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Black Disabled Lives Matter

7/26/2020

July is Disability Pride Month. Though the month is ending, anti-ableist and anti-racist activism shouldn't. Once again, so many people have created resources that put things into words better than we can, so we've compiled a non-exhaustive list of some of these resources. As usual, please feel free to email us at info@linghacks.tech if any of the information below is incorrect.

Educational Media

Readings

Racism and Ableism
Ableism in Natural Language Processing
Disability, Bias, and AI
All of the articles linked and summarized on Black, Disabled, and Proud
A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement
Workplace Ableism
How Academic Jobs Screen Out Disabled People
The Harriet Tubman Collective

Motion Pictures

Crip Camp (available on Netflix)
All the documentaries listed on the Disability Visibility Project
Lives Worth Living

Podcasts

Action Items

Where to Donate (Credit to NY Mag, Nylon, and getinformed.carrd.co)

Autistic People of Color Fund
Disability Justice Culture Club
Sins Invalid
Ramp Your Voice
This thread of GoFundMe's
National Black Disability Coalition (site will be back up on 8/11/2021)
Follow and turn on post notifications for Asiatu Lawoyin's Instagram account - they frequently post information about Black autistic people in need of mutual aid

Black Disabled People to Follow and Support (Partial Credit to Disability Horizons)

How to Combat Ableism in Everyday Life

If you create any sort of visual media (e.g. a graphical plot, a table, a web application), whether it's an educational tool for a course or part of a paper/presentation, and need to distinguish some visual elements, try to distinguish them in at least two ways if you have any color-coded components of your visual. For example, if you have a series of red, green, and blue lines representing different things, consider making them red solid, green dashed, and blue dotted lines to make your content more accessible to colorblind people. As another example, if you shade certain regions of a graph with different colors, try also shading them with different fill patterns (e.g. gradient vs. solid vs. lines). The R programming language and Google Drawings both have different line types, fill types, and shapes, so this is both a feasible and accessible step to take whenever you create visuals.
If you make graphical posts on social media, make sure to also include image descriptions in plain text in the captions. This is because screen readers can't interpret images, but they can process text and speak it to a user who otherwise who otherwise wouldn't be able to enjoy the content (great explanation here). If you make videos, be sure to also include captions (read more here). Additionally, use #ThisFormat of capitalizing the first letter of every word when you create hashtags - screen readers can then pronounce the hashtags properly (read more here).
If you are a recruiter and/or job description writer, please don't put any weight lifting requirements (or any physical requirements) in a job description unless those requirements are critical for the job. This is just blatantly ableist. An example is "must be able to lift 20 lbs"--it's unnecessary and discriminatory towards disabled people.
Read and follow this thread on wheelchair etiquette.
Use direct language to describe disabilities. Words like "disabled," "autistic," "chronically ill," "neurodivergent," "deaf," and "blind" aren't bad words (used in the proper context, of course), so don't use euphemisms to get around using these words - just be sure to include the word "person" (or equivalent humanizing term) afterwards if you're using them as adjectives. In addition, respect disabled people's choices of whether they use identity-first (e.g. "disabled people") or person-first (e.g. "people with disabilities") language.
Avoid using common expressions that actually perpetuate ableism. Examples include the words "st*pid," "cr*zy," "d*mb," "ins*ne," and "l*me," as well as expressions such as "tone-deaf," "blind" (to something), and "did they stutter."
Do not use disability as an insult or as a cover for other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, or queerphobia. First, people exist at the intersection of these marginalized identities. Second, there is no disability that causes bigotry, and using disability as an excuse or explanation for bigotry only further stigmatizes disability. Credit to Asiatu Lawoyin and Imani Barbarin for these points.
If you hold in-person events, make every effort to ensure that the venue is wheelchair-accessible. Disabled people should not be an afterthought.
If you are creating a new product and conducting any sort of market research or user testing, include disabled people in that research and testing. See this thread for an example of a gross failure to do so.
If you are able to get your COVID-19 vaccine and have not yet done so, please do. Here is a website to help you find vaccine locations in the United States. Additionally, keep wearing masks in public spaces. Not only are there cases of breakthrough COVID infections and rapidly mutating variants of the virus, but there are also many disabled people who are unable to get vaccinated or are immunocompromised - wearing a mask is a basic form of respect for their lives.
If you are an educator and are able to do so, record all lectures, write extensive lecture notes that cover everything said in those lectures, and stop grading students on attendance.

That's all for this post. Remember to keep being intersectional into your activism, and check this site frequently for action items!

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July 4th

7/4/2020

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On this day in 1776, White men gained freedom from Great Britain by trafficking, exploiting, and grossly violating the rights of Black and Indigenous people. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things to do and resources to take advantage of instead of celebrating.

Educational Resources

Readings (Credit to Leah Thomas [@greengirlleah on Instagram], more resources on Leah's account)

What to the Slave is the 4th of July by Frederick Douglass
What is Juneteenth by Derrick Bryson Taylor
How BLM Transformed the Fourth of July by Peniel Joseph
An American Genocide by Benjamin Madley
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Black Nature by Camille T. Dungy
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Racist America by Joe Feagin
A History of Nicodemus by Katherine Rivard

Podcasts (Credit to Leah Thomas)

Power Not Pity by Bri M.
Therapy for Black Girls by Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
The Nod by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings
Code Switch on NPR
The Read by Kid Fury and Crissie West
1619 by The New York Times
Intersectionality Matters! by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Pod Save the People by DeRay McKesson

Motion Pictures

13th
Teach Us All (on Netflix)
Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

Action Items

Organizations to Donate To (Credit to Leah Thomas)

We are still matching donations! Donate to any of the organizations listed above, send your receipt to info@linghacks.tech, and we will match up to $1600.

Other Links and Things To Do

Stay home unless you are protesting for BLM or performing essential tasks (and where a mask when doing so). Going to the beach, having parties, and dining outdoors are not essential tasks.
Install Tab 4 BLM, a great Chrome extension that helps you stay focused and organized with your activism.
Check out this document for a giant list of even more resources.
Check out this Carrd for links to petitions that have not yet met their goals, and sign the petitions.
Check out this Carrd for a list of informational websites about all of the human rights atrocities happening around the world and take the actions linked on those websites.
A few amazing accounts to follow on Instagram: @sonyareneetaylor, @nicholasrose_ (watch their IGTV videos!).

As usual, feel free to let us know at info@linghacks.tech if you would like a resource added to this list or if we've made any sort of mistake.

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