This is going to be a super short blog post because when I really had time and wanted to be writing it earlier my internet was coming on and off like a prostitutes knickers. Or some such metaphor, possibly a more appropriate one I can't think of right now. Suggestions anyone?
I'm not that tired but I'm a bit worried that if I wrote a huge entry my Internet might go stupid again and I'd lose it. Also, I was going to share photos and I don't want to mess around with them at the moment. But I've been learning (or have learnt, actually I guess) two new crafts in the past few days. One of the many reasons I've not been blogging.
Other reasons include having absolutely no energy and being completely and utterly hooked on listening to an audiobook of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's so good!
I'm working on some disability related posts because I've been chatting a lot about different issues and reading a lot of very scary disability related news in the past week or so. Ashley X has been back in the news, DLA is under threat, the term "special needs" and language as it relates to disability in general are some of those.
Today I heard about a guy writing a book based on his "inspirational" life overcoming CP. Which he hid for most of his life and his parents asked the drs not to put it in his medical records when they diagnosed him.
And I have a question for some of my American Crip friends. This woman on a message board I post on (not disability related but I used an example of the DDA to clarify/contest a point she made) is telling me that your version of the DDA - the ADA I think? protects you in public buildings and organisations but that private companies can discriminate all they want.
I find that very, very scary. Is it correct? Seems to me like it couldn't be law. But I was wanted to ask someone of my peeps who are in the know about these things.
Showing posts with label disability rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disability rights. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The Ashley Treatment is back
I will write more about this later because this is a story that needs addressing. I need some time to think on it though.
But I've just read that the Ashley Treatment has been decided by an ethics committee to be "Morally Permissible" in certain circumstances. See: "Stunting disabled children's growth is 'morally permssible" group says" (h/t to BendyGirl).
They only looked at growth attenuation and not all the other issues that were involved in the treatment of Ashley X. The very idea of it makes me feel sick however.
Other entries I've written about The Ashley Treatment and about Ashley X
But I've just read that the Ashley Treatment has been decided by an ethics committee to be "Morally Permissible" in certain circumstances. See: "Stunting disabled children's growth is 'morally permssible" group says" (h/t to BendyGirl).
They only looked at growth attenuation and not all the other issues that were involved in the treatment of Ashley X. The very idea of it makes me feel sick however.
Other entries I've written about The Ashley Treatment and about Ashley X
Friday, 22 October 2010
Dear Prime Minister
I wrote a relatively long blog post on Tuesday and then my Internet went down and I lost it. I do have quite a lot to blog about but not today...
The cuts which will be made as a part of the Comprehensive Spending Review were announced on Wednesday. They will seriously affect disabled people and they haven't been properly thought through. The government admits that they haven't looked fully into how they will affect disabled people. I wrote a small post about this on Disability Voices. It includes a link to a Scope campaign about it, asking people to e-mail their MP.
Fellow blogger and Disability Voices team member Bendy Girl, has posted several excellent responses to the cuts. Dear Prime Minister has been reposted on the Guardian website. It's a very moving video response to the Prime Minister about what the proposed removal of Higher Rate Mobility (Part of DLA) from disabled people in care homes.
It's hard hitting but well worth taking a few minutes to watch. I'll post more about my own reaction to the cuts soon but for now I wanted to share that video.
The cuts which will be made as a part of the Comprehensive Spending Review were announced on Wednesday. They will seriously affect disabled people and they haven't been properly thought through. The government admits that they haven't looked fully into how they will affect disabled people. I wrote a small post about this on Disability Voices. It includes a link to a Scope campaign about it, asking people to e-mail their MP.
Fellow blogger and Disability Voices team member Bendy Girl, has posted several excellent responses to the cuts. Dear Prime Minister has been reposted on the Guardian website. It's a very moving video response to the Prime Minister about what the proposed removal of Higher Rate Mobility (Part of DLA) from disabled people in care homes.
It's hard hitting but well worth taking a few minutes to watch. I'll post more about my own reaction to the cuts soon but for now I wanted to share that video.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Deja vu
I do voluntary work a few times a week. And twice a year we get together socially.
We do this thing when we go out to eat where every seat apart from mine has a number and after each course everyone gets up and moves on so many places. It's always arranged so I stay put so I joke about how it makes me the Queen of the evening and how everything revolves around ME! So you talk to loads of different people and you talk about loads of different things. It's really fun. You learn things about people you never knew and you get to talk to people you rarely see - those who volunteer on different days to you for example. It's a practice I would recommend for any big group meal or some such.
Last year we went to for an Italian and I was sat there eating pizza and talking to one of my colleagues about Ashley X and the issues surrounding her and all the controversy. It was January and it was a hot topic at that time. And she hadn't heard of her.
Fast forward one year and we went out to eat again last night. We went to a different Italian Restaurant in a different town to the last one (which I think I preferred but which has now shut). I ate a lasagna which could really have done with some more pizazz.
Again in a general current events type conversation I talked with a couple of colleagues about disability rights. Specifically, about Katie Thorpe. And again, just like the majority of people I mentioned her/The article in the Guardian to over the last few days, they'd not heard of her. Talk about deja vu!
Shane Graham
Brent Martin
Ashley X
Charlotte Wyatt
Terri Schiavo
Katie Thorpe
Different from me and yet the same, they are "my people" who have suffered and in some cases continue to do so from a system that doesn't care or which cares but not enough. Who have their rights abused and their lives considered worthless because they share (or shared) the same tag I do - Disabled.
They matter to me.
I hope that this time next year when our post Christmas "Christmas meal" comes around there won't be another name on that list and that I won't spend my time socialising, chatting in general and educating my colleagues about another name on that list.
Enough is Enough.
We do this thing when we go out to eat where every seat apart from mine has a number and after each course everyone gets up and moves on so many places. It's always arranged so I stay put so I joke about how it makes me the Queen of the evening and how everything revolves around ME! So you talk to loads of different people and you talk about loads of different things. It's really fun. You learn things about people you never knew and you get to talk to people you rarely see - those who volunteer on different days to you for example. It's a practice I would recommend for any big group meal or some such.
Last year we went to for an Italian and I was sat there eating pizza and talking to one of my colleagues about Ashley X and the issues surrounding her and all the controversy. It was January and it was a hot topic at that time. And she hadn't heard of her.
Fast forward one year and we went out to eat again last night. We went to a different Italian Restaurant in a different town to the last one (which I think I preferred but which has now shut). I ate a lasagna which could really have done with some more pizazz.
Again in a general current events type conversation I talked with a couple of colleagues about disability rights. Specifically, about Katie Thorpe. And again, just like the majority of people I mentioned her/The article in the Guardian to over the last few days, they'd not heard of her. Talk about deja vu!
Shane Graham
Brent Martin
Ashley X
Charlotte Wyatt
Terri Schiavo
Katie Thorpe
Different from me and yet the same, they are "my people" who have suffered and in some cases continue to do so from a system that doesn't care or which cares but not enough. Who have their rights abused and their lives considered worthless because they share (or shared) the same tag I do - Disabled.
They matter to me.
I hope that this time next year when our post Christmas "Christmas meal" comes around there won't be another name on that list and that I won't spend my time socialising, chatting in general and educating my colleagues about another name on that list.
Enough is Enough.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Katie, again.
And me, this time, too ;o)
The Guardian has an article on it's website about Katie Thorpe - Whose Life is it Anyway? And they included an extract from one of my blog entries about her in it.
How cool is that?!?!
I quite like the article, I think it does a fair job of describing the thoughts and feelings of disability bloggers and of Katie's mother. And it hasn't degenerated into disablist language or such stereotypes, which had concerned me.
As I'm writing this there are two comments left on the article online and neither of them particularly fill me with joy. I'm waiting to see if there is any further response on the article before I comment myself (and also until I'm less "argh!" about the comments). They are the sort of comments I would expect to see but to me they are ones that seem to miss the point. Or at least the point I was making in my entry.
The point being that this could have been (and still might) be a very, very slippery slope.
I pray it won't be.
I'd love to hear your views on the issues involved/ Katie Thorpe's case specifically/ Ashley X / the article in The Guardian. They can be left in the comments.
However I will be moderating them and if this is your first time posting it won't show up until it's been approved. If you have commented before and been approved before, however, it's business as usual. That is standard procedure on my blog and is not new today.
The Guardian has an article on it's website about Katie Thorpe - Whose Life is it Anyway? And they included an extract from one of my blog entries about her in it.
How cool is that?!?!
I quite like the article, I think it does a fair job of describing the thoughts and feelings of disability bloggers and of Katie's mother. And it hasn't degenerated into disablist language or such stereotypes, which had concerned me.
As I'm writing this there are two comments left on the article online and neither of them particularly fill me with joy. I'm waiting to see if there is any further response on the article before I comment myself (and also until I'm less "argh!" about the comments). They are the sort of comments I would expect to see but to me they are ones that seem to miss the point. Or at least the point I was making in my entry.
The point being that this could have been (and still might) be a very, very slippery slope.
I pray it won't be.
I'd love to hear your views on the issues involved/ Katie Thorpe's case specifically/ Ashley X / the article in The Guardian. They can be left in the comments.
However I will be moderating them and if this is your first time posting it won't show up until it's been approved. If you have commented before and been approved before, however, it's business as usual. That is standard procedure on my blog and is not new today.
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