Idea Generation: Disability Programming at WisCon

[sasha_feather]

What Disability-related Programming would you like to see at WisCon this year?

I am happy to submit program ideas if you all can help me come up with some!

Some thoughts to get you started:

Interdependency and work sharing

Hierarchies within communities and how we disrupt them-- (ie, am I disabled or queer enough?), getting rid of the gates!

Political coalitions. Groups of disabled folks are naturally coalitions since our disabilities differ.

Comments

[meloukhia]

'Disability and your mother' is something that came up on the renegade panel last year as something people wanted to talk about.

I LOVED the 'not your usual disability panel' last year, it was fun to do and I hope fun to attend as well!

'Disability and the final frontier,' because I could talk about disability in space all day--except I'd rather have a panel focusing on depicting disability in space than one talking about how there's none of it (make the media you want, etc etc).

'Disability in fantasy' or some such, I'd love to talk disabled heroines representations in fantasy (like Po in Bitterblue...).

Something on a culture and society that values independence, and views the only alternative as dependence, thus eliding interdependence and the strength made from connections (this builds heavily on the work of Mia Mingus and her great essays on interdependence might be a good starting point).

[sasha_feather]

I agree that we should do "A Very Special Disability Panel" again (and call it that!).

Can you elaborate on "Disability and your mother?"

Jesse and I sat and talked today and came up with a couple of solid panel ideas, with examples:

1. Blindness in Sf/F
Po in Kristin Cashore's books
Oree in NK Jemisin's work
Toph in A:TLA

2. Psionics in Sf/F
Telepaths and Empaths in Sf/F have features of disabled people: they sometimes have impairments such as headaches and sensitivities to crowds, and need accommodations and training. They are also subject to societal stigma and fear. Let's talk about psionics! Examples include Professor X, Sookie Stackhouse, Reese in Malinda Lo's "Adaptation", and ....

[meloukhia]

I'm honestly not quite sure about the disability and your mother thing, I just know that it came out. Cabell seemed especially interested, so she might be a good person to talk to about what she was envisioning?