EDIA "Reading" Group

Brief Summary

"Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid. Founded in 1967 to serve the predominantly Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was staffed entirely by African Americans. Freedom House Ambulance Service broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard-of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals. The paramedic training and ambulance design standards pioneered in the Freedom House Ambulance Service would set the standard for emergency care nationally and even internationally. Despite its successes, the ambulance service was closed eight years after it began operating."  Freedom House Ambulance Service - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read - American Sirens by Kevin Hazzard a 360 page book

• Listen - Paramedics a free 1 hour podcast

• Watch - Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders a free 30 min documentary by PBS available for free on youtube

Brief Summary

"Passing, in the context of race, occurs when one conceals their socially applied racial identity or ethnicity in order to be perceived as another race for acceptance and/or other benefits. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a person of mixed race who has assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social consequences of racial segregation and discrimination. In the Antebellum South, passing as White was sometimes a temporary disguise used as a means of escaping slavery, which had become a racial caste." Passing (racial identity) - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read - Passing by Nella Larsen

• Listen:

  • Passing Audiobook LibriVox audiobook available for free on YouTube

  • Passing Radio adaptation a BBC Radio 4 adaptation available for free on ERA

  • Seriously… Thinking in colour  a BBC radio 4 podcast exploring stories of racial passing available for free on BBC sounds

• Watch: Passing a film adaptation of the book on Netflix

Brief Summary

"The 504 Sit-in was a disability rights protest that began on April 5, 1977. People with disabilities and the disability community occupied federal buildings in the United States in order to push the issuance of long-delayed regulations regarding Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Prior to the 1990 enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act was the most important disability rights legislation in the United States." 504 Sit-in - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read:

  • Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist - by Judy Heumann and Kristen Joiner

  • The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight - by Andrew Leland

  • The disabled activist who led a historic 24-day sit-in - a BBC news articles available for free 

• Watch

  • Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution - a 1hr46 documentary available on Netflix 

• Listen:

  • America's 504 Disability Rights Protests - a short BBC radio 4 podcasts available for free

Brief Summary

"AI bias, also called machine learning bias or algorithm bias, refers to the occurrence of biased results due to human biases that skew the original training data or AI algorithm—leading to distorted outputs and potentially harmful outcomes." What is AI Bias

Sources

• Read 

  •  For minorities, biased AI algorithms can damage almost every part of life An article by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (SOAS)

  • Tackling bias in artificial intelligence (and in humans) An article by Jake Silberg and James Manyika (McKinsey)

• Listen - Bias in AI an episode of Digital Planet from the BBC World Service (minutes 11-28 are most relevant)

• Watch - Episode 3 of AI Confidential with Hannah Fry available on BBC iplayer (less focus on inhertent AI bias but does raise some interesting questions about AI could create more bias)

Brief Summary

"Despite the UK being one of the richest countries in the world, around 4.5 million children (1 in 3) live in poverty. Children in lone-parent families face an even higher risk, with 43% living in poverty. The impact of child poverty is severe, affecting children’s health, wellbeing, and future economic opportunities. Children in poverty are also more likely to experience deeper and more persistent hardship, with around 1 million children facing destitution, the most extreme form of poverty, in 2023." Joseph Roundtree Foundation 

Sources

• Read - Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson (4 copies available at Manchester Central Library)

• Listen - (listed in order of relevance)

  • Lowborn - audiobook, available for free through Manchester Central Library

  • Must Read: Author interview with Kerry Hudson - a podcast on BBC sounds hosted by Sarah Brett

  • Class Talk - an episode of Seriously... a podcast on BBC sounds

• Watch - (still on the hunt)