"Unthinkable:" Mourning People with Disabilities Killed by Family/Caregivers
TRIGGER WARNING: This work described includes mention of the murders of people with disabilities.
The 13-minute video covers efforts to commemorate people with disabilities killed by family and caregivers. It is dedicated to two McCandless, Penn. brothers, Daniel Schlemmer, who was 6 when he died, and Luke Schlemmer, who was 3. They were drowned in 2014 by their mother, who thought they were autistic.
Law enforcement does not specifically track murders of people with disabilities. But the Washington, D.C.-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) collects news accounts of crimes that it calls “filicide” of people with all types of disabilities. ASAN’s research dating back to 1979 found what it deemed to be over 1,500 accounts of filicide worldwide.
“There's so many names on the list,” says Zoe Gross, ASAN’s director of advocacy. “It's staggering.”
ASAN and other advocacy organizations say that media coverage of these deaths are often sympathetic to the perpetrator, and that memorial vigils counter that by respectfully commemorating the deceased. “Unthinkable” includes interviews with Gross and Glenshaw, Penn.-based disability advocate Jay Shirley.
“Unthinkable” was produced largely by people with disabilities. All-Abilities Media is a fiscally-sponsored project of
New Sun Rising that was developed and directed by Unabridged Press, LLC. The documentary was started during the project’s incubation at the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. It was supported by funding from The FISA Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, an anonymous philanthropy, and New Sun Rising.
Corrections The name of the first speaker is spelled Jennifer L. Frymiare. This is a different spelling from the video but the video is left up here because of the history of people watching and sharing this link. Additionally, note in the captions that Frymiare's speaking segments are incorrectly attributed to Sophie Louis. Louis is a student who appear
Christmas with A Valid Podcast
What's your favorite Christmas movie? What do you do when you don't like a gift? This is what we're talking about in this episode of A Valid Podcast. We also tackle how to better include people who are neurodiverse. Host Maria Palmer recommends a children's book about that.
Podcasters include: Thomas Hassell, an advisor with Self Advocates United as 1 (SAU1) who blogs at ASERT ASDNext, and posts at Thomas Hassell's Autism journey; Maria Palmer who blogs at Together Individual Entertainment Blog- T.I.E Blog; Erin Gannon who works with Achieva, is shown with Jennifer Szweda Jordan where she lives and Jennifer works at Emmaus Community of Pittsburgh; Heather McGreevy, with Heather's Creative Canvas and Studio Forget-Me-Not; Michelle Steiner with Michelle's Mission; and puppeteer Kris Rhood.
The thumbnail image for this video features six images of people in Zoom squares and one person with just a name up, Kris Rhood. All shown are whitel There are six women, including Kris, and one male. They include their own image descriptions in the video.
