denial

anger

bargaining

depression

acceptance

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hi! my name is cassie, i’m deaf, and my full-time job primarily involves working in disability access. i’m here with an important message about image and audio descriptions:

when you’re describing things for disabled people, you should not include your personal opinion on the thing you’re describing. even if it’s positive! you shouldn’t describe things as “a beautiful painting”, “a gorgeous photo”, “a wonderful song”, etc. i mean, if you’re sighted, think about how annoying it would be if every. single. picture you saw online was captioned with “this is beautiful and you like this” or “this is ugly and you hate it”, with the expectation that you have to agree with whatever the caption says and your own opinion doesn’t matter. it would be super annoying, right!

not to mention, i’ve seen people do this on pictures of real people, which can get weird—especially if they’re in a marginalized group you’re not in, in which case it can start to feel very fetishizing. 

so, to recap:

good descriptions: “a realistically-rendered oil painting of a tree”, “a selfie of a person with short blue hair”, “a pencil sketch of taako”

bad descriptions: “a gorgeously realistic oil painting of a tree”, “a selfie of an adorable person with short blue hair”, “a fantastic pencil sketch of taako”

Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian, professor, and social activist. Zinn grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class, immigrant household. His life’s work focused on a wide range of issues including race, class, war, and history, and touched the lives of countless people. He wrote the influential A People’s History of the United States, and his memoir You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. From 1956 to 1963, he taught at Spelman College where he became active in the Civil Rights Movement and was eventually fired because of his involvement in the black freedom movement. 

“Feminism/womanism never seemed odd to Howard Zinn, who encouraged his Spelman students, all of them women, to name and challenge oppression of any sort.

I was Howard’s student for only a semester, but in fact, I have learned from him all my life. His way with resistance—-steady, persistent, impersonal, often with humor—-is a teaching I cherish.” - Alice Walker