My Week With @WeAreDisabled: Thread from 18th August
A couple weeks ago, I took part in my third time hosting the twitter account @WeAreDisabled, which invites guests to host on a rotating basis. Given the ephemeral nature of Twitter, I’ve decided to re-post much of that writing here (as well as some thoughts from previous times I’ve hosted), as well as the Wakelet links to the original tweets. Tweets are reproduced as-is:
Hello again! Just finished decompressing from class — I’m actually taking one of my classes in-person, so I have to re-learn how to build in time to my routines for commuting and then recovering from my commuting.
Related to that, I want to (somewhat belatedly) give a deeper introduction of myself and my surroundings. My name is Charlie, my pronouns are he/him, and I’m a disabled student worker-organizer on stolen Ramaytush and Lisjan Ohlone homelands (the so-called San Francisco Bay Area)
I work on-campus (virtually, for now) at my community college’s Queer Resource Center, where I run a program called the T-House for transmasculine and masculine of center communities and individuals (plus a bunch of other responsibilities, but that’s the one I’m proudest of).
I’m double majoring in health education and psychology, and I’m also working towards a certification in sexual health education. I’ve worked as a peer sexual health and relationships educator, also on campus, and I’m deeply involved in campus organizing and student organizations!
My college, the City College of San Francisco, has been in crisis in one form or another for the last few years, which informs my experience as a student worker and as a disabled student. Classes get cut. Student work is underfunded. Instructors and staff are lost. Every year.
There aren’t enough resources for programs like DSPS (disabled students’ programs and services), older-adult and continuing education, noncredit classes taken mainly for skill-building, or desperately-needed improvements to campus infrastructure and accessibility.
Our ASL department is small enough to begin with (we have a couple beginning classes, compared to places like Berkeley City College which has certificates and entire associate’s degree in ASL), and in the last few years even those classes have faced cuts.
In particular, departments like ethnic studies, womens’ and gender studies, labor and community studies, Phillipine studies, interdisciplinary studies, and other departments that prioritize marginalized students, staff, and communities are targeted for cuts and reductions.
(Note: we do not have a disability studies program or even a specific course, though there are some *related* courses in departments like health, psychology, and child development. Those, however, are from an abled-NT lens, and don’t meaningfully address disability.)
Something that gives me hope, though, is that organizations like @CCSFCollective, @CCSFStudentsays, and many other groups and individuals (that I don’t think have much of a twitter presence for the most part), have been showing up and fighting back.
It’s from this context that I join you this week. The first week of the semester, facing so many struggles both individually and in community, but also so honored to be learning and organizing with such a strong and determined set of organizers and (most importantly) friends.
Community colleges are so often overlooked in the realm of tertiary education, but we’re a haven and a resource for marginalized communities and a source of strength for so many, and I feel proud to be a part of that tradition. I can’t wait to share that with you all this week.
