Saturday, January 24, 2009

Dan: The Real Story











Read more about Dan at Action for Autism, The New Republic, and The Voyage.

17 comments:

  1. Wow. There seems to be a real glut of bad news for the disabled community recently.

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  2. Great Bev. You have a great skill to be able to tweak these illustrations to give them a better more accurate meaning.

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  3. They're worse than bullies. They're people giving parents permission to regress into behaving like children, instead of demanding they do what's right and raise their child properly.

    Just look at their website, it looks more like something designed for kids, not adults. Action for Children? More like Action To Allow Parents to Behave Like Children.

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  4. Bev, it touches me! This is very open and clear. Good luck!

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  5. Bev
    that was the perfect antidote to the Story of Dan,which I saw last night on TV for the first time. The impact is a lot worse seeing it broadcast in that context than it is when viewed in a little box on my laptop

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  6. And the impact of such imagery on a mainstream audience is what's really the issue here...

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  7. Just had a reply from Gary Day from Action for Children; I posted it up in the comments of my last post...

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  8. I've had a reply too Socrates. Will read yours and compare.

    I've started a Facebook group. I'm not sure if it'll do any good but please have a look.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Sorry, there was a messed up link in my previous comment.

    This is an excellent parody Bev; I hope others will take notice.

    I've just written a blog entry asking people who have contact information for Action for Children's major donors to post it. This is part of what was done to get the Ransom Notes ads withdrawn.

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  11. On the Action for Children's (AfC) Blog, one of their staff, Tom McLaren Webb writes:

    Have a look at the ad before you see it on TV. It’s lovely!

    http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/blogs_entry.aspx?id=26&#addcomment

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  12. Hi Socrates,
    Yes, I saw that! I left a reply at that blog about 24 hours ago. I guess it hasn't been approved yet...

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  13. THIS HAPPENED AT DAN'S SCHOOL

    Family's outrage at child's arrest

    Jan 10 2008 by Sian Watts, Rhymney Valley Express

    A CHILD suffering with special needs was arrested, handcuffed and put in a cell only weeks after she had been forced to walk alone from Cardiff Bay to Penarth, her mother claims.

    Nakita Williams, who was only 12 at the time of the incident, was arrested at her specialist school after allegedly being involved in an altercation with a member of staff.

    Nakita, who has severe learning and behavioural difficulties, attends Headlands School in Penarth because of her problems.

    Only the previous month, it has been claimed, she had been forced off the school bus in Cardiff Bay and told to make the two-mile journey back to school alone.

    The 13-year-old, of Oak Tree Drive, Cefn Hengoed, claimed a teaching assistant had ordered her off the bus after she had taken her seatbelt off during a school trip.

    The Express reported Nakita’s family’s outrage at the time of the event, but they are now even more upset at how the situation has progressed.

    Talking about the arrest, Mandy Williams, Nakita’s mother, said: “They handcuffed her, and put her in a cell.

    “That broke my heart.”


    Full Story

    IT'S TIME TO TAKE THIS INTO TOP GEAR!

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  14. http://www.change.org/autisticadvocacy/actions/view/action_for_children_offensive_ad_campaign_alert

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  15. Action for Children has made another ad that parents with MS find almost as horrifying: I haven't seen it (I'm in the US, so they don't have those ads here), but apparently it features a young girl who has to take care of her Mom because her Mom has MS. And Action for Children helps her. Parents are incensed because it implies that children automatically become carers for disabled parents (when they don't, or shouldn't have to).

    The Facebook group focused on the MS parent ad is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51200447470

    I suggest that the campaigns against both ads (the autism ad and the MS parent ad) would be more effective if they were to work in tandem. I also suggest that letters should focus NOT ONLY on removing the two offensive ads but ALSO on urging Action for Children to consult more closely with disability groups in the future for ALL relevant ads.

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  16. It's almost too easy (thus painful) to identify with the kid in that story... the CoNFuSioN!!!

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