crippledschizo

[crippledschizo]

AESTHETICS SHOULD NEVER BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ACCESSIBILITY

[crippledschizo]

Just wrote an access to work application and it’s a fucking joke.

I spent 2 days being repeatedly booted off the form with all my answers being deleted for “inactivity” (because I use assistive software) before finally managing to copy and paste my answers from a separate document before cutting them down to the appropriate character limit.

Only to be told at the end of all this that they aim to get back to me in about 30 weeks. Which is February next year.

Not, “we’ll get your equipment by then”, just “we’ll contact you about your application”. By February. It’s July.

[crippledschizo]

Can I request a black dragon fursona, with grey details? Everything else can be up to you if you want.

I’d love if you could make them a forearm crutch user too.

[ID: a blue-gray dragon using forearm crutches. The dragon has blue hair and white markings.] Color pallet here

one of my comrades (the one who got me back into drawing furries actually) really likes drawing dragons

[crippledschizo]

For disability pride month (and the rest of the year) here's a shout out to

- people who have to take "scary" meds like antipsychotics, tranquilizers, schizo meds, lithium, opioids, and steroids because they're the only things that work

-people taking medicinal drugs that may be illegal in some areas

-people who have to get dangerous procedures and treatments

-people who will literally die without their meds and can't stop taking them

-people who can't afford their meds or their meds are so expensive it puts them in poverty

- people whose meds cause undesirable side effects

-people whose meds cause them to be immunocompromised

-people whose meds damage their bodies, but improve general quality of life enough that it's worth it

-people who get told to get off their meds constantly by people other than their doctors (or their doctors didn't want to put them on the med bc they're "too young")

-people who can't take medicine other than ibuprofen or Tylenol due to allergies, interactions, etc.

-people who don't want to take any medicine due to medical trauma

-people who can't take medicine at all and have to cope in other ways

-people who are addicted to their medicine and don't want to stop taking it

-people who are addicted and want to stop taking their meds

-people still suffering from unforeseen side effects that still affect them even though they got off the meds

Our relationships with our medicines/treatments are complicated and no one body is ever exactly the same. Please be respectful of people's choices and feelings about their meds.

[crippledschizo]

Fuck it, shout out to people who take longer to do things or have to do stuff slower than the average person.

Shout out to people who need extra time on tests.

Shout out to people who take longer to internalize information.

Shout out to people who take longer to talk.

Shout out to people who walk slowly, or take longer to get from one place to another.

Shout out to people who take longer to form connections with others.

Shout out to people who write slowly.

Shout out to people who read slowly.

Shout out to people who need extra time to rest between activities.

Shout out to people who can only do so much in a day.

Shout out to people with low dexterity that makes them do things slower.

Shout out to people who in some way have been deemed “slow”.

I see you, I hear you, and I will gladly wait for you if you want me to. I see effort you put in. I’m sorry that you have to be rushed so much. I hope that you can have the time you need, and that you get a support system that understands. You deserve to be able to exist at your pace.

And to the rest of yall, please for the love of fuck be patient. We are doing our best. We are going as fast as we can.

[crippledschizo]

If you aren't intellectually disabled and use the R slur every single one of your opinions is null and void. Sorry, not sorry.

[crippledschizo]

Disabled person: *exists* Able-bodied person™️:

(ID in alt)

[crippledschizo]

When people say "I hate people who walk slow/ use straws/ don't make eye contact/ other thing disabled people do more." then, when told it's often disability related, follow it up with "obviously I wasn't talking about disabled people" I make a mental note they are not safe.

Because the only way this is "obvious" is if you don't think disabled people are people.

[crippledschizo]

some of us are familiar with the euphemism treadmill in disability. it's where every polite or new word we disabled people use for ourselves in reaction to the previous terminology becoming slurs, themselves become slurs or pejorative based on the association with disability itself, which is used as an insult.

jumping off this i wanna talk about something that i call the severity treadmill. this is where, words that would typically describe some aspect or experience of disability or mental health are overused and are rendered meaningless. when they're used by ableds casually this is the treadmill event horizon where nobody takes them seriously anymore. examples include: gaslighting, trauma response, triggered, delusional. what people do to combat this is to borrow more severe or serious language that is used for disabled people typically with more disabling symptoms than them, in order to be taken seriously. think "adhd paralysis".

unfortunately this starts to water down those terms, which were already being used by disabled people for whom they were an accurate description! and eventually when it becomes popular enough with people with low support needs and massive social media presence, they are once again rendered meaningless. people are actively doing this with different terms right now such as autistic regression and medium support needs.

another side effect is that someone with, say, medium support needs might go into a support group looking for people like them and finding people with significantly fewer issues. and then face ableism from those people, who either didn't know or didn't care that the terms they use actually described a real group of disabled people. so if someone says something you describe isn't autistic regression, it's burnout, they're trying to keep the terms accurate and useful. not to dismiss the notion that you could be struggling.

[crippledschizo]

My Support Needs

Thought I’d explain why I say I am medium support needs. For Disability Pride Month.

ADLS

Toileting- Can do independently as long as not wearing pants with buttons.

Feeding- this talking about putting food into mouth, not preparing food. I can do independently.

Dressing- need help with buttons and zips. Also have lot of trouble picking out correct clothes for weather so someone helps with that.

Mobility - can do this independently. Note not talking about use of aids, I use crutches full time, but if can transfer or mobilize without assistance from another person.

Hygiene- need extensive prompting to wash self correctly.

IADLS-

Money Management- cannot do this at all, am under financial conservatorship. So parents manage my money.

Shopping- don’t understand prices and money so need assistance with that aspect. Also need to be supervised because have habit of wandering away and getting lost/in danger.

Household Chores- actually can do with simple written instructions. Do things like putting away laundry independently. Need prompting or visual schedule for when these tasks need done. Like for example - Friday is laundry day.

Medication Management- need someone to hand me pills and a drink in order for me to take them.

Food Prep- actually enjoy cooking but must be closely supervised to make sure not injure self. Can do simple things like microwave meals with instructions or use toaster independently.

[crippledschizo]

I've seen you mention mild/moderate/severe disability in your posts, and I wanted to ask what you consider the difference between each is? Since I don't think I've seen you distinctly clarify your definitions

(If this has been clarified, you may just link to where you did instead if that's easier for you)

Ive clarified before, but the main difference to me is something called Activities of Daily Living or ADLs.

There are "instrumental" adls like buying groceries, paying bills, light cooking like making yourself a sandwich, stuff you need to do to live without carers. Not being able to do a couple of those, I would generally someone in the "moderate" disability category.

Then there are "basic" ADLs. Things like fork to mouth eating (called feeding) using the toilet and wiping yourself after (toileting) dressing, washing your body, transferring from wheelchair to a bed or toilet, and mobility as in operating a mobility device or walking. Not being able to do some of these is what makes you severely disabled.

I don't mean like... It's hard, I mean incapable of it. As in someone needs to put the fork in your mouth, wipe your ass after using the bathroom, or wash your body for you because you can't. (I dont mean to sound rude about it, but theres a lot of confusion for a lot of people about it.) A lot of different governments and medical organizations use these to establish how disabled you are and what kind of care you need too.

I like it because it leaves out the comparison to able bodied people and gives a way to compare disability to disability. It's really hard otherwise to directly compare diagnosis to diagnosis and also the ability level within a diagnosis in a way that can be put into words.

Mental health disabilities are usually measured in a different way, the one im most familiar with is called the Global Assessment of Functioning and has its own rules, but a lot of things like severe autism, intellectual disability, and conditions that cause things like catatonic states have overlap with the ADL way of measuring.

[crippledschizo]

*post about brain damage*

90% of comments: I got a mild concussion once and-

sometimes you don't relate to things and that's ok 🙂

[crippledschizo]

Anyway, people with brain damage I love you. People who have had strokes I love you, especially if you're told you were "too young" to have one. People who acquired your brain damage by less common means such as infection, lack of oxygen at birth or degenerative disease, I love you. People with moderate and severe brain damage, I love you. People who lost their sight or hearing or ability to speak because of their brain damage, I love you. People who have paralysis from their brain damage, I love you. People with amnesia and severe cognitive issues from their brain damage, I love you. People with rare and unusual symptoms from their brain damage, I love you.

You are not a punchline, you haven't lost your humanity, your thoughts and opinions are as valuable as anyone else's. We deserve respect.

[ID: a dark red banner with the words "This post is about physical disabilities, do not derail." in grey font. Either side of it is a lighter grey wheelchair user symbol with the user leaning forward with the arms raised and back, giving the appearance of wheeling fast. End ID.]

[crippledschizo]

I’ve spent all day today painting leaves on my catheter bag stand, and it was definitely worth it!

ID: a photo of a grey plastic catheter bag stand painted with leaves in three different shades of green /end ID

[crippledschizo]

This disability pride month I'm BEGGING you to acknowledge and care about the people in this community who often fly under the radar when it comes to positivity and information. People who require equipment to live, like ventilators, pacemakers, and feeding tubes. People who are bedbound. People with visible differences. People who have disabilities caused by things like substance abuse, overdose, or self harm. People with conditions so rare that they've never met someone who has the same one. People who need full time care and have to have help to use social media.

If you want to support the community, that means supporting all of the community. Disability pride means being proud of every last one of us, and making sure everyone feels heard. Make sure to amplify the voices of those who need it this month, and ideally for the rest of the year too.

[crippledschizo]

Art Dump!

Please let me know if the alt text is okay, I’m still learning how to do that.

[crippledschizo]

Hehe picrew time

Link here

Tagging @stolitzsings @fuzzandfeathers @caldella @literatetranspanda @helluvagirlboss @hyperfixed-owl @bleucaesura and anyone else who feels like participating 😌