoids inspiration porn and pity; but rather, it resembles compassion, togetherness, and humanness.  

Crip Spaces: Sexual, Fulfilling, And Revolutionary

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Summary of Sins Invalid

Sins Invalid is a short documentary about a performance team of artists portraying their understanding of sex and disability – as disabled, sexual beings. The team is made up of an entirely disabled cast and crew. Throughout the documentary we see live performances as well as interviews of the crew members. Performances range from dance routines and singing, to poems and short plays. We get to know a bit about the crew and their experience navigating sex as a disabled person in a world that dismisses or fetishizes sex. The documentary celebrates queer, disabled and identities of color through an artistic lens. 

Quotes:

“This is precisely why they (Crip Spaces) are needed: as long as claiming our own ground is treated as an act of hostility, we need our ground” (Smith pg. 274)

This quote ties in well with Sins Invalid and the need for performances like theirs. There are countless sexually-charged shows, but how many include disabled bodies? How many are accessible for disabled patrons? The organization provides an opportunity for the performers and viewers to feel safe, seen, and validated. Not only that, but Sins Invalid provides a space that disabled folks can actually show up to. The moment from the film I am drawn to is at the very beginning when the audio describer/host(?) is explaining who Sins Invalid is and what they stand for. The disabled voice of color celebrates disability and praises the sexual queerness of people. 

“…we might conclude that it (the way disability and sex is misconstrued) is because sexuality is always a site of deep-seated anxieties about normative forms of embodied being” (Shildrick pg. 165)

This quote speaks in tangent with our class conversation about feeling uncomfortable. Sex is not for everyone. Additionally, not everyone has a positive relationship with sex due to lived experience. It is not a good or essential aspect of many lives, however, I will challenge the discomfort for those who come from a cultural/religious place of taboo and anxiety. If sex is taboo for “normalized” bodies, how are we digesting sexuality within disabled bodies? How are our discomforts and anxieties being projected on those who society deems “abnormal”? I am brought back to the scene in the film when the woman who uses two prosthetic legs is on stage while a narrator graphically explains a sexual encounter. I don’t believe this performance is intended to be a dichotomy; her disability is not in opposition with her sexual experience, but rather in tangent. Our discomfort may be projected onto her not having legs, when realistically it may come from a place of insecurity and social taboo regarding sexuality.

Reflection:

In reflection of the readings and this film, I feel at ease, but not complacent. I feel hopeful and full of questions.

 I find the concept of “Crip Spaces” absolutely essential, both in my own life, within my identities and for the well-being of humankind. I hope, moving forward to find spaces for myself that embrace my queerness (in all meanings of the word). Likewise, I hope for disabled spaces, Black spaces, Indigenous spaces, spaces of color and tongue, trans spaces, survivor spaces, and beyond. Shameless plug, an online platform that amplifies these folks is SaltyWorld. I would highly recommend checking it out for all identities.

Rating:

My bias leads me toward a 5/5 rating. Despite the documentary being lower budget I believe it was artistically brilliant, socially impactful, and overall well done.