Community Linkage

Every week there are new press releases, articles, information, and videos popping up concerning Paganism, spirituality, health, or disabilities. Community Linkage is a collection of useful information and sometimes entertainment for you. Not just weekly but every weekday. You can stay informed by adding me to one of your social circles on Google+ or follow me on Twitter.

The Staff of Asclepius blog is hosted by Patheos and during Autism Awareness Month, they are featuring writers whose journeys are touched by autism and other special needs. Star Foster, who runs the Patheos Pagan Portal, has a post about dealing with Aspergers.

At The New Existentialists, therapists Makenna Berry writes about how she disagrees with the official wording of a gender identity disorder. “A diagnosis of ‘gender identity disorder’ or ‘authenticity?'”

Yahoo! Accessibility “The Power of Dots and Dashes to Tell the Future” by Sean Zdenek Captions are designed to “pop-up” when sounds first occur. However, when actors speak in movies and television shows, each one will have a different tempo based on the scene, the character, or just because that’s who they are. The caption might finish before they do or drag on. People also read at different speeds. Throw in the problem that captioning isn’t all ways aligned with the audio of a program and you get a lag in information. The FCC defines a quality captioning viewing experience in terms of “completeness, placement, accuracy, timing, and media player capabilities (color, opacity, size, typefaces, etc.).” Sean offers many examples (including video clips) of how punctuation, especially those used to show a pause or cut off in a sentence, gives away a dramatic plot point or ruins comedic timing.

Raising Awareness at the Cinema

With all of the rating controversy over the documentary film Bully I’m sure you’ve heard about it. The film which focuses on the stories of five young students who are bullied at school originally got an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. The producers wanted it released with a PG13 so students would have greater access an learn about the issue. But since they MPAA wouldn’t consent the film was released as unrated and has a more limited release. (International Business Times) What you may not have known is that one of the featured students has special needs.

“‘Bully’ shows Alex Libby, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism, when he was a seventh-grader at Sioux City East Middle School. The filmmakers recorded a student smashing Alex’s head into a bus seat in 2009.

The documentary shows Alex’s mother, Jackie Libby, telling school officials: ‘He is not safe on that bus.'”

The film then shows school officials telling the mother the bus is safe. The family has since relocated to Oklahoma.
DesMoines register “Victims of bullying, including Iowa boy, featured in documentary” by Perry Beeman

Luckily for Jackie, he is no longer bullied and his grades have improved. (disabilityscoop)