1. Selection
from
Disability
and
Capitalism:
A
Caregiver’s
Perspective
Jared
Wood,
published
in
Slingshot
January
2013
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Each
of
the
three
[quadriplegics]
I
work
for
came
here
to
attend
UC
Berkeley,
which
offered
a
program
for
disabled
students
unique
in
its
time.
The
“dorm
program”
provided
appropriate
housing
and
on-­‐call
attendants
as
students
transitioned
into
school
life
and
hiring
helpers
themselves.
Many
who
participated
in
this
program
ended
up
staying
in
Berkeley
because
of
the
disabled
community,
the
city’s
efforts
toward
accessibility,
and
the
social
climate
here.
From
what
I
have
been
told,
the
opportunities
available
here
for
personal
independence
and
community
integration
are
unparalleled
elsewhere.
The
broader
San
Francisco
Bay
Area
has
been
and
continues
to
be
one
of
the
epicenters
for
the
disability
rights
movement
and
political
actions
led
by
disabled
organizers.
It
is
home
to
disability
rights
advocacy
groups,
disabled
artists,
performers,
and
activists.
Berkeley
was
the
first
city
to
be
home
to
an
Independent
Living
movement
and
an
Independent
Living
Center
aimed
at
uniting
different
disabled
groups
to
change
social
and
structural
ableisms.
Perhaps
owing
to
this
political
history,
Berkeley
was
one
of
the
first
cities
in
the
country
to
begin
implementing
federal
legislations
such
as
the
Architectural
Barriers
Act
and
the
Americans
with
Disabilities
Act.
These
laws
are
meant
to
ensure
that
public
spaces
are
designed
to
be
accessible
for
those
with
disabilities
and
that
disabled
persons
cannot
be
discriminated
against
in
the
field
of
education
or
in
the
workplace.
The
American
Disabilities
Act
defines
disability
as
“a
physical
or
mental
impairment
that
substantially
limits
a
major
life
activity,
such
as
walking,
seeing,
hearing,
learning,
breathing,
caring
for
oneself,
or
working”
and
is
intended
to
protect
“those
who
have
a
disability,
those
who
have
a
record
of
such
an
impairment,”
and
those
who
are
“regarded
as
having
such
an
impairment.”
This
definition
includes
persons
in
very
different
positions
with
widely
divergent
lifestyles
and
needs.
Persons
who
are
blind
or
deaf,
who
have
severe
back
injuries,
cancer,
or
AIDS,
who
are
former
drug
addicts,
have
learning
disabilities,
and
those
who
were
diagnosed
with
emotional
or
psychological
conditions
are
all
among
those
that
the
state
recognizes
as
disabled.
In
this
context,
“Disability”
is
defined
by
the
state
largely
as
one’s
inability
to
work.
This
condition
is
problematized
in
a
growth-­‐based
capitalist
paradigm
when
one’s
value
to
the
nation
is
quantified
in
purely
economic
terms.
Government
agencies
and
programs
meant
to
support
those
who
are
not
financially
self-­‐sufficient,
physically
disabled
and
otherwise,
are

2. commonly
referred
to
as
“entitlement
programs”
and
are
consistently
under
attack
by
those
who
would
prioritize
balancing
the
state
budget
over
peoples’
health
needs.
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We
all
suffer
when
a
person’s
individual
value
is
conflated
with
their
capacity
to
produce
labor
for
institutional
interests.
And
we
are
all
judged
-­‐
by
strangers,
friends,
authority
figures,
and
ourselves
–
according
to
the
perceived
value
of
the
labor
we
can
do.
We
all
suffer
as
opportunities
for
life
outside
the
norm
of
productivism
are
diminished.
The
world
becomes
less
diverse
and
many
are
marginalized,
oppressed,
and
eliminated.
This
is
an
issue
that
affects
any
person
who
does
not
serve
such
interests,
disabled
or
otherwise,
and
more
generally
it
affects
all
earth
beings.
This
last
insight
is
something
I
heard
in
a
roundtable
discussion
I
had
been
invited
to
by
disabled
activists
who
had
created
and
performed
in
the
show
Sins
Invalid.
She
asked,
“When
will
we
all
be
honored
for
who
we
are,
the
fact
that
we
are,
and
not
what
we
can
do?”
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In
opposition
to
the
norm
of
productivism
there
exists
an
opportunity
for
a
positive
project.
We
can
value
each
other
in
ways
that
are
not
rooted
in
our
suitability
for
a
dominant
and
often
damaging
paradigm
of
work.
We
can
value
each
other
in
ways
that
affirm
the
magnificent
diversity
of
this
world
and
its
wild
difference,
celebrating
the
richness
of
opportunity
for
relationship
and
experience
that
results.
In
this
spirit
I
would
like
to
celebrate
my
relationships
with
the
individual
quadriplegics
who
have
become
my
intimate
friends.
I
would
like
to
celebrate
the
closeness
of
our
friendships,
the
reciprocity
of
our
relationships,
the
wisdom
and
support
each
has
given
me.
I
would
like
to
celebrate
the
beauty
of
their
lifestyles
and
the
particular
beauty
of
each
as
an
individual,
and
to
be
grateful
for
the
ways
in
which
I
receive
their
caring.
Friends,
you
have
helped
me
to
listen
to
my
body
for
real,
striving
to
identify
and
honor
my
own
bodily
needs.
You
show
me
that
grown
men
can
be
unashamed
to
ask
directly
for
the
help
we
need.
With
you
I
experience
difference
in
repetition
and
beauty
in
necessity.
You
all
have
helped
me
to
mostly
get
over
a
streak
of
cranky
fundamentalist
luddism.
You
have
helped
me
to
become
more
mindful
of
my
relationship
to
our
shared
physical
surroundings
and
more
sensitive
to
my
responsibility
for
the
changes
within
it.
You
teach
me
to
be
grateful
for
our
interdependence
and
grateful
for
the
gifts
I
continue
to
receive.
Friends,
we
are
here
together—
and
our
lives
are
richer
in
caring
for
one
another.