Disability Commentary

Tomorrow! Wheelchair Vehicle

Whew. I think I might have been in the presence of a decent vehicle that can transport a power wheelchair. Other than light rail (the best and easiest) the MV-1 is purpose built to meet and exceed ADA standards. I’ve been following their story for the past couple of years, hoping they would succeed. [...]

Wheelchairs, Jocks, Geeks & Glee

Under the influence of our 14 year old, dance-crazed neighbor I've watched Glee from the beginning. (Under her influence I've also watched every episode of So You Think You Can Dance for the past three years.) On first watch of Glee I was impressed with how exaggerated and over the top the show was. It also had irony and a bite—a send-up rather than a satire. The characters are hyper-stereotypes. representing some of the more visible high school cliques, in particular, jocks, cheerleaders, and the glee club members (who are at the bottom of the high school pecking order.) The plot is almost always unbelievable yet based on our painful perceptions of high school, which is part of the fun. For awhile I was confused about the role of the wheelchair-using glee club member, Artie.

Creepin’ & Crawlin’

After reading the review of a cutting-edge San Francisco restaurant I was wondering about the meaning of “ramp.” I went to the dictionary on my computer. (I’m using the latest Macintosh operating system which has the pretty decent New Oxford American Dictionary. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a listing for ramp the food, but there was for “a [...]

Google & Zazzle-time wasters

Buff Bagwell was a US wrestler who used a wheelchair for prop. This was years ago. I found an action figure of him. Pushing a button on the back of the wheelchair caused the wrestler figure to leap out of his wheelchair—strange, but kind of cool. Today, not being able to remember his name, I googled wheelchair wrestler. Wow! I became lost for hours. The most fun and the biggest time sink was on Zazzle. Zazzle is a site where one can "create your own one-of-a-kind product." I found a T-shirt with wheelchair Sumo wrestlers! Once I started searching for "wheelchair," "gimp," "disabled," etc I was lost for the next half hour.

My favorite T-shirt design is this:

Tribal Membership

February 20, 2010 Tribal Membership This week I received an email from someone I didn’t know, a wheelchair user. He’s a quad who became disabled after a diving accident over thirty-five years ago. How do I know all that from the first line of his email? He told me. It read, “I am a C5-6 quad since [...]

VSA Postcard Project

I managed to make the deadline for the VSA Arts Postcard Project. The theme was to create a postcard with the artist’s definition of disability.

New York Times Paying Attention

Little by little, the good, gray Times has started to recognize disability. Sometimes, it’s even bold in recognizing our perception of the lived experience of disability, rather than the stereotypes. The boldest that I noticed was, of course, the articles written by the late Harriet McBryde Johnson. Last week I noticed on my Times RSS [...]

Dorthea Lange

“In 1957 when her students at California Institute of Art asked [Dorthea] Lange for a picture to fit the title, “Where I Live,” she submitted one of of her twisted right foot.” San Francisco Chronicle, 11-8-09 in a review of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. More and more these days it’s OK [...]

Crippled Black Phoenix

Ah, I just found another interesting detritus uncovered by eBay. It’s the Crippled Black Phoenix. They’re a UK post-rock band. I’m not sure what post-rock is but their music on their MySpace page isn’t particularly offensive, although some of their imagery is.

Melody Gardot and her disability identity

Just got the latest Melody Gardot CD, “My One and Only Thrill.” She’s one of those smokey-sounding women songsters that seem to have a resurgence lately–Madeleine Peyroux, Amy Winehouse, etc. Not only do I like her music, but I’m also impressed with her disability identity. On her MySpace page she talks about the term disability. She, [...]