ACCESS NOTE
Please use this space as you need or prefer.
Sit in chairs or on the floor, pace, lie on the floor, rock, flap,
spin, move around, step in and out of the room.
TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNING
I will talk about trauma, abuse, violence, and murder of disabled
people, as well as forced treatment and institutions.
Please feel free to step out of the room at any time if you need to.
BEYOND THE IMAGINED NORMAL
DISABILITY, PRIDE, & CULTURE
Bellevue College
30 October 2014
WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT DISABILITY
Disability is special barrier to
overcome for benefit of others
Inspiration
Disability is moral failure and
laziness / punishment for sin
Disability is a social construct,
doesn’t exist in nature
Charity
Moral
Social
Disability is tragic object of pity
Medical
Diversity
Disability is a health problem
requiring treatment/cure
Disability is natural and normal
PATHOLOGY PARADIGM
The One Normal
Disability is Defect
DIVERSITY PARADIGM
Many Ways of Being
Disability is Natural
DISABLEMENT (PRODUCT & PROCESS)
Society & Culture
Biology & Neurology
DEFINING ABLEISM
An entire system of thinking and doing that
hurts disabled people.
Ableism is a form of structural oppression.
UNDERSTANDING OPPRESSION
Systematic disenfranchisement of a particular
group as a result of the power belonging to a
privileged group.
Oppression = prejudice + systems of power
ABLEISM WORKS ACROSS SYSTEMS
Cissexism
Heterosexism
Classism
Racism
Ableism
Patriarchy
Ageism
Journalism
Law & Policy
Sexuality
Hate Crimes
Education
Medicine
Pop Culture
Incarceration
Psychology
Architecture
POWER DIFFERENTIALS
LAW
PROCEDURE
SOCIETY
• Guardianship
• Court
involvement
• Requiring
waiver of
decision-making
• Deference to
professional
• Presumption of
caregiver
benevolence
• Presumption of
incompetence
Seclusion
Compliance
Restraint
Aversives
Indistinguishability
Medical
Neglect
Rape
Financial
Exploitation
Police
Brutality
Family Abuse and Filicide
Hate
Crimes
Institutions
Endemic Violence and Abuse
NONCOMPLIANCE?
Photo by Rebecca Taplin. Lydia Brown, around 2004, fifth grade, reading an Animorphs novel instead of doing
math homework, and rubbing shirt sleeve against face.
DISABILITY PRIDE
Photo by Disability Pride Philadelphia. Lydia Brown, 2012, marching in disability pride
parade, holding colorful hand-drawn sign that says Autistic & Proud.
ADA ANNIVERSARY MARCH 1993
Photo by Tari Susan Hartman. Black and white photo of disability rights march, including Justin Dart Jr., with
marchers holding banner that says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr.
COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES
Photo by UNH Institute on Disability, Autism Summer Institute
Typing
Sound
Writing
Movement
Pictures
Speech
Echolalia
DISABILITY AS CULTURE
• Autistic Community: Social
communication badges
• People First self-advocacy groups
• Deaf identity and community
• Ragged Edge Magazine
• FWD: Feminists with Disabilities
• Sins Invalid
• Krip Hop Nation
• Disability Cultural Centers
• Sick and disabled queers (and QTPOC)
Photo from Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Collection of social
communication badges with green, yellow, and red cards to indicate
different levels of comfort with social interaction.
TOOLS FOR CHANGE
Policy Advocacy
Community Empowerment
• Strengthening regulations on punitive
interventions, abuse, and accessibility
• Training for community members by
other disabled people
• Developing policies for holistic &
nonviolent educational spaces
• Collecting independent data
• Training teachers, support staff,
police, prosecutors, & community
members
• Creating safe spaces for disabled
community
• Educating disabled students on selfadvocacy and coalition-building
• Funding community-based
participatory research projects
• Leaving evidence in subversive culture
• Develop community-based
alternatives for families or teachers in
crisis
THE TAKEAWAYS
Acknowledge
differences
Recognize
disability
Teach
disability
history
Affirm
different
ways of
being
Support
shared
spaces
Reject the
pathology
paradigm
CONTACT
Lydia Brown
www.autistichoya.com (blog)
www.autistichoya.net (professional site)
lydia@autistichoya.com
(202) 618-0187 (voice or text message)