How do we increase our visibility?
PWD's and their concerns were invisible in "the good old days." Before the 2000 election, Before 9/11, before Iraq.
We have a bigger problem than we used to...because all of this above distracts people from focussing on the important internal economic or social issues that are the charged difficult issues for us.
Those who write and/or blog about disability issues have several choices, and certainly more than I'll list here:
Single condition/single issue blogging/writing that has as its impetus pushing a rock up a hill until those outside the community dealing with the condition ostensibly have a V8 moment and realize the importance of shining a spotlight on this issue/conditon
Kelleresque autobiograbical pieces to use personal anecdotes to highlight what PWD's deal with daily.
Mainly disability rights activism: Rejecting cure-as-goal Access, Medicaid cuts, fighting stereotyping etc.
Disability rights as a piece of a broader mosaic of civil rights. (The continuing presence of disability studies in curricula is one of the strongest footprints of this sort of writing.).
An unwieldy mixed bag. (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) It's that touch of ADD.
can't seem to settle into one thing.
I ask an uncomfortable question of anyone and everyone who is writing about disability on or offline.
Because of the insane weight of *everything else* going on right now?
What are the pros and cons of staying foccussed on *all disability all the time?*
I'm being pulled in several directions, and just when I'm ready to split my writing time evenly between disability and the other important concerns of the day that have nothing to do with impairment I'm pulled up short. This sort of thing is a new level of why we are invisible when we talk about either our own issues or the ones that affect both the able and ourselves.
It's kind of seductive. On the Internet, we can "pass" better than anywhere else. We can talk about feminism, the war, domestic spying, why this election arc (2006-2008 has got to be the most important one in my adult life.) And unless we bring it up, *no one knows we are disabled.* If we stuff the disability back in the closet, the Internet is the one place where no one has to know and we are judged on our ideas alone.
It sounds great.
However,
(Via the Gimp Parade...)
Someone figures a fun way to blow an hour or two has to be setting one of us on fire.
What does that mean, for those writing about disability?
keep rolling *just our own * concerns out there, in some narrow aimed bullet of prose, figuring that *if there's enough* this won't continue to be the latest pastime on the street....
Or, if we're worried about the broader picture as much as our able counterparts, war, politics, discrimmination are we *allowed* to write and push on those issues and take time away from writing of our own? Wondering that if we had taken an extra twenty minutes and written about disability could we wake one more person up, one more on the outside that *sees* us?
Everybody's going to have their own answer. Or not.
This place will still be as disorganized as my college dormitory, for now...
We have a bigger problem than we used to...because all of this above distracts people from focussing on the important internal economic or social issues that are the charged difficult issues for us.
Those who write and/or blog about disability issues have several choices, and certainly more than I'll list here:
Single condition/single issue blogging/writing that has as its impetus pushing a rock up a hill until those outside the community dealing with the condition ostensibly have a V8 moment and realize the importance of shining a spotlight on this issue/conditon
Kelleresque autobiograbical pieces to use personal anecdotes to highlight what PWD's deal with daily.
Mainly disability rights activism: Rejecting cure-as-goal Access, Medicaid cuts, fighting stereotyping etc.
Disability rights as a piece of a broader mosaic of civil rights. (The continuing presence of disability studies in curricula is one of the strongest footprints of this sort of writing.).
An unwieldy mixed bag. (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) It's that touch of ADD.
can't seem to settle into one thing.
I ask an uncomfortable question of anyone and everyone who is writing about disability on or offline.
Because of the insane weight of *everything else* going on right now?
What are the pros and cons of staying foccussed on *all disability all the time?*
I'm being pulled in several directions, and just when I'm ready to split my writing time evenly between disability and the other important concerns of the day that have nothing to do with impairment I'm pulled up short. This sort of thing is a new level of why we are invisible when we talk about either our own issues or the ones that affect both the able and ourselves.
It's kind of seductive. On the Internet, we can "pass" better than anywhere else. We can talk about feminism, the war, domestic spying, why this election arc (2006-2008 has got to be the most important one in my adult life.) And unless we bring it up, *no one knows we are disabled.* If we stuff the disability back in the closet, the Internet is the one place where no one has to know and we are judged on our ideas alone.
It sounds great.
However,
(Via the Gimp Parade...)
Someone figures a fun way to blow an hour or two has to be setting one of us on fire.
What does that mean, for those writing about disability?
keep rolling *just our own * concerns out there, in some narrow aimed bullet of prose, figuring that *if there's enough* this won't continue to be the latest pastime on the street....
Or, if we're worried about the broader picture as much as our able counterparts, war, politics, discrimmination are we *allowed* to write and push on those issues and take time away from writing of our own? Wondering that if we had taken an extra twenty minutes and written about disability could we wake one more person up, one more on the outside that *sees* us?
Everybody's going to have their own answer. Or not.
This place will still be as disorganized as my college dormitory, for now...
posted by imfunnytoo at 8:39 PM
4 Comments:
I think the important thing is to keep writing. I think focussing on both disability and non-disability issues is a good balance, and that's what life's about. We don't focus on our disability 24/7/365, although it's with us all the time. Our lives are not just about disability, and our blogs reflect that. Having said that, even the non-disabled things in our lives are influenced by our disability, because it's part of who we are and it can't help but play a part in how we see the rest of the world. And that's the same with age, race, education, upbringing, etc. It's all connected.
I totally agree with Ranter. Putting yourself out there in whatever form -- being part of the conversation and thus having the opportunity to shape conversation -- is the way to go. Don't be denied voice.
I really enjoy all the various topics you write about.
Keeps me coming back! :-)
I started my own blog as somewhere to put my thoughts which didn't fit anywhere else. And that's pretty much what I have done. It was not meant to be any kind of platform and I hope it hasn't become one.
However, I think that a mix helps. I have to make a list; I am tired and thinking in bullet points.
(a) It helps that folks see us as whole and complex people - everything Ranter says.
(b) It helps on readability; you can engage non-disabled people on other subjects where they might have passed over a blog entirely about disability - a subject most people aren't especially interested in.
(c) It keeps blogging something we enjoy - if I felt obligated to write about disability all the time, I wouldn't want to keep it up for very long.
Like I say, personally I blog for my own benefit. But if I didn't think it would make any difference to anybody I would probably keep a personal diary on paper instead. It would probably contain more swearing. ;-)
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