Disability Rights Iowa Blog

The Canaan Home

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:26:00 +0000

Well this is it. This is my last blog post from my summer travels. I am back in Des Moines now and, well, okay to be honest I was in Des Moines last week and I’m just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico right now writing this, BUT I will be back in Des Moines by next week. Yeah, I kind of have a problem sitting still. Anyway I’m back stateside now so my next post will be something much more domestic. This also means that they will (hopefully) become more frequent. However, before I post my last exciting international stop, I want to tell all of you about an exciting new local event I’ll be participating in. On Tuesday October 4^th I will be speaking about my travels and experiences related to disability in Asia and the U.S. at the Des Moines downtown public library.

The Iowa International Center has asked me to speak about my summer as part of their Pioneer HiBred International Dialogue series. I’m pretty excited about this opportunity and I really hope you can make it. Now I know what you’re thinking “But Dan, I’ve already read the blog why would I want to come see you talk about it now?” Here’s why. While stories from the blog will obviously be part of my presentation, there will be photos and stories that did not get put on the blog. Additionally, I will be speaking about my experiences with disability in Japan, which was not included in this blog at all. And I will be answering questions after my speech so I really hope you bring some good ones. Of course the real draw here is that you can actually meet me in person—which I know is a fantasy for a lot of my fans out there. I’ll do what I can to sign autographs and headshots for all of you who show up but I just can’t make any promises. Only joking. But in all seriousness the Iowa International Center really is a great organization here in Des Moines so it would be worth it to come to learn more about them and Disability Rights Iowa anyway. Hope to see you there!

Resident of the Canaan Home who sells popsicles to support the home.

Every day in Taiwan we had “culture class”. And it just so happened that one day our topic was about the aging population in Taiwan. I wasn’t too excited about the topic to be honest but then I found out that the speaker ran a nursing home and home for people with disabilities in the area. He incorporated a lot of disability politics into his presentation, which made me much more interested in what was going on. The most interesting aspect of this presentation for me was that the speaker/owner of these facilities came from a business background (MBA I believe) rather than a social work, political, medical background. This was a perspective I have not really encountered in the disability field before. I’m used to hearing phrasing like “serving the population” not “finding a niche market”. I emailed our speaker after his presentation and asked if I could visit his facility.

I’m not exactly sure what I was hoping to do but part of me felt like I was one of the advocates/investigators in our office. I was going to go to this facility and make sure that these people were being cared for and not exploited for profits. Not that I had any possible way of enforcing the laws of Taiwan, whatever they are, as they related to people with disabilities, but you have to appreciate my gumption I suppose.

Outside view of the Canaan Home.

Of course I didn’t find anything out of sorts when I visited this facility either. Instead I found a high quality, well run, home for people with disabilities. The Canaan Home was founded by it's current owner (the speaker we had) when he opened a nursing home for his grandmother. There was no such facility in the area and he saw a need for it. After a couple years they opened the adjacent home for people with disabilities. The facility has grown to now employ 35 caretakers to look after 65 residents. What makes this home unique is that it accepts people with ANY type of disability. Other organizations in Taiwan are disability specific but the Canaan Home accepts everyone. Well, everyone that they can afford.

Me with some of the residents.

The government of Taiwan offers funding for people with disabilities to be placed in facilities like these but that funding varies drastically depending on the type and severity of the disability. I was told that some less scrupulous organizations will accept people with disabilities only because the government will fund them for a certain amount of time, let’s say 3 months, and then after 3 months the organization throws the individual with a disability back on the street. The Canaan home only accepts people that they know they can care for long-term which means that while they accept fewer people, they provide extremely high levels of care to the people they can accept.

To supplement this funding and help keep the organization running, many residents work for the Canaan home to help earn their keep. They garden, work in the onsite restaurant (which serves amazing noodles F.Y.I.), sell popsicles, bag and sell teas, and many other odd jobs around the facility. I met one of these residents/employees while I was there who had quite the story to tell. He was 27 years old and had recently been thrown out of another facility because he was deemed “too smart” to have a disability and didn’t “look disabled”. He has suffered from kidney failure and a clubbed foot for years and found a warm welcome at the Canaan Home selling tea to support himself.

This is my tea-selling friend I just mentioned.

In addition to these kinds of services, the Canaan home also runs an afterschool program for local children. The purpose of this program is to keep the kids safe after school, to have them interact with the elderly people in the nursing home who don’t get visits from their actual grandchildren, and to teach these kids about disability.

Garden/Courtyard in the back.

Back at school, a friend of mine asked me “So how was your visit to that home for people with disabilities? Were they being mistreated in the interests of profits after all?” “No, actually it was a really great facility. It was clean, there were great activities for the residents, and I can tell that the workers actually care about them.” “Well that’s great then! I mean that’s the only thing that matters right? Weather it is because the owner is passionate, or wants to make money, all that matters is that the people in the facility are being cared for, right?” She had a point. In the end, THAT is the most important thing.

Sometimes being the intern is hard. And other times it's a pretty sweet gig.
The residents have access to this foot bath on site!

Disability Services in Pingtung, Taiwan

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:30:00 +0000

I said earlier this summer that the reason I was traveling is because I would be studying Chinese in Taiwan and that is what I have been doing for a while and is consequently the reason that blog posts have been sparse this summer. But, while I have been in Taiwan studying Chinese language and culture I have also been visiting some disability related organizations. Today I am really excited to write about the first two I went to. Unlike the organizations I wrote about in India, these are programs set up by the government of Taiwan. The first place I visited was a “daycare” program for people with intellectual and behavioral disabilities and the second was a summer school program for students with disabilities who need a place to go while their parents work.

The first organization is for adults (18-65) with disabilities. It serves the purpose of being a day program in which people participate in activities and programs while their families are working or in school. When I walked in, one of the participants excitedly told me that they had just returned from the theater where they watched a 3-D movie. My Chinese is not good enough to understand which movie they saw but I think it had something to do with a fish. At any rate they seemed to have really enjoyed it. They get to participate in a variety of other activities in the course of the average day and week too (walk in the park, paint, and listen to music were among their activities for the day I was visiting).

In addition to these activities, the participants in this program also meet with trained staff everyday who monitor their disabilities for any changes and record progress being made throughout the summer. Every Tuesday and Thursday physical and occupational therapists come and provide them with individualized sessions. Their days are busy enough to keep the participants active but lax enough that they didn’t mind a visit from this plucky little Disability Rights Iowa representative.

The daily schedule for the day I visited.

Now this whole amazing program costs about US$400 a month which is pretty expensive by Taiwanese standards, but half of that cost is paid for by a philanthropic organization in Taiwan. Additionally, I heard that if a family is too poor to afford this program, they can apply for a waiver and their family member can enter for free.

After this organization, I went to a school for special education that runs a summer school for students with “mild disabilities” in the city I’m living in. During the school year students with disabilities attend school with other students but may go to some special education classes and might go to a program like this afterschool, but during the summer they spend their days here so that they have an appropriate place to go while their parents are at work.

Dan: Blogger and Junglegym.

Visiting this school was one of the highlights of my summer in Taiwan because these kids were amazing to meet with. Unlike their petit, middle-aged caretakers, I could handle a good roughhousing and have the physical ability to pick them up. Once it was discovered that I was able to pick them up and simultaneously spin them in circles, I was commissioned to be a full-time amusement park ride. After spinning several of them until I was worn out (they never were of course) I was challenged to several rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors which I lost handedly. I got to learn a lot about some of the children individually which is always the most interesting to hear. I was touched to learn that the boy who was most emphatic about me tossing him around like a ragdoll came to the school months before with a behavioral disability that left him afraid of human touch. “But he loved having you pick him up and spin him. He must really like you!”

I don't think I won a single round.

Then one of the teachers told me that one of the boys has Asperger’s Syndrome but that he has “excellent learning potential”. He is in fifth grade but is independently teaching himself math this summer and had finished the seventh grade coursework on his own by this point in the summer. He also spoke the best English in his class and by fifth grade spoke enough English to put me in my place when he beat me at Rock, Paper, Scissors. This is a prime example why I think we need to consciously work to move disability rhetoric away from “can’ts” and focus on “cans”. Some would label his brain as being “disabled” but any “disability” that would make me a math and linguistics whiz sounds like a bonus to me.

Two of the special education teachers sporting
Disability Rights Iowa tee shirts and materials.

Finally, I got to meet a really sweet girl who kept to herself most of the time I was there. Before I left, one of the teachers told me that she really wanted a picture with me. She is a senior high school student who lives with Prader-Willi Syndrome. I told her and her teacher all about the group home in Iowa we have for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome (Read about my visit there HERE) and then I told her that I had a good pal in America who also had Prader-Willi Syndrome. I went to sit by her for a picture and when I said hello she blushed and tried to escape me. Her teacher told me that she was shy around boys she thought were cute and that she was embarrassed about asking to be in a photo with her for the same reason. Now, I’m not a particularly good-looking man, but I have been fortunate enough in my life to have a woman or two tell me I’m cute. This compliment is one of the most meaningful ones I’ve ever received from a girl. A week later my professor at my university came to me after class and asked me to be sure to send the photo to the girl I took it with. She asked her teacher to track down my teacher and ask her to remind me. I have never been so flattered.

Amrit Somani Memorial Centre

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:27:00 +0000

I’m sorry for the infrequency of posts this summer but I promise that it has not been out of negligence. I have been really busy hopping between countries or in class for my entire summer so there is not a ton of time for posting. I also have been leaving a lot of space between posts to make sure that everyone gets a chance to read each post (maybe several times) before I move on because I think that it is kind of rare for a nonprofit of our size to be doing something like this and I want to make sure as many people as possible can read about what we are doing this summer. So here are some quick updates and then I will get to my actual post which is also my last post from India!

1) Since my last post, members of Disability Rights Iowa successfully rode in RAGBRAI across the state of Iowa spreading awareness for people with disabilities in our state. Sadly I am in Taiwan right now so I was not able to go with my coworkers but from what I can see on Facebook, it looked like an amazing time! Want to see the pics for yourself? Scroll down the right-hand side of this page and click the “Facebook” button to view our official Facebook page. Here you can see pics from RAGBRAI and many other events we do as well as read updates and links our staff posts for you. While you’re there, you can go ahead and become our official fan as well. Speaking of “fans”, I see that Disability Rights Iowa also went to an Iowa Cubs game this summer while I was conveniently out of the office/country. I’m sure my presence was sorely missed. Anyway, check out our Facebook page as it is full of great information and gets updated MUCH more frequently than this blog does right now.

2) Also I have some exciting news about this blog since my last post. Last week, this blog received its 10,000^th page view! And as of right now we are precariously close to 11,000. And. AND Between Google followers, e-mail subscriptions, and RSS feeds, it has over 100 followers now! You guys rock. I’m really excited about this news so I have been chomping at the bit to put some more content up here. I have another exciting international visit planned in the coming weeks so be sure to check back in soon to see where I go next.

3) Well, maybe those are the big news points. Hmm but I always heard you should do things like this in threes. Oh I just wanted to remind everyone that if you have questions or suggestions for the blog to please comment on the posts because I don’t have a lot of time to write entire posts but I will be sure to reply to your comments as soon as I can with added information and answers to any questions you may have about my posts, travels, our office, anything. Moral of the story? Please talk with me on this blog so I’m not just sittin’ by my lonesome in a foreign country. Now on to the post!

The final location I went to in India related to disability in the country was much different from the previous two facilities I visited though certainly no less inspiring. I had a chance to visit the Amrit Somani Memorial Centre which is a school that works with students who live with Autism and other behavioral disorders. This center provides one on one teaching and tutoring for children with these types of disabilities which is important because usually a large classroom cannot accommodate the unique learning styles these students have. In addition to providing education for younger children, older kids who are in mainstream schools can also come to the Amrit Somani Centre for after school one on one tutoring to help them stay on top of their school work and to continue to work on improving their behaviors. This is a key part of the school’s mission and curriculum as the director told me that the school functions under the belief that they “see behavior as something that can be changed” so no child is given up as a lost cause.

Rooftop Playground of the School

In addition to having the right kind of mindset when it comes to special education, the school’s staff is highly trained and extremely dedicated. The teachers all come from clinical psychology backgrounds and have specialized training every other Saturday to make sure that they are applying the most up-to-date methods to teaching their students. Having advanced training is a necessity for this school because having a disability that affects your language processing, learning, and/or behavior in India is especially difficult.

As I wrote in my last post, most people here function in three languages and the students at this school are no different. The difference is that when you have Autism or another disability that affects your communication abilities, your struggle is exacerbated by the fact that your parents speak to you in Hindi, your maid and neighbors speak to you in Bengali, and your teacher speaks to you in English. This presents a new struggle for these children as they work hard to catch up to other students and learn new material while adapting to their own unique learning style.

One of the Classrooms

What also sets this facility apart form the others I have written about is that it is privately funded and the students must pay to attend classes here. By Indian standards the school is very expensive to attend so that means that many students who need these services are not able to take advantage of them at this point. However, this level of care is spreading across India slowly but surely. There are now 4 schools like the Amrit Somani Centre in India and there are plans for more to be built in the future. So more kids will be helped in the years to come.

While it would obviously be ideal for every child in India to receive this phenomenal level of care and education, we all have to start somewhere and this school is doing an incredible job providing help to students with Autism and other behavioral disorders in India. The staff here was incredible and is clearly improving the lives of the students they are working with and that’s what matters most.

While not every child in India has access to this level of education, every child in Iowa does. I wrote in my last post that education equality is (what I believe to be) one of the most important rights we are guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means that your school must do everything it can to meet your or your child’s educational needs. Whether in 1^st grade or a college Junior, your rights to equal education are protected. As I said in my last post, we have staff at Disability Rights Iowa who are well versed and practiced in education policy as it relates to students with disabilities so please give us a call if you believe you or your child is not receiving the education the deserve. If you need help setting up an Individualized Education Program (IEP), have questions about educational resources, or any other questions or concerns regarding your education then please contact our office.

Me with the Director (right) and two Teachers AND our Disability Rights Iowa Tee Shirts

Bodhana

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Because of the status of disability in India, many children and adults with disabilities are left to fend for themselves after being abandoned by their families. That is why places like the Prabartak Samgha Home and the next place I went are so important for protecting people with Disabilities in India. I had the opportunity to visit another residential facility just outside of Kolkata called Bodhana. Bodhana is another group home that works with boys and men between the ages of 7 and 35 who have intellectual disabilities.

The Entrance to Bodhana.

At present, Bodhana houses about one hundred boys and, just like Prabartak Samgha Home, the primary focus is training and educating these boys to “make them independent citizens of our society”. And the training and education that the boys receive here truly is the saving grace of the institution. To be completely honest, I was a little afraid when I first entered the Bodhana building. It has a feeling of being a prison or a warehouse. Very basic furnishings, concrete floors, walls, and ceiling, the sleeping quarters for the boys have doors made of cold, iron bars that make one think that this is someplace that you would want to break these children out of, not send them to. However, past the dark hallways and dimly lit quarters were classrooms full of English lessons, Bengali writing practice sheets, biology posters, musical instruments, and everything else you could expect to find in an elementary school classroom.

The Boys in Their Classroom.

Yes maybe this was not the classroom of a wealthy suburban school district, but the caring and attention was still there. I watched as the staff of loving, caring adults taught their lessons to a room full of boys who seemed anxious to learn. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately depending on who you ask) as soon as I entered the classroom the boys decided that I was much more interesting than their lessons and the teacher kindly allowed them to take a break from their studies to meet with me, show me around the classroom, and introduce me to each other and some of their favorite toys.

I can’t even begin to put down in words what an amazing experience it was for me. Well I guess I can begin to put this down in words, because that’s sort of my job here…but you take my meaning anyway. There is just something so amazing about meeting these children because they were so excited to meet me and did not take the time to judge me or be confused about my skin color like so called “normal” children on the streets of Kolkata. In a matter of seconds I went from being a stranger in the class to being everyone’s’ new friend and I have seldom felt so welcome at a place before.

Me with Some of the Kids.

Of course it took almost no convincing for me to play with their cars and this really cool stuffed monkey that the boys had. One of the boys even made a point to show me that he had learned the English word for “monkey” and other objects in the classroom. This is maybe what I found to be so impressive about the Bodhana facility. When they said that their focus was on education and training, they really meant it. Much to the boys chagrin though I had to leave the small classroom to move on with the tour after a while and they needed to get back to studying and other activities.

Joining the Class.

In the next room, I found something that I found to be even more impressive than the classroom; a weaving room. Several of the older men were in this large room working at looms weaving beautiful towels, tablecloths, placemats, and many other linens. The staff at Bodhana provides training for some of the men to learn how to make these goods and then the men weave these amazing linens and sell them to help support the facility. The men working were very proud of their work and were excited to show me what exactly they did to help contribute to their home.

This is something that I was very excited to see. Not only did these men live here but they worked on their own (there was nobody overseeing them in the weaving room) and they made these amazing materials to support themselves and their fellow residents. Of course the sale of these materials alone doesn't support the facility in total but it does help keep costs down and, above all else, it gives these men and boys something to be proud of.

Two Men Working in the Weaving Room.

After buying as much of their linens as I could carry (not sure how I’ll get everything back to the U.S. at the end of this summer, but that’s a problem for future Daniel I guess…) I went back down the hall where I found that the class had now taken a break and was starting their physical activity portion of the day. What was the activity you ask? Well they turned on the radio and started a random dance party in the classroom. I knew at once that this was my kind of place. After jamming out to a couple songs with them I was told that, unfortunately, we needed to get going. I said goodbye to the boys and the staff and left Bodhana.

DANCE PARTY!!

Being in this type of organization, I can’t help but to see similarities between the goals and challenges this organization faces and the ones that we face at Disability Rights Iowa. As I wrote in my last post from India, we at Disability Rights Iowa work hard to—if I may quote from our purpose statement—“ support people with disabilities to secure their rights and full participation as citizens through a program of self-advocacy education, information and referral, non-legal advocacy, and legal and systems advocacy”. We work toward similar goals. No, we are not a residential facility by any means but we do work with residential facilities quite a bit. We strive toward giving the people we work with the ability to participate fully in our society just like everyone else.

Some of the Boys Sporting our New Tee Shirts.

We also provide information, training, and legal guidance as it relates to education for students with any type of disability in the state of Iowa. If you have a child with a disability and you don’t think that he or she is receiving equal education, then please call our office. We have people on staff who are experts in the fields of education policy and law as it pertains to students with disabilities. I, personally, firmly believe that education is the best way that we, as people with disabilities, can advance ourselves and prove that we will not be limited by what others say we CAN’T do. By working hard in school and having teachers and parents and friends that supported me I was able to get through college, spend a semester in Japan on a full scholarship, AND am in Taiwan all summer learning Chinese on another full scholarship. If I would have listened to the people who told me “can’t” when I was young I would never have had these opportunities. When I was five years old, a doctor told me that I was never going to be able to walk up stairs, I walked up over 500 of them to get to a mountain peak in Kobe, Japan last summer. If you are a student with a disability you have the RIGHT to equal access to education. Your school must provide you with reasonable accommodations to make sure that you get the education that is guaranteed to you no matter what your physical, intellectual, or learning disability is. If you are not receiving the education that you deserve then please call us to see what we can do to make sure that “can’t” never becomes a part of your education.

Finally, being with these boys and young men reminded me about an important campaign that we have worked on this year called “Spread the Word to End the Word”. We worked to spread this message at Kidsfest this year and have made the campaign part of our other outreach projects. I have written about this before (please read those posts again HERE and HERE) so I won’t repeat too much about the campaign. Basically it seeks to end the use of the word “Retard” and “Retarded” as slang terms for calling something stupid or something you don’t like. Being will these 100 guys with intellectual disabilities made me even more passionate about NOT using this word because it just doesn’t make sense and harms people and our society. The boys I met with all had intellectual disabilities but were learning in a trilingual classroom (Hindi, Bengali, English) and they are trained at making some of the most beautiful linen materials I have ever seen. So here is my question to all of the ignorant people out there who insist on using that word to mean “stupid”: How many languages do you speak? My guess is less than three. You know what’s not stupid? Being trilingual by age 12.

I could go on for pages and pages about this campaign, but I won’t because I just realized that this post is already pretty long. If you have questions about the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign, please check out my other posts about it. You can also contact our office directly to see how you can get involved with us as we spread the word to end the word in Iowa.

Disability Rights Iowa

400 East Court Avenue Suite 300 

Des Moines, Iowa 50309

Tel: (515) 278-2502

Toll Free (800) 779-2502 

Fax: (515) 278-0539

Email: info@disabilityrightsiowa.org 

TTY: (515) 278-0571

TTY Toll Free: (866) 483-3342

The Prabartak Samgha Home

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:34:00 +0000

As I said in my last post, it’s summer now. And for many students that means the opportunity to go on summer vacations. As a recent graduate of Drake University I am taking my summer to do some vacationing and some learning as well. I will be spending two months this summer in Taiwan studying Chinese. They always say that the time to travel is while you’re young though so I’m taking the month before my stint in Taiwan to travel around Asia. Don’t worry, because I will still be blogging for Disability Rights Iowa while I’m traveling. So it is with great pleasure that I announce the first stop on my journey; Kolkata, India.

The Prabartak Samgha Home in Kolkata, India

I had a chance to go to a group home for people in India with intellectual disabilities that was a pretty mind-opening experience. At Disability Rights Iowa, one of the issues that we work most closely with in Iowa is the condition of group homes in our state. We visit these facilities to ensure that the needs, wants, and rights of Iowans with disabilities in these facilities are being met. So I knew I wanted to go to a group home-type place in India so I could to compare my experiences.

I had a chance to meet with the residents.

So I spoke to a friend of mine and he and his family took me to the Prabartak Samgha Home. The Prabartak Samgha Home is a group home that was built in 1986 and currently has 51 residents. I had a chance to sit down with the owner and facilitator of this home to speak with him about the lives of people with disabilities in India and in Kolkata specifically. What he told me is a heart-breaking story of disability on the other side of the planet.

One of the residents was a gifted drummer and led the group in a song for me!

In India children born with Down Syndrome, Epilepsy, and other intellectual or developmental disabilities are often abandoned by their parents because care for these children is too expensive. In fact, these children are not even given inoculations for diseases and illnesses that still exist in India today. The owner told me that parents abandon their children in the streets and these kids suffer from sickness and illness until they are “rounded up” by the police and brought to a government observation station. The government then categorizes these children by their type of disability and severity and sends them to “appropriate facilities”. And this is where the government wipes its hands of this situation. These children are taken to facilities like the Prabartak Samgha Home and are given no support or aid from the government or their parents ever again. These houses are completely run by charities and subsist on donations from people in the community, local businesses, and corporations.

I passed out Disability Rights Iowa Pens, Notepads, and Bookmarks to each of the residents.
They all seemed thrilled to receive our gifts.

Once brought to a home, these orphans will spend the rest of their young lives in these facilities. Then, when they turn 18, they are kicked out. Fortunately for the residents at Prabartak Samgha Home, the owner has found ways to let them stay. “Even though we are supposed to move them out when they turn eighteen, there is no place for them to go so we let them stay here. And the residents who can, we provide them with jobs around the home”.

The owner and facilitator of the Prabartak Samgha Home. He has ran this house for 26 years.

In fact, many of the residents with more mild disabilities cook food for the home, participate in theater productions, and even tend the garden behind Prabartak Samgha Home to help support the facility that has become their true home and family. This helps the residents participate in their own home and decreases the cost of running such a facility. As I said, the home is run from donations alone and there are over fifty residents to care for.

Showing off their new "VOTE" bookmarks and other materials from Disability Rights Iowa

This money pays for the cost of running the home and for medical and psychiatric care that is provided to each of the residents. The owner told me that medical care and therapy is important to the mission of his home because his motto is “The residents do not have “Illnesses”, they have conditions, and conditions can always improve. If we help them with rehabilitation, we can help improve their lives”.

One of the rooms for the men in the facility.

Like most other charities and similar facilities though, Prabartak Samgha Home is under funded and cannot provide all that it wants to for people living here with disabilities. Many of the residents don’t receive the care or attention that they require but they are in a loving, caring home and it’s much better than the alternative.

I was given a tour by one of the residents who is also sporting one of our new Tee Shirts.

On the car ride home, my hosts asked me what I thought of the Prabartak Samgha Home as an organization and I told them about how touched I was at the openness of the staff and the obvious care they have for the residents who live there. I also told them about how the residents were thrilled to see me, welcomed me with a musical number, and were appreciative of the Disability Rights Iowa gifts I distributed to them. I also expressed to my hosts my concern that, as well intentioned as I think the home is, I don’t think it’s enough. “Well,” they said “at least its something. These people would be on the streets suffering if it weren’t for this home”. I guess there’s nothing like a healthy dose of perspective to make you think.

So how can you help? The easiest way is right in your own backyard. If you or a family member or friend reside in a facility for people living with various intellectual, developmental, and/or physical disabilities remember that Disability Rights Iowa is a resource that will always be in your corner. If you believe you or a loved one in a facility is being mistreated please contact our office at:

Disability Rights Iowa

400 East Court Avenue Suite 300 

Des Moines, Iowa 50309

Tel: (515) 278-2502

Toll Free (800) 779-2502 

Fax: (515) 278-0539

Email: info@disabilityrightsiowa.org 

TTY: (515) 278-0571

TTY Toll Free: (866) 483-3342

And please remember to read my last two posts to see how you can become more involved with Disability Rights Iowa. For information about our upcoming Partners in Preparedness Conference please click HERE. And for information on how you can pledge to donate to our organization by supporting our RAGBRAI trek across the state spreading awareness of protecting Iowans with disabilities please click HERE.

Criptonite

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:05:00 +0000

It’s summer! And what does that mean? Well for some of you it means you are out of school and ready for fun and relaxation for a couple months. For others this flip of the calendar page changes nothing about your life except maybe now in addition to still going to work everyday you now have to find some place to stick your kids for 8 hours. Where do those kids end up? The pool? A friend’s house or babysitter? Or do you, like so many other parents let good ol’ misses Silver Screen watch your kids for a few hours once a week? It’s summer movie season and that means that Hollywood is cranking out anything and everything that it thinks will make a buck regardless of quality. So why do I care about this right now? And why should you care about what I have to say about it? Anyone who has been carefully reading this blog (so…nobody) might be able to guess what movie this Cripster is excited about seeing right now. Of course I am talking about the new X-Men movie. In the interest of full disclosure yes, this post is going to be slightly geeky; you can deal.

So why am I writing about the X-Men in a blog about disability issues? Well besides the fact that Professor X (arguably the most powerful individual on the planet in the X-Men world) rocks the sweetest wheelchair ever, the X-Men are part of my individual disability narrative. Every guy has his own comic book franchise interest. Maybe he hasn’t told you about it but he does. There is one hero or group that he loved growing up and now that the movies are coming out he can’t wait to see his hero on the big screen. We write the dates of the movie release on our calendars and rush out to see it but if we’re asked we blame our friends “oh a bunch of my buddies were going so I had to…yeah it was okay I guess. If you’re into that kind of sci-fi stuff”. Sound familiar? I was going to see X-Men on Thursday night at the midnight showing but I got blown off by the person I was supposed to see it with who went with other friends…summer drama, right? I have decided to write this post now instead of after I see it because I don’t want to ruin it for any one else but, yeah totally going tomorrow afternoon for sure!

So why the X-Men? If you know a lot about the story you can maybe piece together what I find appealing about it. If not let me set the scene for you. Imagine an adorable bright-eyed little boy (This is me. Yes, I was the cutest child ever. No, I’m not sure what happened either. Guess I peaked early). Watching the old-school X-Men cartoons was the highlight of my weekends and sick days from school. Then I hit middle school and early high school and there is a new X-Men cartoon about the X-Men as teenagers being teased for their “mutations” and feeling like outcasts for being different from everyone else. In the end these teenage “mutants” as they are called in the series, recognize their differences as making them superior and more powerful than the “normal” kids in their high school. Can you see why this franchise was appealing to a larval Cripster? Then they come out with the live action movies with story lines about "normal" humans trying to force a "cure" on the mutants to fix them (You can see this in the third video link). And the list goes on and one from here. I think there is actually a lot of disability narrative in this franchise.

I’ve written about this before but I always had this fantasy that instead of being “disabled” I was actually a mutant. I wasn’t just some defective body sitting in middle school being teased for not playing soccer during recess. Some day Professor X was going to come to me and tell me that my unique body actually gifted me with super powers. And I would be able to join his team fighting crime with my super-human abilities. So what super power would I get? Would I fly? Teleportation? Super strength? Something with fire maybe? Well so far it has been nothing that cool. Every time I go to the airport all the workers ask if they can carry my stuff or give me rides in those cool carts so I guess maybe I have a little mind-control power that turns people into my workers…but I always turn them down when they offer. I am a benevolent mutant. And whenever I go to a mall or a restaurant or someplace public I get a fair amount of gawkers and people staring me up and down with a “Right, what’s this now?” kind of look. So I guess my superpower could be being extremely attractive. No…that’s not it. I guess being born without some key joints and having the rest of them be pretty arbitrary does make me fairly flexible. Don’t want to brag but I’ve got some moves in Pilates class at the gym and I’m pretty much a beast on the dance floor because my body can move in ways that should not be possible. I don’t think that counts as a superpower though…

I guess this explains why the X-Men have not asked me to join their ranks yet, but I’m still confident that I’ll be called into service someday. Hey even the X-Men need a water boy, right? So to all my readers with disabilities er, I’m sorry, superpowers, take pride in your ability. Don’t ever let someone tell you they are better than you because they are “normal” and you are different because different kicks normal’s butt every time. You rock and you are a superhero in training and never forget that.

To all my readers who aren’t fortunate enough to have superpowers, you are not completely out of luck. I have just the way for you to become a superhero for Iowans with disabilities. Imagine me as Professor X coming up to you right now and asking for your assistance in fighting evil (ableism) and joining the good guys (Disability Rights Iowa…obviously). This is your chance to help us make a difference in the lives of Iowans with disabilities. We have put together our own team at Disability Rights Iowa but our team of superheroes isn’t going out to fight bank robbers. Instead they are going out to tackle a larger foe; RAGBRAI.

Yes. Disability Rights Iowa will be riding in RAGBRAI again this year and we are looking for your help. Specifically I am looking for your help. Every person in our office has been asked to collect pledges of support for our team and I being the competitive person that I am would like to bring in a lot of pledges. In addition to using RAGBRAI to spread our message across Iowa to reach Iowans with disabilities across the state, we are going to use this as a fundraiser to help us continue providing our legal services to these Iowans for FREE. Yes, all of our services are provided to Iowans with disabilities for free and to continue helping as many people as we can, we are asking for your help. I am always bragging in the office about how many supportive readers I have so I know you guys will come through and help me out on winning the office competition, but more importantly, helping Iowans with disabilities receive the protection and representation that our office provides to them for no charge. The suggested pledge amount is $20 but you are free to pledge any amount you can. Every little bit helps. I know a lot of my readers are college students too and that is a lot of money in our world but next week just skip Starbucks for two days and pledge that $5 to helping our office increase our outreach to Iowans with disabilities all across the state.

Please send your name address, e-mail and pledge amount to our office and we will follow up with you from there. I am currently in Malvern, Iowa and out of the office and will be for the next few months but if you know me personally feel free to get in touch with me and I’ll take care of this for you. Otherwise please email out Public Affairs Director, Scott Ourth, at sourth@disabilityrightsiowa.org with the information I listed above and he will take care of you from there. In your e-mail to him be sure to mention me or this blog and how great you think it is…you know, for office politics and all.

Iowa Partners in Preparedness Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:12:00 +0000

Three years ago today a terrible tragedy struck the town of Parkersburg, Iowa. An EF 5 tornado hit the small town; killing dozens and hurting dozens more. On the anniversary of an event like this we can’t help but to look back and question if we have learned from Parkersburg. If a tornado hit your community would your city be ready? If a flood hit your business what would you do? If your home was hit by a natural disaster, what would you do? Where would you go? What would your family do? These are all difficult questions to ask because we don’t like to think about events like this happening to us, but they are questions you must be prepared to answer if you want to be ready for a natural disaster or other emergency.

These questions are even timelier now because of the string of natural disasters that have been hitting Iowa, the rest of the United States, and other places around the world. The tornados in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas the last few days, earthquakes in Japan, and floods in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have made us even more aware of how natural disasters can strike anywhere and at any time. That’s why it is so important to have answers to these questions. By having a disaster preparedness plan, you can help make sure that you are ready in case something like this happens in your city.

Of course, living with a disability complicates this scenario even more. Is your city storm shelter accessible? How would you get there if your car were damaged? How would you help your family members or neighbors with disabilities reach safety in time? Too often, people living with disabilities are not able to act in time during natural disasters because they, their families, and/or their communities are not prepared to accommodate people with disabilities during these times of need. That is why Disability Rights Iowa is partnering up with The ARC of Story County, The Iowa Department of Public Health, and enableUS to bring the Iowa Partners in Preparedness Conference to Des Moines this summer.

The Iowa Partners in Preparedness Conference will bring together emergency management, public health, human services and disability stakeholders from throughout Iowa to discuss the latest issues in preparing and responding to disability communities during emergencies and disasters.

This two day conference will take place June 22-23 at Des Moines University. This interactive and engaging seminar will examine some of the greatest challenges in inclusive emergency management and strategies to overcome those issues. The conference will focus on new FEMA sheltering guidelines, emergency evacuations for disability communities, and developing accessible transportation networks. Other issues and topics of focus include collaborative community partnerships, information sharing networks and accessible communications. Speakers from national, state and local government agencies and organizations will focus on programs that have worked in their communities as well as continued shortfalls and challenges that they experience.

Keynote speakers include representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Iowa Department of Public Health, several representatives from FEMA, and many more.

For a full list of speakers, topics, a schedule of events, as well as registration information please go to the website HERE or follow the link below:

http://www.enableus.org/upcoming-events/IPP2011/IPP.html

I am also excited to announce that there are scholarships available for many attendees. If you are interested in applying for one of these scholarships or have any other questions about the Iowa Partner in Preparedness Conference please contact Charlene Joens in our office by e-mailing her at cjoens@disabilityrightsiowa.org

All the Little Birdies on Jaybird Street Love to Hear the Robin Go...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sun, 22 May 2011 03:25:00 +0000

I think I might be nearing the end of my music and disability posts because I’m having problems finding other things to write about at this point so if I have missed anything that you can think of please send your song suggestions to me and I’ll keep on going with the music topics. In other words, I have no idea what my next post is going to be about so I’m looking for a little help here.

While you may have never heard of Ian Dury from my last post I have a couple bigger names in this post that I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of. The first video I have for you is from Metallica. It’s the video for their song “One” and if you listen to the lyrics and watch this video you can see how this famous rock band infuses this song with disability discourse. Specifically, the song is about a young man who was injured in war and comes back with disabilities and how he feels about his new body. Watching the faux medical footage accompanying the video adds a whole other layer to this narrative too.

After that I found an old video from a little group called The Ramones that you may have heard of before. The song I’m talking about today is called the “Cretin Hop” and tells a story about a boy dating a girl with “Cretinism". It’s a catchy little ditty for sure. This isn’t a music video for the song but is a video of The Ramones performing it live.

The last song I’m posting today is arguably much more subdued and comes to us from Randy Newman. Yeah the guy who sings all the Toy Story stuff also has a confusing song that is often referenced as being about disabilities. The song is called “Short People” and I’m not sure what to make of it. He is either talking about people with Dwarfism, or he could be talking about children, or just people who aren’t very tall. Either way, the song seems to be less than encouraging. I don’t know, but something about the “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” guy saying “I don’t want no short people ‘round here” kind of rubs me the wrong way. This is probably one of those things that is meant to be ironic or satirical that is just lost on me. What do you think? Am I way off base with this one?

Like I said, if you can think of other songs related to disability that I have not commented on please let me know so that I have something else to write about before moving on from music. I'm sure there is another cripster out there who follows music and can help me out! If not then don’t worry, I’ll find something to write about for next time. Speaking of cripsters though (I know it’s been a while since they were referenced on this blog) I have some exciting personal news (I think it’s exciting…maybe you won’t be excited. i.e. you probably won’t be excited). I finally caved in to the masses and created a Twitter account to start microblogging about these issues as well. You can now follow my stream of consciousness which unsurprisingly relates to disability quite frequently by “following” me on Twitter @DSMCripster. As a disclaimer I feel the need to point out that this account is not affiliated with Disability Rights Iowa and anything I say on there (much like anything I write on here) is my opinion and does NOT stand in for the opinions or statements of our agency. I'll explain to you in a couple posts why I decided to get a Twitter. Be excited. So you can follow me @DSMCripster and don't forget to follow this blog through e-mail or RSS feed.

That's All, Folk...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:50:00 +0000

I said I was going to get better at keeping this blog current for the sake of our agency but then I sort of disappeared for (looks at date stamp on the last post) Scheesh! Eleven days?! Hmm well looks like I’ve let you down again, but I swear that I have a good reason this time. In the last eleven days I had my final exams and papers due at Drake, completed my thesis research topic (the one about media representations of disability) and presented on it, and oh, I don’t know, just a little thing called GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE! Yeah no big deal or anything (brushes the dirt of his shoulder).

As any recent graduate will tell you, the only thing we have heard for the last six months is “What are you going to do with your life?”, “What’s next for you?”, “Why do I insist on ruining your good time with my questions about the ‘real world’?” Okay so that last one is just a question that I hear when people are talking to me but you get the idea. The most annoying part of this is that these questions always only come from people who are like fifty years old and have been in careers for thirty years. I’m not sure if they just don’t remember being young and aimless or what but if you’re reading this just take a note: tell us congratulations and walk away. However, my perspective on this changed literally twenty minutes ago because I just found what I want to do with the rest of my life. Of course this is big news so I came running (or my version of running anyway) to this blog to tell all my online friends about it.

It’s related to the topics I’ve been posting on but I want you to watch some videos first because then I know you’ll all support my career choice. I have some more music videos to show you and then I’ll tell you my exciting news. I am going to mix a genre or two of music but I think it’ll still work out. I found this video today of the ADA Anthem and it changed my life. The singer is Jeff Moyer and he also sang another song at the 2008 National Forum on Disability Issues. You have to watch this:

Pretty sweet, right?! So I have made up my mind. I am going to become a disability rights folk singer. I’ll just travel around the country in my beat-up car with nothing but my guitar and a dream…and maybe a dog. And I’ll stop at towns and cafes along the way and spread the message of equal rights and access for people of all abilities. You have no idea how excited I am by the prospect of this idea.

I’m also planning on creating a band that can tour with me in big cities. Here’s what I’m thinking; I set up big city tour dates and locations with my band and then travel on my own in-between locations giving small, personalized shows of my folk music. I think this makes sense because I really want to stay true to my folk music roots (the ones that I just developed 30 minutes ago now) but something’s going to have to pay the bills so a multi-city tour with my band ought to draw in enough money. I’m nothing if not pragmatic. I’m currently looking for people to become members of my band and/or groupies so if you know of anyone just send them this post. Watch the video below of a controversial British punk-rock group singing their song against the “International Year of Disabled Persons”, which the lead singer thought was patronizing to people with disabilities, to get an idea of the type of group I’m looking for.

No, this isn’t a politically correct song, but as a form of protest it almost can’t be. The lead singer, Ian Dury, had a disability after contracting Polio as a child. As I said, he thought that the “International Year of Disabled Persons” was patronizing to people with disabilities like him so he wrote this song out of protest. Calling out “I’m Spasticus” is a reference to the movie “Spartacus”. In a famous scene in that movie, others claim to be Spartacus to save the true Spartacus, their leader, from being punished. I take this song to be a sort of call to arms for people with disabilities to say that we are the leaders here. We can take charge and don’t need to be given one year of respect; we’ll demand it for a lifetime.

In doing research for this post I found that a surprising number of singers and celebrities were affected by Polio as children. Jodi Mitchell, Alan Alda, Donald Sutherland, Gene Simmons, and many other famous actors, actresses, and singers were left with physical disabilities because of Polio. I found this really interesting paper written about this phenomenon of children with Polio growing up to be well-known singers, and I really hope you guys will read it. You can find it on-line HERE. I know it’s kind of long but it’s almost summer vacation for a lot of students and this article talks about the “Spasticus” video I posted so please check it out.

Want to know another famous singer who had Polio as a child? Neil Young! He claims that he wrote his song “Helpless” about the point in his childhood when he was suffering from Polio. Watch that video here and tell me that being a disability rights folk singer is not a sweet career path.

Now before I go out and get an Ian Dury root perm, I need a little support from my readers here. In the comments below please give me some ideas for a name I can use as a folk singer, for the band I’m forming, and/or some ideas for songs or lyrics. I’m pretty excited about this new career path and I’m sure I’ll be cruising into a small town near you soon.

Defying Gravity?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:01:00 +0000

I have some more music for you today but I am getting to the bottom of my barrel so please let me know if you have any ideas for other songs. This post actually comes from a suggestion by one of my readers who gave me genre to look into. So today I am going to be talking a little about Musical Theater. Again, this is out of my comfort zone so I will just post some things and hope that you guys do most of the talking…you’re probably sick of hearing from me anyway. If you know of other songs from musicals that relate to disability then please let me know and I’ll include them in this post.

The Tony and Pulitzer award winning “Next to Normal” was recently in Des Moines. This show is about how a family lives with mental illness. The mother has bipolar disorder and the rest of the family has their own issues to cope with. This show has been applauded for its take on mental illness by normalizing it and showing a realistic view of what it’s like to have a mental illness. I, unfortunately, was not able to get tickets to it when it was in Des Moines but I’m hoping one of you was able to see it and can provide me with your take on it. Check out some videos on its Youtube Channel and watch this video below from the Tonys to get an idea of what this show is about.

The next one is a show I have actually seen; "Wicked". Now I kind of want to tread carefully here because I attacked Glee and made a lot of people angry and I know Wicked is a popular musical but I still feel the need to talk about the way in which one of the characters and her disability is presented. Listen to the song below and let me know what you think. Start at about the 3 minute mark and listen for a while.

If you are not familiar with the show I can give you a basic run down of what I’m talking about. In this scene the popular girl has just met the boy of her dreams when another guy who has a crush on her comes up to ask her out. She uses his feelings to get him to ask out “the girl in the chair”. This girl is flattered and believes that the boy has actual feelings for her. In addition to this she spends most of the play wishing and praying to be able to walk. She shows up in the second act and we are pleased to see that she is now the governess though I can’t understand why because all she still does is demand that someone use magic to make her walk. Those must have been some interesting campaign speeches…

Once again the actress did not have an actual disability (at least the actress I saw in Des Moines didn’t) and we know this because at one point she stands up out of her chair for a few minutes and staggers around like some kind of drunk zombie. Moreover the character didn’t even seem to fit within the plot of the story; it was a separate subplot. I just don’t understand why she was included. Maybe you know the story better than me and can explain this? It just seems that if you are going to have a character with a disability they should do something other than sit in the corner and complain about being the character with the disability. The whole story is about a girl with green skin coming to love herself but the beautiful girl in a wheelchair is shown as being worse off. I don’t know, maybe someone with a little more musical theater background can comment and let me know what they think.

One final note and I will let you go for the weekend. There is a reason that I have been writing about music videos and disability the last couple of posts. On Monday, May 9^th I will be presenting my senior thesis in Rhetoric at Drake University. My topic is “Representations of Disability in American Media” and I will be giving a presentation on my research on this topic at 3:00pm in Howard Hall at Drake. This event is open to the public and I really would like people who have been reading this blog to come and see what they think. I have been writing about disability and music on this blog to get you thinking about the issues I will be presenting on so each one of you already have some background information on this topic. Here is a campus map for Drake. My presentation will be in Howard Hall room 111 (Building 37 on the map—bottom right corner area). There are some parking lots around it and street parking should be open. This would be a good chance to actually come hear me speak in person about these issues and to meet some staff from Disability Rights Iowa who will be on hand to pass out information and answer your questions about our agency. I hope to see you there!

Going Gaga for Disabilities

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:15:00 +0000

I am continuing the music topic with this new post but am going about as far away from country music as you can by focusing on one artist in pop music who has made a point of…well, making points; Lady Gaga. In addition to being politically involved in the GLBT movement, Lady Gaga has been sporadically infusing many of her performances with disability imagery. Of course I can’t tell you why she’s doing this other than she certainly appears to enjoy being provocative. If nothing else I think she’ll make for an interesting little post here. The first time I noticed her inclusion of disability was in her video for “Paparazzi” that was released in 2009. The video can be seen below. The segment I’m talking about is from the 2 minute mark to the 4 minute mark.

Then she performed this song live at the MTV Video Music Awards and wore an arm crutch again and there was another woman (I hesitate calling her a dancer) on the stage in a wheelchair too. Again, start watching from 2 minutes and go until about 2:40 to see what I’m talking about.

Now in both of these clips we see people using wheelchairs and arm crutches. But it’s not just the presence of these objects that make this worth talking about. You have to look at the positioning of these segments in the full performances and the way the women are dressed while using these devices and they way they move/dance while using them. I think it’s clear that Lady Gaga is sexualizing disability in her videos and performances. How did I come to this conclusion? Well it’s a half-naked woman writhing around in arm crutches…I don’t think she’s being shy with her message. Now she doesn’t actually have a disability that requires her to use these items as we can see later in the video but I think she uses them for these scenes to emphasize the fact that we often don’t associate disability with strong sexual agency.

I’m not sure how to pass judgment on this though. To be perfectly blunt, as a 22 year old man I can think of much worse things than having my disability sexualized. I mean, garsh I sure would hate to be objectified. I think there is something kind of powerful about granting sexuality to people with disabilities. Of course it would be better if actual dancers with disabilities (I guess we don’t actually know if the woman at the MTV awards had a disability or not) but she is still one of the only pop stars I have seen recently even go near this issue.

Finally her new song “Born This Way” has become the official Cripster ballad of disabled pride this year. Every time I hear it I feel a certain pride in my own diversity. She wrote the song so that people of all walks of life can take pride in the differences they were born with and I think that is a message that we need in the disability community right now. I don’t want to say that I know all the words or dance moves to this song but if you happen to be in Des Moines and have recently seen a weird guy rocking out in a beat-up Buick at a stop light chances are it was me. Talk about some sexy disabled dancing…

So what do you think? What is Lady Gaga doing for or to the disability community when she includes these things in her music? Oh! Oh! How would you feel about a disability rights flash mob in Des Moines?!

Okay one final thought from Lady Gaga herself and then I will let you get on with what I hope will be an amazing weekend:

“Whether life’s disabilities left you outcast, bullied, or teased; rejoice and love yourself today ‘cause baby, you were born this way!”

Standing Outside the Fire...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:14:00 +0000

So I went home for Easter weekend. This means two things: 1) Yesterday I had a three-hour car ride to just sit and think about things while belting it out to any song on the radio. 2) After I leave the Des Moines area all of the radio turns to country music. This isn’t really a problem for me because I like country music but I can see how it might be for others. I’m from a small town originally and grew up in the country with plenty of country music so I honestly didn’t mind listening to it between bursts of anything else I could find on the radio. In between belting out Cee-Lo Green and The Band Perry I sort of had an idea for a blog post or series of blog posts while I was driving. Then this afternoon I was in a coffee shop in Omaha reading some academic articles about visual rhetoric and disability (yeah this is what I do for fun on vacation…) and I decided that I wanted to include you in some work I have been doing.

I have always had an interest in the ways in which disability is shown in popular culture (see my post about “Glee”) and I think I want to go into music and music videos now. So I have collected a few relevant music videos that relate to disability and I would like you to watch them and tell me what you think. Here’s the catch, this post is just country music videos because it was easier for me to find some of those that explicitly reference disability. I have a pop music post waiting in the queue but I’m home on the farm now so country it is. Don’t like country music? Well then here is my suggestion. I’m really looking for songs, lyrics, and videos from all genres of music so find some other music that you like related to this topic and I will have it up here in no time. Until then watch these three videos and tell me what you think. They have three different portrayals of disability so there is a lot you can comment on.

First I have a song by Garth Brooks. Everyone who knows me well just rolled their eyes because they knew it was only a matter of time before I worked one of the most prolific artists of all time into this blog. In addition to being possibly the best singer who ever lived (not an opinion, the record sales speak for themselves) Garth's video for "Standing Outside the Fire" centers around a young boy with Down Syndrom.

Next I have a more recent song by Joe Nichols. The video for his new single "The Shape I'm In" features military men who have returned from combat with disabilities.

I posted this blog on Saturday night but by the time I woke up on Sunday I already had another video suggestion from a reader. Here is a video by Martina McBride called "God's Will" that is about the singer's interactions with a boy in her neighborhood who has disabilities. Thanks for sending this to me!

Finally I have a video from just a couple weeks ago. Darius Rucker performed a song at the ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards with several singers with developmental disabilities. These young men and women helped him write and compose the song and then got to perform it with Darius live on the show. There are also some statistics about developmental disabilities playing in the background so make sure you see the slideshow too.

So there you have it. For those of you who don't like country music, I'm sorry if you didn't like it but please, PLEASE send me other stuff so I can post that up here soon. For those of you who also belong to the Church of Garth Brooks of Latter-day Saints please come to our services. We meet most weekends at your local Honky-Tonk

The Jefferson House

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:38:00 +0000

Last Friday (yeah I’m staying pretty current with this blog now) I was able to participate in an amazing piece of outreach for our office that involved going on a car trip. I didn’t know where it was or what, exactly, we were doing but I got to ride in the car and that was good enough for me. It’s funny how similar interns can be to dogs in the work place. We become overly excited by the smallest things; car rides, scraps of food left in the break room, tummy rubs when we…wait, actually that hasn’t happened. I think I read in a pamphlet when I got hired here that tummy-rubs were frowned upon, or illegal; something like that. Anyway bounding up and down the hall with my tail wagging I could not wait to get in the car and stick my head out the window as we headed out of the office for a facility visit. Then I was informed that rather than going along with the visit I was to be the driver—not nearly as much fun. I was assured that I was not being used but honestly I couldn’t care less. What’s that old phrase? Interns can’t be choosers? Getting out of the office is getting out of the office…even if I did have to drive almost six hours round-trip.

The Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for the Jefferson House.

We were leaving the office to go to West Union, Iowa for an open house of a new facility in the state that is going to serve as a group-home for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome. This is the first home of its kind in the state of Iowa. Friday was the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Jefferson House in West Union and Disability Rights Iowa sent me and our assistant director to this event to view this beautiful new house and represent our agency at their ceremony.

After making it through some traffic problems (of course we were stopped by every single construction site in the state…) we made it just in time to watch the ribbon be cut on this new facility. After the formal ceremony we went inside for a tour of the house and to meet with some of the care providers, community members, and dozens of other people who came to see this new addition to the community and the state.

Enough wonderful things could not be said about this facility and its staff. In addition to being a beautiful home this house is also an extraordinary group home for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Changes were made to the structure of the building to accommodate the needs of people with this disability that will ensure that they have a rich and unrestricted life in the Jefferson House. While it more than met the minimum requirements for what makes a house a home the little extra pieces were the icing on the cake. The living room had a huge, flat-screen TV and a Nintendo Wii (two items on my personal checklist for the perfect house) and the basement had a den and an enviable exercise room.

What a gym!

More than that though, it was obvious that the owners and staff of the Jefferson House were extremely kind and caring individuals whose main goal in opening this house is to provide a safe yet free environment for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The Jefferson House provides 24-hour care to the residents there and helps them live with this disorder with as few limitations as possible.

At Disability Rights Iowa we work to keep Iowans with disabilities in their communities and out of institutions when at all possible to help them live full lives. Now that there is a home in Iowa for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome, families will be able to keep their loved ones in state; close to their families, their friends, and their communities. It was a great experience to see a group home in Iowa that truly focused on making it a home. In addition to providing everything that we look for as an agency, the Jefferson House also provided me with some delicious frozen fruit cups, a vegetable tray, and a day out of the office. Seriously, I can’t say enough positive things about my day in West Union.

The living room.

Meanwhile, back in Des Moines, I missed a visit from WHOTV who stopped by our office to interview our director as part of an ongoing investigation into the Apollo Counseling and Resource Center. Watch our news clip below to see how this story affects you as a tax-paying Iowan and to see our director in action!

Disability Rights Iowa at Kidsfest

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:29:00 +0000

Now that I am stopping the Cripster Chronicles for a while I can get back to writing about some great things that have been going on in our office. The first event I want to report on happened a while ago now but I had a blast at it and it’s my blog so I’m deciding to write about it now and you wave all rights to be upset by the untimely posting of this blog (it’s in the fine print…). Today I get to tell you what an amazing time I had working our booth for three days at Kidsfest!

Honestly I was a little apprehensive about giving up my entire weekend to this event but when I showed up for the first shift on Friday night it took exactly 4.25 minutes for me to have the time of my life by…well, I’ll just show you the picture:

I KNOW! How cool is that? Iowa Reptile Rescue had a booth there and on the first night they had a baby alligator. Now they said nobody was allowed to touch it but I worked my Cripster charms and convinced them that it was a good idea to give me this adorable yet possibly-arm-eating little girl for a photo-op. Holding this alligator made my entire night. Plus I got a killer picture out of it. Notice my swanky new Disability Rights Iowa t-shirt? Me holding an alligator in my sexy new agency t-shirt? Yeah I think I’m going to make this my new dHarmony dating profile pic…then I’ll just sit back and wait for the offers to roll in.

The best part of working these three days was meeting all of the kids and families and hearing some incredible stories from parents of children with disabilities and from adults with disabilities who stopped by our table. There were many positive stories but the sad stories are the ones that stick out the most to me for some reason. One woman stopped by our table and told us that her daughter was just finishing up her beautician’s schooling by working at an area salon. One night a week or two before Kidsfest two girls with intellectual disabilities using wheelchairs came into the salon to get their hair done. The beauticians refused to cut these girls’ hair. The woman’s daughter was so upset by this that she said she would cut both girls’ hair as soon as she was done with her current client. This story really upset me. I mean I’m glad that the woman’s daughter did the right thing but the fact that these two girls were denied service is appalling. It’s against the law to refuse service to anyone based on race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or any other similar trait. If I was ever in a business and saw this kind of blatant discrimination God have mercy on that business owner. I would (content censored as per the Geneva Convention) and they would know better than to be that ignorant again. The fact that people think it’s okay to treat others like this really disgusts me. If you ever see something like this happen please stand up for the people being discriminated against and tell them about Disability Rights Iowa.

On a lighter though more personal note, a woman called me “sir” at Kidsfest. I know. It was like a knife right to the heart. How old did she possibly think I was?! I drowned my sorrows in a juice box from a neighboring booth and bought a box of Girl Scout cookies (Peanut Butter Patties obviously) and ate them alone in the dark watching a Lifetime movie that night…words hurt, people. Words hurt.

Saturday was much better though as I had a little more support in the young people department. My friend Zach worked the booth with me and helped me pass out information and play PLINKO with kids who stopped by our table. It was great to have another young guy with a disability at the table to represent our organization. He’s quite a bit younger than me too which was great because then the kids who stopped by our table got to meet someone their age with a disability who was still active in the community and involved in something as big as Kidsfest.

Me and my new bro, Zach!

My biggest responsibility at Kidsfest was to man the “Spread the Word to End the Word” posters and…well, spread the word to end the word. We brought it two big posters for parents and kids to sign and then educated them about the campaign. This has been a campaign that our office has really been working on so it was great to collect so many signatures from people who stopped by our booth.

One of our posters before Kidsfest.

Our two posters after Kidsfest!

Speaking of the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign, please remember that it is not just a one day event. We need to continue to work to remove this word from our vernacular. Last week Tim Shriver went on the Colbert Report and spoke on this issue. It’s pretty funny stuff and I think it’s great that an issue like this is being covered by such a popular show. Watch the video below to see how Steven Colbert tackles this issue.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tim Shriver

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

Video Archive

Not the most politically correct way to handle it but, as I said before, I can appreciate a good joke. Though I will say this about Tim Shriver’s comments if anyone called me “Diff-abled” I would become very diff-gruntled and diff-turbed and maybe a little diff-traught. Then I would look at you with diff-dain and diff-taste and try not to diff-tort your face with my fist. Maybe you diff-agree but I’ll take my words straight up. I diff-approve of watering down terms for myself. Other people might have dis-erent opinions on the issue, but I call myself a Cripster for a reason; I’m here. I’m DISabled. Get used to it.

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 7: Criplomatic Immunity

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:31:00 +0000

I was on a double-decker bus when I saw this car but I really wanted the driver to pull over
so I could get out and lay centerfold-style in this parking space.

I kind of feel like a failure of a blogger right now because my last post included an apology for being disorganized and sporadic and here it is over a week later and I have not posted anything that I promised. I’m conflicted right now because I want to write stuff from my trip to England but I need to focus on disability related issues, yet I had an incredible time in the United Kingdom and don’t want to gloss over it. Meh maybe I’ll include more details in a travel blog someday…at this rate that will be up and running in about 8 months. I want to keep this short and sweet so that I can get to some really exciting and current things so I’ll just post some appropriate pictures from England that relate to my mission of seeking out Cripster Culture across the pond and then move on.

A penguin sentinel keeps guard at the London School of Economics

This last picture is one of my favorites from England. I found this sign at the British Museum and was really confused. I saw the world-famous Egyptology exhibit and thought it was great. I saw the Rosetta Stone and fanned over it like a thirteen-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. I saw all kinds of Greek and Roman sculptures and statues that I’ve seen dozens of times in books before. It was this little piece of paper though that drew the greatest sense of wonder from me. I’ll let you scroll down to look at it first before I continue on.

What does that even mean? “Safe Zone”? The arrows make this even more convoluted. Do they represent an Uncle Sam “YOU, Cripster! You’re safe here!” or are they a message to able-bodied people that this is a “safe zone” for viewing people with disabilities like some kind of zoo? This was even more confusing because this sign was in a hallway but with an ascending and descending staircase right next to it. So did this sign mean that after braving the stairs (one of a cripsters three natural enemies you’ll remember) that you were finally safe? Was I in some kind of video game and this was my “safe zone” where I could save my progress and move on to fight the staircase? Was this some kind of wildlife refuge for persons with disabilities so that we were safe from poachers? If I left the safe zone would I be granting someone the right to attack me? Or leer at me? At the time I took this sign to mean that I was in imminent danger if I left this spot so I curled up in the fetal position under this sign and rocked back and forth humming Disney songs until I felt safe again.

I think what upset me the most about this sign was that it implied exactly what I was afraid of. When we have to designate spaces as “safe” for people with disabilities that clearly implies that other places are not safe. This is the kind of mentality that I am fighting with this blog. If there were one of those bathroom sign women (you know with the little triangle dress) with the words “safe zone” around it in a museum what would that mean? If this same museum had a “safe zone” for Hispanic people what would that be implying about our society? Unless you have a disability you are not likely to see this sign and question what it means. Now take one of your characteristics and insert it in this sign and see what you think.

I don’t know what this sign means, but there is one thing that I know for sure. As long as there is discrimination and ignorance toward people with disabilities this blog and the Disability Rights Iowa office are two safe zones you can always count on. Nay, not just safe zones. Veritable bastions of security equipped with a well-staffed army of advocates (and one aggressive yet plucky little blogger) who are ready to be called into battle when the time comes.

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 6: Cripster Compass

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:32:00 +0000

I want to take a moment to apologize for my blog being a little geographically confused recently. It’s difficult writing about my past experiences and keeping people up to date with our current happenings without jumping around the map too much. That does not, however, mean that this confusion is going to stop. Honestly, when your author is a bit “disjointed” what can you really expect his writing to be like?

So here is a quick timeline to maybe straighten some of this out. Over winter break I was in New York (this is what I just finished writing about) but after that I spent a while going through the United Kingdom (That’s some of what will be coming next). Last weekend I was in Chicago (that was referenced but not explained two posts ago and will be referenced once again in a few lines). Currently I am in Des Moines, in the Disability Rights Iowa office, at my desk, spending my Spring Break trying to catch up on this blog so I can start writing about being in Des Moines, in the Disability Rights Iowa office, at my desk…again. What’s that? You applaud my dedication? Well yes I mean I did give up my final Spring Break to work full-time writing for you but it really isn’t anything too… BECOME A SUBSCRIBER NOW!!! Whoa. Sorry. I don’t know where that came from. But since it’s out there I guess you should consider it. NOW! IN THAT BOX! DO IT! Wow. Sorry, I guess I’m just…(sigh) on with the post.

Chicago Skyline from Lincoln Park

I have a story from Chicago (see I said I would be referencing this trip) that is incredibly timely. They celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago on the Saturday I was there because people didn’t want to do it during the work week I guess. I was walking around downtown waiting to meet someone so I decided I would duck into a CVS to try to avoid the people who had been “celebrating” St. Patty’s Day since 9am. So I walk into CVS and this guy—who had clearly “celebrated” quite a bit that morning—watches me walk in, stumbles into his friend, points at me and says “See, I’m not the only one. This guy knows how to party too”. His markedly more sober friend realizes I’m not drunk but just walk that way and just sort of looks at me; mortified by his friend’s comment. At that point the first guy staggers over to me, raises his hand, and says “Yo man, looks like you know how to party! You trashed too?” His friend looks like he wants to remove all association at this point but I counter with a “You know it, bro! St. Patty’s Day. Gotta go hardcore!” and we exchange high fives, fist bumps, and back pats. I, of course, had not been drinking, but I know he didn’t mean any harm by it so I played along. It was a little weird but it was kind of nice walking through Chicago and being better at walking than the vast majority of the population for once. Also, I just want to give a shout out to one of my readers who was cool enough to meet up with me during my time in Chicago. She was the coolest guide I could ask for. Running through security gates, walking for miles (blocks? I don’t know but a LONG ways) under the EL tracks, and we even got free cake on a stick things from Starbucks when we took a break from exploring to get some coffee. Really cool and I appreciated being shown around by someone from Chicago.

Exploring the underbelly of Chicago. A view from under the EL tracks.

I’m going to keep this post short because I’ve put a lot of stuff up this week due to my increased hours over Spring Break and I…BECOME A SUBSCRI…you know, I’m going to have to work on that. Maybe a little more sleep and a little less coffee. I finished up the stories from my time in NYC this winter which means that next I’ll get to talk about some of my adventures in England and Whales. I want to be careful though because this is not a travel blog so I’m going to try to truncate my time in the United Kingdom to get back to some cool things we have been up to here in Des Moines. Going back to my St. Patrick’s Day story, I’m wondering if any of my readers with disabilities have similar stories. Has your disability ever been confused for something else like that?

View of traffic from the Brooklyn Bridge. Next stop: London!

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 5: Cripster Enemies

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:57:00 +0000

As I am attempting to write the field guide to Cripsters, I find it pertinent to write about some of the environmental challenges that Cripsters must brave on a daily basis. The Cripster has only three naturally-occurring enemies: Stairs, Fences, and Ice. Nothing frustrates a Cripster like encountering one of these three things in the wild. What’s worse is when these predators work together to thwart a Cripster who is simply trying to get to Urban Outfitters to buy a new plaid shirt. Icy stairs? One of my greatest foes.

On our boat going to Lady Liberty. You can see her in the distance.

You can imagine my chagrin then when, on my last day in New York, I encountered an entire colony of stairs standing between me and my goal. We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for our last day in the city and I was so excited to go because I had never seen her before. We couldn’t get tickets to the crown observation deck but we did get tickets for the lowest platform. So after going through security three times to be meticulously checked for, what I assume to be, weapons of some kind we made it to the entrance of Lady Liberty. That is where I encountered my old nemesis. There was a cutesy little sign telling everyone that it was only 153 steps to the first platform and then listed the number of stairs to subsequent platforms. There was a picture of a little cartoon man briskly speed walking up those stairs with a giant smile (honestly, is anyone happy to walk up stairs?) but I knew this was a trick that the stairs played on people to lure unsuspecting Cripsters into their jaws.

I know that 153 stairs does not sound like many, but it is worse than you think. A lot of this is just me though. While stairs provide a physical challenge for me, it is more of an emotional one. I have this distinct and painful memory of being five years old and coming out of a failed surgery to hear the surgeon telling my parents that someday I may be able to walk but that I would never be able to walk up stairs. That summer I climbed dozens of stairs up to an observation deck at Mount Rushmore with my parents. To this day I have never met a doctor, surgeon, or specialist who can explain how I am able to walk up stairs. Though I have been (I hesitate to use the word “successfully”…adequately?) facing stairs since then, there is not a single time I go up them when I don’t think about what that doctor said. Every. Single. Time. I can’t even go upstairs to my room in my own house without having his words flash through my mind.

Though this makes it more difficult for me to do things like go to class and brush my teeth (bathroom is also upstairs) I get an odd sense of accomplishment everyday when I prove that surgeon wrong. While I certainly don’t seek out stairs, I refuse to let them stop me from getting places I want to get to. I once had to climb over 500 stairs in Kyoto, Japan to get to a shrine I wanted to see but it was so worth it at the top (read that story HERE). After climbing that mountain, I was not about to let steps stop me from seeing the view from the Statue of Liberty. And that view was totally worth it too.

View from the platform.

However dangerous these natural enemies are, there is one greater enemy that hurts more people with disabilities than anything: haters. I am so sick of having to write about them by this point but a string of current events makes it easy for me to continue standing on my “stop discriminating!” soapbox. And to be totally honest, I do love taking down ableist haters. At Ellis Island, I read a lot about how many immigrants with disabilities and other illnesses were turned away to “protect” the American gene pool. This made me wonder if I would have been turned away if I arrived at Ellis Island all those years ago instead of my ancestors. Though honestly I probably would have taken one look at the Liberty staircase and gotten right back on the boat. Only joking.

Ellis Island: Cripster Approved!

This whole experience reminded me of my first visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Did you know that the first group of people to be systematically killed in the Holocaust was people with mental and physical disabilities? The Nazis began by creating "The law for the prevention of progeny with Hereditary Disease" which allowed them to gather and sterilize people with various disabilities. They then called us “useless eaters” in propaganda to get the people to think that people with disabilities were useless to society. Finally they used people with disabilities as test subjects to create and perfect the gas chambers, torture techniques, and medical experiments that would later be used on the Jewish population. (Please go to the BBC Ouch! Blog to read this entire timeline. This is also one of my favourite disability-related blogs so click around and check it out). So even though I have blond hair, blues eyes and the whole shebang, I most likely would have been one of the first ones killed in the Holocaust; something to think about I guess.

These used to be the barracks for people going through immigration.

All throughout history, people with disabilities have been discriminated against. Immigration officials: haters. Nazis: double haters. So imagine my disgust this week when I read about an elected official in New Hampshire who told a woman that people with disabilities in the state “should be shipped to Siberia”. When the woman compared this sentiment to Hitler’s eradication of people with disabilities “he told her that he agreed with the former Nazi leader on that issue”. Please read THIS article for the entire story. Telling people with disabilities they can go to Siberia?! I’m not supposed to make political comments on this blog but I think you can infer just where I’d like to tell him to go…

Finally, I have to call out bullies again. Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service (which is the Michigan equivalent of Disability Rights Iowa) sent us THIS article about a boy in Michigan who is meeting with President Obama this month to tell his story about being bullied in school because of his disabilities. Watch his video below.

Homer student in DC for bullying talks: woodtv.com

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 4: Evolution of a Cripster

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:28:00 +0000

Sorry it’s been a while but I just got out of midterms week and returned last night from a trip to Chicago visiting some friends. Over break I have some other friends staying in my house because the dorms get closed down. When I came home from Chicago last night, I came home to a group of my friends watching one of the best movies ever made; Jurassic Park. In addition to this cementing the fact that these people were my friends for a reason, I could not help but laugh because my post today was already going to be about dinosaurs. Now I know what you’re thinking “Daniel, there is no way that you can tie dinosaurs to disabilities!” but you’re wrong.

Central Park: Able-Bodied. In Black&White: Cripster!

On my fifth day in New York I went to the American Museum of Natural History after a nice stroll around Central Park. My friends had to wait in line for an hour to get tickets but I talked to some stranger on the street near Central Park and was given a free left-over ticket (Note: I have something of a penchant for talking to strangers and being rewarded for the experience so this was not unexpected for me. Though I will caution others not to be as fearless with strangers as I am; it can be dangerous). So I rubbed my free ticket in my friends’ faces—because I’m mature like that—and went into the museum before them. There was only one exhibit I wanted to see: dinosaurs.

When the first Cripsters walked the earth.

At the start of the exhibit Meryl Streep narrates a fascinating documentary about how life on Earth went from little cells in a pool of water to modern-day animals. I was on the edge of my seat as Ms. Streep led me through a twisting and turning tale of evolution. Then she got to the part where dinosaurs started developing. I was watching all of my favorite dinosaurs appear on the screen and then she said something that stopped me cold. The first dinosaurs walked on all fours; then something changed and some species began to walk upright. What was the change that occurred in these four-legged dinos you ask? There was a shift in their hip sockets. Some species developed extra space in their pubis bones that allowed them to walk upright and started their “evolutionary advance”.

Look at that hip socket. That is a sexy hip socket.

Now I’m no evolutionary biologist but I think it’s safe to infer that the same thing can be applied to the human species. I don’t want to brag but I’m pretty sure this means I am the next step in human evolution. Altered hip socket? Shift in the pubis bone? Yeah I’ve heard those phrases from doctors my whole life but until now I didn’t realize that it meant I was just the next step in human development. Don’t believe me? I challenge you to watch Jurassic Park and see the Tyrannosaurus-Rex and Velociraptors and tell me that evolution did not deal them a winning hand.

Spread the Word to End the Word!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:53:00 +0000

I'm going to pause the Cripster Chronicles today to provide you all with links and materials for a cause that I think everyone needs to be aware of. As you know, I'm pretty self-important so the fact that I'm taking a break from my stories to collect all of this for you should give you an idea of how important it is.

Today is the day to "Spread the word to end the word"! A national campaign has been underway for years now to try to get people to stop using the word "retarded" as a synonym for "stupid" or in other pejorative uses. In my last two posts I have talked about how much words can hurt people; especially people and children with disabilities. Using the r-word to describe something you don't like is not only offensive but damaging to people with intellectual disabilities, their family members, and friends. I asked everyone in my last post to take a stand against bullying based on disability. Your first step in that can be to take a stand against the use of the r-word.

As I have explained by this point, my personal experiences are limited to my growing up and living with a physical disability, so I don't have many personal stories to tell on this note. While I have friends and family members with intellectual disabilities, I think many others before me have done a great job writing about their first-hand experiences. Because of that, I am using this post today to collect a lot of other great blog posts and videos from this campaign to try to spread the message.

First, I encourage all of you to go to the r-word.org to sign their pledge list and follow this campaign and see all of the materials it has to offer you.

I wanted to include a video but there are too many great ones to pick from! Click HERE to see some featured videos from the campaign.

Then check out this news story from The Huffington Post . It is from the Special Olympics and has information about this campaign and other anti-bullying measures it is leading now.

I also found this article from the NBA about what they have done to spread awareness for this issue. We know that many young children look up to athletes and to see them engaged in this kind of work could have a large effect. Make sure you show the video and read the article to any sports nuts you know.

Finally here are two other blogs that were sent to me from readers of this blog. The first is from an author (Kate Harding) who writes about growing up with a sibling with an intellectual disability. To read Kate's blog, click here.

The second blog is from a mother of a boy with Down Syndrome writing about what the r-word means to her. You can read that one by clicking here.

So take advantage of these materials and help spread the word to end the word! Remember, the new r-word is respect.

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 3: Cleaning House

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:41:00 +0000

I checked my fancy little Cripster Chronicles notebook that I traveled with and unsurprisingly the day after New Year’s Eve was a little short on entries so I’ll be using this post as sort of a housekeeping post to give out a hodge-podge of cripster photography and useful information that I think is important while still keeping with the cripster theme. It's a bit of a longer post but there is important stuff at the end too so please stay with me.

Hipsters in Williamsburg. Little did they know how creepy I was about to become...

I didn’t get home from Time Square until three in the morning after waiting for ages to get through public transportation after the mass exodus that was Time Square at 12:05am on New Year’s Day. According to my little notebook I woke up at 11am the next day and hit the ground running in typical cripster style. I left my friend’s apartment and wandered around Williamsburg looking for things to do. I ended up shopping at a Japanese convenient store, then a thrift store to pick up some new cripster threads, and then finally nestled into a local café with a cup of chai and my notebook to write the previous post for you guys. As I wrote in my notebook I sat in a café, eating Japanese chocolate, drinking a chai latte. Skinny jeans? Yep! Long scarf? Of course! Crispter? Definitely! Now as I am typing this I’m sitting in my office lacking much of this cripster support, but just to make me feel like more of a blogger I am sitting at my desk with our agency laptop in my lap. Yeah I have my desktop computer right here but using the laptop at work makes me feel like a legitimate blogger…don’t judge.

Hipsters on a dock. One of them is giving me a thumbs up...so they found me out.

Housekeeping point number one: Changes to the blog. As you may have noticed (and let’s be honest you refresh this page every thirty minutes looking for cripster updates so I know you have) I have added some new features to the blog to make it even easier to follow now. I added an e-mail subscription service and an RSS feed. If you want to get a notification whenever I put a new post on the blog just enter your e-mail address in the box to the right. It will send you an e-mail to that address and ask that you confirm this. It’s VERY simple and will send you an e-mail every time there is new content on here so you will be able to keep up with late-breaking cripster news. Cripsters are never behind in information uptake and trends so it’s best to get on this if you want to be legit. Please go to the box right now and enter your e-mail address to keep up. Also, we have a new Facebook page now with our name changed to Disability Rights Iowa and I updated that link and added a snazzy new button so become our fan on Facebook to get even more updates from our staff.

I just thought this was funny. There was an accessible elevator to the right though.

Housekeeping point number two: Upcoming events. Our office will be participating in a local event next weekend that we hope you will participate in. We will be at the Iowa State Fair Grounds in the Varied Industries Building with our very own booth at Kidsfest! March 4^thfrom 6pm-9pm, 5^thfrom 9am-6pm, and 6^th from 10am-4-pm Disability Rights Iowa will be passing out information and treats to anyone who stops by our booth. We are also planning some really fun activities for anyone who stops by! Now here’s the best part. Guess who will be working at this booth on all three days. Yep, yours truly. (Pauses and hears the high-pitched screams of his millions of adoring fans) Whoa there ladies no need to storm the state fair grounds now to start lining up to meet your favorite Des Moines area disability-interest blogger; there will be plenty of the cripster to go around. So please come to Kidsfest next weekend to see us, pick up some useful information, and play our famous PLINKO game to win some great prizes. I will also have a photo booth ready where you can get your picture taken with the cripster himself and your photo may even be featured on this blog. Wondering if I’m serious about this? I guess you’ll have to come and find out. All I know is photo-ops with fans seem to boost Justin Beiber’s on-line followers so it should certainly work for me too…right?

Housekeeping point number three: Take a stand. I want to take a moment to touch on a serious issue now if I can. I think it’s fair to say that most of my readers know how I feel about the TV show Glee. Well this week I actually have something positive to say about it. No, I’m not backtracking on my previous statements, but I am going to put my support behind a new campaign coming out of Glee, or at least one of its primary characters. Lauren Potter is an actress with Down Syndrome who plays the character Becky on Glee. This week she went on CNN to tell her story about being bullied because of her disability and how she is using her new-found star power to help other children with disabilities stand up for themselves. I could not support her or this cause more.

As a person who still vividly remembers being teased and bullied in elementary school for being disabled, I can tell you how much this hurts children. I was lucky enough to go to a small school with supportive friends and teachers and I have two great parents who taught me how to stand-up for myself so my experience could be worse but you never forget those kinds of comments. I will never forget the bullying I received from other students and, in one case, a teacher. As any adult who was teased as a child because of their disability, sexuality, race, ethnicity, or other trait will tell you; nothing hurts as much as being made fun of for the way you were born. According to the article accompanying this video, 60% of students with special needs report being bullied and teased because of their disability. This is disgusting. This is inexcusable. Clearly something needs to be done in our schools. I’m sure most people know about the string of gay students killing themselves because of bullying they received in schools and the “It Gets Better” campaign that followed suit. Lauren is pairing up with the Special Olympics and many other organizations to launch the “Disable Bullying” campaign to raise awareness of this issue facing our children.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think that children are being driven to suicide because of bullying. Every student has the right to go to school and not be teased for being who they are. We like to say that we respect diversity but clearly that message is getting lost somewhere. So watch Lauren’s Video from CNN, read the information about the Disable Bullying campaign and related campaigns and take action. Talk to your kids, talk to your siblings, talk to your friends. Bullying in our schools needs to stop.

As for me, I will be at Kidsfest at the State Fairgrounds for three days next weekend. I have a disability. I’m proud of who I am. I was teased. It sucked and it wasn’t easy but I made it to the other side. I’ll be at Kidsfest next weekend to send this message to any children with disabilities who are being teased:

It Gets Better.

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 2: HIP-py New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:13:00 +0000

In addition to studying hipsters, discovering cripsters, and visiting friends, I was in New York City for one very specific reason this winter; to watch the ball drop in Time Square. Every year I watch this spectacle on TV and dream about what it would be like to be there. Growing up on a farm in a small town, it always seemed unfathomable that so many people could be in one place for a New Year’s party. So some friends and I agreed last year that we would go to Time Square to celebrate the New Years of our senior year of college.

This is all I have to say about the experience: I’m so glad that I did it but I would NEVER do it again.

Well…okay, so that’s not all I have to say about it because then this would be a very short post. Instead, I’ll be saying quite a bit more about it actually. Even though the event was not going to happen until midnight we had to be there thirteen hours earlier to get through security, find our spot, and then stand for twelve hours. Had I known what twelve hours of standing was going to feel like I may have second-guessed my decision. I’m something of an ambler; I will just walk out of my door and walk for hours. This is my main method of exploration when I travel. I don’t plan; I just kind of fly someplace, set up a base camp, and then just head out. So in the days leading up to New Years and in almost every day that followed I was used to putting in 8+ hours of walking a day. I thought that maybe standing for that amount of time would be a good break. I was sorely mistaken…and I mean that quite literally.

It turns out that my body is not made for, well, gravity I suppose. Standing in one space—one square foot of space—for thirteen hours did a number on my joints, or at least on my joint regions where I’m assuming pieces of me attach; we’re not quite sure how that works. It turns out that the strain of standing still felt much worse than the strain of walking for nine hours a day; this was something unexpected. When describing this experience, the word “torture” comes to mind. Possibly “excruciating”? Or maybe I am just taking creative license here. I guess you’ll never know.

At any rate the experience was less than enjoyable. That is until the last thirty seconds. Hundreds of thousands of people crowding the streets began counting down in unison. The tension and excitement in the air was exhilarating. I can’t describe it and I’ve never felt anything close to it. When the ball hit, confetti whirled through the air amid throngs of people cheering, jumping, and sharing New Year’s kisses. And in that one minute everything was worth it.

After screaming and jumping along with everyone I went to take a step and promptly fell into the guard rail next to me. My legs—which apparently atrophied from non-use in only 12 hours—refused to cooperate for quite some time. I gathered up my friends (including two new ones I had made in the crowd) and wobbled around Time Square looking for food and water and bathrooms. As we were walking, my new friend from Macau turned to me and said “Are you okay? You walk like a penguin.”

This is a phrase that has followed me my entire life. From bullying in first grade to joking from college friends this has always been an agreed upon comparison from most people who comment on my gait. I used to hate it. I used to see penguins on TV and watch them with complete disdain. I hated their waddle. I hated their little hops. I hated their puffed-out chests and bent-back wings. Then my dad took me to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and I saw some penguins in the aquarium there. I saw them stumbling around like little idiots falling over trying to eat fish from the keepers. I watched them take the fish and limp toward the water. I watched with glee hoping that it would fall in and simultaneously choke on the fish and drown. Then something amazing happened. The penguin turned into a torpedo of precision and cut through the water with incredible grace and speed. At that moment I saw through the ruse. These penguins were just playing us all along. This was one cunning animal. I was very young but I knew that this was some kind of sign. I was meant to one day find my “water” and nobody would make fun of me anymore.

Now, penguins and I are pretty tight. I go to that same zoo every chance I can to sit and watch my waddling brethren manipulating people right and left while plotting a greater purpose. People still compare me to penguins but I no longer see this as an insult. When Morgan Freeman narrates an Oscar-winning documentary called “March of the People” let me know. Until then I will not accept arguments that these animals are anything less that incredible.

Me on that guard rail celebrating. Photo Credit: Monsicha Hoonsuwan

Walking on the streets of New York, fifteen years of this phrase came flooding over me. It was not even twenty minutes into 2011 and I was already being told “You walk like a penguin”. With a knowing look at my best friend and a smile at my new one, I confidently uttered four words “Yes. Yes I do”.

Cripster Chronicles Chapter 1: Cripster Hobbies

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Sorry it has taken so long between posts, but the cripster lifestyle is very hectic and ironically does not leave a lot of time for writing blog posts. After introducing you to the cripster movement in my last post I am going to continue on today helping you to understand what it means to be a cripster so that you can find them and/or become one yourself. While in New York I was staying in Williamsburg which is one of the three main hipster locations in the country; it was here that I knew I would find good tips on how to be a real cripster.

Hipsters in Williamsburg

My first couple of days in New York were spent getting acclimated to my new cripster pad and doing some sightseeing. I have been to New York a couple of time before so I was able to skip a lot of the more famous places this time around to do some more low-key walking tours. I told you in the Cripster Chronicles’ prologue that I would be helping to define the cripster movement so I will discuss some cripster interests and hobbies today to better educate people about our culture.

An interesting building in Greenwich Village

Architecture. Cripsters love to study—or at least stare at—architecture. While I was traveling I made sure to stop and look at all of the unique, beautiful, and hiplessly hip buildings that I could find. While many people don’t appreciate a good building, I think that cripsters are able to connect to architecture on a much deeper level. In addition to loving the artistry behind a good design, cripsters connect with buildings and places on a personal level. The history behind buildings and disability can be summed up in one word: Accessibility. The fight for equality for persons with disabilities focuses so much on our ability to get into buildings and around places that it makes us extra-sensitive to building construction. Our cripster forefathers worked hard to earn us the right to buildings that are accessible so modern-day cripsters have a bit of a fascination with architecture. If you ever want to know where to find some good-looking buildings in your area, consult your local cripster.

Black & White skyline view from Central Park...a perfect cripster photo.

Culture. Whether it is foreign countries or local subcultures, cripsters love to observe the cultural differences of others. There is a certain connection that cripsters have with culture. There is a universal culture of disability that transcends other social constructs and allows people with disabilities to connect with each other despite other cultural differences. Because of this, cripsters are part of a global culture of disability and are appreciative of cultural differences in others. You can often find cripsters at cultural events and locations around town. Museums, festivals, restaurants, and other venues with international and/or cultural flare are often teeming with cripsters because of this interest in culture. In New York I was able to feed my own cultural interests by indulging in a visit to Chinatown. I have an unhealthy obsession with Chinatowns (you can read more about that HERE) so I needed to stop by the one in New York or it would not have been a complete trip.

Cripster photo tip: Black & White and abstract angles make every photo more "cripster".

Art. Centuries of exclusion, discrimination, and oppression have led to a culture of expression in the disability community that is vibrant and passionate. Cripsters have inherited this trait and have an insatiable appetite for art, film, photography, and other forms of visual expression. Whether it is creating or viewing, cripsters love expression. In order to be extra cripster here are some tips on appreciating the visual arts. Paintings should be abstract. Abstract art and its distortion of the normative world is a cripster must. My personal favorite is Salvador Dali. Photography should also have aspects of abstraction in it. The easiest way to do this is to shoot all of your pictures in black and white and/or from odd angles. Movies should be deep and carry indie themes with them. Movies with storylines that center around or feature disabilities are also important to the cripster lifestyle. There are two movies out right now that I have seen with story lines closely tied to disability that I would recommend. Coincidentally these two movies are also recipients of a lot of critical praise and multiple Academy Award nominations so go out and see them soon to start your journey to becoming a cripster. I have included links to trailers for “Black Swan” which focuses on mental illness and “The King’s Speech” which is a bio-pic about King George VI as he goes through speech therapy.

The Cripster Chronicles: Prologue

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:16:00 +0000

After the Battle of Hostel Hill my friend (the one who ended up e-mailing the hostel) told me—what I thought to be—a pretty funny joke.

Q: What do you call a guy in a wheelchair wearing skinny jeans and thick-rimmed glasses?

A: A Cripster

If you don’t understand the joke it’s possible that you are not familiar with the social classification of the hipsters in America today. Even if you don’t know the term, you’ve probably encountered one before. I would try to provide my own definition here but I think Urban Dictionary has done it best. Here is a small portion of the definition that they provide:

“Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. Although "hipsterism" is really a state of mind, it is also often intertwined with distinct fashion sensibilities. Hipsters reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often seen wearing vintage and thrift store inspired fashions, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses.”

Please go HERE if you want the full definition that Urban Dictionary provides. Having an understanding of Hipster culture will aid you greatly in understanding the rest of this post.

After my friend told me this joke I became fascinated with the idea of a subculture of people who identify as “Cripsters”. What does it mean to be young, hip, and disabled? Well…maybe I shouldn’t say “hip” because technically I don’t have them. Cool? No. Trendy? Meh. Ah! What about hiplessly hip? Yeah. I kind of like that. What is more individualized and independent than people who are so outside of the mainstream that they have different anatomical set-ups? Being able bodied is so square.

I was so intrigued by the thought of Cripster culture that I decided to use my one-month Winter Break from Drake to embark on a mission. Before graduating in May (knock on wood) I wanted to take a month to relax, find myself, learn about the world, and define what it means to be a Cripster in 2011. So I left Des Moines to go home for Christmas and to prepare myself for the journey. My journey took me from Omaha to New York City to Syracuse, New York then around the United Kingdom in an attempt to help lead a global Cripster movement.

While I did not create the term (I just want to clearly give credit to my Hostel Hill companion for telling me this phrase. If I tried to claim credit for it I know that any of my friends reading this would call me out on it. Honestly, with my friends I spend more time being thrown under busses then Evil Knievel did jumping over them) I am attempting to define it.

Japanese Chocolate and Chai Tea: A Total Cripster Combination

Armed with my pen and moleskin notebook I went on this journey taking note of anything cool and anything disabled. What resulted is a body of written work that I call the “Cripster Chronicles” which will be detailed here on the Disability Rights Iowa blog. My goal in the next few posts is to mobilize fellow Cripsters by recounting my adventures. I hope you enjoy them.

Migrating East for the Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:41:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a good week since my last post and that the holidays have been treating everyone well. I’ve been out of the office this week because I’ve been home for Christmas so I have not been able to put up any new posts this week. On that note, I just wanted to pop in today to let people know that I am going to be taking a short break from this blog to do some traveling so don’t be worried or upset if you don’t see some new posts for a while. I mean, I know it will be hard for you to go another week without hearing from me but please try to hold on until I get back.

I get a month off for winter break at Drake so I am taking advantage of that time and doing some traveling. I’ll be in New York for a week and a half and then am going across the pond to the United Kingdom to visit some friends so I won’t be able to log in and put up new stuff until late January. Never fear though because for Christmas my roommate got me a really nice set of moleskin journals to take with me to write in just in case I come across any disability related situations in New York or London. Shockingly I seem to have a penchant for finding myself in “disability related situations” (my trip to Chicago for example) so I’m fairly certain I will find something to write home about.

Even though I will be leaving for a while you can still keep up to date with all things Disability Rights Iowa by becoming our fan on Facebook. Just look on the right-hand column of your screen under the “Blog Archive” box. By clicking on the Facebook icon you will be taken to our new Facebook page where you can become a fan and receive updates from our office. Please become a follower of this blog and a fan of ours on Facebook to get the most up-to-date information from us!

I’ll see you guys in a few weeks. Well, not “see” but “talk to”? No, that’s not right. Umm I’ll just…hmm. You know what? Let’s just say that when I get back I’ll put some words here and if you want to read them you can. Does that sound doable? Great!

The Stereotypes Were Hung on the Mantel with Glee

noreply@blogger.com (Dan) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:43:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to avoid talking about this topic for a while but I now find myself forced to address the elephant in the room of the disability and pop culture cocktail party; Glee. I’ve been avoiding it because I really, really despise this show and have avoided actually watching it until this week when Glee once again dropped a discriminatory bomb on the disabled community. I won’t recount everything that this show has done in its two vapid seasons to perpetuate horrible stereotypes about people with disabilities because I simply don’t have the time to write the volumes it would take to handle that complaint load so I’ll just start with the most recent episode and trust that they will continue to produce at the same level in the future where I can address it here then.

So this week Glee had its holiday episode. I was actually told about it by a follower who heard someone talking about the episode and told me to watch it specifically because he knew my views on it would end up here. As I had a free day this Sunday I sat down to watch this episode and, yes that’s what this post is going to be about. I never wanted to write about Glee because then I am acknowledging its existence and I didn't want to do that. It’s sort of the Voldemort of television for me. Except instead of remembering how it killed my parents I just get really angry at how it shoves disgusting ableist propaganda down the throats of its viewers.

So I am watching this episode that is about Christmas and apparently the show is about high school students who don’t have the ability to communicate except through song and stereotype. And this week they get to tackle the holidays. Everything is going fine then it happens; ableism. Some poor able-bodied girl has the terrible misfortune of dating another student who uses a wheelchair; that poor, poor girl. Though she is able bodied she is apparently extremely unintelligent (or something like that…I’m not quite sure what her problem was). So she takes her 17-year-old self to visit Santa to have him grant her holiday wish. What was her innocent wish you ask? She wished that her boyfriend be able to walk.

Livid does not even begin to describe how I felt after she asked this of the big man in red himself. I’m not going to say that I threw a dining room chair, but one was certainly displaced in my reaction to seeing this scene. What was even more disgusting is the boyfriend’s response. Did he break up with her? No, he decides to indulge her little fantasy and send someone dressed as Santa to her house to explain that Santa is not omnipotent. When I saw the realization on her face that she maybe just need to accept someone for who he was my heart really went out to her. Word of advice man to man Artie, dump that chick; you could do a lot better. In the end though, Artie does not dump his ableist, McIgnorant girlfriend. What does happen? They inexplicably get a piece of advanced medical technology delivered to his house that magically gives him the ability to walk; thank God! I’m sure this piece of experimental technology is cheap and available to the average disabled consumer right? (Performs an elementary Google search) Hmm well it says here that those magic robot legs are not on the market yet, and they are expected to cost around $20,000. That must be one heck of a paper route.

What’s so wrong with wishing that the boy in the wheelchair could walk for Christmas? The double standard, that’s what. To illustrate my point I have written my own Glee-edition letter to Santa.

Dear Santa,

I can’t handle people who are different than me because they make me feel uncomfortable. Because of this I don’t like to see them on TV. Please change the following things on the television show Glee to make diversity a little easier for me to handle:

1) Make the homosexual boy straight

2) Make the Jewish girl a Catholic

3) Make the overweight girl thin

4) Make the overweight, black girl thin AND white

5) Make the Asian members white as well

6) In fact any non-Caucasian character should become Caucasian. Then they don’t need to deal with receiving racism.

You know what, Santa? Just give me a show where the entire cast is white because we all know that’s the race people would prefer to be anyway. Nobody should have to suffer through life not being white; it’s too difficult. Oh and obviously everyone wants to be a Christian so please make that happen.

Merry Christmas,

The Heteronormative, Ableist, Racist television consumer

Offensive? You’ve got that right. If Glee where dying black people white the audience would probably get upset but because they are curing these poor disabled people who couldn’t possibly be content with who they are nobody seems to notice.

Fortunately for Artie when the show ends he actually does get to walk because the actor who plays him does not really use a wheelchair. Many people in the disabled community are actually really upset about this because there are plenty of actors who actually use wheelchairs who would be able to act and dance in one much better than this kid, but then the show would actually have to hire a disabled person and really, who wants one of those hanging around wishing to be cured all the time? The only redeeming quality that I saw in this show was that there was a girl with Down Syndrome in the cast; so that is pretty cool. Then comes the downside. I thought to myself “I’m sure she has a prominent, respectful role in the show, right?” What? She doesn’t? She is a henchman to—who I assume is—the antagonist and wears a dog suit for three-fourths of the episode? How shocking.

But, Daniel Glee is so diverse and great and shiny! Having a cast that includes all your minority groups spreads awareness and acceptance…right? NO! Not one bit. You want to “respect” diversity? What part of harnessing the cute girl with Down Syndrome to a dog sled and having her pull a grown woman around is respectful to you? Is THAT respectful? No, it’s disgusting. You want friends and a girlfriend? You had better get up out of that chair because they just can’t like you for who you are. The only thing that this show does with any Glee is suppress the disabled community even further.