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Operation: Stairbomb London


Caution tape with a sign attached reading "Sorry, no access. Stairs Out of Order"
Let's shut'um all down!

To celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Cripz: A Webcomic going online, we’re asking everyone to grab their caution tape and shut down as many stairways as possible.

What is Stairbombing?
Stairbombing was invented to help people understand (and empathize) with why accessibility is important, by “closing down” stairways with caution tape and a snarky “Out of Service” sign commenting on how annoying it must be to not be able to access a place they really want to go.

Why are we stairbombing?
Because, quite frankly, we’re tired of not being able to go anywhere! One of the biggest challenges for someone with a physical disability is the lack of accessible public spaces. From restaurants to schools, London is woefully inaccessible. The result is that people with disabilities are one of the most marginalized populations in our community simply because they can’t go to the same places as everyone else.

How can you help?

  1. Check out the Facebook event here.
  2. Invite all of your friends to the event and give us a few shout-outs on your social media (facebook, twitter, friendster, icq, etc)!
  3. Write a blog about the event and why you feel accessibility is important.
  4. Form a team of friends, bring a camera and meet us at the band shell in Victoria Park at 7pm on the 30th! We’ll provide you with all the supplies you need.
  5. Head out into that big bold world and shut down as many stairs as possible!

If we all work together, we can shut down a critical mass of stairs and show the people of London just how inaccessible this city is!

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Tories have a strange sense of humour

Twitter bird staggering around drunkWhen is it okay to tell jokes about disability? While I think the disabled population is overdue for a good ribbing, hence launching a webcomic about life with a disability, perhaps it’s not the best call for a Federal politician to be the one poking the fun. Yep, the other day Stephen Woodworth, the Conservative incumbent for Kitchener Centre, decided to take to the Internets with his witty, witty humour, tweeting “Cop says to falling down man outside tavern ‘You’re drunk’ Man replies ‘Thank goodness’ Cop asks ‘Why?’ Drunk: ‘I thought I was crippled!’” It’s weird because normally when people see my wheelchair they ask “What happened? What do you have?” not “Seriously bro, how shit-faced ARE you right now?!”

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A question of limitation

Disability Scoop logoIn a story reminiscent of the Rain Man, a 12-year old with Asperger’s in the US is putting everyone to shame and blowing through Graduate-level physics classes with ease. I caught this story on Disability Scoop yesterday, who explain the boy has an IQ of 170, which is about 160 points higher than me (give or take 10 points). Not only is he kicking ass and taking names in the class room, apparently he’s developed a new theory that could put him in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize. No big deal, what 12 year-old isn’t in the running for one of those?

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One of my pet peeves

 

A van with two handicapped stickers on it
You're lucky you have those stickers Mister, or I woulda run you off the road.

You know what really gets my goat? People who put those blue handicapped/wheelchair stickers on their personal van. While I was out and about last week I spotted this van in London, which was plastered with handicapped stickers, and could only grit my teeth and cringe at the sight. Why does it bother me so much? I’m not completely sure, but I think it has a little something to do with intent. Why would someone want to specify/identify their vehicle as being one that is carrying a “disabled passenger”?

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Stairs and Pornography: Unlikely Bedfellows

A creative staircase
OPPRESSOR!!!!!!!!11111

Clara recently found this very cool post (with hilarious title) on Tumblr and knew I would love it (she was right, obviously). While the concept is pretty good and the photos are quite cool it’s actually the title of the post that caught my eye. No, not just because it has the word “porn” in it. In fact, you might be surprised to find out that stairs and pornography actually have something in common–you just have to consider the origin of stairs. Please note that there isn’t any pornographic content in this blog so if you came here looking for that, we’re sorry to disappoint.

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Kanye West cares about seizures, people!

Picture of blinder sunglasses
Yeezy is going to ride these bad boys all the way to the seizure prevention BANK.

There has been some buzz around the Internets (like here and here) about the new Kanye West music video “All of the Lights” and the potential for it to cause seizures. I guess the outcry was so loud that West eventually produced a “less intense” version. But when the story first broke, many of his fans on social networking sites like Twitter explained it was just a cool video and didn’t see why it was such a big deal. Being someone who loves bright lights flashing at dangerously high speeds, I decided to do some investigation of my own. Lo and behold, the video is a little intense on the eyes. Here, the phrase “little intense” being the understatement of the century.

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Doin’ what you can

The box of a Commodore 64
This was my first computer. Look at that blazing speed, raw processing power and a whole 64 kilobytes of memory to boot! You have to make a choice though: you can either save a 10-page word document or about 5 seconds of your favourite song in mp3 format. (Image from computercloset.org)

From a young age, my parents always encouraged me to focus on my abilities and not dwelling on my disability–wise words I still cherish to this day. Looking back on it now, I’ve discovered my parents had ulterior motives to these sage words, aiming not just to make me feel better about disability but to inspire me to overcome it. You see, my parents figured out something very important out when I was just a little boy: they realized that slowly but surely I would grow up and, like all kids, there would come a time when they wouldn’t be there to support me anymore and I would be left to my own devices. Rather than dwelling on all the unfathomable barriers I would face in my life, my parents decided they would do whatever possible to give me the best opportunity to succeed and put me in a place where I could care for myself.

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Signs of the Times (repost)

For your holiday pleasures, here is a rambly blog post from a few years ago that Jeff wrote about semiotics and disability. Enjoy!

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Million Dollar Blunder (repost)

 

Million Dollar Baby movie poster
Don't judge every book by it's cover: no babies were made rich in or as a result of this movie.

This is an old article Jeff wrote that was published in the London Free Press back in his Undergrad. He was just looking around the site and realized it hadn’t been ported over yet, so he decided to put it back up again for your enjoyment. 

This article was published in the London Free Press on March 8th, 2005. Publication of the article resulted in a flood of email from pro-lifers (including the Bishop of London??) who apparently missed the point of the article a bit…

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Discourse on the Medical Model of Disability (repost)

We talk a lot about disability and language in Cripz, so to help get you in the Holiday Spirit, here’s a short writing assignment Jeff did during his Masters Degree on Foucault, Discourse and Disability.