Fight against normality
Dear Debriefers,
Welcome back to another tour of curated disability news from around the world.
In the highlights below I share disability protests from France to South Korea, and updates about sign language ranging from poetry to policy as well as the invention of the American Football huddle.
Other updates include a disability-themed Halloween and some good news on disability benefits (I haven't written that for a while). Enjoy the tour!
Browse highlights below, or explore the full guide of 134 hand-picked links: curated across 42 countries or 40 subjects. this edition picks up from the update in October.
Thanks for sharing your future: the Debrief's first open call for writing, asking for letters from the future, had seventy responses! We'll be reading them and I can't wait to share our favourites with you.
About this edition
The Debrief is open to all thanks to a pay-what-you-can model. Thanks for new contributions to Lisa, Mark and Rémi.
Peter Torres Fremlin is editor of Disability Debrief and is from the UK.
“Fight against normality”
Last month saw Mad Pride protests in France, led by women denouncing the violence of psychiatric treatment. As the mannequin brought to the protest indicates, those interned in psychiatric hospitals often face mechanical restraint.
The march also aimed to change attitudes towards madness. One of the marchers, Alicia, put it like this:
“All my life, I’ve been told I was different. Today, I’ve come to fight against normality!” (Translation)
There were also protests in South Korea, as disabled people obstructed the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. The National Coalition for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities said that:
“The struggle to realize a democracy where people with disabilities can also participate as citizens continues on the subway and in the streets. The government and society must reflect on the reality that APEC has degenerated from a stage for "inclusive growth" to a showcase for a non-disabled society.” (Auto-translation from Korean).
And in Bangladesh, graduates with disabilities held a sit-in for employment rights, including the call for reinstating disability employment quotas.
“Sign language is not optional.”
From India, Reframing Disability shares a sign language poem by Muskan Bhatia. Bhatia signs how silence “wraps itself around [her] like a prison”. Even among “so-called inclusive rooms” she finds herself on the outside, facing a linguistic exclusion:
“Inclusion isn’t physical presence.
Inclusion is emotional access.
Inclusion is communication.
Inclusion is language.
Let me make it undeniable
Sign language is not optional. It is an emergency.”
In the United Kingdom, a report from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy demands that British Sign Language is Not For Sale. They set out norms for a Deaf-led approach to government agencies purchasing AI systems that generate or interpret sign language:
“British Sign Language (BSL) AI systems are being procured across UK public services without adequate Deaf community involvement, creating institutional risks. Current procurement approaches treat BSL as a technical accessibility challenge rather than recognising it as a complete language with legal standing under the BSL Act 2022. This generates predictable failures that undermine linguistic rights, compromise service effectiveness, and create serious legal compliance risks.”
Research from Sweden in the start of the twentieth century shows dynamics that resonate today, including the lack of recognition and importance of sign language to identity. And a piece from the United States shows creativity and innovation from the past, arguing that the huddle used in American football was invented by a deaf quarterback in 1894, as a means to hide their signs from the opposing team.
And in further news on sign languages around the world:
- In Bangladesh, advocates call for official recognition of sign language.
- In the Netherlands, insights from how hearing parents learn sign language.
- In Nigeria, sign language will be added to the basic school curriculum.
- In the Philippines the Supreme Court announced that Filipino Sign Language will be added to all courts nationwide.
- In the United Kingdom, an inquest showed that Imogen Nunn, a prolific TikToker, had been let down by lack of sign language provision in mental health services before she died two years ago.
And, last but not least, in the United States, Andrew Leland has written a characteristically bold essay, Manual Labor, on the new generation of deaf writers reimagining language, text and sound.
What separates us
A study in Spain by SoledadES looked at unwanted loneliness. It found loneliness was more frequent and longer-lasting for people with disabilities:
“Long-term loneliness affects 40.4% of the population with disabilities, compared to 10.8% of the population without disabilities. This duration is associated with poorer health, employment difficulties, discrimination, and barriers to social participation.” (Translation)
Meanwhile in Laos, a study found children with disabilities were at increased risk of discrimination. Over 70% of the 400 children with disabilities in the study had faced discrimination in the past 30 days, and 28% had faced it frequently. This meant that 39% of children avoided others because of how they were treated.
The Ghosts of Internalized Ableism
It's been good to see disability-themed Halloween celebrations, including wheelchair costumes.
Satire-site Squeaky Wheel suggested a Halloween Attraction of for-profit healthcare: “terrifying visitors – not with jump scares or gore, but with a faithful, fully-immersive simulation of the U.S. healthcare system.”
And Disabled by Society shared the ghosts of internalised ableism (smiling through pain, minimising access needs, etc), as well as the scary stuff in spooky season (asking for support, managing others' discomfort, etc).
Stencils, sex, and social security
Some other news items that I enjoyed this month, in the bedroom and in the budget...
In Russia, a blind tattoo artist uses a stencil to make tattoos (short video, no visual description).
From Denmark, Reclaim your Body had sexy photoshoots showing young people with disabilities in their strength and sensuality. (No visual description either, sorry.)
And in Lebanon, the government has taken a step to finance its National Disability Allowance from the national budget for the first time. The allowance of $40 USD/month has increased its coverage in the past years.
Catching-up and closing out
And in case you missed them, catch-up on this month's Debriefs, which had two amazing guest writers:
- “You have to do something”, I.K. Ero's reflections after decades of disability advocacy and the King-of-the-Hill leadership syndrome,
- The United Nations isn't doing enough on Disability, my exploration of what the UN has and hasn't done on disability (and my own career in it).
- “This should not be happening” a vital and timely piece from Gabor Petri on how backsliding democracies curtail disability rights.
Closing out, a very happy fourth birthday to Kevin Gotkin's Crip News – a weekly roundup of disability arts and politics. Crip News is like a spicier, artsier and more rad cousin of the Debrief – if you don't know it, do take a look, follow, subscribe, support, etc.
And in the meantime enjoy your journey through disability news this month, with more links curated below. Let me know what you find,
Peter
Outro
Further reading. All the links from these curated editions go into the Debrief library, which now has over 6,900 links from over 170 countries. See below for contents from this month's update.
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Recent News
This update has 134 curated links from 42 countries and regions, organized across 40 subjects.
You can explore it organized by subject or by country.
Subjects
- Accessibility and Design
- Black Lives Matter and Racial justice
- COVID-19
- Civil Society and Community
- Climate Crisis and Environment
- Communication and Language
- Conflict and Peace
- Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Data and Research
- Digital Accessibility and Technology
- Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response
- Economics and Social Protection
- Education and Childhood
- Employment, Business and Work
- Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities
- Health
- History and Memorial
- Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees
- Independent Living and Deinstitutionalization
- International Cooperation
- Justice Systems and Legal Capacity
- Lived Experience and Opinion
- Mental Health
- Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism
- Policy and Rights
- Politics and Elections
- Relationships, Sex and Reproductive Rights
- Sport and Paralympics
- Violence and Harassment
Countries
Acknowledgements
The photograph is by Louise Canguilhem/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images. Thanks to Celestine Fraser for selecting it.
And many thanks to everyone who shares links, news and reports – as well as the readers and organisations whose support makes this work possible.