News and commentary from and about the broader disability community

Slacktivism, appearance activism and inspiration porn

Culture Club, 774 ABC Melbourne (radio), 14 January 2016

Carly Findlay, Jill Stark and Richelle Hunt discuss slacktivism, appearance activism and inspiration porn.

Parenting classes for parents of children with SEND: an open letter to David Cameron

Katherine Runswick-Cole, TES Connect. 12 January 2016

One leading expert in disability studies offers her suggestions to the (UK) prime minister on what good parenting support should look like for parents of children with SEND (special educational needs/disability) ...
(Prompted by recent UK government policy decisions, but easily translatable to other locations and jurisdictions.)

Court denies parents' bid to forcibly sterilise intellectually disabled daughter

AAP via The Guardian, 15 January 2016
Parents had raised concerns that their daughter’s friendly and trusting nature made her vulnerable to being taken advantage of sexually ...

Resolutions: In three parts

Dave Hingsburger, Rolling Around in My Head, 1 January 2016

... the discomfort left him and he spoke, not to her, but directly to the boy, whose eyes managed to answer questions and begin dialogue. She stepped away ...

Why do you never see a Lego mini-figure with a disability?

Rebecca Atkinson, The Guardian, 22 December 2015
The world’s largest toy company is excluding 150 million disabled children by failing to positively represent them in its products ...

Government efforts to tighten rules for Disability Support Pension criticised

Angela Lavoipierre, PM (ABC Radio), 11 January 2016 (Print + audio)

The Federal Government's efforts to move people off the Disability Support Pension (DSP) have been criticised as an austerity measure. More than 800,000 people who are unable to work more than 15 hours a week rely on the payment ...