And So It Continues

Autism, Education, Human Rights, Neurodiversity, School Discipline, Suspension and Expulsion, , ,

Latest data from the Department of Education on the relationship between disability and school discipline, as reported by Disability Scoop.

“Children served under IDEA were far more likely than others to experience restraint and seclusion, accounting for 32% of those mechanically restrained, 81% of students who were physically restrained, and 75% of kids who were secluded.”

The Disability Community Makes Change

Autism, Healthcare, Human Rights, , ,

A few weeks ago an advisory panel at the National Institutes of Health refused to designate people with disabilities as a “health disparity population.” In other words, they refused to recognize the myriad ways in which disabled people receive poorer medical services and have worse health outcomes than the majority of Americans. The disability community was outraged by this decision and mobilized to force the agency to recognize the truth.

AND THIS WEEK, the NIH reversed its position! Based on the input it received from disability activists, it now recognizes that people with disabilities “experience significant disparities in their rates of illness, morbidity, mortality and survival, driven by social disadvantage, compared to the health status of the general population.” Designation as a “health disparity population” opens the door for more funding and therefore more research on the problems faced by disabled people, for the recruitment of disabled researchers as well as disabled subjects in research projects, and for increased recognition of the rampant ableism that exists in the American medical system.

SEP (Seriously Evil Plastic)

Plastic

“Wrap rage.” That’s a real term for the frustration you feel when you have to battle through that hard plastic clamshell packaging. Who among us has NOT lost blood in the battle with these things?

The stuff is relatively new—I think the first time I encountered it was when CDs first became popular in the 1990s. Which means that for decades, centuries, millenia, aeons we did without it. And in most cases we don’t need it now.

Just last week I cut my hand open trying to get through the hard plastic surrounding a lock for my gym locker. Really? For what possible reason does my cheap metal lock need to be encased in this stuff? In ancient times, when I was a kid, the VERY SAME LOCK made by the very same company just hung—bare nekkid—off a hook in the hardware store. Don’t need it, folks.

And worst of all, it cannot be recycled. So centuries from now, whatever creatures still inhabit our planet will be cutting their fingers or toes or feelers or whatever on the very same sharp plastic edges.

Bah. Humbug.