NEWS
U.S. Midterm Elections
Voters head to the polls tomorrow amid a barrage of new voting restrictions that threaten disabled people’s access to the electoral process. The AAPD’s REV UP campaign has developed 51 Voting Guides for each state and the District of Columbia, the REV UP Voting Issues Guide, Accessibility Tips, and a Voting Outreach Toolkit.
Congress’s failure to act on desperately needed expansion of home and community based services (HBCS) over the last two years has increased the urgency of organizers’ efforts to save federal programs like the Medicaid Money Follows the Person Program and Expanded Spousal Impoverishment Protection that need to be made permanent.
As Republicans contemplate winning control of the House and Senate, some of them are floating radically ableist ideas, like subjecting Social Security and Medicare to annual spending bills that would make disabled people’s survival a pawn in increasingly vicious partisan feuding.
Rest in Power, LC (Lois Curtis)
LC’s activism has had a tremendous impact on the lives and freedom of disabled people across the U.S. She was a named plaintiff in the 1999 Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C. that guarantees disabled and elderly people the right to live in a “less restrictive setting” than unnecessary and discriminatory institutionalization. This decision has been a crucial wedge for organizers working for access and disabled dignity (including just this week, when a judge in North Carolina ordered the release of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities from institutions).
After being released from a state hospital in Georgia, LC became an artist. In 2011, she gifted Pres. Obama with Girl in an Orange Dress, a self-portrait of the artist’s younger self.
For more, see the trailer for Carl King’s documentary, The Art of Being LC. You can contribute to LC’s burial and funeral costs here.
Following the Money
The average 2.5 year-long waiting period for people inside institutions to transition back into community demonstrates that administrative delays and deferrals are a threat to the self-determination and dignity of disabled people that the Olmstead decision was supposed to protect as a right.
Since the Olmstead decision, more government funding in the U.S. is paying for care at home. At the same time, more predatory business are attempting to consolidate revenue from public sources by paring down and weakening home and community based services. The investments in the so-called “troubled teen industry” are a good example.
“Social impact investment banks” - like a $400 million one being discussed recently in Australia - prioritize business over people’s lives when they take over social services. It seems like care itself is under attack from so many sides.
Disability Twitter is not OK
The entire accessibility team at Twitter has been fired in the mass layoffs following Elon Musk’s purchase of the company. This includes people like Brett Lewis and Andrew Hayward, who brought the alt-text badge and reminders to the platform. Gerard K. Cohen gave shout-outs to many others in the company who have worked to expand access. And there are still other staffers who worked on access, now without a job.
Twitter has become an important disability platform and we will have to wait to understand the full effects of Musk’s takeover. The thread below includes some of the places disabled users are (or are not) fleeing to:
In Other News…
Marcel Hug and Susannah Scaroni, yesterday’s winners in the NYC Marathon wheelchair division, will receive one quarter of the prize money that the abled winners are taking home.
Unitarian Universalists have pledged to fight ableism, including dedicating at least $25,000 toward a new initiative called “EqUUal Access.”
In Chicago, Access Living is organizing the Emergency Services Campaign to expand accessibility in emergency transportation.
Access Living is also received its largest donation from an individual ever: $8 million from McKenzie Scott.
In the U.K., a new investigation has found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) illegally blocked the release of documents that could have helped reduce the number of suicides and other deaths caused by the Department’s work.
A wave of pediatric viral infections (RSV, flu, rhinovirus, enterovirus, and COVID) is pushing the emergency departments and ICUs at U.S. children’s hospitals to their limit.
The CDC has issued new guidelines for clinicians on how and when to prescribe opioids for pain. The 2016 guidelines significantly restricted access to opioids, leading to untreated and undertreated pain that has caused widespread harm. The updates focus on individualized care for pain patients, giving doctors more leeway in how they prescribe these medications.
Yet again, Air Canada has destroyed a disability organizer’s powerchair. This time, Andrew Gurza’s. Nearly 2 months after destroying Maayan Ziv’s, the airline says it will cover the cost of replacing it.
Organizers reflecting on the legacy of Engracia Figeroa, who died a year ago on Oct. 31, 2021 after United Airlines destroyed her powerchair, are committed to holding the industry accountable.
Arts Council England has published its 2023-26 Investment Programme. 32 disability-led organizations (of the 990 grantees) will collectively receive £7.25 million per year, making up 2% of the total investment (£446 million per year for the next 3 years). Unlimited will get £1 million each year.
Organizers from the Stockton Blind Alliance are calling for the removal of the President and Executive Director of the Community Center of the Blind in Stockton, CA, seeking accountability, transparency, appropriate responsiveness, a true change in leadership and an end to the toxic and discriminatory environment at the Center.
New Works
Legal scholar Jeannette Cox has published “Work Hours and Disability Justice” in The Georgetown Law Journal. The article looks at “part-time schedule accommodations” that should protect full-time workers under the ADA and suggests ways to dismantle long-hours work cultures.
In her new essay “Class Inaction” published in Briarpatch Magazine, scholar and organizer Megan Linton looks at how class action lawsuits for survivors of institutions in Canada fail to provide - and even run counter to - accountability, transparency, and closure.
Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me is out on Apple TV+. The film follows Gomez over 6 years as she grapples with neurodivergence, lupus, and fame.
The Long COVID Survival Guide edited by Fiona Lowenstein is out this week.
Megan Bent’s Patient / Belongings is up at form & concept in Santa Fe, NM through Dec. 23rd.
Without Hands: the Art of Sarah Biffin, showcasing the work of the disabled miniaturist of the 19th century, is up at Philip Mould & Company through Dec. 21st.
Sarah Kim writes about the shared work of disability justice and elder activism for Next Avenue.
In Hyperallergic, Denise Zubizarreta asks “When the profits from every sale [of artwork] are dumped right back into medical costs, what does the balance of surviving and creating even look like?”
KQED’s Justin Ebrahemi recently profiled choreographer Jess Curtis and his consulting company, Gravity Access Services.
Organizer Richard Leeming reviews recent research and strategies to combat cultural ableism in the U.K.
Public Books has published an excerpt from Food Allergy Advocacy: Parenting and the Politics of Care by Danya Glabau.
Indiana Disability Justice, “a grassroots coalition of self-advocates and allies moving us towards a world free of harm for people with disabilities by addressing structural, cultural, and interpersonal factors,” has launched the Disability Justice & Violence Prevention Resource Hub.
In The New York Times, Hugh Morris reviews several new British and Irish works that integrate access and technology as creative materials in music and performance
CALLS
The Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability is looking for adults with disabilities living in New York City between the ages of 16-64 and the individuals who support them in finding and maintaining employment to participate in a research study on disabled New Yorkers' experiences with getting, staying, and growing in their jobs (or the lack thereof) and how these experiences can be improved. For more information please go here or contact Kaitlyn Jackson at kjackson@cornell.edu.
Octavia Hingle is seeking paid collaborators to present an immersive nightlife experience, Crip Ecstasy, at Counterpulse in San Francisco on Saturday June 3, 2023. Specifically: video projection design, set design & seating, ASL Interpretation & Audio Describers, and DJs / Sound Artists. Reach out to octaviarose.hingle@gmail.com for more.
The activist screendance documentary Telephone Film that brings awareness to audio description, needs help reaching $15k in donations by Nov. 15th. Donate here.
Applications are open for the Screenability Filmmakers Fund for emerging disabled filmmakers in New South Wales, Australia. Apply by Nov. 25th here.
The Department of Families, Fairness & Housing in Victoria, Australia is hiring a full-time Disability Justice Coordinator. More here.
The Whitney Museum is hiring a full-time Assistant to Access and Interpretation. Apply here.
EVENTS
Sins Invalid will present From the Repertoire: Birthing, Dying, Becoming Crip Wisdom on Nov. 18th, 19th, and 20th online. “Thirteen artists explore visions of creation and transformation, life and death, the disabled bodymind, and liberation.” More info and tickets here.
The Institute for the Development of Human Arts will present “Mad Poetry and Art: A Conversation with Stephanie Heit & Chanika Svetvilas” on Monday, Nov. 14th from 7 - 8:30pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
Dis' Community Arts Organization is hosting a free workshop presented by Malory Neyedly and Susie Simoes of Primerica about the Disability Tax Credit and Retirement Plan in Canada. Thursday, Nov. 10th from 6 - 7pm CST Saskatchewan time on Zoom. Register here.
Miyuki Tanaka will be presenting about her film NIGHT CRUISING at the NYU IDM Graduate Colloquium on Wednesday, Nov. 9th at 5pm on Zoom. You can join the meeting directly here.
The Disability Cultural Initiative at Georgetown University will present “Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project Launch” with Naomi Ortiz and Julia Watts Belser on Monday, Nov. 7th from 4 - 5:30pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
Dark Room Ballet (Krishna Washburn & Alejandra Ospina) is offering a free workshop series on audio description for dance as an art form of its own, designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people, hosted by Performance Research. Saturdays through Dec. 17th. More info here.
Sick in Quarters (SiQ) will host the fourth iteration of the HideAway virtual event series on Nov. 12th from 1 - 4pm ET. Programming will involve time for sick and disabled folks to optionally share their pandemic anxieties in like-minded company, a collective calibration through a free-writing activity, and time for reflection in synchronization with a Serenity Sphere sound set by Cy Tulip. Access Coordination is provided by melissa kelley colibrí. RSVP here by Nov. 11th.
The Ford Foundation Gallery will present “Weaving Care: A Panel on Disability and Craft” with artists Indira Allegra, Francisco echo Eraso, and Raisa Kabir, moderated by Sandie Yi. Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 5:30 - 7pm ET. Part of the current gallery exhibition Indisposable: Tactics for Care and Mourning. RSV here.
Peculiar Book Club & Brandy Schillace will feature Alice Wong’s Year of the Tiger with guest speaker Wendy Lu (The New York Times) on Thursday, Nov. 10th from 7 – 8:30pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
Alexa Dexa & Experiments in Opera are holding the next workshop on “Making Out Social Media More Accessible” in the Creating Access Series on Saturday Nov. 12th from 2 - 3:30pm ET over Zoom. Reserve a spot here.
NYC (in-person): Fred & Me: A Willowbrook Survivor's Story Conversation & Book Reading with Allan Goldstein at the Bern Dibner Library in downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday, Nov. 9th from 3 - 4pm ET. Register here.