Thoughts on Wheels:Perspectives from a Disabled Sociologist

  First, When I write this article I am not bashing our field or saying these are unnecessary. I am just jealous that I did not think about them and secure the grant money to get paid to do these things. Our first entry into the file at least on this blog will be in honor of American Thanksgiving. Ah, Thanksgiving that time of year in a normal year that people gather around with family and just trying not to fling mashed potatoes across the table at your drunk uncle who more than likely said something culturally insensitive, or at least that is what it was like for my family growing up. I as a sociologist and behavior analysis take this time to observe what is happens around me even more astutely. A team of sociologists from the University of Washington's main campus in Seattle took this one step further and with the backing from the internet provider, Century Link used Google Analytics to observe trends of what people were thinking about in the run-up to Thanksgiving.  I coul...

I want to start by saying thank you for the support and I want to apologize for not writing for a little bit.  Today, I am blessed to get explain and explore the words we use as disabled people from a theoretical framework.  Before we begin we first need to define a couple of things the first is interactionism. Interactionist scholars believe that the meaning of self is derived and produced through interactions with the world and other people. So to put in a five-word answer one’s worldview is shaped by interaction. To me, interactionism is the basis of all sociology without interactionism we don’t have science and I would have  saved myself and my parents thousands of dollars with not having to go to school. With that being said I think that we have an even better explanation of micro-sociology in the disability scope and that is with the power of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is defined as a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitat...

   Go to war! That is the rallying cry of many young recruits each year that are gung-ho soldiers that want to serve this country without question and without much thought of the consequences. Not to say that the men and women who do sign up to go to war don't think about what could happen I would think any activity that could end in death has at least some consideration before jumping in full throttle. It's an interesting thing that happens when people return home from overseas and they don't come home in a casket. It seems as though those who survive the ebbs and flows of war are not as honored as those who make the ultimate sacrifice.  It is important to note that no matter what happens to a person in a war that they are still making a sacrifice. I thank everyone who served for their service because without them I would not be sitting here writing this blog or doing anything that I am doing without fear of persecution. So if you have found this blog and you have served...

 Good Morning, Today is Monday, November 9, 2020.  Becoming a parent is one of the greatest joys of the human experience but disabled people in this country have an extra layer of anxiety. I am a young person who is disabled and has a fiancee with a visual impairment who is looking and preparing to start a family this issue is of extreme pertinence to me and my future family. Let's begin with this, no matter what it seems as though there will always social worker from the state that is getting involved to see if we as disabled people can be parents.  The reason why it is important to understand that these statistics and stories as disabled people and in the able-bodied community is because we have the capacity to love and care for children and it is a common misconception about if you can't hear the baby cry at night how are you going to care for the kid. Or how are you going to chase down a kid who runs into the street in your wheelchair? Fun Fact I have wheels I am fast...

 Today is Friday, November 6, 2020. Not that it is important but in a nod to Star Trek I thought I would put a stardate. I am not going to write on Thursdays unless something big comes up in terms of news. To get a scope of what we are talking about tonight we first have to define what it means to be urban. This may seem simple but it is not, I will give it my best shot by using the American Sociological Society's definition. "It is a densely populated downtown area" The adjective urban can describe the people who populate these areas. The adjective of being urban can carry a negative connotation with it.  Why does the definition matter? Definitions matter in my disciple because it gives us a scope of which to work and today the scope in which we are working is in this above-stated ideas of densely populated areas. There are some cities like Chicago and Tampa Bay that are beacons of accessibility and other cities like Boston and Louisville/Cincinnati that really drop the...

  Before we begin, I am going to address that I am so happy to receive the support I have in the early days. I started this because I was told I needed to work on rediscovering my voice outside of my professional and academic endeavors. I started this blog and you as an audience have seemed to respond. The post I made yesterday is being received better than I ever could have imagined and one of my mentors in academia is allowing me to expand on my thought so there will be more to come on that.  Today, however, I want to explore an ever-evolving topic and that is where do we go from here. We have ADA [Americans With Disabilities Act] (That just celebrated its 30th Anniversary) and that is great but there is so much more we can explore as a people. We need a reform ADA and have it reflect the evolving and expanding needs of the disabled population in this country.  I know,  anyone who has followed my career knows what I am about to say. Yet, it bears mention once again...

  First Things First. Today is Tuesday, November 3, 2020. It is the first Tuesday in November and that means it is Election Day in the United States of America.  I wouldn't be a Good American History Teacher if I didn't tell you to take this time to exercise your right to vote.  With that out of the way we can get to the question that I posed in the Header of this post; Let's get it out there yes it does work (Sorry, Mom). That is not what I am here to talk about directly, however, I do want to talk about Sex. SEX is not a bad word and everyone should be able to experience it if they want to.  There are pages among pages of toys and aids in the act for the disabled which is great because sometimes it just doesn't happen without assistance much like walking. If people would understand that it wouldn't be as weird but then again some people think wheelchairs are weird so I guess we just can't always win.  There are some people in the disability community that say ...

 Why me? It is a question that every person deals with at some point in their life mostly in adolescence. Thoughts like "Why didn't I make the football team?" "Why did they have to break up with me? I thought we were going to last forever," Spoiler alert kid; you are fifteen and it is no longer 1949. They were probably no good for you anyways and you'll see that in due time. These are questions that go through everyone's head but the why me conundrum lays deep and has been ingrained in the disabled community for years and there's a multitude of reasons why that is we can break down using social science. The first of these is quite simple but it bears mentioning and weighs heavy on the mind of a lot of people. This is the immutable fact that we operate in an able-bodied society where ableism runs rampant and it is hard for anyone different to get ahead. Before I move forward I'd be doing myself and my readers a disservice by not mentioning that th...

 Sociology is defined by the American Sociological Association as "...the study of human social relationships and institutions." At its core, it is about interaction and how we see the world through different perspectives or what we as a sociologist call the sociological imagination. American Sociologist C Wright Mills explained the sociological imagination as "The intersection of biology and biography," this is an interesting concept to dive into because as  most psychologist and other social scientists want to have the nature versus nurture debate, C Wright Mills says that both forces are at play and that is what creates one's outlook on life. This is what I love the most about sociology is that it celebrates difference. The difference in cultural differences in perspectives and the differences in ability. We need more of that in the world. I am starting this blog to help facilitate that conversation.  Now that I have introduced my passion and life's work,...