"Color Communication Badges are a system which were first developed in Autistic spaces and conferences. They help people tell everyone who can see their badge about their communication preferences."

http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ColorCommunicationBadges.pdf

Cultivating Three Spaces of Compassion

Museums as they currently exist are sites of privilege and exclusion on a number of levels. As Carmen Papalia writes in his article, "A New Model for Access in the Museum," “museums aren't that accessible. Let's face it, they haven't been for a while.” Papalia speaks specifically to his experiences as a museum patron who is blind. “May I be so bold as to say that the visual sense is privileged when it comes to ones experience of the museum?,” he comments. Papalia explores the inflexible dependence of most museum on visual cues. These organizations have not, for the most part, taken seriously the task of expanding the types of sensory experiences their facilities can offer.

I truly loved A fierce kind of love. In the beginning of the performance I was fearful that the neurtypical actors would hold the most space on stage. Those fears were quickly diminshed when the actors were interrupted by the disabled actors who openly demanded space and their voice being heard. This element of interruption could be seen through out the play.

In thinking about access this week, I've been considering what are both major successes of accessibility, and cases of conflict.

This post may be a bit disjointed as there are really two topics I want to address.

In both Simon's talk and the play A Fierce Kind of Love, the importance of access was emphasized. At the beginning of her talk, Simon asked the audience if she was speaking at an appropriate pace and volume, and throughout her talk, she was cognisant of how far she was standing away from the microphone, and continually trying to minimize any noise she was making by breathing out at the microphone. She incorporates the visual and auditory elements in her presentations, using paintings to illustrate story. And the fact she's using a narrative as her means of presentation is worth noticing because narratives tend to be much more interesting and easier to follow than facts. In A Fierce Kind of Love, there were a screen that recorded what was being said in words.

Credit/No Credit Course

I have so much to do, but I really want to read both of her books-- Riding on the Bus with my Sister, and The Beautiful Girl.

First Rachel Simon was an amazing speaker. I loved how she made sure that everyone was comfortable with her speaking volume and pace. I never heard a speaker to that, but I think it's important to do that.

This is going back to our discussion last week about the intersection of race and disability. I had never gotten around to posting about the materials I found in relation to this intersection of identities, so I wanted to share a few of those now.

This article, entitled “Black and Disabled: When Will Our Lives Matter?,” is by Eddie Ndopu, who identifies as a “queercrip man of color.”  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-ndopu/black-and-disabled_b_9221756.html