things i heard at the library: an occasional series: #14
One of our regular Readers’ Den customers approached me with her usual long list of movies. She researches movies online, prints out lists, and comes to the desk to see…
One of our regular Readers’ Den customers approached me with her usual long list of movies. She researches movies online, prints out lists, and comes to the desk to see…
Recently, I gave an interview to Kris Bone, a writer with the Puritan Magazine (a Canadian literary journal). Here’s his article about my book, “The Four Walls of My Freedom:…
This summer, I’m participating in a blog hop. The first topic of discussion is ‘My Connection to Disability’. It was 1972 and I was seventeen. I remember it was hot…
I’m on a plane now, reading over the notes I’ve made from the last four days. I’ve just come from a week of listening, sharing and thinking about how society…
It’s so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself. That’s the first line of Ned Vizzini’s excellent 2006 youth novel, It’s Kind of a Funny Story. By the…
Nearly every day I see stories in the media of people with disabilities being abused. (For example, the case of Ethan Saylor, the young man with Down Syndrome who was…
Some friends are for life. Some friends stick with you through thick and thin. Friendship is a really, really big deal for everyone, but especially for our loved ones with…
I am in the middle of reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, a book almost too painful to read but impossible to put down. It’s achingly funny,…
I was in the middle of writing a post about my plan to get back into an exercise routine… when I broke my foot. Doing almost nothing. Walking along in…
Deafness, speech and the Performance of Gender This weekend I had the privilege of participating in a conference on Disability and Ableism at Ryerson University. Let me just say first…
This is the final post of my notes from the 2012 Marxism Conference. This was the first Marxism conference to include a talk on disability, an exciting development full of…
Back in May, I blogged about a family in my area who faced a nightmare: social services had threated to remove their child from their home. Both parents have disabilities,…
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the barriers to people with disability or infirmity to pursue their aspirations and achieve their potential with the support they need and…
Oscar Pistorius’ historic run as the first double-amputee Olympic athlete has revived the ongoing discussion of whether or not to integrate the Paralympics into the Olympics. (Stories in The Guardian,…
Friends, if this post sounds like a conversation we’ve had, please don’t take it personally. I’ve had the same or similar conversations with many people. This is a subject that…
Here’s the thing about being a parent to a son or daughter who is totally dependent – as you get older, you feel more vulnerable, not less. You begin to…
I love clothes, I love fashion, I love feeling wonderful in clothes I love, I love shoes, I love getting dressed up for parties, I love getting my hair done,…
This story makes me so angry and frustrated. I can only imagine how the parents feel! I’ve reached out to some activists I know who are people with disabilities for…
In the March issue of New Mobility, I have a cover story about Canadian musician Justin Hines. You can see it here. I wrote this over my winter break –…
Today, I handed in the final requirement for my Master’s degree, a major (90 + plus page) research paper. As someone who finds reading and writing arduous, over-rated and shamefully…