Weekly Disability Reading List

Links to three disability-related articles shared last week on NCCI social media. You can always visit NCCI on Facebook and Twitter at the following links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ncciplattsburgh/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NCCIPlatts

New content is posted every day.

Designing for accessibility: From Frida Kahlo’s corsets to Franklin Roosevelt’s leg braces
Eleanor Cummins, Popular Science - March 1, 2019

Popular Science Magazine takes a look at prosthetics and adaptive devices used by some of the most famous people with disabilities in history.

I’m a Disabled Teenager, and Social Media Is My Lifeline
Asaka Park, New York Times - June 5, 2019

With all the concern and disdain of social media going around … much of it justified … it’s also important to recognize how important and valuable it is for some of us, particularly people with disabilities.

Club for Adults With Disabilities Fosters Love, Inclusion
Yvonne Wenger, The Baltimore Sun - June 2, 2019

This club for people with disabilities has so many pros and cons that we could discuss it for a week. Is it a joyous thing to be simply appreciated? Or is it yet another segregated program that ignores the question of how “regular” clubs can be made accessible? And based on the tone and content of the article, there’s a thread of paternalism that seems to run through the whole project. It’s very interesting!

Daring To Hope

By Allison Jonergin

Because of my health struggles, I know worthlessness, uselessness and emptiness. I know sorrow, frustration, loneliness and grief. I know the taste of desperation and the flood of fury.

I also know the power of a kind word, a helping hand, a second wind, or a song playing over the radio.

I know the power of someone choosing to employ empathy when one could choose the easier path of sympathy.

I know the power I yield inside to shield myself from feelings of worthlessness and to nourish feelings of resilience and grit.

I can succumb to feeling powerless; I can project my worst anxieties; I can expect the worst outcomes and allow myself to be convinced every day will be the same.

But hope inspires me to believe. I have faith in my ability to change my day, my world and my life with the choice to seek out happiness. When it is nowhere to be found, I choose to trust that it will manifest itself in my heart if I do the painstaking work of taking care of myself physically, mentally and emotionally. If I reach outside of myself, outstretch a hand to a stranger who could use a smile just as badly as I could, I can create a life worth living, loving and sharing with others.

When I allow myself to feel only pain, I am alone, no matter how many people care for me and insist on showing me so. Pain holds me prisoner, but I have the power to shake loose the door of my cell and walk out of it. The chains may remain shackled around my ankles, but mentally I can go anywhere and feel anything I desire if I trust and commit to doing the work every day, not just when I feel like feeling better.

The work looks different for each of us. I’ve found mine begins with respecting myself as well as my limits, which fluctuate throughout the day and the week. When I can trust that I’ll take care of myself first and foremost, I’m freed to love and care for others around me, feeling safe in the belief that when I’m tapped out, I’ll tap out. Until then, I focus my attention purposefully on the things I can do for myself so that I have more to give to others.

Weekly Disability Reading List

Links to three disability-related articles shared last week on NCCI social media. You can always visit NCCI on Facebook and Twitter at the following links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ncciplattsburgh/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NCCIPlatts

New content is posted every day.

I’m obese. I want a healthy lifestyle. But it’s often inaccessible to disabled people like me.
Pasquale Toscano, Vox.com - May 27, 2019

Health and weight loss are extremely complicated for people with disabilities, because of inaccessibility, and the extra layers of shaming that obesity can attract.

“We Want Our Freedom,” Declare Disability Advocates to Dems
Ruth McCambridge, Non Profit Quarterly - May 22, 2019

ADAPT is making progress to pass the Disability Integration Act, aimed at making home care available to anyone who needs it and chooses it.

War is hell. Try doing it in a wheelchair.
James Reini, Public Radio International - May 28, 2019

An in-depth look at coping with a disability in the middle of a war zone.

By The Numbers: NCCI Services October 1, 2018 - March 31, 2019

The graphics below show data on services provided by the North Country Center for Independence between October 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. You can click on each graphic to see a larger, easier to read version.

People Served

Disabilities of People Served

Services Provided

Weekly Disability Reading List

Links to three disability-related articles shared last week on NCCI social media. You can always visit NCCI on Facebook and Twitter at the following links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ncciplattsburgh/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NCCIPlatts

New content is posted every day.

My Disability Is Not a Burden—But to Convince Potential Dates, I First Have to Convince Myself
Esme Mazzeo, Glamour - May 16, 2019

Sometimes the most difficult ableism to overcome is in ourselves.

Why I will start including accessibility information in my restaurant reviews - The Washington Post
Tom Sietsema, Washington Post - May 10, 2019

Restaurant reviews … and all other types of business reviews … should always include marks for accessibility. It’s kind of incredible that they don’t already.

Follow the Money: The U.S. Budget and You | Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Autistic Self Advocacy Network

This guide to the US budgeting process is part of a series of policy and advocacy guides, most of them written in “plain language” for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Weekly Disability Reading List

Links to three disability-related articles shared last week on NCCI social media. You can always visit NCCI on Facebook and Twitter at the following links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ncciplattsburgh/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NCCIPlatts

New content is added every day.

My mom, walker and all
McKenzie Delisle, Press-Republican - May 12, 2019

A local woman has written a book for her son about her own disability.

Body behaving badly
Robin Caudell, Press-Republican - May 14, 2019

Another disability-related Press-Republican article, this one on an often misunderstood condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

What You Need to Know About Consent and Disability
Spencer Williams, Vice - May 13, 2019

An absolutely crucial concern for people with disabilities, especially those who rely on personal care assistance.

6 Wheelchair Accessible Trip Ideas in New York State
Anna Pakman, Iloveny.com - July 13, 2018

Wonder what it would take to get some recognition for the North Country? It might be a good time to remind local planners that consistent accessibility can be a valuable asset for tourism.

Weekly Disability Reading List

Links to three disability-related articles shared last week on NCCI social media. You can always visit NCCI on Facebook and Twitter at the following links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ncciplattsburgh/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NCCIPlatts

New content is added every day.

Why disabled journalists should report on disability
Karina Sturm, April 19, 2019

Any journalist should be able to report well on disability issues. But journalists with disabilities tend to have better instincts about what really matters in stories involving disability.

Disabled people need more ramps, not more fancy new gadgets
s. e. smith, Vox.com - April 30, 2019

Technological innovation is great. But inventors need to talk to actual disabled people about what’s important to them. The “coolest” looking gadgets aren’t necessarily any use.

Also, we had 2 guest writers this month at the NCCI Blog:

Let’s Talk About Fatigue, by Allison Jonergin

Mental Illness and Coping in Relationships, by Gemma Tendrich