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22 Advocacy

Preferential option for the weak, poor, and disabled

I've noted before (for instance, here and here) about how ableist metaphors and assumptions find their way into what churches say, sing, and affirm in their liturgies. Such language reflects what Amos Yong calls ‘normate biases’–"the unexamined prejudices that non-disabled people have toward disabilities and…
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November 8, 2022
image of #ActuallyAutistic hashtag
22 Advocacy

Learn from autistics

One of the unfortunate things about how parents usually receive diagnoses for their autistic children is that almost all of the resources they're given are about rather than by autistic people. This is especially problematic for folks who don't know autistic adults. While doctors, therapists,…
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May 9, 2022
22 Advocacy

Autistic Exclusion at Churches

I've written and talked about how churches are often among the most unwelcoming places for disabled folks. HERE is an excellent post on how churches often make autistics feel unwelcome. While this may be unintentional, that doesn't mean it's not a problem. In my experience,…
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August 20, 2021
22 Advocacy

IEP training meeting handout

Earlier this summer, I advocated for a local family. They'd been stonewalled repeatedly by their local public school district and got my name from a FB group. We had a five hour IEP meeting where I was able to help the family get nearly everything…
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July 12, 2021
screen capture of a question from the Vineland-3 Adaptive Behavior Scales
22 Advocacy

Requiring dehumanization as the means to support

David Perry has again written something absolutely fabulous, about how our social systems require us to think of, quantify, and characterize disabled children in order to get support. Over the past few nights, I've been slowly working through the Vineland-3 Adaptive Behavior Scale, which is…
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March 9, 2021
22 Advocacy

Isolation

My friend Ellen Stumbo recently wrote this excellent post, which unfortunately captures so much of our experience. I strongly recommend you read the whole post. But here's a taste: Over time, as my two children with disabilities have become older, the isolation has continued to…
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February 9, 2021
22 AdvocacyUncategorized

A Sibling’s Perspective

Our kids are in the "love Lego" stage of life (which I hope they never grow out of). For the past few years, we've given them Lego Advent calendars, which they greatly enjoy. This year, we got them one and my parents got them another.…
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December 14, 2020