#Disability.

[smuppethole]

The best advice I can give any disabled person about to enter the workforce who doesn’t know what they wanna do yet is to figure out what accommodations you need and then look for careers where the most important ones are normalized.

For example: If you need to sit down regularly, maybe you should look into office jobs.

I personally have noise sensitivity, so I went into the field of construction because hearing protection is normalized and occasionally required.

Now fucking obviously you might not like all the jobs where the accommodations you need are built in, and you may end up loving a job in which none of your accommodations are built in, but figuring out what accommodations you need and then what jobs have them built in is gonna be a helpful starting place.

The second most helpful piece of advice I can give you is to describe symptoms and not disorders when explaining/requesting accommodation.

“I’m autistic.” can mean anything from “I need things explained as simply as possible.” to “I need sensory-related breaks.” and it is unhelpful at best to receive the wrong accommodations.

This is also ignoring that the general population of idiots are more willing to give you accommodations if they see it as separate from diagnostic labels because for whatever reason, idiots who don’t interact with disabled and/or ND circles tend to get scared off by acronyms and other bullshit.

[sherlisass]

cross-posted from my facebook:

To borrow from the legendary Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour: it’s been a long time coming. For the past six months, after realising that SMA is progressing at a rapid rate in my body now and having a breakdown in part due to that, my mum and I reached out to Ray of Hope. We asked if they could help me with financial access to a $375,000/yr treatment that will halt the disease progression the way they helped baby Zayn and Devdan. We asked if we could fundraise for enough to stabilise my condition for a year, while we see what MOH does with supporting the treatment for SMA patients. Last Friday, my fundraiser was posted: https://rayofhope.sg/campaign/sherry/

It wasn’t an easy decision to ask Ray of Hope for help. At several points, I nearly pulled out. Firstly, it’s a sensitive issue to ask people for money, and doing so is intensely stigmastised in Singapore because healthcare and finances are seen as highly personal responsibilities. Second, I was worried about the impact public recognition might have on myself and my family. And third, did I really want to put a price tag on my life?

But facts are: I wasn’t the one who put a price tag on my life. The manufacturer of the treatment, Roche, was the one who put the $375K/yr price tag on my life and the lives of other SMA patients. (Which, by the way, is more than five times what the average non-disabled Singaporean earns.) And I’m fundraising because of my family as well. My brother Gabriel reminded me of that when he told me that, when I almost died in the hospital last September, he was afraid I’d die without seeing him fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor.

I want to be there for Gabriel at his med school graduation. I want to take my dad to Taylor Swift’s latest tour after he took me to her last Singapore show and said her music makes him feel young again. I want my mum to see me achieve greater things in my career after seeing she was far more ecstatic than I was about me contributing to Not Without Us, Singapore’s first Disability Studies anthology. I want to be there when my best friend Brianna Albers, who has used every opportunity she’s had to advocate for me to be treated, is a published novelist. I want to go to all the family events I’m invited to for years to come. I want to see who else God wants me to meet, because almost everyone I’ve met so far have been lights in the darkness.

It’s important to remember that time with our loved ones and fulfilling our dreams is a right every SMA patient should have. Without treatment or a miracle, the odds of us having those things decreases significantly with time. It used to be something we had to accept, but that’s not true anymore. And it’s why, if I don’t raise enough to fund the minimum span of time it would take for the treatment to stabilise me, whatever I’ve raised will go towards the next SMA patient fundraising through Ray of Hope. Because there will be more, and I want to do my part. And even if you can’t or don’t want to donate to me, I hope you do your part by spreading awareness of SMA, this life-saving treatment, and the injustice of its cost.

[enbycrip]

Her name is Valentina Petrillo and she is a visually-impaired sprinter.

Time to support her, because even without the racism element I expect she will be getting some flak from Awful, Awful People.

[nondivisable]

I need to say something and I need y'all to be calm

if it isn't actively bad or harmful, no representation should be called "too simple" or "too surface level"

I have a whole argument for this about the barbie movie but today I wanna talk about a show called "the babysitters club" on Netflix

(obligatory disclaimer that I watched only two episodes of this show so if it's super problematic I'm sorry) (yes. I know it's based on a book, this is about the show)

this is a silly 8+ show that my 9 year old sister is watching and it manages to tackle so many complex topics in such an easy way. basic premise is these 13 year old girls have a babysitting agency.

in one episode, a girl babysits this transfem kid. the approach is super simple, with the kid saying stuff like "oh no, those are my old boy clothes, these are my girl clothes". they have to go to the doctor and everyone is calling the kid by her dead name and using he/him and this 13 year old snaps at like a group of doctors and they all listen to her. it's pure fantasy and any person versed in trans theory would point out a bunch of mistakes.

but after watching this episode, my little sister started switching to my name instead of my dead name and intercalating he/him pronouns when talking about me.

one of the 13 years old is a diabetic and sometimes her whole personality is taken over by that. but she has this episode where she pushes herself to her limit and passes out and talks about being in a coma for a while because of not recognizing the limits of her disability.

and this allowed my 9 year old sister to understand me better when I say "I really want to play with you but right now my body physically can't do that" (I'm disabled). she has even asked me why I'm pushing myself, why I'm not using my crutches when I complain about pain.

my mom is 50 years old and watching this show with my sister. she said the episode about the diabetic girl helped her understand me and my disability better. she grew up disabled as well, but she was taught to shut up and power through.

yes, silly simple representation can annoy you if you've read thousands of pages about queer liberation or disability radical thought, but sometimes things are not for you.

[demonboyhalo]

collection of useful things tumblr has taught me:

even if you can't fall asleep, laying down with your eyes closed will still rest your body

you don't have to brush your teeth standing up

you don't have to do any chore standing up, from dishes to showering

you don't have to shower with the lights on

if you can't brush your teeth, flossing and a tongue scraper gets rid of plaque and bad breath

if you can't do that, mouthwash kills a lot of bacteria

eating "unhealthy" food is better than eating no food

you can make the same meal everyday for however long you still want it

some pills come in syrups or chewables if you can't swallow them

kids nutritional shakes can be a quick way to get fuel if you can't eat/don't have time

if walking hurts/exhausts you on a regular basis, canes and rollers are for you, no matter how young you are

we have free will—if doing something "out of the ordinary" makes life easier for you, do it

if you have even a dollar to spare, please consider donating to Alaikum's family.

they're a large family at only 10% of their goal to evacuate, and could use any help you can give!!

[saszor]

Tutorial for drawing characters with cleft lip! Sorry that it's mostly unilateral-centric but it makes up the vast majority of resources and photos. Still tried to get tips for drawing bilateral clefts in though.

Keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People 👍

If you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me!

[thenervebible]

CONNIE PANZARINO at a pride march in Boston circa 1990

[ID: Connie is marching along in her sip 'n' puff (SNP) wheelchair. She is wearing a patterned poncho and sporting a green felt party crown on her head. She styles a pair of wire-rimmed glasses with her slicked back hair. She is smiling. Attached to the back of her wheelchair is a large green cardboard poster that reads "Trached Dykes Eat Pussy Without Comin' Up For Air!" followed by a pink upside-down triangle with a stick figure person in a wheelchair at the centre (a symbol for disabled women)].

the cyborg & the crip by Alison Kafer

[ID: “Trached dykes eat pussy without coming up for air.” Connie Panzarino, a longtime disability activist and out lesbian, would attach this sign to her wheelchair during Pride marches in Boston in the early 1990s. Shockingly explicit, her sign refuses to cast technology as cold, distancing, or disembodied/disembodying, presenting it instead as a source and site of embodied pleasure. “Trach” is an abbreviation of tracheotomy, a medical procedure in which a breathing tube is inserted directly into the trachea, bypassing the mouth and nose. Someone with a trach, then, can, in effect, breathe through her throat, freeing her mouth for other activities (another version of this sign is “Trached dykes french kiss without coming up for air”). From a cyborgian perspective, this sign is brilliantly provocative and productive. It draws on the pervasive idea that adaptive technologies grant superior abilities,not merely replacing a lost capacity but enhancing it, yet it does so in a highly subversive way. The message here isn’t about blending in, about passing as normal or hypernormal, but about publicly announcing the viability of a queer disabled location. It’s disnormalizing, adamantly refusing compulsory heterosexuality, compulsory able bodiedness, and homonormativity. As Corbett O’Toole argues, it challenges the perceived passivity of disabled women, presenting them as actively pleasuring their partners, thereby graphically refuting stereotypes linking physical disability with nonsexuality.]

[taibhsearachd]

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE NEANDERTHAL CHILD WITH DOWN'S SYNDROME? Because they're all I've been thinking about when I'm sad for the past few days. Their existence makes me less sad.

[pinkdovess]

this meme is so niche

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[bisexualseraphim]

ADHD at night: I could write a book. I could get my Master’s Degree. I could go to the club and come home with 12 new friends. I could get a job at that club and meet the mother of my children. I could cure every disease and use my wealth to bring world peace.

ADHD during the day: Fold laundry too hard :( Come back next week

[disableddyke]

[2003-playground]

Can we stop using "still lives with their parents" or "unemployed" or "doesn't have a drivers license" or "didn't graduate high school" as an insult or evidence that someone is a bad person? Struggling with independence or meeting milestones is not a moral failing.

[pigeon-cave]

Spectrum of overwhelm, now in triangle form due to popular demand

[Image description: A triangle chart titled, ‘Spectrum of Overwhelm.’ The three points are ‘404 Error,’ showing a person with an empty thought bubble; ‘wet beast,’ showing a person sweating and sobbing; and ‘rage beast’ showing a person clenching their fists in an outline of orange fire. The peak is the ‘404 error’ vertex, and the inside of the triangle here is coloured beige and labelled, ‘shutdown.’ The lower half is labelled ‘meltdown’ and is red on the rage beast side and blue on the wet beast side. \End description]

[neurotypicalabusesurvivor]

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.