Saturday, June 30, 2012

[New Book] Invisible: My Journey Through Vision and Hearing Loss

My book, Invisible: My Journey Through Vision and Hearing Loss, shows me as a frightened, silent child with undiagnosed vision loss trying to wriggle from an invisible prison. When finally diagnosed at sixteen as legally blind from the progressive eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), I knew what I was dealing with and understood my mystifyingly tormented childhood. Righting myself after each stumble and bump, I propelled myself forward through college and teaching positions in deaf-blind departments at the Iowa School for the Deaf and Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts--glorious, growing experiences.

I left historic Boston and the spiritually rousing ocean to return to Milwaukee and my tall, dark, and handsome honey. When you meet the man who became my husband, Marvin Silver, you will fall in love with him as does everyone who knows him. I think you will thrill to our rare and enduring love story.

My resilient spirit together with the love and support of my husband helped me to survive the diagnosis of progressive hearing loss, though barely at times. My own devastating experiences motivated me to find others with the dual sensory loss in our community. In time, with help, I founded the non-profit Center for Deaf-Blind Persons in Milwaukee. Life took on new meaning. I had a mission-reaching out to help others. I, like the clients, learned new skills and felt a sense of exhilaration that I would be able to live independently as a deaf-blind persons. In fact, my husband and I are involved in so many "ordinary" activities as to give me a sense of normalcy. "You're just a regular gal," he says, "maybe just a little cuter." Which reminds me, I should let you know that the book has romance and humor as well as tragic events.

Invisible dispels myths, suggests useful teaching procedures, gives hope to people who are disabled and their families, and offers reassurance that a person with profound disabilities can live a full, rich life.

By the way, the book, especially the epilogue, will be of special interest to the staff, clients, and fans of the Helen Keller National Center. The same holds true of members or prospective members of the American Association of the Deaf-Blind.

The book can be ordered through Amazon.com. The link is:

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Journey-through-Vision-Hearing/dp/1475919476

Thank you.

Ruth Silver

U.S. Senate Foreign Relation Committee to hold a hearing on ratification of UN convention on Disability Thursday, July 12

Senator Kerry has informed the Senate Foreign Relation Committee that they will hold a hearing on CRPD Treaty #112-7 on Thursday, July 12!!!

The hearing will be Chaired by one of our original sponsors, Senator Durbin from Illinois. The hearing will be preceded by a bipartisan press conference.

You are all amazing!! It always takes a group effort to do one of these campaigns. Our inside /outside the Beltway strategy has managed to pull off the impossible. You are a part of a great coalition of national and state disability organizations, political leaders past and present, lawyers and academics, civil and human rights groups, religious organizations and individuals, both Republicans and Democrats all working together for the ratification of the CRPD treaty.
It is times like these that the words of Justin Dart come to mind..."Either lead or get out of the way." We as a community showed those in our way that we can move mountains if we all work together as one.

We should take a moment to celebrate but our work is not done. We still have to convince the Foreign Relations Committee to vote YES and report the treaty to the floor. We still need to pass the treaty on the Senate floor and we have only a few weeks to do it but this victory is within our reach if we can continue to keep the pressure on all of the Senators.

Let your voice be heard around the world… make a call to your Senator and tell your Senator that you need their support!

ACTION: Senators are home next week over the July 4th recess. Phone, email, and reach out to them at events in your town and let them know you support the CRPD! If you have a Senator who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, now is the time for them to hear your voices!)

MESSAGE for Senators on Foreign Relations Committee: “Senator, I am a constituent of your state and I support the CRPD. Please support the disability treaty at the July 12th hearing and move it to a vote in time for the ADA Anniversary on July 26th.”

CONTACT:

Chairman: Senator John Kerry (D-MA)
(202) 224-4651
Chief counsel: Andrew Keller andrew_keller@foreign.senate.gov
OR www.kerry.senate.gov/contact/

Ranking Member: Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)
(202) 224-6797
Chief counsel: Michael Mattler michael_mattler@foreign.senate.gov
OR www.lugar.senate.gov/contact/

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) COSPONSOR OF CRPD!!!
(202) 224-6441
Foreign LA: Amber Bland ( amber_bland@barrasso.senate.gov)
OR http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.ContactForm

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
(202) 224-3553
Foreign LA: Ann Norris ( ann_norris@boxer.senate.gov)
OR www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD)
(202) 224-4524
Foreign LA: Katharine Beamer ( katharine_beamer@cardin.senate.gov)
OR www.cardin.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
202) 224-6324
Foreign LA: Damian Murphy ( damian_murphy@casey.senate.gov

Friday, June 29, 2012

NYC Taxi Suit: Simi Linton Comments On Appeals Court Decision

Friends:
As many of you know Chris Noel and I are plaintiffs in the suit against the NYC Taxi and Limousine commission for failing to provide accessible and available taxi service to disabled New Yorkers. We won on the first round in court, and then yesterday learned that we lost on the TLC's appeal. It ain't over yet. We will keep fighting!

Simi on NY1 Thursday night:
http://www.ny1.com/content/163916/federal-court--city-does-not-limit-disabled-access-to-taxis

Simi Linton
Disability/Arts Consultancy
http://www.similinton.com/

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Vigil To Show Support Of Application For Judicial Review Of WCA

THE MENTAL HEALTH RESISTANCE NETWORK WILL BE HOLDING A VIGIL OUTSIDE THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE ON FRIDAY 29 JUNE

On Friday 29 June there will be a hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London, where a judge will decide whether to grant permission for a judicial review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) as it affects people with mental health problems. The WCA is being used to harass and remove benefits from people in mental distress, leading many to contemplate suicide: some, we believe, have already taken their own lives.

The MHRN is supporting the application for judicial review and is organising a vigil outside the court on the day. The vigil will be peaceful and will serve to show our solidarity with all people living with mental health difficulties who are in the firing line of Tory brutality.

We won’t know until the day before what time the case will be heard so we are asking people to arrive outside the courts at 11.00am on the 29th. Bring banners if you wish, but the vigil will be conducted in a spirit of respect for the court.

Please spread word of the vigil as widely as possible.

MHRN Vigil

Date: 29 June

Time: 11.00am

Venue: Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London

Friday, June 22, 2012

Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics By Melinda Tankard Reist

Daring women—those who were told not to have their babies due to perceived disabilities in themselves or their unborn children—tell their stories in this controversial book that looks critically at medical eugenics as a contemporary form of social engineering. Believing that all life is valuable and that some are not more worthy of it than others, these women have given birth in the face of disapproval and hostility, defied both the creed of perfection and accepted medical wisdom, and given the issue of abortion a complexity beyond the simplistic pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy. As it questions the accuracy of screening procedures, the definition of a worthwhile life, and the responsibility for determining the value of an imperfect life, this book trenchantly brings to light many issues that for years have been marginalized by the mainstream media and restricted to disability activism.

Google Book Preview:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=vfgl9cIGxOAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=defiant+Birth&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RxzlT6yiCqj30gHP0PXvCQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Abortion and disability

Hi, All:

I'm seeking sources for a friend who is writing a book on the history of
motherhood and would like to include disability-centered perspectives on
the issue of aborting fetuses screened as having disabilities. Any help
welcome--

Susan

--
Susan Crutchfield
Associate Professor and Chair
English Department, 433 CWH
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601

phone (voice only): 608-785-6943
fax: 608-785-8301

Media Release | Unlocking Europe's potential through accessibility

Media Release

Unlocking Europe’s potential through accessibility
Goods and services that are not accessible constitute a major problem, says the Zero Project Report 2012

21 June 2012 /// More than 70 parliamentarians, policy experts and representatives of disabled people’s organizations will gather today at the European Parliament for a high-level debate on how to unlock Europe’s potential through accessibility, under the lead of Dr Ádám Kósa MEP, the Essl Foundation and the World Future Council, and in collaboration with the European Disability Forum.

The findings of the international Zero Project Report 2012 will be presented to European decision makers, who will discuss how the European Union could best ensure that persons with disabilities and older people have access to the goods and services they need.

Dr Michael Fembek, Programme Manager of the Essl Foundation, says: “As highlighted by the Zero Project Report, widespread problems with accessibility continue to persist in very many European countries. Especially national emergency warning systems, public transport and medical practices were found not to be accessible to persons with disabilities and older people alike. The Zero Project will continue its work not only to identify the problems, but also to spread solutions, in line with its mission – for a world without barriers.”

Dr Ádám Kósa MEP, EPP, says: “A steadily growing number of European citizens find it increasingly hard to access every day services. With its resolution on the mobility and inclusion of people with disabilities on 25 October 2011, the European Parliament has already underlined that legislative action on a European level needs to be taken. I welcome therefore the Zero Project initiative. Its findings, together with close consultations with Hungarian authorities, have achieved that in my country the emergency warning system will be updated by next year fulfilling the needs of people with disabilities, providing a good example of how quickly the situation of people with disabilities can be taken into account at a member state level.”

“There is a pressing need for a European solution on accessibility”, states Donata Vivanti, Vice-President of the European Disability Forum. “In particular, automatized equipment like self-service machines or common household products such as washing machines or televisions are getting more and more complicated, if not impossible, to use, preventing many citizens from living independently. A strong and ambitious legally-binding legislation on accessibility could ensure that each European can enjoy the benefits of the internal market,” she said, in view of the draft European Accessibility Act which is expected to be released by the European Commission later this year.

“Accessibility is truly a cornerstone of an inclusive society,” states Ingrid Heindorf, Policy Officer for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the World Future Council. “With its concrete examples of good policy, the Zero Project presents policy solutions that include innovative elements advancing the access to, and the accessibility of, goods and services. The merits of elements like the enforceable accessibility standards (USA), the anticipatory reasonable adjustment duty and the disability equality duty (UK), the approach to accessibility in the built environment (Austria), the requirement of universal accessibility (Spain) as well as the obligation to universal design and the low-threshold enforcement system (Norway), should be recognized by all national legislators throughout Europe.”

The Zero Project envisions a world without barriers. It advocates the rights of persons with disabilities internationally by monitoring the national implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and by highlighting good policies and practices. Knowledge collected over the last several years by the Zero Project, in cooperation with over 100 experts from NGOs and foundations, academics and persons with disabilities, will be presented at the conference held this Thursday 21 June 2012, from 12:30 to 15:00 in Room: JAN 6Q1, European Parliament, Brussels.

> DOWNLOAD

The programme and the Zero Project brochure "Findings on Accessibility of the Zero Project"

> BACKGROUND

Find EDF response to the Commission’s public consultation with a view to a European Accessibility Act here

Find EDF’s Freedom Guide for an accessible Europe here

Find more information about today’s Zero project event at the Parliament here

> CONTACT

Dr. Michael Fembek | Programme Manager - Essl Foundation | +43 (0) 2243 420 9149 | michael_fembek@baumax.com

Ingrid Heindorf | Policy Officer - World Future Council | +32 (0) 48 60 44 831 | ingrid.heindorf@worldfuturecouncil.org

Aurélien Daydé | Communication Officer – EDF | +32 (0) 485 64 39 93 | aurelien.dayde@edf-feph.org

Aurélien Daydé
Communication
European Disability Forum | nothing about us without us
Square de Meeus 35 | 1000 Brussels Belgium
T +32 2 282 46 04 | M +32 485 64 39 93 | F +32 2 282 46 09 aurelien.dayde@edf-feph.org www.edf-feph.org

save a tree: think before you print

Are you free enough?

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

P R O T E U S —A J o u r n a l o f I d e a s: The Body in Culture and Society

P R O T E U S
A J o u r n a l o f I d e a s
The Body in Culture and Society
Volume 28:1
Spring 2012

http://www.ship.edu/uploadedFiles/Ship/Proteus/2012Proteus%20(4).pdf

"As a relatively new area of study, there is much to be learned about the role of the body in shaping our identity, experiences, and society, as well as how society shapes our understanding of and treatments of the body. This volume represents a valuable contribution to this growing field. In particular, the interdisciplinary nature of Proteus allows us to consider the body through a rich and varied set of lenses. I hope "The Body in Culture and Society" offers you new and innovative ways to rethink the long naturalized body."
--Allison Carey, p. 3

Thursday, June 14, 2012

‘Is anyone listening? Is this how the Nazis got away with so many atrocities?’ ~ by Fiona Goffe

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/06/14/is-anyone-listening-is-this-how-the-nazis-got-away-with-so-many-atrocities-by-fiona-goffe/

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Call to alms: stop a disabled person being made homeless

http://plagueofmice.anarchic-teapot.net/2012/06/12/call-to-alms-stop-a-disabled-person-being-made-homeless/

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

CFP for a collection on Adoption and Disability

Dear all,

Pasted below is a CFP for a collection of essays on adoption and disability. Please distribute to anyone who may be interested in contributing.

Thank you.

Marina Fedosik

New York University,
College of Arts and Science,
Lecturer, Expository Writing Program
411 Lafayette St.,4th floor,
NYC 10003
302 898 2670

Call for Papers
A
Collection of Essays on Adoption and Disability
Co-editors
Emily Hipchen and Marina Fedosik are seeking submissions for a collection of
critical essays exploring cultural meanings of adoption through a combined lens
of adoption and disability studies.
The
overall ubiquity of the disability discourse in adoption culture is hard to
deny. It is explicit, for instance, in constructions of single motherhood as
psychopathology in the middle of the twentieth century in the U.S.—an ideology
that intensified social pressure on single mothers to relinquish their children
for adoption. It is also present in the cultural perceptions of infertility as
a physical impairment, which adoption can remedy and conceal. It is employed
within the context of the adoptee rights movement by the searching adoptees
that support their claims to the knowledge of personal history by identifying
with the debilitating condition of “genealogical bewilderment.” Such
pervasiveness undoubtedly points to the importance of understanding how
cultural ideas about disability inflect meanings and functions of adoption.
The co-editors invite the
essays that may consider the following topics among others:
·         Disability
and domestic, transracial, and/or transnational adoption
·         Disability
and adoptive identity
·         American
family, disability, and adoption
·         Adoption,
disability and social/cultural institutions
·         Adoption
and disability in film, literature, and other media
·         Adoption,
disability, and kinship ideologies
·         Adoption,
disability, and performance
·         Adoption
and disability in history
·         Adoption,
disability, and gender
·         Adoption,
disability, and citizenship
·         Global
perspectives on adoption and disability
·         Adoption,
disability, and age
·         Body
and affect in the context of adoption/disability
·         Disability
and adoptive/birth parents
·         Disability, adoption, and birth countries

Please send full essays with
250-word abstracts to adoptiondisabilitycollection@

gmail.comby March 1, 2013. For more
information about the project email Marina Fedosik at mf107@nyu.edu.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Disability & Art--Telling Our Disability Stories Podcast

Don’t miss the disability art world’s Amanda Cachia on the latest Telling Our Disability Stories podcast. Just search on iTunes or go to http://atcoalition.org/podcast

.

We were lucky this month to interview Amanda. She is a free-lance, fine arts curator focusing on disability and other social justice issues. Are you interested in disability and art? This is a must hear.

Recently Amanda selected and organized “Medusa’s Mirror: Fears, Spells & Other Transfixed Positions” for Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland. The show included 8 artists challenging the able-bodied gaze on the disabled subject. Among her upcoming shows Laura Swanson and Corban Walker works will be at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, MA from October 29 – December 15, 2012. She will be presenting a lecture on the works and disability influences of Chuck Close at the de Young Museum, October 13, 2012. Also, she is the Chair of the Dwarf Artists Coalition for the Little People of America.

Anthony

Yeah that doctor told me, "Son you don't need no pills,
just a handful of nickels and a jukebox will cure your ills."

Carl Perkins, disabled rockabilly pioneer

Anthony Tusler
707 795-0515
AboutDisability.com

Letter To Me From The Late Karen Sherlock

Hello Samuel

Inbox
x

Karen puss_cat@ntlworld.com

Apr 20

to me

I read of what you are doing asking for information from disabled peeps who have had probs with the WRB. I decided to drop you a line.

My money is stopping at the end of this month and this is the medical conditions I have.

DIABETIC AUTONOMIC NEUROPATHY (GASTRIC, CAUSING UNPREDICTABLE AND SEVERE DIARRHOEA), GASTROPAERESIS (CAUSING UNPREDICTABLE AND SEVERE BOUTS OF VOMITING), DIABETIC RETINOPATHY, PARTIALLY SIGHTED (LOSS OF PERIPHERAL VISION IN BOTH EYES AND SOME CENTRAL VISION IN LEFT EYE), NEWLY DISCOVERED HEART CONDITION (NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED WITH ANGIOGRAM SO IT CAN BE RIGHTED), CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE- Egfr – 11 BEING WORKED UP FOR KIDNEY/PANCREAS TRANSPLANT, STARTING DIALYSIS, VITAMIN B12 DEFICIENCY, ANAEMIA, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HIGH CHOLESTEROL, UNDERACTIVE THYROID, CHRONIC TIREDNESS DUE TO COMBINATION OF MULTIPLE MEDICAL CONDITIONS, ASTHMA

As you can see from this list I have a lot wrong with me. I have sent in another ESA50 recently. And I really do fail to see how they can can consider someone like me as being fit for work, but they have done, before I was starting dialysis, but was still eligible to be placed in the Support Group. We are now just about to lost £380 a month and are trying to find ways to cope with this. It is going to be hard. I cannot claim anything else as my husband works.

I’ve also included a document that tells you how my day-to-day life is and how my conditions affect me.

Hope this info is helpful?

Thanks

Karen Sherlock

Medical Information 1.doc
12K View Download

How many more disabled people will die frightened that their benefits will be taken away?

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/06/disability-karen-sherlock-sue-marsh

RIP Karen Sherlock

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/rip-karen-sherlock.html

Friday, June 8, 2012

New Book

A quick message to let fellow travelers know that my book, Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth-Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture, is now available from NYU Press as part of their History of Disability series.

Thanks,

R.A.R. Edwards

Call for Proposals: AERA Disability Studies in Education SIG

Deadline: July 22, 2012, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time

The Disability Studies in Education Special Interest Group of AERA invites
submissions to the 2013 conference, April 27-May 1, in San Francisco. The
theme of the conference, Education and Poverty: Theory, Research, Policy and
Praxis, is particularly generative for disability studies scholarship in
affirming its interest in the intersectionality of disability with other
dimensions of human experience. As disability studies in education continues
to interrogate flawed assumptions of dis/ability within schooling systems
and actively pursues the transformation of such systems to remain hospitable
to students from marginalized groups, the conference theme is provocative
for investigating linkages that can support this endeavor. To this end, we
welcome proposals that:

· Investigate the construction of disability in the context of
meritocratic systems that create, mask and perpetuate inequalities related
to ability, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, geography,
nationality, language, and religion, and other stratifying categories

· Situate the field of disabilities in education in the context of
increasingly globalized markets and the concomitant production of inequities
in national and international settings

· Seek to cross academic and other boundaries in investigating the
lived experiences of people with disabilities, their families, and their
teachers.

· Offer innovative methodological approaches that investigate the
experience of disability in schooling and other contexts in respectful,
participatory and humanizing ways

· Disclose the complexities and tensions within efforts to
conceptualize a pedagogy for diversity in inclusive settings

· Illustrate interdisciplinary approaches that offer new and/or
deepened theoretical insights for an inclusive pedagogy

· Report historical research informed by disability studies that deepen
understandings of constructions of disability within educational systems

· Analyze policy and legislative trends for their role in perpetuating
inequities along ability, social class, and other lines

For more information please contact:
Zachary McCall, University of Missouri-Kansas City, mccallz@umkc.edu
Srikala Naraian, Teachers College, Columbia University, naraian@tc.edu

Julia M. White, PhD
Assistant Professor
Director, Inclusive and Special Education Program
Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education & Human Development
PO Box 270425, Dewey Hall 1-160D
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
Office: 585.273.5090
Fax: 585.473.7598
email: jwhite@warner.rochester.edu

CFP: Disabilities in Children’s Literature: A Special Issue of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

Disabilities in Children’s Literature: A Special Issue of Children’s
Literature Association Quarterly
full name / name of organization:
Children's Literature Association Quarterly
contact email:
spollard@cnu.edu

Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary field that began its rise to
prominence in the late twentieth century, marked by the founding of the
Society for Disability Studies in 1982. The portrayal of disabilities is a
well-developed substrata of children’s literature, and scholarly work has
been produced on it, primarily in the social sciences. ChLAQ will devote a
single issue to literary approaches to representations of disabilities in
children’s and adolescent literatures.

Papers should conform to the usual style of ChLAQ and be between 5000-7000
words in length. Please submit completed essays to Scott Pollard (
spollard@cnu.edu) by 1 November 2012. The selected articles will appear in
ChLAQ 38.3, Fall 2013.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Great news: Susan Nussbaum wins major award

New York City, June 5, 2012—PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, joined Barbara Kingsolver, founder of the Bellwether Prize, and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing, to announce Susan Nussbaum as the winner of the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Nussbaum receives $25,000 and a publishing contract with Algonquin Books for her manuscript Good Kings Bad Kings.

This is the first year that PEN is partnering with Kingsolver and Algonquin Books. “We are very excited to be partnering with Barbara Kingsolver in recognizing the rise of a bright, new literary talent whose work reflects an engagement with the type of social issues that PEN American Center tackles daily,” said PEN President Peter Godwin. “This important prize is a fitting addition to our roster of other distinguished awards, which will raise awareness across all the literary genres we celebrate.”

“The characters in Good Kings Bad Kings made me laugh, over and over again, and cry and cheer,” said Barbara Kingsolver. “This is fiction at its best. The story’s sharp eye allows no one to take shelter, and it doesn’t flinch; it is simply and breathtakingly honest. A stunning accomplishment.”

Good Kings Bad Kings follows the lives of residents at the ILLC, an institution for juveniles with disabilities, where friendships are forged, trust is built, and love affairs begin, all despite an atmosphere of neglect and abuse. In this alliance the residents of ILLC ultimately find the strength to resist their mistreatment and fight back. With humor and an authentic eye, Good Kings Bad Kings tells the story of their struggle for dignity and self-determination.

A lifelong Chicagoresident, Nussbaum’s plays have been produced at many theaters. Her play Mishuganismo is included in the anthology Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out and her play No One As Nasty is included in Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Playwrights with Disabilities. In 2008 she was cited by the Utne Reader as one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” for her work with girls with disabilities.

Susan Nussbaum traveled to New York Cityfor the announcement made this morning by Barbara Kingsolver at BookExpo America in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Kingsolver and Nussbaum were joined by PEN president Peter Godwin, Algonquin Books, and previous Bellwether winners Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell from the Sky) and Hillary Jordan (Mudbound) at the press conference for editors, publishers, agents, press, booksellers, and librarians from around the country.

The Bellwether Prize, which was established in 2000 and is maintained through a generous endowment by Barbara Kingsolver, promotes fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships. Now administered by PEN American Center, the first PEN/Bellwether Prize will be conferred on Susan Nussbaum at PEN’s Literary Awards Ceremony at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City on October 23, 2012.

Previous Bellwether Prize recipients include Donna M. Gershten’s Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth in 2000 (HarperCollins); Gayle Brandeis’s The Book of Dead Birds in 2002 (HarperCollins); Marjorie Kowalski Cole’s Correcting the Landscape in 2004 (HarperCollins), Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound<http://www.workman.com/products/9781565126770/> in 2006 (Algonquin Books), Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky<http://www.workman.com/products/9781616200152/> in 2008 (Algonquin Books), and Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift<http://www.workman.com/products/9781616200428/> in 2010 (Algonquin Books).

The PEN Literary Awards are the most comprehensive in the United States. Each year, with the help of its partners and supporters, PEN awards more than $150,000 to writers, editors, and translators. More information about the PEN Awards can be found at www.pen.org/awards<http://www.pen.org/awards>

About PEN American Center

PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of PEN International, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. International PEN was founded in 1921 to dispel national, ethnic, and racial tensions and to promote understanding among all countries. PEN American Center, founded a year later, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. Its two thousand distinguished members carry on the achievements in literature and advancement of human rights of such past members as James Baldwin, Willa Cather, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Marianne Moore, Eugene O’Neill, Susan Sontag, and John Steinbeck. To learn more about the PEN American Center, please visit www.pen.org<http://www.pen.org/>

Jim Ferris, Ph.D.
Ability Center Endowed Chair in Disability Studies
University of Toledo
2801 W. Bancroft St., MS 920
Toledo, Ohio 43606

Monday, June 4, 2012

New International Website For The Disabled Community

Hi All,

There is a new website akin to craigslist for the disability community. Unfortunately, since it's so new, there's not much in the way of classifieds, etc., but the potential is there. It's free and even international. The site owner (Barry Tribelsky) built bookcases for me.

http://www.disabledservices.com/USA/Default.aspx

Cheers,
Leilani
_____________
Leilani R. Hall, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
California State University Northridge
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91330-8248

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Wheel-Mouse vs All The Crazy Robots By Celyn Lawrence Age 8

Superlative piece by prominent U.K. disability campaigner, Kaliya Franklin, and a wonderful book by a talented little girl, for the benefit of the children's hospice charity:

http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/wheel-mouse-vs-all-crazy-robots-by.html

"Push Girls" information

Hi, all. Here are links to a bunch of articles on "Push Girls," a TV documentary series that's set to debut on the Sundance Channel tomorrow. Some of the URLs are rather lengthy, and you may have to cut and paste them into a new browser window.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/03/entertainment-us-pushgirls-idUSBRE85206G20120603

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/new-sundance-channel-reality-show-push-girls-gives-close-up-view-of-4-women-in-wheelchairs/2012/05/31/gJQAhClZ4U_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/television/push-girls-on-sundance-looks-at-disabled-women.html

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120603/A_LIFE/206020305/-1/A_LIFE

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20120604_From__lsquo_Behind_the_Music_rsquo__to__lsquo_Push_Girls__rsquo__Cherry_Hill_West_grad_rsquo_s_had_an_eclectic_TV_career.html?cmpid=138887484

--Marty Norden
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Martin F. Norden
Communication Dept., 409 Machmer Hall norden(at)comm.umass.edu
University of Massachusetts-Amherst fax: 413 545-6399
Amherst, MA 01003 USA vox: 413 545-0598
Home page: http://people.umass.edu/norden
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Friday, June 1, 2012

CFP: Collection on Disability, Human Rights, and Humanitarianism

Notwithstanding the rise of disability studies as a foundation for
university curricula and programming throughout the nation and across
the globe, the interstitial nature of the field (which enables
multivalent conversations about bodies, (im)mobility, and hegemonic
norms) has by and large been overlooked in scholarly evaluations of
human rights and humanitarianism. Even though disability is
specifically mentioned in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR), it is often cast as a symptomatic rather than a root
issue in human rights. And, the question of “what to do” with those
considered “disabled” necessarily accesses the problematical terrain
of humanitarianism (replete with considerations of care and
caregiving). This collection challenges those paradigms by relocating
disability studies from the margins to the center.

The editors seek to consider the following questions: What are the
lasting impacts of the reduction of disability benefits? How are
disabled people positioned in efforts to reduce poverty or address
inequalities? How does ablenationalism threaten disabled individuals
and their quality of life? Within a capitalistic system of production
and labor, how are disabled bodies configured as “expendable” or
“unnecessary” and in turn part of the “deserving poor”? How does the
UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2008) hold
governments accountable for ensuring that their disabled citizens
receive opportunities to access their rights? The editors are also
particularly interested in papers that address any of the following
themes:

• Material aspects of disability including tensions between
material/ideological representations of disability
• Ramifications of the law vis-à-vis disability claims
• The precarious positioning of disability in human rights discourse
• Global perspectives on disability
• Sport and disability
• Feminist approaches to disability and human rights
• Expansive discussions on the intersections of disability with other
identity categories
• Engagements with critical race studies and queer theories
• Labor and class based analysis of disability and human rights
• Contemporary engagements with various crises (including the Occupy
movement and the Hardest Hit marches)
• Relationship between disability, refugee status, and freedom of movement
• LGBT/Disability asylum claims
• Notions of empathy and structures of compassion (by way of various
embodiments)
• Neoliberal and transnational analyses of disability and human rights
• Examination of pity and affect as well as the use of vulnerability
• Discussions of children and childhood including family structures
and care giving
• Custodial issues connected to disability

Deadlines: June 30th, 2012: Abstract of 500 words sent to editors
September 30th, 2012: Full manuscripts sent to
editors

Papers should be between 6000 and 7000 words, including notes and
works cited. All submissions will undergo review both by the editors
as well as external review through the press. Feel free to contact
Cathy Schlund-Vials (cathy.schlund-vials@uconn.edu

) and Michael Gill
(michael.gill@uconn.edu) for more information or to submit your
abstract.

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