This entry originally appeared on my disability blog, I hate stairs.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the 49th Disability Blog Carnival. Please, do not worry. There is plenty of accessible seating to go around.

Today’s carnival is special to me because it is the first one I have ever hosted. Since beginning this blog in June, I have learned much from the disability blogosphere: one, that it existed; two, that there is a lot of people who are like me and can relate to my experiences. And yes, that was a list—the theme of this week’s carnival. I chose “Lists” as the theme because they are so flexible. You really can have a list about anything! In fact, I even made a list of links that are featured in this edition of the DBC. It is available at:

delicious.com/royblakewatson/dbc-49/.

Let’s start this thing off with an oldie. I’m not talking about Stephen Deal, but rather his humorous “You’re Not Taking Your Disability Seriously If…” list. And while we’re being funny, we might as well have a look at Astrid‘s “Cynical List of Things I Learned in a Year in the Psychiatric Hospital.” “If life sucks for you, don’t say it out loud, because it can always suck more,” she warns.

And sometimes, it’s other people making life more difficult. Andrea is sick of all the crap excuses that lifeless, bureaucratic pawns can come up with to suppress self-advocating disabled people and their requests of fairness. Unfortunately, these self-advocates are sterotyped as whiners. And speaking of stereotypes, here’s some “Autism Ain’ts” from Joel at NTs Are Weird, and a protest against a book from aspierhetor.com.

Of similar topic, Ettina from Abnormaldiversity shares with us a list of “major components of how the ‘experts’ create panic and sell their therapies.” It seems they use scare tactics and “rosy promises” (like politicians?) to compel parents to agree to their various treatments.

Laura from Touched By an Alien provides a list of what she thinks are “The essential components” for individuals with Asperger Syndrome. Frida writes a list of clues for able people.

Shiva from Biodiverse Resistance begins a series calles Neurodiversity in Literature that focuses “on characters in novels who are really obviously (what would now be recognised as) autistic or otherwise neurodiverse.” The first looks at Noah Joad from “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Several bloggers have given us lists of tips. Greg from Pitt Rehab gives us a list of useful Web sites. Kara offers a list of charitable causes worth your donations. Dean gives us some tips about helping back pain. And Grace from Disabled 2 Abled has some great tips for “Computer Comfort,” which are relevant to us bloggers.

Rickismom from Beneath the Wings writes about all the lists connected to her daughter, Ricki. She admits that some of her lists—like the “list of skills needed to learn to reach independence”—may be a little “tyrannical.” Erin from School Psychologist Blog Files writes about “The Benefits of an Inclusion Classroom.”

Emma gives us a list of things she intended to do and things she did instead. She also has a cool 101 in 1001 to-do list. And Suzanne from disabilitiyjourney.com writes about the satisfaction of checking off items from a to-do list.

And now you can check off that you’ve read through the 49th Disability Blog Carnival. Thank you for visiting. And thanks to all those who submitted entries. We couldn’t do it without us!

Cheers.

EDIT: Here’s a list (why not?) of submissions I missed.