“It’s time to put on hand sanitizer, Beth*,” I say as we get back in the car after visiting the park to see the ducks, or as she calls them, “QUACK QUACKS.” I reach for her hand and when the sanitizer touches her skin, she recoils. “Don’t you try! Don’t you try!” Beth exclaims, pulling… Read more →
Tag: disabilities
Saving the Children: Is International Adoption Really the Answer?
The year 2021 marks thirty years since the United States first issued immigrant visas to Chinese orphans, signaling the beginning of international adoptions between the United States and China. As a 21-year-old Chinese adoptee, I have encountered plenty of people telling me how lucky and grateful I should feel regarding my adoption. But despite the… Read more →
My Experiences with Auto-Immunity and Why I Dislike the Term “Able-Bodied”
I dislike the term “able-bodied.” I see this term used frequently in academic and activist scholarship, as well as everyday language, often without giving the term its due scrutiny. As an academic who studies structural inequalities based on race, gender, and disability, I find that it assumes a binary system structured on ableist ideas. It… Read more →
Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Disability
In March 2015, a YouTube video sponsored by Microsoft’s #CollectiveProject made the social media rounds. In this video a well-known bionics expert presented a seven-year-old boy born without most of his right arm with a 3D-printed bionic arm created by engineering student Albert Moreno. As of today, the video currently has 10,447,323 views on YouTube…. Read more →
I May Not Heal, But I Will Live Better Thanks to Occupational Therapy
Last year I learned how to chop a carrot with my eyes closed. While being filmed. Sounds like one of those crazy reality cooking shows, like “Cutthroat Kitchen,” doesn’t it? Actually, I was in the model kitchen at the Lighthouse Guild for the Blind in New York City, and the filmmakers were Joseph Lovett and Mike… Read more →
The Salt in the Bottom of the Pretzel Bag: Reflections on Speechless
Last spring, my daughter wrote this poem in her 5th grade poetry class. This may sound like a poem written by a child when a newborn sibling arrives home. But it’s not. My daughter’s feelings of being ignored and pushed aside result from all the time, attention, medical care, behavioral therapy, ridiculously over-qualified babysitters, and… Read more →
Speechless and the TV Representation of Disability
The world of disability activism has been buzzing about the new ABC sitcom Speechless. So, what’s the big deal? While there are certainly shows that have characters with disabilities, there are currently none in which the premise of the show depends on disability as essential to the dynamic in a family sitcom. For the disability… Read more →