#disability culture

[crippledpunks]

i love you so much if you are diabetic, or pre-diabetic. our society treats diabetes so poorly. it's such a readily mocked condition, people often times resort to blaming the individual for having it, even going so far as to pass judgment on the diabetic's character, regardless of what type of diabetes they have.

diabetics are wonderful and deserve to love themselves regardless of whether or not they 'gave' themselves their diabetes. whether or not the person is "unhealthy" whether or not the person eats "right" or knows how to eat in ways that are safer for their body doesn't matter, they still deserve love, respect, and compassion.

diabetes is not a fucking judge of character. diabetics deserve better. diabetics deserve respect. diabetics deserve to be recognized as disabled. diabetics deserve kindness, love, care, compassion, and support. no matter what.

[genderqueerdykes]

you cannot gauge the severity and complexity of someone's identity or health through a computer or phone screen alone. there is no way for you to ascertain whether or not a total stranger is faking a condition because you do not have consistent exposure to strangers, let alone when they are at their worst. it is a waste of time to attempt to "weed out the fakes" when it comes to disabled people. you just don't know what someone else lives with every single day.

[trick-of-the-troubles]

disability culture is my friends have an ongoing joke that they're gonna frankenstein-esque style me a new, functional body, half the time out of their own limbs

[wreckitremy]

Bc this trick is still working so well for me, I'm going to rant about the problems with positive affirmations, and why my trick is better.

You see the problem is, that changing

"I'm the worst!"

To

"I'm the best!"

When something goes wrong, doesn't solve anything. For several reasons

It's still lying to yourself

It's still reinforcing the idea of bad and good oversimplified into a binary

It's still internalizing that you were the main factor in whatever happened

Can be ruined by interpretating as sarcasm

So when something slips from your fingers, I suggest something much more fun.

Blame gravity

Something falls, bc of gravity. It literally wouldn't have happened if gravity didn't exist.

Now that is only part of the trick.

You also have to pretend that gravity is a trickster god. Bc for this to work, you need to see gravity as a trick.

Once it's a trick, it becomes impressive. Like a basketball bouncing around the rim for forever only to fall off the wrong side at the last moment.

Say you drop something after fumbling to catch it for a ridiculous amount of time. When it hits the floor, it's no longer you failed. It's, gravity was better at this game than you. But it was a close game, so close that you can't even be mad. Just impressed.

Anyways blaming your failures on gravity as if it's a trickster god has many better reasons for why it's my favorite coping mechanism

It's not lying bc gravity is heavily involved in more than just dropping things if you think about it

It takes you out of the binary bc trickster gods are neither good nor evil. If you want you can also thank gravity when something goes well

It's acknowledging that there were reasons outside your control that heavily affected the outcome

Cannot be ruined by sarcasm. In fact can often be improved with sarcasm. Sassing gravity is very fun. I recommend the GLaDOS slow clap.

Designed with a disabled person in mind (literally developed this bc of my dyspraxia)

Of course this is limited to things that are affected by gravity, but once you get creative, you can blame gravity for almost any physical thing happening.

So blame gravity today!

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Frustrations (Self-Publishing [lulu.com] / Selling [Amazon.com])

I joined Tumblr in 20`6 because I wanted to have some (however small) social media outlet to promote my poetry chapbook:

(FTR, over the last 7 and 3/4 years, 52 copies have been bought [through both Amazon and Lulu's own site], for a total of $6.69 in royalties. The most recent sale was February of this year, and the listing on Amazon now has 2 ratings. So that's nice.)

Anyway, about a week ago, I checked the for the book on Amazon, and I saw it was described as "For Ages 1 and up" (with a little baby face icon). I clicked their feedback form, and said: "It's for ages YA and up." As of today, the information has not changed.

So I logged onto Lulu's site to see if they included "reading age" in the information they provide to sellers, to see if I could change the settings, or what have you. They do not.

So I don't know how or why Amazon's algorithm decided to provide that [mis]information ... Maybe because it's a slim book, with pictures of animals on the cover?

*Shrug*

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Life hack but I’m gatekeeping it under the cut because its so good!!! Brace yourself. Okay are you ready?? Here it is…

drink some FUCKING water

[lifeonkylesfarm]

Just a reminder that July is disabled pride month! I think we've all seen people talking about "gay wrath month" but please don't erase disabled pride month. Disabled people are already left out of the conversation enough.

[dysgeographica]

dysgeographica culture is almost having a panic attack in your car in the parking lot of a place you’ve been going to for years because there isn’t enough cell service to load google maps and you have no idea how to get back home on your own.

[murruspins]

does anyone else get like, really worried about what other people think abt how many disabilities gou have.. like.. I know it’s not wrong to be heavily disabled, but I can’t help with thinking too much is wrong w me when I look at the list of disabilities I have 😭😭🔥

• Ehlers danlos syndrome

• Chronic fatigue syndrome

• Autism

• Adhd

• CDID

• Psychosis

• BPD

• Severe vision impairment

and somw I don’t feel like sharing

[cobwebbed-crow]

Shout-out to disabled people who don't don't know how much support they require.

Shout-out to the neglected who had to figure out how to do everything on their own, who were never offered any help.

Shout-out to disabled people whose lives would be improved significantly by having caregivers or an acc device or a mobility aid but for whom that's not an option.

Shout out to those who struggle to recognize the difference between a want and a need.

Shout out to those who struggle to understand and recognize thier own limitations.

Shout-out to those who have been forced to scrape by alone, regardless of how much support is technically "required."

I see you.

[crippledpunks]

shoutout to every person who deals with incontinence. i dealt with bedwetting up until my early teens, and now deal with stress and urge incontinence and for years never wanted to talk about it because of the shame and stigma other people place on not being able to control your bladder or bowel movements.

incontinence is a disability. it's not gross or wrong to talk about incontinence. incontinent people are not dirty or disgusting. if we could control these parts of our body, we would. we're not an inconvenience for being this way, and we don't have to be treated like a burden or like we need to be "fixed".

whether or not you use incontinent products like briefs, pads, diapers, plastic bed sheets, or whatever else, you are loved, important, and deserved to be seen when there are conversations about disability awareness and acceptance. we don't deserve to hide in shame when all we need is to be accommodated and accepted.

[wheelybard]

In my experience, the worst thing about being physically disabled is being frustrated by your own limitations.

I understand I have a cerebral palsy, I've been in a wheelchair all my life. But I don't like when my body doesn't cooperate. I've been in this body all my life. So why do I keep getting frustrated?

Nobody else has these standards for me except me.

[a-queer-seminarian]

“Disability is not a 'brave struggle' or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art—an ingenious way to live.” - Neil Marcus

[ID: a black-and-white photograph of Neil Marcus performing his play Storm Reading. He is shirtless and barefoot, standing next to his wheelchair in a dancer's pose, one leg extended behind him and one hand reaching upward in front of him. / end ID]

A notable figure in the USA's Disability Rights Movement, Neil Marcus (1954 - 2021) was an actor, playwright, and poet who used his art to develop and spotlight disability culture.

His most famous play, Storm Reading, had a nearly decade-long run and won multiple awards. It challenged audiences to reconsider their assumptions about disability, and set new standards for disabled performing artists. From the play:

"For years I've been under the medical microscope. I've been called: twisted, paralyzed, tortured, afflicted, horribly disabled, disfigured, unintelligible and confined to a wheelchair.

No one asked me what I thought. Now it's time for the world to hear my story, in my terms.

(Matt reads it aloud):

MEDITATIONS ON DYSTONIA

Playwright Neil Marcus has flourishing dystonia, a neurological condition which allows him to leap and soar and twist and turn constantly in public, thus challenging stereotypes of every sort and making him very interesting to watch and sit next to during lunch hour. It rides him like a roller coaster at times.

...The playwright has 'generalized dystonia,' which means it is all over him like a phone line that links world nations. It makes Neil very alive, but then again, aren't we all? Perhaps dystonia is, in a way, a universal condition. Something we can all identify with. We must all become more conscious, more humorous, more insightful, more creative. We must fill our lives with grace and empathy. ...

See a disabled person clearly and chances are you'll see yourself clearly. That is when there are no limits. And there are no limits as to when that will happen."

[wreckitremy]

I think giving people 3-6 extra seconds to respond should be an accommodation.

Extra time on a test is nice and all, but i need more time on small things.

I can't write fast enough or think fast enough to keep up with my peers, but like in a timed trial kind of way.

Give me 3-6 extra seconds to respond to this specific question out loud.

[jai-makes-music]

new disabled terminology: ablesplaining

i have coined a term: ablesplaining (v.) standard IPA pronunciation: /ˈeɪ.bl̩'spleɪnɪŋ/ Latin iblis and explano rhymes with: chaining, draining

ablesplaining: a type of event or situation involving relationship between two or more parties (of unbalanced power due to disability status) involving conversations where someone is condescended to, infantilized, or otherwise implied to not know as much about something inherent to their lived experience than the other person does.

"ablesplaining" is an umbrella term for a type of harmful action or power dynamic enacted in situations where one party is in power over another due to immediately or generally relevant lived disability status. in this action or dynamic, the person in power implies by giving unwanted explanations or advice that they are a better authority than the other on something that they have less or no lived experience with compared to the person they are addressing.

broadly, this occurs when something about disability is explained to a a disabled person/party who knows more on the topic than the speaker does.

this can occurs in situations such as the following: -disability, medical conditions, chronic illness, recurrent illness, disabled bodies, etc. -disabled rights, disabled culture and subcultures, intersections between disabled status and other marginalization factor -conditions that are not widely considered disabilities by some but are medically considered such or are considered such by the person affected -the party being ablesplained to has a relevant disability when the speaker do not -a particular symptom is explained to someone else by someone who does not experience the symptom as it is described by the person experiencing it -other observed or imagined scenarios where disabled status or specific disability is in any way relevant to how one can intentionally or unintentionally be bigoted another individual/group.

this does not occur in the following situations: -where an abled medical professional or other expert is offering asked-for advice to a disabled patient/client, with appropriate trust involved and boundaries/consent being respected -in situations when no one involved knows what they're talking about in regards to the disability or disability-related topic, and if in this case it does not directly and immediately affect a disabled person

Q: is ablesplaining is to ableds are to disabled people, as mansplaining is to cis men are to marginalized genders? A: a little bit? but not entirely. ableism isn't entirely comparable with sexism, and i'm not going to pretend it is; the situations that occur aren't total mirrors of each other. two people who are both disabled can ablesplain to each other depending on how they are affected by the specific thing they are talking about, even in a purely hypothetical situation where they could plausibly be totally equally affected by disability and other historical and current marginalization markers are factored in. this is an umbrella term and i mean for it to be used pretty much as broadly as possible.

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Recommended resource.

I don't read it regularly. But I keep its bookmark handy, and can always find something juicy. All online. All free.