"The Kissability Project"! I hope you will decide to respond to this questionnaire. Please read the introduction and guidelines carefully before beginning the questionnaire.
My name is Katherine Duke. I'm 25 years old and currently live and work in Massachusetts. I have a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in creative writing, and training in teaching, acting, and writing for the theater. I also have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair or electric scooter for mobility. In recent months, my life-long ambition to use writing and drama to teach and entertain others has intersected with my interest in disability issues--and with my young-adult concerns about my own love-life. The result is my inspiration to begin this project.
Right now, The Kissability Project is in only its earliest stages. The finished product might turn out to be a nonfiction book, a performance piece, and/or something else entirely; the form(s) it takes, months or years from now, will depend upon the amount and kinds of input and help I receive from you and others.
I do know that I intend to give individuals with disabilities, and those who care about us, a chance to think and talk about ourselves as physical, social, romantic, and sexual beings. From what I have seen and experienced, we are not often represented as such in the media, and our bodies, feelings, and desires can be overlooked, undervalued, and misunderstood in everyday life. Each of us has ideas, opinions, and stories to tell, and I want to help them be told. So tell me yours!
Here are some guidelines for responding to the following questionnaire:
* You are welcome to respond regardless of your age, gender, sexual orientation, relationship status, ethnic background, education, job, religion, or political views. In fact, I'd like the diversity of participants to reflect the great diversity among people with disabilities and among human beings in general.
* The only requirement for participation is that you identify yourself as having a disability (or multiple disabilities). It can be an impairment of mobility, hearing, vision, or speech; a learning difference; a condition on the autism spectrum; a psychological disorder; a chronic illness; or some other condition. It can be an official diagnosis or something that only you yourself recognize. (Eventually, I also hope to gather input from the nondisabled relatives, friends, and lovers of people with disabilities, but that stage of the project will come later.)
* Your participation is anonymous. The questionnaire allows you to choose a name by which you would like to be identified in the project. You may use your real name or a false name, or you may leave it blank, in which case I will assign you a false name. I will never publish your real full name or contact information, or reveal it to anyone else, in connection with your specific answers. Any other people you name in your answers will be identified by false names in publication. In other words, I will take steps to protect the anonymity of everyone involved. (Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way for you to e-mail your answers to me without me seeing your name and e-mail address. If you are uncomfortable with this, sending your answers by "snail-mail" is more anonymous.)
* The questionnaire covers many topics and is therefore very long. But don't be put off by the number of questions! You are NOT expected to answer every question-- you may pick and choose the ones you want to answer. Some might not apply to you. If you don't want to answer a question, just leave it blank.
* There are no wrong answers. Your answers may be brief or long, funny or sad, poetic or straightforward. Don't be afraid to give answers that are explicit, strange, embarrassing, or "politically incorrect". For some questions, I provide example answers, but your answers do not need to resemble the examples. Though many of the questions are about disability, you don't need to refer to your disability in all of your answers. All I ask is that your answers be honest.
* To fill in this questionnaire, first copy, paste, and save it into a Microsoft Word document (or contact me through e-mail or Facebook to have me e-mail you the questionnaire as a Word document.) Then, there are several ways you may send me your answers:
+ Type your answers. After each question, insert your response into the Word document. You may insert as much space as you need and/or change the font to make it easier to read. Then send the document as an e-mail attachment (or cut and pasted into the body of the e-mail) back to me at katherinedukewriting@gmail.com, or print it out and mail it to:
Katherine Duke
141 Rolling Green Drive
Amherst, MA 01002
