Planet of the Blind

NPR: Unfit to Write About Disability

There's a piece by Chana Joffee-Walt on NPR's website entitled "Unfit for Work: the Startling Rise of Disability in America" which is so ill informed about its subject it reminds me of one of those Ronald Reagan stump speeches. Driven by anecdote rather than cultural analysis, her thesis is simple: the number of unemployed Americans receiving disability benefits has skyrocketed over the past twenty years. She intimates without fully declaring it, that there's a vast social "scam" taking place--in the absence of good middle class jobs, and following the "end welfare as we know it" enterprise, poor people simply decline into aches and pains, thereby getting themselves declared unfit for work.

Alas, Joffee-Walt hasn't done her homework, a matter that may be inapparent to many of NPR's readers, just as Reagan's audiences were unaware that behind the curtain the Gipper believed "facts were stupid things" and was untroubled by any and all of the misrepresentations of social programs that propelled his candidacy for president. Such arguments depend on pathos rather than facts. Joffee-Walt fails to address the biggest fact in the room, that disability is a social construction even more than a medical category, and in turn the artificial architectural and physical constraints marshaled against people with disabilities are both products of history and the industrial revolution. One wishes she had bothered to read Lennard J. Davis' essay "Constructing Normalcy: The Bell Curve, the Novel, and the Invention of the Disabled Body in the Nineteenth Century". Disability is entirely economic and has been so since the move to industrial models of labor. Those who cannot work in the factory were labeled "disabled" and that model of human economic utility largely continues to this day. Reasonable accommodations are the solution for workers whose physical capacities decline but as any seasoned person with a disability who has managed to remain in the workforce knows, obtaining accommodations is often so difficult, so humiliating, so Kafka-esque, most people give up.

70% of the blind remain unemployed in the United States, many of whom might well be able to work with the proper accommodations but employers don't want to provide accommodations fearing the expense, though in point of fact most workplace accommodations are relatively inexpensive. Think of a laborer, someone who is required to lift boxes. He suffers a ruptured disc. He can't lift boxes. Perhaps he could be retrained to work with software. Most businesses resist this kind of accommodation, preferring medical and social determinations that are no more sophisticated than those the Victorians had.

Another way to say this is that a nation that believes in work is also a nation that believes in accommodations. Joffee-Waitt misses this dynamic and ongoing dialectic and fails to illuminate the true nature of disability and joblessness. 

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Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“ has just been released. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled What a Dog Can Do. Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com

From Welfare Queens to Disability Deadbeats

  

 

Paul Krugman’s blog post entitled “From Welfare Queens to Disabled Deadbeats” relates both the realpolitik and the rhetorical irresponsibility of our age. By “realpolitik” I mean good old fashioned preservation of power. By rhetorical irresponsibility I mean the red herring that social programs are the cause of our nation’s financial woes. Krugman writes:

If you want to understand the trouble Republicans are in, one good place to start is with the obsession the right has lately developed with the rising disability rolls. The growing number of Americans receiving disability payments has, for many on the right, become a symbol of our economic and moral decay; we’re becoming a nation of malingerers.

 

Now I of course (speaking as a blind person) am a professional malingerer. In fact I wake up every day wanting mints on my pillow. I want all kinds of stuff. Public transportation, solid veterans benefits, affordable housing, easy access to disability friendly technology, free wheelchairs for those who don’t have fat incomes—I’m actually something more than a malingerer Senator Elephant, I’m a believer in the good, old fashioned social contract. 

I say this having once upon a time been a recipient of Social Security Disability and Food Stamps. I also lived for a time in Section 8 housing. Why? Because I lost my adjunct teaching job largely because I was advocating too noisily for disability rights at the rinky dink college where I found myself fighting discrimination against students with disabilities. The tone deafness of the Elephant Pols has much to do with something that has nothing to do with disability and social services—it has to do with finding a new underclass to kick. Krugman writes:

 

What strikes me, however, isn’t just the way the right is trying to turn a reasonable development into some kind of outrage; it’s the political tone-deafness.

I mean, when Reagan ranted about welfare queens driving Cadillacs, he was inventing a fake problem — but his rant resonated with angry white voters, who understood perfectly well who Reagan was targeting. But Americans on disability as moochers? That isn’t, as far as I can tell, an especially nonwhite group — and it’s a group that is surely as likely to elicit sympathy as disdain. There’s just no way it can serve the kind of political purpose the old welfare-kicking rhetoric used to perform.

The same goes, more broadly, for the whole nation of takers thing. First of all, a lot of the “taking” involves Social Security and Medicare. And even the growth in means-tested programs is largely accounted for by the Earned Income Tax Credit — which requires and rewards work — and the expansion of Medicaid/CHIP to cover more children. Again, not the greatest of political targets.

The point, I think, is that right-wing intellectuals and politicians live in a bubble in which denunciations of those bums on disability and those greedy children getting free health care are greeted with shouts of approval — but now have to deal with a country where the same remarks come across as greedy and heartless (because they are).

And I don’t think this is a problem that can be solved with a slight change in the rhetoric.

 

 I don’t know what kind of bubble the elephant classes are living in. I suspect its a small bubble which is of course a matter of some substantial irony. But there are lives in the balance. I urge people with disabilities to fight back: don’t become today’s Reaganite “Welfare Queens” in Washingtonian discourse. 

 

Technorati Tags: Welfare Queens, Paul Krugman, Disability Deadbeats

Perception: a Guest Post by Author Sheila Applegate

 

Please help me welcome new author and CNY neighbor Sheila Applegate to the Planet of the Blind.  Sheila is hosting a virtual book tour, assisted by my wife, Connie, via Authors' Virtual Solutions.  In her guest post below, Sheila brings a fresh new perspective to this planet of mine.

Tell me, have you ever had an experience like this?  If so, please feel free to share it in a comment below.

Perception

by Sheila Applegate

How we perceive the world around us has everything to do with how we experience this world.

Have you ever been faced with a frustrating situation that no matter how hard you tried to solve there just seemed to be nothing you could do to change it?

Finally there is the moment of surrender in which you give up because you do not know what else to do.  Then out of nowhere you are presented with an alternative that you never would have believed possible. A simple change in perspective seems to create an opening for a magical solution.

I experienced this in the middle of an apple orchard on a beautiful autumn day just this past September.

Image: photo taken looking up at branches of an apple tree highlights ripe red apples against a bright blue sky

The leaves were just beginning to change, radiating warm colors against a crisp blue sky. As soon as my kids got home from school, I piled them into the car for our first apple-picking excursion of the season.

We arrived at the orchard just in time to hop onto the wagon for a ride deep into the orchard. My 7 year old niece was with us. She was filled with such excitement that even my teenage children were as giddy and excited as they were when they were her age.

As we arrived at the designated section the tractor driver instructed us to stay within the two red flags, giving us about 5 rows to pick from.

It was a picture perfect day as we picked apples and nibbled on a few as we went. My kids showed their younger cousin how to take a bite of an apple while it remained on the tree, a favorite prank their dad had taught them when they were young.

It was a perfect afternoon.

Once our bags were full we piled them onto the wagon and climbed up for the ride back to the parking lot. By now we were hot, thirsty and ready to head home. I reached into my pocket for my keys, only to find an empty pocket. After a long search at the car we all piled back onto the wagon, explaining to the perplexed driver why we were heading back into the orchard.

This time, as he told the newly arriving apple pickers to stay in between the flags he also announced to the group that we had lost a set of keys, asking people to keep their eyes out for them.

Walking up and down the lanes of trees over and over we could not find the keys anywhere. Wagonloads of people came and went. Each new group was instructed to keep an eye out for our lost keys.

Nothing.

The kids reached their limit. So I called for help. My sister came to drive the children home. My friend brought me the spare key I had at home. Unfortunately, the spare key did not have a computer chip and was limited to opening the doors. So it was of no use in starting the car.

A call to AAA informed me that a locksmith would be sent to the orchard to make a new key for a mere $200!  My bagful of fresh apples was starting to look very expensive!

As my friend and I waited for the locksmith we decided to walk into the now-closed orchard for one more look. My friend threw his keys onto the ground in front of me. Pointing out how easily it should be to see my lost keys in the grass

I was shocked. As the search had drawn out for so long, I was now starting to feel like I was looking for a needle in a haystack. How on earth could I be missing something so easy to spot?

We reached the familiar red flagged area and as my friend began his search I felt like I was past my limit.

The thought of walking down this same grassy tree line again gave me a stomachache. It was as if I could not look for one second longer.

Then I heard a voice from within,  "change your perspective".

A little intrigued, I lifted my gaze from the muddy earth and once again noticed the incredible view of the horizon that had filled me with such surrendered joy only a few hours earlier.

I felt my body begin to relax.  As I scanned the horizon, breathing the beauty in for the first time in hours, I suddenly caught the shimmering silver of my keys!

They were chest high, hanging on a branch, five trees away from where I stood, deeper into the orchard than I even believe I had gone! 

I actually paused before going to them as my brain recalculated the impossible.

There is still no logical answer for how those keys got into that tree. Everyone has his or her own idea of how this happened. Not one of them seems logical.

Sometimes the miracles of life are just beyond the rules of logic.

When we change our perspective, we just might let a little magic into our life!

 

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As a clinical therapist, motivational presenter, author & teacher, Sheila's passion is to provide a forum for people to process emotion & integrate spiritual understanding into their daily lives. Her new book, Enchanted One: The Portal to Love, provides readers with a guide to embracing love in every moment. www.sheilaapplegate.com In celebration of the release of Enchanted One, Sheila is offering this raffle contest for multiple chances to win one of two Amazon Gift Cards.

TAKE NOTE (if I may be so bold)! PLEASE… Share your thoughts and comments below and to show my appreciation and support I am making this special offer (in addition to the raffle contest offer above!). (Click all links for details).

Things Will Never Be the Same.

Roscoe

May 22, 1994 - July 19, 2008

 

 

Farewell, George Carlin

Getting the “last laugh” is easy, 
It’s the audience you gotta watch out for.

George didn’t say that — I did, but heck, any joke in a storm? 

We love ya pal.  We’ll never forget the first comedian to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Rest in Peace.

S.K.

Civil Rights for People with Disabilities vs. “The Usual Suspects”

Right now, even as we drink our coffee there are powerful forces working overtime on Capitol Hill. I like to call these forces “the usual suspects” because I love the old TV series “Dragnet” and also because it takes too long to type all the acronyms of the various business and human resources lobbying groups that have assembled to fight the “ADA Restoration Act”. Oh yes, and there are prominent corporations opposed to the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce.

The Usual Suspects are opposed to the legislation because it would require that employers actually make reasonable accommodations for employees who have disabilities—rather than allowing said Usual Suspects to proclaim that these accommodations are wildly unreasonable. Why, By Golly! even reassigning a disabled employee to a different but equal job is an undue burden on said Usual Suspect. Enter the extraordinary, well funded, hence powerful Allied Usual Suspects who are working like junior attorneys to “mark up” the bill.

Their aim? To do to the “ADA Restoration Act” what the Supreme Court has done to the original ADA of 1990.  In decision after decision the Supreme Court has exonerated employers from having to make workplace accommodations for disabled employees. The court has used a cynical  loophole when deciding “for” employers against disabled workers: they’ve argued that Congress, in adopting the ADA has assumed the power to regulate commerce within the respective U.S. states—in effect the conservative majority on the court has asserted that Congress doesn’t have the authority to legislate civil rights for people with disabilities—and by extension, for any other group.   

What’s the final final rationale for such a position? Why by God if you give one disabled employee an accommodation well then, by God you’ll have to give all the differently abled people accommodations and heck, that would mean living up to occupational safety and human rights standards and that’s an undue burden on capitalism which, it turns out, doesn’t always see the opportunities for new markets.

So what you do is declare the authority of Congress null and void. You do it by the process of red herring-ism, you confuse the public that the issue is about disabled people in the workplace who are always a suspect group in the view of the general public—aren’t these people faking something? Trying to get an advantage with a better parking space?

If Americans don’t demand of their Congress true accountability on behalf of our nation’s disabled citizens then they are in effect giving away the last measure of our civil rights—the stakes in this argument are really that important.

Write to your Congressman or Congresswoman; take a stand. Don’t let the “usual suspects” continue to evade social responsibility by means of obfuscation.

S.K.

LINKS:

"Permanent Link to ADA Restoration Act Blogging Round-Up, Feb 11-28 ‘08"

Harriet McBryde Johnson: She will be deeply missed.

Last night over dinner with friends I learned that Harriet McBryde Johnson has passed away.

My first thought was: “How can we tell our sorrow from our bread?”

We had been talking around the table about untimely death. Not so long ago my friend Deborah Tall died young from breast cancer. She was just hitting her stride as a poet and editor. Her memoir “A Family of Strangers” (which was Published just weeks before her death) is a stunning accomplishment.

Now Harriet has died at 50.

America has lost a disability rights leader and a pioneering voice for dignity and justice.

I don’t want to write obituary prose. I can’t bring myself to do it.

Harriet McBryde Johnson’s wonderful memoir “Too Late to Die Young” should be on America’s summer reading list.

She had the unshakable determination to stand up for the rights of the disabled and she took on public figures who would demean or discount the lives of people whose disabilities scare the pants off of shallow “normates”.

When Jerry Lewis opined in a 1990 “Parade Magazine” piece that in his view being disabled must be like being half a person—Harriet McBryde Johnson took him on.

When Peter Singer opined that certain lives are not worth living she took him on.

She took people on in court as an able attorney.

She took on the Democratic party when it couldn’t see why Terry Schiavo’s story was more than just one family’s tragedy.

She fought for the dignity of human life and fought those forces that would diminish our human experience with sophistry and outworn symbolism.

She will be deeply missed.

Let us carry her flag.

S.K.

LINKS:

Yesterday, from Kay Olson's The Gimp Parade, where you will also find numerous links to her writings:

Overwhelmingly sad news today: Harriet McBryde Johnson has died at age 50.

Image description: The photo shows Johnson in a flowered-print navy dress looking toward the camera. She sits in her wheelchair, though the image is a close-up focusing on her and not the chair. Johnson leans forward, right elbow on knee, chin in right hand. She's a middle-aged white woman with dark hair in a very long braid trailing over her shoulder and into her lap. She's not quite smiling, but looking interestedly back at you.

The Post and Courier of Charleston, SC, provides a preliminary notice, with a more formal obituary expected soon

Also:

Beth Haller from Media dis&dat,
at a loss for words,
Sad News,
RIP, Harriet McBryde Johnson

On Being Alex Barton

Mrs. Marcia Cully
Morningside Elementary School Principal

Dear Mrs. Cully

My name is Stephen Kuusisto and I am blind. I was born blind in the mid 1950’s—an era when kids with disabilities were not encouraged to attend public schools. Because my mother was tough minded and persistent I went to the Oyster River elementary school in Durham, New Hampshire instead of the Perkins School for the Blind. Nowadays I make my living as a professor at the University of Iowa where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in creative writing.   

When I heard the story of young Alex Barton who was “voted off the island” known as Kindergarten because he has behavioral problems associated with an autism spectrum learning disability, and that accordingly his teacher and classmates were simply annoyed by his presence, well, aside from my natural incredulity that such a thing can still happen in the United States, I felt a flood of long repressed tears. You see, I was once a kid like Alex Barton.

I still carry deep under my skin the barbs and taunts of mean spirited public school classmates who found ways to bully me simply because of my disability. I wrote a best selling book about my childhood experiences called “Planet of the Blind”. That book has now been translated into 10 languages. I also host a blog called “Planet of the Blind” where I advocate almost daily for the rights of people with disabilities.

Like many “baby boomers” with disabilities who helped to pioneer the concept of mainstreaming for disabled kids I keep hoping that the vicious and ignorant behavior that I experienced in public schools will at last become a thing of the past.

So you can imagine my deep distress upon hearing the story of young Alex Barton and his teacher Wendy Portillo. I won’t belabor the point. I’m certain that your school district and school board has been hearing a good deal about this affair.

I simply write in this instance to say that unlike the media or those who would take sides on this shameful matter, I am grieving for Alex and his family. The history of disability features a long timeline of stigmatization and I know personally how hard it is to overcome the effects of ridicule and substandard teaching.

I wish you and your community good luck and good sense. I hope it’s not too much to ask that your school district will now take this opportunity to think hard about disability with a renewed sense that kids with disabilities are real citizens too. 

As a final disclosure: I am posting this letter on my blog with the hope that I might hear from you in some affirming way. I’m sure we can agree that there are real lives in the balance. 

Sincerely,

Professor Stephen Kuusisto
The University of Iowa

Holy Cow - would ya look at all these LINKS!

Disability and Language: a NY Times Article Review

This comment was left on a post by William Peace on his blog, Bad Cripple.   Therextras wrote " Thank you for an excellent expose of a typical media dissemination of language and attitudes we would like not only to reform but squelch. I hope you sent some response directly to the newspaper." 

Team [with]tv would like to second that remark.

Here is an excerpt from William's post. 

Monday, May 12, 2008

Disability and Language

Yesterday a long article appeared in the New York Times entitled "Taking a Chance on a Second Child". The article was written by Michael Winerip, a Pulitzer Prize wining writer. Mr. Winerip is a seasoned reporter, graduate of Harvard University and a gifted writer. Yet a day later I remain stunned and outraged by the language Winerip used. The article in question is about Jordana Holovach, her son Jacob who is severely disabled, and her decision to have a second "healthy" child.

The tone of Winerip's article is shocking. Each and every mention of disability is overwhelmingly negative. The language is antiquated, insulting, and devalues the life of a child and by extension all disabled children and adults. Among the snippets I found particularly appalling include the following:

In referring to Ms. Holovach's son: "And as much as she loves that boy and as hard as she's worked to make him whole...she felt snake bit"

Ms. Holovach's son is "confined to a wheelchair".

Ms. Holovach's son was responsible for her divorce: "Her first marriage ended in divorce under the strain" and "Jacob was a big reason".

Before Ms. Holovach's son was born "they were successful people" (note tense).

Oh don't stop here.  Keep reading, there is more....

Then stop by Patricia E Bauer's blog for this additional link.

Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv

Top Ten Reasons Why the Blind Can't Get Ahead

10. The public still thinks blindness is a great misfortune.

9. Vocational and orientation-mobility training are horrifically funded—that is, its left up to the states and nonprofit organizations when it should be offered by every eye clinic and billable to Medicare.

8. Blindness advocacy organizations fight amongst themselves like the characters in “Gulliver’s Travels” who start a civil war over the question of which end of the hard boiled egg to break first—the big or small one.

7. Just try using a cell phone or a Macintosh pc. I mean “off the shelf” “ready to go”—just try it.

6. Just try using a PC “off the shelf” without expensive “third party software”—just try.

5. Just try going to a movie and asking for audio description.

4. TV can’t be watched—probably a good thing.

3. Bank machines; vending machines; signage; endless roulette of incomprehensions…

2. Blind students drop out of college at higher rates than other disabled student groups. See above problems.

1. Access to printed or electronic information remains highly provisional. Thank you Google; Microsoft; Apple; Adobe; Mozilla; Sun Micro Systems; and all the rest of you bongo whacking Information Technology designers who continue to think of the blind as “add on” people. In Disability Studies we call this principle “the defective people industry”.

Why am I posting such a riposte on Memorial Day?  Ask the Blinded Veterans of America.

S.K.