10 Badass Disabled Women You Should Know About

August 3, 2016 9:15 PM

"Disabled people deserve to know, from our school days, that we’re not just cases, diagnoses, or “not really disabled”; we’re part of a community with its own histories and triumphs. So to help you gain a better understanding of disability than “just ignore it,” here are ten disabled women whose names you should learn." - Carrie Wade
posted by Anonymous (22 comments total)

I'm happy to say I at least knew about Annette Kellerman, she was a deadset legend!
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:24 PM on August 3, 2016

The linked article on access intimacy is well worth a read.
posted by gusandrews at 9:58 PM on August 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

Glad to see my friend Alice on the list!
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 10:16 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Thank you.
posted by susiswimmer at 11:24 PM on August 3, 2016

This whole time I had no idea Tammy Duckworth was Thai, nor that she was running for senate this year. Duckworth/Michelle Obama '24!
posted by Space Coyote at 11:38 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Great list. But I wish they had titled the article: 10 Badass Women You Should Know About, or 10 Badass Women With Disabilities You Should Know About. It's called 'person first' language and it's important.
posted by Thella at 12:53 AM on August 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

For more famous people with disabilities, Disabled World has an extensive, categorized list.
posted by Spinda at 2:28 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's called 'person first' language and it's important.

Due to my work I have followed the discussion of person-first vs. identity-first language a whole lot and it basically comes down to a multitude of things on what is right (among them: personal preference, type of disability and attached societal stigma). However, in political self-representation I have the feeling it's mostly identity first.
posted by katta at 3:27 AM on August 4, 2016 [6 favorites]

This is a rich, awesome post, stoneweaver, thanks. Its filled with smart links (Stella Young's piece on wheelchairs, that great access intimacy link gusandrews pointed out, and more I'm looking forward to reading) and has given me some awesome new folks to follow on Twitter.

Also, I'm stunned I missed hearing about the recent and completely horrifying Sagamihara massacre before now, and am appalled at the "mercy killing" framing in this article, as well as this paragraph:

The nine men and 10 women killed ranged in age from 19 to 70. Police have not disclosed their names on the grounds that their relatives do not wish to have them identified due to their disabilities.

Thanks again for the smart post; this is exactly why I come to Metafilter.
posted by mediareport at 4:16 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

However, in political self-representation I have the feeling it's mostly identity first.
Sincerely, I don't know what this means in relation to 'person-first' language. Working towards inclusive educational environments is my line of work and I am keen to understand as much as I can. Can you elaborate on 'identity-first' self-representation?
posted by Thella at 4:44 AM on August 4, 2016

stoneweaver, I am very interested in this conversation. I wonder if there is a relevant difference between labelling children, before they have a chance to form and forge their own identity (which is my area - thus my focus on people-first language), and the experience of more mature people who can choose the identity and label (if required) that aligns most appropriately for them. But as a general rule, isn't people-first language more inclusive?
posted by Thella at 4:51 AM on August 4, 2016

Full disclosure, I am a co-founder of chronically academic, a network of disabled and chronically ill academics. We have passionate discussions about this internally. The main page uses person first language whereas every contributor is free in their choice (and that way, both types are represented). Referring to myself, I use identity first language, because that works for me.

What I mean with political self-representation are those moments where disability is not discussed as something non-essential to a person, but rather, when it is the focus of disability politics. Articles such as the one of this post are prime examples of such a moment as they discuss that disability, while present and often defining, doesn't narrow you down to a stereotype if you don't want it.

Generally, I try to be aware of what a group dominantly agreed upon (acknowledging that they might differ individually). For example, this article mentions that there is a difference between physically disabled and neurologically disabled people in language preferences (and gives a nice overview over the discussion). On the other hand, in the autism community, Kenny et al. found out last year that (at least in the UK) carers and parents dominantly prefer person-first language while autistic people tend to prefer identity first language. So, ultimately, there is no general rule, other than: be kind.
posted by katta at 5:06 AM on August 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

Several decades ago, my first lesson in how much accessibility matters was via a junior high classmate; I remember one thing we agreed on was that it was totally reasonable for the school to limit elevator access to students who, like her (a wheelchair user), had difficulty navigating stairs in our three-story school. The other thing we agreed on was that it was ridiculous that just about none of the wheelchair-using students could even reach the buttons to run that elevator: both the outside button to call the elevator and the inside buttons to select a floor were all too high on the wall.

She was also the very first person to describe to me how many people will talk right over the head of someone in a wheelchair, talking to everyone around them instead.

(Thanks, Patty, wherever you are!)
posted by easily confused at 6:19 AM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

CHILLS AT THOSE QUOTES! OMG I have so much to read! Thank you for this awesome awesome post. Awesome women. I needed this inspiration today!!!!
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:12 AM on August 4, 2016

Shout out to my incredible aunt, Liz Winkelaar who is also a Badass woman with a disability.

And here is the talented, inspiring team that dances with her.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:15 AM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I would add Mary Johnson (founder of Disability Rag and Ragged Edge and author of Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve and the Case Against Disability Rights, among other books.

Also, Harriet McBryde Johnson (NYT obit):

Early on, Ms. Johnson was a troublemaker. At 14, at a school for the disabled, her sister said, “Harriet tried to get an abusive teacher fired; the start of her hell raising.” In her memoir, Ms. Johnson describes how, after watching a Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy telethon while in her teens, she turned against “the charity mentality” and “pity-based tactics.”

Her piece Unspeakable Conversations:

He insists he doesn't want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was, and to let other parents kill similar babies as they come along and thereby avoid the suffering that comes with lives like mine and satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child. It has nothing to do with me. I should not feel threatened.

Whenever I try to wrap my head around his tight string of syllogisms, my brain gets so fried it's . . . almost fun. Mercy! It's like ''Alice in Wonderland.''

It is a chilly Monday in late March, just less than a year ago. I am at Princeton University. My host is Prof. Peter Singer, often called -- and not just by his book publicist -- the most influential philosopher of our time. He is the man who wants me dead. No, that's not at all fair. He wants to legalize the killing of certain babies who might come to be like me if allowed to live. He also says he believes that it should be lawful under some circumstances to kill, at any age, individuals with cognitive impairments so severe that he doesn't consider them ''persons.'' What does it take to be a person? Awareness of your own existence in time. The capacity to harbor preferences as to the future, including the preference for continuing to live.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:22 AM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Stella Young previously on Metafilter.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:00 AM on August 4, 2016

The disabilities I have are so minor they usually aren't worth mentioning, but I still had a few revelations reading the access intimacy article. I have exactly one friend with similar knee problems to me and whenever we get together we end up sharing stories of situations where we just couldn't, and laughing like the most cackly witches together. Nobody else we know gets it, since we're in our early thirties and most people our age don't have congenital knee problems, and we wouldn't talk about these situations with anyone who didn't have bad knees because it's embarrassing. We work in tech where being physically fit is generally framed as almost a moral issue - probably because the vast majority of our coworkers are able-bodied young men, i.e. the population most likely to have zero issues doing anything physical that they put their minds to. For them, if you can't do something physical, it's because you're lazy (or just weak, which is widely considered to be a side effect of being lazy long-term, and/or a side effect of being female and/or old).

Neither of us are likely to qualify for a parking placard anytime soon, nor are we candidates for surgical interventions, but it is still such a freeing feeling to be with someone who's like "can you make it up three flights of stairs today or should we just take the elevator?" without judgment or exasperation, just a simple matter-of-fact acknowledgement that our bodies don't always do everything we wish they could.

It's always so amazing to find out someone else has coined a term to describe an interaction or vibe that was refreshing and pleasant but ultimately not something I would have ever come up with a term for. It makes me feel so much more a part of the general stream of lived human experience :)
posted by town of cats at 11:16 AM on August 4, 2016 [5 favorites]

So. Many. Bookmarks.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:13 PM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh man, my volunteer job has basically lost all access for disabled people. Not through any fault of their own--the parent company running them has (a) eliminated any access to the closest parking, so someone disabled who can't walk for 3 minutes to get over here had to cancel classes, and (b) they just found out the elevator they can use to get to the second floor (there's an elevator shared between them and the building across the hall) has been totally disabled because they're remodeling the neighboring building.

I seriously wonder if someone can sue them over this. The org staff is pretty unhappy about this, but again, literally none of that is under their control.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:09 PM on August 4, 2016

Jenfullmoon, sometimes alternate meeting locations or looking up alternate routes for changing levels (which should be posted on the elevator) is in order. It's communication that is key. Is there a shuttle option to reduce walking? Mobility through mass transit? Personal assistive devices prescribed by a medical provider?
posted by childofTethys at 6:38 PM on August 4, 2016

They're trying to work on some kind of way for people to get rides in, last I heard. (I'm not sure how since cars are generally banned in the vicinity and it takes a whole lotta rigamarole to get a car in just to drop off stuff. I fear it may be a bike-based sort of thing...) I don't think there's any way to work around a total lack of elevator until the remodeling is over, though. They're a craft center, so if someone needed to get up to the second floor to use a lab it would be a problem, it's not so much of a case of being able to use an alternate location in some respects. Though as long as they don't need to use photo chemicals, I think they could do things downstairs if necessary.

On the one hand, the wheelchair users I've known who took classes there were using the downstairs labs anyway, but on the other hand, I heard someone already had to cancel on taking classes once she found out about the parking lots. Ugh.... well, not my problem to solve, and it sounds like they're trying to do something, I just don't know how well or quickly that will go. I just hope they figure it out before someone sues.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:39 PM on August 10, 2016