Battling Stigmas

Hi everyone,

Listeners have recently been given a new project topic revolving around stigmas. At this time I'm unfortunately unable to commit to any of the teams here because I'm terribly busy in school, but I have been thinking of some interesting project ideas that perhaps others would like to join me on.

I think one of the main ways we can battle stigmas around disabilities is visibility. People with invisible illnesses are criticized because they look well when they are really dealing with so much. On the other hand those of us who use assistive devices, take medications, or physically look different are stigmatized in other ways.

As a historian looking at disability history, I've been really interested in the visualization of disability through time. I think it's fascinating that there have always been cultural assumptions surrounding the topic.

I was hoping that some people could get together to create an art project. I really like the idea of presenting something like "Our Hidden Lives: Disability Behind the Scenes". I think photography and photo editing combined with quotations or personal anecdotes could create a really powerful set of images. I would love to talk to others about the possibility of battling stigmas through an art project such as this.

You could take photos of the world through your eyes (just make sure things remain anonymous - no selfies please!) to show that we all see the world in a very similar light. Even though we deal with disabilities we have families, jobs, dreams, goals, and full lives.