The Obama Era

On January 20th history was made in the United States, our first African American President! But just as important our country has begun a new era of transparency that I think we have seldom seen in modern history. When you look at the Obama agenda, disability issues are a prominent cornerstone of the administrations goals. One can also see that with the use of technology the administration is embracing a real desire to communicate with the American public. I feel that this will be critical for the disability community to take advantage of and see that their agenda takes a prominent role over the course of the next four years. We as Americans with disabilities must be active participants in helping to structure public policy in this country. For the first time in my political consciousness I am more hopeful than ever that we will be given not only a voice but a place at the table to express our opinions. Yes we can!

Welcome 2009!

Welcome to 2009! This is going to be quiet a year; from the Inauguration of a new President to dealing with a global economic crisis we have our plate full. However, the ripple effect of unemployment, trying to deal with a new generation of disabled Veterans to the aging baby boomer community will be critical not just for the future of America but will have a tremendous impact on the dimensions of politics, society and our general economic security.
My goal is the year is to use this blog as a place to formulate and discuss ideas that are vital to the disability and aging communities that look at the intersections of politics, economics, culture and society as a whole. I welcome others thoughts and ideas as the year progresses.
Again...Happy New Year!

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

With the passage of the new ADA Ammendments and October being National Disability Employment Awareness month this is an interesting time in American history! ( Not to mention the economic crisis that is breathing down our neck) As we as a nation bthink about how to deal with this overall crisis we must also think about the nature of work and the value of our workers. As the columnist Thomas Freidman so aptly puts it, we are at a crossroads in the sense that we need to rethink the future of our economy and look at "Green Jobs" as a viable future that can help create a major economic rebound. That being said, we must also consider the future of the American workforce and the future of how we work. With a shifting demographic, larger numbers of veterans returning from the middle east dealing with disabilities and a greater number of aging baby boomers who will be dealing with there own disability due to age and needing to work it is vital that we as a nation think about the workplace issues and disability as critical to the health of our future economy.

I am a firm believer in creating public/private partnerships that will focus on educating the 21st Century workforce and developing new ways to work that leverage and retain the valuable talents of the current and future workers with disabilities.

Universal Design: An Ethical Question

This past week I was fortunate enough to speak and attend The International Federation on Ageing 9th Annual Conference on Ageing and Design in Montreal. I was one of the few people there who were not a designer, architect, engineer or technologist. What astounded me about the event that while everyone there was praising how technology and particularly Universal Design was this great panacea that will solve many of the world’s issue when it came to how older adults and those with disabilities will be equipped by having greater ease of getting around to further participation in society it seemed to me that the focus was so much on the actual object that provided the assistance or bridge rather than focusing on the social repercussions of Universal Design and adaptive technology. These concepts are essentially just tools that provide human beings the ability to participate in a variety of ways giving one greater access to work, social connections to a host of other areas. The one critical issue that needs to be discussed is that Universal Design as a concept needs to expand its definition to inclusive social issues such as healthcare, employment and education. Universal Design as a social concept is vital for the future of both the global aging population and growing disability community. Agencies like the United Nations, The World Health Organization to private industry should expand the conversation to see the ethical question that we need to begin to ask of those who are in the Universal Design field – should we not see this as perfect opportunity as a way to not just solve basic physical and environmental issues but vital to the social contract that we as human beings of this world face- the ability to access basic needs – healthcare, education and the right to work!

The Democratic Convention, the Disability Community & the Future of America

Over the past few nights I like many Americans have been glued to the television watching the DNC Convention from Denver Colorado. What has really struck me is how prominent disability issues have played in this convention, whether directly or indirectly. Starting with Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night talking about her father who had MS and how his life with a disability gave her the lessons that she draws from to this day to be a better, mother, wife, friend and leader. From there I have heard speeches from the likes of Mark Warren, former governor of Virginia to of course to my Senator, Hillary Clinton. The issues of jobs, the global economy and healthcare resonated with me and the impact on the disability community going forward in this election cycle is crucial. Whether one is Republican or Democrat the fact that these issues are being discussed are vital to the future of our country. For people with disabilities I feel that jobs and healthcare are the touchstones for the future of the disability community in the United States. I am sure one would ask, isn’t that true for all Americans? My answer would simply be yes, but I feel that for the disability community this is lynch pin that will create greater participation into the general populous of American life. Full access to healthcare and competitive employment is vital for the future of this community. So come November I think we as the largest voting bloc in the US have to consider how we see our future and what we can do to steer the ship and give ourselves the best possible outcome.

Has Satire Really Been Lost: The Great ‘Tropic Thunder’ Debate

Has Satire Really Been Lost: The Great ‘Tropic Thunder’ Debate

This past week was the release of the much anticipated comedy starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black about three actors who start out to make a war film and get entangled in an actual armed conflict. The film itself is a satire about Hollywood and specifically actors and how serious they take their profession in a job that all about ‘make believe’. It satirizes the whole idea of doing several weeks of basic training to get a ‘feel’ of what’s it like to be in combat for the purpose of the film.
However, during pre-screenings there were several Disability groups who were up in arms about the use of word of the ‘retard’ in the film and the portrayal of a character named ‘Simple Jack’. While I certainly sympathize with these groups that the use of this word can be incredibly harmful and the portrayal of a character like ‘Simple Jack’ plays on traditional stereotypes of those with cognitive disabilities it is important to look at this in a larger context. The film was trying to satire why the Academy pays so much attention to people who play characters with cognitive disabilities and how that impacts Oscar voting. In the course of the film Downey Jr’s character goes down the list of American films of those characters with cognitive disabilities from Chauncey Gardner in ‘Being There’ to Sean Penn’s portrayal in ‘I am Sam’.

What I took away from this is Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for neurotypical’s to play roles of those with cognitive disabilities and seeing that as a great acting feat. Actually if people really take a step back and look at this in a larger context shows Hollywood’s contempt for both actors and the profession itself. As Downey’s character pointed out that you don’t want to go over the deep end and be ‘too moronical’…whatever that quite means!

All I know is at times we need to take a deep breath and look at all works of art in the context they are – it’s time and place. Then, we can move forward and make an informed decision. I feel that organizations have right to voice their opinion but it is critical that we all make sure that we know what the end game is when challenging any form of expression. Hopefully, there will be something positive that comes out of this.

Michael Savage - What was he Saying?

After hearing Michael Savage comment’s this past week on the radio I was compelled to write about. I actually listened to his statement multiple times on a loop because I couldn’t believe he actually said what he did. Here is a guy that is perpetuating the “frigid mother” concept espoused by Bruno Bettelheim over forty years ago and has been debunked time and time again over the past fifteen. His statement was just crass full of inaccuracies and outright ludicrous. Yet, if you look beyond the vitriol he does bring up a very important point and that is how do we define this diagnosis called autism and why is it on the rise? As the anthropologist Richard Grinker wrote about in his book Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism he is a firm believer that there are cultural and social variables in how autism is defined and more importantly how it is diagnosed. With out of 150 children in this country being diagnosed with autism it harkens back to what I believe what was Savage’s intent & that is why is it in on the rise & how have we not seen this before?