Two only tangentially related links...

[conuly]

One on the ever-popular "would you prevent your disability(s) from ever happening ever again?" question, which I'm not answering because I'm still slightly fuzzy.

And another one on left-handedness.

This woman wrote into a company that makes products for lefties (knives, scissors, can openers, novelty clocks that run backwards, that sort of thing) to... as near as I can tell, rant that by making products designed to be used with the left-hand dominant (instead of the right hand dominant) you're somehow forcing children to view being left-handed as a disability, and making them perform badly. Something like that....

Because she's never had problems.

Before we move on, let us take a minute to laugh at her self-righteous naivete. *laughs* Thank you.

The two links are connecting in my mind. In one, we've got the normal discussion of "what makes a disability" and "what's positive about whatever-it-is" and all that. And in the other, we've got somebody saying that having some simple, inexpensive accomodations to make your life easier, instead of going through a lot of effort to assimilate, is bad for you, because it's making you look and feel different.

*laughs* It just seems so strange to me, the two discussions. And they seem so... connected, even though they're talking about completely different things.

Comments

[ancarett]

I'm a lefty and, OMG!, the struggles I had and still have with many things. I suffered mightily through two years of working in a fabric shop (as an undergraduate I worked fulltime while I went to university fulltime to pay my costs) because I had to use the store-provided right-handed shears. I developed awful calluses and a canked grip from the endless hours of cutting with those crappy right-handed scissors!

And things might be easier now in the school system, but back when I was a child, almost no one knew how to teach and support lefties in penmanship and fine motor skills. . . . Even today, I find, that most people without physio training don't understand that it's more than "mirroring the grip" to assist a leftie in writing!

[rho]

Oooh! What a brilliant argument. Let's see what else we can prove with it.

By providing separate public toilets for women that don't have urinals, we're promoting the fact that being female is a disability. This should stop at once.

By selling stepladders, we're implying that shortness is a disability. Short people really should just learn to jump higher if they want to reach things.

This shameful promotion of sunscreen is clearly intended as a statement that being white is a disability. In order to ease race relations, we must stop the production of this foul product immediately.

And so on.

[conuly]

Ooooh, email them!

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Different != disability, what the hell is she on about?

Should I start using right handed desks, and twist my spine all around to be able to write on them? Jaysus.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

What a pathetic little woman she must be, if the idea of southpaws having specifically-designed southpaw products makes her feel nervous.

I think it links back to that article you mentioned a few days back, on "covering" anything that marks you out as different so as to "fit in" with everyone else. If you're black your employer may state that you can't have your hair in cornrows, because white people might take offense that you don't want a typically "white" hairstyle. "Trying to assert something, are you?" If you're gay you can't have a peaceful civil ceremony to affirm your commitment to your partner, because straight people might get offended that you didn't choose a partner of the opposite gender. "Trying to throw your sexuality in our faces, are you?"

I honestly think there's a link between that and this. In this woman's tiny mind there seems to lurk the belief that "these people" should try to hide their "difference" from everyone else, not flaunt it with specially-devised gadgets.

I bet she wears glasses - and if she does, I'd like to take them off her for 24 hours and force her to "cover her disability" and pretend to be a person with normal vision, "just like everyone else".

[conuly]

The woman is lefthanded! She claims her whole family is! And they've adapted oh-so-well that nobody else is allowed to use equipment designed for the use of the left (instead of right) hand.

I agree, I was thinking of that article when I posted this. Here's somebody who covers so very well that she's apparently raging in... something... that people exist who *don't* and don't *want* to.

[ancarett]

I'm a lefty and, OMG!, the struggles I had and still have with many things. I suffered mightily through two years of working in a fabric shop (as an undergraduate I worked fulltime while I went to university fulltime to pay my costs) because I had to use the store-provided right-handed shears. I developed awful calluses and a canked grip from the endless hours of cutting with those crappy right-handed scissors!

And things might be easier now in the school system, but back when I was a child, almost no one knew how to teach and support lefties in penmanship and fine motor skills. . . . Even today, I find, that most people without physio training don't understand that it's more than "mirroring the grip" to assist a leftie in writing!

[rho]

Oooh! What a brilliant argument. Let's see what else we can prove with it.

By providing separate public toilets for women that don't have urinals, we're promoting the fact that being female is a disability. This should stop at once.

By selling stepladders, we're implying that shortness is a disability. Short people really should just learn to jump higher if they want to reach things.

This shameful promotion of sunscreen is clearly intended as a statement that being white is a disability. In order to ease race relations, we must stop the production of this foul product immediately.

And so on.

[conuly]

Ooooh, email them!

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Different != disability, what the hell is she on about?

Should I start using right handed desks, and twist my spine all around to be able to write on them? Jaysus.

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

What a pathetic little woman she must be, if the idea of southpaws having specifically-designed southpaw products makes her feel nervous.

I think it links back to that article you mentioned a few days back, on "covering" anything that marks you out as different so as to "fit in" with everyone else. If you're black your employer may state that you can't have your hair in cornrows, because white people might take offense that you don't want a typically "white" hairstyle. "Trying to assert something, are you?" If you're gay you can't have a peaceful civil ceremony to affirm your commitment to your partner, because straight people might get offended that you didn't choose a partner of the opposite gender. "Trying to throw your sexuality in our faces, are you?"

I honestly think there's a link between that and this. In this woman's tiny mind there seems to lurk the belief that "these people" should try to hide their "difference" from everyone else, not flaunt it with specially-devised gadgets.

I bet she wears glasses - and if she does, I'd like to take them off her for 24 hours and force her to "cover her disability" and pretend to be a person with normal vision, "just like everyone else".

[conuly]

The woman is lefthanded! She claims her whole family is! And they've adapted oh-so-well that nobody else is allowed to use equipment designed for the use of the left (instead of right) hand.

I agree, I was thinking of that article when I posted this. Here's somebody who covers so very well that she's apparently raging in... something... that people exist who *don't* and don't *want* to.