How Not to Run a Disability Campaign

TEDx Sydney have responded to the furore over Stella's Challenge (see here) by saying that clearly it's too soon to use Stella's name, so they'll be relaunching the campaign with a new name.

Colour me unimpressed. The issue wasn't the use of her name, but the use of her name for a campaign which went against everything she ever stood for. It's unclear from this whether they have a clue what the issue is, and whether the relaunched campaign will have addressed the problem or not.

And just to illustrate the issues with the campaign, there's an interview on the main TED site with the people responsible (I've linked to the longer version at TEDx Sydney) about the work that went into creating Stella's Challenge, they manage to talk about the concept, research, and implementation of a major disability campaign without ever mentioning disabled people (or people with disabilities), the closest they get is talking about 'those who have had a personal connection to disability' (how, um, precious). One of the Australian activists commenting says the problem is that they only talked to organisations run for disabled people, not by disabled people, I'm not familiar enough with the Australian disability community to know if they're being literal or figurative, but it's pretty damned clear TEDx Sydney managed to launch a major disability campaign focused around a concept any disabled activist could have told them was so utterly dire it would make things worse, not better, so I'm tending towards literal. It's clear none of the people involved knew the first thing about disability, or, and this is the real tragedy, listened to one damn thing Stella said in her TEDx talk.

Wheelchair 1 : Toes Nil

This afternoon in Rochester, there was a queue for the ATM stretching right across the pavement, with a gap just about big enough for the chair between the guy at the machine and the guy next in line (with earphones in).

'Excuse me!'

No reaction.

'Excuse me!!'

No reaction.

Bugger this, I go for the gap.

I'm genuinely not sure whether I mis-judged it or he moved his foot, but there was a decided crunching feeling.

I cast "I did say excuse me, twice!!" over my shoulder as I rolled  away, but it's not really possible to look behind you and push at the same time, so I can't say what the reaction looked like, but there was definitely some muttering going on that probably wasn't pro-wheelchair user - tough!

Navel Review

In other news, I have my navel back after almost four weeks concealed under dressings. There's a broad purple scar at the 6 O'clock position, and if feels like a definite ridge, but other than that it seems fairly normal,

The other hole in me just under the ribs is still there, and still lurking under a dressing, though the nurse says there's no need for any more of the honey - I'll have to take her word for it as I thought it looked slightly worse - back in a week for a dressing change.