#Visual Disabilities

[autumnalal]

i lost a lot of muscle from my chronic illness so my mother wanted to feel how much i had left. i was indifferent until apparently in order to feel my muscle required her to lift up my pant leg, revealing a very atrophied, very hairy leg. i detest shaving generally, but even if i wanted to, i can't anymore because i have essential tremor, extreme fatigue, and joint pain that makes even shampooing more than once a week a painful feat. i have a doctor's appointment coming up, and rather than commenting on my lack of muscle, my mother chose to comment on my hair. her: "you should probably shave your legs before you see your doctor!"

me: "...i can't shave. i would cut myself open. i have a tremor. it never goes away and it is extremely hard to even wash my hair." her: "oh... well... what about waxing?"

me: "i can't afford that. and i don't have the strength or energy to do it myself." her: *silence* me: *silence* anyway, i share this anecdote bc whether you can or can't shave and choose not to, despite being expected to for your gender expression, it's YOUR body, and that's what most bodies do, and having a body that does that isn't bad or gross or ugly, just existing isn't wrong, and you ABSOLUTELY positively most definitely never ever have to shave for someone else... like your medical specialist who almost certainly doesn't give a crap (and if they did, well, maybe look for a new one). in fact, if anyone convinces you to shave for THEIR comfort, i encourage you not to, and proceed to wave said body hair in their face, to help with your own personal comfort. :) ((side note: this especially applies to disabled folk who have no choice in the matter and/or to poor folk who can't afford luxuries such as body hair removal)) (remember, laser hair removal and full body waxing are luxuries, not necessities) (also shouldn't have to ever explain your reason for personal choices, but here i am doing it anyway)

this has been a psa thank you and good day

[fenmere]

We have a weird thing with our visual cortex. It may be related to our dyslexic dysgraphia, but we don't know.

We miss things.

When driving, we can look up and down a road that we intend to turn into, with no intersections for blocks worth of space in either direction, see it as totally, absolutely clear, and pull out to find someone is suddenly slamming on the breaks behind us. And when double checking with a passenger learn that the car was there. We just literally didn't see it.

Here's a sample of it on a smaller scale. See the triangle between these two lines of text?

When we were reading this page, it wasn't there for us. Literally, there was just a big space, which was unusual for this piece of work. We're used to triangles separating sections within a chapter. The complete lack of a triangle jarred us enough that we had to look away from the window for a period of time and think about something else before coming back to the page in order to take in the new scene as a new scene.

When we came back the triangle was there.

We didn't reload the page. The code is pretty simple. We've had enough experiences with this that we're pretty sure we know what happened.

We experienced a kind of hallucination in which it was missing, and where there was just a big blank space there, which we had stared at and searched with our eyes for several seconds before looking away.

This is how it works with typos, too. We can, in fact, go several days, weeks, months, or years of rereading the same material and seeing things as if they are spelled correctly or with the correct grammar, when it's really not. We know how things are spelled. We know grammar pretty damn well.

If there is a typo in our work it is because we literally cannot see it, and we need you to do so.

"Oh, hey! There's a typo here, if you wanna catch it," is a great way to let us know.

And thank you to everyone who has helped catch our typos!

[flourishloom]

Scandal in Civil Services: Probationary IAS Officer Puja Khedkar’s Training Halted Amid Allegations

IntroductionProbationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar is at the center of a dramatic scandal involving allegations of power misuse, falsified documents, and more. Her training has been put on hold, and she has been summoned back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA). Discover the full story behind this sensational case that’s shaking the civil services.A Promising…

[mightyoctopus]

Blind Tumblr users: don’t get the latest iOS app update!

I just updated my tablet to the newest version of the tumblr app for iOS and it completely broke screen reader access for both VoiceOver and Spoken Content. This has happened in the past already, so I will file a support ticket and copy-paste my text from last time, but this really sucks. I sincerely hope this doesn’t affect all screen reader users, but I’m unsure how they could program this bug in a way it only affects me. If you rely on a screen reader to use the tumblr app, I’d advice to not get the latest update to be on the safe side.

When I say “completely broke access”, what I mean is that no posts on my dash or on individual blogs get read or recognized at all. No plain text, alt text, tags, etc. Note count and buttons still work though.

If you also run into this bug, here’s my advice. If anyone has something more useful, please tell me

File a support ticket and report this bug

Use the browser web version, which still works for me

Interestingly, if you save a post to your drafts and click on “edit” the post text seems to get read correctly. This might be a work-around for some people.

If you have the latest version but your screen reader didn’t break, also please tell me! I would be fascinated to know if this bug is only affecting some people

TL;DR: The latest tumblr app update for iOS made it so screen readers no longer work in the app

Please boost!

Edit: This issue is now fixed as of November 10th 2023. However, since this is a recurring issue, it’s possible that a future update will break it again. See notes for more details.

[steadfastpetrel]

the sun mourns in vain for the white-throated rail: a comic about disability and the unwanted able-bodied grief for past selves.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

Page 1: The sun holds a white-throated rail, a bird with a red head, a gray body, and a white throat, in its hands. The sun speaks in a tone represented as sorrowful pity through a drippy speech bubble.

Sun: Looking at you makes me sad!

Rail: What?

Page 2:

Sun: Looking at you makes me sad!

The sun stands with a hand clutching its face.

Sun: How miserable it must be to be flightless! Don’t you yearn for the skies? Don’t you wake up grieving you’re still on land?

Page 3: The white-throated rail looks down in frustration in the hand of the sun.

Sun: (speaking off screen) I’d simply perish if I were you!

The rail speaks, looking down. Pink flowers bloom towards the bottom of the page, petals and pollen blowing in the wind.

Rail: Why do you put your words in my beak and your grief in my feathers? Am I not beautiful?

Page 4: The bone of a white-throated rail is positioned against a colorful galaxy dotted with flecks of stars.

Rail: Am I not adaptability in action? Am I not evolution in motion? Do you mourn the days you weren’t a star? Do you mourn when the sky was cold, how unbearably hot you must burn to keep embracing it every day?

Page 5: The sun looks at the viewer.

Sun: Why would I? That was then, this is now. I am content to be in this state.

Page 6: The rail looks up at the sun off-screen.

Rail: Well…So am I.

[the-delta-quadrant]

normalise disabled eyes. normalise crossed eyes, normalise lazy eyes, normalise nystagmus, normalise how disabled eyes look and move. stop being shitty to vision impaired people and others with eye conditions about our fucking eyes. our eyes tell you fuck all about how "smart" we are (stop being intellectually ableist anyway), they don't tell you if we're listening, they just tell you that we have an eye condition.

[teddybearworld]

Question for people who use screen readers or text to speech/audio

When a post on here has lots of emojis, special fonts/text or lots of keysmashes, what is a way to tag those posts so that you guys don't have to sit there listening to nonsense for a minute straight?

Thanks!

[kalethemonster]

what neurotypical abled people cant seem to get into their heads is aids and medication dont stop people from being neurodivergent and/or disabled. hearing aids dont stop deaf or hard of hearing people from being deaf or hard of hearing, it just makes hearing easier mobility aids such as canes or crutches dont stop people with arthritis, chronic pain, or just general mobility issues from having arthritis, chronic pain, or just general mobility issues, it just makes getting around easier

pain medication doesnt stop people with chronic pain stop being in pain (specifically in the long term), it just makes pain management easier

fidget & stim toys and fidget & stim jewelry dont stop people with anxiety from having anxiety, adhd-ers from having fucked up exectutive function, and autistics not being able to automatically regulate emotions and sensory responses, it just makes dealing with them all easier

various adhd medications doesnt make people not have adhd anymore, it just makes it easier to regulate their executive function.

anxiety medication doesnt get rid of anxiety, it just makes it easier to deal with.

white canes and sight specific service animals dont stop blind people and people with sight impairments from being blind or having sight impairments, it just makes living with them easier.

trauma and emotional support specific service animals dont stop people from having trauma and emotional issues, it just makes dealing with them easier

anti-depressants dont stop people with clinical depression from being depressed, they just make it easier to deal with by stabilizing mood.

immune suppressants dont stop people with any autoimmune condition(s) (such as crohn's, psoriasis or psoratic arthritis, rhumitiod arthritis, myasthenia gravis, fibromyalgia, ect.) being affected in any way affected by their autoimmune condition(s), they just make living with the condition(s) easier.

medication and aids arent magic. they dont make the disabled and/or neurodiverse person not disabled and/or not neurodiverse, they dont entirely cancel out the thing they are used/pescribed for, they just make it easier to exist in a world where whats considered "normal" or "independant" or "a regular human being" doesnt automatically include them.

[autumnalal]

in the mood to romanticize the life i always wanted before getting sick and adapt it to my disability somehow

[starcountr]

Once again bringing up the fact that albinism is always tied to varying degrees of visual impairment. Disability is inherent in our condition and glossing over this (due to ignorance or not) is an act of ableism and fetishisation. Before you create an original character or any sort of fiction you ought to not stick to lazy research. Albinism affects real people, not just animals and social stigma because of our looks is only half of the story. Please do not contribute to a superficial understanding of an already rare and not researched enough condition, happy 10 years of international albinism awareness day.

[wheelie-sick]

haha guys look how funny the Minecraft movie sheep has exotropia!! this is so goofy and weird!!! why are its eyes like that??? lolololol

[ID: a CGI Minecraft sheep. it has exotropia and is making a funny face]

my eyes are not a joke. my eyes are not "derpy" they aren't funny. real people's eyes look like this. my eyes look like this. it's upsetting to have a movie make a joke out of your eyes and more upsetting to see everyone else not only follow along but amplify it.

yes, the Minecraft movie CGI is unsettling. it is bad but the problem with the sheep is everything except the way its eyes look. real. people. have. eyes. like. that. I cannot emphasize enough that real people have eyes like that. I promise you are capable of criticizing the Minecraft movie's appearance without mocking exotropia.

and if you really want to go above and beyond criticize the Minecraft movie for using exotropia as a joke. call them out for using a disability for laughs. this kind of humor will only continue while people find it funny. make it clear it's not funny.

[differentlylimbed]

i am once again asking sighted people to stop posting in disability tags without image descriptions. yes, even if you have no spoons. yes, even if you 'don't know how to write IDs'. ask someone to help you, read one of the many tutorials floating around, or wait until you have energy to post. this applies doubly to content about blindness and visual impairment, and triply to posting in the blind and VI tags sighted people encouraged to reblog