When You’re Your Family’s Shame
When I was nine years old I had to apologize to my family for being disabled. I’ve always been my family’s secret shame.
Dom Evans (They/He) is the leading expert in disability representation in media. Since 2018, they have been one of two researchers for the FilmDis Annual Study on Disability Representation on TV. They have a BFA in Film Production and are currently working on multiple TV series ideas. When not crafting their own ideas, Dom consults on disability and 2SLGBTQIA representation in film.
When I was nine years old I had to apologize to my family for being disabled. I’ve always been my family’s secret shame.
There was this girl in elementary school that bullied the crap out of me. She bullied a huge amount of people, but I felt like I was one of her main targets. I hated this girl from like fourth grade through sixth grade because of the way she treated me….
Bucket lists are fun to make. They are fun to dream about. There are things that you dream of doing one day. Some of them are realistic. Some of them are magical. But at the end of the day, it’s all about listing what you dream of doing before you…
Disabled people are the world’s largest marginalized group, and yet often some of the most excluded people in the world. Imagine your most basic needs as a human. Water. Shelter. Access to go to the bathroom in a safe and sanitary environment. These should be a given for everyone. Everybody…
While therapy can be helpful for some, for others it can be hard to find therapists that are safe to work with.
As we have seen in many other individualized disabled communities, parents of kids with SMA tend to have little understanding of the lives that adults with SMA lead. For years, those of us with SMA have had to listen to parents of kids with SMA attempting to educate us about…
The MDA telethon needs to be ended for good for the benefit of all of us with neuromuscular disabilities.
People say words don’t hurt, but some words can do a lot of damage.
I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I was diagnosed some years ago. I knew for years before that that I probably had OCD, but getting diagnosed validated that. One thing I struggle with is repeating. I thought it was because of my OCD, but I’ve never had that clarified for…
Disability organizations that exploit and appropriate the work of multiply marginalized disabled people need to be held accountable.