Columns

To say that SMA can throw a curveball at you at any given moment is like saying that the “Star Wars” prequels could’ve benefited from more rewrites. There are some things that just go without saying, and every person who has SMA knows how unpredictable and difficult this…

Game developers will never embrace accessibility — unless they realize how much the medium means to disabled people. So, continuing with the theme of last week’s column, I want to talk a bit about “Star Wars:…

A few weeks ago I had a conversation on Twitter with a guy about the recently announced Batgirl movie, which has Joss Whedon set to write and direct. The movie is slated to arrive in a few years. While the prospect of a Whedon-helmed Batgirl movie is enough…

I want to talk a bit more about game accessibility this week. But, unlike last week, I’m going to offer up some actual, concrete experiences that will hopefully make it easier to understand how I — a disabled…

I don’t really consider myself a gamer these days. I enjoy video games, and will occasionally take the day off to play the newest Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion, but it’s not my passion anymore. But 12 years ago, video games — in particular,…

One Wednesday night when I was in high school, either freshman or sophomore year, my youth pastor, Todd, said something that has stuck with me ever since. We had youth group meetings at our church every week, and on this particular night Todd spoke about how Christians can stand out…

The surgeon didn’t find anything wrong with my lungs. They are, in her words, “perfectly clear.” Still, there was a significant amount of congestion around my voice box, which apparently explains the tightness in my chest. It just feels like there’s something…

I wish I could say things have become better since I wrote about my current health issues a few weeks ago. But for the most part they haven’t. My chest isn’t as tight as it used to be, and I’ve started addressing my fatigue with energy drinks. V8 V-Fusion, to…

Last night, I asked my dad what I should write about for my next column about life with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). “Why you don’t write about the struggles you have with eating?” he suggested. I laughed. “No one wants…

I experimented with highlights in middle school. I wanted to get this professionally done, but my mother, who’s been dyeing her own hair for probably longer than I’ve been alive, insisted we use a box kit, like the kind you find at Target. It became a…