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Visibility



I’m getting a late start today. If I take the time to fully flesh out any of the ideas I have, I will miss the golden hour when people tend to read. And that means you won’t see it. 

It’s a quandary. 

On my mind this morning: 

Disability Rights Activitst and Author Alice Wong Dies at 51, Chloe Veltman, NPR

My knowledge of Ms.Wong is solely from Twitter. I somehow got disconnected in my move to Bluesky. She’s not someone I would have met in real life nor come in contact with on Facebook unless I had known to look for her. 

And that’s a loss. Her life was all about creating and supporting visibility for the disabled. She won a MacArthur grant in October of 2024 in recognition of her work, especially for The Disability Visibility Project. 

Increasing the political and cultural visibility of people with disabilities and catalyzing broader understandings of disability.

Please take a moment to read the NPR piece if you can.

Yesterday County Executive Calvin Ball announced the creation of  the Howard County Disability Hiring Initiative.



We have now launched the new Howard County Disability Hiring Initiative. This impactful program is expanding our commitment to inclusive employment. By creating supportive, accessible career pathways, we’re empowering residents with disabilities to find employment in County government. To learn more, email jobs@howardcountymd.gov.

There are many ways that people with disabilities are not visible to us. I’m going to be writing more about this. (If I forget, nudge me.) For today, it’s good to understand that one way to combat that invisibility is removing obstacles to participation in the workplace.

Disabled people have always existed, whether the word disability is used or not. To me, disability is not a monolith, nor is it a clear-cut binary of disabled and nondisabled. Disability is mutable and ever-evolving. Disability is both apparent and nonapparent. Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance, and joy. Disability is sociopolitical, cultural, and biological. Being visible and claiming a disabled identity brings risks as much as it brings pride.

― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century


Thoughts? Let me know.


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