District Attorney Kari Brandenburg decided to skip the grand jury process and charge the officers who killed James Boyd, a man with psychiatric disabilities, with murder. Grand juries don’t want to indict cops. Juries don’t want to convict cops. But at least there will be a day in court. Here’s what the defense will say:…
Yesterday I had a piece in the Motherlode blog of the New York Times. I talk about the ways that parents of kids with disabilities are shamed when their children act in atypical ways. And I argue that this shame matters – that it drives parents to isolate and works against my goal of an…
Two years ago, tonight, three off-duty deputies moonlighting as mall security killed Ethan Saylor. They killed Ethan Saylor by forcing him to the ground, fracturing his trachea. They killed him because they couldn’t figure out how to deal with a large, cursing, man with Down syndrome. They killed him because no one in the theater,…
Today is my son’s birthday. He’s eight. I used to feel that I needed to spend the day writing about our diagnosis story. It felt important to me to talk about these challenging hours, days, and week as we transitioned from shock and mourning to the deep pleasures of parenting our new baby boy. But you…
For the next few days, Community Colleges will be in the news, thanks to the president’s proposal. #FreeCommunityCollege was the top trending hashtag in the U.S. yesterday. There are lots of news reports and surely hundreds of think pieces to come. My basic assessment is that it’s a good plan that if enacted, because it’s not a…
The Open Doors Organization offers free training sessions to ground crew in how to load powered mobility devices onto airplanes. They also have cards depicting loading techniques – where to lift, where not to lift, how to pack safely, how to detach pieces – that allow for non-verbal communication in noisy areas (like the tarmac)….
I am writing a new piece on airplane travel for wheelchair users. There is a movement underway to design a wheelchair restraint system for airplane cabins. The idea is that the wheelchair user could simply roll onto the airplane and be locked in place safely, rather than being transferred to a chair. There are a…
I have three deadlines now I’m late on thanks to snow days. I have a babysitter coming in today to take care of my darling monsters (seriously – two weeks of vacation, back to school for two days, and now snow days. They need a schedule to re-order themselves. I need them out of the…
The Portland OR police department has been sanctioned by the DoJ for its handling of cases involving people with psychiatric disabilities. There’s been too many deaths, too many tasings, too much violence, too much ignorance. Now, Portland has announced a new policy. The Portland Police Bureau has drafted a much-expanded policy that stresses the need…
I’m ready for our army of Skynet Marshmallow Bumper Bots. The Oatmeal has a lovely piece about Google’s self-driving cars, an innovation that I, too, am wildly ready for. Here’s the bit that’s relevant to this blog (h/t to my friend K for the link) [my emphasis]: 5. I want this technology to succeed, like…