#Learning Disabilities

[zebulontheplanet]

Hearing constantly about gifted autistic kids and people seeing it as THEE autistic trait has completely disregarded those who aren’t gifted and made a HUGE divide in the community. Seeing constantly “yeah autistic people are usually gifted” is so annoying because a VERY large chunk of autistic people, aren’t actually gifted and media has just put the gifted people at the front because they’re more palatable. The “autistic gifted kid burnout” has become more so a trend than anything and I’ve seen a lot of people assume they’re autistic because they are the “gifted kid burnout person” when that isn’t even a requirement for an autism diagnosis. You don’t have to be gifted to be autistic. You don’t have to be!!

Start putting the people who struggle more in the spotlight. Those with intellectual disabilities, those with learning disabilities, those with cognitive disabilities, those who are just generally stereotypically “dumb” and embrace it!

We need to have a very big discussion about this as a community and it needs to start today.

[vm-sys]

shout out to clumsy people.

shout out to people with coordination issues.

shout out to people with dyspraxia.

shout out to people with apraxia.

shout out to people with muscle weakness.

shout out to people with paresis.

shout out to people with paralysis.

shout out to people with arthritis n/or joint deformities.

shout out to people with chronic pain whose pain makes it hard to control their movements.

shout out to people with chronic fatigue whose fatigue makes them hard to control their movements.

shout out to people with balance issues.

shout out to people with other conditions that make hard to control body n/or movements.

shout out to people who are undiagnosed n struggling with control movements.

it's not your fault. it's not your carelessness. you deserve support n accommodations. you shouldn't be judged or mocked. you deserve respect. your struggles deserve respect.

[r3golith2]

Stop telling disabled people to "stop making their disability their personality".

For starters, who cares if they do make it their personality? People with disabilities literally fight tooth and nail for everything in their lives. If "making it their personality" makes them feel a bit better, let them.

Besides that, disabilities kind of have to be your personality, considering the fact they literally disable you. It literally effects your life, which effects the way you do literally everything.

Suck it up, people talking about their disabilities isn't the end of the world.

[ethos-labrador]

idk how to articulate it exactly but all the AI talk on this app feels really ablist to me

like i'm not saying that AI use should be encouraged, it's bad for the enviornment and all that, but constantly using arguments about how you're stupid and incapable and "rotting your brain" if you use AI make me uncomfortable

you're not stupid if it's hard for you to write an an essay. you aren't lazy and incapable because you struggle to understand books that your peers don't. you aren't pathetic and not trying hard enough if you want to roleplay with fictional characters but have trouble finding real people to do that with. and again, i'm not saying that using AI is the answer to those problems, but making fun of people for using it by calling them stupid or lazy for using a tool you aren't desperate enough to try is not the progressive take you think it is, and i also don't think it will actually get people to stop

like. you know what else i was told was making me stupider and rotting my brain for?

using spellcheck. watching spongebob. playing videogames. (all things heavily associated with ADHD in kids at the time. a kid in my class' mom quite literally thought spongebob caused their ADHD)

you're just taking the rhetoric of folks who hate ppl with neurodevelopmental and learning disabilities and tacking it onto a new technology. nobody's going to spontaneously develop an intellectual disability because they used a slightly newer technology to cheat on an essay than all the previous methods kids throughout history have used to cheat on essays

[bee-whistler]

It’s kinda troubling how often the neurotypical objections to neurodivergent accommodations amount to, “Well, that’s not fair! Of course it’s easier if you do it that way! That’s cheating!”

Y’know what, numbnuts? You’re right. How about you let everyone else do it the easy way if you knew all along there was one?

You can’t win, can you? They’re furious if you can’t do something and just as furious if it turns out you can as long as you do it differently.

[robertseanleonardthinker]

i see actually neurodivergent trending so i just wanna say shoutout to my fellow learning disability ppl bc disorders other than adhd and autism r often left out when talking abt neurodivergency on the internet. we r all so awesome and cool and hot and smart regardless of our learning disabilities and i am kissing u all on the forehead so gently

[osokasstuff]

i really like word "neurodivergent" in its initial meaning. i like its spectral nature, its inclusive nature, its uniting nature (because sometimes it's very useful to have one single word for everyone who have non-typical experience with their brain functions and not list 100500 possible causes and types of disabilities affecting brain functions).

i use "neurodivergent" in its broadest sense, including every type of disability that affects brain. and i like feeling of community and commonalities and social justice subtext (because neurodivergent is tied with anti-ableism and advocacy in my mind and they're unseparable).

but i'm sad that such a cool term is often misused. i'm sad that it's often narrowed down to "autism, adhd, maybe some mood & anxiety disorders." because it was never intended to have narrow meaning. it was intended to have the broadest possible meaning. and even in this narrow meaning, tons of experiences are thrown away. medium & high support needs, higher levels of severity, less socially acceptable symptoms, etc. are often not represented, ignored, or even excluded on purpose.

i'm sad that movement that started as anti-ableism and inclusion is now flooded with ableism and exclusion. it feels wrong.

but i'm not going to give up. i'm going to bring the broadest and inclusive meaning back. i hope to make neurodivergent community a community for all people whose brains are divergent. i will fight for it as long as needed.

(i don't mean that i'm going to pressure people to use label neurodivergent and put themselves in neurodivergent community if they don't want to. i mean only make neurodivergent community welcoming for people with any experiences with "divergent brain," not only those which are accepted now).

[aleck-le-mec]

It's wild to me how some able-bodied people only think of disabled culture as a concept and they haven't ever actually experienced it. To me the biggest tell that somebody has never experienced disabled culture is their lack of knowledge about something I call Societal Manufactured Disability Theory.

This theory posits that an aspect of disability is manufactured by societal norms, stigmas and labeling.

People with disabilities like myself will tell you that people do treat you differently based solely upon the fact that you are disabled. When my hand writing is too messy to read do to Dysgraphia people assume I'm not trying hard enough to be neat, and if I'm lazy enough to slack with hand writing I must always be lazy. When I tell people I have Dyslexia they think I'm less intelligent, unable to read or incapable of understanding the written word. When I tell people I have a connective tissue disorder which is an invisible disability they think I'm a liar, scheming to take resources away from "real disabled people".

The societal norm here in America is to push forward, laziness is not an option we see it repeatedly in the rhetoric surrounding young people. News sources constantly talking about how "no one wants to work these days" or "young people are taking everything for granted".

There is a huge stigma around having Dyslexia that most people don't notice. In American society where we have a 79% literacy rate it is expected that you can read, so when you can't or you have trouble people think you have a lower IQ. Dyslexia can be genetic so I'm actually a fourth generation Dyslexic from my dad's side with all of them men being the ones to pass it down. My dad has always said that my great grandfather had no support for his Dyslexia, nobody cared and in fact the term Dyslexia was only coined in 1887. When my dad went to school they attempted to alleviate some of the symptoms of Dyslexia by making him watch his hands as he crawled on the floor, believing that the root of the problem was in a lack of eye coordination. To this day I and many other Dyslexics will avoid talking about our diagnosis because of the stigma behind it. I have had many experiences in my life where as soon as people learn that I am Dyslexic they assume that I can't spell anything or that they need to read everything to me. That's what stigma does, it makes people hide away just so they can live in peace and be respected.

It is extremely common for people with invisible disabilities to be labeled as liars, this is mostly due to a lack of education and representation. The general public's idea of disability is limited, but the truth is that disability is one of the most dynamic aspects of human beings. Invisible and dynamic disabilities make up the majority of disabilities; in fact, 1 out of every 3 Americans is in fact disabled. When people see me, a young, healthy-looking man, they never think I'm disabled. If I tell them I am, they may think I am lying. People generally do not like liars, and having such a label attached to your name can be detrimental to your social integration.

You can see that none of those setbacks I mentioned are symptoms of my disabilities. The perceived deviance, stigma, and labeling are not things you'll find on a medical report. However, they do harm me socially and potentially medically when it comes to stigma; these things disable me. Thus, part of my struggle as a disabled person is manufactured by society itself, in the norms we hold and the way we treat others.

I have come to that conclusion repeatedly, as have almost every other disabled person. It's a conclusion that is often reached in the community as a whole. However, it is in able-bodied culture where these stigmas, labels, and perceived attacks originate. So, if someone is completely averse to accepting the Societal Manufactured Disability Theory, it suggests that they have probably never fully been a part of any aspect of disability culture.

[zebulontheplanet]

I will only say this one fucking time.

Learning disabilities, are not the same as intellectual disability.

Learning disabilities also called learning difficulties in the UK, are things like dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia.

Intellectual disability and learning disability (which is what ID is called in the UK) (NOT DISABILITIES. THEY ARE NOT PLURAL) are a singular thing. They are a singular disability that means you have an IQ of 70 or lower. That is all.

[vm-sys]

laws should be written by simple language.

scientific books should be written by simple language.

studies should be written by simple language.

rules & regulations should be written by simple language.

every information, especially important one, should be written by simple language.

it's basic accessibility. people with intellectual disability, people with developmental disabilities, people with learning disabilities, people with language processing issues/language impairment, people with brain fog/low concentration, and people with other conditions that make comprehension difficult should have access to every information, especially important one.

i'm autistic and have some language processing issues. so i feel very isolated when i can't read studies, articles, books, and other info. i'm really interested in it, but can't process language. so i have to rely on others' interpretations instead of original text.

i wanna have access to first-hand information. i wanna have the opportunity to form my own opinion, not rely on others' explanations.

btw, "simple language" doesn't mean "avoid complicated ideas & nuances", it means "explain complicated ideas & nuances using mostly simple words and short sentences".

[autistic-internet-user]

Being autistic and having a learning disability isn't very much talked within the online autism community. There are also mythes that are allowed to be up.

The mythes i am talking about are the stereotypes that autistic people are good at math, that autistic people are very intelligent, that we are gifted people. And that's wrong, that's overgeneralization.

I get that some autistic people are good at math, are highly intelligent or more intelligent than the average autistic, are gifted, but there are also autistic people who aren't good at math. Some autistic people who aren't intelligent, some who aren't gifted. There are autistic people who aren't good at everything because of their autism, because of many reasons.

For me, my reason for not being good at math is because i have Dyscalculia. That means that i basically suck ass at everything that's above grade 2 level math. Even some basic math questions i can mess up on, can do completely wrong. Because mental math is a struggle for me because of my memory issues.

So, when i see people saying that we're all gifted and not academically challenged in any shape or form, i do not like it. I feel left out by what they say. And i of course don't like feeling isolated. No one does.

Please stop perpetrating harmful stereotypes. I thought we were all past this but i guess not.

[lokilysolbitch]

okay helpful-posting time

so i have this thing where it takes a long time (months to years sometimes) to get a sense of something i'm learning but in the end i have a v e r y detailed understanding. i think it's the autism bottom up processing where my brain doesn't project a concept onto what i'm learning, and instead it waits to collect enough details until a concept forms itself.

So. when it comes to learning about myths and ancient societies for the first time, i get really confused for a long long time before anything starts making sense. like a top down processor would hear "this religion has a god of the sun" and think "they must believe that there's a spiritual force who consciously moves the sun" bc their brain projects past experiences onto a new bit of information.

my brain won't do that. it won't make very many assumptions. it only hears "this religion has a god of the sun" and adds nothing else. i don't know how the religion defines a god, if they think a god is a physical person or a spirit or something in between, if they think the god controls the sun or is the sun, if they view the god as a consciousness or a symbol, absolutely nothing. obviously no one knows until they do further research but my brain will not even make any type of assumption. so functionally, the only information i'm getting from that sentence is "this religion has a ??? ??? ??? the sun". (like how with autism you don't pick up subtext, you only get what is right in front of you and miss out on meaning everyone else seems to get the first time. i need every detail explained straightforwardly bc my brain won't fill in the blanks)

it just makes learning really hard but my eventual understanding is really good and detailed. i ask a lot of questions one would normally make an assumption about, but getting the information into my head in the first place takes so much longer. and it's really discouraging when it comes to starting to learn about ancient religions for the first time, because it feels like you'll never get it. if feels like you're not getting the same wealth of information that others are from the same books.

SO MY POINT IS.

if you have this issue. if you feel like you learn really slow bc even basic information that's easy for someone else to understand seems to be confusing for you. if you have trouble narrowing down what is confusing you. specifically if this applies to your polytheistic research.

might i recommend

baby mythology books. mythology books meant for kids/teens.

you don't have to start out with books meant for adults. they expect you to fill in the blanks and won't explain some stuff.

baby books will explain every little thing. and a really good one will go into a bit of ancient history and culture.

an adult book will say "and then [this god] fought [that god], understandably so"

a baby book will say "this is what this ancient society meant when they used the word god. this is how the ancient ______'s viewed their gods. these two gods had a fight. they fought because _______"

it is so fucking helpful to have someone just go into the details instead of assume we're on the same page and that we will project our background onto new information. they know kids and teens don't have as much background to project onto new information. so they explain everything they can.

it's such an underrated way to learn. sometimes people will recommend watching kids shows in a language you want to learn to help get the basics, but this method applies to everything. it's such a good way to ease yourself into a giant new concept. you might have to correct some information you learned from the kids books in the future but learned involved correcting yourself anyways.

TLDR: if you struggle with or are intimidated by learning new concepts, start with baby books, then ease into more advanced stuff

and if ur struggling w polytheistic studies, like myths and ancient cultures, here's a baby book rec (it's probably for like 10 year olds ish?). it goes into myths AND some ancient culture which is sooooo helpful. PLUS theres sources to look into in the back.

there's a celtic myths one and a chinese myths one too

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

genuine question: how the fuck can a government run school not fucking comply the fucking law when it comes to accessibility?

it’s the law, why am I the ONLY one complaining??????

I don’t think I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill here? They said they give people with learning disabilities accessibilities and like they haven’t, I contacted the school they haven’t replied and I sent a complaint idk why it isn’t there?

I even noticed that the videos they give do not have subtitles or transcripts!

why? It’s a pretty basic thing to include?

god one of these fucking days I’m just going to go fucking become a teacher or something because I literally need to contribute to the world accessible education resources.

at the very least we got to start complaining more, fellow disabled Australians and Australians please start complaining about inaccessibility in just general.

they literally do nothing unless you complain, doesn’t even cross their mind.

there isn’t even plain text or image described government documents half the time, and they use weird fonts and headings like you can make multiple versions for accessibility it’s not even that hard!

I could do it in 3 hours! You’ve had 40 years!

I can not even begin to start with alot of stuff, but it’s okay I don’t think I’ll get slighted by the government today hopefully!

[kiragecko]

Maybe I have a learning disability?

Like, The Very Little Sister does, and at least one of my kids do. And I just CAN'T NAVIGATE WEBSITES.

Maybe it's the ADHD, but I haven't heard ADHD people complaining about things like that, very often. And I know my sister's web issues are DEFINITELY related to her learning disability, not her autism.

I can't predict where things will be on a webpage

I can't SEE things on a webpage, even when looking in the right place, and often find that things that are supposed to make buttons/links stand out actually cause my eyes to pass over them

I can't follow the logic of navigating through several menus, and I often end up in endless loops

I click on wrong buttons and knock myself out of forms

A single change to the layout will leave me completely lost

I need to do back to school shopping. And I actually found the email this year! But some of the individualized information (whether my son needs art or music supplies, his homeroom, etc.) is on the Parent Portal. And I can never FIND the Parent Portal! There is a link either on the division or the school's webpages. But wherever it is located is INVISIBLE TO MY DUMB BRAIN.

It's hard enough to work with my executive dysfunction and actually do this stuff. I don't need this frustration as well. I HATE THIS.

[dyslexic-dyspraxic]

What I don't see a lot of people talking about the disabled community, probably because dyspraxia itself isn't really talked about a lot, is the way dyspraxia alienates me from my body

Like I get crippling period pain and other issues from my period, have asthma, and have minor injuries that cause discomfort and I do have to work around when it comes to the way I move around but these are things I can work around

I can take pain meds and other meds for my period, exercise more and take antihistamines for my asthma (allergy induced rather than exercise), and lay off the injuries or work around them, I can't make these annoyances go away but I can alleviate them and know that I can make a difference to my experience by doing so

But I can't really do that with dyspraxia and it alienates me from my body, makes me feel significantly less in control of my body than others are to theirs

Sure I can do exercises and move my body which make me more coordinated, which helps, but the moment I am really caught up in my emotions, I might break something because I apply the wrong amount of force because dyspraxia just be like that

I can become more coordinated but I am still more likely to slip than my non-dyspraxic friends, and even with all the coordination I have gained, I still have small cuts and bruises which I don't even remember getting because that's how often my body doesn't move in the way I expect it and I injure myself because of it, not to mention the amount of spills and thinks I drop because of it

It's infuriating to not have that control, to know I need to be more careful than others, and even still I will create accidents because my body is just never gonna move exactly like it is supposed to and that's alienating for me

I will never feel fully in control because I never will be, there is no way to reclaim that and sometimes it gets to me