Able to make a stand

Our disabilities may impose limitations, but physical, economic, and political barriers impede us far more.

— Laura Hershey

This week's report focuses on an aspect of life that never really affects 90% of the world's people, but for the remaining, it can have a profound effect on how their life plays out - but not always. It's disability, a wide ranging topic which encompasses everything from physical impairments to mental disorders. There are many debates that are always associated with the topic, such as sports opportunities and suitable accessibility for the impaired, and problems with discrimination, ableism and disability abuse.

As a "crowd-sourced" writing platform, Wikipedia is generally representative of society and certainly has its share of people associated with disability, whether that be a disability that they themselves have, or merely being involved with care or campaigns. For them to coordinate, we have WikiProject Disability, which has been interviewed to see how they are getting on. Here to share their wisdom are Dodger67, Penny Richards, LilyKitty and Mirokado.

What motivated you to join WikiProject Disability? Do you have a disability or know someone who does? Have you contributed to any of the project's Good or Featured Articles?

• Dodger67: I'm one of the founders of WikiProject Disability and yes I do have a disability. When I became a regular Wikipedian in June 2007 I soon realised that there was no project with an overarching view of disability and related issues, disability-related articles were tagged by a variety of projects ranging from Law to Engineering and Medicine. The only project that specifically covered disability-related topics was the Paralympics task force of WikiProject Olympics. From various talk-page discussions it became clear that other editors also felt a need for a Disability WikiProject. On 11 June 2010 I created the project's main page. Since then I have contributed to many, and created several, of the pages within the project's purview, which ranges from biography to law, engineering, sport, medicine and politics. The project has a good working relationship with WikiProject Medicine, where we have a fairly large overlap. Our relationship with the Paralympics project is also good, we have a significant overlap of membership. Articles that are exclusively relevant to the Paralympic games are the only disability-related topics that are considered to be outside WikiProject Disability's scope. The vast majority of "our" articles are also tagged by many other projects, as I have mentioned, ranging from law to engineering.
• Penny Richards: I'm a past president of the Disability History Association, have worked on a couple print encyclopedias about disability, and have taught disability history courses, so this project was right in my zone. I don't have a disability; my adult son does. I haven't contributed to any Good or Featured articles; I mostly start biographical entries (Dwight D. Guilfoil Jr., Mary Dobkin, Anita Lee Blair, Elizabeth Layton, Sandra Welner), or make edits in existing biographical entries.
• Mirokado: I very much admired the work and attitude of a disabled colleague. The only reason I am not disabled myself is the excellent correction of vision defects available through glasses and contact lenses (we can hope that technological improvements will affect other areas similarly in time). A recent broken ankle gave me some unwelcome temporary experience. The first articles I looked at involved integrated dance and theatre.

Can you explain your scope: what sort of articles qualify to be tagged under this project and what areas you don't cover?

• Dodger67: We cover all articles related to disability in the broad sense. The vast majority of "our" articles are also tagged by many other projects. Articles that are exclusively relevant to the Paralympic Games are the only disability-related topics that are considered to be outside WikiProject Disability's scope.
• Mirokado: Apart from specific areas such as relevant law, sociology, theory and specialist organisations, disability may be involved but is normally not the main reason why a subject is notable. One of our contributions to improving Wikipedia is to ensure that disability is covered appropriately (enough but not too much) in an article.

What is your most popular topic or article, measured by reader page views? Should it be a project aim to improve your highest visibility articles?

• Dodger67: The #1 spot on our popular pages list has belonged to the biography of Stephen Hawking for a very long time. Other top spots are occupied by articles about various medical conditions that result in disability as well as other biographies such as Frida Kahlo. In the case of Stephen Hawking it is shared by many other projects; Physics, Biography, Education, England, Mathematics, Cosmology and University of Oxford. It used to be a Featured Article but has decayed considerably since then. As disability is not the reason for Hawking's notability, but rather incidental to it, this project plays a relatively minor role in the maintenance of the article. This is true of the majority of our articles. I feel that visibility does not correlate directly with "importance", some topics that are highly significant to the field of disability are actually far less visited than others where disability is merely incidental to the subject.
• Mirokado: Yes indeed! Many of our core articles need substantial improvement. Perhaps our "most important" articles will become more "visible" as we improve them!

Does WikiProject Disability collaborate with any other projects? If so, how do you split the workload between these projects?

• Dodger67: As I have mentioned above we have good relations with the Medicine and Paralympics projects. Our interaction with other projects is on a case-by-case basis as disability intersects with such a broad and varied range of topics. Some WikiProjects respond well to us but unfortunately some do not "pull their weight" - I once asked WikiProject Basketball whether Wheelchair basketball was within their scope, I never got a definitive answer from them.
• LilyKitty: It is important, I think, to collaborate with WikiProject Human Rights or Portal so as to promote awareness and empowerment on and for rights and movement of each person with disabilities against any forms of ableism.

• NB: Wikipedia does not do promotion. -- Dodger67

How can a new contributor help today?

• Dodger67: New contributors are welcome to get involved in any way they wish. We have many articles that need improvement and many yet unwritten. We recently started an ambitious initiative to create a series of Disability by country articles that briefly summarise the status of disability and disabled people within each of the countries of the entire world, so far we have eight articles, most of the list is still red, so there is a huge amount of work for our project.
• Mirokado: Pick an article from the list on our project page where there is a mismatch between importance and quality and start researching! There are also lists for new articles, alerts and "to do" each of which can suggest a starting point.

Anything else you'd like to add to the interview?

• Dodger67: We are eager to recruit new contributors, our active members list is quite short. We are also eager to get involved with organised efforts to increase activity and coverage within our subject area, such as editathons or educational projects.
• Penny Richards: Will definitely work on getting an editathon happening in the next year. There were talks about having one in conjunction with the recent Society for Disability Studies meeting in Atlanta, but it just didn't pan out. Soon!
• Mirokado: Improving Wikipedia's coverage of disability is basically self-defence. Many of us will be disabled at some time in our lives, and nearly all of us will know someone who is or becomes disabled.

Next week we hope to be delving into geopolitical history with WikiProject Former Countries. Please leave feedback on the talkpage of this article so we know how we can improve!

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I just want to respond to the passing mention of Stella Young, who died suddenly late last year. She was a friend of Wikipedia, who spoke with us while we were working on the Paralympic articles during the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Hawkeye7 (talk) 21:56, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: Stella Young was mentioned in the pre-publication discussion, not in the interview itself. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 06:29, 7 July 2015 (UTC) [reply]

Thanks for the opportunity to introduce this small WikiProject to a wider audience. I hope new contributors will join as a result. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 06:29, 7 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• I would like to comment on the assertion that disability "never really affects 90% of the world's people." Statistics from U.S. Social Security Administration show that, in the U.S. approximately 25% of people will become disabled either physically or mentally before reaching retirement age.^[1] I'm sure that figure is higher in some parts of the world, and while there may be parts of the world where the figure is lower, I'm sure that no where is it less than 10%. Moreover, many of the 75% of people who do not become disabled prior to reaching retirement age are greatly affected by the disabilities of their immediate family members. Asserting that disability "never really affects 90% of the world's people" allows non-disabled people to think that the problem doesn't and won't affect them, that "the disabled" are somehow other, and that efforts are wasted which impact only 10% of the population. Moreover, I would venture to say that, although only 25% become disabled prior to retirement, if you include those whose disability begins after retirement the percentage of persons who face a disability at some point in their lives is much, much higher. Disability should be framed as what it is - something that, in some form and to varying degrees, will affect most people at some point in their lives. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:29, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I agree, "never really affects 90% of the world's people" is a nonsensical statement to make. Do you use ramps and elevators when you're wheeling a suitcase or stroller around an airport? How about those closed captions when you're watching TV in a noisy bar? Or that temporary parking permit when you broke your leg? Everyone is affected by the history, experience, and activism of people with disabilities.Penny Richards (talk) 15:24, 15 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]