Coming out: disability awareness

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans has a disability, the nation’s largest minority.  Fewer than 15% are born with their disabilities; if you live long enough, you’re likely to acquire a disability. 

The U.S. has a long history of discrimination against persons with disabilities, keeping them out of public view via institutionalization.  As a result, most Americans may have learned about disabilities through popular media’s distorted images.  For example, disability portrayals feature younger persons more often than older adults, who actually represent the largest group of persons with disabilities.  Instead of perpetuating ableism and ageism, it’s time to learn from the experts—actual persons with disabilities!

Superfest: The Dissies

“Whether films take us somewhere far away outside or deep down inside, they involve an intimate dance between projection and reflection, a giant flickering mirror, not just back to us, but to the society and culture we live in.  They shape how we see ourselves individually and collectively, how others see us, and how we see others.  This is why movies matter, why they occupy a key intersection where entertainment, psychology, and social justice meet.” – Why the Dissies, by Catherine Kudlick, SFSU Professor of History and Director of Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability 

SFSU’s Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability  and SF LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired provided an empowering opportunity to critique disability portrayals in their joint presentation of Superfest International Disability Film Festival to a full house at the Women’s Building in the Mission District. This event was fully accessible beginning with the program brochure, which was prepared in both large print and Braille.  The program included ASL interpreter on stage with closed-captioning (for hearing challenged), audio description of video clips (for visually impaired), and ample space for wheelchairs/walkers/canes.

Culture! Disability!Talent! passed Superfest Torch to Bryan Bashin of SF Lighthouse for the Blind and Catherine Kudlick of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability. 

Superfest Committee member Emily Smith Beitiks (Longmore Institute) and Judge Todd Higgins (SFSU’s Disability Programs and Resource Center) mingled with guests, enjoying drinks + popcorn before show began.

Being volunteer usher was an awesome experience for a behind-the-scenes look at putting together a fully accessible event for persons of all abilities! “Bossy” Corbett O’Toole showed me the best seats for the hearing impaired to be close to ASL interpreter, center aisle for those in wheelchairs, back seats for guests with service dogs, etc.

This year’s Superfest featured The Dissies, a one-night retrospective of the “worst of the worst” film clips portraying cringe-inducing disability stereotypes in mainstream movies.  The audience, or experts, then voted by sound ("howl, heckle and hoot") and movement (“have a seizure”).  After a panel of three judges declared the winners, Vannas presented Tiny Tim statuettes to leaders from the disability community who took the stage to deliver fake acceptance speeches.

Master of Ceremonies Lawrence Carter-Long, founder of disTHIS! Film Series (and in his second week as a furloughed federal government employee at the National Council on Disability), watched 230 films to whittle down to 22 contestants.  Based on expert opinion, the winners were (drum roll . . .):  

Worst Portrayal of a Disability by a Non-disabled Actor awarded to Gene Hackman as a blind hermit in Young Frankenstein (1974) for cluelessly ladling soup on his guest's lap and then shattering a wine mug while toasting.  Hey, what happened to a blind person compensating with an acute sense of hearing?! asked Carter-Long. UC Berkeley English Professor Georgina Kleege accepted the award on behalf of Hackman for his representation with such effect that no one would want to come to a blind person’s home for soup.

So Sweet (that They’re Not) honor went to Shirley Temple in Heidi (1937) for urging Clara to walk without crutches “if only you try hard enough.”  This category was a tough call as contenders—other nominees were Mary of The Secret Garden (1987) and Pollyanna (1960)—featured almost indistinguishable "cute, little white girls" helping “pathetic” disabled. 

The Most Amazing Miracle award went to paralyzed Allan Mann of Monkey Shines (1988).  This was another close call with Forrest Gump (1994) for Run, Forrest, Run! scene when Forrest’s leg braces fall off as he sprints like an Olympic track and field athlete away from the bullies. Scientist Joshua Miele put on eyeglasses to get in character for his hilarious acceptance speech, noting that he was “drinking beer earlier and the fact that he didn’t miss his mouth one time was amazing. . . you people are so inspirational” and then thanking the “differently crippled, or whatever.”

The Most Tragic win was Million Dollar Baby (2004 Academy Award Best Picture) for its "better dead than disabled" scene of the former boxer, depressed over her sudden quadriplegic state, asking her coach (played by Clint Eastwood) to put her down like her family’s old dog instead of fighting to change her situation and environment.  Big audience applause when award acceptor Victor Pineda noted that the film’s protagonist would have been better off without Eastwood character.

Audio Eyes (mostly spoken by blind actor Rick Boggs) deserved honorable mention for audio description of video clips.  For example, after The Most Tragic nominee Al Pacino, who played a blind and retired Army officer, in Scent of a Woman (1992), attempts suicide saying, “I got no life! I’m in the dark here!” the sarcastic audio description says he “closes his useless eyes.” 

The Worst Disabled Villain:  Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove (1964) who has alien hand syndrome and uses a wheelchair

Crips Gone Wild! (And Ruining Everything):  Danny in Blind Dating (2006)

Hey, only we can laugh at that!: The Ringer (2005)

I enjoyed this view of the stage from the balcony, which was mostly standing-room. After the last laugh, there seemed to be a collective cathartic release from confronting tiresome tragic/heroic stereotypes of disability.  I’m looking forward to next year’s Superfest showcasing more diverse and complex representations of disability culture—as Carter-Long told us, “No handkerchief necessary, no heroism required.”

  

Mental health disabilities

At The Dissies, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987) was nominated for Worst Portrayal of a Disability by Nondisabled Person.  At the White House Conference on Mental Health this past June, the actress came out to apologize for her portrayal of the obsessive spurned lover who boiled the bunny to death.  Portrayals of persons with mental health disabilities as having suicidal and homicidal tendencies contribute to the stigma that silences those who need support toward recovery to regain control over their lives.

This October 31 marks the 50^th anniversary of the Community Mental Health Act, which helped de-institutionalize persons with mental disabilities back into the community.  Yet, the three largest mental health providers in the nation today are jails. 

Depression is a leading cause of disability.  Women, who tend to ruminate on sources of problems rather than solutions, are twice as prone to depression as men. Depression can cause cognitive impairment: executive function deficit, slower processing speed, psychomotor slowness, attention problems, and lower working and verbal memory.  Depression is emotional suffering, as opposed to apathy, which is loss of motivation that is typical in Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Depression actually declines with age, but is the most common emotional problem among older adults.  Yet many older adults are reluctant to talk about depression, seek psychological help, and tend to be noncompliant with medications.  At the SF Main Library, I attended gerontologist Hope Levy’s Brain Fitness class featuring guest speaker Charles Vella, who recommended SPEAK UP for self-care:

Schedule: sleep, eat

Pleasant activities: fun, people

Exercise

Avoid alcohol/drugs

Kind thoughts: challenge negative thinking

Unwind: relax

Practice assertiveness

In addition to self-care, Dr. Vella said that depression can be treated through medications, patient education, cognitive behavioral therapy, and relapse prevention.    

Dr. Vella also discussed suicide = permanent solution to temporary crisis:

·         Elderly make up 13% of U.S. population, but 16% of suicides

·         Most at risk for suicide are older white males; contributing factors are depression, chronic health problems, difficulty adjusting to life change, isolation

·         79% of all firearm suicides are white males age 85+ 

·         61% of gun deaths in America are suicides (50% of all U.S. households admit to having firearms, which is risk factor for completed suicide)

·         Firearms remain most common method of suicide: 46 Americans commit suicide with guns everyday.  Firearms are used in only 5% of suicide attempts, but almost always fatal.

·         Suicide completion rate for men is 4x higher than women

·         50% of completed suicides are done under influence of alcohol, which is a depressant

Suicide Prevention

SFSU hosted Suicide Prevention Regional Conference’s We All Matter: Creating a Community of Caring.  Keynote speaker was Kevin Hines, author of Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After a Suicide Attempt.  As a 19-year-old college student with a recent bipolar disorder diagnosis, he attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge.  As a survivor, he advocates for a suicide barrier and mental health wellness.

 

In the closing keynote, clinical psychologist Wei-Chien Lee shared her Reflections, or casual sayings that can make depressed persons feel worse – reminding us that “the symptoms of our people are the symptoms of our culture.”  For example, do people really care or mean what they say, “How are you? Let’s do lunch.”  How do predominant American cultural values like rugged individualism (pull yourself up by your own bootstraps) and the exaggerated pursuit of happiness (“don’t worry, be happy” at the expense of other emotions like “smile and the world smiles at you, cry and you cry alone”) affect our well-being?  She concluded her presentation with a sincere Small Actions Count (El Llanto), similar to random acts of kindness philosophy.

Active Mind’s Send Silence Packing is a traveling art exhibit of over 1,100 backpacks that represent the number of students who die by suicide each year. 

Much of the conference and accompanying exhibit focused on suicide prevention among younger adults, but I spotted this backpack about Grandmother.  In addition to stories on some backpacks, white poster boards carried messages like:

Stigma is shame, shame causes silence, silence hurts us all

We may often suffer in silence, but we do not suffer alone

Each suicide produces as many as 100 survivors or people left to grieve

By the way, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) eliminated the two-month bereavement exclusion so now people who grieve the loss of a loved one can be diagnosed with depression, making anti-depressants more readily available. 

Nihil de nobis, sine nobis (Nothing about us, without us)

As I reflect on disability awareness month, I think about having the cultural humility to meet people where they are, instead of imposing the medical model of disability.  For example, it’s disturbing that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) attempted to pathologize introversion in its DSM-5.  Instead, let people who are the experts in their own lives define their needs; respect the individual and provide a supportive environment.  In this social model, disability is a social construction:  the problem resides in the environment that fails to accommodate people with disabilities, and in the negative attitudes of people without disabilities.