The Seated View

Imagine a photo of a child in a wheelchair with a basketball, someone running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs or a person with RA deformities knitting. Across the bottom of the photo is emblazoned this text: “your excuse is invalid.”  That’s inspiration porn. Porn involves the objectification of one group of people for the benefit of another group. Using people with a disability or chronic illness who’re somehow managing to go about their lives as inspiration for nondisabled people to feel better about their lives or motivation to get off their arse meets the definition.  I’ve ranted before about this, sometimes when a stranger, who knows nothing of me except that I use a wheelchair, has earnestly told me that I’m brave. Sometimes, it’s been in response to a story in the news about a person with a disability doing something “exceptional.” And when I do, it is because the conversation I had with that someone or the story was tinged with condescension and amazem...

We launched Live Bold Live Now on Friday - did you watch the RA story yet? It's been very exciting to see the finished product. The HealthCentral team did a fantastic job putting it all together. I recommend you also check out the Crohn's and psoriasis profiles — Rob and Laura are phenomenal people. Each of our stories take about 20 minutes to watch and represented two days of filming three months ago. Although I’ve been in front of the cameras very briefly before when I was a spokesperson for a report by the Health Council of Canada Days, this was a completely different level. This was not a reporter and a camera, although that’s sort of what I expected, with maybe the addition of another couple of people. Imagine my surprise when a film crew showed up. And over those two days in October, I learned a number of things. Don’t turn your back on them. On Monday, I was in the hands of Sher, an excellent makeup artist who actually lives in my neighbourhood! This...

Remember this? Phto Credit: David Govoni   Three months ago, I had a film crew following me around for two days while I told my story of living with RA, the big flare and reinventing my life afterwards. And today, you can see the result of all the hard work! Over the next few weeks, I'll write more about it and give you a behind-the-scenes look. But today, hop on over to HealthCentral to read my launch post : " I am thrilled to announce the launch of the Live Bold Live Now project! In it, HealthCentral profiles three people who live with three different conditions — RA , Crohn’s and psoriasis — in a beautiful rich media project. I’m extra thrilled (and more than a little abashed) to tell you that I’m the subject of the RA profile. More on that in a minute. Photo Credit: Health Central   Live Bold Live Now uses a new method of storytelling. Combining video, audio and still photography, rich media projects are engaging and compelling, truly making the su...