KPFA - Pushing Limits

This program is about disasters and power shut offs.  And, it’s about NEW OPTIONS to help you — options that came about after an uproar from of the disability community.

We talk with Sydney Pickern about who is responsible for the safety of people with disabilities during disaster events.  And, what you can do personally to prepare yourself and help other people with disabilities survive. 

Dixie, Monument, Caldor, McFarland, French, Black Butte, Devils Knob Complex, Green Ridge, Jack, Rough Patch Complex, Cedar Creek, Cub Creek, Schneider Springs, Summit Trail & Walker Creek.  These are the names of the major fires burning along the West Coast today.

As you read this, 18 thousand Californians are evacuated from their homes, including many with disabilities. Many more are packed and ready to flee.  Other disabled people, including homeless people, have no choice but to live and breathe the smoke from those fires.

If you don’t live near a fire today, you could find one burning near you tomorrow.  There’s no escaping the effects of the climate crisis.  So, let’s figure out what to do to protect ourselves.

Our guest, Sydney Pickern, has been in the heart of this year’s fire season.  She’s the manager for the Disability Disaster Access & Resources Program (D-DAR) at the California Federation of Independent Living Centers (CFLIC).

Her background includes legal work to increase access to local emergency planning and response programs; as well as legislative and regulatory advocacy at the California Public Utilities Commission.  She lives with a significant physical disability and her passion is disability rights, especially at the intersection of race and climate emergencies.

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Produced and Hosted by Adrienne Lauby with assistance from Shelley Berman.

Sydney Pickern joined CFILC in June 2021 as the Disability Disaster Manager for the Disability Disaster Access and Resources (DDAR) program. She previously worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow and staff attorney with Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) to improve access to accessible housing, address barriers to homelessness assistance programs, and increase access to local emergency planning and response programs. Sydney also has experience related to the California Public Utilities Commission planned power outage regulatory proceeding and has been involved in legislative efforts in this area. She is also a member of the CalOES Access and Functional Needs Advisory Committee and is extremely passionate about disability rights especially at the intersection of race and climate emergencies.

Sydney also has a significant physical disability, her pronouns are she/they, and she identifies as a queer person. In her off time, she can be found in swimming pools, coffee-related situations, playing with her poodle Merv and working on her chess game. Some of Sydney’s favorite movies and tv series are the Science of Sleep, the Darjeeling Limited, Succession, and High Fidelity. She also has a degree in Creative Writing and hopes to rekindle her love of literature soon.

The post Emergencies and Disabilities – Pushing Limits – August 27, 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on Odd weeks Friday 2:30pm.

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Jonathan Mooney tried to fit into the box of normalcy.  It cost him his education, his sense of self, his friendships and nearly his life.  In his opinion, “Normal Sucks.”

Jonathan lives with dyslexia and ADHD, and he’s dedicated his life to connections with other people who have been treated as not normal.  His latest book, Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines, explains the shame and waste in the assumption that normalcy is a goal to strive for.

“I want you to know, if those judges of normality wound you, like they have me and so many others, how to stitch yourself up and fight for a world that is not governed by those judges.”

Jonathan Mooney in conversation with Josh Elwood and Adrienne Lauby.

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I’m a dyslexic writer, speaker, and do-gooder who did not lean to read until 12 years old. I faced a number of low expectations growing up—was told I would flip burgers, be a high school dropped out and end up in jail. Needless to say there hopeful prophecies didn’t come to pass. Opposed to being a high school drop out I became a college graduate from Brown university with an honors degree in English lit; instead of flipping burgers I ended up writing books, the first of which I wrote at the end of the 23 as an undergrad; And instead of becoming an inmate I become an advocate creating organizations and initiatives that help people who get the short end of the stick.

I’ve won many awards for all of this —The Harry S. Truman fellowship for public services, Finalist for a Roads Scholarship, LA Achievement award from The Lab school of Washington where I shared the stage with Vice President Joe Biden—and been featured in/on HBO, NPR, The New York Times, NBC, Fast company, and many other media outlets. But what I’m most proud of is not that I proved some people how doubted me wrong—but that I proved the many people—my mom, a teacher named Mr. R, my wife Rebecca—right, not just about my potential but about the potential for all of us who live and learn differently.

The post Fighting Normalcy: Interview w/Jonathan Mooney – Pushing Limits – July 30, 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

In 2005, Cal Montgomery burst into the disability movement as an intellectual who both made sense and was fun to read.  His three-part series on medicalization in the disability magazine, Ragged Edge, took book reviews to a entirely new level.

Now, after years of writing, entertaining and educating us, Cal Montgomery comes to Pushing Limits.  He’ll be in conversation with Corbett Joan O’Toole to discuss some of the people whom the movement has most struggled to include. They’ll and ask the question, “What does disability rights look like for those with the highest support needs, anyway?”

Here’s a taste of Cal’s Montgomery’s writing:

“I’ve watched people — mostly people who consider themselves to be supporters of disability rights — react to me as my ability to control my body deteriorated again and I slowly slipped across whatever lines they were using to mark the boundary between “high-functioning” and “low-functioning.” A lot of them can’t handle it.  If they’re very polite they make some kind of excuse, but either way most of them are no longer in my life.” (“Defining Autistic Lives: A review of ‘Autism is a World,'” Cal Montgomery, Ragged Edge.)

“…while services for physically disabled people were to a significant extent organized around actual needs that people wanted met and so transition from large institutional settings to the community could be accompanied by significant gains in self-determination, services for people with I/DD tended to center on containment, control, and cost-effectiveness.”  (“Wolfensberger at the Door,” Cal’s Blog)

Cal Montgomery is a white, educated, trans, queer, autistic, physically disabled activist and survivor of long term institutionalization — and is someone often considered outside the reach of disability rights.  He is active on twitter @Cal__Montgomery

Corbett Joan OToole is a white queer disabled elder in that movement that has excluded Cal and others.

Mollie McLeod produced and hosts this program.

Cal’s older writing is available at Raggededgemagazine.com
Corbett Joan O’Toole’s book, “Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History”, 2nd Edition is available at Amazon

The post High Support Needs? An Interview with Cal Montgomery – Pushing Limits – July 16, 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s Program:  Disrupting Ableism with Artful Activism

Featuring Lateef McLeod and D.J. Saravese

Lateef McLeod is a poet, blogger, activist, and PhD candidate in the Anthropology and Social Change Doctoral program at California Institute for Integral Studies. His poetry, activism, and scholarship are all informed by his experience living in the Bay Area with cerebral palsy. He published his first book of poetry, A Declaration of a Body af Love, in 2010, and his second poetry book, Whispers of Krip Love, Shouts of Krip Revolution, in 2020.

David James Savarese is an artful activist and founder of Listen2Us: Writing Our Own Futures. The recipient of an Open Society Foundations Human Rights Initiative Community Youth Fellowship in 2017-2019, he is also co-producer and narrative commentator of the Peabody award-winning documentary Deej: Inclusion Shouldn’t Be a Lottery. A graduate of Oberlin College, he has published widely, including his chapbook, A Doorknob for the Eye, and a notable essay in the 2018 Best American Essays, “Passive Plants.”

This event was part of  The Hastings Center’s events series, “The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability,” supported  by the National Endowment for the Humanities. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/who-we-are/our-research/current-projects/the-art-of-flourishing-conversations-on-disability-and-technology/

photo: Ksenia Makagonova via Unsplash

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