January 24
KATIE HEALEY:
Hello and welcome to the Disability Daily Podcast! I’m your host, Katie, and over the past couple years, I’ve worked on a 365-day calendar that recognizes different folks and key moments in disability history each day of the year. I’m turning this into a quick daily podcast, and I’m excited to share this with you!
From well-known figures and innovative inventions to unsung heroes and landmark legislation, each episode reveals how people with disabilities have played a crucial role in our society.
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And with that, let’s dive in!
Today is Möbius Syndrome Awareness Day, recognized internationally each year on January 24. Möbius Syndrome is a rare neurological condition affecting the muscles that control facial expressions and eye movement. Facial paralysis can also impact other cranial nerves, leading to issues with hearing, speech, and swallowing.
Without surgery, individuals with Möbius syndrome often can’t smile, frown, squint, blink, or raise their eyebrows in typical ways, which can be misinterpreted as a lack of emotion or even a "blank" expression, and this can impact dating, employment, and other social realms. And because facial expressions are fundamental to sign language expression and grammar, facial paralysis is particularly challenging for Deaf and hard of hearing folks with Möbius syndrome.
The Möbius Syndrome Foundation works to “promote greater awareness and understanding of Moebius syndrome, and to advocate for scientific research that advances the diagnosis and treatment of Moebius syndrome and its associated conditions.”
So why is Möbius Syndrome recognized today? Well, January 24th is the birthday of German neurologist Dr. Paul Julius Möbius, whom Sigmund Freud considered one of the fathers of psychotherapy. If you’ve heard of a Möbius strip – a two-dimensional surface with only one side and one edge–, that was co-discovered by his grandfather, the mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius.
Anyway, Paul Julius Möbius first diagnosed the condition in 1888 (although the German ophthalmologist Alfred Graefe first described it in 1880).
Now Möbius also advanced the idea that women were biologically inferior to men, particularly in terms of intelligence and intellectual capabilities. He argued that women's intellectual capacities were hindered by their reproductive functions, reinforcing gender stereotypes of the time. He wrote in his book called On the Physiological Idiocy of Women that “all brain functions of the healthy woman are lesser than that of the healthy man, if one disregards the love of children” and that “If a woman has mathematical talent, it is as if she had a beard.”
I will leave you with that to interpret how you will and move on to our other person of the day.
And that is iconic American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, born January 24, 1941. He began writing songs while attending New York University, where he was studying pre-med on a fencing scholarship. However, his passion for music led him to leave college just short of graduating to pursue a career as a songwriter.
Diamond became one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with over 130 million records sold worldwide. His timeless hits include classics such as Sweet Caroline, Cracklin' Rosie, America, Song Sung Blue, and Love on the Rocks.
In 2018, Diamond publicly announced his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and with it his retirement from regular touring. In a 2023 interview he shared that despite being diagnosed years before, he had just begun to accept it.
“I can’t really fight this thing, so I had to accept it, this Parkinson’s disease,” he said. “There’s no cure. There’s no getting away from it. You can’t just say, ‘OK, enough already. Let’s get back to life.’ It doesn’t work like that. But I’ve come to accept what limitations I have, and still have great days.”
Diamond continues singing, and in 2020, he released a COVID-19 Public Service Announcement on YouTube video performing his Sweet Caroline with the new lyrics: "Hands, washing hands/Reaching out, don't touch me, I won't touch you."
Happy Möbius Syndrome Awareness Day, and Happy Birthday, Neil Diamond!
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Thanks!