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On Letting Go
It’s been a minute since I last took centre stage in a classroom. Since I last requested silence, stared down a talkative student, or raised an eyebrow at the kid staring intently at their crotch, whose phone was concealed from sight but whose eyes always gave them away. It’s been a minute since I last…
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Accessibility Review: Cassia Restaurant
After years of being inundated with Asian Fusion cuisine, as if putting blue cheese inside a wonton was anyone’s idea of a good time, I’d been waiting patiently for someone to fuse two other equally incompatible ingredients. But as MooChowChow version 2, 3, and then 4 spawned on Ponsonby Road, I began to wonder if…
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“I don’t even think of you as disabled”
“That’s because I’ve spent the last thirty years doing everything I can to pretend it doesn’t exist, to the detriment of my own sense of identity and wellbeing.” At least, that’s what I want to say. Instead, I laugh bashfully, and respond with what I think they want to hear, “Oh, that’s such a compliment…
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Talking wheelchairs with my son
When should I come out to my friends? When should I have “the talk” with my kids? When should I explain to my son why I use a wheelchair? I guess there isn’t the ‘perfect’ time to have any of these conversations. So in the car this afternoon, after a rainy Sunday trip to Sylvia…
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A new journey of discovery
After posting my previous article on Facebook (gotta get those clicks somehow, am I right?), Robyn Hunt offered a fascinating insight into why us disabled people feel this compulsion to be ‘the first to _____________’. “We don’t know our history” – Robyn Hunt Of course! We’re not taught disability history at school, we’re not born into…
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The fragile ego of disability
When civil rights movements are in their infancy, the temptation to smash glass ceilings is irresistible. I mean, there are just so many of them. The disability world is no different, and unlike previous civil rights movements, we still have so many ceilings left intact. Like, so so many. This has given rise to an…
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Revisiting inspiration [2014 blog]
![Revisiting inspiration [2014 blog]](https://rednicholson.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/fb14398420c8546d6b1c12a764add30fdd3b343e.jpeg?w=1024)
With all this recent talk of inspiration porn, I feel it’s important we put away the able-bodied pitchforks and take stock of the situation. The brutal reality is, some people find me inspiring. Some probably find you inspiring, too. And you know what? That’s just fine. I didn’t always feel that way, mind you, but…
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We are all responsible for kids doing drugs at school
The NZ Herald really loves sticking it to brown kids. Whether it’s hysterical coverage of Polyfest, or more recently, a couple of kids smoking weed at school (why embed the video, you scummy clickbait vultures?) our nation’s biggest publication seems to revel in the tragic consequences of social inequality. These stories are always framed in…
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Funded Family Care: Why this needs to happen
First, a quick and dirty on the current state of disability support in New Zealand. Disabled people are able to access the following types of personal care: Live-in residential facilities Support workers from an agency (e.g. Spectrum Care) visit home to provide care Individualised funding, where the disabled person is bulk-funded to employ their own…
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Red Nicholson 