The Wordsmith's Forge

Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day.

EDIT 6/17/20: See also the the Fries test for disabled characters in fiction:
"Does a work have more than one disabled character? Do the disabled characters have their own narrative purpose other than the education and profit of a nondisabled character? Is the character’s disability not eradicated either by curing or killing?"
Enhanced version:
"Novels in which crips talk to each other? Novels in which we talk to each other about something other than wanting to be cured, or how to get cured, or why we want to die because we can’t be cured? Novels in which we don’t die?"

My characters with disabilities include ...

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Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day.  So I looked through my backlog of unpublished poetry and found a few that feature characters with disabilities.  You get to pick which one is posted for free.  Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll.  I will keep it open until Sunday afternoon, and then post the winning poem.

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Here is my card for the Solo Celebration fest on allbingo. It will run from May 1-31.  It features all kinds of satisfying activities and experiences that can be done alone.  Considering my work, Tripping into the Future has an isolated protagonist.  (See all my 2016 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


SOLO CELEBRATION BINGO CARD

Self-Love	Introvert	Public places	Nonphysical Passions	Identify a feeling you're having
Eating / drinking alone	Experimentation	Learning what you like	Caught in the act	Serenity
Refuge	Self-Awareness	WILD CARD	Meditation	Be Here Now
Happiness	Body Image	Greedy / desperate	Sex toys / books	Random act of kindness
Makeup / Dressing up	Privacy	Curiosity	Anticipation	Dominance & submission

I found this post about accommodations (from Blogging Against Disablism Day) very helpful in thinking about ways to make the arts more accessible for everyone. Not mentioned is the fact that many of these ideas would also make art more accessible for small children, who also need frequent potty breaks and want to touch everything.

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Today it is warm and moist outdoors, but not raining. We picked up the long pile of sticks at the edge of the raspberry patch in the ritual meadow. I'm hoping to get back out later and throw grass seed there.

Much of the earlier-sown clover and grass is sprouting. :D The clover appears first as tiny green dots, then the grass like green hairs. Eventually they burgeon into actual plants.

EDIT:

Second round of yardwork was sowing grass seed at the edge of the raspberry patch in the ritual meadow, and pulling weeds around the burn barrel and forest garden near the house.

Third round of yardwork was cutting honeysuckle shoots near the end of the house. We're trying to get that area cleaned up and regrassed.

And I'm definitely done for the day, because thunder is rumbling and clapping just west of us.

This is a freebie for Blogging Against Disablism Day. An audience poll has selected the poem "Void of Course" from The Moon Door as today's celebration of access and representation for people with disabilities. This poem is spillover from the January 19, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from technoshaman and LJ user Lb_lee. It also fills the "mutation / physical transformation" square in my 5-18-15 card for the origfic_bingo fest.

Note: There is some squabbling in this poem, because people have different opinions about how to solve problems. It's inevitable in any group, but more common in support groups where folks are perpetually low on spoons. Happily the group has ways of handling this.

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Thunder is rumbling and clapping just west of us.  Severe storms are predicted.  This often means the power goes out for a while.  So if I'm offline, don't panic, I'm probably okay and just scurrying around a dark house to light candles. 

There are five blue jays around the hopper feeder.  \o/ 

I found this article about the Marrakesh Treaty to improve accessibility of print materials.

Terramagne has one too, but it is somewhat different. I couldn't resist laying out some of those divergences. You can see how they're doing things a little faster and better. *chuckle* And what happens when a supervillain has reasons of enlightened self-interest to back the thing. ;)

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Here is a thoughtful explanation of how accessibility benefits everyone, in this case with keyboard shortcuts.  There are links to keyboard shortcuts for multiple programs.  

This interests me because of my anti-knack with technology.  I can't use most wireless tech.  I fry it.  I NEED the signal to be insulated from my potent energy field.  For example, a wireless mouse lasts ~2 weeks for me.  Laser mice also have  much shorter lifespan than ball mice.  This is one of many areas in which technology is evolving away from things I can use, and nobody cares because they like the other version better.  It's maddening.  So I have to keep an eye out for alternatives in case it becomes impossible to find equipment I can use.

Here's an interesting essay about the hierarchy of disability and how people abuse each other with it. 

I think about this a lot.  I have some distinct limitations, like needing glasses.  But most of mine are obscure, and I have learned that there's rarely any benefit to be had from trying to get other people to acknowledge them.  It is simpler just to wait until the damn thing blows up in their face.  "Well of course your phone died.  I told you that I kill electronics; you handed it to me anyhow; it is now a brick." "I thought it was all in your HEAD!" "That is not my problem."  So I tend not to describe myself as disabled, that being a legal category, but I can easily describe some of the limitations I have.  

Society would be much more usable if accommodations could be more often had for the asking of them.  This is not something I can change directly.  It is something I can practice, and reward.  If you're coming to my ritual, and you need to sit down, I don't need to know WHY.  I don't care why; it's none of my business.  I especially am not going to ask if you have a card for it.  All I need to know is your maximum standing time, that if the ritual runs longer we'll need chairs, and that a seated ritual would probably work better than a dance for you.  I don't need to know what's up with you; I need to know what you want me to do about it.  Because I'd like everyone to have a good time and not faceplant at my event.  Conversely, I'm alert for restaurants that are or are not accommodating of dietary needs.  Mine, someone else in my party, the total stranger whose argument I can overhear -- doesn't matter.  If you accommodate the requests with a smile, it bumps you up my "let's eat here again" list.  Ditto places where my partner and I split something and folks bring an extra plate instead of bitching or surcharging.  Fight with me or anyone else about the food, and I will not only not come back, I will pan your slop trough restaurant to my friends who also have food issues.

You get what you permit; you get what you reward.  Use your influence -- and your folding vote -- where you can.

And don't be an asshole.  

The Finish It Bingo fest is running for TWO months on [Unknown LJ tag], from May 1-June 30.  This is all about finishing things that are partially written or exist only as fragmentary notes.  (If you start, stop, and then restart something during the fest period that also counts.)  I made two cards, one for partials and one for notes.  I thought I had more partials than this, so if you remember any I've shown you, feel free to remind me.  Also, the center square is supposed to be a freebie that you get for making the card. :D  See all my 2016 bingo cards.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


Incomplete Pieces

"Coming in from the Cold: Tuesday"	"Rematch"
"All the Difference"	"Whirled Pieces"

Pieces from Notes

Cuoio takes Salvo dress shopping	farm lottery in Frankenstein's village	grassland meeting destroyed by dragons
Mr. Grenade and Hadyn practicing	Made This Card	Shahana and Ari
"Clair de Lune"	Eofor capitol destroyed by Ingeld	Hachi capitol destroyed by Utsusemi