Disability in the news: It is news.

Recently, mostly on Facebook, people have been posting or sending me links to current events related to disabled people.  For personal and professional reasons, I have long-standing interests regarding the portrayal of disabled people in literature and the media.  I am less overtly interested in the more political Disability-Rights Movement, but enjoy participating in conversations about disabled people in society.  My purpose with this blog is to publicize the images (both explicit and implicit) of disabled people that are presented, usually with very little fanfare, in the news and in popular (unconscious?) culture.  I hope to show, by responding to these articles and inviting dialogue about them, that we should all be interested in what happens on a daily basis in the world around us.

Now, to be fair, a disclaimer.  Some links and commentaries will be to non-news pieces:  opinion pieces, creative pieces, scholarly pieces, and information and resources may occasionally appear here.  The point is that  we might do well to stop thinking of disability as a strictly minority concern, and begin to ask ourselves what it might mean as individuals to really interact with disability, even if only in our daily lives. 

Finally, a last note on language.  Most sources I find come from within the US, and have to do with various state or federal contexts.  However, I am also receiving sources in Spanish, and even Italian.  For right now, I will leave the pieces in their original languages, perhaps with some translated paraphrases.  I would like to invite the readers of this blog (whoever, wherever and however many they might be) to comment and contribute.  Please ask questions, suggest stories, and send links!! 

Next post:  material from the last month or so, the sources that motivated me to do this.