My dad and I both heard the perfunctory snap as the right armrest on my power wheelchair lowered. I was about to get ready for bed on a Friday night, and my dad had just transferred me from my bathroom seat to my chair. As he lowered the…
Embracing My Inner Alien
— Kevin Schaefer
Kevin Schaefer (he/him) is a writer, podcaster, and lover of all things pop culture. Diagnosed with SMA type 2 at the age of 18 months in 1995, he shares a vast array of hilarious and eye-opening stories from his life with a neuromuscular disability. He works as the associate director of community content for this site’s parent company, Bionews. He also hosts the SMA News Today Podcast. Kevin is a graduate of North Carolina State University and lives with his parents in Cary, NC. People regularly mistake him for Tony Stark, on account of his intellect and advanced technological equipment.
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In her anthology “Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century,” the late activist and writer Alice Wong offers profound insight into the power of storytelling. She says in one of her essays, “Storytelling can be more than a blog post, essay, or book. It can be an…
“Chewie, we’re home.” Just as Han Solo uttered these words when he stepped aboard the Millennium Falcon in “The Force Awakens,” I felt a similar tinge of nostalgia and excitement upon returning to my favorite movie theater after an entire year.
On March 18, the gargantuan blockbuster of a superhero movie known as “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” arrived on HBO Max. With its multiple storylines, ensemble of main characters, staggering four-hour run time, and history of controversies and triumphs,…
In college, my sanctuary was the room where the majority of my classes took place. Tucked away in a secluded corner of the humanities building, the film room was akin to a small auditorium. In the center was a large screen that my professors used to showcase all…
You know it’s a unique relationship when one friend helps the other use the bathroom. This is the scenario I found myself in a couple weeks ago when my longtime friend Lucas held my urinal for me inside the bathroom of our go-to comic shop. While I normally…
I looked at the faces on my computer screen and saw just a snippet of the SMA community. People from different locations, different cultural backgrounds, and with different types of SMA were gathered for a Cure SMA virtual book club, which I had…
Well, 2021 has arrived, but we are still dealing with the ongoing ramifications of the previous catastrophe of a year. Those of us in disability communities remain in physical isolation, along with many others across the globe. Time goes on, but in many ways, it feels like it’s…
The pursuit of independence is almost always on my mind. As a disabled person, I face numerous challenges when it comes to living an independent lifestyle. From financial obstacles to managing caregivers, the very thought of one day moving out of my parents’ house fills me with more…
I didn’t plan on spending the majority of the day after Christmas on the toilet with a sharp pain in my side, but it was a rather fitting end to 2020. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t escape this year without at least one visit to the ER. …
Christmas Eve marks four years since I became an uncle, or as I like to call myself, a “funcle.” I let my sister and brother-in-law attend to all of the important parental responsibilities, while I do things like watch Disney movies and play hide-and-seek with my niece and…
The ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World” was a staple of my childhood. My sister and I spent many afternoons watching the hilarious and often idiosyncratic adventures of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga play out. Cory was the loyal and good-natured protagonist who had a…
In his essay for The New Yorker, “Who Am I?”, comedian Demetri Martin explores his identity both literally and figuratively. He opens by saying that he is “not a thing that is just lying around somewhere, like a pen,…
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