#home modifications for disabled

[dwelcom]

NDIS Registered Builders in Sydney, NDIS Complex Home Modifications and NDIS Provider in Penrith

For sophisticated home modifications in Penrith, get in touch with the qualified and skilled builders at Dwelcom if you wish to adapt your house for a disabled family member.

[timothymccandless]

5 thing Medicare does not cover (and how to get them covered

https://notegpt.io/workspace/detail/b-_Yrm2w4Ao Medicare Coverage Overview: Medicare consists of two main parts: Part A (hospital insurance) and Part B (medical insurance). Most medically necessary services like emergency room visits, doctor’s office visits, hospital stays, diagnostic testing, and many non-self-administered medications are generally covered by Medicare. Cost Sharing…

[hellyeahsickaf]

I found an extremely dope disability survival guide for those who are homebound, bedbound, in need of disability accommodations, or would otherwise like resources for how to manage your life as a disabled person. (Link is safe)

It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:

How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.

Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."

How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills

How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud

Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides

Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance

Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!

There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.

Please boost!

[kxsagi]

hello its may 1 for u now🤫 how would the blue lock characs fare with a reader thats disabled... specifically in the legs.. and bcs of this she doesnt like going outside n only stays in bed n stuff…. with the itoshi brothers, isagi n anyone else u want… thank u😋

“𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩”

a/n: ofc!!! these boys are the best bfs ever

ft. isagi yoichi, itoshi rin, itoshi sae, nagi seishiro, mikage reo, kaiser michael, bachira meguru, chigiri hyoma, karasu tabito, hiori yo

isagi yoichi

isagi doesn’t push you to go outside, he’s gentle about it. 

he brings the outside to you. open windows, a little potted plant he’s sure you’ll name something dumb like “greenie,” and flowers he saw on his way home. 

“sunlight’s good for serotonin, love. so i brought both.” 

he’s constantly updating you on everything you’re missing like he’s live-commentating a nature documentary. 

he’ll climb into bed with you, legs hanging off the side, pulling up match replays on his phone and resting it on your chest like a movie night. 

you once said, “i feel like a burden,” and his eyes narrowed so hard you thought you’d get vaporized. 

“if i ever hear you say that again, i’m calling you every slur known to mankind.” 

itoshi rin

he gets very quietly worried. 

doesn’t always know how to express it, but he’s always thinking about you. 

orders groceries, learns to cook simple meals, keeps your favorite drink stocked. 

not overly affectionate at first, but he always checks: “do you want company today?” 

if yes, he’ll sit beside your bed and read or scroll through his phone. 

if no, he still leaves a snack on your nightstand. 

if you open up about your insecurity, his voice gets really serious: “you’re allowed to not be okay. just don’t shut me out.” 

holds your hand when you cry and refuses to let go until you’ve fallen asleep. 

itoshi sae

very… blunt. 

not in a mean way, just practical. he doesn’t sugarcoat things but he never makes you feel lesser. 

“you’re not broken. you’re still you.” 

if you’re upset, he doesn’t try to fix it with hollow reassurances. he’ll sit with you in the silence and let you feel. 

sometimes he just crawls into bed next to you and knocks out, head on your stomach, no questions asked. 

“don’t feel like moving? good. i didn’t want to either.” 

will absolutely carry you if you ever say you do want to go outside. 

“shut up. you’re light. plus i like the excuse to hold you this close.” 

nagi seishiro

king of being horizontal. 

genuinely doesn't see an issue with your preference to stay in bed, he’d stay there too if people stopped bothering him. 

plays games beside you or leans back so you can watch comfortably. 

casually adapts to your needs without making a fuss about it. 

if he sees you struggling, he doesn’t say “do you need help?” he just does it. 

“you’re still stronger than reo in a 1v1.” 

when you’re feeling down, he’ll dramatically throw himself across you like a human weighted blanket and groan, “ugh, life’s so hard… you’re the only reason i’m surviving.” 

he means it, kind of. 

mikage reo

rich boy privileges: he immediately researches accessibility products and home modifications. 

hires people to help, but only if you're comfortable with it. 

if you say no to something, he listens. 

he’s the type to book a private movie screening just so you can enjoy something new without dealing with crowds or logistics. 

but he’s also just as happy doing nothing with you. 

“whatever makes you happy, makes me happy.” 

always checking in, but never overwhelming. he lets you set the pace and is endlessly patient. 

may or may not try to build a robotic exosuit “just for fun.” 

kaiser michael

oh he pretends to be annoyed: “ugh, you never wanna go out and show off how hot you are? tragic.” 

but behind that ego is someone who makes your bed the most comfortable place on earth. 

he’ll bring in fairy lights, plushies, top-tier bedding, and a projector so your room feels like a cozy palace. 

“who needs the outside world when you’ve got me, anyway?” 

if anyone dares pity you or talk down on you, he will go feral. 

super soft when you’re feeling down. strokes your hair and mumbles dumb things like: “i’d trade my legs if it meant you could dance again. but you’d probably hate that, ‘cause i have hot legs.” 

always gassing you up. always making you laugh. always calling you “queen of the bed.” 

bachira meguru

tries to make everything fun, even when you're sad. 

brings art supplies, glow-in-the-dark stars, board games. anything to make your space lively. 

sometimes he lies next to you and pretends you’re on a spaceship bed traveling through the galaxy. 

“captain! we’ve reached the jellybean nebula!” 

your laughs are his mission. 

if you’re having a bad day, he builds you a blanket fort and lets you vent inside the “safe zone.” 

“i love you. not your legs. not your ability to walk. just you.” 

lowkey the best emotional support human ever. 

chigiri hyoma

out of everyone, he gets it the most. 

the moment he finds out about your leg disability, he doesn’t look at you with pity. just a quiet sort of empathy in his eyes. 

“i know what it’s like… i had an ACL injury before.” 

doesn’t say “i understand” lightly, but he truly means it. 

he’s the kind of person who’ll sit beside you on bad days and just be present. no pressure to talk. just there. 

and if you do talk, he listens like your words are gold. 

loves brushing your hair while you rant or holding your hand under the blankets. 

sometimes he gets a little choked up, like he’s projecting his past onto your struggles, but he catches himself. 

“sorry. it’s just… you remind me a little of how i used to be.” 

he encourages you slowly, softly. not to walk. not to change. but to believe that you’re still strong, even when you don’t feel like it. 

brings you hot tea and flowers and puts on calming music when you’re overwhelmed. 

if you ever want to go outside, he’s already scouting the area for accessibility ahead of time. 

“you’re not a burden. not to me. never to me.” 

he kisses your forehead like he’s trying to protect every part of you – body, heart, and soul. 

karasu tabito

chill and sarcastic, but very observant. 

he notices when your mood shifts and knows how to break tension with a well-timed joke. 

if you’re lying in bed moping, he’ll pop in like: “oh no. the bed’s taken her hostage. quick, i’ll negotiate her release with chocolate.” 

still checks in under the jokes. “but seriously. want anything?” 

will carry you fireman-style just to be annoying. 

also threatens to push you around in a shopping cart if you refuse a wheelchair. 

“you don’t have to move. i got you.” 

and he does got you. more than you realize. 

hiori yo

he doesn’t say it outright, but the man is down bad for you being bedridden. 

like, way too chill about it. suspiciously into it. 

finds your quiet, withdrawn nature so alluring. your stillness, your softness, the pain in your eyes, you are his type to a terrifying degree. 

the first time he sees you curled up in bed, blanket over your legs, eyes tired? he’s cooked. doomed. obliterated. 

“you don’t go outside much?” he asks, voice a little too soft, like he’s already mentally moving in. “... good. i’ll stay in with you.” 

he doesn’t just want to take care of you. he wants to worship you. he brings snacks, books, heating pads, and affection like it’s an offering. 

genuinely blushes when you look fragile. fragile is hot to him. like sorry not sorry. 

if anyone calls you weak? he’s unbothered. in fact, he agrees. “yeah. she’s weak. that’s why she needs me.” and he means it. 

strokes your leg absentmindedly like it’s his favorite thing in the world, even if you can’t feel it. “it’s okay if you can’t run. you’re mine. stay still.” 

gets a little dark when someone tries to force you out of bed or pressure you to be “normal.” he smiles, but there’s no warmth in it. “she’s perfect the way she is. back off.” 

your disability doesn’t scare him. it fascinates him. and not in a weird science way, in a “i could devote my entire life to this girl and be happy” way. 

to hiori, you’re not “broken.” you’re beautiful because you’re fractured. and he wants every piece.

© 𝐤𝐱𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢

[mariacallous]

Scott grew up in Baltimore, in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, “thinking that the government was an honorable place to work.” His grandfathers were Westinghouse engineers who conducted state-funded research. His parents were public-school music teachers. “Kids used to make fun of me for carrying a violin,” he told me. In college, he joined the R.O.T.C. and later entered the Air Force. He met his wife, a nuclear missileer, at their shared duty station in California. They both left active duty, but he continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve and went on to law school.

In 2013, he got a job as an attorney-investigator at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency that monitors and investigates banks, payday lenders, debt collectors, and other businesses. The C.F.P.B. was established in 2010, under the Dodd-Frank Act, which sought to prevent the kinds of mortgage scams and unregulated investments that had led to the Great Recession. “My specialty was delinquent-loan services, people struggling to get mortgage modifications,” Scott said. (He asked to use a pseudonym because he is not permitted to speak with the press.) Later, he joined a team that focusses on servicemembers, a population that’s particularly vulnerable to predatory practices because of the nature of their work—modest but dependable income, frequent relocation, peer pressure to buy “the biggest truck.” A lot of enlisteds get married young and have kids young, or have to support their parents. “They are getting money for the first time,” he told me. “They get preyed on.”

Scott liked the idea of helping the military community, and knew that his own status as a veteran had given him an advantage at the C.F.P.B. “It got me in the door,” he said, though he still had to take an entrance exam. Veterans often receive a preference in government hiring and promotions, which partly explains why they make up about thirty per cent of the federal workforce. “The preference tries to put us back where we would be, had we not served,” Scott said. “It levels the playing field.”

He has worked for the C.F.P.B. ever since. The agency has sued companies for persuading veterans to sell their pension and disability payments, for charging military families more than thirty-six per cent interest on pawn loans, and for misleading servicemembers to take costly cash-out refinance loans on their homes. He recalled cases in which a debt collector had lingered outside someone’s house, pretending that his cellphone was a police walkie-talkie, or gone through the drive-thru of a Taco Bell to harass someone working the window. Since its founding, the C.F.P.B. has recovered more than three hundred million dollars in damages to military personnel and veterans.

I visited Scott last week at his home about an hour away from D.C. He looks the part of an airman: tall, fit, and fastidiously groomed. The house was also big and spotless, save for the area occupied by two yappy Chihauahas. He showed me the dining room, which doubles as his office. Next to his work laptop was a bound copy of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, whose worn lime-green cover was signed, in Sharpie, by one of the creators of the C.F.P.B.:

Keep ’em honest Elizabeth Warren

In early February, the Trump Administration had shut down the agency headquarters. Elon Musk pronounced it dead—“RIP CFPB,” he wrote on X—as his DOGE operation dug into the computer systems. “Employees should not come into the office,” Russell Vought, an outspoken critic of financial regulation and the C.F.P.B.’s new acting director, wrote in an “AllHands” e-mail. “Employees should stand down from performing any work task.” He then fired ten per cent of the bureau and oversaw a “wholesale termination of the contracts needed to keep the C.F.P.B. running,” a procurement staffer stated in a recent affidavit. Vought’s plan to terminate nearly everyone at the agency “within 36 hours” was halted by a federal judge.

Scott was spared but put on administrative leave. He could do little more than check his e-mail and wait. Normally he would be analyzing the complaints submitted by servicemembers, organizing outreach events, and discussing emerging concerns with colleagues at the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Now nothing was getting done.

Several time zones west, in Honolulu, a financial coach and military spouse named Heidi Clemons was feeling alarmed by the news about the C.F.P.B. The packet of materials she gave to servicemembers and families was filled with links and references to the agency. “We’re trying to point our servicemembers to the most trusted information—historic, government-backed, lasting, not scam-based or profit-based,” she told me. Suddenly, in February, the links led to a “Page Not Found” message. All the YouTube explainers were gone. “It was a hot mess,” she said. “We had to pull the C.F.P.B. from all our resourcing.” Though the website was later restored, she didn’t want to take the risk of sending people to “a dead-end link.” “The impact of shutting down the C.F.P.B. on our servicemembers—it’s huge,” she said.

Scott had been to that part of Oahu for military exercises. Fort Shafter sits between the misty, dark-green mountains of the Ko’olau Range and the Ke’ehi Lagoon. “There’s a lot of sleazy businesses,” he said. Cash for gold, title loans, pawnshops. There are high-tech temptations, too: crypto and various money-making schemes on Venmo, Zelle, and other peer-to-peer payment apps.

Military personnel have long been vulnerable to shady enterprises and cons. Twenty years ago, the Government Accountability Office conducted a study for the Defense Department, based on “continuing concerns about servicemembers’ use of predatory consumer loans.” The report found that these products could lead to “severe negative consequences for the military as a whole (e.g., decreases in unit readiness and morale) as well as for the servicemembers themselves (e.g., criminal and adverse personnel actions, including possible discharge from the military).” Clemons told me that she had one client whose husband had stolen her identity; that another, a Reservist, owed money to a loan shark; and that apartment complexes near the base were having military applicants “waive away their rights” under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which allows active-duty renters to break their lease when necessary. In 2023, of the eighty-four thousand or so complaints submitted by servicemembers to the C.F.P.B., the second-highest number came from Hawaii.

Earlier this year, a unit based at Fort Shafter—the 9th Mission Support Command of the Army Reserve (motto: “Pride of the Pacific”)—had asked for a C.F.P.B. representative to staff a booth at an upcoming resource fair for soldiers and their families. Scott arranged for a co-worker to be there with plenty of bureau literature and swag. The event took place on March 1st, but the rep never showed up—because no one was allowed to work. “They didn’t know where we were,” Scott said.

On Sunday, March 2nd, Scott and other remaining staffers received a confusing e-mail from Mark Paoletta, the C.F.P.B.’s chief legal officer:

On behalf of Acting Director Vought, I am writing to you to ensure that everyone is carrying out any statutorily required work, as he set forth in his February 8th email. … Employees should be performing work that is required by law and do not need to seek prior approval to do so.

A month earlier, Vought’s message had clearly said not to perform “any work” at all. Scott and other C.F.P.B. employees concluded that this new directive was an attempt to rewrite the story for purposes of litigation. A lawsuit filed by the workers’ union alleged that by issuing a stop-work order to all staff the Administration had violated the Dodd-Frank Act. A hearing was scheduled for the following day. “They’re trying to develop cover for the court case,” Scott told me.

Meanwhile, the invitation to do what was “statutorily required” let him resume some of his work. “I currently have three hundred and twenty-three unread e-mails,” he told me. “Usually, I try to clear them out as fast as I can.” We were in his dining room, sitting at a table covered in delicate white lace. He sipped coffee from a Pentagon mug. The complaint system for servicemembers and veterans had continued to function through the pause, though with noticeable glitches, and Scott was finally able to download the latest data. “Our all-time record is ten thousand complaints for any month,” he said. “And then January was nineteen thousand!” A lot of the submissions had to do with credit reporting. Late last year, the C.F.P.B. had forced Navy Federal, a credit union with a large presence on military installations, to return eighty-one million dollars in overdraft fees to consumers. Scott guessed that the settlement had prompted fresh complaints about other institutions.

But he wasn’t able to track the complaints as he normally would. Typically, when a complaint comes in, it is both reviewed by the C.F.P.B. and routed to the relevant financial company, which is then obligated to respond, and often does so through e-mail with an attached PDF. The many contracts Vought had cancelled, however, included one “with a software company who would scan all our documents for viruses,” Scott explained. “So, now we’re not able to open attachments.” What this meant, he continued, was that “Nobody’s monitoring, right now, to make sure the responses are timely or that they’re complete.” He shrugged.

We got in the car and drove southeast, past the main gate of Fort Meade, past a Northrop Grumman campus, past a strip mall advertising cheap tax preparation. “Some people get loans against their tax refunds—I worry about that,” he told me. I asked him what the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Defense might do to help members of the military, if the C.F.P.B. no longer could. “I mean, not a lot,” Scott said. “For some things, the servicemembers could go to their JAG”—the military’s law department—“and the JAG might write a letter, but that’s about all they’re going to do.”

Enough of the agency was still intact that Scott believed it could be brought back to life. The day after my visit, a federal judge in Maryland ruled that thousands of fired federal workers, including those at the C.F.P.B., would have to be temporarily reinstated; the Trump Administration appealed the order. Some probationary workers subsequently received a “notice of rehiring” that put them on paid administrative leave. Though Scott had recently interviewed for jobs in a city prosecutor’s office and at a credit union in need of a compliance officer, he still hoped to return to the bureau. “If this blows over, I can come back,” he said. He hated to think what would happen if the agency went away completely. “You’re going to see a boom and bust in crypto. You might see a recession,” he told me. “We’re gonna see foreclosures. People forget that. People don’t remember what that’s like.” ♦

The New Yorker is committed to coverage of the federal workforce. Are you a current or former federal employee with information to share? Please use your personal device to contact us via e-mail (tammy_kim@newyorker.com) or Signal (ID: etammykim.54).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sam Gustin at The Nation:

President Trump’s suggestion last month that the tragic Potomac air crash was somehow the fault of disabled federal air traffic controllers was appalling—but it should have come as no surprise. Trump’s contempt for people with disabilities has been well documented, and it’s that animus, combined with the accelerating MAGA assault on diversity throughout the United States, that has disability rights advocates preparing to defend decades worth of hard-won protections. One month into his presidency, Trump has unleashed a government-wide attack on people with disabilities, from anti-diversity executive orders to proposed special-education rollbacks to threats to slash programs like Medicaid that are lifelines for disabled people across the country. If successful, these actions could have catastrophic consequences for millions of Americans, according to disability rights experts. “This is a crisis for the disability community, and the threat is extremely serious,” Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, told The Nation. “These changes have the potential to erode decades of progress that the disability community has fought tooth and nail to achieve.”

Within 48 hours of taking office, Trump signed two executive orders targeting what he called “illegal” diversity programs—commonly referred to as DEI or DEIA—in both the federal government and the private sector. Trump and his MAGA minions claim that these programs, which promote the worthy goals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility throughout American society, discriminate against, well, them, and so they should be abolished. At a time when Elon Musk and his DOGE henchmen are racing to “delete” entire federal agencies and fire thousands of government workers, diversity programs have become a convenient target for the drastic budget reductions that Trump seeks—under the bogus guise of “waste, fraud, and abuse”—in order to cut more taxes for rich people and corporations. Hence the MAGA/DOGE crusade to demonize and scapegoat diversity programs for all kinds of calamities, from plane crashes to wildfires to train derailments. Thus far, most of the focus on Trump’s diversity rollback has been on “DEI,” but it’s the “A”—for “accessibility”—that has alarmed disability rights advocates.

“The hard-fought-for acceptance of people with disabilities in society is compromised every time Trump uses DEIA as a bogeyman for everything that’s wrong in society,” said Michael Rembis, a professor of history at the University of Buffalo and director of its Center for Disability Studies. “This purge of federal employees is in part designed to remove people who are perceived to be unproductive for both racist and ableist reasons from the federal government.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. Trump’s anti-diversity executive orders roll back more than three decades of US policy since then——including executive orders signed by Clinton, Obama, George W. Bush and Biden—aimed at bringing more people with disabilities into the federal workforce and the private sector. From hiring and job training to career development and workplace accommodation, these policies have given many disabled people new opportunities to thrive, and a new sense of dignity after generations of mistreatment in American society, from ostracization to institutionalization to forced sterilization. Those advances are now at risk, and the impacts are already being felt nationwide, as funding cuts loom for community organizations that provide crucial services and support systems for disabled people, from home modification to job coaching to transportation and personal attendant services. “We’ve heard from many organizations across the country that are having to think about cutting their staff, reducing their services, or even closing their doors,” said Town. Disability rights advocates warn that Trump’s anti-diversity executive orders are just a prelude to even more draconian attacks. For example, Trump’s avowed goal to eliminate the Department of Education could jeopardize special-education programs for roughly 7.5 million students—15 percent of the US student population. Trump’s plan to cut billions in grants issued by the National Institutes of Health threatens long-term research and development focused on life-saving—and life-improving—treatments for millions of Americans. And, of course, any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and particularly Medicaid—and let’s face it, the GOP wants to eliminate or privatize these programs altogether—will disproportionately affect millions of disabled people who rely on the programs to survive.

[...] The Trump administration’s assault on government policies and programs that benefit disabled people is not just a scheme hatched in the bowels of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 anti-government boiler room—although it is that, too. It’s also the natural evolution of Trump’s long-standing prejudice against people with disabilities. Trump’s disdain for disabled people is well known, from mocking reporter Serge Kovaleski and insulting wounded veterans to reportedly telling a relative with a disabled son that “maybe those kinds of people should just die.”

[...] It’s no secret that Trump is obsessed with genetics, as demonstrated by his preoccupation with bloodlines and frequent comments about “good” genes, “bad” genes, “low IQ individuals,” immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America, and other bigoted remarks. In 1988, Trump famously told Oprah Winfrey that people must have “the right genes” to become rich. Since then, he has repeatedly compared his family to purebred “racehorses.” In 2020, Trump again invoked the “racehorse” theory to assure a mostly white Midwestern audience that “you have good genes in Minnesota.” And just last year, he intimated—outrageously—that immigrants commit murder because “it’s in their genes.”

[...] It’s worth noting that disabled people were among the earliest victims of the Holocaust, condemned to death by a Nazi program called Aktion T4, which involved the systematic murder of some 300,000 people in psychiatric hospitals in Germany, Austria, and elsewhere in Europe. Stramondo doesn’t expect anything remotely like that to happen in the United States, but he pointed out that sterilization and murder aren’t the only ways to advance eugenic goals. “You can practice and enforce eugenic ideologies that result in lots of people suffering and even dying just by doing something like eliminating Medicaid,” he said.

The Nation reports on Donald Trump’s attacks on DEIA polices and its impact on persons with disabilities, which goes along with his long record of ableism.

[askthemedbay]

Lore wise, I would have to know the lore of what happened to Pharma. What is shown is fascinating and love to know more! Your art and worldbuilding is really good, and I am happy to see more.

(OOC: Thank you for the kind comments!! And congrats, anon, you’re the winner of the first story post! It’s a bit lengthy, but I’ll do more of these if you guys like them!)

Ratchet was already growing suspicious by the time he noticed what Pharma had done.

No one could find that many willing donors that quickly, and morgue was filling up with cogless corpses.

It was stupid to believe Pharma, and he saw that now, just like he saw him drugging those sleeping bots. Those optics that would never open, that would never see their new home planet.

If only he was faster.

Ratchet adjusted his wrists. His new modifications hadn’t exactly settled with his original circuitry yet, making the joint feel bulky and slow. It would settle into its new purpose soon, though. It would see use soon.

Pharma hadn’t stopped stalking around the room since Ratchet agreed to leave, his pedes tapping rhythmically to every calculated step. Keeping up with quota drove him mad, Ratchet thought. No bot would think to kill a patient mid operation, to rip out their most precious organ and leave the corpse as an accident.

It was so stupid to believe him, in hindsight he was a fool. But that was hindsight, and this was now.

Ambulon stepped into the small room, and Ratchet pressed himself further against the wall. No one had noticed him yet, not even the keen-opticed trainee. He knew what Pharma planned to do to him. He felt all that Ambulon felt, and had heard Pharma’s mad ramblings late into the night. Yes, he was smarter than they assumed. The elder medic still had a functioning processor.

“You requested me?” Ambulon prefaced. Primus, he was only a kid. He was older than his own, but clearly not by much. That soft faceplate and hardly set jaw said enough. He’d only recently grown into that heavy plating.

Pharma ceased his pacing, looking at Ambulon with wild optics. That was not the same bot he once considered a friend, a colleague. That wasn’t Pharma, not anymore. Some kind of disease had wormed its way into his processor. It bastardized him. Turned him into… into…

Ratchet didn’t blink. His optics were tuned in and focused. That’s how fast it was. Though, seekers moved quickly under stress, didn’t they? Pharma raised his servo, which quickly turned into a loud, screeching engine.

Ambulon wasn’t stupid. He also made it through grueling medical academies before the war ruined his chances of a real certification. At least he was there to teach the poor kid… the long and short of it, he’d figured it out quite a while before Ratchet had; wether the circumstances were some sick twist of fate or not, the kid’s safety was his greatest concern. And for good reason. “Pharma..? What are you doing?”

Ratchet wasn’t nearly the fastest bot on the Ark, but he had some good days. This just happened to be one of those. Though, not nearly as fast as Pharma was in drawing his weapon of choice, Ratchet flung himself at the other medic.

They landed in a pile of scraping frames and harsh curses, tussling on the sterile ground of the medbay. Pharma, while lithe and agile, was no match for the bigger mech, but he was certainly trying. He waved his saw around like a mad mech, almost grazing Ratchet’s crest multiple times.

If any time was good to test his new ability, now was that time.

Ratchet raised his new, awkward servo, and revealed its purpose. The plating snapped away easily, revealing about a dozen tinier cables, ones that almost resembled those Soundwave used to disable his enemies before he went for the kill; but these were far more humane.

He fought for a better hold. Ratchet pushed Pharma onto his front, unwilling to listen to his screams. Not anymore. His free servo held his saw-wrist down, while he placed his modification on that practiced place. Ratchet closed his optics, focusing his power into controlling those smaller tendrils.

Pharma yelped, then that yelp turned into stupefied groans. When Ratchet returned to himself, the cables had snaked up the back of Pharma’s neck and into the thin gap between the heavy protective plating and connective wires. He was cradling his processor now. Subduing him manually. Finding the small nodule at the back of the processor, Ratchet watched the light fade out of Pharma’s optics.

He was not offline, not entirely, but he would be in stasis for some time. Just enough to get him locked up in the Ark’s brig.

Ratchet released soft vent, his internal fans clicking on as he carefully removed his processor-scrambling equipment. He stood, only now noticing that Pharma… he’d definitely hit him. The glass panels of his chassis were shattered, and he was coated in pink, purified energon. But that wasn’t his greatest concern.

Ambulon was frozen in place, like he’d gone to recharge standing up. He couldn’t speak, only opening and closing his intake stupidly. Ratchet stumbled to him, grabbing his shoulders roughly and squeezing. “He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

When Ambulon shook his helm no, Ratchet cycled his vents with relief. He pulled the young bot into his arms, trying to comfort him. “You’re okay, kid. You’re safe. Go… go take the next decacycle off. Please.”

“Yes, sir..”

He always was quite good at taking orders.

(OOC: Once again, I’ll do more story posts if you guys like them! Have some related sketches too)

[ct0444-kia]

"i looked at him and i saw myself" - a reflection (httyd live action)

one scene that hit so different when rewatching the httyd live action was the end when hiccup gets his prosthetic leg. for context, im 17 but i was diagnosed 2.5 months ago with arthritis, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the joints. it attacked my knees and for like a month i couldnt walk. i kept limping around, used a wheelchair for a bit, needed people to help me walk and move. i felt so weak and so helpless. now im taking meds and i can walk now! i cant walk far or long or quickly, and i cant do any strenuous physical activity, but im doing much better than how I started.

during the whole scene i was like “oh thats me”. it was the same thing for the most part, hiccup wakes up, sees his prosthetic, tries to stand on his own, fails, uses toothless for support, limps around. the major difference was hiccup tears up when he sees his leg. in the orig he just sighed deeply and looked sad.  ok in both movies he moved on from the limb loss fairly quickly which isnt realistic but hey it wasnt realistic from the getgo there are dragons. but the added teary eyes meant so much more coz u can see that the reality dawns on him that hes not normal. he lost a limb and thats a big change. and u can feel that impact based on his reaction. it was a small detail that lasted like 3 seconds but it meant a lot and hit so close to home. and also to see him try to be independent but fail and rely on the support of others, to see him limp reminded him of me. different conditions, similar effects. and theres that added meaning of it’s not the end of the world. it’s different and it's more difficult than normal but it will get better. hiccup was back to flying like it was nothing. there’s modifications here and there to make his world easier to live in. differently abled rather than disability. he has his own normal, different than the norm normal but a normal he can live in nonetheless. and im making my own normal too.

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#1145

Eugenics and genetic modification are not the same thing. The terms are not interchangeable. Eugenics is the practice of erasing perceived ‘undesirable’ traits in the gene pool. It is motivated by racism and ableism and is horrific. Genetic modification is one possible tool that eugenicist could use to achieve that end. Another tool which has actually been used by eugenicists to advance their awful goal is compulsory sterilization. This is also horrific and recognized as such - compulsory sterilization is a Crime Against Humanity in the Rome Statute. However, sterilization procedures such as tube tying and vasectomies are not practices that people generally call for to be banned, because people may want to prevent themselves from getting pregnant or from getting another person pregnant for all sorts of reasons and we recognized that people should have autonomy over their own bodies and be free to make their own reproductive choices. Consensual vasectomies and tube tying being legal in a country does not mean that country is endorsing eugenics. A country in which there is a government program of coercing or using incentives to get members groups perceived as undesirable to have their tubes tied or have vasectomies is practicing eugenics. The legality and use of tool in general does not necessarily mean that the tool is being used for eugenics. Now, let’s take that one step further with a hypothetical on genetic engineering. Imagine that we determine that if one gene was removed from the human genome, those without that gene would no longer get dementia and there were zero other impacts. Would a country that made that genetic modification procedure available for free to everyone who wanted it and the doctors performing that procedure be practicing eugenics? Now imagine that procedure didn’t work in adults or even children. It had to be administered during fetal development to be effective. Would a parent choosing to have that gene removed from their unborn child so they would never get dementia be practicing eugenics? I'm not going to weigh in on those my point is that it’s a complex issue, there are very flew easy answers available and you really have to consider motive. Eugenicists are motivated by the view that certain people are superior and other people are inferior and they want to get rid of the latter.

Applying it to Strange New Worlds, Una has specifically stated that the Illyrian motivation for genetic modification is so that they fit in with their environment, rather than terraform (this intersects another really interesting scientific ethical discussion happening around climate engineering and the potential consequences). There is no evidence in canon that Illyrians are motivated by the need to be superior or are getting rid of undesired traits. They took up modification to live on planets that would otherwise be unhospitable to them (beta canon is that their home world is no longer inhabitable even with modification due to environmental collapse outside of their control, they’re essentially environmental refugees). While Illyrians modify themselves genetically, there is no evidence that Illyrians are practicing eugenics. In the context of DS9, Bashir’s parents believed it was undesirable to have a son with intellectual disabilities. They modified him to get rid the trait they perceived as undesirable. They were practicing eugenics. In Star Trek canon, billions of people died during the Eugenics Wars. When it comes to the law, it is incredibly difficult determining motive and therefore it is understandable that they banned genetic engineering as a way of stopping eugenicists and preventing a repeat. But in doing so, they accidentally created a legal regime in which entire families could be arrested.   The point Star Trek has been making lately with the Illyrian storyline is sometimes shit is complicated, and that a law that is meant to protect, can also sometimes harm and we need to be able to listen, think and consider complex situations. And I also hate myself a bit for writing this. I should just be able to ignore all the terrible takes and ‘I haven’t watched but…’ people.

[urbancripple]

To able‐bodied people, wheelchair users have a certain mystique. They’re constantly asking us about how our bodies do or don’t work, whether we can have sex, why we haven't just killed ourselves yet. But despite their intrusive questioning, there is one area that ableds seem to be absolutely certain about: the existence of ultra‐convenient readily‐available accessibility modifications and mobility aids.

As wheelchair users, how many times have we been told to “put some chains on that thing!” As we struggle through the snow? How often is it suggested that we get a hand‐bike so that we can cycle to work like our coworkers? If I had a nickel for every time someone suggested I attach some tried‐and‐true motor to my chair, I’d have enough money to pay someone to invent it.

People are constantly sending me links to articles and videos to supposed life‐changing mobility aids that can climb stairs or move over rough terrain. They tell me that things can’t be that difficult with a constant stream of new, convenient doo‐dads being put out in the world. Hell, when discussing how difficult it is to find a single‐story home in Seattle (existing or custom), the suggestion was made that I simply build a multi‐story home but also put an elevator in.

Here’s the thing though: has anyone, wheelchair‐user or otherwise, actually seen any of these so‐called solutions in person? The stair‐climbing wheelchair? The magical snow tires? The super fast motor? I haven’t. As for the elevators and hand bikes, I can count the number I’ve seen on one hand and I’d need way more fingers and toes to show you the price tag.

Despite their near non‐existence or insurmountable financial cost, people keep telling me I just need to “get me one of those…” and continue to cast my existence and the problems that come with it in a mythical light.

An elevator for your house starts at around six‐thousand dollars. If you want one that doesn’t look like the rickety stair‐lift at your local Eagle’s Club, it’ll cost you upwards of sixty‐thousand.

The price of an average, entry‐level bike is four‐hundred bucks. If you want an accessible hand bike, you’re going to start around a grand.

Custom wheelchair tires can vary anywhere from two to five thousand, often times costing more than the chair they’re attached to.

That stair climbing chair? Eleven grand. Want something that’s a little more “every day”? That’ll cost you seventeen grand. Just need a motor for your day chair? Six grand and it weighs fifteen pounds.

Now, some folks might be thinking “sure, it’s expensive now, but the price will come down as technology improves and more people buy these devices”. But with an employment rate of roughly 7 percent (before COVID) and rules governing the amount of money disabled people on SSI can have in the bank (no more than two-thousand dollars), most wheelchair users can’t even save up to buy one of these devices. And no, insurance won’t cover any it.

A lack of accessibility is not something we can just “tech” our way out of and disabled people should not expected to purchase access to a world that everyone else gets for free. Talking about mobility aids you’ve never used or seen when someone is trying to explain to you the barriers they face in their day to day life due to a lack of accessibility isn’t helpful, it’s dismissive. Quit doing it.

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

What are some of your personal favorite fics? Whether they're on the list already or no!

Oh gosh, I've read a lot of really wonderful fanfics!! For me personally, my favorite fanfics are always the ones that have elicited a strong response out of myself. I'll go ahead and list a few that I've really enjoyed! Note, they aren't in any particular order of favoritism. I like them all!! If they're already in my list, the link supplied is the one leading to the appraised version listed on my Fanfic List Masterpost! If its not in my list, then I simply supplied the direct link to the fic on Ao3 ^^ I hope you give some of these a try!! I wholeheartedly recommend them all!!

When I Was Younger by @sketchiefoxie & @inkypawprint (Rottmnt Fanfic) Summary: It’s a month after the invasion, and the Mad Dogs believe they’ve left the worst behind themselves. Though their whole world is shook when none other than their future selves, not Casey’s future versions, but themselves come back to the past. Something big is coming; something involving the Krang and the Foot clan, and it isn’t good.

The Lemonade Leak by @turtleinsoup (Rottmnt Fanfic) Summary: "Leo can not sleep, because there is a thing in Donnie's lab, pretending to be his twin. Or: It turns out that being created as a biological super soldier comes with a few... modifications. Some of those, more dangerous than others."

firefight by @remedyturtles (Rottmnt Fanfic) Summary: Donnie collided with Leo in a tangle of limbs. There was an instinctive cling in return from his twin, before the realization sunk in. "No." Leo breathed in his ear, immediately shattered. "No, no, no, no, no!” Every muscle in Donnie's body was shaking like an earthquake from the amount of effort he'd just expended. The explosion caught up to them, sending the twins spiralling away into space and debris. For one singular moment, Donnie allowed himself a burst of victory. His heart was still thudding a thousand miles an hour in his chest, having been absolutely terrified he wasn't going to make it in time. But he did. And he held onto Leo, his prize. Then they hit the ground, the sudden tumble bursting them apart. Donnie felt the world spin, rapid and disorientating, before he slammed into something rock and cracking under his impact. or: donnie doesn’t let leo go to hell alone

My Life, Their Story by @azucar-skull (Rottmnt Fanfic) (You'll) Get Through It (MLTS Part 1) Summary: After saving the world from the Kraang, (Leo included), Mikey suffers from severe nerve damage in his arms. This disability takes over his entire life, causing a lot of chaos. Right Now Is Real (MLTS Part 2) Summary: Raph grew up with nightmare disorder, something that he was born with that gradually got worse over time due to PTSD, especially after the Kraang incident. This leads to Raph becoming a danger to himself and others as everyone tries to help him seek out help. The Show Must Go On (MLTS Part 3) Summary: Leo deals with severe depression and PTSD after the events of the movie as he strives to be a better brother. Freak Of Nature (MLTS Part 4) Summary: After Donnie thought he lost everything, he ended up losing even more. Including his mind. Or; Donnie has a gun--

Down With The Stockholm by @devotedtosadpoetry (Rottmnt Fanfic) Summary: Leonardo is captured and experimented on until he is turned exactly into what they want him to be. Some things cannot be undone. Meanwhile, mutants and yokai are in hiding, fearful of this powerful entity.

Revelations Timeline AU by @idk-im-just-here-now (Rottmnt Fanfic) Song of a Sunny Day (fading into dusk) Part 1 Summary: It's been a month after the Kraang invasion. The lair has been filled with nothing but the sounds of a heart monitor and quiet. It's too quiet for Mikey, so he goes on a solo run of the city. He finds a violin case on the ground and decides to take it home. After all, what could go wrong with learning an instrument? As it turns out, quite a lot. Memories of a Tyrant (locked in a prison) Part 2 Summary: After the events of the Kraang invasion, Donnie has thrown himself fully back into his work. This time though, he has a new companion, who keeps reminding him of events too close to be called the past and slithering through his head... The Ghosts That Wander (and the monsters who follow) Part 3 Summary: Being in a coma is not fun, but somehow, neither is not being in a coma. As Leo finally comes to after the invasion, things around the Lair look very different - and not in any kind of way that Leo likes. The Call Of A Parasite (hunting the hivemind) Part 4 Summary: Its been one week since the invasion, and everything is still in a near critical state. Overwhelmed by it all, and the fear of becoming a monster once more, Raph takes to the ruined streets of New York But barely a week has passed, meaning open ground is still crawling with the remnants of the Kraang. And Raph begins to learn.

Adagio in Green: Panacea by @boxfullaturtles (Rottmnt Fanfic) Summary: They stopped the apocalypse, but it's left them in bad shape. Leo's shell is in pieces. Mikey won't wake up. Donnie can hardly move. Raph's barely holding himself together. They're going to need all the help they can get to survive in the wake of the invasion. It’s a good thing they’re not alone. --------- A post-movie story about processing grief and trauma, and how the road to recovery isn't always a straight line.

So, I guess... we all have issues by SpectrumWriting on Ao3 (TMNT 2012 Fanfic) Summary: Mikey wasn't insane. He knew he wasn't. He really did have three brothers and a father, no matter what his paperwork said. Also, none of his family was human, and neither was he. That was the truth about him, no matter what anyone else thought. (Sticking by that truth got him thrown into an asylum. What a surprise.) **Winner of FIRST PLACE in the Universal TMNT Mature Fanfic Competition 2016 for MOST COMPELLING AU, and winner of SECOND PLACE for MOST SPOT ON PORTRAYAL OF MICHELANGELO.**

Thank you for the ask!! I really enjoyed answering this one, and I hope you enjoy some of the fics I listed!! Any of them that aren't in my list, will be added eventually. Have a wonderful day! ^^

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Webcomic Chapter 153 Review

Another straight-to-meta chapter. This chapter continues the flit from place to place, seeing how various heroes are reacting to the small issue of an organization bidding to take over the world by abolishing free will, starting with a little light genocide.

Reading this chapter, what I felt was not so much excitement as satisfaction. A lot of characters are having their tensions resolved. My first reaction was that indeed, the chickens are coming home to roost. Some of them are welcome.

Sweet Mask has finally discarded his mask to reveal his true, ugly self, and he's found that perfect hero symbol along the way. Webi's choice to pursue Amai in the first place is contextualised. Her ambition to outdo him and her choice of heroism as a means of doing so is rooted in her hatred of feeling helpless. She doesn't stop, even though she's overheating dangerously, even though she feels like she's careening out of control. But she doesn't attack the crowd cheering her on despite the attempted remote take over of her modifications. That's not surprising: from the get-go, we've been told that body modifications are taken up by people who have both the physical and mental strength to withstand the process and utilise their modifications, and those people need the mental clarity as to why they're putting themselves through surgery. It's a world away from the zombiefication the Organization has been inflicting on people they 'treat' and also nothing like the suits carelessly donned by unsuspecting Neo Heroes.

With Sweet Mask coming through to both save her and recruit her directly into helping him disable the suited erstwhile Soda Pop Boys, she feels seen by her idol and vindicated in her efforts.

We have Darkshine finally regain his confidence thanks to the C-Class hero, Protien Shaker, pointing out that he didn't so much go into hiding as get a much-needed mental health break. I can point out that it's all awfully convenient and out of nowhere, but we know that the webcomic is thinly-written. I'll say instead that Darkshine is a lovely guy and we've been rooting for him to get a break, however it comes. I'll also say that it's an indication of how isolated heroes are in this world that this appears to be the first time that someone is earnestly talking *to* Darkshine.

The last two chapters have been showing us that after their surprise, the S-Class heroes have been showing just why they're as feted as they have been. Not only have they been making short work of the robots, but they're also strong enough to help the controlled Neo Heroes despite the latter's freakish strength. Nowhere is this more evident than with Tank Top Master. Not only does he come through and save a surrounded Accel, literally taking on the slings of outrageous misfortune (um, okay, enough Shakespeare -- spear points, that's what I meant so say), and refusing to shame a penitent Accel. Having to pick himself up again and again has developed in TTM a core of determination tempered with humility, and he uses this to tell Accel to save himself so that he can come back again and be stronger. The latter runs off at Tank Top Master's urging but runs in the direction of the Hero Association in the hopes of conveying some useful information.

When it comes to learning humility the hard way, looks like wc Suiryu is going on a speedrun! He realised that the suits were a trap but alas, it was too late for him. I feel bad for him, but not too bad. If I'm going to feel bad for somebody, I'm going to save it for Psykos, who appears to have only agreed to help Fubuki and her group on condition that she gets to go away and that Fubuki doesn't come looking for her, no matter what happens. She's such a sad figure now. From the way she refers to Fubuki as President, it's clear that she still has respect for her one-time senior, and from the way she looked out for them as a rampaging Suiryu charged, it's clear that she still cares.

What do I need to say about Mumen Rider? We already knows he does heroism perfectly, and thanks to his modified suit, he's able to merge that pure heart with the strength to do more than be a noble punching bag for the villain-de-jour. He's able to do a lot but, this time, he's before a maddened martial artist in a suit. I worry for him. There's a reason many a hero gets their commendation for bravery posthumously, and maybe, martyrdom is what Mumen's really been aiming for all this time. ONE might yet give it to him.

With so much happening everywhere, it's anybody's guess where we'll go next: back to the showdown between Bofoi and Child Emperor, back to Neo Hero HQ and the epic fights between Metal Bat and Erimin and Destro, o that between Ryomon and A, onto the Hero Association HQ and what's going down there, catch up with Genos, or stay where we are and see Mumen Rider face what really could be his final opponent. And, of course, there is Saitama, wrecking his way through things. There are so many chickens coming home.

There is just one thing I haven't addressed. Remember what Machine God Body gloated about to Genos? About becoming one of the pillars of The Plan, thanks to his absorbing the others? The really gnarly weapons have probably not shown up yet.

This ain't over by a long shot.

[junglejim4322]

Something weird I’m sure there’s some explanation for it that didn’t click with me but when we were actively looking for a new place my mom has a lot of disability accommodations covered due to the extent of her disability including home modifications which in some cases im sure landlords don’t want, however one of the most important things she has to have is a first floor bathroom and extending a house to give it a new first floor bathroom is an accommodation she qualifies for fully paid for through her insurance & shit. And almost every landlord she talked to this about seemed extremely put off by the idea. Like hello why do u not want ur property value increased and paid for by the state

[cripplecharacters]

Good morning/evening to y'all!

In your list of frequently asked questions, there was no mention of speech disorders? I was wondering if you answer questions for that too? I'm sorry to bother you if you don't.

If you do, I have two things I'd like to ask, if you don't mind!

First of all, my character is a 4-year-old boy with a stutter from brain trauma. How much does age affect this? Are there better to be cured or is it more severe? What would be the best sort of action from parents towards child?

Secondly, what does stuttering feel like, physically? Does it include tightness in the throat, thirst, numbness, or anything like that?

Thank you all.

Hello,

Yes, we have at least one mod with a speech disorder and I can answer them.

Depending on how old he was when the trauma occurred, he may not even realize that he does it. Some things, like the multiple syllable repetition unless he has a more minor form of it, he may notice and feel frustrated with, but stuttering can also include pauses and drawing sounds out which he may not even notice. Because he has the injury now, when he's still learning language like a sponge soaking in water, it's going to be harder to treat. In my experience, speech therapy that started when I was five never managed to actually improve the way I spoke. It's harder to improve in this situation- possible, to my knowledge, but harder.

Curing a stutter from a traumatic brain injury is going to be difficult. It's not likely and it's probably not something his speech therapist would even consider- when there's a lot wrong with speech and there's a reason behind it that can't be worked around, like a TBI, sometimes a speech therapist will just focus on trying to improve one aspect, or they might not even bother at all. If getting rid of his stutter is the goal, that's going to take years of work and it might not fix everything. It can be a severe condition- some people can have a severe stutter from the brain injury- but mostly it's just hard to treat because we have a permanent modification to how our brain works.

The best sort of actions his parents can take is listen to him. It might be frustrating for people to listen to someone who stutters and they might experience isolation because people don't want to talk to or listen to them, it does so much to have even one person in your life who will listen to you speak without impatience, interrupting, or ignoring. Because he's also going into school, listening to him is really important. School is very difficult for people with speech disabilities (for all disabled people, really.) He may experience teachers who are impatient or ableist, or he might experience isolation from his peers or even bullying. It's important his parents listen to him about any issues he may be facing so that they can step in and advocate him. They're the most important people for him to have in his corner. Listening to and communicating with any child is important, but it's very important that his parents listen to and communicate with him. At the very least, it creates a safe place for him at home. At best, he'll talk to his parents about bullying and they can put up a big enough fuss that the issue will be resolved.

As for what it feels like, it feels like the mouth kind of pauses. Like you're trying to say something but there's a barrier in your mouth, so you have to force every sound through it, and that's hard to do. A lot of people who stutter report physically tensing up trying to speak, leading to tension aches wherever they tense, usually in the face or neck, and that tensing is kind of subconscious as if there really is a barrier and you need to physically force the words through the barrier.

As you try and get words out, you might become stressed or frustrated, and that usually makes the stutter worse, which just makes your frustration and anxiety worse. They feed on each other and it sucks.

People who stutter also might have what are called secondary symptoms, like the reflexive tension I mentioned earlier. These secondary symptoms can include grimacing, blinking, movement or another part of the body, like the arms, legs, or feet, issues maintaining eye contact or even issues looking at the person they're talking to at all, and changes in the pitch or volume of the voice. You might also see adaptive behaviours from the person trying to hide their stutter, such as using word substitutions, meaning replacing a word they might stutter on with one they can say easier, interjections such as uh, um, etc, filler words such as like, and quickly revising sentences to either hide a stutter or rephrase the sentence to make it easier to say, things like "I want- I'll have the pasta." Stuttering and those secondary behaviours can lead to him trying to avoid speaking, which he definitely shouldn't do (shouldn't avoid speaking, I mean.)

Also, you might want to consider exactly where the TBI was and how severe it was, because location and severity can also cause other symptoms. An injury to the cerebellum, for example, will impact his fine motor skills. Look into the areas around the specific places that control speech, too. If the injury was bad enough or at the right angle to hit those places, he'll also have symptoms associated with a TBI to those locations.

Thank you for sending this.

Mod Aaron

[starvels]

starvels' Dark Recs for @cap-ironman Steve/Tony Fic Rec Week 2024

For Dark Recs, enjoy these doves, free for lunch and scrupulously foul. Please remember to leave a comment, add a kudos, hit a reblog on a fic post in order to show your gleeful appreciation of such dark gems.

Check out all of starvels' Cap-IM 2024 Rec Lists [here].

-

Hypnagogic by CaughtAGhost (ghosthan) @ghosthan

Tags: AI Tony Stark, Hydra Steve Rogers, Secret Empire, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Guilt, Murder, Angst, seriously this is miserable turn back now, Suicidal Thoughts, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, KIND OF I GUESS, unreality Summary: [Hypnagogic state: the period immediately before sleep, or between wakefulness and sleep, during which hallucinations can occur.] “Fine. You want an enemy?” Steve says, bloody saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth, “I’ll give you someone to hate.” Notes: A take on a gory end to the AI Tony/Hydra Steve story that is perfectly evocative and desolate, like scooping your stomach out with a snowy hand.

-

lent by starvels

Tags: Rape/Noncon, Violence, Major Character Death, Canon Divergence, Comic Book Science, Comic: Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Old Steve Rogers, SIM Style Eugenics, Sexual Slavery, Sexual Violence, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Body Horror, Torture, Cock Warming, Public Humiliation, Objectification, Gags, Public Sex, Cock Slapping, Genital Torture, Collars Leashes, Anal Plug, Erotic Electrostimulation of a non consensual type, Extremis, Transhumanism, Suicidal Thoughts Unhappy Ending Summary: After being successfully reverted back to his normal moral self, Tony Stark is tasked with trying to prevent the next incursion in an entirely new way. One that requires magic, infiltration, and of course, his former best friend who wants nothing to do with him. Reluctantly together, Steve and Tony enter incursion planet Earth-6006. But the Earth-6006 they discover is a grotesque mirror of Earth-616, one that neither Steve, nor Tony may find themselves capable of escaping. In fact, they may just carry it back home with themselves. Notes: Where Steve and Tony go, the monsters wear their own faces and want to be told just how pretty they look, using those faces to eat every soul in sight.

-↘↘↘-

-

Go Down For Your Gold by Kiyaar @kiyaar

Tags: Marvel Comic Event: Siege (2009), Extremis, Infidelity, Angst, Disability, predatory prenups, Commander Rogers, Transhumanism, Grief, Not A Fix-It, Abuse, light dubcon, background alcoholism, Suicidal Thoughts Summary: Steve comes back from the dead to find Tony married to Tiberius Stone. Thing is, it shouldn't hurt this much. It shouldn't. Tony was never his to begin with. Notes: Wrap your fingers around this exquisitely sharp, serrated blade nestled in the reeds of canon and watch Steve and Tony writhe in a web they and others are ever weaving.

-

this, too, by your hand by oluka (lomku) and welcoming_disaster @oluka @welcomingdisaster

Tags: Post-Civil War, Canon Temporary Character Death, Torture, Psychological Torture, Rescue, Extremis, Hurt/Comfort, But don't get me wrong much more hurt than comfort, Love Confessions, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt Steve Rogers, Angst Summary: Six months after Steve's death, Tony finds himself caught in the middle of Hydra plot to resurrect the Red Skull using Steve's body. Hopeful he can save his former friend, he interferes. But their troubles are only just beginning. Notes: This story builds like a mighty, unrepentant thunderstorm, distant digital screeching through Extremis and minute shifts in the wind of worldbuilding and the building darkness of torture and CAP-tivity and comic book horror.

-

sacrifical anode by Rowantreeisme @the-faultofdaedalus

Tags: AI Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Happy Hogan, Angst, AU, Heart Attacks, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Summary: Sacrificial anode (n.) An easily corroded materials deliberately installed in a pipe or tank to be sacrificed to corrosion, leaving the rest of the system relatively corrosion free. It had asked, before. Why it should not have a separate power source, why a copy of the chestplate that kept him alive could not be made. The answer still lived in its memories, held there like a beacon, one of the first parts of its mind that it had made itself. Notes: Devastatingly gripping and meticulously detailed take on Tony, AI Tony and the nature of sacrificial lambs drawn in ASCII 1s and 0s, so to say.

-

No Consolation by valtyr

Tags: Major Character Death, Necrophilia Summary: Extremis lies to Tony. Notes: What more to say. Here's the rusty tin. Peel it open and discover exactly what it says is within.

-

blue oleander by starvels

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Survival Horror, PTSD, Space Opera, Mental Instability, Science Fiction, Steve Rogers with a sword, Janet Van Dyne with brass knuckles, Implied/Referenced Torture, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Body Horror Summary: It's been seven years since Earth was destroyed. What remains of humanity, of the superhero community, is on a ship, half-lost in the deep of space. But they're not alone. And what crawls through the portals in the aft cargo bay, day after day, is about as human as Steve feels anymore. Notes: Steve and Jan are in a survival horror FPS, except Steve stopped playing a while ago. Too bad the game hasn't stopped playing with him.

-

lover, leave me alone and bury the ruins by lomku @oluka

Tags: Civil Warrior, Civil War, Not A Fix-It, Holy Shit What Happened To Tony, AI Tony Stark, Angst, Civil Warrior Steve Rogers, Multiverse, Unreliable Narrator, Dubious Morality, Horror, Dark Summary: Steve swipes the rag across the shield. He knows Tony's listening. “You don’t understand what I’m doing, why this is necessary. What happened to me, what I did, needs to be stopped at all costs. It destroyed the superhero community, destroyed everything we stand for. I know you’re angry, but if you knew what I knew, then you’d agree with me. I know you. I’ve seen a hundred, a thousand of you. You do what needs to be done. You think big. You plan, and you see the future. Well. I’ve been the future, and I know what I can do to stop it. We’re on the same side.” He lets the rag drop, satisfied. His shield is gleaming, not a scratch in sight, not even a single drop of blood left. Notes: Exemplar unfolding of the complex, messed up object that Civil Warrior is, complete with released ghosts that simply love haunting the narrative in bone-chilling ways.

-

A Borrowed Body by dirigibleplumbing @dirigibleplumbing

Tags: Rape/Non-ConSteve, Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Dark Tony Stark, Extremis, San Francisco, Bondage, Gags, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Angst, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Crying, Objectification, Orgy, Old Man Steve makes a brief appearance, Brief Tony/others and Steve/others, Dubious Consent Summary: After Steve shows up in San Francisco, Tony uses Extremis to make him strong and beautiful again. Tony wants sex in return, and Steve gives it to him—he owes this body to Tony, after all. Every month after that, he visits Tony to keep up his end of the bargain. That will just have to be enough for him. Notes: Lean into the horror tessellated in mundanity with this deftly brutal unreliable narration of what exactly would happen if Old Man Steve approached Superior Iron Man for a way to be young again.

-

PURPLE by lindenwaverly

Tags: Angst, Dom/sub, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcoholic Relapse, Mind Control, Flashbacks to Rape/Noncon, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Avengers Team Summary: Sometimes things just can't be fixed. Killgrave broke the Avengers. He broke Steve and Tony. Steve's just trying to claw something out of the mess. Notes: Just because something is WIP doesn't mean it isn't completely capable of effectively wrenching your gut. Let this submerge you in the way that trauma ebbs and flows in tidal waves.

-

tenenbaum by starvels

Tags: Canon Divergence, Extremis, Body Horror, Memory Alteration, Transhumanism, Established Relationship, Erotic Electrostimulation, Top Tony Stark, Dom/sub, Power Play, Manipulation, Anal Sex, Armor Kink, Dubious Morality, Superhero Realism, holy shit what's happened to Tony?, Unreliable Narrator, Psychological Horror, Unhealthy Relationships, Body Modification, Ambiguous Ending Summary: “Did you choose this?” Steve asks. He looks over Tony’s face like the undersheath will grow to cover Tony’s lips suddenly, and choke him to oblivion. He searches Tony’s shoulder and forearms for any trace of the ports, like they’re going to magically open and swallow him whole. It is not magic, Tony wants to tell him. It’s better. It’s science. It’s a nano-network of superconductors hopped up on peptide-peptide logic. It’s an adaptive mimetic artifact. It’s an utter innovation in pan-spectrum stimuli reflex response. It’s an end and a beginning and both and neither of those at once. It’s him now, Tony_Stark_V.2.01. not an it. “I choose it now,” Tony says, finally. Notes: Extremis like a mask that slowly suffocates the wearer -- except, what if its really just teaching Tony how to live, without breathing? How far would it go, with Tony inside it?

-

take the ground in style by welcoming_disaster @welcomingdisaster

Tags: Civil Warrior, 1872, Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Blood and Injury, Canonical Character Death, Bittersweet Ending, Unhappy Ending, Grief, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism Summary: In 1873, an unusual visitor with an uncanny resemblance to the former Sheriff crash lands in Timely. Notes: Desolation is a landscape in this 1872 piece where grief is Tony's constant companion and we tune in to their grotesque romance like sifting through a cathode-ray-tube TV's physical static.

- Control by Ironlawyer @ironlawyer

Tags: Rape/Non-Con, Consent Issues, Trauma, Unsafe Sex, Sex Work, Oral Sex, Angst, Dark, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Self-Hatred, Character Study, Rape Aftermath Summary: Tony has unhealthy coping mechanisms. Notes: Like looking through a kaleidoscope, turn this over and over in your hands and admire all the warped shapes of Tony trapped within.

-

as a siren sings you to shipwreck by meidui @meidui

Tags: Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Canon Divergence, Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Emotional Manipulation, Captivity, Blowjobs, Hand Jobs, Edging, San Francisco, Angst with a Happy Ending, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism Summary: Steve stands there in front of him, faint traces of Matt’s blood still smeared across the floors beneath his combat boots. Tony holds his gaze, hyperaware of the way his heart picks up speed because it's the first time he’s seen Steve since, well. He is a pleasing sight, exactly the way Tony remembers him. Beautiful, intelligent, healthy, immortal. “Did Pepper send you?” Tony asks, feverish bright blue eyes boring into him. “You look the same, Steve. Haven't you taken a sip of water since you got to San Francisco?” “Extremis is a virus,” Steve says steadily. “I can’t get sick.” A lot is different. A lot will never be the same. But Tony Stark will always love Steve Rogers. Notes: Choices are twisted and exaggerated in this divergent diamond with manipulation on two sides and moral degradation on one side and murder on the last. Spin it and see where it lands!

-

what lips my lips have kissed by WhenasInSilks @whenas-in-silks

Tags: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, canonical terminal illness, Drunk Sex, Sexual Dysfunction, Internalized Homophobia, Angst, the two loneliest men in new york comprehensively fail to give each other any comfort Summary: The first time Tony tried to take Steve to bed was the same night Steve found out Tony was dying. Looking back, that more or less set the tone for everything that followed. Notes: On the lighter end of dark, but rife with desolation and loneliness and that good old Ultimates brand internalized homophobia. The quiet at the end is only acceptable as a secret, only as a last resort.

-

make(damn)sure by msermesth @mserm

Tags: Namor the Sub-Mariner/Steve Rogers, Comic: Invaders Vol. 3 (2019), Comic: Avengers Vol. 8 (2018), Jealous Tony Stark, Choking, Autoerotic Asphyxiation, Whipping, Post-Marvel Comic Event: Secret Empire (2017), Bottom Steve Rogers, assumed infidelity, Humiliation, Crying, Masochist Steve Rogers, Shame, Impact Play, Non-consensual Exhibitionism, Voyeurism, Dubious Consent, Not Safe Not Sane and Barely Consensual, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat Summary: When Steve refuses to tell Tony his plan to find Namor’s bomb, Tony decides to find out what he's up to. He’s not going to like what he sees. Notes: Just how far Steve will go is always an experiment worth seeing out and here, Tony sees it with us and the seeing is oh so deliciously bitter and stark.

-

Cubicles by Loran_Arameri @loraneldin

Tags: Not A Fix-It, hickmanvengers, Superior Iron Man, Old Man Steve Rogers, Hurt, Angst, Time Runs Out Summary: After the Illumnati and Sue Storm have captured Steve, they put him in the glass cube next to Tony, instead of trying to work with him Notes: An issue tag that answers a question you maybe didn't know you had and the answer is even sadder than you imagined. And that's delicious.

-

Compilation Error by Anonymous

Tags: Major Character Death, Angst, Unhappy Ending, Civil War, Reality manipulation, holy shit what's happened to Tony?, Contest of Champions, Suicidal Ideation Summary: The first time Tony Stark kills Steve Rogers is an accident. Notes: Scenes here flick past bare skin like paint, like knives leaving bleeding scrapes. Intericately woven and final as slamming a last comic issue closed.

-

That's all folks!

Thanks for reading and make sure to kudos and comments fics you explore! Fandom is a circle and we are all passing it forward.

[wheelie-headquarters]

this page is mostly an easy way for me to centralise and store info while also making it available to community

featured tags

diy mobility aids/equipment #diyequipment

diy wheelchair modifications/customisations #chairmods

wheelchair skills info #wheelchairskills

diy home modifications #homemods

info for new chair users / foundational info #wheelchairinfo

celebrating disabled art + creativity #wheeliecreations

joy / posts from disabled humans #wheeliejoy

[ wheelie is a common term in my local community for wheelchair users and something i use to describe myself, no harm is meant and the tags are just for organisation ! ]