I think disability culture doesn't have a strict defintion. It's expanding upon the culture that exists in a way that is accepting and incorperating to disabled indvidiuals. As Kuppers puts it, "more like a verb than a noun, more like a process than a state." Furthermore, disability culture does not necessarily have to be something exlucively with an agenda. However, it's more so the acceptance of differences as a part of human variance rather than something that has to be sad, depressing, or unwanted. As Kuppers talks about the interaction between dance and disability, the author describes what could be called access intimacy, not through triumph or overcoming, but simply doing what one loves and being able to express oneself as a disabled person.

Time and time again in this class we have discussed intersectionality. I think that once again, the readings for this week highlighted that cultures can be dependent on one's other identities, and the extent to which they feel welcome in those communities. I think that often, cultures are formed through shared struggles. For the disability community, I've been thinking about how the struggles might vary because the range of disabilities varies so much. Are the goals of wheelchair users the same as those with intellectual disabilities, or blind people, or as folks in multiple or all of those categories? I think ideally communities would all be fighting for the collective liberation of all people; we should not have to pick and choose which communities we fight for.

Hi all! I have attached my midterm project below - thanks for reading :-) 

(Open image in the attachments, then read the text) - image description is in the section down below

Death. Incarceration. Invisibility. Erasure. Undesirability. Helplessness. Capitalism. Institutionalization.

Has it really not changed at all?

Are we stuck in a vicious circle forever?

How do we break free?

Institutionalization. Capitalism. Helplessness. Undesirability. Erasure. Invisibility. Incarceration. Death.

Yeah, don’t be hungry. Have some crayon.

I enjoyed reading the excerpt of Petra Kupper’s introduction to her book but I still don’t really feel that I have a full understanding of what disability culture is or am able to properly define it.  That sentence isn’t meant at all as a critique, I just think I would need to do more reading first and that not providing an exact definition of disability culture was intentional on her part.  My answers to the questions are definitely all very open to changing because I feel like I do need to learn more about disability culture and hear others’ opinions.

While, "Good Kings, Bad Kings" was a great read, it was very hard to wrap my head around some of the incidents that happened, so I am writing this post to express how appalled I was while reading certain parts of the novel. My thoughts are not fully thought out, so I wrote these as a "rant" about certain aspects of the novel that shocked me. 

My reaction to the video In My Home by Cheryl Green was positive. I felt a growing feeling of sympathy for people with disabilities. The video was a short documentary about the lives of people living with disabilities who have had a change of environment and have started being accepted into society. The video features various disabled people who share their new environment's experiences compared to the places they used to live in before. Most of the disabled appreciate their new home; one of the ladies says she loves the new home compared to the previous foster home where she used to live. She explains how much freedom she has found in her new home compared to the suffering that she underwent in her previous foster home for the elderly.

A few years ago, I was eating lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, a local Vietnamese-Thai place called Pho Thai Nam. As our waiter brought over our glasses of water and other table’s drinks, something in the cups caught my attention. Each one had a plastic straw placed in it with a little piece of the paper wrapping covering each top. My dad immediately took his straw out, telling me that he wished they had asked if he wanted one since it just got in the way as he drank anyway. I knew that I did not need one either. Knowing how much plastic ends up in our oceans, I felt guilty wasting a straw.

Hi!  I made a website for my midsemester project so I attached the link below.  I hope you like it and find it interesting. :)

https://gwatkins94.wixsite.com/website