Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #20

May 24-31 2024

Bonus: Today, May 31st 2024, is the last day of the Affordable Connectivity Program. The program helped 23 million Americans connect to the internet while saving them $30 to $75 dollars every month. Despite repeated calls from President Biden Republicans in Congress have refused to act to renew the program. The White House has worked with private companies to get them to agree to extend the savings to the end of 2024. The Biden Administration has invested $90 Billion high-speed internet investments. Such as $42.45 billion for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, $1 billion for the The Middle Mile program laying 12,000 miles of regional fiber networks, and distributed nearly 30,000 connected devices to students and communities, including more than 3,600 through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program

painting made easier

[Audio Transcript:

Do you want to paint but pain, disability, limited range of motion or tremors are getting in the way of that?

It’s world watercolor month and disability pride month, so let’s combine the two and talk about ways that you can watercolor and make it a little easier on yourself.

First up, if you struggle with grip issues, some manufacturers like Blick will actually make some of their brushes with egg shaped handles.

These are typically easier to hold, but they do come in a limited range of options so you can get something like one of these egg shaped pencil holders that will do more or less the same thing. These are just a bit easier to hold and they can reduce hand fatigue.

Next up, if you struggle with something like tremors or shaking, weight is your friend. There are universal weighted handles that you can slip onto the end and tighten on your brush or whatever you’re using as long as it fits in, and it adds a bunch of weight to the back end of it so it reduces the amount of shaking that’s possible.

If you struggle with grip strength or need something to help you hold onto something, this is an easy ring writer clip, and you can slot your brush into it and even if you’re not gripping it tightly it’s still secured to your hand.

Another option is something like this, this is an easy grip. It’s a silicone attachment that you can place on that give you an extra handle and extra security for holding your brushes and other art tools.

And finally one of my favorite tools is this artist leaning bridge. Mine is an acrylic piece of plastic that just sits over the top and allows you to rest on top while you can paint underneath it.

End Transcript]

some of you may've heard about that fancy "bionic reading" typefont thats supposed to be easier for neurodivergent people to read (if you're unfamiliar, it bolds the first few letters of each word to make it easier to follow)

well guess what, its locked behind a $500 a month API to write in because fuck you!

introducing, Not Bionic Reading! it is literally just the bionic reading typefont but for free. god bless neocities

anyone who can, pls reblog!

[Image description: A deaf person speaking in sign language, with the words "THEY/THEM" and closed captions printed on the screen, as well as a second smaller video of the same person speaking with their voice the same words that they're saying in sign language.

/ End ID]

Transcript:

CREDIT: https://www.tiktok.com/@themotherbirdie/video/7076229059000192299

I forgot to link to the original creator before! Sorry.

Turns out some film producers may be keeping streaming movies on release day a thing. Why? Because of how much money they're making from those of us who can't go to the theater.

Deaf people can have subtitles and captions without having to argue with theater managers about it.

Wheelchair users can where they damn well please instead of in the spot next to the trashcan. Yes, that's usually the only spot for a wheelchair, and often there's only one.

Epileptics can have the lights on, which is a fuck no in theaters. The lights help diminish the strobe effects created by watching things in dark rooms.

Folks with sensory input issues (ADHD and autism are good examples) can control the volume, put subtitles up, adjust the lighting, etc.

Immunocompromised folks can watch a film with virtually zero worry about catching illnesses.

Folks with allergies don't need to worry about some random person exposing them to an allergy (some folks can't even be in the same room as peanuts).

Many of us require frequent bathroom breaks. Many of us are on medicated or specialized diets. Many of us need a break (or a few) to help ground ourselves in reality, process things, burn off built-up anxiety (I need to bounce after intense scenes so i can focus), and a multitude of other reasons.

If release day streaming remains a thing, there are gonna be millions of happy people. I cried the first time I watched a streaming release day film. Ten minutes of ugly crying because it was the first time in a decade that I could watch a film without waiting six to eight months to rent it.

This is what accessibility looks like. Keep this available forever, please.

Just wanted to put a plug in for one of my new fav websites, Can I Play That?, which focuses on accessbility reviews of video games by disabled gamers. As someone with a dexterity/mobility disability in my hands (carpal tunnel) I NEED games that allow easy and convenient ways to push buttons to do stuff and let me rebind keys at will. I’m now checking Can I Play That? before buying games since their reviews are ++. They include accessibility reviews for deaf/hard of hearing and cognitive disabiliies too.

So, my university does a lot of outreach Classics work, trying to make it less of an elitist subject and more accessible to children, and as part of that, I went to give a talk to a class of 6 and 7 year olds a few months back.

And here’s the thing. Classics is really often portrayed as the last bastion of academic privilege, a subject that is only taught to rich white kids so that they can brag about knowing Latin and get jobs as Tory MPs. But these kids were OBSESSED. They had already done some stuff on myths, and they were so excited to talk about it. They knew all the stories, all the heroes, the gods, the monsters. I have never seen such an excitable group of kids as these 6 year olds shouting about Odysseus.

For the lesson, I asked them to think of their favourite myth and to consider it from the point of view of the monster rather than the hero. The end goal was to show that often the monsters and heroes are quite similar. We decided to do Polyphemus (the Cyclops) in the Odyssey, and so I asked them why they thought Polyphemus might have been so angry at Odysseus that he killed some of his men.

Because he came home and found lots of strange men in his house, eating his food, said the kids.

So, I asked them, do you think that was a good reason to kill people?

No, they said, but he was very cross, and he didn’t do it because it was fun.

And then this KID, this SIX YEAR OLD CHILD, put her hand up and said “well, it was very bad of him, but if we’re cross with him then we have to be cross with Odysseus too, because when he came home from his adventure and found lots of men in his house, trying to marry his wife, he killed them, and that’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

AND LET ME TELL YOU

I am a published Classicist! A PhD student! And I have never made that connection before! Not once! And this child was six years old! And she made the link! By herself!

And so I tried not to show how gobsmacked I was, and we talked more about other monsters, including Medusa, and at the end of the lesson a lot of them said that they thought the monsters were not as evil as we usually think, and then I went home.

But I honestly haven’t got over how excited and engaged those kids were, in a totally regular primary school. Classics, in that classroom, was not elitist or inaccessible. It was something they understood, could really get their teeth into and use to think of new ideas of good and bad, of why we demonise different people for doing the same things. And that’s how I like to think about Classics. Not a series of dry texts in ancient languages, but as living stories that you actually can’t help but love, just a bit.

There’s so much fascinating, wonderful stuff that goes unappreciated and unenjoyed because we put it behind an elitism paywall and sometimes I want to scream about it.

This is why I get so seethingly furious when people use elitism as an excuse to be flagrantly anti-intellectual.

Its true that academia is often inaccessible and elitistm but the way you deal with a body of thought being denied to people is to give them access to it, not to write off the subject either by saying that no one need it anyway, or by saying that made up.

a post from disability justice activist Mia Mingus’s instagram (@miamingus on twitter and @mia.mingus on instagram) that i saw today and felt needed to be shared on tumblr, too:

“i’m disabled and i don’t have the option of not thinking about accessibility or ableism. ever.

Not on days off. Not at work. Not when i’m hanging out with friends. Not when i’m sick. Not on holidays. Not on dates. Not during self care. Not when i’m stressed. Not in community and movement spaces. Not when i’m home. Not when i’m out. Never.

If you have disabled people in your life, chances are, they are also thinking about, planning for, worrying about, scanning for access all. the. time. Don’t let us have to carry the entire load of access alone. It is exhausting and though we do it because we must for our survival in an ableist world, we shouldn’t *have* to.

Access is and should be a collective responsibility. (And I know most people reading this will “like” this sentiment, but actually do nothing to put it into practice in their lives and especially re their relationships with disabled folks.)

Access intimacy is key to any work that involves access. Build access intimacy with the disabled people in your life and do it intentionally. Invest in it because it takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. It requires building trust and relationship; conversation built upon conversation. And don’t let the work of building (and teaching about) access intimacy fall solely on disabled folks, either. This is also exhausting and ableist.

Do your work and learn about ableism, disability, abled supremacy, access, and especially how they play out in your life. Support each other in your learning and your accountability around your abled privilege.

Pro tip: if your disabled friend is always the one doing the labor to bring up or initiate conversations about access, disability, or ableism, you’re failing at being a good accomplice/ally. Do better.”

Link to Access Intimacy: The Missing Link

hey so July is disability pride month so for wrath i vote we focus on disabled members of the lgbtqia+ community, and making spaces fully accessible bc so fucking often they are not! 

[ABLED PEOPLE DO NOT CLOWN ON THIS POST]

a few people have asked: YES this applies to you too! even if you only have 1 disability, even it you have 20 disabilities, even if you are able bodied but otherwise disabled, even if you are NT/not mentally ill and physically disabled

disability pride is for all of us!!! 

please spread this too! 

Its the first day of Pride month and I want to remind my LGBT+ fam that Pride is often not accessible and excludes our disabled LGBT+ siblings ♿🏳️‍🌈⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ What if you were no longer allowed entry into your favorite gay bar, or safe space/shelter, or queer coffee shop, or queer concert, gallery, show?⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ These spaces are denied to disabled LGBT+ people all the time due to inaccessibility and ableism. ⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ Whether it’s a step at the entrance, a staircase and no elevator, no sign language interpreters, no sensory-friendly spaces, no allergy-friendly food options, or a bouncer not allowing someone with a service dog inside because they ask for documentation that doesn’t exist (yes, really happened), this ignorance and discrimination is unacceptable.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ It starts with hiring us as organizers, it starts with integrating us into the spaces where we belonged all along. It takes the work to unlearn ableism and misconceptions about disability, it takes effort and care to make our spaces accessible. Pride is for all of us, not some of us.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ #AccessIsLove #MakePrideAccessible #TheFutureIsAccessible⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ https://www.instagram.com/p/ByK6KfsgqGC/?igshid=qqbzrr0c9u6g

[Id: A tanned skinned woman with long dark hair sits in a wheelchair. She is wearing round sunglasses, a deep blue shirt and a long rainbow striped skirt. She is starting next to a rainbow striped wall with a white door and one tiled step in front of the door. The door says: Make Pride Accessible. End id]

I’m just gonna say it…

Professors should not be allowed to ban laptops in class. Professors should not be allowed to ban recorders in class. Professors should not be able to ban students from taking pictures of the whiteboard at the end of lectures. Professors should not be allowed to ban ANYTHING that will make the class more accessible for ALL students. I don’t care what the excuse is.

“They might not even be taking notes on their laptop, they’re probably playing games!” So that’s on the student and they’ll have to live with those grades. They’re paying thousands of dollars to be there, if they want to fuck off and waste their money that’s on them.

“I’m uncomfortable with my lectures being recorded!” What EXACTLY are you saying in your lectures that makes you worried about being recorded, hmm?

“I just don’t like the idea of being on camera/recorded at work. How would YOU feel being recorded at work?” Buddy, I work in retail. I’m always being watched. Suck it the fuck up.

And before anyone says “but you can just bypass this by getting permission from accessibility services!” 1. Not all students with disabilities have up-to-date diagnosis to qualify, 2. Not all students with disabilities have had it confirmed by a professional yet and won’t be able to access those services, 3. Not all students who need these accommodations even have a disability! Some people just learn differently and lecture-style learning actually doesn’t work for a lot of people! and 4. This often puts a student on the spot to all their classmates and can make them feel very uncomfortable. 

Students should not have to jump through hoops to get an education that they’re paying for. That’s not accessibility. 

Text:

Due to alexithymia/avoidant attachment I find it hard to identify what I need. A trick I use is to ask myself what feels like a relief:

Does it feel like relief when you don’t have to talk?

Does it feel like relief when the noise stops/the lights are turned off?

Does it feel like relief when you don’t have to look someone in the face?

Does it feel like relief when people stop touching you?

Please know that what feels good and doesn’t feel good for you matters. The fact that your needs and wants don’t follow the norm doesn’t make them less true. It doesn’t make them less important.

awkward how reassuring i find this

well ya duh society shames speech patterns associated with young women

“Speech fillers” are just a human’s way of saying “wait a sec I’m thinking”. It means we think more before we speak, always trying to find the right way to say it. Every language has them. And people shouldn’t be annoyed by it, ever.

Hello peeps in the #StrawBan #SuckItAbleism wars,

You know those three great infographics that have been circulating, showing why alternatives to single-use plastic straws don’t work? I’ve consolidated them in one convenient location. Click the title/image at the top of this post, it’s a link! 

And, yes, if you visit the link, not only will you find three great infographics (NOT MINE), but you also will find image descriptions that you can copy/paste, to make them accessible for people with print disabilities. If you know who the creators of the infographics are, please let me know so I can give due credit. For convenience, I give the text of all image descriptions for all three infographics below. To see the infographics, visit the link. First image: “This is an image of a spreadsheet chart entitled “Just use blank fill in the word space straws.” Along the left side there is column listing materials straws may be made out of. Across the top row are columns titled each with a barrier or problem. Each category of straw material has an x in the column of barrier depending on which barrier is relevant to that material. Metal straws have allergy risk, injury risk, not positionable, not hot liquid safe, hard to sanitize, and high cost marked as barriers. Paper straws have allergy risk, chocking hazard, not positionable, not hot liquid safe, and dissolve with long use marked as barriers. Glass straws have injury risk, not positionable, hard to sanitize, and high cost marked as barriers. Silicone straws have allergy risk, not positionable, hard to sanitize, and high cost marked as barriers. Acrylic straws have allergy risk, injury risk, not positionable, not hot liquid safe, hard to sanitize, and high cost marked as barriers. Pasta or rice straws have allergy risk, chocking hazard, injury risk, not positionable, not hot liquid safe, and dissolve with long use marked as barriers. Bamboo straws have allergy risk, injury risk, not positionable, and high cost marked as barriers. Biodegradable straws have allergy risk, choking hazard, not hot liquid safe, and dissolve with long use marked as barriers. Single use straws are have no barriers marked. Undearneath the chart is a text that reads “Many disabled individuals require straws for foods, meds, and to be social with friends. We can ALL reduce plastic use, but banning items many depend on harms a very vulnerable population. Pressure companies to make safe alternatives available to all and reduce waste in larger ways. Hurt turtles are devastating. So are children and adults aspirating liquid into their lungs.” At the very bottom it is signed by “Hell on Wheels” with a burning yellow flame in front and the blue icon of a wheelchair stick figure at the end.” Second image: “The background shows plastic drinking straws in different colors. The main image on the background is a chart. The text above the chart says, “Many disabled plastic people need plastic straws to drink, eat, take medications, etc. Here’s how current alternative, reusable options are a harm to us.” The left side column lists the options: Metal, Bamboo, Glass, Silicone, Acrylic, Paper, Pasta, Single-use. The top row lists the possible harms: Choking hazard, Injury risk, Not positionable, Costly for consumer, Not high-temp safe. For metal, the columns for injury risk, not positionable, and costly for consumer are marked with a check. For Bamboo, the same three columns are marked. For Glass, almost all columns (except choking hazard) are marked. For Silicone, the columns for not Positionable and Costly for consumer are marked. For acrylic, almost all columns (except choking hazard) are marked. For paper, the columns for choking hazard, not positionable, and not high-temp safe are marked. For Pasta, almost all columns (except “costly for consumer”) are marked. None of the columns are marked for “single-use”. Below the chart are these two bullet points: “*Pressure to create bio-degradable straw options that are safe for the environment AND for all disabled people should fall upon manufacturer, NOT marginalized disabled consumers. *Once we accept the necessity of plastic straws, we can work together on other environmental initiatives that are effective, inclusive and accessible.”

Third image: “This infographic shows a drawing of a pink/purple narwhal, a bendy straw, three question marks, and an image of the globe. The text says, “How do plastic straw bans hurt disabled people? Many disabled people need plastic straws to eat and drink. It provides access and they are literally keeping some of us alive! We don’t hate the earth, but we really like being alive and able to access our communities!” This text is followed by bullet points saying,Paper and biodegradable straws break down faster than many of us can use them.Metal straws can cause injury if they are too hot or cold and also if the person has a disability that affects movement and motor skills.Reusable straws are great if you have the ability to wash, store and bring them with you every time you leave your house. Many disabled people do not.If you don’t need a plastic straw, then don’t use one, but you don’t need to hurt disabled people to show that you love the earth.Punishing disabled people who need plastic straws to live will have very little impact on the environment but looking into creating a more viable and ACCESSIBLE alternative to single use plastic and placing greater regulations on businesses that are polluting the earth on a much larger, much more dangerous scale sure would!At the bottom of the infographic is the web link (not clickable in the infographic) for neurodiversitylibrary.org”How Poorly Considered Straw Bans Hurt Disabled People”

Garden claws! Very useful both for digging and for Black Panther impressions!

someone please post the gif

What if the tiny house movement wasn’t just privileged white elites showing how cool they are for having less stuff and it was actually aimed at being an affordable, accessible housing option for people in real need? Wouldn’t that be grand?

on the one hand i think small housing units have already been used as a solution for homelessness, so i guess that’s one instance of the movement not being based on privilege (the privilege of wealth specifically) but i mean since people in wheelchairs (just as an eg) need more space (more structures such as ramps, wider corridors, etc) and the movement revolves around making houses as small as humanly possible (it’s there in the name), i’m not sure accessibility and the tiny house movement can be made compatible without the latter changing into something entirely different. i’d be v interested in ppl’s opinions or suggestions re: accessible tiny houses tho

Boy howdy, have you come to the right place.  For context:  I am paraplegic and require use of a wheelchair at all times (a manual one, in my case).  I also love tiny houses and want one so bad.

There are two big differences that would be needed between an accessible tiny house and a regular tiny house: floor space and levels.

Many tiny houses have built-in furniture, which is fairly easy to navigate around when you can shimmy yourself into small spaces.  In order to maximize floor space to make room for maneuvering in a chair, you’d need to forgo built-ins and maximize the use of drop-down furniture.  It’s actually pretty easy to do, since fold-up or fold-down furniture just takes up wall space once it’s folded flat.  As long as you’re not in the habit of leaving piles of stuff on surfaces, it would be easy going to make your tables, chairs, and counters all fold flat against the wall whenever you’re not actively using them.

The other thing tiny houses have a lot of is a multi-level set up, usually with the bed in a loft in what would normally be considered “nonfunctional” head space.  Obviously that’s not going to fly for people who can’t hoist themselves up a set of stairs every time they want to take a nap.  Folding is an option again here, but you can also use an automated set-up akin to a garage door.  Just press “up” to raise your mattress to the ceiling (and use up that delightful spare space above), then press “down” whenever you want a little snooze.  That kind of setup would be a great universal design, too, since you could raise or lower the bed to exactly the height that works for you.

For an example of a tiny house that would actually be pretty damn accessible, check out this bad boy.  Open floor plan?  Check.  Garage door bed? Check.  Fold-up surfaces? Check.  Easily re-purposeable furniture?  Double check, this bad boy’s a goldmine.  The only downsides are the stair into the kitchen area and some heavy-looking pieces that might be tough to move around.

Mobile homes are usually pretty flat. The thing about tiny homes being for the bourgeoisie is no joke, some of them are the size of a single wide or larger. 

This is a picture of a Clayton mobile home, it is 648 square feet and starts at $33,000.

The Cypress Tumbleweed home is - at the largest size - 310 square feet and costs more along $70,000+. One of my good friends in Atlanta was wheelchair bound - there’s no way she could even get in the door here.

The problems with all of those sign language translation gloves that keep getting media hype. Excerpt: