Identity-first language or person-first language? An individual’s choice to use one or the other is a reflection of them and the culture surrounding them. For example, I prefer identity-first language because I believe it’s important to remind society that its existing infrastructures can disable me more than my SMA.
Wandering the Lines – a Column by Sherry Toh
One of my favorite tees to wear is navy blue and says, “INSTALLING MUSCLES. PLEASE WAIT …” Underneath the text is a bright red loading bar about halfway done. It was a gift from my mother, a token of her hope that I’d one day grow stronger instead of weaker.
“What does your heart say?” Crouched next to the character of Kun, a newly freed deaf fish who lived trapped in an aquarium her entire life, was the personification of Water. Played by theater artists Jade Ow and Deborah Chai, respectively, on stage at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, the scene…
To say I didn’t attempt to set my complaint about a Sephora event up for success … would be a lie. If I was posting a video on TikTok, I obviously wanted people to see it. Time and effort are required to write a script, film, and edit,…
“Did you tell your siblings my medication costs about $1,000 SGD [$783] per day, before subsidies?” I texted my dad a couple of months back. It had been years since his elder brother and sister had seen me. As fate would have it, I was due for phenol and steroid…
Another day, another devastating headline in the realm of video games. “Layoffs Leave The Future Of Xbox’s Award-Winning Accessibility Efforts In Doubt,” announces one story from the gaming news website Aftermath. The article, published on July 22 and written by a fellow journalist with SMA named Grant Stoner, details…
I had a date with Count Dracula. An award-winning ballet adaptation of Bram Stoker’s immortal creation — “Dracula: Ballet at its Darkest” — was to arrive in my homeland of Singapore for the summer, and a friend of mine got wind of the news. The production promised an…
One of the queerest ways to spend Pride Month could go like this … You decide to go to the theater one night. You scan the ticketing site for a show and land on one about lesbian identity, struggles, and culture in Singapore. It’d be no fun to go alone,…
I don’t talk to my ex anymore. For the sake of this column, I will have to let her know about it as a courtesy. But as far as a daily choice goes, it’s not one I make anymore. Readers who’ve kept up with my column in the last few…
I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t sell my soul for money. In a way, that’s what my job as a professional disability advocate and writer is: Mining my life as a resource for content to monetize, whether directly or indirectly. Is the net result adding good to…
