Gilderdale, Schiavo and models of disability
The other day I had a debate with Clair Lewis, a British disability activist and blogger, about the public reaction to the Kay Gilderdale case. Lewis was appalled by the show of public sympathy...
Category: Disability
The real value of online friendships (Hadley Freeman revisited)
At the end of December there was an article by Hadley Freeman in the Guardian, characterising the past decade as a decade of fakery: fake science, fake politics and fake friendships connected only by...
Early 1990s Kilroy flashback
Does anyone remember what Robert Kilroy-Silk was like before he wrote that column in the Daily Express — AKA Daily Spew — saying that the West owes Muslims nothing, being as we are all...
Panorama and other media coverage of the Gilderdale affair
I’ve been following the media coverage of the Lynn Gilderdale attempted murder trial with some interest as I found it quite emotionally affecting, and have found most of the coverage to be sympathetic to...
The Wing and the Wheel
Last week, Apple launched its long-awaited tablet computer, which was something of a surprise to me as I had read that Steve Jobs had earlier given an explanation, at length, as to why he...
The differences between the Inglis and Gilderdale murder cases
Earlier this week, a mother named Kay Gilderdale was acquitted of the attempted murder of her daughter Lynn in December 2008. Lynn Gilderdale had been bed-bound since the age of 14 with severe ME...
On Mercy
Yesterday a man who attacked someone who had burgled his house and terrorised his family had his sentence cut and suspended (having had his conviction overturned) and released. Also yesterday, a woman who had...
She ain’t heavy …
Yesterday William Peace AKA Bad Cripple commented on a recent case in Canada in which a French family were denied permanent residency because they have a daughter who has cerebral palsy (and, according to...
Kaney O’Neill: who’s an unfit parent then?
A while back, I read a heart-warming story about a woman who was paralysed in an accident during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 while she was serving with the US Navy who had a baby...
Borders turns off lifts for last week
The bookshop chain Borders UK is set to close next Tuesday, with all 45 remaining Borders and Books Etc stores closing (a few, and most of Books Etc, already have), and the place looks...
Two sides of the facilitated communication debate
Doctors said my son's brain was damaged — but he was bright | Life and style | The Guardian This article is by Rahila Gupta whose son, who died in 2002, had cerebral palsy...
Treading on eggshells
How far should we go to avoid the hypothetical possibility of offending someone? The other day, I came across a video posted on the disability group blog FWD/Forward in which members of the Disabled...
Learning disability bullying claims victim’s mother
A mother has died in a fire while trying to save her son, after bullies set fire to their house by posting a lit firework through their door last night (5th Nov, Guy Fawkes...
Fight over life support for disabled boy
Father fights to stop hospital withdrawing life support for baby son I read a disturbing story in the Guardian this morning, which was reported across various other newspapers and in the BBC, that the...
The line between compassion and pity
Last Sunday, the New York Times ran a feature on a young woman, Stephanie Smith from Minnesota, who became paralysed and brain-damaged after eating a home-cooked hamburger contaminated with a virulent strain of E-Coli...
Getting others’ hands dirty
Last week, there was an inquest into the suicide of a young woman, Kerrie Wooltorton, who drank poison and called an ambulance, supposedly because she did not want to die alone. The 26-year-old had...
Hey Emel, what have you done to my avatar?
Back in late 2008, I got contacted by Emel magazine, a British Muslim lifestyle magazine, for a feature on Muslim bloggers. The process of getting the material over there took months, and I dealt...
Disability and brutality
One of the most distressing stories to be in the news last week was an inquest into the murder-suicide of a mother and her disabled daughter in Leicestershire. The family, consisting of the mother,...
Wheelchair access at Green Park is money well spent
There is an article in the current issue of The Spectator by Andrew Gilligan, attacking a project to make Green Park station, an important London Underground interchange, wheelchair accessible or, in London Transport jargon,...
Head injury, and disabled and black perspectives on Serena Williams
BBC – BBC Radio 4 Programmes – Saturday Live, 12/09/2009 This programme features an interview with Jade Bracey, a young woman who suffered a head injury after being hit by a car on her...