How to take part.
1. Post a comment below to say you intend to join in. I will then add you to the list of participants on the sidebar of this blog. Everyone is welcome.
2. Spread the word by linking to this site, displaying our banner and/ or telling everyone about it on blogs, newsgroups, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. The entire success of Blogging Against Disablism Day depends entirely on bloggers and readers telling other bloggers and readers in advance.
3. Write a post on the subject of disability discrimination, disablism or ableism and publish it on May 1st - or as close as you are able. Podcasts, videocasts and on-line art are also welcome. You can cover any subject, specific or general, personal, social or political. In the previous six BADD, folks have written about all manner of subjects, from discrimination in education and employment, through health care, parenting, family life and relationships, as well as the interaction of disablism with racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Every year I have been asked, so it's worth saying; the discrimination experienced by people with mental ill health is disablism, so naturally posts about that are welcome too.
You can see the archives for previous years here: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Blogging Against Disablism Day is not a carnival of previously published material. The point about doing this around one day (or there abouts) is that it is a communal effort and all the posts connect to one another. You can of course use your own post to promote other things you've written in the past as you wish.
4. Come back here to Diary of a Goldfish on the day to let everyone know that you've posted and to check out what other people have written. I shall post links to everyone's posts (slowly) throughout the day, creating an archive. However, I do need you to comment and leave the URL of your post or else I shan't find your post and won't be able to link to it.
This year, we have a Twitter account @BADDtweets, where there will be tweets about posts and updates to the archive during the day.
Accessibility
Naturally, Blogging Against Disablism Day invites contributions from people with all variety of impairments and none at all. You are welcome to contribute with podcasts, video-blogging or anything else that allows you to take part. And whilst May 1st is when this all takes place, nobody who happens to have a bad day that Tuesday is going to be left out of the archive.
If anyone has any questions about web accessibility, I recommend the Accessify Forum. I am not an expert on web accessibility myself, so if there are any suggestions about how I can make this day more accessible, please e-mail me at diaryofagoldfish at googlemail.com
The Linguistic Amnesty
Whilst discussions about language and the way it can be used to oppress or empower us are more than welcome, please respect the language that people use, particularly to describe themselves in their own contributions. We all have personal preferences, there are cultural variations and different political positions which affect the language we use. Meanwhile, non-disabled contributors can become nervous about using the most appropriate language to use, so please cut everyone as much slack as possible on the day.
At the same time, do not feel you have to use the same language that I do, even to talk about "disablism". If you prefer to blog against disability discrimination, ableism or blog for disability equality, then feel free to do so.
In 2008 I wrote a basic guide to the Language of Disability which I hope might explain some of the thinking behind the different language disabled people prefer to use about themselves.
Links & Banners
To link back to this post, simply copy and paste the following code:
These banners have seemed popular over the last couple of years and I am yet to think of anything better. If anyone fancies editing these images or coming up with something new, then please do so. You are free to use and mess with these as you like, so long as you use them in support of Blogging Against Disablism Day. If you already have the banner, you just need to change the URL that it links to from last year's BADD. Otherwise, you simply need to copy the contents of one of these boxes and paste it on your blog, in a post or on the sidebar as you like. The banners come in two colour combinations and two sizes. The sizes are a 206 pixels square or 150 x 200 pixels.
This is the black and white banner which reads "Blogging Against Disablism". Here's the code for the square one:And here's the code for the narrower one (which can be seen here):
This is the colourful banner which reads "Blogging Against Disablism". This is the code for the square one:And here's the code for the narrower one (which can be seen here):
Please leave a (comment including the URL of your blog) to let everyone know you are joining in and I shall add a link to you on the sidebar. Also, if you have any questions, please ask.
I'm in!
ReplyDeletehttp://funkymangosmusings.blogspot.co.uk/
Very much looking forward to it all!
ReplyDeletehttp://singlelensreflections.blogspot.com
Hi Goldfish,
ReplyDeleteLooking forward it to it!
As usual, I'll do my best to spread the word.
Gary
Accessible Web & Training Services
Yeay! Count me in, BG
ReplyDeleteHoping to contribute, as always!
ReplyDeletewww.prettysimple.co.uk/blog
I'll be there! www.ruthmadison.com
ReplyDeleteI'm in!
ReplyDeletehttp://trulyable.wordpress.com/
Timely http://grandadspaintingprogress.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/aftre-guernica.html
ReplyDeleteI'm in this time!
ReplyDeletewww.gimptude.com
I'm so, so in! (And would also like to offer to help, if things start to get overwhelming. Just in case.)
ReplyDeleteLaura Legendary of the Accessible Insights blog has participated for the past two years, and will again this year. Check out my submission at http://accessibleinsights.info/blog/ on May 1.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your continued dedication to this day. I'm so in.
ReplyDeletehttp://peoplearentbroken.blogspot.com/
I'll be writing on this ain't livin'! (http://www.meloukhia.net)
ReplyDeleteWill definitely be a part of it!
ReplyDeletehttp://accessiblog.fr/
Happy to publish a post. My blog is at
ReplyDeletehttp://ukwebfocus.wordprss.com/
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to participating again this year! The title of my blog is still Gilbert and Me, but my address has changed to http://gilbertandme.wordpress.com.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Thank you so much for removing word verification from your blog! Blogs without this "feature" are so much more accessible and welcoming to people who are blind like me and people with other disabilities that make captchas difficult or impossible.
I'm in! Can't wait. Great stuff Goldfish. Looking forward to reading everyone's contributions :)
ReplyDeleteHi, I will be be blogging about research I did (unpublished) about disabled agricultural workers and farming this year.
ReplyDeleteIt will be on:
http://www.cripticthoughts.webspace.virginmedia.com/index.php
Thanks :-)
Louise Watch aka Crip_tic
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI should have said that:
ReplyDelete(a) I'm in and will post a blog on MAY 1st
(b) which you can find, online at my Epilepsy blog at:
http://dwpstories.blogspot.com
ta.
Yup!
ReplyDeletemeezergeezer.com/againstit/ (nothing there yet)
https://twitter.com/#!/Paraldehide
I'm in!
ReplyDeletehttp://lounalune.livejournal.com/
Count me in!
ReplyDeletehttp://intractableandimplacable.blogspot.ca/
Intractable and Implacable :)
I'm in
ReplyDeletehttp://www.davehingsburger.blogspot.com
I'll be happy to join in again!
ReplyDeletehttp://angelikitten.dreamwidth.org
Madison Claire Foundation would love to participate as well!
ReplyDeletehttp://madisonclairefoundation.org/updates/
I'd like to participate this year.
ReplyDeletehttp://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/
I would like to be involved
ReplyDeletehttp://sazzyactivist.blogpost.com/
I would like to be involved
ReplyDeletehttp://sazzyactivist.blogpost.com/
We're there! Brilliant and necessary.
ReplyDelete1st may is it? Fair enough, count me in.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi, just checking that the list of blogs is the up to date one? if it is the wrong year has been written :-)
ReplyDeleteI've written my post on my ukwebfocus.wordpress.com blog and will publish on 1 May
ReplyDeleteI'll be in again, this year... posting over at Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream
ReplyDeleteI would like to make me BADD debut =]
ReplyDeletewww.disabledmedic.blogspot.co.uk
I'm in!
ReplyDeleteI shall do my best - body-willing - to contribute on teh day or as soon as able thereafter. %)
ReplyDeletehttp://crippledqueeranglo-europeanranter.blogspot.com
I'll be there:
ReplyDeleteKate Bennell
http://www.sightsavers.org/our_work/how_we_work/meet_the_people/17276.html
A very novel idea. It is certainly something I would like to take part in.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely im in :)
ReplyDeleteI will be blogging on Tuesday, nzs time. great idea!
ReplyDeleteCollege is eating my very soul but I will try my very best to get my post up in time for BADD!!!!
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteWelcome Spoken Here
http://jennifersommerness.wordpress.com/
I'll write something.
ReplyDeletehttp://diceytillerman.livejournal.com/
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI only have a tumblr (http://makulatur.tumblr.com) but I'd like to take part. I hope I can make to get a small article ready in time.
I'm in! My blog is Indigo Jo Blogs.
ReplyDeleteHi there, brilliant idea, will be blogging.
ReplyDeleteI will be blogging at A Room of my Own http://giniamoffatt.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI hope to join in
ReplyDeleteI'm at http://askawheeler.blogspot.com (and have posted my entry already).
ReplyDeleteHello! I hope to participate. (andromedalogic.tumblr.com)
ReplyDeleteHey I'm in - carlyfindlay.blogspot.com :) great initiative
ReplyDeleteDSTU will try to be back for our seventh BADD--might not be me penning the entry this go-round, but we'll have something I suspect.
ReplyDeletehttp://disstud.blogspot.com
Please add my disabled parenting blog
ReplyDeletehttp://gavinsgear.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
I'll try and get something up! Looking forward to it this year x
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to joining in with this.
ReplyDeletehttp://slightlywonky.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm planning to participate again this year.
ReplyDeletehttp://specialchildren.about.com
Count me in, it'll be my first for BADD (hopefully of many!).
ReplyDeleteIt'll be at kimberleytew.com
Mine is up a day early! :)
ReplyDelete"Why are so many people with disabilities unemployed?" http://trulyable.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/why-are-so-many-people-with-disabilities-unemployed/
We're in! (Sorry for late notice.) http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog
ReplyDeleteI'm in. I've posted a day early in case I'm unable to tomorrow. Here are my two posts for BADD. First, Caregiver Abuse Takes Many Forms. Then, Pulling Back Curtains. They are both about different kinds of caregiver abuse. The first, various abuses of power. The second, serial killers in caregiving roles and barriers to them getting caught or even seen as doing something wrong.
ReplyDeleteIts 8 am May 1 here. Dismantling disableism - three powerful tools
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lowvisionary.com/?p=383
Looking forward to reading everyone else's
I'll be there from http://speedchange.blogspot.com/
ReplyDelete- Ira Socol
"Toppling Transactionalism"
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOff to a great start with my typos...
ReplyDeleteI'll have a go. Looking forward to reading everyone else's contributions.
http://eggshellb.blogspot.co.uk
I will be there. This is my blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://iamthethunder.tumblr.com/
I wrote a big comment, then my phone ate it.
ReplyDeleteI found out about this less than an hour ago. I intend to join in, on the subject of "I can manage, why can't you?" and "You close yesterday, you should today.". I've had a bit of experience with that recently.
My blog is thewanderingmonster.wordpress.com . My post will go up a few hours after I get up, as I haven't written it yet. It is as yet untitled.
Oh my. It crept up on me. I will endeavor to post a new blog entry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slumberpartymovies.com
But if I can't figure out how to work this into my blog's theme, I'll at least Storify something. I've been thinking a lot about disabilities, hidden and otherwise.
Sign up http://lisybabe.blogspot.co.uk and http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteThank everybody!
ReplyDeleteThis year's Blogging Against Disablism Day is now Underway.
Please click here to read the posts and add yours to the archive.
I've posted "Scared to Ask":
ReplyDeletehttp://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/scared-to-ask/
The team at AthletesFirst will be joining in - www.athletesfirst.ca
ReplyDeleteGreat idea - very much looking forward to it!
We're in! Youth - Fit to Lead: http://youthfit2lead.wordpress.com/blog/
ReplyDeleteTerrified but suddenly in.
ReplyDeleteSavannah Logsdon-Breakstone
http://crackedmirrorinshalott.wordpress.com/
Ok, I've done my post! It's here http://pseudo-living.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/24-hours-in-my-life-badd-2012.html
ReplyDeleteor my blogs URL is www.pseudo-living.blogspot.co.uk
I have published my post on Aversive Disablism, Web Accessibility and the Web Developer which poses the question: "are web developers and web authors who have embraced WCAG guidelines unknowingly creating barriers for people with disabilities?".
ReplyDeleteOk here's my 1st ever Blog for BADD - Blue Badge Vigilante's
ReplyDeletehttp://but-you-dont-look-sick.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks cant wait to read them all later
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOops, that link won't work. This one should do it.
ReplyDeleteMy post for Blogging Against Dis is complete. My apologies for it's length!
ReplyDeleteHello there! My name is Kate Bennell and I work for the charity Sightsavers. I started blogging about life with a disability on the Sightsavers website last year and have written a blog about discrimination (negative and positive) in the workplace for BADD - I hope you enjoy reading it.
ReplyDeletehttp://sightsavers.co.uk/our_work/how_we_work/meet_the_people/18237.html
Everyone at Pat's Petition says how great it is to take part in Blogging Against Disablism Day!
ReplyDeletePlease share and get every one to sign Pat's Petition at -
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968
Share button on petition
Also see Pat's Petition on FaceBook
http://www.facebook.com/patsepetition
Thanks for hosting this event. I know it is an enormous amount of work.
ReplyDeleteI have published a piece entitled "Disability, Identity, and Loss".
Here is the URL: http://wp.me/pTjho-8Q
Again, thanks for doing this. I feel honored to be a part of it.
My BADD post, The Price of Hate, is up at Where's the Benefit? http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/price-of-hate-badd2012.html
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to write this since Christmas, BADD finally gave me the impetus to do it.
Hi. I would like to be added, please. I have written a blog. It's my first. Thankyou.
ReplyDeletehttp://pissedoff11.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/i-am-not-nutter.html
I have written a ridiculously long post on the lack of new-build neighourhoods offering accessible family housing in Canada. I believe that this is a silent and ongoing form of segregation. It may not be intentional but it is still wrong.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not I'm actually funny in person...
http://intractableandimplacable.blogspot.ca/
Just posted about disabilism and inclusive practices!
ReplyDeletehttp://jennifersommerness.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/blogging-against-disabilism-day-badd/
I know I'm late, but here's my post for this year - http://teachingall.blogspot.com/2012/05/badd-blending-in.html
ReplyDeleteHave written a post for the Nordic Network on Disability Research (NNDR) blog on the contribution disability studies can and should make to challenging disablism
ReplyDeletehttp://nndr.org/2012/05/01/blogging-against-disablism-day-1st-may-2012/#more-358
Hannah
The Disablism of Cruel Endings
ReplyDeleteLet’s face it all relationships end badly - either in death, separation or divorce, what right have I got to think this one was any different?. I’m an intelligent woman, most say I’m attractive and usually the life of the party. But at 40 I’m yet to experience a ‘real’ relationship, if such a thing exists. I was born with Cerebral Palsy and although only mild, it has at times been a significant barrier to a normal life. As we have aged, an unspoken fear of genuine independence has galvanised my parents and I into inaction. Strange reactions, since my disability has not dominated my life to the extent that I feel, think or act like I am incapable. All of this was fine, the problem as getting others to understand it, and as a woman, especially men.
I’ve had very little experience with men, I can flirt with the best of them and have lots of male friends, but I’ve experienced every kind of rejection. From that questioning ‘can she do it?’ look to a guy freaking out at my difficulty at rolling over and jumping out of bed. As a result I had developed a poisoning scepticism that the right man would never come. I was around 36 when it finally materialised, surprisingly he was a friend of some 15 years. He was at that time 45 and in a relationship with a woman 20 years his junior. In many ways they were well suited but their differences became obvious as their relationship progressed. Looking back on it, like a fool I fell for his sob stories and unwaveringly supported them through an unplanned pregnancy and his doubts about impending parenthood as well as every sneeze, cough or fart they couldn’t cope with. At the time I welcomed the mentoring role I felt for once I was the strong and capable one, I felt useful, needed and wanted.
He and I enjoyed each other’s company in a way I never had before. It slowly became an affair, despite my inexperience I was realistic enough to recognise it as more an intellectual one than a sexual one. It was about confidence. I believed he was showing me I could be with anyone I wanted, that the barriers I had experienced in the past were more about my own fears than other people’s prejudices.
Our affair was a sporadic adventure that survived more than 2 years but it died a natural death. I was very pragmatic about it, he was very attractive and charismatic and it felt good to be with him. At no stage did I have an expectation that I would be his next girlfriend, in fact I even met a couple of them. I liked these women and didn’t try to compete with them.
He had done so much to build my confidence but in minutes it was demolished. I was at his home meeting his latest squeeze, a high profile local community figure. All was going swimmingly when suddenly the mood changed. What happens next might seem in the scheme of things not that devastating but in context of the person I had grown to become under his tutelage, has left an indelible scar deeper than any surgeon’s knife. Although I still have no explanation as to why, I was, in no uncertain terms asked to leave. Rather than slap him in the face and turn on my heel and walk out I needed help getting into my wheelchair. Little flexibility in my legs means I’ve always had difficulty putting my shoes on, so he had to do that too. I have suffered no greater indignity or humiliation than to be forcibly removed from his house. That woman sitting there watching as I was wheeled out, my head down, stripped of all dignity and control. Put away. Got rid of. Unwanted. Humiliated by the one person I never expected would ever label me with Disablism. I will get over the fact our friendship ended and that he never wants to see me again, but how do I get over the indignity and humiliation?
Sad to discover I missed this. Have been catching up on the other amazing posts people have written though. Will plan on joining BADD 2013.
ReplyDelete