Disability Blog Carnival #37 is up NOW!

[Image description: Carnival logo shows a well-known self-portrait of Frida Kahlo in a wheelchair, holding brushes and a palette that resembles a human heart, with the words "Disability Blog Carnival" superimposed in strong black capitals.]

CripChick invites you to don a party hat and join in the festivities. She's assembled such an abundant collection of links to recent blogging on identity, community, passing, culture, difference ... and you'll pick up neologisms like "cripeleptic" and "chippy martyr." Mmm, better than cotton candy. I wouldn't mind one of the Frida t-shirts to mark the day, though. (Y'know, we might need a souvenir t-shirt. I don't think anyone makes a disability blogosphere shirt yet.)

Next edition of the carnival will be hosted at Ryn Tales, with the theme "spirituality and disability." Links are being accepted for consideration now through Monday May 19, for a Thursday May 22 posting, so leave them in comments here or there, or at the blogcarnival.com form, or just put "disability blog carnival" in the text of your post, I usually find those too.

May 8: Douglas A. Martin (1947-2003)

May 8 was the birthday of Douglas A. Martin, a leader of the disability rights movement in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, active in Californians for Strong Access, and co-founder and director of the Westside Center for Independent Living in 1975. In 1971, he was the first grad student with a "significant disability" to win a UCLA Chancellor's Fellowship--and the next year he was UCLA's first disabled teaching assistant. He earned a PhD in urban studies at UCLA. Martin co-founded the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disability in 1983, and was a Special Assistant to the Chancellor to coordinate ADA and 504 compliance on campus. On the national level, he lobbied tirelessly to remove work penalties from Social Security provisions. Martin died way too soon, in 2003, at age 55.

There's a really good, long, interesting oral history interview with Douglas Martin, conducted in 2002 by Sharon Bonney, available in transcript at the Bancroft Library website. (There are also audio and video clips. This might be limited access, I'm not sure.) One section that particularly caught my eye was about his three years in an Omaha hospital after contracting polio at age 5; television was new then, and a great distraction for a ward full of children in iron lungs. But the Army-McCarthy hearings were running on the only channel for much of the day! Martin remembers that planting a seed:

It just really gave me a sense of, there's a whole big wide world out there going on, and you know this political world and all this stuff. It was interesting. Didn't have that much to do with it at that point except take it all in. But later I guess, it might have been part of the reason I was interested in politics, and getting involved in Washington, and kind of having knowledge. There was so much information and detail about the system, and how it worked and how it didn't work, in those days. Some of the best and some of the worst in people in politics came out. It was fascinating, and I guess I got interested, I saw it to be a place where you could make a difference. I kind of filed it away in the back of my mind. I kind of remember that as possibly motivating, as some basis for later interest in trying to bring about social change, something more positive. (here)

I don't watch TV if I can help it when I'm in the hospital. When my kid is hospitalized, it's usually in a shared room, and there's little choice. I remember being in a quad isolation room with him during the 1998 Clinton impeachment hearings; the mother across the room was shouting at the commentators a lot. Think I also saw an Olympics opening festivities in a PICU once? I know another mother whose son was born in July 1969--so she and the other women giving birth that week were among the Americans who did not see the Neil Armstrong moon landing live.

What have you seen--or not seen--on TV during hospital stays?

Spanish Film and Disability

I've added a new post (both in -bad- English and in fine Spanish) to Caperucita Coja's Blog about Accion Mutante.

RIP: Harlan Hahn (1939-2008)

Just saw the news that Harlan Hahn, a political science professor formerly at USC, a disability rights activist, and an important figure in the founding and development of disability studies in policy research, has died at the age of 68. Some of Harlan Hahn's online writings:

"Toward a Politics of Disability: Definitions, Disciplines, and Policies"
"Good Jobs, Good Benefits (but not for disabled workers)" at Ragged Edge (2006)
"Love, Sex, and Disability: Maintaining Interest and Intimacy" (transcript of a conference appearance with Sharon Bacharach)

ADDED LATER: Beth Haller has this remembrance.

This is for Kay at Gimp Parade

[Photo description: Signage outside a men's room shows two beige plaques--one, a symbol dressed in Western gear labeled "Men," and the other below is the usual access symbol; both are posted on a stone surface]

Disabled guy doesn't get a hat, neckerchief, chaps or boots, either.... spotted at Knott's Berry Farm last fall.

(There's an equivalent sign on the ladies' room, photo posted here.)

Conference: Before Depression (19-21 June)

[Image description: A blue background fades to white, with a grey spiral around a torn bit of dictionary with the words "Melacholy. adj." and "1. Gloomy; dismal" legible, and the title "Before Depression, 1660-1800" beneath that in blue]

This conference program titled "Before Depression: The Representation and Culture of Depression in Britain and Europe, 1660-1800," caught my attention today--the conference itself is just part of a three-year project that also includes an ongoing lecture series, planned publications and an exhibit this summer of visual representations of depression in the 18th century. Too bad for me it's all happening at the University of Northumbria and the University of Sutherland--but good for any of you who happen to be in that neighborhood. If you attend any component of this project, I'd love to hear more about it.

Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC)

From time to time we will offer this space to organizations working in partnership with the disability community to address issues of widespread interest. The Wireless RERC in Atlanta has developed a new web portal that shows great potential. We wish them well in fostering cross-disability conversations (in English at first, but one hopes in additional languages as the utility of the portal is demonstrated), as we all grapple with a democratizing communication platform -- the cell phone. See Horst and Miller (2006) for an anthropological view of how this emergent technology is incorporated into particular communication cultures.

Reference: Heather A. Horst and Daniel Miller (2006) The Cell Phone: An anthropology of communication (Oxford and New York: Berg).

Dear readers and members of Disability Studies, Temple U.:

Congratulations on a great website/blog. It is clear that you have put in a lot of skill, effort and commitment into developing such extensive, useful and compelling content.

I just wanted to introduce the readers at Disability Studies to our organization, the Wireless RERC, based in Atlanta.

We are a research and engineering group funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the U.S. Department of Education. NIDRR funds a number of other RERCs dedicated to research and engineering for people with disabilities [list]. Our group includes faculty and staff from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Shepherd Center, a critical care facility dedicated to spinal cord injury.

We obtained our original funding in 2001, and were renewed for a second five-year cycle in 2006. The mission of the Wireless RERC is to: “to promote universal access to and use of mobile wireless technologies and explore their innovative applications for people with disabilities.”

We are engaged in three main areas of activity:

1. Conducting research on the wireless needs of people with all types of disability.

We do this by:

• Inviting people with disabilities to participate in our ongoing Survey of User Needs and join the Consumer Advisory Network


• Assessing the usability of wireless products by representative users with disabilities, usually through focus groups


• Promoting awareness among consumers of accessible wireless options


• Promoting awareness among providers about the needs of customers with limitations due to age or disability

Additionally, we have just launched MyWirelessReview.com with the hope of creating a space where people of all abilities can share opinions, information, tips, news items about wireless technology as it relates to people with disabilities.

As we have just launched the site, we are eager to invite participation from the readership of DS, TU. While we ramp up, I have been posting some news items that have implications for wireless users with disabilities, and some comments from participants in some of our recent focus groups.
Also, I just posted an audio file from a recent brown bag luncheon at the Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI) here in Atlanta, in which the presented compares the features and functionality of Windows Mobile and Symbian (used on Nokia’s) operating systems. The presenter, who is blind, is a technology instructor at CVI, and consequently offers an important perspective on such technology. [Check it out]

I have another audio clip from a different technology instructor at CVI detailing her experiences downloading and installing Mobile Speak software onto her mobile phone. Great stuff! Very informative. I’m still waiting on final approval from the presenter.

2. Developing technology, including:

• Prototype systems for location-based services in public places


• Next-generation, digital emergency alerts that ensure equitable access to emergency information by people with disabilities over wireless networks and devices


• Prototypes of universal interfaces that accommodate diverse user abilities


• Guidelines and tools for the design of wireless interfaces that accommodate users with visual limitations

3. Conducting Policy and Regulatory Activities

The Wireless RERC examines and analyzes accessibility policy issues related to the use of wireless communications and other information technologies. Key activities include regulatory filings, policy briefs and timely advisories to stakeholders on municipal wireless networks, emergency communications and related issues. The RERC has developed a “Collaborative Policy Network” to bring together experts in various aspects of the policy process in the telecommunications and information technology-related fields. This Network will provide support internally to the Wireless RERC and to other RERCs in telecommunications and information technology-related fields.

Wireless RERC Members
The RERC is guided by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Shepherd Center. The Georgia Tech team includes the Center for Advanced Communications Policy, the Interactive Media Technology Center, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the College of Computing, and the School of Psychology.

Check us out at: http://www.wirelessrerc.org.

John Morris
Research Project Coordinator
Wireless RERC