The Disabled Standard

Harper McKenzie and Shruti Rajkumar
The Disabled Standard

Living as your authentic disabled self in an abled world isn't easy. Join disabled friends Shruti and Harper each week as they discuss their experiences and pursue living by the disabled standard—the radical opposite of the abled standard. Disabled or not, be sure to tune in for unfiltered conversations about what it's really like to be disabled today. From foundational disability topics like infantilization to current events like the pandemic to Shruti and Harper's own disabled joys like writing and community care, The Disabled Standard is an exploration of disability you won't want to miss.

  1. 01/16/2023

    Ep. 24 - The 10 Principles of Disability Justice

    In the season 2 finale, Harper and Shruti discuss the 10 Principles of Disability Justice as articulated by Patty Berne and Sins Invalid. The 10 Principles are foundational to intersectional disability justice work and foundational to the Disabled Standard's mission and vision. In every episode—from disability identity to medicalization to media analyses—examples, illustrations, and discussions of the 10 Principles can be found. In this season 2 finale, Harper and Shruti take you directly to the principles themselves. They revisit important topics like intersectionality and access needs within a different framework, discuss new (to the pod) topics like anti-capitalism policies, and provide contexts to terms they've been using throughout the seasons like collective liberation.  To follow along, you can find a pdf of the 10 Principles of Disability Justice here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bed3674f8370ad8c02efd9a/t/5f1f0783916d8a179c46126d/1595869064521/10_Principles_of_DJ-2ndEd.pdf Thank you and all credit to Patty Berne and Sins Invalids. Check out their work here: https://www.sinsinvalid.org/ Thank you for listening and supporting The Disabled Standard this season! You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod to stay up to date on what's next for Shruti, Harper, and the podcast.

    51 min

  2. 01/09/2023

    Ep. 23 - Disability and Relationships

    In this week’s episode, Shruti and Harper discuss disability and relationships. They each share their experiences with platonic relationships, and the impact their disabilities have had on their friendships, communities, and social lives. Shruti also shares some of her dating experiences as a brown, disabled lesbian, and Harper discusses queerplatonic relationships as an aromantic asexual autistic person. With different types of disabilities, educational backgrounds, and other identities, Harper and Shruti compare and contrast the many ways disability can affect relationships. You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting!

    1h 2m

  3. 01/02/2023

    Ep. 22 - The Internet's Impact on Disabled Experiences feat. Kendall Wack

    On this week’s episode of The Disabled Standard, Harper and Shruti are joined by guest Kendall Wack to talk about the impact of the internet on disabled experiences. Kendall tells the story of how the internet led to their ADHD diagnosis, Shruti discusses her relationship with Twitter as a disabled journalist, and Harper shares her experience with disability in fandom. Together, they discuss the positive and negative aspects of the internet as a disability community and identity tool—including how this is often overlooked or devalued. Kendall Wack is a queer, neurodivergent writer and editor based in Chicago, IL. They hold a double B.A. in English-Creative Writing and French Literature and Language from Loyola University-Chicago. She has found that the written word is one of the most powerful ways for like-minded people to connect, and she aspires to use her voice to break down taboos and the barriers they create. In addition to writing, they are also the co-host of the social justice-poetry fusion podcast, Poetically Speaking. You can find her on Instagram at @hopelesspoetesse and stay tuned for Poetically Speaking season two coming soon! You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting!

    54 min

  4. 12/26/2022

    Ep. 21 - Disability and Holidays

    Happy Holidays from the Disabled Standard! And we mean all of them. This week, Harper and Shruti discuss the ways disability can intersect with holidays and celebrations. They talk about their experiences with everything from Christmas and Diwali to winter festivities and anniversaries. With holidays being a key aspect of culture, they discuss the difficulties of struggling to access holidays and traditions—but also the ways disability can make holidays even more special and the holidays a part of disability culture. You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting! Have a happy, safe, and justice-filled new year!

    50 min

  5. 12/19/2022

    Ep. 20 - Lateral Ableism

    This week, Harper and Shruti discuss lateral ableism—when a disabled person is ableist to another disabled person. They share their personal experiences facing lateral ableism, pop culture examples, how lateral ableism connects to intersectionality and internalized ableism, and some of the most common ways lateral ableism manifests. They also discuss the complex dialectic of acknowledging that lateral ableism can come from pain, inaccess, and self-preservation while also condemning the harm and working to towards collective liberation. You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting!

    1h 1m

  6. 12/12/2022

    Ep. 19 - Disability and Travel

    Have you ever wondered what traveling is like when you're disabled? How to fly on a plane as a wheelchair user? What it's like being an autistic teen on a choir tour? Why the same travel accommodations can create exclusion for one person and access for another?  In this week's episode, Harper and Shruti talk all things traveling while disabled. From school trips to family vacations, on planes, trains, and busses, all the way across the world or just over state lines, they share their own experiences, how they were accommodated (or not), and what they've learned. Traveling while disabled—with growing support needs and new mobility aids—is an evolution that Harper and Shruti are both still trying to navigate with themselves and their loved ones. It can often create feelings of burden, isolation, and the inability to engage—but with disabled-informed support and lots of grace, sometimes travel can be positive not in spite of disability but because of it.  You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting!

    1h 8m

  7. 11/21/2022

    Ep. 18 - The Medicalization of Disability, Part 2: Diagnosis

    In this week’s part two on the medicalization of disability, Harper and Shruti discuss diagnosis. They dive into the difficulties disabled people often have getting diagnoses, the problems with the gatekeeping and lack of intersectionality within diagnostic systems, and the negative impact it all has on real-life people—especially those who go through it in childhood. Harper shares her four experiences of diagnosis—her elementary school dyslexia diagnosis, her ten-year journey towards a late autism diagnosis, her college arthritis diagnosis, and her current search for answers about her dysautonomia and chronic pain. Through these stories, Harper opens up about how growing up feeling like a mystery and not being believed has shaped her self-concept. Listen wherever you find your podcasts and follow on social media to keep to update on all things Disabled Standard. We will be going on a mid-season hiatus and new episodes will return Dec. 12.

    53 min

  8. 11/14/2022

    Ep. 17 - The Medicalization of Disability, Part 1: Therapy

    Disability has a long, painful history of medicalization. In this two-parter, the Disabled Standard explores some of the ways medicalization affects the real life of disabled people in the modern day. In part one, Harper and Shruti discuss therapy, including the problems with the system, the importance of autonomy, and ways improvements can be made. Shruti shares their experiences with physical therapy and medical intervention as a physically disabled person of color. She discusses the impact childhood physical therapy has on her development and her agency, as well as her decision to stop physical therapy and her outlook on future therapies. Harper also shares her experience with language therapy at her specialized learning disability school, and how this therapy was done in a better, more disability-centered way than most interventions. Listen wherever you find your podcasts and stay tuned for part two: diagnosis. You can follow The Disabled Standard on Instagram @disabledstandard and on Twitter @disabledspod. Thank you for listening and supporting!

    54 min
See All (24)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Living as your authentic disabled self in an abled world isn't easy. Join disabled friends Shruti and Harper each week as they discuss their experiences and pursue living by the disabled standard—the radical opposite of the abled standard. Disabled or not, be sure to tune in for unfiltered conversations about what it's really like to be disabled today. From foundational disability topics like infantilization to current events like the pandemic to Shruti and Harper's own disabled joys like writing and community care, The Disabled Standard is an exploration of disability you won't want to miss.

Information

  • Creator
    Harper McKenzie and Shruti Rajkumar
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2023
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Harper McKenzie and Shruti Rajkumar
  • Show Website
    The Disabled Standard

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada