Accessibility and Disability Ponderings

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I'm working with the Human Rights Campaign on their web team this summer as an intern. It's only my second day, and I've already learned a lot!

One of the things it has me thinking about is accessibility, and the needs for accessibility within the LGBTQ etc. community. A lot of my training on how to code HTML has included making sure content is accessible, particularly for blind users or users otherwise unable to see the content.

Which has me wondering...

How else can websites be made accessible? (The other thing that springs right to mind is transcripts/subtitles on any content with audio and maybe taking steps to insure readability, like how on the HRC website you can make the font bigger easily on each page. But I feel like there are things I'm leaving out.)

So then I was wondering about how disability affects LGBT people in general and particularly their ability to reach resources. The HRC website talks a lot about protecting yourself from discrimination in health care, finding accepting health care providers, hospital visitation, things like that. It also talks extensively about HIV, which is obviously a big medical issue for LGBT people.

But then I was wondering... aren't LGBT people disproportionately affected by mental illness? (Or at least, they're at a higher-than-average risk of suicide, and maybe substance abuse? I would have to look up statistics, I don't have them off hand, but both of those seem familiar to me.) Do they have unique mental health needs, and are there organizations and resources to address those? I know that some therapists will list a specialty in, or at least openness to, helping LGBT clients, on webpages and provider search engines. But are community orgs doing anything to address mental health things? What would information, services, or resources specifically for mentally ill LGBT people look like, other than projects like It Gets Better?

And then going back to... How could that go on a website, in a way that's accessible to viewers coming from a wide variety of potentially difficult situations?

So that's what I'm thinking about. I'm curious about what resources for LGBTs with physical disabilities would look like, too, because I can't recall ever seeing anything of the kind, though of course it probably exists somewhere and I just haven't looked.

Hello Summer!

My sophomore year is OVER! Can you believe it? I'm halfway done with college!

This semester I studied a lot of interesting things, and I feel like you all might be interested, so here's a summary!

In my Intro to American Studies class, we talked about what it means to be an American. (Hint: It's often about race.) Our final project was a paper researching an American city through a primary source, so I looked at how a mommy blog called Nat the Fat Rat portrays motherhood in New York, mostly based on the work of the fabulous Susan Douglas.

In Native American Religions, we talked about Native American spiritualities from around the country and how they've changed since contact with Euro-Americans. (Hint: This class was almost mostly about race.) I got to babble about cultural appropriation, which is always exciting! (ie here and here.)

In Psych of Men, we talked about cultural constructs of gender and how they affect men's psychology. Alas, I have no links for you, but it was good stuff.

In Religion and Sexuality in Western Religious Tradition, we talked about women in Christianity through history (or, more often, what men said about women in Christianity). My very favorite was Jerome, who said that the only point of sex is to produce more virgins. When asked about, you know, carrying on the human species and all that, he said, "There will always be prostitutes." My final paper was a story, based on The Christmas Eve Dialogue by Schleiermacher, which examined a couple of different approaches to feminist Christology. (That stuff made my head hurt, but it was well worth the effort!)

And then I took a Spanish class and learned how to talk about gender and sexuality in Spanish. Whoo!

This summer, I'll be working with the Digital Media team over at Human Rights Campaign, helping out Standing on the Side of Love at General Assembly, and attending my first ever Netroots Nation conference! Yay!

Back to School Links!

This time tomorrow I'll be hauling boxes up a flight of stairs in an AC-less dorm to my lovely new room, but here's a few slightly-outdated links for you to peruse while I'm setting up my room!

Standing on the Side of Love posted a blog post I wrote about my summer working for the campaign. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot (for example, I am now a Wordpress expert after crashing the campaign's website one afternoon!).

Free the Princess has a series of blog posts about Steampunk and Multiculturalism by Ay-Leen the Peacemaker (this link is to part 7 of 7, which was probably either my favorite or second-favorite in the series, but I recommend reading the whole thing!). She covers a lot of ground and makes some fantastically insightful points. The series is making something of a whirlwind tour of the internet, and is coming to Steampunk Magazine next, so if you don't catch it here definitely look for it later!

Kids are Cute

(The scene is a small suburban neighborhood, which Spiffy is cheerfully canvassing, knocking on doors with her clipboard and pile of Obama/Warner lit. A man and his family are standing in the doorway of their house, enjoying the lovely fall afternoon.)

Spiffy: Hi! Are you registered to vote?
Man: Absolutely!
Spiffy: Great! Voting Obama, I hope?
Man: No way! We're McCain people. You know he's a trained killer? Don't you want a trained killer for president?
Spiffy: Ah, I prefer a diplomat...
Man: Obama's going to increase spending, raise taxes.
Spiffy: Well, if McCain keeps spending billions of dollars in Iraq...
Man: (interrupting, incredulous) McCain's not spending anything!
Spiffy: ...Alright then. Have a nice day, sir!

(Spiffy moves on. Shortly, she is joined by the man's cute 9-year-old daughter, riding around on her scooter.)

Daughter: Whatcha' doin'?
Spiffy: Registering people to vote!
Daughter: (automatically + enthusiastically) Vote McCain!
Spiffy: Naw, I like Obama.
Daughter: McCain!
Spiffy: But Obama's cooler!
(Daughter glares at her, little eyes narrowed behind her glasses.)
Daughter: I'm watching you.
(She pokes Spiffy, then follows her for the rest of the cul de sac, chatting about her hobbies, which include chasing squirrels.)

Gotta say, I hope this girl grows up to have a mind of her own; it's all well and good when little kids parrot their parent's views, but I know of people who still vote a certain party only because their parents did, and that's just kinda dumb.

BTW: This is my 50th post! Whoo!

The Great Wall of Lit

This is the Great Wall of Campaign Lit, in crappy cell phone pic form.

I blocked the hallway with Obama/Warner lit.

I'm sad you can't see the brochure in this - Obama looks smiley and Warner looks slightly high. It's an interesting message.

...So this is how I helped the campaign today. Are you impressed?

Back to School Part 2

Today, I had government!

Teacher: This year's going to be particularly interesting. Can anyone guess why?
Me: Election year, wh00t!
Teacher: ... yes, that.
Me: -blushes- I'm an intern for the Obama campaign.
Teacher: Really? Awesome, you're my favorite.

I spent the rest of the period annoying my classmates by being overly excited about politics. It was great. I think I'm going to 1) drive everyone insane by the end of the first discussion and 2) love that class!

One assignment I'm worried about: We have to volunteer for BOTH political parties, so unless I can convince him to let me work for the Green Party as my second party I'll be doing two to four hours at the Republican headquarters. And while I understand the point of the assignment and think it could be interesting, I don't want to be seen as promoting and/or representing McCain or any of those people.

Maybe I'll look at it as blogging research. I could write an epically dramatic post as my Day as a Republican.

What do you think?

Campaign Stories

Once, sometime before I got involved in politics and campaigning and such, I read a story online that I thought was really cool. I don't remember who it was or where I read it, but it was about these two girls who were out canvassing for something or other - a candidate, or a ballot measure, something regarding gay rights, out in the middle of suburbia. They knocked on one door and a sweet elderly lady answered and invited them in and introduced them to the other woman living in the house, and as they spoke it became clear that they were life-partners, and that this was something that had always been a secret.

I went into my internship at the Obama campaign wanting something like that to happen.

And then it became very clear that I either am not a people person or I just have awful luck.

I don't know what it is - the people I'm canvassing with will get into great 15 minute conversations while I get doors slammed in my face. The people I'm phone banking with will recruit volunteer after volunteer while I get politely turned down. Not that I don't have great conversations, but they're so few and far between that I was starting to think I'd never get a cool lesbian campaign story to tell.

The other night, I was making phone calls inviting people to a party we're having to watch Obama make his acceptance speech. The woman who answered the phone for what must have been at least the 40th call on my list was polite and an enthusiastic supporter, so I told her about the party.

"Oh, sorry, I have plans that night. Which campaign are you with?" I told her. "Oh, okay. see, my girlfriend works with the campaign in the next county over, she's having a party."

The fact that she could talk about her girlfriend so casually to a complete stranger on the phone - even a Democratic phone-banking one - took me a bit by surprise. I managed to stumble through the rest of the conversation by saying variations of "Oh, that's so awesome!" while she told me about the work she and her girlfriend were doing with the campaign. And then I went and made 20 more boring, scripted calls.

It was hardly a touching story, but I noticed after the fact how delightfully casual it was. I love that people - not everyone, obviously, but increasing numbers - can be out and it's not a big deal. Maybe it's just the safety of the Democratic bubble, but there's something to be said for it, anyway.

I'm used to the stories I hear from adults being about frightening, complicated coming-out experiences. Surely, to go from campaign stories about quiet, secret relationships and difficult coming-outs to stories about carefree conversations where acceptance is assumed counts as some kind of progress.

I Write Letters

I work for the Obama campaign in my county, which for the most part means making phone calls and putting data in spreadsheets, but today, I joined up with our office's letter-writing group, writing letters to the editor at local papers.

The guy in charge is cool - He's a Vietnam veteran, former criminology professor, worked for the Department of Education at some point or another. He wants us to use catchy slogans and always make sure we address Obama as "Senator Obama."

So I'll probably have to do quite a bit of work on this before I send it off. Because I wrote a letter today that, rather than being catchy and slogan-full, was just poking fun at McCain. But I'm posting it here, because I like it.

Let's ignore for a moment the perplexing fact that McCain's "Obama as a celebrity" ads redefined the ability to inspire millions of people as a negative quality in a political candidate. As a young, first-time voter, what confuses me about these ads is, who are they aimed at? Maybe he thinks that there are scores of just-registered 18-year-olds sitting in front of MTV, waiting for an ad that uses the name-calling strategies they recognize from grade school. It's a reasonable strategy.You'd think that the candidate who promised a "respectful campaign" would prefer ads about his famous maverick record, but then young voters might fact-check and find that he's voted with Bush 95% of the time and that he's changed position on virtually every major issue in this election. John McCain doesn't stand on his record because he can't. And besides, respectful campaigns just don't get as many hits on YouTube.

Here's the original ad, btw.