Being Disabled Shouldn't Equal Being Poor.

check out this research station, an archeology of disability!

found here: https://anarchaeologyofdisability.com/en/ (accessible website); https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/08/10/archaeology-disability-acropolis/

[ID copied from alt text: An image of the installation. It is a room with stone brick walls. Mounted on the walls are the photographs of rocky cliffs large panels. Concrete structures in various shapes dot the area, complete with drilled holes to invoke the layering on a weathered rock. On the left, a person on video appears to be signing with captions on their right. End ID.]

From the article:

In ancient times, the path to the Acropolis was a ramp leading from the marketplace of the Agora up to the iconic site where the Parthenon stood. People of all abilities navigated the sloping route, helping one another or being helped as needed within the collective experience of the ascent. In the 19th century, the path was changed to its current form: a narrow, switchbacking trail in keeping with the times by embracing the romance of the solitary pilgrimage. But lost was the journey's communal aspect, along with the potential for visitors with disabilities to join their peers in the ascent. In an attempt to make the site accessible for the 2004 Olympics, for years an elevator car clung to a vertical rock face—until recently, the sole alternative for those unable to navigate the path, and too small for a companion to join them. In May, an installation opened at the Venice Biennale, the prestigious cultural institution, that explores an experiment: a historic reconstruction of the Acropolis through a lens of disability. 'What might it be like to use languages and structures related to disability today to more deeply understand the structures and experiences of the past?' asked the installation's creators.

From the Archeology of Disability Website:

The accessibility of historic architecture not only determines who can experience the past, but it also informs how we think about disabled people as part of history. This installation presents an experiment in the historic reconstruction of the Acropolis in Athens. Our reconstructions recover ideas about bodies and impairment at one of the most canonical, influential, and notoriously inaccessible architectural sites. We explored what it means to reconstruct lost elements of the Acropolis through the lens of human impairment. Such an approach contrasts to the pursuit of “accessible heritage” — a balance between historic authenticity of architecture and technical modifications made for accessibility. We call our alternative to accessible heritage “an archaeology of disability.”  The elements we reconstructed include an enormous 5th Century BCE ramp that once connected the Acropolis to the Agora; a gallery of paintings at the top of the ramp; and a small stone seat, described by an ancient visitor as a place to rest. The ramp’s form is reconstructed as a tactile, touch-based model that transmits vibrations like those caused by the ancient crowds, animals, and carriages. It is ringed with a frieze of braille. The paintings, known through text, are reconstructed in sign language. This reconstruction, titled “Sēmata” (signs) is performed in a film-work. The stone seat is reconstructed in three different sizes and heights. Each is decorated with braille-like patterns that communicate the optical effect of weathered stone into a tactile form. Collectively, these reconstructions demonstrate another way to consider disability and the historic past — one that moves beyond technological fixes to physical objects. Disability emerges as a form of historical inquiry, archaeology, and reconstruction — one informed by the experience of collective human difference across space and time. 

further reading [dm me for pdf]: disability and preservation (david gissen)

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.

Cripplepunk, madpunk, and neuropunk aren't just "I'm disabled and also left-leaning". It's a specific realm of activism rooted in dismantling the systems that put disabled, mad, sick, etc folks at a disadvantage in society. This mean not only being against the very systems that harm us but also understanding their colonial origins and continued racist legacies. (Anti-ableism, anti-sanism, anti-psych, etc). This means not only just identifying and finding pride in your disability but also building and constantly evolving your understanding of disability and diversity and learning how you can change your worldview to accurately highlight the struggles of disabled people. (EVEN if it sometimes means you will be uncomfortable or unsure of unlearning some kinds of hate.)

don't say "empathy" when you mean "helping others."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "moral values."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "taking people's problems into account."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "sense of justice."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "doing right things."

Disability and Theory

"Disabilities have been perceived differently throughout history, through a variety of different theoretical lenses. There are two main models that attempt to explain disability in our society: the medical model and the social model. The medical model serves as a theoretical framework that considers disability as an undesirable medical condition that requires specialized treatment. Those who ascribe to the medical model tend to focus on finding the root causes of disabilities, as well as any cures—such as assistive technology. The social model centers disability as a societally-created limitation on individuals who do not have the same ability as the majority of the population." (Wikipedia, 14th Apr. 2025)

What is happening with section 504? And what you can do about it? Section 504 is under attack. If you live in any of these states, you can call your representatives.

DISABILITY INJUSTICE AFFECTS EVERYONE. You shouldn’t care “just because” you could be disabled one day. You should care *now*, because this will come back to everyone.

Images from @/myelasticheart on Instagram

Open captions. Eye contact. Proper closed captions. Audio description. ~1 minute.

From the video's info section:

Lawrence Carter-Long is the director of communications at Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). In this video interview, he shines a spotlight on how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came to be through the persistent work of disability activists. “The draft legislation for the Americans with Disabilities Act was put together in the mid-’80s. And then, right, 1990, over 20 years later, what did it take to pass that law? Disability being disruptive. Disabled people saying, ‘No, no, no. We’re not going to be taken for granted, we’re not going to be left behind, and we’re going to show you how determined and how dedicated we are.’ Those are decades between advances, decades between real progress. We’ve waited long enough. The time to be included, the time for this to change is now. And you can be a part of it. You should be a part of it.”

BTW, that Disability and Philanthropy Initiative is another thing the Biden Administration has done to try for more equity for marginalized groups -- including the Disabled.

It's arguable whether or not the philanthropy model is a good thing (personally, I've grown increasingly skeptical of it in my radical middle age). But this is another example of how the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are not the same.

Disability History Crash Course

Throughout history, disabilities has been viewed in many different ways, from curses and bad luck, to simply unfortunate differences some are born with.  In some ancient civilizations, disabled individuals were often marginalized or viewed through religious/superstitious lenses.  In ancient Greece and Rome, individuals with physical or mental disabilities were abandoned or ostracized from civilization. 

 In Europe during the Middle Ages, disabilities were often linked to sin, religious disfavor, or divine punishment, which lead to social exile.  Often, if the disabled individuals received care, it was from family members or religious institutions.  As the age of Enlightenment came to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries, society began to shift towards medicalization, which changed the view of disability from punishment, to a natural defect, to be diagnosed and treated. 

The 19th and 20th century brought about the rise of sanatoriums, asylums, and institutions designed as a way to 'treat' people with disabilities.  This new approach of 'treatment' was, in reality, a way to hide disabled people from the public, and often lead to isolation and severe medical mistreatment of the patients.  This, along with the creation of Eugenics movements, lead to many harmful stigmas surrounding disability.

As disability rights movements gained momentum in the mid-20th century, different bills and acts were passed in order to protect disabled people.  Some  landmark events were the Independent Living Movement and the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990).  As the U.S. shifted away from seclusion and towards inclusion, equality, and accessibility, many of the stigmas surrounding disability began to easy, and people began to see disability as not just a medical issue, but as a social and political issue.

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

pbs.org

The Iconic Civil Rights Protest You Don't Know | American Experience | PBS

Meet the protesters who crawled their way into history—and changed how all Americans live.

Imagine climbing up 83 steps. Perhaps that doesn’t seem like such a big deal—but that’s likely because you’d be walking. What would you do, though, if you couldn’t?  That was the premise behind the Capitol Crawl, a now-iconic protest to demand the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was a landmark civil rights bill aimed at providing basic amenities and protections to some 40 million mentally and physically disabled citizens. Today we take many of the ADA’s changes to society—curb cuts in sidewalks and closed captioning on entertainment, to name just two examples—for granted. But the act’s passage, in 1990, was anything but guaranteed. By spring of that year, the ADA had been trapped in legislative limbo for months. Despite the strong support of then-President George H.W. Bush, the act was languishing in Congress, caught in the deliberations of House subcommittees. Many U.S. Representatives balked at the expense and complication posed by the ADA’s requirements. Enter ADAPT—American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit—a grassroots disability rights organization that had been staging protests across the country even before its official founding in 1983. On March 12, 1990, ADAPT led a procession of more than 500 marchers, including other disability activists and lobbyists, from the White House to the west side of the U.S. Capitol. There, in the kind of guerrilla civic action for which the organization had become known, scores of marchers dropped to the ground and began the long journey up the hard marble stairs leading to the “People’s House.” They climbed backwards or on their hands and knees, step-by-painstaking-step. “As I’m seeing the people around me,” recalled Anita Cameron, one of the ADAPT activists who made her way up that day, “I'm like, ‘whoa, we are doing it. We are really doing it. We’re, like, crawling into history.’” Rolled up in their pockets, protestors carried copies of the Declaration of Independence. Once they finally summitted the stairs, ADAPT reps delivered those scrolls to members of Congress as a reminder of the ADA’s importance. And while media coverage of the event wasn’t extensive, but the publicity that was garnered by the Crawl was impactful. “The pictures were striking,” said The New York Times several days later, “just as they were intended to be: Children paralyzed from the waist down crawling up the steps of the Capitol.” Six months later, following the bill’s now-remarkably swift passage through the House, President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law. “We did it to show that we disabled people, as second class citizens, needed change. And the vehicle for how it was going to change was the ADA,” Cameron told American Experience, reflecting on the Capitol Crawl’s significance. “But I think a lot of people forget that the ADA was the floor. It was not the ceiling. So it was the beginning of rights for us, but it was not the end.”