Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

(Photo credit: Marcel Hol)

Yesterday my friend and blogger extraordinaire Liz Strauss posed the question: What do you do when people are looking at you?”

Being in a wheelchair with an obvious physical disability, people look most times I head out my front door. People look because we are curious. We notice that which is different. I admit my head whipped around when passing a guy, wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase, had a green spiky haircut. In a way, looking acknowledges one’s existence.

However, there is a point when a look becomes a stare. Mind you, not all stares are bad. In wonder, we stare at babies. In awe, we stare at the stars. In admiration, we stare at a person’s face.

Other times, staring can be intrusive, reduce dignity, and inflict shame. Stares “reinforce the strongly held notion that being different is somehow shameful, that being different is some how at odds with universal human experience.” (from Staring Back)

Eli Clare, poet and activist, eloquently shares her experience:

Gawking, gaping, staring: I ca*n’t say when it first happened. When first a pair of eyes caught me, held me in their vice grip, tore skin from muscle, muscle from bone. Those eyes always shouted, “freak, retard, cripple,” demanding an answer for tremoring hands, a tomboy’s bold and unsteady gait. It started young, wherever I encountered humans. Gawking, gaping, staring seeped into my bones, became the marrow. I spent thirty years, shutting it out, slamming the door. Thirty years, and now I am looking for lovers and teachers to hold all my complexities and contradictions gently, honestly, appreciatively.

What can you do when people stare?

• Take a deep breath and lift your head high. You have nothing to feel ashamed about.
• Look them straight in the eye and smile. When a smile begins creeping across their face, they become aware of their inappropriate behaviour. Occasionally this works beautifully and a connection is made without a word being uttered.
• Use my Mom’s line, “Take a photo. It’ll last longer.” With my speech, I haven’t used this strategy myself. Imagining the potential response makes me smile, though.

How do you feel when people look at you? When they stare? What do you tell children when they are hurt by others staring?

Inspired by Chris Brogan’s Social Media 100 and Becky McCray’s Small Biz 100 series – 100 useful and practical blog posts on their area of expertise, I am excited to announce that I will soon be launching Accessibility 100!

Accessibility 100 is a series of 100 easy-to-implement tips for improving accessibility for people with disabilities. To show that improving access for people with disabilities, this series will focus on the free and inexpensive tips that anyone can use. (The future Accessibility 200 series will provide tips that involve more effort and more cost.)

My plan is to launch Accessibility 100 during National Access Awareness Week in Canada, the first week of June – if I can wait that long!

Blog posts in the works include:

• 10 Tips for Communicating with People with Disabilities
• 5 Ways to Improve the Accessibility of Blogs
• 9 Tips for Making Your Writing Accessible
• Tips for Making Job Interviews Accessible
• Tips for Making Job Postings Accessible
• 3 Tips for Increasing Your Attitude’s Accessibility

Other ideas in the post hopper are:

• How to make locations more accessible
• How to use distance working to accommodate
• Simple customer accommodations

To ensure I cover a wide range of topics, I’d love to hear from you. What ideas do you have for the Accessibility 100 series? What would you like to know how to make accessible? What questions do you have about accessibility? Feel free to leave your questions, ideas and comments. Let’s make this a group project!

(Photo credit: Philip Mason)

Yesterday, in the elevator, on my way up to see Darrell at the hospital, a woman with a staff ID badge was getting off at 3F (the elevator’s front door). When the door opened for her, she asked if I was getting also getting out.

I replied, “No, 3R.”

She pressed the 3R button again. The door didn’t open. 3F began closing. She hit another button to keep 3F open. She said 3R wouldn’t open.

I replied confidently, “Yes, it will.” From experience earlier that week, I knew 3R was not quite the same floor as 3F; it was a few feet higher. 3F needed to close to get to 3R.

With all of its buttons pressed, the elevator was confused and didn’t know what it was supposed to do.

Flustered and annoyed, the staff woman said, “Ma’am, that door won’t open. I have a woman I need to meet with.”

I wasn’t preventing her from leaving through 3F. In fact, I was hoping she would get out so that I could get to where I was going. I repeated, “Yes, it will.” The past two weeks have been filled with uncertainty, but I knew the door would open. Besides, why would there be a 3R button? I began wondering who the disabled one was.

Finally she surrendered and allowed 3F to close. The elevator continued up and 3R opened.

“How did you do that? I’ve never been up here,” she uttered in amazement.

Sometimes one door needs to close before another one will open!

To keep up with my adventures, musings and insights, be sure to subscribe to DoItMyselfBlog.com.

Yesterday I began cleaning out the resource area of my office, making space for new ideas, new energy and new such. Much was dated 1998, 1999, and 2000 and quickly filled the recycle bin – I can find more up-to-date information online if I ever need it, so why hold onto mouldy-smelling papers? It felt good to get rid of that stuff. I have several more bins to fill before I’m done!

But, I did find one postcard that I bought back in university at the campus bookstore. Seeing it still makes me laugh.

“This town ain’t accessible enough for the both of us.”

The cartoon is drawn by John Callahan who became a quadriplegic resulting from a car accident. His cartoons reflect life from his own unique perspective. His sense of humour is dark and oftentimes politically incorrect, but hilarious in a way. Explore his website at your own risk!

Hi and welcome to the freshly remodeled Readers’ Café – the place to gather and to share.

With the remodeled café, the plan is to interview and chat with a featured guest on some aspect of disability and/or accessibility, and then have readers join in the discussion.

Today’s featured guest is Karen Putz, the Deaf mom who was denied service at her local Steak & Shake drive thru because she didn’t place her order through the speakers, which she can’t use due to her disability. Her story was covered by two TV stations and has received attention by the blogosphere. Most blog commenters have been supportive of Karen’s actions to go public with her fight for her rights, some do not fully understand what life is like when you’re Deaf and require some gentle disability awareness training, and a few others have been complete…well, sadly, there are still people in today’s society that need major attitude adjustments!

Today I would like to give Karen the opportunity to update us on her story, dispel some of the misperceptions about being Deaf, and how she is using social media to share her story and to advocate for her rights.

I invite you to come in, relax and join in the conversation. Hit your internet browser’s REFRESH button to see new comments as others join in the conversation. All that I ask is that you respect others and keep it relatively family-friendly. Also, keep in mind that this is a public space, so share what you feel comfortable sharing publicly.