Re-abilitated

My beloved housemate Tricia and I have a “secret” Facebook group. It’s a place for us to privately share various digital scraps — personal pics, academic papers, dog videos, Buzzfeed quizzes — for sometimes serious, sometimes frivolous convo out of view from overlikers, comment trolls, and family members that occasionally populate people’s timelines.

One recurring theme in our special thread has been disability. It’s a practice, policy and research area that Tricia’s passionate about (she teaches a class on the subject to physical therapy students) and one that over the years has interested me, too. Much of what I know initially came via osmosis around the house, and eventually I learned a few things from my own academic study — enough at least to soon be sharing news, cartoons, media studies, and podcast episodes related to disability that also seemed to belong to a world beyond Tricia and Dan’s private Facebook feed.

Thus …

Check out this recent TED talk — 13 minutes from Elise Roy, a disability rights attorney explaining “design thinking,” which says, essentially, that designing projects with disability in mind produces benefits that exceed initial accommodations being sought.

Good stuff. Did you know texting was invented for deaf people? And deaf people make better soccer goalies? Well at least one did — superpowers and all. Framing disability. Very close to social model meets Environment. Starts a little dull, but halfway through gets good. Loaded with Tricia theory throughout. Much to think about.