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The Degenerates Hardcover – March 17, 2020

by J. Albert Mann  (Author)

In the tradition of Girl, Interrupted, this fiery historical novel follows four young women in the early 20th century whose lives intersect when they are locked up by a world that took the poor, the disabled, the marginalized-and institutionalized them for life.

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How To Be A Better Disability Ally with Daphne Frias | I Weigh x Jameela Jamil4,214 views•Jul 7, 2020 . This very interesting and informative podcast delves into the portrayed victim hood of people with disabilities and how shines a light on the empowerment that lives within this community.

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How To Be A Better Disability Ally with Daphne Frias | I Weigh x Jameela Jamil

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Desi Disability Narratives

This is an essential social media resource for disabled South Asians in their country of origin as well as those living in diasporas. Unfortunately, to this day Disabled people of South Asian decent are treated like second class citizens within their country of origin as well as within the diaspora community. There is such a dire need for resources and empowerment within the South Asian community and I sincerely advocate on their behalf.

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Black Disability Collective Instagram/NYLON website link 

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Black Disability Collective Instagram/NYLON website link 

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Sharing our stories and envisioning our future. Black disabled lives are sacred. The Black disabled community has hit a hard stroke of intersectional luck that requires extra championing. As Americans, we live in racist police state that thrives by plunging their knee into the necks of innocent Black people, if you are disabled you are even more so at risk.

Ran by @astoldbyteighlor ✨

www.nylon.com/life/black-people-with-disabilities-donations-resources

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The Disability Justice Culture Club, wanted to use that DIY know-how to help their own community and other underserved populations. This is less a depiction of Disabled people in the media and more so a resource to deal with the victimhood that the media brainwashes the masses. This page is alternative media that provides support and sound information. This is future we are advocating for. This is the anti-thesis of victim hood, this is clap-back media!

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With all our hearts, we thank you

We are so grateful and overwhelmed by the beautiful ways our communities have shown up for DJCC and for Stacey. If you attended any part of the Memorial Caravan, Virtual Zoom Memorial, , we thank you for your time and care! So many people were a part of making the work happen. We'd like to name those individuals and orgs specifically:

Andrea LaVant...
Alice Wong
Bianca Laureno
Community Ready Corp
Dasom Nah
Dolores Tejada
Katie Tertocha
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ryan Easterly
Vanessa Rochelle Lewis
Yomi Wrong

So many people did so much it was a miracle The collective community lifted Stacey up in a beautiful way!

If you have worked with Stacey and would like us to know how we can hold the work within DJCC, please let us know via email at:

disabilityjusticecultureclub@gmail.com

We are also accepting donations in Stacey's memory, for our mutual aid effort and for the continued work of DJCC.

NEW VENMO ACCOUNT!

@DisabilityJusticeCultureClub

(Please only use this Venmo account from now on and thanks for your patience through the multiple changes.)

Or feel free to donate through Flipcause:
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/ODY1MTg=

The work of DJCC is not over! Stay tuned and stay connected with us. We are always welcoming more community members and collaborations. Stacey will always be a part of DJCC and we want to continue to build and spread love in community.

All power to the people
All love to our community

DJCC (Jay, Dana and Patrice)

(Photos by Brooke Anderson )

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With all our hearts, we thank you We are so grateful and overwhelmed by the beautiful ways our communities have shown up for DJCC and for Stacey. If you attended any part of the Memorial Caravan, Virtual Zoom Memorial, , we thank you for your time and care!

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MAY 15, 2019

The 1840 U.S. Census Was Overly Interested in Americans' Mental Health Census workers were expected to count ‘insane’ and ‘idiotic’ Americans for half a century. Just like the BLM movement can be traced back to the 13th amendment if you look hard enough, the generalization and victimization of disabled people in the USA needs to traced back to it origins. The bogus rhetoric that was spewed out over a century ago has lasting affects on what we are advocating for today.

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The 2020 census won't ask you about how many people in your family are "idiots" or "insane," but in 1840 that was a question census workers had to answer for every household. The Census Bureau added the question at a time when reformers were interested in creating institutions to help people with mental disabilities. Yet near the turn of the century, scientists and doctors became less interested in helping these people and more interested in preventing them from reproducing. It was around that time that the census stopped asking about mental health.

From the beginning, experts complained that the census enumerators who went from house to house weren't accurately identifying the number of people with mental disabilities. In particular, the 1840 census was shown to have severely over-counted the number of free black people who were "insane" or "idiots"-data that supporters of slavery used as propaganda to argue black Americans were unable to handle freedom.
LISTEN: A Century of Stigma for Black America and Mental Health on HISTORY This Week podcast
Loosely, "insane" could refer to a periodic condition of unusual behavior, and "idiotic" could refer to a permanent learning disability, but there were no precise definitions for these terms. Of the more than 17 million people counted in the 1840 census, 17,456 were listed as "insane and idiots." Yet after experts debunked the census' findings relating to black people, one doctor asserted in a letter to the Journal of Insanity that "the fifth census of 1840 is absolutely worthless as regards any correct enumeration of cases of insanity and idiocy."

Why might medical authorities want to accurately count these people? "This is a period of massive asylum building," says Sarah F. Rose, author of No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s. "Some of them really did have a very much enlightenment-based idea of: these are all human beings, we want to educate them, we want to show that they're capable." One great way to secure funding for an institution was to demonstrate that there was a need for one, and asylums may have seen the census as a way to do that.

The New York Public Library

READ MORE: The Most Controversial Census Changes in American History
The census continued to label people as "insane" or "idiotic" through 1880, and in 1890 dropped those words for "defective of mind." During this time, the census was also developing new racial categories. A "racial scientist" named Josiah Nott requested that the 1850 census record mixed-race people using the term "mulatto." Nott believed black and white people may have been different species, and he wanted to track mixed-race people to see, for example, if they had shortened lifespans. In 1890, the census also added "quadroon" and "octoroon" to indicate one-fourth and one-eighth African ancestry, respectively (it dropped the terms the next year).

At the same time that white scientists were developing ideas about "racial purity," medical professionals were increasingly describing people with mental disabilities as a menace to society in need of restraint. Eugenicists theorized that behaviors like criminality and prostitution were products of mental instability, and therefore inheritable traits that "feeble-minded" parents would pass on to their children. Immigrants and poor people were especially stereotyped as "feeble-minded," and nativists feared that these demographic groups were reproducing too quickly for institutions to handle them all.

"Eventually by the end of the century, they will be seen as a menace," says James Trent, author of Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States, and "associated with all kinds of social problems." The belief was "it's necessary to institutionalize them and keep them away from the rest of us, because they tend to be engaged in petty crimes."

Many nativists felt that, because they perceived a large number of social problems in their communities, there must be many "feeble-minded" people causing them-far more than the census was counting. Even the U.S. Census Bureau seemed to think this, writing in an 1880 report that its tally of "insane" and "idiotic" people "was certainly less than half the number actually present."

These concerns about the census' accuracy may have been the reason the U.S. Census Bureau stopped counting people with mental disabilities on its national census in 1900. However, the concern with "feeble-minded" people didn't go away. The Census Bureau performed a couple of mini-censuses after 1900 focusing only on people in asylums, hospitals or other institutional facilities.

By that time, these institutions were no longer focusing solely on caring for mentally disabled people and teaching them work skills. Increasingly, they wanted to keep feeble-minded people locked up indefinitely so they couldn't reproduce. "The founder of the New York State Asylum for Idiots...create[d] what becomes a eugenic institution, in many ways, for feeble-minded women," Rose says. "Women were released after menopause, and they were often then just dumped in the poor house."

American eugenics was most popular in the early 20th century, during the same period when Nazi Germany was obsessed with creating a "master race" ( the Nazis actually took inspiration from discriminatory U.S. laws). But eugenic practices like forced sterilization continued all the way up until the 1970s and '80s in the U.S., targeting especially people who were poor, Indigenous, non-white or immigrants.
READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About the U.S. Census

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The 1840 U.S. Census Was Overly Interested in Americans' Mental Health

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The 2020 census won't ask you about how many people in your family are "idiots" or "insane," but in 1840 that was a question census workers had to answer for every household. The Census Bureau added the question at a time when reformers were interested in creating institutions to help people with mental disabilities.

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Coronavirus: How These Disabled Activists Are Taking Matters Into Their Own (Sanitized) Hands. This piece of media uplifts the disabled community, it shines light on what they can do instead of what they cannot. This article is a beacon of hope.

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"We are particularly concerned with people in encampments who don't have access to soap and water," said Milbern, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a ventilator to breathe.

Many in the disabled community are all too familiar with feeling isolated and surviving in crisis mode, she said, when resources and support are in short supply. Her small group, which calls itself the Disability Justice Culture Club, wanted to use that DIY know-how to help their own community and other underserved populations.

"Often times, disabled people have the solutions that society needs. We call it crip - or crippled - wisdom," said Milbern, 32, who has a day job as a human resources specialist. "We know how infections spread and how to properly wear a mask and wash your hands."

Milbern said the kits, distributed in partnership with other community groups, have been well received, and now they're struggling to keep up with demand. She said they had hoped to create more than double the number of kits by now, but have had trouble finding enough raw materials at the 30-some stores they've gone to in recent days, where shelves have been swept clean by frantic customers hoarding supplies.

"I think it's really discouraging right now to see that," she said, noting that the overwhelming focus seems to be on personal safety, not the well-being of the larger community. "Really, what it takes to flatten the curve is collective action and collective commitment. Interdependence is going to be what saves us, and COVID-19 is the extreme example of this."

Milbern also has her own health to worry about. She was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer, and on Monday found out that her surgery to remove it, scheduled for later this week, had been postponed because of shelter-in-place orders.

"My surgeon said even though my cancer is fast growing, I can survive another 30 days. But I likely wouldn't survive getting coronavirus," she said in a text message later that day. "It didn't hit me it was that serious/deadly to me personally. I'm really worried for myself and [my] disabled friends."

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Coronavirus: How These Disabled Activists Are Taking Matters Into Their Own (Sanitized) Hands | KQED

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"We are particularly concerned with people in encampments who don't have access to soap and water," said Milbern, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a ventilator to breathe. Many in the disabled community are all too familiar with feeling isolated and surviving in crisis mode, she said, when resources and support are in short supply.

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#disabilityawareness
Hashtag activism is a term coined by media outlets which refers to the use of Twitter's hashtags for Internet activism. The term can also be used to refer to the act of showing support for a cause through a like, share, etc. on any social media platform, such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
This hashtag is essential creating a dialogue of respect and inclusion for the disabled community.

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The Disability Visibility Project is an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. this website is empowering and glorifying of all the wonderful aspects of the Disability community and helps create an accurate image replete with respect and dignity.

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The Disability Visibility Project is an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.

What does the DVP do?

Believes that disabled narratives matter and that they belong to us

Encourages people with disabilities to go to StoryCorps or use the StoryCorps app and record their oral histories with the option of having them archived at the Library of Congress

Publishes original essays, reports, and blog posts about ableism, intersectionality, culture, media, and politics from the perspective of disabled people

Builds online spaces for people to share, organize, and connect

Champions disability culture and history

Organizes and facilitates events, gives presentations, participates on panels

Supports and amplifies the work of other disabled people and organizations in the community using social media

and Partners and collaborates with other activists and organizations in various campaigns such as #CripTheVote, #CripLit, Access Is Love, DisabledWriters.com

Consults and provides professional services through Disability Visibility LLC

does not represent or speak for StoryCorps in any way. The DVP did not create the NOTE: The Disability Visibility Project#CripTheVote campaign but is a co-partner in that movement.

Also: the usage of the word 'visibility' in the project name is metaphorical. It is not meant to privilege one sensory experience over others.

Disability Visibility Project® is a trademark of Alice Wong. All rights reserved. (c) Alice Wong 2016.

ABOUT

Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, writer, editor, media maker, and consultant. Alice is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project , an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.

Alice is a co-partner in four projects: DisabledWriters.com , a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, (no longer active),a series of Twitter chats for disabled writers with novelist Nicola Griffith , #CripTheVote , a nonpartisan online movement encouraging the political participation of disabled people with co-partners Andrew Pulrang and Gregg Beratan, and Access Is Love with co-partners Mia Mingus and Sandy Ho , a campaign that aims to help build a world where accessibility is understood as an act of love instead of a burden or an afterthought.

Alice's areas of interest are popular culture, media, politics, disability representation, Medicaid policies and programs, storytelling, social media, and activism.

In 1997 she graduated with degrees in English and sociology from Indiana University at Indianapolis. She has a MS in medical sociology and worked at the University of California, San Francisco as a Staff Research Associate for over 10 years. During that time she worked on various qualitative research projects and co-authored online curricula for the Community Living Policy Center , a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research .

Recognized for her service to the community and activism at the local and national level, Alice received the Beacon Award by the San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council in 2010 and the Disability Service Award by the University of California, San Francisco in 2011. From 2013 to 2015 Alice served as a member of the National Council on Disability , an independent federal agency charged with advising the President, Congress, and other federal agencies regarding policies, programs, practices, and procedures that affect people with disabilities, appointed by President Barack Obama . Alice was the recipient of the 2016 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award , an award for emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community.

Alice launched the Disability Visibility podcast in September 2017 as host, co-audio producer, and writer. She edited and self-published Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People in October 2018.

In 2018 Alice was featured in the , a list recognizing the most impactful creators, artists, and activists in pop culture by Bitch Media and Colorline's 20 X 20 , a group of transformative leaders reimagining what it means to advance racial justice.

In 2020 Alice was named by Time magazine as one of 16 people fighting for equality in America. Alice self-published and edited #ADA30InColor , a series of essays by disabled people of color in July. Alice was featured with activists such as Angela Davis and Dr. Bernice A. King on the cover of British Vogue's September issue . For the Pop Culture Collaborative, she guest edited Break The Story Volume IV: Disability Visibility , a snapshot of disability. Along with 19 other disabled artists, Alice was named a Disability Futures fellow , a grant by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation administered by United States Artists. Alice also received the Indiana University Bicentennial Medal for her contributions to disability justice and broadening the reach of IU around the world.

In 2021, Alice was named a changemaker by Marie Claire magazine. She co-edited a digital issue that year, The Access Series with Bitch Media that expands the meaning of access in everyday life. Alice's first role as a voice actor was in Someone Dies In This Elevator podcast, season 1, episode 11, "Hot Wheels," as Waverly.

In 2022, Alice was included in Gold House's A100 List, a list honoring 100 Asians and Pacific Islanders who had the most impact on culture and society over the past year. She created the Society of Disabled Oracles with co-partners Aimi Hamraie and Jen White-Johnson.

Alice is the editor of an anthology of essays by disabled people and Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (Vintage Books, 2020) , Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today, an adapted version for young adults (Delacorte Press 2021).

Her debut memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life is available now from Vintage Books. Disability Intimacy , her next anthology, will be out in 2024.

In 2023, Alice became a , a series of food writing by disabled people. columnist for Teen Vogue and recipient of the Community Award from the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies . She also was a voice actor portraying Alice, a character loosely based on her, in season two of Human Resources , an animated series on Netflix. In partnership with Eater, Alice co-edited Low and Slow Year of the Tiger received a Northern California Book Award for creative nonfiction.

Alice also works as an independent research consultant as part of her side hustle with clients such as Netflix, Twitter, and other disability rights organizations. Alice is a public speaker and represented by The Steven Barclay Agency .

For more about her work, you can go to her website or check out the latest on Twitter @SFdirewolf and Instagram @Disability_Visibility .

For headshots and shorter bios of Alice, check out her Media Kit.

Instagram: @disability_visibility

Bluesky: @SFdirewolf.bsky.social

Newsletter: https://disability-visibility-newsletter.ghost.io

Email: DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com
Newsletter: https://disabilityvisibility.substack.com/ Access rider for speaking events (updated September 2023)
Speaking requests: please contact Steven Barclay at Steven Barclay Agency, 707-773-0654; steven@barclayagency.com and Alyssa Jones, 707-773-0654; alyssa@barclayagency.com
Freelance Audio Producers for the Disability Visibility podcast (September 2017- April 2021) Learn more and support these amazing audio producers! Geraldine Ah-Sue, Cheryl Green, and Sarika D. Mehta
Team DVP

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The Disability Visibility Project is an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. What does the DVP do? Believes that disabled narratives matter and that they belong to us Encourages people with disabilities to go to StoryCorps or use the StoryCorps app and record their oral histories with the option of...

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One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people. There is a rhetoric of respect, advocacy and empowerment that is championed in this book.

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century is a collective anthology of short essays, interview transcripts, articles, blog posts, creative prose and more edited by Alice Wong to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). What unfolds within its pages is nothing short of a celebration of the universal and total nature of the disabled experience; it is raw and it is painful, but it is also beautiful and inspiring. Once you start, it is hard to put down.

Split across four sections - Being, Becoming, Doing and Connecting - each contributor leaves a piece of themselves within these pages, their voices distinct and experiences vivid whether they be expressed through ten pages or just three. This diverse range of perspectives, and mediums through which they're shared, makes this anthology a true demonstration of what intersectionality really means without even having to use it as a buzzword. It succeeds absolutely in what it sets out to do; to demonstrate the undeniable value of disabled lives and experiences - particularly those lives and experiences that are also shaped by colour, gender and/or sexuality - and why not only the world will always have us, but why the world needs us. Every essay is accessible - and clearly labelled with content warnings where difficult subjects are discussed - and is worth reading at least once, but I can see myself returning to this anthology to re-read it many times in the coming years.

Whether you're disabled or no, I think this is a critical and necessary read for anyone who is passionate about social justice, or who wants to gain a more intimate understanding of themselves and the human condition. The wisdom and rawness within these pages is something we can all grow from, and may we carry them forward into our communities and from humble seeds grow into mighty oaks, intertwined in interdependence from roots to branches. In my own journey as a young disabled man, I feel as if I'm just starting to reach the canopy, in no small part thanks to the richness of this book.

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century [Wong, Alice] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

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As our understanding of autism grows, researchers are finding that the way we diagnose autism may be biased.

They're also finding, through early research and small studies, that gender fluidity may be more prevalent in people with autism than the general population.

In this episode, we'll dive into both of these topics through the experiences of three autistic advocates

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Autism POVs: Gender and autism

As our understanding of autism grows, researchers are finding that the way we diagnose autism may be biased.

They're also finding, through early research and small studies, that gender fluidity may be more prevalent in people with autism than the general population.

In this episode, we'll dive into both of these topics through the experiences of three autistic advocates.

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Subscribe at the below platforms to get new episodes as they are released:
Google Play Spotify Apple Podcasts
Resources related to this episode:

We're Here to Help Chat with Us

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Autism POVs: Gender and autism | Autism Speaks

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As our understanding of autism grows, researchers are finding that the way we diagnose autism may be biased. They're also finding, through early research and small studies, that gender fluidity may be more prevalent in people with autism than the general population.

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INTERVIEWS MAY 6, 2019

How a Lifelong Friendship Led to Steve Way’s Ramy Role

By Michael Stahl
This is a deeply empowering and touching article that helps humanize and normalize severely impacted population of the disabled community.

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Streaming TV's newest critical darling is , the already-renewed Hulu original starring comedian and co-creator Ramy Youssef. Primarily about a Muslim 20-something, portrayed by Youssef, who's walking a social tightrope between the expectations of his faith and Northeast progressivism, Ramy has been widely praised for its thought-provoking writing and Atlanta-like rawness mixed with surrealism. It's also scored high marks because of its cast diversity, most prominently highlighted by the presence of Steve Way, Youssef's real-life best friend who has muscular dystrophy.

Way, 28, from Rutherford, New Jersey, is a stand-up comedian as well as a public speaker who raises awareness about people living with disabilities. He supplements his income as a substitute teacher at Rutherford High School, where both he and Youssef graduated - though their buddy status dates back to the first week of fifth grade, as it similarly does on Ramy. Near the end of the fourth episode, after a preteen Ramy is ostracized by his classmates for the crime of being Muslim on 9/11, the young Steve wheels up to him on his way to school, shouting, "Hey, terrorist!" After a brief conversation, the episode closes with the two outcasts traversing the route together, side by side, beginning a beautiful friendship.

The older TV version of the pair continues to find themselves in unsettling situations, allowing the for-real twosome to splay their comedic acting talents. Way shines on the show as the somehow straight er man to Youssef's straight man who sometimes breaks a little bad.

Vulture sat down with Way at one of the many midtown Manhattan Starbucks locations to talk about his work on the show, a near-death experience, and the one scene on Ramy that, at first, made him " so uncomfortable."

Ramy has just been picked up for a second season, so congrats on that!
Thank you!

How does that make you feel?
Really good because now I have that job security, and I'm just really excited to see what ideas Ramy has - for the whole show and for my character.

Do you enjoy it?
I love it. The students are super respectful, super helpful. They've been nothing but welcoming and accepting. I always tell people I never wanted to teach younger kids because that would be too much of a distraction. The high-school kids get it. Most of them know who I am anyway. They've seen my work online - my speaking and my stand-up.

What was the process like to get you on Ramy?
Ramy was a big advocate for me. He used a lot of my stand-up and I did some audition tapes. It's very, very hard for people like me to be on TV. I mean, when was the last time you saw someone who looked like me on TV or in a movie?

I saw this interview on Good Morning America with Bryan Cranston, whose work I love. But he was promoting The Upside where he played a quadriplegic person, and he talked about how he researched for the part by meeting with disabled people. He was trying to sound really sensitive about their struggles, but I was taken by how he made them all sound like huge sympathy cases. He wound up sounding really insensitive to me.
He did an interview about that, and his exact words were it was a "business decision" to play that role. And it's like, not only is that really offensive, but it's really hurtful.

I was thinking at the time that there's got to be someone who lives with that same disability who could give a more authentic performance, perhaps, if they have any kind of acting chops.
There are thousands of disabled actors, writers, and directors, but they don't give us a chance. Obviously, having a nondisabled actor play a disabled person's role is bad, but I think the real problem is having a nondisabled writer write a disabled person's role. To have a movie like Me Before You, and people come out of it thinking, Oh, wow, people with disabilities just want to kill themselves because they feel like a burden and they're incapable of love. And then you see a movie like The Theory of Everything, where at the end you have Eddie Redmayne get up out of his wheelchair, and people come out of that theater like, Oh, that's what disabled people dream about. And it wins a fucking Oscar! Like, it's a joke. It's really, really harmful to people's perceptions of disabled people.

Maybe we're getting into a place now where we can have these discussions, culturally. With your presence on TV, maybe we can have a broad perspective shift about people with disabilities being represented in media.
I really hope so. A couple years ago, with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy put out a statement about diversity, and they listed all the marginalized groups that they want to put more emphasis on. "People with disabilities" wasn't even in that statement. I mean, how much harder do we have to fight?

How far back do you and Ramy go?We've been friends since 2001. We met in fifth grade, the week before 9/11. So that episode of Ramy is somewhat true.

How long have you been doing stand-up?
I started in 2010. Ramy, along with two other friends of ours, had a sketch-comedy group, and they did a show at this old movie theater, with a stage from like the 1920s, in our hometown. They wanted to turn it into a charity show for muscular dystrophy.

And Ramy had you in mind in arranging that, right?
Obviously! It was a year after he and I had graduated high school, and we'd worked on a bunch of projects, like sketch videos - this was during that big sketch-comedy YouTube boom of the late 2000s. Our high school had a full TV studio, so we always had access to equipment. But one day during the summer Ramy was over at my house and said, "I want you to write a stand-up set." Two weeks later, he was over again and I said, "All right, here it is." And he said, "Great. You're gonna perform it at the show."

How did it go?
It was amazing. You know, I have been public speaking since I was 10 years old with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, just helping raise money and raise awareness. So being onstage was never a problem for me, but to do, like, an organized set, it was so different. But it ultimately felt natural. It felt right.

Where do you usually perform stand-up? What's your material like?
I mostly perform at the PIT - the Peoples Improv Theater - mostly because UCB was never wheelchair accessible. The PIT was my only option. I can't perform at the Comedy Cellar. I can't perform at the Village Underground. They're not accessible. People don't realize that comedy is not really accessible to all people in New York. I've been trying to change that for years. It took so long just to get a ramp at UCB East to get up on the stage. I've been fighting for wheelchair accessibility in all buildings since I was 10 years old.

So I don't perform as often as I'd like, but I do the PIT. I do SubCulture now. I usually do like eight to ten minutes, and the audience is automatically an obstacle. It's not every day they see somebody who looks like me, so it's really my job to get them on my side as early as I can.

Do you have an opener that you do to help with that?
I say, "Let me get this out of the way: No, this is not my Make-a-Wish." And then they say, "Okay, I can laugh at him."

In episode three of Ramy, Ramy gets really high, goes over to your character's house, and sits with him and his mother. He starts talking about how your character is going to die relatively soon, that his mother's life sucks because she has to take care of him all the time, and that she'll one day be at her son's funeral, for sure. How did that scene come together, and what did you think of it?
Ramy wrote it, and I remember reading that for the first time, and it made me feel really uncomfortable. So uncomfortable. Then I gave it an hour and I read it again. I thought, Oh my goodness, this is brilliant.

What happened?
When I was in the eighth grade, I had back surgery to correct scoliosis. It was getting to the point where if I didn't have this surgery it was gonna kill me because it would've just crushed everything inside. So I have the surgery, I was in the hospital for ten days, and I came out and I got so sick. I couldn't eat or drink anything because my throat was so swollen from being intubated during the surgery. I couldn't get comfortable. I couldn't sit up, couldn't lie down. I'd wake up like every hour when I was trying to sleep. It was like this for five weeks, and it was really the only time in my life I thought about suicide. I wasn't depressed, but I was scared to live the rest of my life like that - just constant pain and discomfort. And then five weeks after I came home, there was one day where I felt worse than usual. The whole day my dad was asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said, "No, I'm fine." I woke up at like 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom. I'm on the toilet and my dad asked me again if I wanted to go to the hospital. I don't know why but I said yes, and if I'd said no I would've gotten back in bed and I would've been dead.

So we're on the way to the hospital. I stopped breathing two minutes out. They get me on life support. I weighed under 40 pounds because I didn't eat anything, and the surgery gave me pneumonia. My right lung was filled with fluid, but I was so weak I didn't realize it. They sucked it all out, and then they accidentally overdosed me on Ativan and I was in a coma for a day and a half. I ended up being on life support for two weeks. I was in the hospital for a month, and I really didn't know what was going to happen. That was really the moment that made me realize life really is too short.

Ramy saw me and helped me get through it all.

I also wanted to ask you about that episode where you're trying to hook up, knowingly, with a drunk 16-year-old girl.
It never happened! I've never been with an underage girl! I have to say that every interview.

[Laughs.] I didn't think so, but how did that episode come about? Are you proud of it, and what do you enjoy about it?
I think Ramy really wanted to have my character in a situation that would challenge people's morals.

You're just like everybody else - you can kind of be an asshole, too.
Yes. [But in the episode] I'm still in a situation that nobody else is in. I have different circumstances. In that episode I've gotta be flexible. So when I'm doing that, it's morally wrong, but, you know, Ramy, I think, drafted it in a way where he wanted the viewer to be like, "It's kind of okay for him. It doesn't feel right, but I get it."

How frequent are your public-speaking engagements, and what's your message?
They're starting to pick up more now because people are aware of me. I mostly do it at schools, all different grades. I talk to the students about tolerance, overcoming adversity. I think hearing it from someone like me kind of hits a little differently, and it gives them a bit of a different perspective on the world around them. But I love doing it because it gives me the opportunity to meet new people and to share my story and to hear theirs.

What's next for you in showbiz? Are you hoping for other parts in other shows or movies? More stand-up?
Honestly, I'm up for anything. I love acting. I love being able to tell my story to a live audience. So now if more studios and networks can see me and say, "Oh, okay, he can do it," hopefully they'll take a chance on me and others like me. But I am a straight white guy, so it's going to be easier for me. That's a fact. I don't know what it's like to be disabled and black, disabled and gay, disabled and trans, and those people deserve to have their story told, too. It's just as important, if not more important than mine. They're more marginalized people than I am. It's weird to say that because I am disabled, but there are more marginalized people out there that have less of an opportunity than I do.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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How a Lifelong Friendship Led to Steve Way's Ramy Role

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An interview with stand-up comedian and "Ramy" cast member Steve Way about how he got cast on the Hulu series, his friendship with Ramy Youssef, and his hope to see more disabled people both in front of and behind the camera.

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From Academy Award® winning director Roger Ross Williams, LIFE, ANIMATED is the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films. This media is empowering and suggest a narrative of uplifting the disabled community.

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Nominated for the Academy Award®
for Best Documentary Feature!

Watch on:

From Academy Award® winning director Roger Ross Williams, LIFE, ANIMATED is the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films.

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Life Animated - a documentary by Roger Ross Williams

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Nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature!

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Failure to Launch: Shaping Intervention for Highly Dependent Adult Children. Projects an ideology of compassion and understanding around a stigmatizing subject. This podcast is helping normalize depression in America.

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Dr. Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Associate Director Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program, Yale Child Study Center.

This podcast was published in February 2016 by JAACP.

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Failure to Launch: Shaping Intervention for Highly Dependent Adult Children

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Dr. Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Associate Director Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program, Yale Child Study Center. This podcast was published in February 2016 by JAACP.

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(NETFLIX)
Special is an American comedy web television series that premiered on Netflix on April 12, 2019.[1] The series is based on the memoir I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves (2015) by Ryan O'Connell,[2] . This series is important because it creates a narrative of the real experience of a disabled person.

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The presence of disability in Hollywood

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On top TV shows, the number of such characters played by actors with disabilities rose from 5 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2018. Still, most of the portrayals were negative.

Shoshannah Stern on an episode of "This Close" on Sundance Now. Credit... Michael Moriatis/Sundance Now

There is "Atypical," on Netflix, a coming-of-age comedy that features young adults on the autism spectrum, and " This Close, " on Sundance Now, about besties who are deaf. Both shows are part of a gradual trend toward the authentic casting of characters with disabilities. But according to new research, they are also anomalies.

A new white paper from the Ruderman Family Foundation reports that some 80 percent of all disabled characters on the small screen are portrayed by non-disabled actors. The imbalance is an indication, the report's sponsors say, that efforts to diversify Hollywood are far from inclusive. And even with examples of authentic casting on "Atypical," the lead character, who is autistic, is played by an actor who is not.

"We wouldn't accept it with other minorities," said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which published the report. "But with disability it is still routinely accepted. And that's wrong."

The research, covering about 280 network and streaming shows from 2018, found that roughly half featured characters with physical, cognitive or mental health disabilities. Yet, the report said, "even where disability is present in television and films, it is almost always portrayed as an undesired, depressing and limiting state"

There were signs of shifts. Of the Top 10 Nielsen-rated shows from 2016, just 5 percent of disabled characters were played by disabled performers. In 2018, that figure jumped to 12 percent.

Still, the raw figures tell a less rosy story. In 2018, there had been just two authentic castings in the Top 10 shows: Gavin McHugh from "9-1-1," and Chrissy Metz from "This Is Us." (McHugh has cerebral palsy; and Metz was included because obesity is considered a disability.) That was up from 2016, when there had been just one.

Ruderman said the low representation had far-ranging implications in shaping attitudes. Shows like "Will & Grace" and "Ellen" have been credited with widening the popular embrace of people who are L.G.B.T.Q.

Disabled people - who face an unemployment rate that is more than twice as high as their non-disabled peers - have little clout in the entertainment industry. Ruderman faulted the historic isolation disabled people have faced. While that is slowly changing, he said, most decision makers in the entertainment industry do not see disability as part of general life.

And having that personal connection is key. For his show "Ramy," Ramy Youssef, who recently won a Golden Globe for best comedy actor in a series, cast his close buddy Steve Way, who has muscular dystrophy, as his character's best friend.

The foundation has been pressuring studios and networks to include more disabled talent, and is partnering this year with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a series of initiatives toward that end.

Last year, CBS Entertainment became the first - and so far only - studio to sign a pledge with the foundation to audition disabled actors for series that get picked up (CBS had more authentic castings than any other network or streaming platform).

"This is an issue of fairness," Ruderman said. "This is an issue of over 20 percent of the population not being seen."

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For the Disabled in Hollywood, Report Finds Hints of Progress

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On top TV shows, the number of such characters played by actors with disabilities rose from 5 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2018. Still, most of the portrayals were negative. There is "Atypical," on Netflix, a coming-of-age comedy that features young adults on the autism spectrum, and " This Close, " on Sundance Now, about besties who are deaf.

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The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly chat about all things mental health (DEPRESSION, SUICIDE AND BIPOLAR DISORDER), personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves

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The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Join your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, as she offers practical tips and strategies to improve your mental health, discusses the latest news and trends in mental health, pulls back the curtain on what happens in therapy sessions, and answers your listener questions.

The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Join your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, as she offers practical tips and strategies to improve your mental health, discusses the latest news and trends in mental health, pulls back the curtain on what happens in therapy sessions, and answers your listener questions.

Ally

I am an ally of BLM and all BIPOC and started listening to Dr Joy when I decided it was time to grow my perspective as a white 26 year old woman. I love the knowledge and honest conversations she has with her guests. The episode on loneliness really spoke to me and made me feel understood during this tough time. She is brilliant, warm, kind - I feel her glow and radiance through my headphones!

I don't know about this one

Firstly, get ready for her voice. Definitely not a radio/podcasting voice, very grating. Episode on single life, guest is definitely bitter, sounds like she doesn't like men or hetero relationships, and is not helpful for single Black women who happen to also want to be in a relationship and marriage. Definitely toxic.

My Daughter the Psychologist got me hook on this channel

I love this podcast. My daughter take me to work and pick me up and she plays the podcast. Sometime she turn it off and I ask her it ok to turn it back on I was enjoy the information that you and your guest was sharing.

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‎Therapy for Black Girls on Apple Podcasts

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‎The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Join your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, as she offers pr...

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RAMY
S2 E7

The Infamous 'Ramy' Disabled Masturbation Scene: An Almost True Story. Ramy is a new show on Hulu that follows the existential angst of first generation Egyptian-American young man who turns to his disabled best friend to be of service every time he feel guilty.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

Images
The Infamous ' Ramy' Disabled Masturbation Scene: An Almost True Story

melmagazine.com

Images may be subject to copyright.

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Images The Infamous ' Ramy' Disabled Masturbation Scene: An Almost True Story melmagazine.com Images may be subject to copyright.

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DRUNK HISTORY ( HULU)
S5 E5
THE REHABILITATION ACT 504 episode is filmed in a comical but yet informative and empowering way. This was one of my favorite pieces of on this padlet. We are dealing with a serious subject and living in unprecedented times and we all deserve a little comic relief.

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History is written by the victors but told best by the totally wasted -- on this wildly inappropriate (and maybe just a little inaccurate) series where well-lubricated comics tell famous American tales and celebrity guests act them out.

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An artist who suffers from bipolar disorder suspects the residents of her luxury apartment building are being subliminally brainwashed.

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Start your free trial to watch Distorted and other popular TV shows and movies including new releases, classics, Hulu Originals, and more. It's all on Hulu.

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The Hilarious World of Depression Podcast

A show about clinical depression…with laughs? Well, yeah. Depression is an incredibly common and isolating disease experienced by millions, yet often stigmatized by society. The Hilarious World of Depression is a series of frank, moving, and, yes, funny conversations with people who have dealt with this disease, hosted by veteran humorist and public radio host John Moe.

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You can think of Dave Nadelberg's vast Mortified project as The Hilarious World of Embarrassment, Awkwardness, and Redemption. Through stage presentations, film, TV, and books, Dave invites people to share their most mortifying writing. It's very funny, sure, but it's more than that. Dave says the process of dragging your younger self out of that old trunk can provide...

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The Hilarious World of Depression Podcast - Make It Ok

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You can think of Dave Nadelberg's vast Mortified project as The Hilarious World of Embarrassment, Awkwardness, and Redemption. Through stage presentations, film, TV, and books, Dave invites people to share their most mortifying writing. It's very funny, sure, but it's more than that.

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Decarcerating Disability

Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition
2020

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Author: Liat Ben-Moshe

This vital addition to carceral, prison, and disability studies draws important new links between deinstitutionalization and decarceration. This is an extremely important topic to address and brings up issues of visibility and human rights within the disabled world.