This past weekend was Dexcon, one of the Double Exposure cons. I’d told Shoshana Kessock of Phoenix Outlaw games that I would come play her game Dresden Lives, to let her know how it played for someone with a disability like mine. So I decided that since LARP isn’t my usual form of gaming, I should step out of my… Read more →
In recognition of my new job at Storium and the week being about Dexcon I want to talk a little about the process of helping players negotiate difficult content in games. RPG’s have always had challenging content. Whether it was dungeons & dragons, wraith or shadowrun, every story or game needs tension – and often through those mediums violence is… Read more →
Last Friday the Supreme Court of the United States decided in a unanimous decision to erase protest free buffer zones around abortion clinics. In addition, today they sided with Hobby Lobby in the matter of whether or not Christian for profit corporations have to comply with the ACA in the matter of contraceptives and insurance. (I won’t even get into… Read more →
I wasn’t sure what I was writing about today until I logged into facebook. Then I saw a link to a debate.org post asking whether or not parents of children with disabilities should be able to euthanize their child. I feel sick. I can feel my skin crawl. I can’t even click on it to read. Why? Because people with… Read more →
Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting there have been 74 school shootings in the United States. For you math people, that ends up averaging out to one school shooting a week (at least. 52 weeks in a year means there’s MORE than that one some weeks.) Children are killing each other. Adults are killing children. Companies are trying to… Read more →
“I have a question for you, young lady” the stage is dark, and my hand is being held by the creator of music I’ve been listening to for over 10 years. “Do you feel as free tonight as you told me you did last night?” My answer “Absolutely” is nothing short of the truth. I had one of those weekends… Read more →
The last week has been hard. I’ve written about my chronic pain before, and as of last week I tried a new treatment. And I got pills. Getting pain medication is hard to do these days if you have an actual pain condition. There are hoops to jump through, questions to answer. And then once you have the drugs, you… Read more →
This week a man and his wife died because of the social constructs around disability. In Syracuse, NY the Myatt’s met the end of their lives at the front of a train. The husband felt that his wife’s life was no longer worth living, and so he walked his wife onto the train tracks. The first piece that I read… Read more →
I’m really disappointed in my home city just now. I’ve always looked at Seattle and said “That is my favorite city” but today, I’m not super pleased. You see, King County didn’t pass a statute to keep public transit funded. Before that, the City Council voted to clamp down on Uber and lyft in order to support the taxi unions…. Read more →
Today is the FDA hearing for the Judge Rothenberg Center on the issue of using aversive shock therapy to correct behavior in people with autism. The things coming out during this hearing make me sick. Use of shock therapy on people with disabilities is not new. There is a long history of the use of shock therapy on people with… Read more →
