Disability²

I primarily reserve this space for discussions of media and law about parents with disabilities, but I also want this space to be a place to talk about disability culture as it interacts with crip parenting.

Today when I read my seven-year-old’s communication book to see what she did in school, I saw that she learned about Rosa Parks today. My daughter, who has a disability herself, CP, was excited to tell me about her day. Her speech is difficult to understand, especially when lipreading, so we use a combination of speech, sign language and gestures to communicate.

I asked her, “Did you learn about Rosa Parks today.”

“Yes!” she voices and signs enthusiatically.

“What did Rosa Parks do?”

“Ride the bus,” she said.

“What happened?” I asked. My daugther responded but I couldn’t understand, so I had to start our 20-question methodology. “Did she do jumping jacks?” I asked her.

“Nooo!” she said giggling.”

“Did she sing a song?”

“Noooo.”

“Did she sit down?”

“Yeah,” she said with a grin.

“Did she get arrested?”

“Yes!” she yelled and signed excitedly.

“Why?”

“She ride bus.”

“What happened after that?”

“No bus,” she said.

I was thrilled. My kid, who many discount as not being able to learn, clearly knows about Rosa Parks. I know today was not the first time she had heard the story of the Montgomery bus boycott, but she learned about it at school today, and she clearly knew the story. I asked her a few more questions, and told her more about the story of the Montgomery bus boycott, and how people worked together to get access to the bus system. I then asked her if she rides the bus.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Lift.”

“Do you like riding the bus?

“Yes!”

Yes, she does like riding the bus, now. For the first time in her school career, she got to ride on a regular school bus with her peers on a field trip this past week, rather than segregated on the short bus. For kindergarten two buses stopped at our house each morning and afternoon. My daughter got on one by herself, and all the other kids got on another. At seven she knows well the problems with segregation. Until this week, she rode on a short bus for field trips while most of her peers were on another bus.

Our conversation did not end there. I had the joy of turning our conversation into a lesson about disability culture and disability history.

“Adrie, did you like riding the big bus this week?”

“yes yes yes” she signed, then squeeled.

I told her, again, the story of the 1978 bus boycott that happened here in Denver to get lifts on our public buses. She first learned the story last fall when we visited the polio exhibit at the Smithsonian, and she heard the story again a few weeks ago when watching the video When Billy Broke His Head. I reminded her that her Auntie Robin was arrested and went to jail protesting to get lifts on buses. She squeeled with excitement. I then told her the story of mommy blocking the bus and getting arrested because the bus lift was broken. (I took a bit of liberties with the story, mommy wasn’t actually arrested, just ticketed, but mommy has been arrested many other times, and ticketed is not really a concept she understands.) I’ve shown her the plaque at Colfax and Broadway commemmorating the July 1978 bus blockade, and I reminded her about that and told her about the years of weekly bus blockades and arrests and trips to jail to get lifts on our buses. She loves to hear the stories. SHe giggled and squeeled, while I told the story.

Then she said, “Like Rosa!”

I almost cried. I wanted to cry because I was so happy that my kid gets disability rights. It is finally real to her. I have worked hard to tell my kids our history, and the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott is her story, and the story of the gang of nineteen is her story, and finally getting to ride the big bus is her story too. She’s a smart cookie that girl. I think she will go far, and I am very proud of her.

I’m so lucky to be her mom.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Disability Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.