Tazu Sasaki (1932-1998)

 I started an English-language Wikipedia article on Tazu Sasaki yesterday. She was a Japanese writer of children's books. She was also, apparently, the first Japanese blind person to have a trained guide dog. In 1962 she traveled to the UK to work with the British Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in Leamington for several weeks, and returned to Japan with Roberta, a yellow Labrador. An English newspaper published a photo of Sasaki and Roberta walking down a Tokyo street. Sasaki is wearing a kimono. Later in the sixties, she and Roberta visited the Perkins School in Boston. And she wrote a book about Roberta, which was translated into English (and maybe other languages).

Just thought this would make a good annual post to DSTU. 

Not BADD

 It's been a few years since May 1 was Blogging Against Disablism Day, but I still think of BADD when the calendar turns. This year, WikiProject Women in Red is having a virtual editathon on Women & Disability during May. (Yes, you can join in!) I figure I can make an appearance here and report what I'm doing for that editathon, which will mostly be writing new biographical articles, plus adding images or otherwise improving existing articles.

Here's what I've done for the event so far (beginning in late April 2023, to get a running start on the event). I mostly work on US subjects, and deceased subjects, but sometimes others. Sometimes I work on men's biographies, but usually only as a tangent; but when those are relevant I'll list them here too.

1. I destubbed the article on writer Susan Nussbaum, which was previously one sentence. 4/22/23

2. I added an image to the article on music educator Almeda C. Adams. 4/26/23

3. I started a new article on Floy Schoenfelder (1919-2000), co-founder of the Polio Survivors Foundation. 4/29/23

4. I added references and otherwise tidied the article on artist Lucille Wallenrod. 4/30/23

5. I added a 1957 photo of Rosalyn Faye Lee and Jack R. Gannon to Gannon's article. 5/1/23

6. I started a new article on educator Elizabeth Simpson Burke, aka Sister Joan Margaret (1906-2005). 5/1/23

7. I added an image and some references to an article on Haitian violinist Romel Joseph (1959-2015). 5/1/23

8. I improved the article on basketball player Junius Kellogg (1927-1998), with an image and other additions. 5/2/23

9. I started an article on rehabilitation specialist and college dean Elizabeth Eckhardt May (1899-1996). 5/3/23

10. I started an article on Hungarian-born philanthropist Marion Mill Preminger (1903-1972), who served on the President's Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped in the 1960s. 5/4/23

11. I started an article on Georgia medical records librarian Thelma Van Norte (1912-1985), who trained blind medical transcriptionists, and worked on patient records at Georgia State Hospital. 5/4/23

12. I added a 1966 photo of Harold Russell with Thelma Van Norte to the article on Harold Russell. 5/4/23

13. I started an article on American Foundation for the Blind field representative Lotta S. Rand (1868-1956).  5/6/23

14. I started an article on librarian Etta Josselyn Giffin (1863-1932), 1st director of the National Library for the Blind. 5/7/23

15. Kinda tangential, but I started an article about writer and photographer Beatrice Pitney Lamb (1904-1997); she worked with the League of Women Voters and the United Nations before turning her eye and pen to India. She was also Christopher Reeve's maternal grandmother. 5/15/23

16. I started an article on Philadelphia clubwoman Rose Goldsmith Stern (1866-1931), who advocated for deaf education and for supports for deaf veterans of World War I, as chair of the Welfare Work for the Deaf subcommittee of the National Council of Jewish Women. 5/18/23

17. I also started a WikiQuote page for Rose Goldsmith Stern. 5/18/23

18. I added a reference to the existing article on Sarah Fuller (1836-1927), teacher and co-founder of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. 5/19/23

19. I added a photo and infobox to the article on oralist educator Harriet Burbank Rogers (1834-1919). 5/19/23

20. I started an article on Annetta W. Peck (1871-1958), executive secretary of the New York League for the Hard of Hearing. 5/19/23

21. I started an article on Canadian poet Annie Charlotte Dalton (1865-1938), billed as "the Poet Laureate of the deaf." 5/20/23

22. I also started a WikiQuote page for Annie Charlotte Dalton. 5/20/23

23. I started an article on lip-reading advocate and educator Elizabeth Helm Nitchie (1880-1961). 5/21/23

24. I started an article on Tulsa disability rights advocate Jill Zink Tarbel (1924-2009). 5/23/23

25. I started an article on Mouth magazine publisher and activist Lucy Gwin (1943-2014). 5/25/23

26. I started an article on activist and writer Connie Panzarino (1947-2001). 5/25/23 

27. I started an article on activist and artist Anna Stonum (1958-1999). 5/28/23

Stay tuned, I'll be adding more most days of May 2023.

RIP: Jean McWherter Flynn

I know this blog is dormant, but this is where I need to say Rest in Peace, to blogger Jean McWherter Flynn, who died yesterday in an Ohio nursing home from an infection. She was posting on Facebook right up to the day before; I don't think she expected to leave quite so suddenly, but she seemed aware of (and justifiably angry about) her situation and its limits.

Jean was one of my first "blog friends," back in the lovely old days of blogging. When Facebook and Twitter took over social media, we were friends there too. I never met Jean, but I liked her; she was smart and kind and funny. I already miss her.

BADD 2016: Nerys Johnson's "every atom of concentration"

Okay, I'm here for BADD 2016, because how could I break our eleven-year streak of participation? I couldn't.  I'm not so much of a blogger these days, but I'm willing to add my bit to the big event.  For our past ten appearances in the series: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. (For the record, the 2007 and 2008 entries are two of my favorite blog posts I've ever written, on any blog, or any topic.  BADD has been good for me.)
And.... I'm still on a Wikipedia kick. Just finished "Awaken the Dragon," a month-long event by WikiProject Wales, to improve Wikipedia content about Wales and Welsh people. I had fun looking for relevant biographies that needed an article, and as of today I've worked on 37 new articles since April 1, and improved ("destubbed") 7 others.

Were there any disabled people? Of course there were! Because there always are. I actually wrote the entry on physically-disabled surgeon Hugh Morriston Davies (1879-1965) after finding a note about him that I'd written here, at DSTU, almost six years ago.  Rev. Daniel Davies (1797-1876) was a blind preacher noted for his erudition; I first found him when the National Library of Wales uploaded some photographs of him to Flickr Commons. Aristocrat Olive Talbot (1842-1894) was an example of a nineteenth-century "invalid"--she rarely left home because her physical issues made it difficult, but she corresponded with interesting friends, and spent her inheritance funding church renovation projects in Wales.

And then there's artist Nerys Johnson (1946-2001) (pictured at left, a middle-aged white woman seated in a colorful smock, holding a paint brush in her right hand.)  Johnson had rheumatoid arthritis from childhood; she was also a painter and a curator in the north of England, noted for her bold works and original exhibit ideas.  And she had a thing or two to say about the disablism of well-meaning admirers.

"I am not an artist because of my disabilities. I am appalled when people see my painting as a hobby, and comment how relaxing it must be. If they just knew how it takes every ounce of energy I've got, every atom of concentration." 

(from this 2000 interview)

If you're ever even tempted to compliment someone on a hobby that's really a vocation, because they're disabled--that might be disablism. If you want to comment "oh, that must be such good therapy" to someone who creates for joy or for a living, but definitely not as therapy--that might be disablism too.

When I woke up this morning, Nerys Johnson didn't have a Wikipedia article; now she does. Happy BADD! 

Go here to read all the other BADD 2016 contributions.

CFP: Disability, Work and Representation: New Perspectives (DSQ Fall 2017)

Call for Papers
Disability, Work and Representation: New Perspectives
Special Issue: Disability Studies Quarterly (Fall 2017)
Editors: David Turner, Kirsti Bohata, Steven Thompson, Swansea University

In/ability to work plays a critical role in definitions of dis/ability, but the complexities of the relationship between people with disabilities and the world of work have only recently started to gain scholarly attention.  Contributions are sought for a special issue of Disability Studies Quarterly
that will showcase new interdisciplinary perspectives on disability, work and its representation in both contemporary and historical perspective. The issue will take a long and interdisciplinary view of the relationship between disability and work and encourages contributions that explore
different national experiences and impairment perspectives. We aim to foster critical thinking about how dis/ability has been defined in relation to work and about how factors such as changing hiring processes, legislation and working environments have impacted upon participation. Contributions are
also sought that will explore ways in which disability has been represented in relation to work culturally and artistically, or the impact of literary, artistic or media representations on policy. Contributors are invited to think about work broadly, to include paid and unpaid employment, emotional and intellectual as well as physical labor. Subjects might include, but are
not limited to:

•       Changing historical experiences of disability and work
•       Dis/ability and the aesthetics of work
•       The impact of age, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity on experiences and employment prospects of workers with disabilities
•       The role of economic systems in the inclusion or exclusion of workers with disabilities
•       The relationship between work and citizenship
•       Cultural representations of disability and un/employment
•       Disability and employment laws
•       Disability and unpaid work
•       Disability and occupational health/medicine
•       Rehabilitation and returning to work
•       Disability and labor relations
•       Current and historical perspectives on welfare and work

Please send an abstract (max 200 words) and a short biography (100 words) to Professor David Turner (d.m.turner@swansea.ac.uk) by July 1st 2016. The final deadline for submission for articles selected for inclusion in the Special Issue (max. 8000 words) will be January 31st 2017 with publication scheduled for September 2017. Final acceptance of manuscripts is subject to peer review.

For Stacey

Stacey asked me to keep a lookout for historical people who had muscular dystrophy--and I said "sure!" because that's right up my alley.  So I started poking around on Wikipedia, of course. Some stories that caught my attention this morning are below, in chronological order by date of birth. As usual, it isn't the most diverse list; there's definitely room for a wider array of stories on Wikipedia. Suggested additions are most welcome! (I'm only counting deceased people as "historical"--just to have some kind of cutoff.)


Richard Lindsay Batten (1920-1974) was a British orthopaedic surgeon who established the first blood bank in Nigeria, and advocated effectively for motorcycle helmets in the UK. He had myotonic dystrophy, a progressive form of muscular dystrophy that affected him more in his later life.

Mel Powell (1923-1998) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked with Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Django Reinhardt, among other greats. He began using a wheelchair (sometimes a cane) in his twenties, and focused on composition when he needed to stop touring. He was the founding dean of the school of music at California Institute of the Arts.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in Composition in 1990. (You've probably heard music by Mel Powell if you've watched enough old Tom and Jerry cartoons--he composed for those, in addition to his more serious work.)

Quentin Crewe (1926-1998) was an English travel writer and restaurant critic whose New York Times obituary carried the remarkable headline "Quentin Crewe, 72, Bon Vivant Who Was Unfazed by Disability", with the further explanation that he had "not so much suffered from, as gloried in" his muscular dystrophy. He traveled in his customized wheelchair -- including two years crossing the Sahara, and two years living in Kyoto -- and wrote his books by typing one-handed. He wrote a gossipy memoir, Well, I Forget the Rest: The Autobiography of an Optimist (1991), of his adventures.

Alfredino Ferrari

Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari (1932-1956), yes, from that Ferrari family.  Alfredo was the son of company founder Enzo Ferrari, and an automotive engineer too, before he died at 24, from complications of his Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The "Dino" car series was named in his honor. There's also a Formula One racing venue named for him and for his father.

Sister Mary Louise St. John (1943-2003) was an American Catholic gay rights activist and a Benedictine nun who used a wheelchair from her youth. She studied world literature and psychology at Skidmore College before entering her religious order. At a conference in 1989, she declared, 'To alienate my lesbian identity from the identity of the Godness within me would be to dismember myself.'' At the same event, she spoke about the challenge of claiming her sexuality as a wheelchair user. She was cofounder of the Womynspace coffeehouse in Erie, and spoke at that city's first gay rights rally in 1998. Sister Mary Louise served as a business manager, tutor, and retreat guide at her motherhouse. She was also on the board of the local Community Resources for Independence.  Here's her obituary in the Erie Gay News, with a small blurry photo of her using a power wheelchair.

CFP: Voices of Madness, Voices of Mental Ill-Health (15-16 September 2016)

from Steven Taylor:

Voices of Madness, Voices of Mental ill-health
Centre for Health Histories, University of Huddersfield
15th- 16th Sept 2016

In the thirty years since Roy Porter called on historians to lower their gaze so that they might better understand patient-doctor roles in the past, historians have sought to place the voices of previously, silent, marginalised and disenfranchised individuals at the heart of their analyses.

Contemporaneously, the development of service user groups and patient consultations have become an important feature of the debates and planning related to current approaches to prevention, care and treatment. The aim of this conference is to further explore and reveal how the voices of those living with and treating mental illness have been recorded and expressed.  We hope to consider recent developments in these areas with a view to facilitating an interdisciplinary discourse around historical perspectives of mental health and illness.

The organisers invite proposals for 20 minutes on the themes of voices of madness and mental ill health under headings including but not limited to:

Oral history and testimony

Mental ill-health and community care

Mental ill-health and institutional histories

The role of informal carers

The growth of the mental health professions

Mental ill health and the voice(s) of adolescentsand children

Museums and the ‘heritage’ of mental ill health

The literature (fiction and non-fiction) of mental ill health

Language of madness (if not covered by ‘heritage’)

Dissenting voices

Appropriation of voices

Absent voices

Voices and art

Voices and stigma

The voices of mental ill-health on TV and radio

Individual, activist and social media

For more information contact Dr Rob Ellis (r.ellis@hud.ac.uk), Dr Sarah Kendal (s.kendal@hud.ac.uk) or Dr Steven Taylor (s.taylor@hud.ac.uk). To submit a paper proposal (250 words maximum) or express an interest, please contact Steve Taylor by 14 March 2015.

We hope to offer some bursaries for postgraduate and early career researchers.

CFP: Disability and Deafness in Literature for Young People (Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies special issue)

CFP: Disability and Deafness in Literature for Young People (Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies special issue)

Guest editors: Chloë Hughes and Elizabeth A. Wheeler

This special issue of the JLCDS aims to bring together an international and  multidisciplinary base of readers and writers who explore disability in  literature published for young people.

While disability and deafness have often featured in literature for young people, their most usual role has been as a “narrative prosthesis” supporting the storyline. Disability and Deaf literature for young readers has boomed in the twenty-first century, including bestsellers like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Fault in Our Stars, Wonder, Wonderstruck, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Out of My Mind, as well as a growing collection of texts written in or with Blissymbolics, Braille, Sign Language, or in tactile, textile, interactive, and digital formats. This special issue reconsiders the history and current urgency of disability and deafness in literature for young readers in light of this twenty-first century publishing boom.

Children are often on the front lines of the struggle over the meanings of disability. For young people both with and without disabilities, the works they encounter provide long-lasting frames of reference for understanding bodymind diversity. It is especially important that scholars well versed in disability and Deaf justice, theory, and lived experience critique this canon.

We seek articles on a wide variety of genres, including fantasy, dystopias, science fiction, graphic memoirs and novels, biography, digital forms like blogs and vlogs, “misfit romance,” “sick lit,” and superhero stories. Disabilities that only exist in fictional worlds are fair game. The guest editors are interested in submissions that cross-examine race, class, gender, and sexuality as well as disability and deafness and represent a wide cross-section of international literatures and ethnic groups. We welcome proposals from disability and Deaf studies scholars (especially those who may not have previously written about literature for young people), but also encourage submissions from scholars of other disciplines who might lend their perspectives on using literature for young people with representations of disability to explore bodymind diversity with children and adolescents. We are also interested in intergenerational dialogues, interviews with authors and illustrators who have included protagonists with disabilities or published books for young people in accessible formats, as well as reviews of recently published young adult literature that features protagonists with disabilities. We particularly encourage submissions from scholars with the same disability as the protagonist.

Examples of content foci for this special issue of the JLCDS include, but are not limited to:
• Disabled and Deaf characters challenging normalcy
• Fantastic Freaks and Critical Crips in countercultural texts for young people
• Aesthetic/artistic representations of disability in picturebooks
• Literature for young people by Disabled or Deaf authors and illustrators
• Beyond “narrative prosthesis”
• Children’s and Young Adult Literature in accessible formats
• The role /aesthetics of disability accommodations in texts for young people
• Visibility or invisibility of Disability Rights in literature for young people
• Intersectionality: race, gender, class, sexual orientation, gender identity
• Representations of chronic illness and mental health
• Biographical writing for young people—what is / is not included?
• Critiques of didactic texts for young people on disability
• Interviews of authors/ illustrators
• Reviews of recently published children’s and young adult literature with representations of disability

Timetable:
April 15, 2016: submission of a 500 word proposal for articles or 150 word proposal for reviews and a one-page curriculum vitae to guest editors at hughesc@mail.wou.edu and ewheeler@uoregon.edu.
May 15, 2016: prospective authors notified of proposal status.
November 1, 2016: final versions of selected papers due to editors.
February 1, 2017: finalists selected. Decisions and revisions on submissions sent to authors.
May 1, 2017: final, revised papers due from finalists.

DHA Outstanding Book Award

From the DHA:

The Disability History Association promotes the relevance of disability to
broader historical enquiry and facilitates research, conference travel, and
publication for scholars engaged in any field of disability history.

The Disability History Association is excited to announce its 5th Annual
Outstanding Publication Award. The award alternates between books and
peer-reviewed articles or book chapters.

In 2016 the award committee will accept book submissions. Submissions are
welcome from scholars in all fields who engage in work relating to the
history of disability. Book submissions may have one or multiple authors
and may be a single monograph, or an edited collection, provided the latter
contains new and original scholarship.

Although the award is open to all authors covering all geographic areas and
time periods, the publication must be in English, and must have a
publication date within the two years preceding the submission date (i.e.
1/1/2014 – 5/1/2016). If your book was published in 2014 or 2015, or it
will be published in the first four months of 2016, your book is eligible
for the prize.

The amount of the award is $600.

All submissions should be sent to the award committee care of Michael
Rembis no later than May 1, 2016.

Authors should arrange for five (5) copies of the book to be sent directly
to the award committee at: Michael Rembis, Department of History,
University at Buffalo, 552 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260-4130. Submissions
should also be sent in a format compatible with screen reading software,
such as a .doc file or a text-based .pdf to marembis@buffalo.edu.

In the interest of modeling best practices in the field of disability
studies, we require that the publisher/author provide an electronic copy in
text-based .pdf or .doc file format for the review committee. We understand
that copyright rules apply, and we will only use the electronic copy for
the purposes of the DHA Outstanding Publication Award.  Manuscripts not
provided in accessible electronic formats for screen reading software in a
timely manner will not be considered for the prize.

The Disability History Association board will announce the recipient of the
DHA Outstanding Publication Award in September 2016.

Wheelchair Costumes in the Cardboard Art Show

Over the past few years, I've made my son some cardboard costumes for his Quickie2 wheelchair.  There are some advantages to using old boxes for this purpose--lightweight, cheap, easy to find, and easy to cut and spraypaint and puncture and duct-tape. They're pretty much flat, so he doesn't feel enclosed, and they can fit in the back of our minivan.  If he bends or tears any parts, it's not a big deal, we just add more duct-tape or cardboard. They've been fun, he's won some costume contests with them, and they make people smile.

What I wasn't expecting was that they'd find a place as art. The "Steampunk Submarine" costume was in the Opulent Mobility show at Northridge in September, curated by A. Laura Brody, Zeina Baltagi, and Anthony Tusler; we attended the opening reception to show it in action. And now the submarine and the "Rocketship to Jupiter" are in the Cardboard Art Show at Artist & Craftsman Supply in downtown Los Angeles, curated by Madison Girifalco, opening tomorrow:

Photo by Madison Girifalco; faux brick wall next to staircase, with words "The Cardboard Art Show" and several large pieces of cardboard art mounted upon it, including a rocketship and a submarine.

Christine la Barraque (c1878-1961), and more new disability content on Wikipedia

Hey! A new post at DSTU. 

As I've mentioned, in recent years I've been putting some energy into Wikipedia. I like writing new entries there, because it feels like that's going to reach a much bigger audience than a journal article or a paywalled reference. And, as part of WikiProject Disability, some of my entries are about disability topics (of course). Since last BADD in May, I've started new entries for baseball coach Mary Dobkin, businessman Dwight D. Guilfoil Jr., South African activist Maria Rantho, wheelchair manufacturers Everest & Jennings, blind biochemist Dilworth Wayne Woolley, playground builders Shane's Inspiration, and blind singer/lawyer Christine la Barraque. I also built out an existing stub entry on educator Elizabeth E. Farrell, during the "Justin Dart Jr. Virtual Edit-a-thon 2015" in August.


None of these are exhaustive entries; they're a good solid start, I think, but if anyone reading this blogpost has more to add, with reliable sources to back up any new information, please jump in! Christine la Barraque has me especially curious right now (because I just wrote about her on Friday). She seems, pretty definitely, to have been the first blind woman to pass the bar in California; but was she the first in any state (as some sources suggest)? Was she the first blind woman to graduate from the University of California, in 1896 (when she was about 18 years old, by the way)? Anytime "the first" is on the table, there are questions and complications: who counts as blind? or graduating? or a woman? La Barraque was said to have been born in France, but exactly where is sketchy and mentions contradict each other. If she was, her parents came to America with a blind child, through immigration screens intended to prevent that scenario. So I would love to know more about them, too. (I think they lived in Tres Pinos or Paicines, California--when she was living in Boston at the time of the San Francisco earthquake, she sent a telegram to the governor of California asking after "my people in Tres Pinos.")

La Barraque wasn't an obscure singer or advocate; she performed for Helen Keller and Mark Twain, she was a founder and president of the San Francisco Workers for the Blind, she testified before the Massachusetts Legislature, she toured blind schools in Italy, she performed all over the US and apparently also in Canada. I've seen mentions of her working with disabled veterans after both World Wars, but not enough to include in the entry (yet). 

BADD 2015: Wikipedia Against Disablism, Part 2

Ahem.  Hello? Hello?

Okay, I'm here for BADD 2015, because how could I break our ten-year streak of participation? I couldn't.  I'm not so much of a blogger these days, but I'm willing to add my bit to the big event.  For our past nine appearances in the series:

2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. (For the record, the 2007 and 2008 entries are two of my favorite blog posts I've ever written, on any blog, or any topic.  BADD has been good for me.)

Last year I wrote about why Wikipedia needs more and better content on disability topics, and how anyone can help; and how that fights disablism, by shifting language, removing cliches, decreasing melodrama, respecting personhood, perhaps in small ways, but for a big diverse audience that will never see your blog or your journal article.  I'm still pretty involved there, and in the past year I've found more ways to discover stories to improve Wikipedia's disability content; so I'm still preaching that same sermon today.

But first:

Headline from a 1910 Aberdeen Herald newspaper, from Aberdeen, Washington, reads "Ableism the Issue; All Others Sunk into Insignificance in this County; All kinds of Diversions are Attempted by the Abel Press, but are not Successful. What is Abel Spending So Much Money For?" From Newspapers.com

Eliza Suggs (1876-1908), temperance activist

That headline didn't actually have anything to do with disability or discrimination, but I was still startled to see the word "Ableism" appear in a newspaper from over a century ago!  I found this because I acquired a Newspapers.com subscription through The Wikipedia Library, a project that matches experienced Wikipedia editors with scholarly resources that aren't always available for off-campus folks.  So far it's been extremely useful, and hardly a day passes without finding something fascinating.  Like the tidbit above. 

One of the ways I'm using searchable old newspapers like this is to find the disability stories that are hiding, that are lost, that we forgot, that we need to remember.  Not all of them made the big national papers, but they survive in local dailies, and sometimes there's plenty to meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability and reliable sources, and start a new entry. Maybe everyone knows about Helen Keller, or thinks they do, enough to put her on US currency (again). But there are so many others worth learning about!  Some American biographical examples, from recent wanderings on Wikipedia or in old US newspapers:

1. Eliza Suggs (1876-1908):  "Carried in arms or wheeled about in a carriage, her frail hands and well developed head have accomplished wonders, obtaining a fair education, which makes her a valuable assistant, sometimes as secretary of religious organizations and work. In former years she assisted her father, more or less, in evangelistic work, and she has presided in public meetings with marked dignity and ability." Suggs was born in Illinois, to parents who met while they were enslaved on a Mississippi plantation; she had osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), and was a temperance activist alongside her preacher father, and later on her own.  I didn't write this entry but I'm glad somebody did.  Here's her memoir online, along with a photo of Miss Suggs (above, right).

2. Anita Lee Blair (1916-2010) was the first blind woman to serve in any US state legislature.  I wrote about her on DSTU a few years ago, and finally got her Wikipedia entry started earlier this year.  I found a campaign ad of hers from 1952 in a Texas newspaper recently, too, featuring her guide dog Fawn, and text proclaiming her achievements and her independence.

"Fear" (1981) by Elizabeth Layton;
a drawing of an older woman peeking
out from a closet with a fearful expression

3. Elizabeth Layton (1909-1993) was an artist based in Kansas who found her art late in life, in a drawing class she took at age 68, hoping it would help with her lifelong struggles with depression, and with more acute grief following the death of her son.  It did help, and it also brought her national acclaim:  in 1992 she was the focus of a show at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art.  I started her Wikipedia entry last week.  At left, a 1981 drawing by Elizabeth Layton, titled "Fear."  (Were you expecting sentimental art from an old lady?  Her drawings were edgy, even controversial.)

4. Dwight D. Guilfoil Jr. (1926-1989) was a businessman and a disabled veteran, who advocated for hiring disabled workers, and used his own company to demonstrate the possibilities.  Guilfoil doesn't have a Wikipedia entry yet, but I think he'd be a great candidate for one.  For now, check out an essay he wrote titled "Let's Stop 'Handicapping' Americans," which appeared in syndication, in newspapers across the US, in 1960.

UPDATE (February 2016): Dwight D. Guilfoil Jr. has a wikipedia entry now.

5. Mary Dobkin (1902-1987) was a immigrant child in Baltimore when she lost both feet to frostbite as a little girl. This early experience, and a lifelong love of baseball, made her a tireless advocate for poor kids in her adopted city; she coached kids' teams, integrated during the Jim Crow era, and took particular interest in providing sports opportunities for disabled kids.  There was a television movie made about her in 1979, but until today, no Wikipedia entry.  So I'll get right on that.




By the end of today, California time, there will be a new Wikipedia entry on Mary Dobkin, in honor of BADD 2015.  (I'll light up her name as a link when the entry is up.)  Anyone want to join in?  Plenty of other stories to tell, and every well-told story helps.

Disability at AAG [Assn. of American Geographers] April 21 - 25, 2015

This is the AAG Disability Specialty Group featured session, right before the business meeting at the AAG Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois (April 21-25, 2015). Mike

1177 Questioning geography’s ‘healthy subject’ I: Geography and Mental Health
(Sponsored by Disability Specialty Group, Cultural Geography Specialty Group, Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group )

Friday, April 24, 10:00 a.m. - 11:40 p.m.

Room: Grand E/F, Hyatt, East Tower, Gold Level (Panel Session)

Disability Specialty Group annual business meeting at the Annual Meeting of the Assoc. of American Geographers will be held Friday, April 24 in Hyatt East, room Columbus EF. Meeting starts at 11:50am and runs to 1:10pm

Searched by Keyword: disabilit

Tuesday

The Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Emergency Planning. 4/21/2015 at 14:40 PM
'Undue Burden': Disabled People, Immigration and the Politics of (Im)mobility 4/21/2015 at 14:40 PM

Wednesday

Plain Language Mapping: Rethinking the Participatory Geoweb to Include Users with Intellectual Disabilities, 4/22/2015 at 8:00 AM

The Double Condition: Intersections of Internal Displacement and Physical Disability in Colombian Urban Centers 4/22/2015 at 10:00 AM
The Use of VGI in Enhancing Pedestrian Accessibility and the Quality Assurance of Location-Based Data 4/22/2015 at 15:20 PM

Thursday

Disability and mobility frictions in the city, 4/23/2015 at 8:00 AM

The Socio-spatiality of Mentoring Student with Disabilities   4/23/2015 at 8:00 AM

Disability, Mobility and ICT - Empty Promises or Ways to Inclusive Solutions? 4/23/2015 at 13:20 PM
Contours of Disability in America 4/23/2015 at 13:20 PM

Exploring Spatial Trends of Vision Disability in California 4/23/2015 at 13:20 PM

Friday
Disability in America: Rural-Urban Differences in Spatial and Mobility Patterns 4/24/2015 at 13:20 PM
Learning to live again: Multiple presents and the becoming of disability Saturday, 4/25/2015 at 8:00 AM

Search by Keyword: blind

Friday

Tactile Earth: Teaching and Accommodating Blind Students in Introduction to Physical Geography 4/24/2015 at 8:00 AM

Search by Keyword: deaf

Friday

Accessing the spaces of justice in Ireland; critical perspectives from Deaf victims of crime 4/24/2015 at 13:20 PM

Lost Spaces - where do deaf people go to be deaf in the UK? 4/24/2015 at 13:20 PM
Mobilities and Geographies of Deaf Youth in Turkey, 4/24/2015 at 13:20 PM
Productions of Deaf Spaces within a Finland-Swedish context - a minority in diaspora 4/24/2015 at 13:20 PM

Upstairs and downstairs: a Deaf church's tale 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM
A Taxonomy of SLP Spaces: a scalar framework. 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM
'Doing Deaf': Mapping the performative spaces of Brighton and Hove city 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM
The Agency of Deaf space; Anglicanism, philanthropy and the London Deaf church in the 19th century. 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM

 A Taxonomy of SLP Spaces: a scalar framework. 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM

Searched by Keyword: mental heal

Tuesday

Places sit in bodies: Capitalist food regimes at the cellular level  4/21/2015 at 8:00 AM
Does Socially-Mixed Housing Redevelopment "Work"? The Case of Toronto's Regent Park  4/21/2015 at 14:40 PM

The Asylum is on These Streets: Managing Mental Illness in the Carceral Community  4/21/2015 at 16:40 PM

Wednesday

Geographic Accessibility and Barriers to Addiction, Mental Health, and HIV/AIDS Health Care Services for Opioid Dependent Clients 4/22/2015 at 13:20 PM

What Best Predicts Addiction Treatment Completion: The Influence of Client Factors and Rural, Suburban, and Urban Treatment Facility Location 4/22/2015 at 13:20

Thursday

Immigrant and Refugee Youth Mental Health: A Hamilton Case Study 4/23/2015 at 8:00 AM

PM.

Transforming the environmental health paradigm through climate justice work: popular education and place-making in the Scottish Central Belt, 4/23/2015 at 10:00 AM

Mobilities of Madness: Interurban spatial movement among a cohort of homeless individuals with co-occurring mental health issues 4/23/2015 at 15:20 PM.

Breathe In, Breathe Out: Respiratory Hospitalization in Metro East St. Louis 4/23/2015 at 17:20 PM.

Saturday
Crowd mapping mental health promotion through the Thought Spot project 4/25/2015 at 8:00 AM
Housing First houses but does not end poverty: Stories from Winnipeg  4/25/2015 at 8:00 AM
A working recovery? Psychiatric consumers, paid employment and 'Other' mental health geographies 4/25/2015 at 8:00 AM

Search by Keyword: accessibility

Tuesday

Measuring Spatial Disparities in Disadvantaged Populations: A Literature Review of Individual Space-Time Accessibility 4/21/2015 at 8:00 AM

Wednesday

Geographic Accessibility and Barriers to Addiction, Mental Health, and HIV/AIDS Health Care Services for Opioid Dependent Clients 4/22/2015 at 13:20 PM

Geocrowdsourcing and Accessibility for Mobility-impaired Individuals at Dynamic Environments 4/22/2015 at 15:20 PM

Thursday

Geographies of Health Care in South Korea: Measuring Spatial Accessibility to Public Health Care Facilities in the Seoul Metropolitan Region 4/23/2015 at 8:00 AM

Patterns in Non-visual Map Reading: Stylus-based Interaction with an Auditory GIS 4/23/2015 at 13:20 PM

Friday

Parks for all: Information on accessibility and associated experiences.  4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM

Exploring Transportation Accessibility to Health Care Among Vermont's Rural Seniors not scheduled yet

Search by Keyword: chronic disease

Wednesday

The development and validation of national liveability indicators: linking geography, urban policy, chronic disease risk factors and health outcomes in Australia 4/22/2015 at 17:20 PM

Search by Keyword: elderly, dementia, Alzheimer

Wednesday

Visual and Material Home Making in Transnational Alzheimer's Care 4/22/2015 at 10:00 AM

The Geographies of Mortality Attributed to Alzheimer's Disease in the contiguous United States from 2000 to 2008 4/22/2015 at 10:00 AM

Older People's Perceptions of Elderly Dining Services in China 4/22/2015 at 13:20 PM

Thursday

Intra-person and inter-person interactions in daily activity participation in elderly co-residence households 4/23/2015 at 10:00 AM

Qualitative GIS for dementia friendly environments: Illuminating spatial perspectives 4/23/2015 at 13:20 PM.

Should I stay or should I go? Housing preferences upon retirement in Germany 4/23/2015 at 15:20 PM

Identifying local blind spots of medical care service for the impoverished elderly by mapping a local accessibility measure 4/23/2015 at 17:20 PM

Friday

The association between preventable hospitalizations and geographic access to health care for elderly in South Texas 4/24/2015 at 17:20 PM

Saturday

Constraining care: Caring for persons with dementia in rural Ontario, Canada 4/25/2015 at 10:00 AM