April 19, 2006

NPR's Disability Coverage

National Public Radio has increased its reporting about people with disabilities, and the issues that touch our lives. All of their stories are available for free listening online, and some offer transcripts of the stories as well.

Check this search and be amazed at how few references are to the "pitcher on the disabled list" and how many are about us:

http://www.npr.org/search.php?text=disability

For example: this story about Brice Phillips, a disabled citizen helping his community survive last year's Gulf Coast hurricane season and readying for this year's onslaught.

The reporter makes the point that people "on disability" (e.g., on government support) do work, just not for money -- and that work includes essential community services. The down part of that story is the absence of "official" support for community defense against savage weather and other threats.

Or any of the wonderful stories from Kevin Kling:

• the people on the bus; "those people" are "his people"
• the dignity of risk, and the links between Indigenuity and same

And this story about Tammy Duckworth, a Gulf War II vet who's running for Congress from Illinois. Reporter Joseph Shapiro profiled her a year earlier, too, describing the experience of traumatic amputation and Army rehab.

In the 2006 piece, Shapiro clearly presents the "endless creative challenges" of impairment and how they provide a useful training ground for politicians -- including Dole, Cleland, Inouye.

Usually I find Shapiro's reporting excellent (He authored No Pity, a lay-reader history of disability rights which "got" most of the issues right on.). Yet he ends the story by highlighting Duckworth's dual jobs: running for Congress and "being a patient."

From Jesse the K -- Madison, WI USA

Posted on April 19, 2006