Disability Justice Take 2

It may not be obvious but there is invitation to further dialogue and many avenues to dialog along. Only one of the questions being seasoned: what would be good venues for further dialog? What else needs to happen to take good care in a space for conversation. Hint: this blog post contains several examples of points to support full inclusion of people with different disabilities participating in life. 

 RantWoman, MUST YOU argue with every article...in the newsletter?

So far, apparently yes. RantWoman will heed the call to deliver and will as much as possible let go of... Wait. WHAT are we talking about. RantWoman is secretly into world domination and if it were possible to make a South Park Crip Fights episode...

RantWoman...!

Okay, Okay. Here is a link to the "Thank you for attending" email to RantWoman about the event described below. As We are: Disability Justice and Community Care Full recording of the event is pending. RantWoman is grateful for the note that hundreds of people attended remotely and that the email jogged her memory about the parts she found memorable.

But first, the newsletter article as snarfed and crudely reformatted. 

An Encounter with Disability Justice

Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge

At the Disability Justice and Community Care Conference last month, one of the featured speakers was Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. They are an incredible local writer and a disabled disability advocate.

 Leah spoke about disability justice, but to me the most powerful part of the presentation was how she did it. There was ASL translation and live captioning the whole time. Leah began by describing themself and their surroundings so that anyone with low vision could picture her. While speaking, she kept an eye on the chat, pausing regularly to make adjustments mid-presentation when people made access requests. The interruptions were not treated as if they were taking away from the presentation—quite the opposite. Part way through, Leah moved to their bed and continued presenting while propped up on pillows.

It was really amazing to be a part of such a welcoming space, where each person’s bodymind was allowed to be however it was being at that moment, and there was no shame in asking for what we needed. The how of the presentation was like a 40-minute sigh of relief.

Near the end of their presentation, Leah shared her curated Seattle Public Library resource list on disability justice

The list includes books of course, but also websites, online articles, a DVD, and a few YouTube channels. I am excited to work through it myself, and thought many of you might be, too!

Editor’s Note: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha uses the pronouns “she” and “they” interchangeably. The use of both in this article is intentional.

 

 RantWoman needs to get a few personal twitches out of her system right off the bat.

--RantWoman did not even notice the presenter shifting to pillows on her bed. Probably this is not a catastrophe. The noticing was about RantWoman taking care of faltering eyes in a Zoom environment.

--Based on a recent non-scientific poll of readers of a statewide blindness list, opinion among blind people is divided about the usefulness of physical description information. RantWoman and other people who have ever had even some vision tend to really appreciate it; people who have never had any vision are indifferent. RantWoman like some blind people she knows also appreciated it when people identify whatever disabilities they are experiencing.

--The resource list lists BOOKS. It lists other things too. RantWoman can live with the possibility that the resource list is about resources specifically available at the Seattle Public library, no fuss, no muss, no interlibrary loan, no checking resources for availability in alernative formats. RantWoman collides with this issue basically every time she think s about joining a book group. RantWoman hopes the topic is of at least passing interest to anyone talking about disability justice. At least passing interest. As in RantWoman has a whole lot more on her mind but means to try to stay on one main topic for this post.

--RantWoman very much wants to respect people's choice of the word "They." RantWoman WANTS to respect this even though both grammatically and on conceptual integrity grounds, she has may problems with use of the word "They" in many circumstances. Perhaps the most offensive to RantWoman is when people, in say a State of Society report, insist on using "they" while writing about RantWoman when RantWoman specifically asks that she and her be used! Among other things this puts RantWoman in an awkward position: does she let people she basically cares a lot about continue to be as ableist as they need to be or does RantWoman continue to heed a call "Oh, COME ON, you can do better than that?"

--Invitation to read: who is the invitation issued to? Will it fall apart in "I don't have time for this" if the wrong person responds to the invitation?

But sticking to the conference and the last paragraph of the thank you for attending email:.

At the conference, we had presentations on Disability Justice 101, Community Care, a Black Lives Memorial Garden where the gardeners made medicine out of the plants grown and donated proceeds to Black organizations, Trauma-Informed Care in Communities, DeafBlind Cultures, the Anti-Black Roots of Psychiatry, Body Sovereignty, and Safer Protest Strategies.

Event Process notes:

Attendee access needs. RantWoman is very grateful for the following response to expression of an access need: Zoom screen shares are inaccessible to screen reader users and RantWoman very often requests copies in advance of materials to be screen shared. RantWoman is VERY grateful for the prompt no questions asked response and had energy to cope for people who did not submit anything in advance. 

This standard, provide RantWoman alternate access to materials other people access easily in print or on screens, is um another area of "You can do better than that." RantWoman particularly has in mind a specific committee and Meeting activity when speaking of this topic. RantWoman has not summoned anywhere near the charm needed to impress upon a committee clerk that alternate access needs to be thought about EVERY time but it is definitely an area where RantWoman is happy to contribute some technical assistance.

From Rebel, the event host:

My introduction and land acknowledgment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AIf6IZhoTB9DVaj4JP1M1RiZ08XispegK8ep0ru2_qk/

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, DJ 101:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SDeVCEGUe3vwDusovU3FhBlQuZLPAK5lVl7ul50cPuQ/

Vo, Trauma Informed Care in Communities:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1S-TCNJqjMTeM-bXc6CYos5Rz2h7sm5AwNvpxR9lMPMM/edit#slide=id.p

Interpreters: there were actually 3 or 4 different providers of interpretation for deaf attendees. There were two ASL<> English, one Certified Deaf Interpreter, and one pro-tactile interpreter. There was also Spanish interpretation; RantWoman assumes there should have been two spoken language interpreters trading off but RantWoman did not switch in to listen. 

The most insightful expression of an access need: someone knew enough about Zoom to ask that when an ASL interpreter was voicing for a deaf speaker, the camera needed to allow people to lip readm, not just to rely on the audio. (RantWoman was on another webinar with a similar theme the same week,. RantWoman is pretty sure the request to put the ASL interpreter on camera when speaking came at this event.)

Actual content

The content RantWoman remembers most clearly was about Body Sovereignty, about Deaf-Blind Culture, and about traum-informed care. RantWoman humbly admits that she skipped the session on the anti-Black roots of Psychiatry because the title rings as ahistorical and also because her body-mind just needed a break. This does not mean RantWoman has nothing to learn about the topic, only that this event was not going to be the moment.

The theme of body-sovereignty not only had its own session but came up as threads connected to other sessions as well.  One dimension of body sovereignty is about desired touch as from a partner and unwanted touch, including a number of ableist behaviors. More than one speaker riffed on this point.

The person presenting specifically about body sovereignty was a large woman. She spoke of going to a camp equipped for people with disabilities and of being able to do something she had always wanted to do, travel by canoe. She and a similarly proportioned friend scheduled a canoe trip. The day of the event, the speaker realized once she was able to sit in the canoe that she might have trouble getting out of it. 

The canoe trip went well for most of the session and then tide threatened to wash them too far out to sea. They were able to paddle toward a dock, but something happened and the canoe capsized. The women made it to shore. RantWoman thinks there was some kind of help involved but does not remember. After the women were safely on land, the both confessed to each other that each had had a dream about theboat trip going badly but that they did not want to tell each other about the dream for fear the other person would not want to go on the trip with them. RantWoman is still sitting with all the themes this story touched.

The session on Deaf-Blind culture by a local figure named Koko talked about many complexities of communication with a deaf-blind person and some basic courtesies. RantWoman hopes an anticipated recording will refresh her memory about the suggested courtesies. RantWoman really enjoyed Koko's perspectives, both his own history and his comments about the importance to him of touch. Then RantWoman reality checked with her experience, with no particular comments about deaf-blind culture.

RantWoman has two neighbors who clearly qualify as deaf-blind. One relies on close visual interpreting and gets lots of appropriate services. This neighbor also works with RantWoman on a mutual process of deciphering each other's handwriting and language peculiarities.. But it's the age of freaking COVID, body sovereignty matters all the time but especially during COVID. Touch is not a thing and RantWoman even wipes her pen with disinfectant after the needed communications with this neighbor.

The other neighbor  for various reasons does either identify as deaf-blind or get relevant services. In the latter case no amount of protactile or close visual interpreting will help; RantWoman relies a lot on email and always makes a point of walking behind this neighbor's wheelchair when travelling with.  Let's just say RantWoman was grateful for all the communications measures that made it possible to learn of Koko's views about life and life experiences.

RantWoman will re-read the presentation materials about Trauma-informed care. The materials seemed very helpful but too much to absorb in one Zoon session.

But what next? Why all this detail? Which pieces will help make connections with others interested in matters of disability? RantWoman would definitely be up for some kind of discussion group, advertised in a WELCOMING way. Enough said for now because RantWoman really does want readers' impressions of this event to have their own space separate from other issues.