Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012

Welcome to Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012!

Thanks very much to everyone who helped to spread the word and to everyone who blogged against disablism, ableism and disability discrimination.

If you have a post for Blogging Against Disablism, please leave a comment including the URL (web address) of your post and the catergory your post best belongs to.

We'll be updating this post throughout the day to create an archive of all the posts. We'll also try to post links to every blog using the Twitter stream @BADDtweets

The amazing Stephen has helped me this year, but even with two people, there are bound to be typos, so please be patient and let us know if you notice any mistakes.

If you happen to have a round-up post of your favourite blogs from the day, please let us know.  Claire from OT on Wheels put together Archives of tweets for the hashtags #BADD12 / #BADD / #BADD2012  whilst @spiegelmama created a Storify of the day

Blogging Against Disablism 2012

Employment (Disability discrimination in the workplace, recruitment issues and unemployment).  The 19th Floor: Advocacy Works Anytime Yoga: Scared to Ask ATOS Stories: Work Hurts Benefit Scrounging Scum: Do You Know What You're Asking? College and Disability: Why are so many people with disabilities unemployed? Crip_tic: Disabling farming barriers Honour your Inner Magpie: Yeah, but would you burn? Jennifer Sommerness: Untitled Kate Bennell @ Sightsavers: Untitled Legal Aware: My experience The Ramblings of Me: The Irony of Coping This Ain't Livin': The Exploitation of Home Health Workers This is my Blog: That's not a compliment Education (Attitudes and practical issues effecting disabled people and the discussion of disability in education, from preschool to university and workplace training.) It's my life: Barriers to Education Radical Neurodivergence Speaking: Update on the fights we fight from last year Sunshine, been keeping me up for days: Untitled The Notes which do not fit: Memories of a Special Education Teaching All Students: Blending In Urbania to Stoneheads: Deaf experience of higher education Technology and Web Accessibility Assistive Technology: Fire safety for the deaf Indigo Jo Blogs: Mobile Accessibility King's Learning Institute TEL Blog: The sharp edge of Technology Enhanced Learning: Science and Technology and Disability Studies Pretty Simple: Complicit disablism and the power of reason UK Web Focus: Aversive Disablism, Web Accessibility and the Web Developer Other Access Issues (Posts about any kind of access issue in the built environment, shops, services and various organisations. By "access issues" I mean anything which enables or disenables a person from doing what everyone else is able to do.) Abailin: On Self-Injury, Autism, and Behavioral Therapy AWTS Blog: Driven Round The Bend By Motability Myths Dannilion.com: Being Accessible Doesn’t Just Mean Ramps Disabled Medic: My Sunday Church Experience  eTenerife: Able-Bodied Assumptions and Tenerife Toilets Fix My Transport Journal: Disability and Me #1 Gimp 'Tude: No Crips Allowed Intractable/Implacable: Segregation and the invisible ones... l’azile: if you build it, they will come: making co-working spaces accessible lounalune: Accessibility of the minds Madison Claire Foundation: Inclusive Playgrounds: Accessibility for All Normal is Overrated: Accessibility: One Size Doesn't Fit All Radically Queer: Rethinking Access Rolling Around In My Head: My BADD Definition and Analysis of Disablism/ Ableism Facial Expression is Overrated: Reaction piece Grace Quantock: Untitled Nordic Network on Disability Research: Blogging Against Disablism Day SpeEdChange: Toppliing Transactionalism The Language of Disablism(Posts about the language which surrounds disability and the way that it may empower or disempower us.) Abailin: A Few Words on Language Accessiblog.fr: Being disabled: a matter of context Adrienne: Why ‘wingnut’ is a poor word choice Bethlehem Blogger: What 'retards' have taught me about peace work (and people) CynthiaParkhill: I edit for people-first language The F-Word: Calling out disablist language I am not a nutter: I am not a nutter Square 8: Connecting Dots Disablism Interacting with Other 'Isms' (Posts about the way in which various discriminations interact; the way that the prejudice experienced as a disabled person may be compounded by race, gender, age, sexuality etc..) Diceytillerman: FAT CRIP! Random Thoughts Where Fatness and Disability Intersect transabled.org: Objecting to Walking is Discrimination Disablism in Literature, Culture and the Media The Haps: Here’s What We Should Keep Doing  Ramblings of a Fibro Fogged Mind: Holding the Media to Account… Single Lens Reflections: Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012 - Intro Single Lens Reflections: Clippity Cloppity Goat and the Troll Where's the Benefit (Guest Post): Disability benefits and the self-made mouth History Disability Studies, Temple U.: History is still happening Relationships, Love and Sex After Gadget: Service Dogs & Friends: Familiarity Breeds... Confusion? Ballastexistenz: Caregiver abuse takes many forms Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter: Sexual Eunuchs?  Gin and Lemonade: This is how I Roll Nick's Crusade: The Path of the Disabled Man Pretty Pancreas: Disability Tango Sensible Susan & The Ladylike Punk: Sex & Disability (a.k.a Dissertation Fun Time TGStoneButch: Pain and sadism, and a bit about how they intertwine in my life  Sport AthletesFirst: Blogging Against Disasblism Day 2012 Youth - Fit to Lead: A Viewer’s Guide to the Paralympics Other Ephemeradical: Linkpost for BADD 2012 Poetry against Disablism Same Difference: Listen to the Silence Art and Photography Against Disablism Challenge Ableism: Photo Campaign

General Thoughts on Disablism Accessible Insights Blog: Your Ingenious Life Angelikitten: I'm sure that there's a point to this entry... Anonymous: Shout Out A Room Of My Own: We're All Different and that's OK Are Women Human? (Guest Post): It Gets Inside Our Heads Ask A Wheeler: Assumptions About Disability. Diary of a Goldfish: Recall To Pride F&*£ Yeah Fibromyalgia: Untitled Girl with the Cane: Untitled Happy, smiley and chronically ill: Reality versus Perception Just Stimming: Truth Is Low Visionary: Dismantling Disablism: Three Powerful Tools. Mardahl.dk: Pain and Respect Moiread: Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012 Not Your Teachable Moment: Where HAS the day gone? People Aren't Broken: Disability Has A P.R. Problem Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream: But these things are monsters Ruth Madison: Us v.s. Them Sanabitur Anima Mea: I’ve Never Met Anybody Who Wasn’t Important Before This Brain is Barking: Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day. Thoughts of Nothing: Untitled We Can Do: Why Fight Disablism? A Global Perspective Wordthings Of Jon: I'm sorry, but I do actually have a life Parenting Issues(whether disabled parents or the parents of a disabled child.) Children with Special Needs: Making Inclusion a Two-Way Street Gavin's Gear: Parenting Rights Ruled by paws: The Questions Healthcare Issues(For example, the provision of healthcare, institutionalistaion of disabled people, reproductive ethics and euthanasia) 20 Commandments for MentalHealth workers: Untitled Ballastexistenz: Pulling Back Curtains Nightengale of Samarkand: Double Standards Impairment-Specific Prejudice Bruce Lawson: Untitled Diceytillerman: Can We ReName CFIDS Already? My Proposal for Our New Name Virginia Tremor: I'm not Drunk Words of Wood: I Belong To Myself Personal Journeys Posts about learning experiences and realisations authors have had about the nature of disability discrimination and the impact on their lives. Adventures of a Part-Time Wheeler: Ambivalence Believe in Who You Are: Just get over it  Cats and Chocolate: Role Models The Cat's Lair: Untitled Coffee and Chaos: Open your Eyes Cracked Mirror in Shalott: Something Intractable/Implacable: Segregation and the invisible ones...  Midlife and Treachery: Do you let them know? Never that Easy: My Years of Magical Thinking...  OT on wheels: Untitled Painting: Discrimination 2 May Oneth Pseudo-living: 24 Hours In My Life TAL9000:  Facade-Keeping Thoughts of Nothing: Living with Chronic Back Pain tiintax.com: Untitled Traveling Show: The BADD Post The Wandering Monster: All too Familiar A Writer In A Wheelchair: I don’t wanna fight no more Disablism and Politics (For example, the political currency of disability, anti-discrimination legislation, etc.) From a nest of sticks and yarn: When disableism starts with us Gilded Cage: The Myth of "Survival of the Fittest." A Latent Existence: If you can tweet, you can work Lisybabe's Blog: ♫...I'm going underground, (going underground)...♫  louisebolotin.com: No longer disabled enough: Cameron's brave new world Maijan ilmestykset: On the ownership of bodies Makulatur: Thoughts on the subject (Also posted here) Ramblings of a Fibro Fogged Mind:  How is an Activist Born… Ramblings of a Fibro Fogged Mind (Guest Post): Spartacus and Me Rolling with the Punches: You can type, therefore you can work Short Cuts in Wakefield: Blogging abouts Disabilism and the Cuts Stand Tall Through Everything: Rest Insured Where's the Benefit?: The Price of Hate Bullying, Harassment and Hate Crime Funky Mango's Musings: Dead Happy, Derek, and disablism Tune into Radio Carly: Untitled You dont look sick!: Blue Badge Vigilante's My Dis/Abled Body Belongs to Me, Not You, so Back Off! Honour Your Inner Magpie: dis/abilism and the suddenly huggy lady

List of Participating Blogs
Outside the bubble in an eggshell, SpeEdChange, Ramblings of a Fibro Fogged Mind, The F-Word, Kimberley Tew, Children with Special Needs,Happy, smiley and chronically ill, Pseudo-Living, Gavin's Gear, Stand Tall Through Everything, Disability Studies,  Temple U, Tune into Radio Carly, Unusual Suspects, Ask a Wheeler, Tiintax, A Room of my Own, Indigo Jo Blogs, Makulatur, There's a Botticelli Angel Inside, Snapping Beans, Welcome Spoken Here, Butterfly Dreams, Low Visionary, You dont look sick!, Social Welfare Union, Kate's blog, Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter, Librarian on Wheeeeels, Disabled Medic, Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream, ATOS Stories, It's My Life, Anytime Yoga, Madison Claire Foundation, Angelkitten, Rolling Around In My Head, Intractable/Implacable,  Lounalune, Against It, Stories and Research from an Epilepsy Sufferer, Crip_tic, Slewth Press, Gilbert and Me, UK Web Focus, Accessiblog.fr, This Ain't Living, People Aren't Broken, Accessible Insights Blog, Never that Easy, Gimp 'Tude, Painting, College and Disability, Ruth Madison, Urbania to Stoneheads, A Pretty Simple Blog, Benefit Scrounging Scum, Disabled and Employed, Sunny Dreamer, AWTS blog, Funky Mango's Musings, Single Lens Reflections

Recall To Pride - Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012

For Blogging Against Disablism Day
There are closed captions (click the CC button) but if you have trouble playing the video, here's a transcript:

The disability movement saved my life.

In my hour of despair (a little more than an hour) the disability movement taught me that my problem had two parts. One part was my illness, the suffering that causes and the things that stops me doing. The other part was people's attitudes and the way our society is set-up. Only one of those was something I had to deal with on my own.

Before then, whenever I met prejudice or poor access, I thought it was because I was broken. Whenever I read something in a newspaper condemning people like me or reducing people like me to a set of negative experiences, I thought it was because I was broken. I thought that I owed the world an explanation. I thought I had to explain why I couldn't do certain things, and explain how much I wanted to, and how I really really couldn't help it. Honest. I thought I had to constantly explain about being broken.

I am not broken. I am just not very well.

In recent years, the disability movement in the UK has been on the defensive. Being denied the financial and practical means to live a full and meaningful life, people have been scared. Some have been scared to death. There's nothing wrong with talking about suffering, about poverty. There's nothing wrong about the things we've lost and the things we're going to lose. There's nothing wrong with people who are in fear of their lives expressing that fear. Sometimes, we owe it to ourselves to be honest with the world about what we're going through.

But essential benefits and services are not a matter of compassion. We don't need to persuade anyone that we're all good people who suffer dreadfully and are therefore deserving of charity. We don't need to express gratitude that we are allowed to exist. We don't need to constantly refer to ourselves as genuinely disabled, as if there's any other kind. These things only play into the hands of people who think that there are deserving and undeserving disabled people and no matter what happens, the most needy people are bound to be looked after.

Cuts to essential benefits and services are a matter of social justice. Whoever we are, whatever the nature of our impairments, whether or not we are good patients, whether or not we were ever hard-workers, tax-payers, whether or not we are suffering or actually get a lot of pleasure out of life, or both, we are entitled to respect and dignity and the means to survive.

Disability pride is not about saying, “Hooray, I'm disabled!” It is not about saying, I don't suffer or I wouldn't change this about my life.

Disability pride is about saying, we're often up against it but

I am proud of who I am.
I am proud of my friends.
I am proud of the disabled community, which like any family has a few eccentric aunts and that half-brother we must never ever speak about.

It's about saying,

I will not apologise.
I won't apologise for having these limitations.
I won't apologise for the medical events that happen to me.
I won't apologise if my presence embarrasses you
I won't apologise if you don't understand my situation. I don't need you to. I don't understand yours either, but you have my respect.

Disabled people never got anywhere by begging. Disabled people changed the world in which we live by recognising our own inherrent value. This is why, collectively, we mustn't despair, however bleak things get. Because having equal or equivalent opportunities, having the dignity of being clean and fed and sheltered even if we need help from others, being treated with respect rather than abuse or condescension. These things are not a prize we won in a draw.

That's social justice. It's what everyone has a right to. And it's what we have a right to too. Too.

Which isn't always easy to recognise. And that's why, when we do...

We should be proud.

Blogging Against Disablism Day will be on 1st May, 2012

Blogging Against Disablism 2012 is now underway. Please click here for this year's event.

The seventh annual Blogging Against Disablism day will be on Tuesday, 1st May. This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination. In this way, we hope to raise awareness of inequality, promote equality and celebrate the progress we've made.

How to take part.


1. Post a comment below to say you intend to join in. I will then add you to the list of participants on the sidebar of this blog. Everyone is welcome.

2. Spread the word by linking to this site, displaying our banner and/ or telling everyone about it on blogs, newsgroups, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. The entire success of Blogging Against Disablism Day depends entirely on bloggers and readers telling other bloggers and readers in advance.

3. Write a post on the subject of disability discrimination, disablism or ableism and publish it on May 1st - or as close as you are able. Podcasts, videocasts and on-line art are also welcome. You can cover any subject, specific or general, personal, social or political. In the previous six BADD, folks have written about all manner of subjects, from discrimination in education and employment, through health care, parenting, family life and relationships, as well as the interaction of disablism with racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Every year I have been asked, so it's worth saying; the discrimination experienced by people with mental ill health is disablism, so naturally posts about that are welcome too.

You can see the archives for previous years here: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Blogging Against Disablism Day is not a carnival of previously published material. The point about doing this around one day (or there abouts) is that it is a communal effort and all the posts connect to one another. You can of course use your own post to promote other things you've written in the past as you wish.

4. Come back here to Diary of a Goldfish on the day to let everyone know that you've posted and to check out what other people have written. I shall post links to everyone's posts (slowly) throughout the day, creating an archive. However, I do need you to comment and leave the URL of your post or else I shan't find your post and won't be able to link to it.

This year, we have a Twitter account @BADDtweets, where there will be tweets about posts and updates to the archive during the day.


Accessibility

Naturally, Blogging Against Disablism Day invites contributions from people with all variety of impairments and none at all. You are welcome to contribute with podcasts, video-blogging or anything else that allows you to take part. And whilst May 1st is when this all takes place, nobody who happens to have a bad day that Tuesday is going to be left out of the archive.

If anyone has any questions about web accessibility, I recommend the Accessify Forum. I am not an expert on web accessibility myself, so if there are any suggestions about how I can make this day more accessible, please e-mail me at diaryofagoldfish at googlemail.com


The Linguistic Amnesty

Whilst discussions about language and the way it can be used to oppress or empower us are more than welcome, please respect the language that people use, particularly to describe themselves in their own contributions. We all have personal preferences, there are cultural variations and different political positions which affect the language we use. Meanwhile, non-disabled contributors can become nervous about using the most appropriate language to use, so please cut everyone as much slack as possible on the day.

At the same time, do not feel you have to use the same language that I do, even to talk about "disablism". If you prefer to blog against disability discrimination, ableism or blog for disability equality, then feel free to do so.

In 2008 I wrote a basic guide to the Language of Disability which I hope might explain some of the thinking behind the different language disabled people prefer to use about themselves.


Links & Banners

To link back to this post, simply copy and paste the following code:
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/BADD2012">Blogging Against Disablism Day</a>

These banners have seemed popular over the last couple of years and I am yet to think of anything better. If anyone fancies editing these images or coming up with something new, then please do so. You are free to use and mess with these as you like, so long as you use them in support of Blogging Against Disablism Day. If you already have the banner, you just need to change the URL that it links to from last year's BADD. Otherwise, you simply need to copy the contents of one of these boxes and paste it on your blog, in a post or on the sidebar as you like. The banners come in two colour combinations and two sizes. The sizes are a 206 pixels square or 150 x 200 pixels.

This is the black and white banner which reads "Blogging Against Disablism". Here's the code for the square one:

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/BADD2012"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlG7-IWPr3hTnOQRB2JGxQEMcAR_-gcvKeTsVg66maM-aWdNlvZHwzE0wy3gZEWpA-4tRiHo0I63s706PAhbYLzsbsxPq-jbK47kDJlAgI0WfPFpuISLDGcc5iju9JPbclNl0y/s320/bad01.gif" alt="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" title="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" border="0" /></a>

And here's the code for the narrower one (which can be seen here):

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/BADD2012"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcSXhbGbBoyrY0-GAalrKdtUWPwWQTlGr_KGjwqaib4Vx7LulQ5Rs1vsOqW7dpMR6Xeu3aMYUcD3C706N8H0VQjVudXHd8aF7WjybL3oQvvs279oLeFzlw_EI6Gj39jdGTxWa/s320/narrowbanner1.gif" alt="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" title="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" border="0" /></a>


This is the colourful banner which reads "Blogging Against Disablism". This is the code for the square one:

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/BADD2012"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26LD1wFZHKQUjLZVidcpqpMYIShd5fQv1SdOqhq_sEBzfge8XPkjKt7lzKqF8z074XxcSMV_tBokCZNqwvhsL7XoQUHT-uTmlRXUmXLRyaZN7gwx9_GK3px24NqZJtqtWNyxJ/s320/bad02.gif " alt="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" title="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" border="0" /></a>

And here's the code for the narrower one (which can be seen here):

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/BADD2012"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8W6vcwqHTdo6DFd43RZLo-I2dW4AtRPUIUUfs4WRgR8Z8zWP7h6Rbv7p1O7xk0S_piFLUpD1MHHPvmEP9c5jgAeFLBvldADkcq97LRRHBN2199lTJs6P2BXnTGWBQVV8te0bL/s320/narrowbanner2.gif" alt="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" title="Blogging Against Disablism Day, May 1st 2012" border="0" /></a>

Please leave a (comment including the URL of your blog) to let everyone know you are joining in and I shall add a link to you on the sidebar. Also, if you have any questions, please ask.