Yesterday I faced the snowpocolypse to deliver a guest lecture at Dr. Klinger’s 2nd year OT Class on Representations of Disability and Media Activism. I’m pretty sure this is my 4th year speaking to the class and I absolutely love it–the students are so engaged and determined to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities.
Keep up the great work, together we can get people moving!
Another fresh offering over at Cripz: A Webcomic, this week featuring a parody of the recently released movie, Harry Potter. I have to admit, I was never a real fan of the Harry Potter series, struggling to make it through the first 3 books before ditching them to re-read Lord of the Rings. Having said that, I understand why people love them so much and the movies are definitely well done and, above all, entertaining.
While the series is, of course, based in fantasy, I’ve always been left wondering where all the disabled wizards are? None of Harry’s classmates have physical disabilities and, aside from perhaps Luna, don’t appear to have social or intellectual limitations either. I guess it’s for the best though, considering all those stairways at Hogwarts. This week’s comic is really about that, the lack of access in schools, because it’s not a problem that just affects the fantasy world of Harry Potter. Right now in Ontario, there are tons of schools that don’t provide access for students with disabilities and school boards that relegate all students with disabilities, regardless of their intellectual abilities, to Developmental Learning Classes.
We need to do better and one of the easiest ways we can help the disabled population right now is by empowering our youth to get educated. Now is the time to make education accessible to everyone!
Clara and I released the new episode of Cripz: A Webcomic entitled “Rampway to Heaven” In this episode, Rhett is anxiously awaiting the announcement of the 2010-2011 high school football roster. Will he make it? Won’t he? Only one way to find out!
This morning I returned to the Thames Valley Children’s Centre for another keynote presentation, this time at the School Age Children with Disabilities Workshop. Similar to my last visit to TVCC, my presentation was to parents of youth with disabilities to talk about the importance of self advocacy and education. It was a great crowd with tremendous conversation following the presentation. Looks like our next generation of youth with disabilities are being well positioned to become the advocates of the future because of some wonderfully supportive parents.
Earlier this summer I was invited to speak to a group of potential principals about teaching youth with “exceptionalities.” It was a really interesting group and I learned during our subsequent discussion that the education system doesn’t just have trouble handling students with disabilities, but also students with above average intelligence. As it turns out, teachers are beginning to look at these two populations in the same way–students whose needs go beyond the standard level required by “average” students. Interesting indeed.
It was at this presentation that I met Jana Bayer-Smith, a teacher from Stratford who expressed interest in me coming to speak to her english class. After a bit of scheduling and a few months waiting, I finally made the trek up to Stratford to speak to her class at Stratford Northwest Secondary School. The kids were awesome (as to be expected) and I had a ton of fun sharing stories and meeting the other teachers. I even managed to make a few friends who share my anti-Bieber sentiment.
Thank you to the staff and students of SNSS for all the support, kind words, and willingness to listen. Also, a special thanks to Jana for bringing me in to visit. You’re an amazing teacher Jana, keep up the great work!
Tonight I had the chance to get back in the classroom, presenting at Professor Digby’s OB class. It was my first time seeing the revamped UCC class rooms, which feature some exciting accessibility features to allow for teachers with disabilities. The class was great and asked a lot of fun questions, including one student who wanted to know if I could “get drunk.” I’m not sure if he was implying I was drunk at the time–perhaps I was swerving a lot? I have to say, it felt good being back in a university classroom. I’d love to make a habit of this going forward.
Thanks again to Dr. Digby for being such a great host and for the amazing conversation afterwards!
I headed over to my old stomping ground, the Thames Valley Children’s Centre this morning to deliver at keynote address at the Neuromuscular Clinic Family Education Day. For this morning, I did things a bit differently, incorporating some of the work Clara and I have been doing on Cripz: A Webcomic to talk a bit more about the disability rights movement and creative activism. The presentation went off great with some great questions afterward. Good to see some familiar faces and to meet some new ones as well!
It appears the disabled are taking over the airwaves in Britain on a show called Young, Autistic and Stagestruck, which is apparently a
“…landmark series [that] follows nine autistic youngsters as they attempt to produce their very own stage show, under the guidance of theatre professionals who’ve never worked with an autistic cast before”
This is an interesting development given Hollywood’s propensity to employ nondisabled actors to play disabled roles. Here’s looking at you, Glee, the most offensive show to grace the airwaves since Hitler’s Happy Puppy Killing Bonanza Quarterly. (Even in some of the promo shots for Glee, actor Kevin McHale is shown blatantly walking around on his two beefy and perfectly functional legs. Secretly, well at least until you read the next sentence, I want to go meet this Kevin McHale fellow at one of their performances and cause a big scene demanding he tells me where he found the cure to his disability.)
Why does Britain do everything better? It’s sort of like how your ex-girlfriend always goes on to do amazing things after you break up…just to rub it in your face that you had a little “revolution.”
Anyway, I first found out about this show from a cute little blog called “Inspire Blog,” who blogged about it here.
After a year of pondering and editing, we’re approaching the online release date of Idling: A Transit Story.
Idling: A Transit Story is an online documentary produced by Jeff Preston, chronicling the lack of accessible transportation in London, Ontario and across the province. Follow Jeff on his mission to bring about change the disabled population desperately needs by driving his wheelchair over 650km from his home in London, Ontario to the nation’s capital in Ottawa.
The documentary will be released in parts beginning on September 4th, 2009 with new chapters being released weekly. The full documentary will be available for free download from www.getmobilized.ca once all chapters have been released online.