4/28/26 - Words and music, accessible flying, and a museum survey

Hello!

How is your week going so far? Here in Northeastern New York State, the change of seasons is making me happy, warmer, and more wheezy. That's pretty standard for me and I'm happy to take the bad with the good.

Before moving on to Tuesday's links, here again is a link to the Spring 2026 Poll. As I write this, 28 readers have responded. Have you? It's fun!

Now here are the usual subscription and donation buttons, Tuesday's links, and the rest. Have a great day!

Hybrid Event: It Wasn’t Meant to be Perfect: A Book Talk + Performance with Gaelynn Lea

Disability Cultural Center - April 27, 2026

"Musician, Broadway composer, and disability advocate Gaelynn Lea is coming to the DCC with special guest Haben Girma to celebrate the release of her new memoir! It’s a love letter to every kind of body, music, and making it work. Books will be for sale by Book Passage at the event."

Gaelynn is a longtime subscriber here, and I'm a fan of her music. She sent me a link yesterday to this event she's hosting tonight in San Francisco. With co-host Haben Girma, it's bound to be a fantastic evening of disability culture at its best.

Airbus Wheelchair Securement System Becomes First to Fly

John Morris, Wheelchair Travel - April 20, 2026

"There is a version of air travel that most wheelchair users have never experienced: one in which you board an airplane, roll into a designated wheelchair securement space and fly — without transferring into a narrow aisle chair, surrendering your wheelchair at the gate and wondering what condition it will be in when you land. That experience does not yet exist, but Airbus brought that dream much closer to reality at the 2026 Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany."

I have never had to fly with a wheelchair. But, I have vivid and fairly unpleasant memories of flying with an electric wheelchair user to a disability conference, and watching baggage handlers drag her wheelchair across the pavement with its breaks on, while all we could do is smack our foreheads and worry about the damage they might have done. The obvious answer to this has always been some way of securing a wheelchair safely in the cabin. Trying to educate all the airline workers on handling wheelchairs and disabled people properly might be good for its own sake. But, it's clearly no solution to either chronic wheelchair-breaking or the uniquely physical and emotional humiliation of disabled fliers. It's hard to tell whether this Airbus product will be the key breakthrough. But, it's good to see some real progress at last.

National Museum of Disability History and Culture Initiative Survey

March, 2026

"After a series of deaths of disabled leaders, Katherine Ott, Smith Smithsonian, facilitated a conversation about the power of our stories history and culture. The group sending you this survey continues to work on a national museum in DC recognized by the Smithsonian, etc. ... The National Museum of Disability History and Culture will honor, preserve, and amplify the stories, contributions, and lived experiences of disabled people throughout history. Your work and expertise will help shape this historic initiative."

I haven't been involved in this project, even though so much of it is right up my alley and I am on the mailing list for it. So far, it's been one of those disability culture projects I've stayed away from only because I don't have the time or attention span to keep up with it. However, in the back of my mind I do have a vague hope of a better time in the US, maybe sometime in the 2030s, when I could imagine something like a "Museum of Disability History and Culture" opening under the Smithsonian umbrella. Anyway, I filled in the survey, and encourage readers to follow the link and do so as well if they are interested.

Disability Thinking Weekday is a Monday-Friday newsletter with links and commentary on disability-related articles and other content. You can help promote Disability Thinking Weekday by forwarding it by email or posting on your social media. You can also comment by sending me an email at: apulrang@icloud.com. Collected comments are shared on the first of each month. A free subscription sends a newsletter to your email each weekday. Benefits of paid subscription include:

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