Author: s.e. smith
Are We Turning a Corner on Discussions of Gun Violence and Mental Health?
Content note: this post discusses gun violence, mental illness, and sexually abusive behavior. Like many of us living in the United States, I’m constantly bracing for the news of yet another mass shooting. As a human, I’m horrified by the…
We Want YOU to Support the Disability Vote (A Voting Accessibility Guide)
The 2018 midterms are upon us, and 35 million disabled people in the U.S. are theoretically eligible to vote. But how many will cast ballots? Our voter turnout consistently lags far behind nondisabled people, especially in the case of…
What’s the Point of Trigger Warnings?
Trigger warnings are an incredibly contentious subject, from op-eds insisting that they’re ruining higher education to complaints that they’re wildly overused to a high profile author mocking them in the title of a book. But the conversation about trigger warnings…
Judi Chamberlin: Mad Pride and the Fight Against Institutionalizing Women
Content note: this post discusses miscarriage, mental illness, and forced institutionalization. It’s Women’s History Month, which makes it an excellent time to talk about the fact that women’s history and disability history overlap significantly; notable women from Harriet Tubman to…
Disabled People are Missing from Conversations on Campus Sexual Assault
Last month, the National Council on Disability released “Not on the Radar,” a comprehensive report about campus sexual assault and the disability community. It reveals extensive failures on this issue, from accessibility barriers at rape crisis services to…
We Cannot Ignore the Connection Between Disability and Intimate Partner Abuse
This blog post is part of a series in partnership with the Disability Visibility Project® to bring attention to the omission of disability from larger conversations taking place within the #MeToo Movement. Trigger warning: this post discusses abuse, violence, and…
Are Abortion Bans on the Basis of Disability Really in the Interest of Disability Rights?
The abortion debate in the United States has been forever compromised by the clash of politics and personal medical decisions — abortion is no longer a value-neutral, private choice. One regrettable consequence of that shift has been the creation of…
How ADAPT and Allies Changed the Conversation About Disability Issues in 2017
Many nondisabled people were introduced to disability rights activism in 2017 with splashy protests from ADAPT, Housing Works, and other organizations who fought ferociously to defend health care on Capitol Hill. Those protests joined a long and rich history of…