Disability Blog Carnival #61 is up NOW!

[image description: Disability Blog Carnival logo featuring a patent drawing of a torso-bracing device, with "The Disability Blog Carnival/a bracing event" superimposed in blue lettering]

Go check it out at Alison Bergblom Johnson's blog Writing Mental Illness--the theme is "Telling About Disability." Alison has links about the ugly stuff and the great stuff, about what's past and what's present, about what's frustrating and what's exciting (and some things are both, of course).

Hey, do you want to host a month in 2010? Twelve months, twelve opportunities--let me know and we'll try to set up a schedule. It can be time-consuming, but it can also be rewarding and even fun. Look through the last 61 editions for ideas about what a host can do with an edition.

Meanwhile, if you have any submissions, you can leave them in comments here--I'll promise to get them to the next host.

UPDATE 12/14: Cheryl of the blog Finding My Way: Journey of an Uppity Intellectual Activist Crip will host the January edition--details soon!

UPDATE 12/19: Cheryl has details for #62 at her blog, here. Short version: submissions due January 11, carnival posts the 14th, and the theme is "Holidays." If you don't come out of this holiday season with stories or rants or photos or whatever, reach back into the archives or write about some other holiday experience. Or submit any timely posts, those will work too.

Virginia McKinney (1924-2009)

Obituary in the Los Angeles Times today for Virginia McKinney, who founded and ran the Center for Communicative Development in Koreatown. She became deaf in 1957, when she was 33, from an allergic reaction to a vaccine. Her program addressed the needs of adults with hearing loss, especially those for whom few other options existed. The obituary mentions her making 16mm films to train herself to read lips in the 1960s, and publishing an ASL dictionary; and that in recent years she worked on creating educational software. Oscar-winning director Jessica Yu is making a documentary about McKinney and her work--if the obituary piques your interest, keep an eye out for the film's release.

Wheels for Wheels Residency Fellowship

An nice opportunity for writers and artists who use wheelchairs:

The Wheels for Wheels Residency Fellowship Award for an outstanding visual artist or writer who uses a wheelchair and/or lives with a spinal cord injury. This award is supported by the Dana & Christopher Reeve Foundation and VSC friends and alumni.

The awards provide four-week residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, an international creative community in the mountains of northern Vermont. A VSC Residency includes:
• uninterrupted working time in a private studio,
• the counsel of six distinguished Visiting Artists (2 painters/2 scultptors/2 writers) per month,
• three meals a day,
• accessible, private accommodations, and
• the companionship of talented peers from around the world.

The Residency Period: May 2010 through Dec. 2010.
Deadline for receiving applications: Feb. 15, 2010.
Notification of results: April 15, 2010.

To apply, download an application at
http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/apply/.

More Items from the Connecticut Historical Society Library

They've been cataloging cataloging cataloging at the Connecticut Historical Society Library lately, if their blog is any indication. Another recent addition relevant to disability history:

The Retreat for the Insane account book (Account Books/Ms 56441). "Opened in 1824, the Retreat is now Hartford Hospital’s Institute for Living. The account book lists patients from 1824 to 1853. Each patient’s entry contains their name, date of admission, date of discharge, residence, principal on bond, surety on bond, weekly rate for board and medical attendance and by whom payable (bondsman, state, or town), total board, total of other expenses, number of weeks and days spent at the Retreat, and remarks. Remarks included “discharged recovered”, “restored”, “much improved”, and “no improvement”. Additionally, some patients died while still admitted."

Remember, this is a newly cataloged item--so if you're looking for a 19c research project and you're in New England, maybe a visit to Hartford is in order.