One topic that briefly came up in class last week was the idea that some people in the deaf community don't consider themselves disabled. I am not part of the deaf community so I can't speak on the perspective of these individuals, but through briefly browsing some articles it seems to me that there are a couple of ways to look at the situation. One common narrative that I found was that some deaf people stay away from the label of disability because of the stigma attached to it. They may view disability through the same lens in which society does or at least be aware of how disability is seen by society-- as a deficit, resulting in reduced quality of life. Thus, they want to stay away from being viewed in this manner.

The Center for Genetics and Society, Missing Voices Initiative:

Social Justice and Human Rights Principles for Global Deliberations on Heritable Human Genome Editing: Summary

Full Principles Document

Clare describes a lot of his throughts on disability justice's limitations and the yearnign for cures, stating "The desire for cure, for the restoration of health, is connected to loss and yearning. What we remember about our body-minds in the past seduces us. We wish. We mourn. We make deals. We desire to return to the days before immobilizing exhaustion or impending death, to the nights thirty years ago when we spun across the dance floor". I think he makes such a interesting case on the nuanced relationship between desiring a cure for disability and the experience of having lived an able-bodied life.

Sorry for my delay in getting this out!

I think what Crip Camp so beautifully illustrates about disability community is the freedom and liberation it brings about being unapologetic. From these communities, we see uprising and revolutions because diabled people are able to existing without the judgement and discrimination of society, and this is so uplifting. Not only this, but a space solely for disabled bodies brought about this strong sense of inclusion which lead to access intimacy, allowing these young people to have new fulfilling experiences. Although this camp was not goal oriented, aactivism arose by the inspiration that brewed within the community.

https://www.petrakuppers.com/cripmad-archive-dances

One theme that was apparent to me while reading Good Kings, Bad Kings was the power of misconceptions and their very real effects on the lives of disabled people. For example, the idea that disabled people inherently have a lower quality/expectancy of life is exemplified when Michelle recounts Tim saying that death is a natural part of life and you have to accept more death because the people they take care of are frail. This biased view that disabled people, regardless of their disability, have an ingrained weakness and are expected to die actually makes the institution compacent in their deaths. There is no incentive to prevent the deaths that are already occuring because they are seen as innevitable, even though many of them are due to neglect and abuse (entirely preventable).

Listen to the podcast here:

For text transcript: Click"...more" in the descripton box (under video), then click "Show transcript"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA77SIdr7Es