I have learned that the cruelty of others is never about me. It is always about the people being cruel. I do not have to worry that I caused it. I do not have to consider it a commentary on…
Read MoreYou can find a great deal of brilliant writing on the Internet about how to be — and how not to be — an ally. From Mia McKenzie’s 8 Ways Not To Be An “Ally”: A Non-Comprehensive List to Jessie-Lane…
Read MoreToday I was talking to a friend who lives on disability and has been homeless for several months. He told me a story that simultaneously made me angry and broke my heart. The other day, while he was standing on…
Read MoreSlavoj Zizek’s The ‘fake’ Mandela memorial interpreter said it all is such a train wreck of a piece that I hardly know where to begin. Somehow, Zizek manages to take an access issue basic to the Deaf community and spin…
Read More[Note: This is a post about my kid West, who is genderqueer and uses the pronouns they/them. So when I use those pronouns, I’m referring to West.] My kid West is AWESOME. They’re taking a creative writing class at a…
Read MoreOurs is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help…
Read MoreI’m going through a sea-change in my thinking about the concept of “privilege.†I find the word so thoroughly problematic that I don’t think I can be effective in my work and continue to use it. My friend Kiera Scriven…
Read MoreFor many years, I’ve labored under the illusion that oppressed people should be wiser, kinder, more just, and more empathetic than anyone else. As a Jew, I was taught early on that we have to fight for justice because we…
Read MoreI am finding it more and more difficult to use words like “accessibility” and “inclusion” these days. Much of the problem with these words is that they assume an inside and an outside. If you’re “accessible,” to whom are you…
Read More[I originally posted this piece to my old Journeys with Autism blog in April of 2012. The subject of activism and disability came up in a conversation today with several other disabled people, so I’m reposting the piece here as…
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