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A little history about Ragged Edge and The Disability Rag
This website offers thousands of articles. Find out more about the site and some of our other publications here.
DISABILITY BLOGGING
Blogs of entry
When you want to immerse yourself in the disability blogging world, where do you start? Some thoughts from the editor. READ MORE. | READ OUR EDITOR'S 'EDGE-CENTRIC' BLOG.
Selected articles from our Archives and Libraries
'Disablism': A Closer Look
The first thing that can be said about "disablism" is that most folks do not know it exists. Some disability rights activists use the term "ablism" (or "ableism") . Both terms mean the same thing, and neither term has the acceptance of terms like "racism" or "sexism" which it is designed to parallel. READ ARTICLE. | BROWSE OUR 'CLOSER LOOK' DEPARTMENT.
The Time to Rise Will Come Again
The popular belief is that protests arise when large numbers of individuals are fed up with the injustices of their lives. Actually, that rarely occurs. Rather, people rise up when they sense a whiff of hope. Frank Bowe offers advice for activists. READ ARTICLE.
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BROWSE OUR ACTIVISM TOPIC AREA
My Cousin Sharon: Priceless
Forty years ago when we were both children, I was afraid of Sharon. I felt uncomfortable around her. I thought her appearance and behavior were strange. Sharon seldom spoke. When she did, I could not understand her. She laughed loudly and randomly. Sharon never looked directly at me or anyone else. She just stared at the floor. Reflection by Michael B. Owen. READ ARTICLE. | MORE REFLECTIONS. .
Why Disability Rights Activists Oppose Physician Assisted Suicide
Although it is true that people who have disabilities are widely divided on the issue as to whether physician-assisted suicide is a good thing or not, the fact is that almost all of the major U.S. disability rights organizations have come out opposed to legalizing physician-assisted suicide. READ ARTICLE. | BROWSE OUR ASSISTED SUICIDE/RIGHT TO DIE TOPIC AREA
Ashes: Rome 1946
Soot bombards my hair.Soldiers, blinded in battle,
tell rough-edged jokes to hide
their tears. If only I could
conjure spells. I caress their faces. . . .
Poem by Kathi Wolfe. READ POEM. | MORE POETRY.
Signs of the Times?
Some disability rights activists are using familar images, confrontational language -- and guerilla tactics -- to take back what is rightfully ours. Lawrence Carter-Long reports. READ MORE. | BROWSE OUR ACCESS TOPIC AREA.
The long & sorry history of discrimination against people with disabilities in the United States
When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Alabama v. Garrett in 2000, over 100 scholars and historians submitted a 'friend of the court' brief outlining state-sanctioned discrimination against people with disabilities. The Court called evidence 'anecdotal'. Were they right? READ AND DECIDE.
Activists call 'New Urbanism' to account over lack of visitability
'New Urbanists' tout liveable human-scale communities. But they seem to forget wheelchair users -- their new homes are chockablock with steps. ELEANOR SMITH reports on what visitability activists are doing to change the situation at Atlanta's Glenwood Park new urbanism community. READ ARTICLE. | READ MORE FOCUS ARTICLES.
Defining Autistic Lives
Autism Is A World has just been released on DVD. Sue Rubin has done a very good job of describing her experience as a person with autism, writes CAL MONTGOMERY -- yet "her beliefs about what it is and what should be done about it are not even close to my own." READ REVIEW. | MORE REVIEWS.MORE FROM OUR READING DEPT.
Better
Tuesday morning. Second period. Ten o'clock to ten thirty-five. Maths first. Biology next. Now this. I hate Tuesday mornings. I hate Tuesday mornings. Across from the new block. Into the old block. Into the changing room. Shoes off. Tie off. Blazer off. Jumper off. Shirt off. Trousers off. Pants off. . . Fiction by Colin Cameron. READ STORY. | MORE FICTION.
The New Vulgarity
Discrimination against people with disabilities is not new. The evidence that buttresses the ADA is fully documented. What is new is the vulgarity of entitlement, the exaggerated posturing of privileged citizens who find people with disabilities unacceptable and are brazen about their views. . . . Reflection by Stephen Kuusisto. READ ARTICLE.
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MORE REFLECTIONS.
The Politics of Popcorn
If current films about disability fail to attract substantial audiences, odds are the stories we really want to see which show our individual and collective fights for civil and human rights will never get made. Can you think of a better reason to go to the movies? Lawrence Carter-Long explains. READ ARTICLE. | BROWSE OUR MEDIA CIRCUS.
Liberals and disability rights: why don't they 'get it'?
A progressive bookstore owner provides a ramp to a locked entrance and offers a doorbell; he is offended when local activists protest the segregated treatment. Liberals grouse at providing interpreters. Leftists say there's no disability rights movement. Ragged Edge editor MARY JOHNSON asks activists and academics: What's going on? MORE. | READ MORE FOCUS ARTICLES.
From 'Passing' to 'Coming Out'
"I'm a 32-year-old woman, disabled since birth, and until recently I have been firmly in the closet," writes CANDICE M. LEE. So why is she "outing herself" now? "Because I have broken a cardinal rule, done something so subversive that I feel the shockwaves ripple around me everywhere I go." READ STORY
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READ MORE LIFE from the RAGGED EDGE
Hello/Goodbye Ada Who? A Play in One Act
Why not put on a play and educate some folks? "This play is offered free to any group which wants to produce it," says playwright HOLLYN D'LIL , "in the hopes that it will provide an entertaining and fun way for participants and audience to become more educated about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how the Act is being reduced by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court." READ PLAY.
| MORE FROM RAGGED EDGE EXTRA!
from the ARCHIVES
Unanswered Questions
Kenneth Bergstedt's father won a court challenge letting him assist his son's suicide in 1990, the year that the Americans With Disabilities Act became law. In Sept., 1990, MARY JOHNSON reported on Bergstedt's story and the many questions about the case that disability-rights activists say never get asked. MORE.
