My Covid Experience
Day 1. 9:40 a.m. All is calm. All is bright. Have coffee. Brian Eno’s, “Ambient 1/Music for Airports” in my head. Lots of love and support from folks. It’s all been and is being received. Please know that. Just, a lot of numbness. I should explain myself. … Day 0. 6:18 p.m. All was tenuous. …
Black English Vernacular is a Robust, Legitimate English Dialect.
Recently, I re-listened to an interview with writer/director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther) and writer Aaron Covington (Creed) on the Podcast, “Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period,” which is hosted by W. Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery. Across these four professional, creative, confident, compelling Black men, I heard a…
Service…not help. Support…not abuse.
Please note: I am choosing to use “identity first language” in the following post and not “person first language.” Over the past several years, I’ve served, worked with, and listened to hundreds of Autistic self advocates and have come to this decision. For further reading, I’ll direct you to an illuminating article, “Identity-First Language,” by…
It’s All About Relationship
My working title for this post was, “Embracing Inclusion, Culture, and Relationship: Relinquishing the Medical Model While Serving Neurodiverse Populations.” Which is just like me. Extra. (And notice, I still had to share it.) On a related note: American Sign Language (ASL) contains a sign pair describing the general communication styles of Deaf people…
What is inclusion if it’s not inclusive?
Recently, I was invited to lead an inclusion discussion with young people through the Pittsburgh Chapter of The Friendship Circle. (www.fcpgh.org) “The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh was established in 2006 with the intention of creating a more inclusive community. Our programs engage youth and adults with diverse abilities in a full range of social activities;…
Hey Yinz Guys
I’m from Pittsburgh. Some say, “Picksburgh.” Western Pennsylvania is cursed…nay, blessed with a unique dialect known here as, “Pittsburghese” but in academic circles as Western Pennsylvania English (WPE). Many university-educated natives, implanted academics, and the burgeoning nouveau hipster class look down upon it, and those who use WPE unabashedly are largely derided as jagoffs and yinzers. The…
You Cannot Fix What Is Not Broken
I’m a Speech and Language Therapist. Once, when I was still an undergraduate student and in Japan with Semester at Sea, a gentleman on a train asked me what I intended to do for a profession. “Speech and Language Pathologist.” He puzzled over that final word. “Pah…thaw…loh…gist,” and he pulled out a dictionary. (This story…
Mac Book Air and a cup of Coffee
Chocolate biscuit soufflé tart gummies marshmallow ice cream. Gummies sesame snaps oat cake sugar plum pie dessert brownie ice cream. Candy canes pie jujubes sweet roll cupcake gummies pastry. Fruitcake marshmallow sesame snaps dessert tootsie roll gummies tiramisu soufflé. Pudding croissant jelly sweet tiramisu pastry cookie jelly. Toffee ice cream toffee tiramisu. Apple pie cheesecake…
Old wooden wall and green bicycle
Fruitcake marzipan topping tootsie roll cheesecake jelly-o topping. Fruitcake brownie muffin soufflé chocolate cake jelly-o chocolate cake cheesecake. Bear claw bear claw pie liquorice jelly beans tart. Tart candy pastry chocolate bar sweet. Topping unerdwear.com tootsie roll gingerbread chocolate danish cupcake. Halvah macaroon candy canes jelly-o halvah. Dragée marshmallow fruitcake powder lemon drops. Jujubes liquorice…
A boy leaning on the Wall
Wafer croissant sweet marzipan. Sesame snaps sweet gingerbread pie jelly tiramisu oat cake. Biscuit caramels fruitcake chupa chups. Pie ice cream marzipan danish bonbon jelly chocolate cake applicake. Ice cream ice cream muffin cookie apple pie biscuit toffee applicake. Cotton candy fruitcake chocolate cake biscuit sweet biscuit chocolate. Lemon drops cupcake pie tiramisu. Toffee caramels…