Tag Archive for handicap

Recommendation: Crip Camp

July 22, 2020 Comments Off on Recommendation: Crip Camp

I don’t often recommend movies or documentaries, but I think this one is worth watching. Full disclosure: I grew up with a disability (post polio), and this documentary is about kids with disabilities.

I identify with some of the kids at the camp (10 years earlier I attended Easter Seal Camp) and at the protests (I participated in anti-Nam protests). But some of what the film presents was new to me — like us “Polios” being considered at the top of the disability ladder and “Cerebral Palsies” being at the bottom.

Whether or not you have a disabled child among your friends or family, this is a worthwhile film to watch. The kids aren’t “brave” or “admirable” or “inspiring” or any of the other terms people use that grate on our nerves. They’re just what we all are — people standing up for their rights.

(Warning: sex, smoking, and pot are involved.)

If you, like me, grew up with a disability, you should watch this, too. And, by the way, fellow “crips,” remember that our group is among the lowest in voter turn-out, and nobody else will push for our rights, so VOTE!

And watch “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution” on NetFlix,

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Necessity of Adjusting Signs…or Laws

May 21, 2019 Comments Off on Necessity of Adjusting Signs…or Laws

Actually, it may come to this. I know how tired I am of people on their phones walking right into me in my handicap scooter–then getting mad at me for hitting them. Even more important, over 6000 pedestrians were killed in traffic last year i n the U.S. while on their mobile devices. That’s why New York and others are considering a ban on walking while on devices.

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Handicapped Parking Cheat Faces Perfect Creative Revenge

August 10, 2015 Comments Off on Handicapped Parking Cheat Faces Perfect Creative Revenge

As a person who has had to give up and go home instead of shopping for groceries or meeting friends for lunch because someone has decided that it was fine to park in a handicap space “for just a minute,” this video really appeals to me.  I’d go one step farther, though, and hope that the driver got cited to littering.  (Thanks to Linda Younts for this one.)

Click on https://www.yahoo.com/makers/we-think-this-handicapped-parking-scofflaw-got-the-125450548670.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma.

 

 

 

 

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Disabled Parking Fraud

January 14, 2015 Comments Off on Disabled Parking Fraud

You’ve undoubtedly seen a vehicle pull into a handicap parking space and watched the driver jump out and dash into the store.  Or a motorcycle parks in the cross-hatch section, making the adjacent parking space unusable for vans with wheelchair side-lifts.  Those divers probably don’t have even a hidden handicap, like a heart condition, yet they display a handicap parking placard or figure the cross-hatch is up for grabs anyway.  Even if the passenger in the car is disabled, because he/she isn’t going into the store, the driver should NOT be using that space.  It’s for people who need it, not healthy drivers of people who need it.

The situation is not only illegal but also unfair to many of us: those with real disabilities (visible or hidden) who can’t find a usable parking space, shop owners who lose revenue because disabled customers can’t park and shop, and taxpayers who lose out on parking meter money when the culprit parks on the street.

There’s an organization that is trying to do something about this problem, handicappedfraud.org, which is an independent reporting organization.   You should report abusers to them; each month they send a report to your state.  Also, leave a post-it note saying “Disabled Parking Violation. You have been reported” or something similar.  (For $5 you can get at supply of printed post-its at http://www.handicappedfraud.org/index.php?mod=postit.  See below.)

Don’t get into an argument by confronting the violator.  And don’t worry about reporting someone with a valid placard, because people with disabilities appreciate others being concerned about this issue (I’m one of them).

Thank you for ordering

 

 

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Work for a Quarter an Hour?

January 5, 2015 Comments Off on Work for a Quarter an Hour?

Would you work for 25 cents an hour?  You might if you’re encouraged to believe that’s all you’re worth.  But, wait–there are labor laws to prevent that.  Not true, if you’re a person with a disability.  There’s a loophole in the labor law that allows companies to enrich themselves and pay huge salaries to their CEOs by “helping” those “poor, unfortunate souls,” giving them jobs so they “can feel good about themselves, like real people“–and paying them next to nothing.

These companies know how hard it is for a disabled person to find employment, and they’re aware that fewer than 20% of people with disabilities can actually end up with jobs.

Read about this unfair situation: “Subminimum Wage” for Disabled Workers Called Exploitative.  

Then do something about it by signing the petition to the Labor Department.  Also, check into charities that hire the handicapped (e.g., Goodwill Industries) before donating to them.  Find out how much their disabled employees are paid, and how much their CEO and other officers make.

 

 

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Stupid Woman of the Season Award

December 18, 2013 2 comments

Today I saw the best candidate for Stupid Woman of the Season, if such an award exists.  She pulled her car into a handicap spot (no handicap licence or placard, of course), jumped out, and ran into Walgreens to shop.  Soon there was an announcement over the Walgreens speaker: The person parked in the handicap space should return to their car.  You left the motor running and your child inside the car.  A group of us stared as a woman ran from the store to the car and drove away.  Before she pulled away, though, a man confronted her outside the store.  Her response was what I hear all the time from less dangerous people, those who just park illegally in a handicap spot without putting a child’s life in peril–“I was just going to be a minute.”

 

 

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Oscar Pistorius’ Handicap

February 25, 2013 Comments Off on Oscar Pistorius’ Handicap

How is Oscar Pistorius “handicapped”?  He must be, because so much was made of it during the Olympics and now, with his arrest.  (He had to receive bail, his lawyers argued, because his prostheses need to be adjusted monthly.)  Yet, I don’t see what it is that he can’t do.  He can run, jump, swim, ski, and engage in other sports.  He can work, date, make lots of money.  He can attract positive attention from women, friends, and  sports-lovers, none of whom see him as being at a disadvantage.  He seems more “able” than “dis-abled” to me.

So, what is his handicap?  It isn’t physical.  Maybe it’s an inability to tell the whole truth or to face up to what he has done.  No, I’m not pre-judging his guilt; I’m just judging his lack of a physical handicap.  And suggesting that the definition of “handicapped” be refined.

 

 

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