Just out of curiosity

[NMMNG]

I wanted to get an idea of the "demographics" of the people who post, both routinely and infrequently, in this forum.

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. Disabled?

As in: not a psycopath?

Cause that seems to be a real handicap in this brave new world.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I don't post or even read this forum that often.

However, there are times I pop in here. I also check out the hard-of-hearing/deaf group, as I have a partner who is deaf in one ear. I am also interested in disability issues and rights because it is a form of diversity and I was trained in diversity issues, so I try to stay on top of things, but have severely slacked off in the area of disabilities. Perhaps, I should read here more often!

[intaglio]

3. Went looking for sane US voices

and found them

[silverojo]

4. K&R

Disability and poverty issues are ignored far too much, even here on DU.

[NMMNG]

5. I agree

Even with staunch advocacy these issues get swept under the carpet.

[loyalsister]

7. Maybe less so soon

It took the Vietnam war for the Independent Living Movement to get mainstream attention.
We may see much more attention given to our issues in the near future.

[NMMNG]

8. That would be wonderful

It's very much needed.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I'm mostly a lurker...

but am interested in the forum on several grounds: I am very slightly disabled myself; am a university teacher who has often dealt with issues concerning disabled students (e.g. I supervised a blind Ph.D. student) and have an academic interest in children's learning difficulties.

[NMMNG]

9. Ok, since this has been around for a while,

I'll confess that I had an ulterior motive for posting it.

I've noticed that, particularly in certain threads, there seem to be replies from DUers who have little or no understanding of disability issues. I've worked with people who have disabilities for half my life and am very concerned with disability rights. And I get frustrated when I see posts from people who seem to have no clue about what it's like to have a disability, or how infringing upon disability rights is an issue.

Nonetheless I know that I could never understand the "disability experience" as well as somebody who actually lives it. Therefore I know that the irritation of those who have a disability must be much more intense than what I experience.

So I created this poll just to get an idea of how many people visiting this forum actually do have a disability or a vested interest in disability issues, and how many were just "drive by" visitors. That way I could better understand some of the responses we get in threads.