Items

• 
  2020-03-25

  The Taste of Butter

  Class assignment for Arizona State University, HST 643, and Sensory History
• 
  2022-07-04

  When is long-COVID a disability?

  This is a news story from Stephenson Harwood, a law firm with its headquarters in London. This is on the classification of long-COVID as a disability. Using the Equality Act from 2010, it classifies a disability as physical or mental impairment which would prevent someone's ability to carry out daily activities. Using a case of Burke v Turning Point Scotland, it describes Mr. Burke developing long-COVID symptoms, which prevented him from doing work. He describes immense fatigue, where tasks like showering would become exhausting. Due to this, he remained off work, with his sick pay ending around June 2021. In August 2021, he was dismissed on grounds of ill health. The ruling with the Scottish Employment Tribunal declared that between November 25, 2020 and August 13, 2021 that Mr. Burke was disabled. For his specific case, he can now file disability discrimination against the company, but it does not mean the employer discriminated. The law firm suggests that employers develop methods to better serve employees that could end up having long-COVID. Some of these suggestions include: change in policies around disability services, changes in communication to handle an employee suffering from long-COVID, and a supportive environment where employees will feel comfortable giving updates on their symptoms.
• 
  2022-06-25

  Respecting bodily autonomy

  This is a tweet from metraux_julia. She is discussing the importance of wearing a mask for those that could be at high risk. For disabled people, they often face higher chances of getting COVID, in addition to having more complications with it. This is an advisement specifically for attending protests.
• 
  2021-08-10

  Get vaccinated so I can communicate again.

  Caption to post: As I’m sure you’ve seen and experienced, mask mandates are starting to come back. In stores, offices, and on my college campus as well. As a person with hearing loss, masks make it so difficult me for me to communicate. I rely so heavily on lipreading, seeing how the mouth moves when speaking, to understand what is said. Without lipreading, my speech recognition is around 16%. This means with masks, I can only absorb 16% of all interactions - that is incredibly isolating. When I go back to the classroom in September, it’s going to be so difficult to navigate the classroom setting when I can’t understand anyone. My teachers will have clear masks provided, but what about during group work or when students ask questions that I might also have? I’m going to completely miss out on the college experience I’ve been longing for for a year and a half because people won’t get vaccinated. I’m tired of disclosing my hearing loss to check out at a store. I’m tired of constantly fighting for closed captioning for online lectures. I’m tired of living in a pandemic where we have a solution to end it. Vaccines work. Vaccines save lives. Getting the vaccine means you’re helping deaf and hard of hearing people get back to a place where they can communicate again. SAVE this post and SHARE to spread awareness. This topic is NOT talked about enough and it’s something that affects the deaf and hard of hearing community every single day. ID IN COMMENTS
• 
  2022-04-09

  Coping with humor

  Sometimes coping through humor is what gets us through.
• 
  2022-03-25

  Virginia's Law Barring Mask Mandates Does Not Apply to 12 Children with Disabilities

  A news article from NPR talks about the parents of 12 children that challenged the newly signed law by Governor Glenn Youngkin to halt the enforcement of that law because it violated the children's rights under the federal American with Disabilities Act. This law would only give parents the right to choose for their own children. The group of parents have kids with health conditions that range from asthma to cystic fibrosis, which put them at heightened risk for COVID-19. What about other kids that have health conditions that make them a heightened risk for COVID whose parents didn't say their federal rights were violated?
• 
  05/03/2021

  Jeremy Amble Oral History, 2021/05/03

  Keely Berg interviews Jeremy Amble, a 51-year-old entrepreneur who was paralyzed due to a spinal injury suffered in 1991. During the course of the interview the two discuss Jeremy’s disability and how it has impacted his life over the past 30 years and how that changed during COVID. Then the two discuss how COVID has affected small businesses, farming, registered nurses, and the working from home craze. After this, they discuss family life, recreation, and hobbies and how these common aspects of life have changed due to COVID. Later skepticism of COVID by family and friends is discussed and how maybe social media and political figures may have played into aspects of vaccine skepticism and mask wear refusal. Lastly, Keely and Jeremy discuss experiences with the vaccine and the future of life post-COVID.
• 
  2021-03

  How to Survive a Plague with a Disability

  As I’m writing this, it is March 2021 and it’s been a year since I’ve updated this blog. Although I don’t only write about travel here, it’s been depressing to look back on my past trips and have to wonder when I could be in the world again. But I’ve been far from silent during this time. You can read many of my reflections on the pandemic and other topics over at The Mighty, where I have been an editor for the past five years. One year ago, when the pandemic was just beginning in the United States, one of my good friends posted a social media message about supporting each other during what most people thought would be a strange, scary, but ultimately short period of our lives. Part of it went something like this: My mask protects you. Your mask protects me. It’s a nice sentiment. Wearing a few layers of cloth over your face may not help you much, but it helps to prevent other people from getting sick. It’s a kind, visible act we can all do to show we care during a difficult time, to protect others who are at risk even if we may think we would not become seriously ill. It seems so simple, right? How could people not do this? But we all know what happened. “My mask protects you. Your mask protects me,” only works if the other person values your life enough to consider it worth protecting. I’ve been horrified by the number of government officials and online commenters who have viewed the deaths of elderly and disabled people as “acceptable losses” in exchange for keeping non-essential gathering spaces open. My life, and the lives of people with high-risk conditions, are more important than your trip to Disneyland. Don’t you think we want to go to Disneyland too? I’ve also noticed that able-bodied people often assume disabled people will be provided for in emergencies, and in general. They believe there are a lot of government programs and charities to help us, and that such programs are run well and meet our needs. This widespread — but utterly false — belief in a functioning safety net for “the vulnerable” gives people an excuse to behave selfishly while convincing themselves they’re not doing anything wrong. “Of course, there will be a plan to protect nursing home residents, and immune-suppressed people can stay home, so we can throw parties and go without masks if we don’t like them.” In reality, the needs of people with disabilities are often disregarded, misunderstood, ignored, and even actively opposed. We have to fight for access to everything, and sometimes end up on multi-year waiting lists for housing assistance, in-home care, and other essential programs and services. We must battle with government and private insurance to get the mobility equipment we need. We are GPS tracked like criminals if we need personal care assistants, with “fraud prevention” used as an excuse. We often depend on programs with ridiculously complicated requirements, and one missed deadline, one paperwork error, one month where we made “too much money” can cost us everything.
• 
  2021-04-18

  Child care services in Illinois are getting prioritized

  Northern Illinois University and an Early Childhood Transformation Team developed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker will work together to make getting vaccinations more obtainable. The primary goal for this movement is to make the process simpler. Most of the article refers to those in the child care industry, though. Pritzker intends to make it more accessible. Child care services have been struggling throughout the pandemic, and Pritzker has been trying to turn things around. Federal aid of $1.6 billion was allocated "to expand access to high-quality early childhood education and childcare for children and families across the state." Every demographic is to be included — children of color, children with disabilities, among others.
• 
  2021-04-09

  Rights were violated

  Rights were violated I wanted to share this video for several reasons. The focus is on how the police responds to the deaf mother and 1) asks the twins so many questions in front of the mom who does not know what is being said here. 2) You never handcuff a deaf person behind their back. 3) The Americans with Disabilities Act was violated. 4) The cop got mad at Mom for not “listening to directions.” Really. 5) The deaf person is the one who is left in the dark literally. She is the focus here yet she does not know what is happening. Unfortunately, this is too common in deaf and hard of hearing people’s experience with the police. This should not be the common experience in dealing with the police. There are more reasons, but the point is… this is one reason why the deaf people are so hesitant about getting help/support from the police. I hope this video as traumatizing, becomes a lesson. Police reform is much needed in so many areas, including learning how to communicate & how to work with deaf and hard of hearing people, the DO’s and the DON’Ts as seen here. I hope to see more training with the police departments in understanding how to work with deaf and hard of hearing people. I pray for healing for Mom- @burgundre Drizzy, and her twins. You can go and support her as she fights this. Trigger warning here. Posted @withregram • @kelly4access 11 year old twin girls are forced by police (Michael Rose of the North Las Vegas PD) to interpret for their deaf mom and are interrogated while she is handcuffed. @burgundre recorded recorded her encounter on FB Live. Thanks so much @dpantv for working late in the night to make this accessible!! #asl #captions #signlanguage #police #discrimination #injustice #ada #policebrutality #whyisign #askmewhyisign
• 
  2021-04-06

  Open doors

  I am hard of hearing but I also have a chronic illness and a physical disability. For years I, and others like me, have asked to do more work from home and use video chat. We were told it’s too hard and expensive. Then COVID19 became a pandemic and all of a sudden our request wasn’t so hard or expensive anymore. All of a sudden we all had the same need. It was exciting as doors opened up for me that were always closed. I attended conferences I’d always dreamed of attending. Not only that, but since I was used to teaching music online already, my fellow music teachers gleaned the info from my lived experience. For the first time I was an equal. My answers for things came from resources they would never have thought worthy of consideration. With my fellow artists also now unemployed, I had everything necessary to start my dream business. A inclusive production group. Now when society uses the word inclusive or accessible, they don’t bother learning what this entails so they are mostly seriously lacking. My group represents, every body type, age, gender, ability, and voice type. No longer will anyone be stereotyped. When I sing for people, they say they could listen to me sing often. Yet I’m never considered for shows, wheelchair aside, due to me being a mezzo soprano. Producers want lyrics. The same voice type for every lead role. Not in my group. I write my own musicals in a way everyone gets a change to take centre stage. Now that my fellow artists are back working again, those who I hired 2020 are still with me. I am very grateful the doors of opportunity opened even if for a short time because that was enough to keep them open for me where needed. That was enough to gather those who can make and keep this dream a reality. We are set to debut our first show in June 2021. It doesn’t get better than that. So while COVID itself is horrendous, the lifestyle the pandemic made universal helped others see what we live daily, and it also created a more universal work place for all.
• 
  2021-03-16

  Student enrollment is declining...where have Arizona Students gone?

  This article highlights the declining enrollments of students in Arizona and their absence, so too does the funding disappear. According to the featured article, the combination of an approximate loss of 10% percent of the student population coupled with a drastic cut in the funding levels has significantly impacted the financial operations and organization of public school districts. The enrollment loss is mostly concentrated on the elementary levels, yet a notable loss of enrollment in high schools is of some concern. Declining enrollment not only affects the students' ability to develop important critical thinking and life skills, but in-person instruction should aid the student in recognizing the workload that comes with advanced degrees and education. Another option offers students the ability to learn through the hybrid instructional model.
• 
  2021-01-25

  An American Sign Language interpreter will now appear at all White House press briefings

  The Biden administration will have an American Sign Language interpreter at every White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. "As a part of this administration's accessibility and inclusion efforts, starting today we will have an ASL, an American Sign Language interpreter for our daily press briefings," Psaki said at Monday's briefing. "The President is committed to building an America that is more inclusive, more just and more accessible for every American, including Americans with disabilities and their families." The first interpreter was identified only as Heather and appeared virtually at the bottom of the screen while Psaki gave her remarks. The administration was praised for having the Pledge of Allegiance signed simultaneously with its recitation at the inauguration last Wednesday. The move set a different tone from the previous administration, which was sued in August by the National Association of the Deaf and five deaf Americans for not providing ASL interpreters at Covid-19 briefings. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration in September to provide ASL interpreters at the briefings beginning October 1, whether in person or via video.
• 
  2021-02-19

  Professor Abusive Toward HoH Student in Online Class

  A professor is being placed on paid administrative leave after a viral video showed the instructor berating a student in front of the Zoom class.
• 
  2021-03-02

  'Persistent gap' nationwide in COVID plans for people with disabilities, advocates say

  This story resonated with me. While I was able to get the Covid-19 shot because I am a teacher, my disabled husband is not covered in any Tiers for the shot. We have no idea when he might be able to get the Covid-19 vaccine and it is scary for us. Why on earth would they not consider such a vulnerable population as a priority for the Covid-19 vaccine.
• 
  2020-11-01

  “Pandemic Disabled”: The New Disability that was Always There

  The A.D.A needs a new classification of “disabled”: Pandemic Disabled.
• 
  2020-10-27

  Mandatory masks in compliance with Human Rights Act, according to New Brunswick Human Rights Commission

  In this document, the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission ruled that those unable to wear a mask due to age, mental disability, or physical disability were exempt.
• 
  2020-08-17

  Jewish Melbourne: online cooking

  A photo taken by Peter Haskin and shared on the Australian Jewish News's facebook page: "As part of The AJN’s “Our resilient community during COVID” series, we feature Melbourne’s Racheli Naparstek who shares with us a dish she just made in her private online cooking lesson with Nitza Marom, Access Inc.'s hospitality program manager. Cooking classes are one of a suite of online programs developed by Access in response to COVID-19. For many members of our community who have disabilities, the challenges of the current situation are magnified. Access Online was developed to support participants in keeping their independence, employment and personal development goals front of mind despite the pandemic, and despite the reintroduced restrictions."
• 
  2020-09-07

  Jewish Melbourne: Access Inc talks to JCCV about their Covid Response

  At each Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) plenum meeting they have a guest speaker. At their September plenum meeting, "Access CEO Sharon Malecki will be speaking about Access Inc.'s Covid Response - Celebrating Ability in Our Community During Crisis at the Jewish Community Council of Victoria Plenum Meeting TONIGHT. Sharon will be talking about Access Online the new suite of programs that has been integral in helping participants manage their time under restrictions and ensuring they do not feel "abandoned"."
• 
  2020-11-01

  A Retiree Initiating Vocational Rehab Benefits

  Going through the process of applying for my Vocational Rehabilitation assistance, I had to complete a job analysis of the degree that I am pursuing. The VA councilor that was assigned to me is very nice and helpful. Her concern to help me was to either qualify me for a job, or training that would help me with finding a career that would work with my disabilities. This email is secondary to an email sent - instructing me to compare three different states that offer careers in Public History. My goal was to show a growing trend in the field, and Texas was showing the highest from the rest of the country. At this time, I have not been accepted into the Vocational Rehab program, but I am registered to start a summer class and the loans pile up.
• 
  2020-10-27

  Texas social workers can no longer discriminate against LGBTQ Texans or those with disabilities

  After backlash, the Texas government rescinded a recent action they proceeded with.
• 
  2020-04-30

  Children in a pandemic

  Children and the pandemic. My four year old daughter does not understand what a pandemic is. She repeats that she cannot go outside or to school or to the park because of "the coronavirus". Her and her siblings, along with children all over the world, have been greatly impacted by this pandemic with no understanding of the ramifications of it's spread. Children have been sent home, isolated, many removed from space places like schools or after care programs. They have lost friendships and socialization. They have lost structure. Some have lost family members. Parents out of work have cost their family food or housing. Adults struggling to cope with their own depression and anxiety has increased children's as well. For me personally all seven of my children have been affected. My son was forced to move home from college and fell into a deep depression. My oldest daughter never walked across a graduation stage or finished her senior year. My fifteen year old with autism lost support services from school. My thirteen year old lost sports and his friendships. My ten year old with epilepsy had medical testing pushed back and then had hospitalizations with only one parent allowed, even had to be taken by paramedics alone to the hospital once. My seven year old with ADHD lost all class structure and intervention programs to help him and his anxiety and panic attacks have grown more severe. And my four year old, pictured above, lost her classroom and her joy from attending preschool daily. The new round of "return to school" virtually is brought with more anxiety and worry that the kids are not alright. The picture above showcases the innocence of a child wanting to explore the world, trapped inside and the slight sadness that this may be for the long haul. #REL101
• 
  2020-03-16

  Access Inc - Celebrating Ability In Our Community during Crisis (Jewish Melbourne)

  Access Online refers to the suite of virtual programs created specially by Access in response to the 2020 Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic. These virtual programs are different to Access’ regular physical programming, however, they retain a link to our regular learning streams and are intended to provide participants with low intensity skill development, social connection and purposeful engagement. The programs have also been carefully put together to ensure they remain committed to Access’ values and mission and suit these different times.
• 
  05/13/2020

  Adam Azzalino Oral History, 2020/05/13

  Adam Azzalino is a graduate student of history at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. In this interview, Adam discusses how the pandemic has affected his life as a graduate student working on his thesis and his life as a person with a disability. He is living in the dorms at his university and working on his final thesis for his program.
• 
  5/20/2020

  Katherine Schneider Oral History, 2020/05/20

  The interviewee is an older blind person who discusses their experience with the pandemic lockdown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They discuss some of the challenges with living with blindness and continuing to work online and the non-inclusivity of other disabilities in teleworking and regular life during the pandemic. Additionally, they describe the challenges of being blind and trying to maintain social distance from people when you cannot see them. They also talk about how a good aspect of the pandemic is the sense of community and neighbors helping neighbors by checking in on people. Lastly, they talk about how they feel that people with disabilities are an afterthought during disasters and one way to remedy this is to have people from the disabled community on planning teams to help identify issues such as access to information and emergency planning.
• 
  2020-06-13

  Do face masks make it more difficult to communicate?

  As someone who is Hard of Hearing, I worry about returning to work in the fall. I never realized how much I rely on lip and expression reading before now. With masks and zoom meetings I struggle to understand conversations that normally would be simple. I have hearing aids but unfortunately they do not help much when context clues are deprived. Soft spoken, mumblers, low voices are all drowned out into the background. I search peoples eyes for clues, are they laughing? Are they concerned? In my Deaf and HoH support group the threads are now saturated with frustrated people just venting. Something as simple as a trip to the grocery store now requires a pad and pencil while pointing to the ears repeating, "I cant hear you. Let me write it down. I am Hard of Hearing/Deaf. Sorry. Sorry." While people behind you get irritated. I have thought about getting a neon shirt to wear at the store with the words, "I am Hard of Hearing, I can't hear you!" In zoom meetings I can see peoples faces. It provides context I miss so much. But I have low-frequency hearing loss so the voices of men are blurry at best. Arizona State University has a fantastic disability resource center and they have started providing me with a captioner who attends classes with me and transcribes for me live. I don't always need her but it has been nice not having to message classmates through a class to ask what was missed. This is a new world for many deaf/Deaf/HoH who are my age. We have always had ways to work around our disability. Now masks and technology are depriving us of coping skills we relied on.
• 
  2020-06-17

  California prisons to release up to 3,500 more inmates to prevent further spread of COVID-19

  California is planning to release more corrections inmates early on July 1st in an effort to slow the spread of the corona virus. While this is a step in the right direction advocates point out that this group of inmates does not include those with disabilities, medically fragile, or preexisting conditions. The article also highlights how the virus is spreading from on facility to another through prisoner transfer. While transferring prisoners to facilities with lower populations sounds good to aid in social distancing the people being transferred are actually spreading the virus into new facilities.
• 
  2020-04-01

  A different experience

  For me at least, being unable easily to go outside the house, the requirement to stay at home is not as big a burden as it is for the able-bodied person. The use of online communication has expanded exponentially, and so I now feel more included than I did before!
• 
  2020-03-28

  OpEd from an ASD Mom

  As the general population contemplates their loss of physical freedom and financial uncertainty there is an entire population of people being overlooked- the disabled. As a mother of a teenage son on the autism spectrum I am struggling to help him navigate a new world that I myself can barely comprehend. The basic routine and structure that all ASD children need to thrive has all but disappeared. In its place is only chaos and uncertainty, with parents desperately trying to hold things together. On a normal day my son attends a non-public special needs school with primarily ASD students. That school is now closed for an undetermined amount of time. That school does not just provide a special educator but desperately needed occupational therapy, speech-language therapy and behavioral support. My son also receives various outpatient services, many of which he has attended with the same physicians for most of his life. But, for the public safety, those have now closed- so they have been taken from him as well. As we try to maneuver to telehealth to supplement some of those supports the overwhelming truth of it all is clear- I will now be his teacher, OT, SLP and behavioral therapist. I am a fierce mother, but I am but one woman. How will I balance the need to work with his need for structure and medical care? How can I be at all places at once, doing jobs I am unqualified for? And while I am trying to juggle all professions at once, when will I ever just be mom again? My son is afraid. He is uncertain. But the reality is that there is no way for me to truly make him understand. My only solace is the strong community of ASD parents that have rallied to try to bring some sense of normalcy back to daily life. Our children miss their friends. Friendships are not easy to come by for this community, particularly among neuro-typical peers. So, the friendships formed among this group, within this non-public school, are crucial to their mental/emotional well-being. We all know it and we are all worried. Our children are prone to depression and self-harm. How can we keep them from isolating and regressing in a situation where isolation is required? One parent offers daily Zoom meetings. Every day at 3:00pm. If we can get all of the children to join we can only hope that it will fill the void, and help them feel like they are not alone. But we are all we have. The truth is we are all alone. The services we rely on are gone. The teachers are gone. Our routines are in shambles and the world is crashing down around us. We all understand the seriousness. We all understand the why. But as the world now turns to meet the needs of the pandemic the needs of our disabled children lay in the balance unseen and unheard.