The Voiceless Minority

“Casting call! Casting call! Calling all actors and actresses. We are looking for someone to play someone with a disability.”  Anyone who knows me knows I'd jump, not literally, unless we are talking about a spasm, if I saw a casting call flyer with the criteria listed above. The sad reality is, crip casting is a thing. Crip casting, for example, happened in the movie The Upside. Bryan Cranston, who I am not denying is a great able-bodied actor, was chosen to play the disabled character Phillip, even though it does not appear as if he has a physical disability himself. The example of crip casting in The Upside is not unusual.  For the most part, disabled characters in TV and film are not portrayed by people with disabilities but rather by the able-bodied community.  Perhaps this is why there are three archetypes of disability. We are either portrayed as someone who needs saving, needs to be cured, or is a villain. Let me further illustrate what I mean. The earlier example...

I am not a homebody. I love to get out and explore the world, but it is a disability. You must consider accessible travel, i.e., how you'll get where you're going and what it will look like when you get there, especially if traveling internationally. However, I recently came across a game-changer for traveling with a disability. Exceptional Vacations aims to “provide high-quality vacation opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities and special needs.” They provide guided and custom trips for groups and individuals for a slightly higher price. I have linked their website at the bottom of this piece so that you can learn more about this great organization. According to Rebecca Hisamoto, the director of Exceptional Vacations, " Jill and Justin ultimately understood the mental health benefits of being able to travel but saw that there were not many opportunities out there for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to travel independe...

A disturbing trend inspired me to write this blog.  Please note:  This blog may offend some of my disabled community, but that is  not  my goal! The goal is to express the idea that we are a minority that claims to be treated equally, but we cut corners more often than not. Because we cut corners, two things have occurred. People view us with unnecessary sympathy, and people end up taking advantage of disabilities.  Let me first explain how this blog idea came to mind. I watched  The Tonight Show  earlier this week. Jay Leno mentioned the following in this monologue; Recently, out of Florida, black market disabled people have been hired to help people skip lines. Initially, I thought it was a story that Jay was making up for a good laugh because it got one. However, upon further research, I found it to be true. Several articles have been written about the issue. Two of which are going to be footnoted below. This blog will address that, but it will al...