Monday, September 25, 2006

Chapter 3 - The Deaf Celebration of Separate Culture

This is a very good chapter because it discusses a type of disability that is not outwardly shown. It would be almost impossible to pick a deaf person out of a crowd until you interacted with them or noticed them signing. However, I imagine it is one of the tougher disabilities to live with in our culture because how much emphasis is put on being able to hear. Phones, television, music, movies, etc... are mostly made for the hearing. Granted most, if not all, have subtitles or some type of device that allows for the Deaf to use, but this is not the mainstream.

I read a book a while ago about a group of guys that takes this bus of students hostage. The students all happen to be from a school for the deaf, so the novel talked about the different "culture" that exists with those that are deaf. In a true sense, it really is its own culture. It has its own language, its own music and dance, and its own way of doing things.

The one major idea that I took away from this chapter was the question of whether those who are deaf should be sent to their own schools, or they should be integrated into the regular public/private school systems. I'm not sure what the best answer is because both arguments raise good points. I think it would be more beneficial for those who are deaf to go to special schools because they are designated to cater to the disability. However, this may be seen as a type of segregation from the undeaf. The problem with the regular school system is that many, if not most, do not have the necessary means to cater to the deaf students. I suppose this is a question that still plagues many to this day.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Chapter 2 - From Charity to Independent Living

This chapter was just stacked full of information. It was a little tough to get through the chapter because of all the history it contained about the rights of disabled people. However, the first part of the chapter was pretty enlightening with the story of Ed Roberts.

Reading through the chapter, it was tough to believe everything that Roberts had to go through in order to just attend a University. I'm not talking about the physical requirements, more along the lines of the beaurocratic nonsense that was in his way. I believe I can get a grasp of what the administration was thinking when they told Roberts he wouldn't be able to attend Cal, but I couldn't understand why they would try so hard to prevent him from trying. I enjoyed hearing about how he was the "trailblazer" for disabled students, and how that group would meet together in the hospital and plan their next moves to help change the University to better suit their needs.

The second half of the chapter that dealt more with the history aspect was a little tough to read through. There was quite a lot of information all packed in to a relatively small number of pages. From what I was able to take away, it seems that the government acted the same way they do on most legislation: postpone, postpone, postpone. I have never been a big fan of protests (I think people have better things to do with their time), yet I rooted for the people who protested until the bill was signed. It was a good way to show their voice and their need for changes in America.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Chapter 1 - Tiny Tims, Supercrips, and the End of Pity

After reading through this chapter, I don't think the book could have started in a better way. It was a very good introduction to the subject matter of the book and got my mind focused on the subject matter.

One of the first things that caught my eye when reading through the first chapter was the point made about pity. Especially when the book talks about the telethons and the use of the handicapped to promote the cause. It made me think about the telethons I had seen when flipping through the channels. I had never really thought about how they were raising the money until I read this chapter. They raise money by making people feel sorry or guilty about the condition. Although this seems to work well, it is a backwards way of thinking. I am glad that this was brought up in this chapter.

The next point that caught my eye was the use of "differences" as a way to classify the bad guys in television, comics, and film. Growing up on all of these things, I never really thought about how these differences were used to portray the evil characters. It seems that all the bad guys had to have something different about them in order for them to lash out against the rest of society. I never put any thought into how this would relate in the real world. However, this chapter shed a new light on the subject matter, and I can say that Hollywood depictions of evil characters will be looked at differently.

The final, and most shocking, point in the first chapter had to do with the radio station calls about the mother who was going to bring a baby with erectodactyly into the world. I was amazed at how people were absolutely outraged that this woman was going to bring a child into the world that would be different from the other kids. My first thought was "since when is it their business what the mother wants to do?", and my second thought was "what gives them the right to attack this woman?" It was also quite disturbing that this took place on a nationally syndicated radio show and was out for all the world to hear.