Blogging Disability

By Rachel Walden • May 6, 2009

Please note: This entry -- originally posted at Our Bodies, Our Blog -- has not been updated since the publication date listed above.

May 1 was Blogging Against Disablism Day 2009, and nearly 200 people contributed posts that have been rounded up at Diary of a Goldfish. The entries deal with a number of topics of concern to women with disabilities and disability rights advocates, including employment, education, parenting, health care, and sex.

Some of women-specific posts include:

Social Security benefits & women, working while disabled, and stigmatizing mental health terminology! At Undercover Punk, this post addresses, among other issues, how women - because of how the system is set up and because they may be more likely to spend time out of the workplace or earn less than men - face problems when attempting to receive disability benefits through Social Security.
Tales from the Clinic: Out with the Old, in with the Eu-Genics...Miss Waxie at A Comic Life, Indeed describes a clinic encounter in which a provider tried to steer her away from her needed medicines on the basis of possible effects on her future fertility.
Which Women Matter? Ableism and Sexual ViolenceFrom the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton, on the very high rates of sexual violence experienced by women with disabilities, and the need to remember all women when thinking about sexual violence.
Domestic Work is Real Workby SKM at Shakesville, on the devaluing of domestic and caretaking work that is considered "women's work," from the perspective of someone with a chronic illness.

A few of the blogs by and for women on disability:

cripchick's weblog
For Disabled Women (click through for blog)
Frida Writes
The Gimp Parade (with lots and lots of links to additional blogs on disability)
yet another never updated blog

There's also a disability blog carnival.

Please feel free to suggestion additional blogs and resources in the comments as well!

2 Responses

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Mrs Spock on May 08, 2009

Even though this doesn't apply to Miss Waxie's case, I will say that I know quite a few infertility bloggers who wished their physician had mentioned to them the effects treatment would have on their future fertility, including several folks who had childhood cancer. I know, even with all my chronic pain syndromes, at one point I never thought I'd want children- and that changed significantly the older I became. And now, of course, the worse my pain gets, the less open I become to going off my pain meds to increase my family size. Parenthood is something that many people have a desire to experience, and whether that means spending more time learning about adoption- because not all of us can realistically go without our needed treatments- and understanding what negative effects treatments could have on our fertility, and what we could do about them, merits knowing.

Miss Waxie on May 29, 2009

Thanks for listening me among your links. Until recently, I never really realized how much red-tape I wade through simply based on my sex organs.

I thought you might be interested in my latest comic: women's issues, medicine, and surgery collide when failing to produce enough urine for a pregnancy test nearly prevents me from getting a sedative for my eye surgery - http://acomiclifeindeed.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/that-time-i-failed-my-pregnancy-test/

- Miss Waxie