On Naivety and Renewed Hope

Cross-posted at Where's the Benefit?

Three years ago I wrote a terrifically naïve post for the BBC Ouch! Blog entitled Who's afraid of Wellfare Reform? At the time I believed that there was some real fear-mongering going on, brought about by conjecture on the part of a desperate unpopular government heading into a financial crash. I thought that it was all rhetoric – categorising unemployable people as employable makes for bad statistics. A financial crash was coming and in the next few years, the last thing any government would want to do was risk an artificial rise in unemployment.

I have to counteract the humility with which I admit to such a mistake with the only explanation I have; I am smarter than the government. It's not exactly a boast. Even if I shared the current administration's contempt for people without alarm clocks, the assault on disability benefits is becoming a political disaster. If things are allowed to carry on as they are going, hundreds of thousands of unemployable people will be added to the already record unemployment. Further hundreds of thousands, who they government is spending money on trying to support into work, will never get into work because either they are totally unfit for work or there is no work flexible enough to employ them. And then there is the shift in the media and public feeling, as the human cost increases.

There are three dominant narratives in our culture about disability; triumph, tragedy and villainry. Disabled villains are self-pitying wretches who frequently exaggerate or even fabricate their impairments in order to manipulate others. Thus the media's love of disability benefit fraud - the more audacious, the better. And thus the Daily Mails's recent glee in spinning disablity benefits statistics to make unremarkable facts, like some people have been disabled for more than ten years, sound scandalous.

But that can't last. Until recently, everyone had an anecdote about their friend's uncle's neighbour who claimed Incapacity Benefit for an ingrowing toenail, had one of those mythical free cars and spent half the year skiing on the Costa Brava. Increasingly, everyone has an anecdote about someone they know who has a serious chronic illness, but who has been denied disability benefits, is being subjected to months of stress as they appeal, isn't able to leave the house any more because they can't afford the energy and expense, isn't getting the practical care they need to keep clean and eat properly and so on.

Some people are in deadly danger. Only being a notch or two smarter than the government, three years ago I wrote “All we can be subjected to is yet more hassle and insecurity - not good, but not disasterous.” It was very clumsy to suggest that any increase in the hassle and insecurity we have always experienced wouldn't be disasterous for some of us, but I can't berate myself for failing to imagine that things could be handled this badly. There has always hassle and insecurity - this autumn I was dealing with DLA renewal forms and divorce papers at the same time, and I really couldn't say which was the greatest source of stress. But it is as if the holes in the safety net are widening and falling straight through is becoming a serious prospect for people who don't have the resources or the energy to reach out and cling on. Our most vulnerable have become so much more vulnerable.

It was a matter of time before the tragedies associated with the disability benefit cuts became the story. This has already begun, chiefly in the Guardian and the Mirror. And this government have done as much as they could to turn the public against disabled people – hate crime which includes a reference to DLA simply cannot be unconnected to government rhetoric on disability benefits. But they have forgotten that disabled people are the public. Disabled people are the public's friends, neighbours and family members. Disabled people are what non-disabled people frequently become with age. Disability benefits and the public services we rely upon are part of the deal that everyone has been paying tax for, so that if they or those they love have the need, the support will be there.

Thanks and good wishes to everyone marching today from those of us whose impairments prevent us from doing so. If you're at home today, you can still participate in the DPAC virtual protest and follow the @wheresbenefit gang on Twitter.

My young man is a feminist

Of course, Stephen was always a feminist. Feminism is simply the acknowledgement that there is social, cultural and political inequality between the genders and although that can hurt everybody, this is especially disadvantageous to women. Stephen already knew all that, but he didn't imagine that he could be called a feminist - even after I pointed out that he shares a birthday with that great he-feminist and father of liberalism, John Stuart Mill.

I have always called myself a feminist and it was very late in the day that I realised that many people who share this world-view nevertheless find the word problematic. And they give similar objections to those that Stephen raised:

1. Feminists believe that men and women have exactly equal attributes and abilities.

Stephen thought this because he had encountered self-proclaimed feminists who really did believe that.

Feminism rejects gender essentialism – the idea that there are fundamental physical, intellectual and psychological differences between all men and all women. There are approximate physical markers when we talk about sex, but all these differences are about typicalities – typical combinations of X and Y chromosomes, typical shape and function of reproductive organs and so on. Sex is biological and messy enough, but gender is a social construct and much much messier. (See Sex and Gender: An Introduction, which gets daily hits from people looking for the "gender" of their goldfish.)

When it comes to non-reproductive attributes and abilities, again, there are some typical differences. For example, a typical man can run faster than a typical woman of his age and equivalent level of fitness, but a younger woman is likely able to outrun an older man and an athletic woman can outrun most men. This means that out of any group of people, your fastest runner is likely to be a man, but it wouldn't be remarkable if it turned out to be a woman.

There also appear to be some subtle differences between a typical man and a typical woman when it comes to intellectual and psychological attributes. However, it is impossible to say which of these, if any, are innate, because gender programming is all-pervading and starts at birth. It is very difficult to study gender without inadvertently encouraging participants to live-up to gender stereotypes within tests.

But popular science, especially sound-bite science in the news media, loves stories about how gender stereotypes are either being proved or dramatically disproved, frequently missing the point of the original research in order to exchange a knowing “Men, eh?” or “Women, eh?” with the reader. From the last 24 hours we have Modern Men Prefer Powerful Women, some research by a gaming company, Women as Likely as Men to Enjoy Casual Sex, some research which spoke only to men and women who did enjoy casual sex, and Losing Virginity Makes Women Feel Less Pretty, more thorough but depressing research which concluded that over the course of college, everyone's self image deteriorated.

This is not to say that there are no innate intellectual or psychological differences between the typical man and the typical woman. There may well be lots. But, they will be subtle, there will be a great deal of variation and it seems extremely unlikely that any difference will ever justify unequal treatment or opportunities.

2. Many feminists hate men.

This is a very difficult area, because (a) the idea that feminists hate men is the basis for all lazy refutations of feminist arguments (b) feminist arguments are frequently misconstrued because the most extreme position is the most attention-grabbing one and (c) some feminists probably do hate men. There are a lot of troubled people in the world and feminism is yet to exercise an effective vetting program.

The idea that feminists hate men is an (ironically) ad hominem argument which people get away with because to hate men is a ludicrous, irrational and immoral position. If you're disagreeing with man-haters, who wouldn't be on your side? But feminism is not a position on what men are like - in fact, in rejecting gender-essentialism, the sentiment that all men are bastards (or cheats or rapists or whatever else) is decidedly unfeminist.

Which brings me onto misconstruction. Marilyn French was the feminist who is often accredited as stating that “All men are rapists.” Only she didn't. A fictional character (complex and not wholly sympathetic) in a novel she wrote, The Women's Room, said, “All men are rapists and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws and their codes.” So not only the words of a fictional character, but one talking about metaphorical rape. It was years after having read The Women's Room that I realised that this was the context in which that famous "feminist" sentiment was uttered. And yet all over the internet this and other sentiments are attributed to feminists, paraphrased and out of context.

I have, however, occasionally encountered female feminists who have such a profound mistrust of men that it is prejudice. This is a problem for feminism. However, in all my reading and listening, the worst any misandrist feminist wishes on a man is distance. This cannot be compared to the misogynists of this world who never want distance from women. They want to control and dominate women and often feel that violence is justified against those who deviate from their ideals. All hatred is bad, but some hatred is more dangerous than others.

3. Feminists are unconcerned with ways in which gender inequality effects boys and men.

My favourite feminist group blog, The Pursuit of Harpyness, helped me correct this misconception with three posts from the last few weeks:

(a) A blogger reports on a news article which makes titillation out of sexual exploitation of male prisoners by female prison guards in NY Post sez Prison Sex is Romance, Not Rape

(b) One blogger's husband is driven to desperation by unemployment and the cultural expectations of the masculine provider and protector in On Shaking It Off and Moving Forward

(c) A male blogger talks about his frustrated desire to be a father and the lack of sympathy he gets from those around him in Guy, Interrupted.

Anything which hurts women hurts men and vice versa. The whole point of feminism is that we are all human beings, all equally deserving of respect, freedom and protection, socially and politically. There are ways in which men and boys are disadvantaged by dominant ideas of masculinity and femininity. There are even some ways in which things are getting worse -like the problems of boys, especially black boys, in education. But feminism isn't doing that.

Gender equality or inequality are not travelling on a smooth trajectory, powered by feminism and always heading in the same direction. Overall, things are improving, here and throughout the world. But sometimes things get worse for women, sometimes things get worse for men and it all matters to feminists.

Whether feminists talk about the problems of men enough, I really can't say. But lots of people feel marginalised by that vague entity of mainstream feminism, the sort of you see in major blogs and newspaper columns, which tends to focus almost exclusively on the experiences of middle class, highly educated, heterosexual, white, young, non-disabled, cis-gendered women. But if something isn't being spoken about enough, the only solution is to start talking about it.

[Image description: A black and white image of a handsome young white man with dark hair and spectacles pulling a very silly face, as if suddenly alarmed at the realisation of his lifelong feminism.]

Being, Doing and Nothingness

Recently, I've been feeling rather positive about my health. I'm not used to thinking about my health at all, except in terms of how much can I do today and when something changes. But recently, a little hope has crept in. My health is not improving dramatically, but I am now in a better position to really take care of myself than I have been for as long as I have been ill. As a result, I feel a very great deal healthier. Functional impairment has barely shifted, but my skin is clearer, my muscle-tone is wonderful by my standards and I haven't had so much as a cold in eighteen months. I am more robust than I can ever remember being.

It's an alarming thought that I have been sick for approaching fifteen years, and up until the last six months or so, I have always lived in a very physically and psychologically difficult environment. I have never really had a chance to look after myself properly.

One downright dangerous thought to follow this would be how well might I have been now if things had been different? But therein lies madness, or at least profound silliness – some of the the journey was no fun at all, but I wouldn't have wanted to change the destination. Much.

I hadn't noticed how much the way I experience illness has changed until the random but substantial dip that I'm climbing out of now. For many years, there was tremendous pressure, both internal and external, for me to be as functional as possible. To be able to do things. To be able to study or write or keep house or look after other people. This meant I was in the habit of pushing through things until I collapsed, sometimes literally. I took the existence of this pressure for granted - I thought it was an inevitable part of the reality of living with chronic illness. I took the constant questioning of what my limitations were to be an inevitable consequence of living with another person whilst having chronic illness. And then suddenly, the pressure lifted.

If I am under any pressure at all at the moment, it is to look after myself. Not so that I can get well enough to be able to do more, but simply so that I am okay. Because I keep moving about the country, there are up to five people at any one time, who are highly invested in my being as comfortable, calm and contented as possible and nothing more than that.

Even so, it is difficult to shake off the idea that to be more ill is to be in people's way, holding them up, making work for them and inviting the suspicion that I'm milking it and that my perception is not to be trusted. And this makes me a difficult patient. Pushing myself, expecting to be ignored and apologising for everything makes people worry and fuss. It is a revelation to me that, if I'm hurting a great deal and struggling to stay awake, the best thing I can do for other people is stay still and ask for the things I need.

A part of me thinks that I am being spoilt in my current situation, because I am being looked after, unconditionally. And I know it is a lucky position to be in. But the idea that there is anything wrong here only works if you believe that every individual must fend for themselves, practically and financially. And most people don't. Most people live and work in teams of some sort or other, disabled or not. I have my dips, but so do everybody.

Yes, a bit of a ramble. But so much is changing in my life at the moment, I feel inclined to put some of that down. But of course I am living mid-story and I'm still not terribly awake.

More nonsense about the Work-Shy

I guess I'm letting myself get a bit wound up by things in the news in order to get back to writing regularly.

Another problematic BBC News article UK needs to adopt tough US stance on earning welfare - another opinionated assertion posing as a news headline. From the main site, this was linked to as simply Workshy Britons. The article itself neither explains why the UK needs to adopt a tougher stance, nor does it demonstrate that there are any work-shy Britons.

Lawrie Mead, a US academic, visits Liverpool and laments how unemployed people feel entitled to having enough money to stay warm and have something to eat. Some telling sentences are

“One initial surprise was that the city did not appear down-at-heel.”

and

“The parents and children I encountered in Anfield seemed to me upbeat and well-organised. The community did not manifest the deeper disarray that one often encounters in poor areas in America.”

Thing is, being unemployed in the UK is a very different thing to being unemployed in the US. People are impoverished, but most people are not made desperate. The UK welfare state has been historically based on the idea that everyone pays into an insurance scheme and when someone does fall on hard times and need to claim from it, they do not have to give up their self-respect. Benefits are relatively generous and things like the National Health Service means that people don't so easily fall through the cracks. The vast majority of people who claim benefits work most of their lives and claim only briefly before returning to work. Just now, there are a lot of hard-working people on benefits because jobs are being lost all the time. These people do not need to be made to earn benefits – they already did. They simply need to be supported until such a time that they can earn a living and recommence paying into the pot

Another reason why impoverished parts of the country aren't so bad as impoverished parts of the US is that we have a minimum wage. It is illegal to employ people for less than £5.93 an hour (for those over 21). So if people are to work for their benefits, they cannot be expected to work more than 11 hours a week. That's just over two hours a day for the highest rate of Job Seekers Allowance.

But the biggest practical problem for getting unemployed people to work for their benefits is that there is no work. If the state had work that needed doing, it would surely employ peopl? . Unless of course the plan is to save the state money by first cutting public sector jobs, then forcing all these newly unemployed folk to work for illegally low pay under the guise of giving the work-shy incentives to work... well, it's a plan, I guess. Mead continues

“More important is the fact that many people still believe in entitlement - this is the idea that you have a right to get benefits if you qualify under the income rules, and you should not have to work for them.”

But you do. As a British citizen, you do have this right. Just as you have a right to claim on your car insurance if you have a bump. Everyone is entitled to claim benefits when they are out of work.

Something that really bugs me about the recent rhetoric around benefits is that there are lots of different ways in which the welfare state can work. There are lots of ways in which things could be reformed, made fairer, where we could guard against fraud and abuse and so on. There are even some ways in which costs could be cut.

But the principles underlining the benefits system are fundamentally fair. It is not a charity pot. The people of this country are not divided into hard-working tax-payers and work-shy layabouts. And just now, when more and more tax-payers are needing to claim from the pot – our pot - this rhetoric is particularly insulting.

ADHD and DLA Fraud

cross-posted at Where's the Benefit?

There's an article on the BBC News website is entitled Unscrupulous parents seek ADHD diagnosis for benefits

The evidence for this assertion is that two anonymous headteachers claim this to be the case.

"Susan" has asked to remain anonymous, because she knows what she says is controversial and does not want to stigmatise the parents of every child with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Not sure how anonymous sources make any difference to the stigmatising effect of the article. ADHD is already a massively stigmatised condition. Many people, including teachers, are sceptical as to whether the condition isn't simply a way for bad parents to excuse the bad behaviour of their children. I have heard it theorised that ADHD is a problem caused by middle class parents who aren't prepared to smack their children and demand a label when their children struggle at school, or that ADHD is a problem caused by working class parents who feed their children junk food and abandon them to the television. Bringing benefit fraud into this can only add to the stigma.

Psychiatric diagnoses with subjective criteria are always tricky and identifying abnormality in children's behaviour is particularly fraught, so there are bound to be misdiagnoses. But for children with these impairments, attempting to navigate the world and an inflexible education system, a diagnosis of ADHD can be a tremendous gateway, not to extra cash for their parents, but to proper treatment and the help they need to succeed. DLA can be used to buy time, peace, practical adjustments and special arrangments so that these children and their families can have as full and normal life as possible. Which in turn promotes normal development.

Their anonymous source continues

"Every child I have on medication, we are asked to fill part of the forms that they [parents] submit as benefit claimants, to verify they have ADHD, so it goes hand-in-hand."

As the article later points out, both NICE and the Royal College of Psychiatrist believe that Ritalin should only be prescribed to chlidren with severe behavioural problems. Therefore, it follows, those families whose children are actually prescribed Ritalin are likely to be in greastest need for help.

Only of course, there are only 328,000 people on DLA under the age of 16, including all those with mobility and special care needs, whereas there are many more children taking Ritalin (I can't find a figure that agrees, but somewhere past half a million). Ritalin prescription and DLA do not go hand in hand.

Then finally,

Abuse of the Disability Living Allowance by parents is one reason the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is discussing reform.

No, it's not. It has been said before, but it has to be said again and again, DLA fraud is reckoned to stand at 0.5%. There are only 328,000 people under 16 claiming DLA, including all those children with mobility and special care needs. Presuming that fraud is as common amongst parents and guardians claiming for their children than amongst adults claiming for themselves – which seems extremely unlikely given the much stricter criteria for under 16s – then that's about 1600 cases in the country. The DWP are not reforming anything for the sake of 1600 fraudulent parents.

This article rattled me because it is such weak reporting and by the BBC, from whom I'd expect better. Disability fraud and the urgent need for reform has become a bandwagon, where an argument is built up around the word of anonymous sources who have no expertise beyond their anecdotal experience. Because there must be fraud. There must be massive fraud or else the government wouldn't be able to justify the cuts and increased stress and scrutiny in store for everyone on disability benefits.

The website article relates to a radio piece on this matter at 9pm tonight (Sunday, 6 February) on BBC Radio 5 Live. No, me neither.

Muscular Liberalism and Stories About Islam

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism." - David Cameron, speaking about Islamic extremism at the Munich Security Conference.

Liberalism is jolly hard work. It means arguing for a society in which, inevitably, sooner or later, you will hear something that upsets or offends you, or a false statement on a subject that matters. People will behave in ways that unsetttle you, and yet you have to keep fighting for their right to do so. When I hear a phrase like muscular liberalism from a serving politician, I would expect something like some adjustments to our recent terrorism laws which criminalise various non-violent behaviours and allow police tremendous powers to interfere in the lives of those who come under suspicion.

No such luck...

“We must ban preachers of hate from coming to our countries. We must also proscribe organisations that incite terrorism - against people at home and abroad. Governments must also be shrewder in dealing with those that, while not violent, are certainly, in some cases, part of the problem.”

Cameron spoke to the EU in Munich today about Islamic Extremism and the failure of multiculturalism, the day after the anti-Islamic English Defence League took to the streets of Luton. The timing was appalling, but the rhetoric was worse.

“So when a white person holds objectionable views - racism, for example - we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them.”

Common narratives around race, religion and immigration are extraordinarily dangerous. We like stories. We also like simplicity, irony, colour-coding, heroes and villains. So stories about the way things are that appeal tend to stick better than stories which are true.

Privileged groups have been using the “one rule for them, another rule for us” complaint forever. I daresay a Pharoah once complained, “When a Hebrew kills an Egyptian overseer, he gets a burning bush and a pat on the back. But when an upstanding Egyptian accidentally drops a few thousand babies in the Nile and enslaves their parents, God goes and sends ten bloody plagues! It's political correctness gone mad!”

And it is blatantly untrue. There may be some people who imagine that outrageous views held by a member of a minority are somehow okay, or even part of their culture and therefore worthy of respect. But a Muslim only needs to moan about Western culture as much as the average pub bore and there is mass media coverage. Anjem Choudary, who appears to represent nobody but himself, is rarely out of the news. Yesterday, two Muslims made the national news by silently abstaining from a standing ovation for a man who had won the George Cross (please don't make me link, it was in the Daily Star).

It's almost a shame that the story isn't true, because it would make some sort of sense. Like Jack Straw's comments about sexually frustrated single Asian young men preying on white girls because Asian girls are sexually unavailable. Would make some sort of sense if it wasn't for the fact that the Asian men recently prosecuted for abusing young women and children were married, in their late twenties and anyway, rape has little to do with sexually frustation. But these stories have great appeal, they make some kind of sense of something in equal parts complex and horrible. But they do so at the cost of a scapegoat, at the cost of these communities who are always being spoken about in the third person.

We cannot ignore crimes committed by anybody, and terrorism is a very serious crime. But I think that as white folk, we have a greater responsibility to confront white voices who preach hatred and falsehood (and thus, provoke hate in others) than we do to confront non-white haters. We're the majority, we have the privilege and these people frequently claim to speak for our interests. And it's a very watered-down, cowardly liberalism that resorts to banning individuals who only want to speak. Even if what they have to say is as vile as vile can be.

This is a bit of a ramble but I've been struggling and I went and pressed publish by accident again half way through - so folks on feed-readers already got a preview.

An Entirely Biased Who's Who of the Disability Blogosphere, January 2011

@_louhicky who draws Crip Strips recently asked me about the movers and shakers within the disability movement on-line. The part of the disability movement I know most about is in the blogosphere, and when I began to think of important bloggers to tell Lou about, I thought it might make something of a celebratory post. As it turned out, I've had a few poorly weeks and during such times it is other bloggers who help me feel connected to things.

However, I am no particular authority on this, not all important disability blogger will have appeared on my radar and I'm bound to have forgotten some of those that have. I've also struggled to categorise these in any meaningful way. So it occurs to me, maybe other folk can blog their own lists of important disability bloggers. Hmm... I have vague amorphous thoughts about compiling a gigantic map of the disability blogosphere, but as I say, poorly weeks. Please at least comment with links to important bloggers I've forgotten. Right...

Penny at Disability Studies, Temple U., was one of the first bloggers on disability I encountered, a real community blogger who writes fascinating posts about disabled people in history and initiated the monthly Disability Blog Carnivals (the most recent having been at Butterfly Dreams).

I think the best academic disability bloggers are the great Ira Socol who wrote The Drool Room and blogs at SpeEdChange, frugal feminist Irational Point at Modus Dopens and Deven Black at Education on the Plate. Someone I regard as academic because she write seriously about autism research and psychology is Lindsay at Autist's Corner. Ballastexistenz and Bev at Square 8 are perhaps the most prominent bloggers writing about neurodiversity.

The most glamourous disability bloggers I know are Wheelchair Dancer (who is a professional dancer, funnily enough) and writer and TV presenter Mik Scarlet at Scarlet Sees Red. Two very important writers on disability are articulator-of-pain Elizabeth McClung at Screw Bronze and Dave Hingsburger at Rolling Around Life. Poet Cripchick has been a pivotal in the disability blogging community, but has been quiet since November. Hope she is okay.

Entrepreneur and bride-to-be Mary at This is my Blog writes honestly and engagingly about a huge range of personal-political issues. Wheelie Catholic writes about politics, post lots of links and videos as well as moving pieces about everyday greatness and injustice. Lawyer and sometime revolutionary Mark Siegel at the 19th Floor writes about disability in culture and US politics, as does Imfunnytoo at Midlife and Treachery and Stephen Kuusisto at Planet of the Blind. William Peace at Bad Cripple is another American writing especially about medical ethics, as well as recently charting his own ill health with considerable courage and candour.

Two of the UK's most prominent and prolific disability bloggers are nautical knitter Emma at Writer in a Wheelchair and death-walking diva BendyGirl at Benefit Scrounging Scum, who were the ring-leaders of the recent One Month Before Heartbreak. BendyGirl also started the Broken of Britain blog, collecting stories of disabled people affected by UK benefit reform. They both in turn write for Where's the Benefit? about UK disabilty benefits, as does writer and sweetheart of the twitterati Lisa at Lisy Babe's Blog and Incurable Hippie who blogs at Incurable Hippie's Musings and Rants as well as The F-Word on occasion. Other important British writers on disability include kinky Claire Lewis at Disabled People Fight Back, Sara at Same Difference and brevity being the soul of wit, Katie at Everyone Else Has a Blog.

I don't actually think of these as Mommy Bloggers, but these ladies are all joyful and articulate parents of disabled children; Starlife at Life Decanted , Stephanie at Embracing Chaos and Maddy at Whitterer on Autism. Casdok at Mother of Shrek has a 22 year old autistic lad.

The now defunct FWD/ Forward: Feminists with Disabilities blog will remain an important resource long after the cobwebs are formed. Former contributors include another academic Anna at Trouble is a State of Mind, US military veteran Ouyang Dan at Random Babble, Annaham at Ham Blog and Lauredhel at the big Austrailian feminist blog Hoyden about Town. There are lots of different feminist voices at Womanist Musings but Renee who runs the blog frequently writes about disability and how it intersects with race, gender and size. Bint Ashama at My Private Casbah is another important writer on disabiliy and race.


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This second section doesn't mean to imply inferiority, but these are different kinds of blogs which contain different kinds of content and may be more specialist that those above. This is a difficult excercise so please forgive my struggle to categorise.

Never That Easy and Diane at A Stellarlife are great writers about living with chronic illness.

Other academic bloggers who are worth reading about disability who I haven't mentioned above include Lilwatchergirl at Through Myself and Back Again, Naomi at Uncovering the Roof, Lili at Silly Legal, Miss Shuguah at Fumbling About in the Dark and Kethry at Urbania to Stoneheads who has recently returned to education.

Gary at AWTS, James at A Pretty Simple Blog and Makayla Lewis are the people to read about web accessibility.

Best disabled photographer I know of is my own amazing Stephen who blogs at Single Lens Reflections. Other disabled creative types include Rachel at Rachel Creative, Cusp at L'Ombre de mon Ombre, Katya Robin, Gaina at The Mouth on Wheels and embroiderer Elmsley Rose. See also the Disability Arts Online collection of blogs.

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There is, of course, plenty disability community activity outside blogging, on Twitter, Tumblr and on forums and social networks throughout the web. But I think these folks I've listed here are a good place to start.