• • (dis)Ability
  • Body Politics
  • Sexuality

  The Missing Voices in the Anti-Violence Movement

  May 4, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  This past week I had the pleasure of engaging in a conversation about sexual violence with some awesome young women. It really was a pleasure since I think that this is a topic that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough, and there is far too much silence on the topic. In fact, the majority of the conversation focused around the barriers that prevent young women from openly discussing sexual violence. As awesome as the conversation was, I wanted to take it to the next step and talk a little bit about how this relates to the dis/Ability community.

  Although there are many reasons why women with disabilities are far more likely to have experienced sexual violence, I wanted to address some of the specific issues that they face around speaking about their experiences and finding support.

  One of the big barriers within the dis/Ability community is the way that sex in general is approached. Even today there is still the attitude that most people with disabilities do not have sexual feelings or be can’t perform sexual acts. This attitude is used for an excuse for why persons with disabilities often don’t receive any kind of sex education or information on healthy relationships. If we don’t make the same kind of really basic sex education (however lacking and misguided it may be) available to persons with disabilities, it is no wonder that the space is rarely if ever made to openly talk about sexual violence.

  (more inside…)

• • (dis)Ability
  • Body Politics
  • DIY

  Why My Hearing Aid is a Political Statement

  April 19, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  Sometimes having a disability sucks. It isn’t always about the ableist attitudes of others, sometimes just living in a world where there are things other people can do that you can’t is really crappy too. Not to mention all of the technology that goes along with being disabled, whether it is a white cane, voice to speech or speech to voice software, a wheelchair, crutches or a hearing aid. Virtually any disability comes with some sort of technology that either marks someone as disabled or tries to mediate that disability.

  For my hearing loss I use lots of different things depending on the situation I am in. When I’m at school or in bigger events I use sign language interpreters. For me that is amazing because I know ASL, and they are situations that a hearing aid can never cope with. Usually when I am in small groups, at home (no one in my family signs) or one on one with people I use a hearing aid, either with or without an FM system.

  Hearing aids aren’t like regular ears or regular hearing. While most people can tune out the sound of a person turning the pages of their newspaper, or an annoyingly loud fan, a hearing aid catches all sound regardless of what it is and amplifies it. This means that a newspaper can becoming deafening or a fan can completely overpower a conversation. To try and fix this, we get even more technology, that is the FM system. The FM system has a microphone that you can move closer to the person who is talking so that you can cut out more of the background noise. It also has all these fancy programs that are supposed to make the person sound louder against the background noise too, but how well it works really depends on the person and the hearing loss and the way their hearing aid is programmed. For me it helps a lot in some situations, and in others, we’re still trying to work out all of the bugs in the system.

  (more inside…)

• • (dis)Ability
  • All About Shameless
  • Body Politics

  Meet Shoshana!

  April 18, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  Hey Everyone!

  I’m Shoshana and it is super exciting to be joining everyone in the conversation happening here at Shameless!

  I’m going to be talking about disability and the many ways that it plays out in all of our lives.

  I have been disabled for most of my life, but I’m still pretty new to the disabled community. For me it is really interesting how even though I’ve been able to fall under the disability umbrella in terms of Chronic Illness and at times mental health stuff (how I feel about the language used to describe that is a topic for a completely different day) since I was a child, it took losing my hearing and being able to claim a “legitimate” physical disability that I came to understand and see myself as a disabled person. That discovery opened up my mind to a world of theories, discourses and ways of understanding the things that I always knew were going on around me but never had the words to name, and allowed my world to make sense to me in a way that it hadn’t before. It gave me tools to challenge the way that things are done, and has allowed me to find a home in many communities where there are people like me.

  I think that disability cannot help but be both personal and political. It centers around how people and their bodies are seen, included or excluded. Every interaction, should it be using my hands and eyes to express myself and receive information rather than my mouth and ears, or by making choices about what treatments are best for my body, is a political statement about how we see and experience disability. Our bodies are profoundly personal, and all too often a disabled person’s experience of living in their body is completely discounted, particularly by the medical profession.

  I’m looking forward to starting this conversation with everyone. I know that disability can sometimes seem overwhelming, and a bit like a club where you have to have a disability to belong, but I want to specifically take a minute to say that disability is about everyone. Many disabilities are acquired later on in life, and I’ve yet to meet someone who hasn’t had some encounter with disability. Allies are important in any community, and especially within the disability community. Please feel free to ask questions, add your input and your own experiences. Although I am disabled, I am by far not the defining disability experience, and many others have different experiences and views that are equally valuable and important. So, I encourage you all to come along with me for the ride, and share your stories and experiences so that we can make sure that our community has the voice and attention that it deserves!

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