http://www.disabilityhistory.org/women

Acknowledgements

Introductory Essay

Sexuality:

• Introduction
• Web References and Links
• Print Resources
• Phone lines and Organizational Support

Health:

• Introduction
• Web References and Links
• Print Resources
• Phone lines and Organizational Support

Ending Violence

• Introduction
• Web References and Links
• Print Resources
• Phone Lines and Organizational Support

Other Reading we suggest you do

A Beginners Guide to Searching the Internet

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Virtual Organizers: Tanis Doe, Corbett O'Toole with Alison Kafer,
As an introduction to this resource guide, we are pleased to present an article written by Alison Kafer. She is a student at Claremont Graduate University in California who could not attend the Claiming Our Bodies Conference but who helped research, write and edit the resource guide. She presented her article originally at the South Connecticut State University Conference on the topic of Women and Girls with Disabilities. Last years women's conference in Oakland, Changing Borders looked specifically at mentoring and peer support. It focused on networking, recognizing where we could help each other and learning from other women with disabilities. When Alison presented her excellent paper at the South Connecticut event we knew she would provide us with the introduction to this Resource Guide. Although we have edited her article slightly (for length) and have added the voice of "we" instead of only "I" where appropriate, we want her to get full credit for this insightful article. It is a perfect introduction to an event which looks at CLAIMING OUR BODIES.

We chose this paper as the Introduction because Alison bravely (not in the patronizing sense of the word) goes where few others have gone before. She sets out to argue that living our lives, as women with disabilities, in our bodies, are ways of resisting the powers that would make us feel inferior. Although Alison presented this paper at a conference about women with disabilities, she did so without having had the benefit of significant mentoring. Her analysis and the level of her understanding are very impressive for someone new to both the movement of women with disabilities and new to disability herself. We think there are hundreds more Alisons out there, who are meeting their own challenges and succeeding in claiming their bodies. We encourage women who are already active in the equality seeking movements of people with disabilities, Deaf people, women, lesbians and bisexuals, and labor and peace activists to seek out and mentor women who are entering the movements as young, or old, women with disabilities. We want to see a continuation of last year's theme of learning from each other. We have learned a great deal from Alison and hope you can too.

RESISTANT BODIES: Disability as Sites of Resistance (Alison Kafer,1998)

ALISON: Strategies of resistance have been an integral part of feminist theory for a long time. Although such strategies have been configured differently according to the kinds of struggles present at a given time, they have consistently been waged at the site of the body.
Feminist theorists have located resistance in the body in order to challenge injustices at the particular points where they are shown. Since many economic and familiar discourses portray the female body as property owned by men, and legal, medical, and governmental discourses pathologize it as something to be controlled, feminist theorists continue to suggest that the female body itself functions as a potential site of resistance.

TANIS: Because the bodies of women have been subject to violence at the hands of authorities, family members and partners it is particularly important that we take back our bodies and claim them as sites as resistance. It is equally important that we do not allow our differences, physical or mental, to be continually used as rationale for this violence or as rationalization for dismissing our claims of abuse. Having the opportunity to be healthy, and to have control over our reproductive health, as disabled women, is also an important way we defy the medical pathologizing and define our bodies as natural. In this way, our own actions as women with disabilities, and in particular our sexual acts, reconstruct who we are as women in ways that allow us to resist negative forces, and claim our bodies.

ALISON: In recent years feminist theorist like Jana Sawicki, bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Margrit Shidrick suggest that the experiences of marginalized groups, such as women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered peoples, people with physical and mental disabilities, the poor and people of color comprise alternative discourses that challenge the hegemony of dominant ones. Our "subjugated knowledges" or "reverse discourses" operate as forms of resistance because they
positively prove the existence of people, bodies and experiences not found within the histories and narratives created by dominant groups in society. Our lives challenge the naturalness and rightness of the dominant discourses and categories such as race, gender, sex and disability. Resistance, then, can be understood as a contestation of the ways in which discursive practices classify and identify bodies and as a rejection of the dominant interpretation of our bodies. To posit reverse discourses based on these experiences and knowledges is an exercise of power that can result in a profound shift in the way many people regard themselves and their place in society.

TANIS: Deaf people (that's D capitalized on purpose) have done this for many years by identifying their cultural Deafness as a positive trait, one that results in benefits for members. More recently Disabled people are starting to claim Disability as a characteristic that embodies pride and culture, and not shame or disadvantage. As the Disability and Deaf arts grow, we see more evidence of self-expression coming from people who may been seen by the dominant discourses as in need of fixing, broken, less than whole, but who self-identify, and who experience, a positive feeling of pride and belonging. Whether conscious or not, this is a bold political act.


ALISON: Based on the concept of discursive resistance, I suggest that the bodies of women with disabilities serve as sites of resistance to the dominant discourses on the body. Although many women with disabilities participate in disability-related activism, I am primarily concerned with the possibility of a resistance based in the disabled body itself (rather than our activism around access and rights). Expanding on theories established by writers like Judith Butler and Susan Wendell, I argue that bodies with disabilities (singular or plural) offer radical challenges to notions of what bodies are. Our existence as, and in, bodies with disabilities, contests the naturalness of cultural notions of health, normality, control and independence. We embody the possibility of alternative conceptualizations of these categories, as well as alternative ways of understanding bodily identity and value. While my intent is not to romanticize the experience of physical illness and disability, I do believe that they are an effective resource for struggles against patriarchal hegemony.


TANIS: Our event, Claiming Our Bodies, is a gathering of women with diverse bodies, and minds. Our disabilities may be invisible yet profoundly affect the way we interact with our environments. For us, our bodies are not just the physical skin and tissues but the mental capacities, emotional abilities and cognitive actions that our bodies experience daily. Our coming together is another way we struggle against definitions that seek to divide us by categories of disability/ability.

Our claiming of sexuality, health and our struggle to end violence marks our reconceptualization. We are not denying the body - which includes some pain and suffering whether due to violence, emotional trauma, discrimination or disability - but we are remaking our bodies and claiming them as true, as right, and as our own.

ALISON: One of the most pervasive understandings of the body is that it is something that can and should be controlled. In this construction, the body's needs and processes, such as hunger, illness, pain and aging are experiences to be transcended, ignored or prevented altogether. This belief is evident in our cultural obsession with diet and exercise programs, alternative medicines and self-help books. Such practices stem from our belief that illness or disability can be prevented or eliminated if one only tries hard enough. Leaving those who experience disability or chronic illness with a subtle and not so subtle societal guilt of having not done all that was possible. This blame is laid in ways which reinforce the myth that disability is something that can be controlled if one has the right, positive attitude and determination. (and the right resources, which is why telethons are so important to people like Christopher Reeves).

Although we do have control over certain aspects of our bodies, the widespread belief that we can ultimately control our health is misguided. Susan Wendell calls this idea the myth of control describing it as "the belief that it is possible, by means of human actions to have the bodies we want and to prevent illness, disability and death." Due to the pervasiveness of the myth of control, people with physical illnesses and disabilities are frequently criticized and marginalized because of our inability to adhere to its requirements - and in fact, it is also the reason for rehabilitation, medicine and all healing arts as professions.

Wendell asserts the most powerful symbolic meaning of disability is the failure to control one's own body. From the spasticity of MS to the need for a respirator to my phantom pains, our experiences reveal that the disabled body is very rarely a perfectly controlled body. More importantly however, they point to the impossibility that "any" body is a controlled body, regardless of disability. From aging to the flu, to acquired disability, non-disabled people are also susceptible to a loss of control. People with disabilities are frightening to able-bodied society because our lack of control is made visible across our flesh, reminding the able-bodied that they too, are susceptible to such chaos.

TANIS: Alison chose to use the word able-bodied, even though we know there are people with disabilities who do have "able bodies" but who have specific learning disabilities, hidden health impairments or mental health related issues. One of the issues we face is the very "invisibility" of disability which is presumed to need to be visible in order to be real. Her example of lack of control being made visible across our flesh could have easily and as accurately been, "lack of control being made invisible by our inability to read or made visible by the power of our emotions." Just as women with physical disabilities are also susceptible to invisible disabilities, women with hidden disabilities often have to fight to convince others of their issues or fight to convince them that the issue is not the problem- that some structural barrier is. As women with purple hair, or no hair, women with tattoos or body piercings, women who are fat or are very tall, we live in ways which visibly and invisibly question what can or should be controlled.

ALISON: The fear of the uncontrolled body (and mind) connects to the cultural devaluation of dependence and overvaluation of independence - at least in North American Anglo-Saxon society. With the protestant ethic of work and struggle, independence is seen as a prerequisite to success, while dependence on others is characterized as weak, dysfunctional and inappropriate. This viewpoint is evident in the protestant saying that "God helps those who help themselves." This is differently spelled out in Catholic beliefs about putting faith in God and in the power of the family to support one another. Workplaces and social service systems select which value base to use and it seems that people who "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" are valued more than those who depend on extended family or the Church to help them. Our capitalist economy and neo-liberal ideology buttress our feelings of independence by masking the diverse sources of labor behind our products. We see ourselves as independent, even as we depend on workers and products from across the globe. Children of wealthy upper class families are seen as independent as they graduate from high schools, to attend universities supported by their parents, even though throughout childhood they were raised and cared for by staff from Latin American or Caribbean countries.

The notion of absolute independence, however, is fictitious. Debra Connors writes, "independence does not truly reflect anyone's reality. As a species we are emphatically interdependent. Disabled people cannot be independent, not because we are pitiable or helpless but because we are human." One of the reasons that people with disabilities are stigmatized is that we belie the notion of a purely independent existence. We make visible the fact that independence is a relative concept that we are all dependent on other people at various points in our lives.

TANIS: Alison is speaking of the physical independence - freedom from help - that many non-disabled people see as the goal of rehabilitation. She is not necessarily referring to the independent living philosophy of self-direction, yet the adage applies here too. No one can have total and complete control over all their experiences, whether that is of personal support, interpreting, technology, housing or family life. This is important to remember as we advocate for independent living and for our rights, that we should no more seek to be "truly independent" than we should seek to be less than fully human. Being dependent for some things, or needing assistance for any specific thing, should not be seen as a weakness neither should it be avoided at all costs.

ALISON: Ultimately, the most important myth that people with disabilities disrupt is the one of ability. From celebrity telethons to freak shows, North American Anglo Saxon culture has pushed disability to the margins of society. It became something that occurred only in morality plays, carnivals and institutions. Not all countries treat disability or people with disabilities in this way, but it is very common to fear disability in infants and to mourn the loss of an expected child if it is born with a disability. Although approximately forty-nine million Americans have some form of disability, our "man made" laws and architecture have created people with disabilities into unseen people in society (Thomson quote). Blindness and crippledness are seen not as experiences that happen to real people, but as metaphors for stupidity, spiritual poverty, and poor judgement. What these perceptions allow our culture to do is distance itself from disability, to see illness and disablement as something Other, foreign or alien.

TANIS: Alison writes from the perspective of "white America" and has read from many authors about the construction of disability from an Anglo perspective. While some of these same constructions exist in other cultures and among people of color, Indigenous peoples have sometimes disavowed these beliefs by welcoming difference and honoring people with disabilities, particularly aging elders, as an important part of the community. De-emphasis of the individual and recentering of the collectivity has changed what disability means in some groups. However, even in new age so-called egalitarian religious and belief communities, there are specific pressures to be cured, to be whole, to heal-thyself, and if not, well you have failed. Some women with chronic illnesses have found even alternative medicines to be oppressive as they see the metaphor of emotional weakness and physical pain to be real and pervasive. While encouraging women to take control over their lives and in effect to claim their bodies, we do not wish to reinforce the belief that total control is possible, feasible or even desirable.

ALISON: In reality, disability happens not only to the "others" but in both the margins and at the center. Whether by age or accident, many people currently living without disabilities will one day be living with them. The existence of non-disabled people is not absolute. Speaking to the erroneousness of the myth of ability, Susan Sontag asserts that

'illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer (in the original) to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place."

And some of us have become visible citizens of that other place, using our bodies as our passports. People with disabilities are frightening to the non-disabled because our citizenship is made clear: in and with our bodies, we testify to both the existence and proximity of that Otherland.


TANIS: Most of the non-disabled people who are afraid of the Otherland, or the nightside, haven't been there much. Those most afraid include doctors, parents and close friends of people who have visited. Meecha Corbett, a young girl with a disability recognized that some of the "walking people" need support because they are not "members" of our Otherland. My own daughter feels hearing people should get sign language therapy instead of deaf people getting speech therapy. We resist the definition that Otherlandishness is necessarily less preferable. There are members of both lands, or holders of dual citizenship who enter and leave unafraid of the night time. Interpreters, hearing children of Deaf parents, attendants, people in love with people who have disabilities, and even some so called "professionals" have less trepidation about moving between the dark and the light. For those of us who live (and breath) Disability Culture or Deaf Culture, the "nightside" can actually be FUN! Some of us like the Otherland, but it is the dominant perception that this Otherland is less desirable and therefore to be avoided. Our children with disabilities are learning that their lives have value, and that they have something to offer to those not experienced in our ways of being, orientation to Otherland.

ALISON: Thus one of the most effective ways of challenging the representation of the disabled body as the Other is to locate ourselves within it, to make it the location of the Self. The work of authors like Nancy Mairs exemplifies this process of location. In writing about disability as an integral aspect of her life, by claiming it as part of herself, she resists the conception of disability as something to be hidden, ignored, and stigmatized. Mairs consistently and passionately asserts that she is who she is because of her MS In Waist High In the World, Mairs writes:

"Just as demyelinated lesions have spread throughout my central nervous system, their consequences have pervaded every region of my existence. MS is as much the essence of my "I" as my father's death, and my mother's remarriage, my Yankee girlhood, my conversion to Roman Catholicism, my doctorate in English literature. (MS) cannot be stripped away without mutilating the being who bears it."
Instead of struggling to overcome or transcend her disability, she directly and bluntly claims its place in her life. And in so doing, she discovers a strength, a means of resisting the pitying glances she faces: "I am a cripple, I choose this word to name me, people - crippled or not - wince at the word 'cripple' as they do not at 'handicapped' or 'disabled'. Perhaps I want them to wince, I want them to see me as a tough customer. As I cripple, I swagger."
Mairs adamantly and passionately refuses to accept the common representation of disability as devalued Other. She admits the vulnerabilities, the "troubles" of her ill and disabled body with unwavering honesty and introspection. In the process she disrupts many accepted discourses on disability and the body. Challenging the negative stereotypes of disability does not always succeed in destabilizing the categories of ability, health, illness and disability. As we know, the disabled body is widely regarded as inferior, asexual, frightening and pathetic. Revealing the ways in which those perceptions, indeed the very categories of ability and disability, are culturally constructed does not always shatter those assumptions.

Though many non-disabled people continue to read the disabled body as a text of broken-ness, pity and despair, I maintain my belief that physical illness (and mental illness) and disability can operate as sites of resistance to the dominant understanding of the body. I believe that while examples of people who resist dominant definitions have experiences which are always subject to reinterpretation, we do have the potential for resistance. My adamance on this point is due to my own experience as a woman with visible disabilities.

Every single time I leave my house, people stare at me. Their eyes linger on my chair, my stumps, my scars. As their eyes take a mental inventory of my missing parts, they seem to be looking for some clue as to what happened to me. Children are usually more honest in their curiosity, following me around as if I was a macabre pied piper, asking me where my legs are and why I don't have feet. Once in a department store, a young girl saw me, screamed in utter terror, and hid behind her mother's legs until I wheeled past. Although these kinds of reactions can be painful, I have recently begun seeing them more positively, by locating within them the proof of my potential resistance. The shock on people's faces suggests that the appearance and functions of my body radically challenge their understandings of corporeality. If I can find a way to utilize that shock to my advantage, I can potentially effect a change in their most fundamental notions of body, ability and identity.

Once again, however, I want to acknowledge the possibility that resistance of the disabled body can be countered or ignored, this is true because we lack the power to enforce our resistance. Although an increase in the number of people with disabilities actively participating in the public sphere (or the Internet perhaps) may effect some changes in the cultural conception of disability, sheer volume alone may not be enough to subvert dominant conception about what we are.

The mere presence of a blind restaurant diner, a wheelchair-using student or a deaf office worker fails to contest the popular conception that disability is a fate worse than death. I do not think that simply increasing the number of disabled people in those locations will alter that pervasive misperception.

This difficulty is due in part to the risks involved in reifying certain physical activities. I do not want to substitute the dominant paradigm with an equally exclusive one in which the only people with disabilities who are valued are those who are interested in and able to participate in physically or artistically demanding activities. Not only the athletes, dancers, artists, comediennes or performers should be valued. What is needed is an environment conducive to dialogue. What is required is a space in which conversations about disability are not shunned as inappropriate or threatening but as a means to greater understanding.

Simply, it becomes much more difficult to position someone as the Other if in conversation, she continues to position herself, as the Self. I am not suggesting that all of the difficulties of living with disability will disappear if we enter into dialogue with the non-disabled. Conversations are always subject to reinterpretation and subversion; not everyone experiences the same dialogue in the same way. What may shatter one person's assumptions may simply bolster another's. Moreover, not all people with disabilities are interested in engaging in mainstream culture (whatever we, as women on the margins, decide mainstream is). Certain segments of the Deaf community, for example, are highly self-sufficient, and have little contact with many aspects of hearing culture as a whole. They may feel no need to engage in dialogue with a culture that systemically ignores or discriminates against them.

TANIS: And still within the larger Deaf world there are people who are bicultural, with dual citizenship in both hearing and Deaf communities, and others who do not want identity or citizenship in the Deaf world but who prefer the hearing world. There are also late deafened adults who grew up in one world and immigrated, at least partially to another, and there are hard of hearing people, who much like some bisexuals, fit into neither category well. People are often telling them to choose - between being hearing or Deaf as if hard of hearing is not an acceptable identity. For women of color, lesbians, for mixed race women and for women with disabilities who have strong religious identities, there is also an expectation that you must select ONE identity, and that this must be presented consistently to the world to remain valid.

This is true too of women with cyclical disabilities who are told to either be OUT about their disabilities all the time, or stop claiming to be disabled some of the time - as if it is not possible to move in and out with fluidity that is bound by context. It is these issues which make disability and living with it "a problem". For some of us, when we get tired of talking about, convincing people, or proving our identities, being around women who share common values, experiences and disabilities is very relaxing. It is rewarding to be able to talk about incontinence ( or to not talk about it) and to not worry about the reaction of others. We all, at some point, have to educate and create more awareness among the not yet disabled population to get our needs met, but it is so nice to be among women who don't question our identities.

ALISON: I focus on inter-ability dialogue because it is the most relevant to my argument. In order to subvert the dominant conception of people with disabilities as Other we are going to have to effect a shift in the consciousness of people in the mainstream. In other words, in order to alleviate the marginalization of disability, we are going to need to influence and dialogue with the people who see us as marginal, who virtually, make us so.

TANIS: It is when we come together as women with disabilities that we feel safest to be ourselves. It is when I am no the only user of a wheelchair, not the only signer or inhaler/medication user that I feel most positive about my disability. It is when my struggle is not about access or about acceptance but about a substantive point of argument . We may still be marginal to some, but when we gather together we are the center, the center is us, and we have strength to collectively begin our discourses. Claiming Our Bodies, like last year's Changing Borders, is a starting place for this dialogue.

ALISON: I do not mean to depict life with a disability as unambiguously easy acceptable or clear. It is consistently relentlessly and thoroughly a complicated life, one in which questions of value, worth, and normalcy are always being reframed, postponed or ignored. Acquired disability is undoubtedly a loss of sorts (even in its framing as acquisition). Not only a loss of ability but also of anonymity, freedom of movement, and simplicity - even, control. But it is also a gain, many gains, more than can be accounted for and more than I have even yet discovered. And those gains are the things that can become evident in an environment of dialogue.

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http://sexuality.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa091597.htm (Found on the internet)

Duffy, Yvonne. All Things Are Possible. A. J. Garvin, 1981.

Fine, M. , &, Asch, A. (1988). Women with Disabilities: Essays in psychology, culture, and politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

http://www.sexualhealth.com
Sexual Health Network homepage; features a link to chatrooms; discusses sex education, provides information, and discusses therapeutic options.

http://www.realtime.net/austinrapecrisis/HTML/psac-lst.htm
a resource list of newsletters, books, and projects about sex, health, and violence.

http://www.stdservices.on.net/std/social_aspectsd/disability.htm
provides information on sexuality and intellectual disability; originates from Dept. of Human Resources, South Australia.

http://www.powernet.net/~nnasg/book.htm
basically an advertisement for Georgie Maxfields book The Novel Approach to Sexuality and Disability.

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7319/sex.htm
Disability Cool/Sexuality R Us site, features article by Fran Odette: Body Beautiful/Body Perfect: Challenging the Status Quo.

http://members.expresshost.com/lgconnor/cripkink
site on Kink and Disability for people into leather, kink, and play; has a gateway page leading to *sexually explicit* behavior; features Lady Tigers personal experiences with the option of adding your own (Lady Tiger is a lesbian into domination).

http://www.disabilitynet.co.uk/info/sexpersonal/index.html
originates in the UK; features links to some local organizations, but has not been updated recently; provides opportunity to find a pen pal; features link to ICAD.

http://www.ability.ns.ca/v6n1/v6n1p9.html
features essay by Victoria Garner called Equality in the Bedroom: If You Could See with my Eyes; Garner is a 30ish woman who became blind due to diabetes; she tells her own story in this page; this site is part of the AbilityNetwork.

http://thearc.org/faqs/sexlove.html
features a book review of Couples with Intellectual Disabilities Talk About Living and Loving

http://tps.stdorg.wisc.edu/MGLRC/Groups/DykesDisabilitiesStuff.html
home page of the Dykes, Disabilities, and Stuff newsletter; DD&S originates in Madison,Wisconsin; this page does not include excerpts, only information aboutsubscribing to DD&S

www.gimpgirl.com
GimpGirl On-line - For young women and girls with disabilities, gay and straight. Includes articles on current issues, crip culture, and email discussion lists.

http://members.tripod.com/~Barbara_Robertson/Women.html
These are social, academic, activist, and just-for-fun on-line resources on women and disability, collected by Barbara Robertson.

http://www.igc.org/pwd/women.htm
From the Institute on Global Communications(IGC) web page - resources for women with disabilities.

http://www.bpacal.com
Berkeley Planning Associates develops publications on issues important to women with disabilities, including caregiver abuse and domestic violence; barriers to alcohol and drug services; including girls with disabilities in youth programs; and reproductive issues for women with disabilities. Check their web site for ordering information.

http://www.wvp.org
Disability Media Project and Wide Vision Productions: information on joining the Cal-Wild Email list for women with disabilities and their allies.

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HEALTH

Printed Resources

Boston Womens Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century: A Book by and for Women. Touchstone, 1998.

Carlson, Karen J., Stephanie A. Eisenstat, and Terra Ziporyn. The Harvard Guide to Womens Health. Harvard University Press, 1996.

Slupik, Ramona I. and Kathleen Cahill Allison. The American Medical Association Complete Guide to Womens Health. Random House, 1996.

White, Evelyn C. The Black Womens Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves. Seal Press, 1994.

Lynch, Lee and Akia Woods. Off The Rag: Lesbians Writing on Menopause. New Victoria, 1996.

Stern, Phyllis Noerager. Lesbian Health: What Are the Issues? Taylor and Francis, 1993.

White, Jocelyn C. and Marissa C. Martinez. The Lesbian Health Book: Caring for Ourselves. Seal Press, 1997.

Wilton, Tamsin. Good for You: A Handbook on Lesbian Health and Well-Being Cassell, 1997.

(Coming in Spring 1999: Lesbian Health from National Academy Press)

Guralnik, Jack M., Linda P. Fried, and Eleanor M. Simonsick. The Womens Health and Aging Study: Health and Social Characteristics of Older Women with Disability. DIANE, 1996.

Haseltine, Florence P. Reproductive Issues for People with Disabilities. Paul H. Brooke, 1993.

Krotoski, Danuta M., Margaret A. Nosek, and Margaret A. Turk. Women with Physical Disabilities: Achieving and Maintaining Health and Well-Being. Paul H. Brooke, 1996.

Rogers, Judi and Molleen Matsumura. Mother To Be: A Guide to Pregnancy and Birth for Women with Disabilities. Demos Vermande, 1992.

Internet Resources

http://www.disserv.stu.umn.edu/disability/General_Medicine_and_Health/index.html links to variety of health sites.

http://www.insb.edu/~pkelley/HomePage.html
Peggy Kelleys home page for her Honors project on home health care; opportunities to participate in her surveys and relate personal experiences; links to other health related sites.

National Consortium of Breast Centers, Inc.
P.O. Box 1334, Warsaw, IN 46581-1334
Voice 219.267.8058 Fax 219.267.8268
wiggins@breastcare.org
http://www.breastcare.org

For information about cancer treatment, screening, prevention, supportive care, or clinical trials, please refer to the Cancer Resources page. Listed below are several categories of Frequently Asked Questions about cancer.

If you cannot find the cancer information you need from the Cancer Resources page and the Frequently Asked Questions, please submit your questions through our Cancer Questions form.

or send an e-mail to info@cdcnp in.org

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ENDINGVIOLENCE
Ending VIOLENCE

Printed Resources
Berry, Dawn Bradley. The Domestic Violence Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know. Lowell House, 1998.

Answering Questions About Domestic Violence:

The Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence

1-888-Rx-ABUSE (Toll Free Call)

A network sustained by and about member subscribers working together for everyone everywhere

REFERRAL NOTE: if you need free and immediate assistance, call 1-800-799-SAFE (National Domestic Violence Hotline) or 1-800-656-HOPE (for RAINN - Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.)

P.O. Box 18749
Denver, CO 80218
Phone: 303-839-1852
Fax: 303-831-9251

Web address: http://www.ncadv.org

VIOLENCE WEBSITES:

"Stop the Aggression" a domestic abuse intervention website; provides information on hotlines to call and includes statistical info on abuse


"Abuse, Counseling, and Treatment, Inc." - a non-profit organization's webpage; provides information on formulating a safety plan and gives background info on domestic abuse


a directory of over 20 websites about domestic violence and battery;
provides links to shelters, resource centers, and personal webpages of
other survivors

www.people.delphi.com/mickjyoung/abuse.html
"Mickey's abuse resources page" has stats, resource centers, contact information, and blurbs on specific kinds of abuse like elder abuse and child abuse

this page can link you onto the domestic violence webring, which has 75 sites - most of which are personal pages of survivors, but there are also a few links to state resource centers

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7319/wom-bar.htm
part of Disability Cool site; features essay entitled Barriers to Accessing Services by Victims of Violence.

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7319/wom-coun.htm
part of Disability Cool site; features essay Linking the Issues for Survivors of Sexual Violence with Disabilities.

http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/ICAD/icad.html
home page of International Coalition on Abuse and Disability; features way to join ICAD listserv;gives testimonies from Canadian Senate hearings on violence; ICAD focuses primarily on abuse of people with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness.

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 Readings about Women and Disability that we suggest (they can transform your lives!)

WOMEN AND DISABILITY CLASSICS (pre-1995)

Browne, Susan E., Debra Connors, and Nanci Stern, eds. With the Power of Each Breath: A Disabled Womens Anthology. Cleis, 1985.

Deegan, Mary Jo and Nancy A. Brooks. Women and Disability: The Double Handicap.Transaction, 1985.

Driedger, Diane and Susan G. Dueck. Imprinting Our Image: An International Anthology by Women with Disabilities. Gynergy/Ragweed, 1992.

Fine, Michelle and Adrienne Asch. Women with Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics. Temple University Press, 1988.

Lonsdale, Susan. Women and Disability: The Experience of Physical Disability Among Women.St. Martins, 1990.

Matthews, Gwyneth. Voices From the Shadows: Women with Disabilities Speak Out. DownThere Press, 1984.

Rousso, Harilyn. Disabled, Female, and Proud! Stories of Ten Women with Disabilities. (out of print)

Saxton, Marsha, ed. With Wings: An Anthology of Literature by and about Women with Disabilities. Feminist Press, 1993.

NEW RELEASES

Abu-Habib, Lina. Gender and Disability: Womens Experiences in the Middle East. Oxfam, 1997.

Corker, Mairian. Deaf and Disabled, or Deafness Disabled? Towards a Human Rights Perspective. Taylor and Francis, 1997.

Davis, Lennard J. The Disability Studies Reader. Routledge, 1997.

Driedger, Diane, Irene Feika, and Eileen Giron Batres. Across Borders: Women with Disabilities Working Together. Gynergy/Ragweed, 1996.

Froschl, Merle, ed. Bridging the Gap: A National Directory of Services for Women and Girls with Disabilities. Educational Equity, 1998.

Ingstad, Benedicte and Susan Reynolds White. Disability and Culture. University of California Press, 1995.

Jacobson, Denise Sherer. The Question of David: A Disabled Mothers Journey Through Adoption, Family, and Life. Creative Arts, 1999.

Keith, Lois, ed. What Happened to You? Writing by Disabled Women. New Press, 1996.

Linton, Simi. Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York University Press, 1998.

Mairs, Nancy. Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled. Beacon, 1996.

Mitchell, David and Sharon Snyder, eds. The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability in the Humanities. University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Resources for Rehabilitation. A Womans Guide to Coping with Disability. 2nd ed. 1997.

Russell, Marta. Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract. Common Courage, 1998.

Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. Columbia University Press, 1997.

Tremain, Shelley, ed. Pushing the Limits: Disabled Dykes Produce Culture. Womens Press, 1996.

Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. Routledge, 1996.

Wates, Michele and Rowen Jade, eds. Bigger Than the Sky: Disabled Women on Parenting. Womens Press, 1999

Most of these books are available through amazon.com or barnesandnobles.com but also ask your library to get them!

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This includes some publications and organizations that focus on women and disabilities. Some publications are in Spanish. You can do a search on our website by going into the "Search by Health Topics" section on our home page at http://www.4woman.gov and use the Key Term: Disabilities

Web Site: http://www.nichcy.org

• Gender-Related Electronic Forums

Activism Age-Defined Arts & Humanities Business/Finance Education Health International Internet Information Motherhood/Pregnancy Religion/Spirituality Science &Technology Sexuality/Sexual Orientation Social Sciences Sports & Recreation Women of Color Women's Studies

• Women's Studies/Women's Issues Resource Sites

Activism Arts & Humanities Multi-disciplinary Girls & Young Women Sexuality/Sexual Orientation International Internet Information Online Periodicals Religion/Spirituality Science & Technology Health Women of Color

• WMST-L: Women's Studies Email List

• Women's Studies Programs, Departments, and Research Centers

• Financial Aid and Job Opportunities in Women's Studies

The Feminist Majority Online www.feminist.org/

The Women's Studies Archive on InforM www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/

www.library.yale.edu/ and several others, along with two very useful women-focused search engines,

Femina www.femina.com/

and WWWomen www.wwwomen.com/

What? Women-focused search engines? Why didn't I mention them sooner, you ask? One reason, of course, is that I wanted to call attention to the outrageous results a query about women's resources is likely to produce on such well-known search engines as AltaVista and HotBot. Also, for some things, the women-focused engines may not be as useful as the UMBC Women's Studies site.

For example, if you're looking for women-related email lists and you search on the keywords "email lists" in Femina, you'll get a few individual lists and lots of irrelevant hits. In WWWomen, your search will produce very few hits. Neither engine will include Gender- Related Electronic Forums among its hits, even though both include it in their database (and, in fact, WWWomen highly recommends it elsewhere on their site). But both Femina and WWWomen apparently assign sites a very limited set of keywords; this can turn your search into a frustrating guessing game.

http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Disabilities
Yahoo is an index of categories and web sites using key words. You may also want to try femina.com which specifically searches women's sites and eliminates some of the uninteresting searchresults that come from too broad a search.

http://www.users.cts.com/crash/c/calemont/dawn.html

http://www.users.cts.com/crash/c/calemont/dawn.html

http://www.eskimo.com/~dempt/disability.html
lots of links to various disability sites.

http://www.primenet.com/~lathrop/gimp.html#reading
Dougs Gimp Page; links to other disability sites.

http://www.disserv.stu.umn.edu/disability/"
features links for specific disabilities from A to Z.

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/9181/links.html
specializes in Australian-related links, but features others as well. most links arranged by topic, but does name some individual sites

http://www.ability.ns.ca/index.html
home page of Ability Network magazine; features links to previous articles and issues. 

Back to Table OF Contents  

National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities
http://www.lookingglass.org/
Through the Looking Glass
2198 Sixth Street, Suite 100
Berkeley, CA 94710-2204
(800) 644-2666 (national) or (510) 848-1112 (Bay Area)

Reducing Risk Factors for Abuse Among Low-Income Minority Women with Disabilities
http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/crowd/
Baylor College of Medicine
Center for Research on Women with Disabilities
3440-B Richmond
Houston, TX 77046
(713) 960-0505

Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC)
http://www.hsc.missouri.edu/~arthritis/
University of Missouri-Columbia
130 AP Green, DC330.00
One Hospital Drive
Columbia, MO 65212
(573) 884-1499

MRI/Penn Research and Training Center on Vocational Rehabilitation and Mental Illness
http://www.matrixresearch.org/
Matrix Research Institute
6008 Wayne Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19144
(215) 438-8200

Multiple Sclerosis Research and Training Center NEW! 2/9/98
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~rehab/clinics/ms.html
University of Washington
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Box 356490
Seattle, WA 98195-6490
(206) 543-7272

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Drugs and Disability
http://www.med.wright.edu/SOM/SARDI/
Wright State University
School of Medicine
Substance Abuse Resources and Disability Issues (SARDI)
PO Box 927
Dayton, OH 45401-0927
(937) 259-1384

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Policies Affecting Families with Children with Disabilities NEW! 2/9/99
University of Kansas
Institute for Life Span Studies
Beach Center on Families and Disability
3111 Hayworth Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
(785) 864-7600

Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health
http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/
Portland State University
Regional Research Institute
PO Box 751
Portland, OR 97207-0751
(503) 725-4040

Research and Training Center on Independent Living and Disability Policy
http://www.wid.org/
World Institute on Disability (WID)
510 16th Street, Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94612-1500
(510) 763-4100

Research and Training Center on Independent Living (Underserved)
http://www.lsi.ukans.edu/rtcil/rtcil.htm
University of Kansas
4089 Dole Building
Lawrence, KS 66045
(913) 864-0575

Adaptive Parenting Equipment: Evaluation, Development, Dissemination, and Marketing
http://www.lookingglass.org/
Through the Looking Glass 2198 Sixth Street, Suite 100
Berkeley, CA 94710-2204
(800) 644-2666 (national) or
(510) 848-1112 (Bay Area)

Disability Rights Leadership Archive
http://www.usfca.edu/mclaren/EMMDS/
University of San Francisco
McLaren School of Business
Executive Master of Management and Disability Services Program
San Francisco, CA 94117-1045
(415) 422-2534

DTV Access Project
http://www.wgbh.org/ncam/
WGBH Educational Foundation
Center for Accessible Media
125 Western Avenue
Boston, MA 02134
(617) 492-9258

Illinois Joint Training Initiative on Disability and Abuse: Advocacy and Empowerment Through Knowledge Dissemination
http://www.uic.edu/depts/idhd/
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Disability and Human Development
1640 West Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL 60608-6904
(312) 413-8833

Marketing Health Promotion, Wellness, and Risk Information to Spinal Cord Injury Survivors in the Community
http://www.craighospital.org/
Craig Hospital, Research Department
3245 South Clarkson Street
Englewood, CO 80110
(303) 789-8204

Measuring Functional Communication: Multicultural and International Applications
http://www.asha.org/
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

ABLEDATA Database
http://www.abledata.com/index.htm
Macro International, Inc. 8401 Colesville Road, Suite 200
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(800) 227-0216

Improving Access to Disability Data
http://www.infouse.com/disabilitydata/
InfoUse
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 216
Berkeley, CA 94710-2566
(510) 549-6520

International Disability Exchanges and Studies Project 2000 (IDEAS 2000)
http://www.wid.org/
World Institute on Disability (WID)
510 16th Street, Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94612-1500
(510) 763-4100

National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research (NCDDR)
http://www.ncddr.org/
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
211 East Seventh Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78701-3281
(800) 266-1832

National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC)
http://www.naric.com/naric/
KRA Corporation 8455 Colesville Road, Suite 935
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3319
(800) 346-2742

National Resource Center on Supported Living and Choice
http://soeweb.syr.edu/thechp/nrc.html
Syracuse University, Center on Human Policy
805 S. Crouse Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2280
(315) 443-3851

Multimedia Job Accommodations Curriculum Project for Persons Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
http://www.uark.edu/depts/rehabres/
University of Arkansas
Department of Rehabilitation Education and Research
4601 West Markham Street
Little Rock, AR 72205
(501) 686-9691

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