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| This icon makes the rounds on
May 1st, known to the blogging
community as Blogging Against
Disablism Day.
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I'm not the first person to blog about disability in the arts. This is something I couldn't be more happy about.
The fact that "disability blog"—with quotes, mind you—turns up over eighty thousand results on Google is worth celebrating. Fifty years ago, at the beginning of the disability rights movement, such a wide-reaching forum on the topic would've been unimaginable, nothing more than an advocate's dream. Today, I'm able to type the letters C-I-D-P into a search bar and find message boards, Facebook groups, local meetups, blogs and vlogs—a whole international community of people who share my diagnosis.
When I was thirteen, this blew my mind. In one afternoon, after I'd summoned the courage to Google my new diagnosis, my community of fellow diagnosees exploded from a desolate island of one to a nation of thousands, their voices all reaching me through my screen and speakers. Shouting their indignation at doctors IN ALL CAPS. Shaking pill bottles at their webcams. Passing around links to blogs and forums like shared bottles of champagne.
As I marveled at this new community that I had suddenly and unexpectedly joined, an anxious excitement bubbled into my chest. I realized something then that would forever change me as a writer, as a student, and as a human being.
I had a voice as well. I could speak. And the people of this community would listen.
