As I write this, there are people in this terrifying administration still actively trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act – the only reason that I, and many other disabled and chronically ill people in the US, have access to health insurance. If the ACA is overturned, we’ll return to the old system: one in which insurance companies can charge whatever they want, their … [Read more...]
How To Center People With High Needs in the Disability Movement
I do a lot of talking, both on my public platforms and in the disability advocacy circles I frequent, about visibility for less-visible disabled people. Don’t assume a person isn’t disabled because they don’t “look disabled”! Don’t assume that a person who uses a mobility aid sometimes and not others “doesn’t really need it”! Don’t assume that neurodivergent and intellectually … [Read more...]
Abusing the Uncle in the Backroom: Disability in the Black Community
In my family of origin, there was no uncle and there wasn’t a backroom. However, as my grandfather aged and moved from being able bodied to disabled, he became that uncle and the backroom became a very real and horrible place. Being a caretaker to a family member who is aging or disabled can be a difficult task in the healthiest of families, but it can be done well. When the … [Read more...]
Why My Broken Body Is Worthy of Delighting In
This article first appeared on Postmodern Woman and is reprinted with permission Content Warning: For Discussion of Sexual Assault This past year has been so exhausting. Not because I was working hard (though I have been), not because I'm still in mourning (which I am), and not because I desperately miss my family and friends (which I do). No, the reason is much more insidious … [Read more...]
Forced To Fake It: How the System Forces Disabled People To Lie
Somewhere, in the darkest corners of the Internet, lurk packs of people who devote themselves solely to seeking out disability and chronic illness bloggers to stalk and harass them, accusing them of faking or exaggerating their conditions. A few friends of mine from the online disability communities I hang around in were recently targeted by them, and it exposed me to a world … [Read more...]
Trans People, Trauma, and Dissociative Identities
Many, if not most, of the trans people I’ve known have been coping with at least one form of trauma. We take a lot of abuse from society, often at an early age. I am transgender. I do not currently identify as the sex I was assigned at birth (female). I have also taken physical steps to alter my body and live my life perceived by others as male. However, my gender identity … [Read more...]
Lovingkindness: How To Deal With Parenting Mistakes
In the ten years of raising my son, I have made a lot of parenting mistakes. These missteps range from small things, such as not knowing my son’s school schedule and missing school events, to bigger things, like being so depressed that I cannot even get him to school some days. I could write about any number of my parenting mistakes, but by far, the biggest mistake I make is … [Read more...]
6 Ways NOT To Nurture Neurodivergent Kids
Neurodivergence is something we all are learning and understanding more about all the time – both those of us who are neurodivergent ourselves, and the parents, teachers, caregivers, and advocates who (hopefully) are working to support and help us. Because the terminology and the understanding of how we tick (and in my case, tic) are always changing, I get that it can be hard … [Read more...]
Should I Consider My Cancer Body To Be Disabled?
Until two years ago, I had never had any real interactions with severe illness or with the US healthcare system. I am one of the lucky few living in the US who’s been able to have health insurance and access to healthcare for the vast majority of my life. Healthcare is a human right, but here in the US, we treat it like it’s a privilege and a commodity, and because of that … [Read more...]
“Stupid” Is an Ableist Slur: Breaking Down Our Defenses and Liberating Our Words From Ableist Language
During the course of 2016 I saw more ableist slurs tossed around than ever before. From casual conversation to mass media broadcasts, people are referring to one another in the most dehumanizing ways possible - and throwing disabled people under the bus in the process. I feel exhausted because it seems like no one is above it. Some of the most consistent advocates I know … [Read more...]
Why Disability Representation Matters (And Not Just in the Media)
I just finished reading a horrible book. I did finish it, though. It was horrible because it was a book in which the disabled, teenage protagonist waxed on for paragraphs about all of her fantasies of being able-bodied, her hatred for her wheelchair despite it being customized to her specific needs and painted her favorite color, and the sainthood of her parents and teachers … [Read more...]
No, I’m Not “Wheelchair-Bound”
I know a guy who says that when people ask him how long he’s been in a wheelchair, he’s starts responding, “Since I got up this morning.” Sometimes, when I feel especially bold or especially frustrated, I borrow it. Despite the fact that my wheelchair and I have a special bond, to the point where I often actually do consider it a part of my body – or at least an extension of it … [Read more...]
Dear Younger Self: Reflections on Being 25, Disabled, and Learning To Love Yourself
This article originally appeared in the blog Claiming Crip and is reprinted by permission. Dear 15-year-old Karin, I can’t believe I’m 25! I’m not going to lie, when I was your age I never thought I would make it here, and I definitely never thought I might actually like myself (gasp!). Don’t get me wrong, I still have bad days. There are still some things I wish I could … [Read more...]
Why I Do What I Do: Homelessness and Disability Justice
[Image description: The photograph shows ten open brown paper bags — five in the front and five in the back.] Hey, Lunch Lady! Over here! In Santa Cruz, I’m known as The Lunch Lady. Since last August, I have been distributing bag lunches to homeless and hungry people living on the street and in one of the city parks. What began as an experiment giving out nine lunches on … [Read more...]
We Are Everywhere: Creating a World That Loves Disabled Folks
As we begin the conversations about decolonization – dismantling the influence of capitalist-imperialist colonizers who have forced assimilation of marginalized people and erased cultural narratives outside the dominant one for centuries – there is one group we often forget to mention: the minority that “anyone can become a part of, any time.” Disabled folks. Every other … [Read more...]
The Cure for Cancer Isn’t Optimism
Optimism will not cure cancer. Optimism will not will not magically stop cells from dividing and reproducing. Optimism will not stop disease from spreading. Most of us know this on a cognitive level, but it doesn’t stop us from hoping that, in addition to medicine, our attitudes can help us cure ourselves. I am someone who, not that long ago, was walking around with a body … [Read more...]
The Body Is Not an Apology
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