I think some of us ambulatory wheelchair users are getting pretty close to (or already are) throwing full time users and higher support needs disableds under the bus. And that shit needs to be shut down NOW.
It's the problem of: "how dare they treat us like those people!"
The problem with ableists isn't that they assume we can't walk The problem is they assume we don't need our wheelchairs if we can. That we don't need our handicapped placards or transport vehicles. That we are taking advantage of other "actually" disabled people, that the ableists also don't give a shit about unless they're using them as an excuse to be ableist.
The problem with ableists isn't that they assume we are intellectually and/or developmentally disabled. The problem is they assume that every intellectually/developmentally disabled person needs to be treated with baby talk, dismissal, and ignorance. That they don't see them as people and refuse to listen to intellectually and developmentally disabled voices without making fun of them.
Stop throwing people with higher support needs under the bus. Stop doing what the abled neurodivergent community did to all physically disabled people. Us cripples gotta stick together and fight for one another, not push one down to make ourselves somehow look better to ableist fucks.
being full time wheelchair user terrifying because. you’re totally dependent on this thing. this thing that often you don’t have control over. something breaking can be put it and you out of commission for weeks at best & usually months. can’t use it “carefully” & “sparingly” because you depend on it to go essential places. to perform “basic” life functions. its maintainance & repair & production quality, totally out of your control. “if production bad quality go downhill, boycott & hurt company profit to show consumer voice.” don’t really apply here. because you. can’t exactly go without it. n companies know.
I wish wheelchair bound wasn't a point of contention. I'm literally strapped into my wheelchair and so are a lot of other full-time chair users, so while they mean freedom, there's also a high level of restriction and like... actual binding involved and the feelings that brings up. There's a lot more logistics involved in it too, I have to have someone help me in and out of bed and on and off the toilet, into and out of my shower chair that's also on wheels. We need specialty cushions to prevent our skin from breaking down or our bodies permanently changing in a way that causes more pain. Some people have to be moved on slings that hang from the ceiling and can only leave their wheelchairs if they're in a place with ceiling hoists so even routine medical care is different. It's complicated and weird, and a lot of people just don't Get that.
Please don't forget non-ambulatory wheelchair users in your disabled activism.
I was talking to my colleagues about shit doctors and I remembered the time I had to see a GP to get him to order some bloods my dietician wanted – should have been a 5 minute appointment tops. I was there for 45 minutes.
First he needed a brief (lol) explanation of my medical history from me because he was logged into computer in the upstairs meeting room and couldn’t access my record. Then when I got to the bit about losing the ability to walk at 18 he was adamant that there must be some kind of miracle treatment I haven’t tried for a bunch of conditions he knew nothing about (there isn’t) and just wouldn’t let it go.
When I was like “look, I’ve come to terms with the whole wheelchair thing and there are frankly bigger problems in my life right now. Please can you just order the bloods so I can go?”, he looked at me with big puppy dog eyes, and then – and I’m not joking – gets out of his chair and starts stomping round his office lifting his arms in these big exaggerated movements like a six foot marionette doll saying “I feel so bad for you, I just… I value the movement of my limbs so much”
Which was completely baffling behaviour to watch. Luckily I really am okay with my disability most of the time but if he’d caught me on a bad day or if this had happened a few years earlier I could have been really upset.
(As a heads up any variation on “look at this movement I can do, sucks you can’t feel what it’s like” is Not good etiquette when talking to wheelchair users)
I really do get that individual writers and artists don’t necessarily have the power to change Babs back into a full time wheelchair user on their own. But at bare minimum I really wish that they would at least just write/draw her in her wheelchair all the time when they have the power to.
Even if they can’t make her a full time wheelchair user across all of DC, why can’t they have her be a full time wheelchair user within their own works? Is it really that hard to just have her do this sitting down, like she did before DC magicured her?
Batman (2016) #128
Image description: A comic panel of Barbara Gordon standing and leaning over a computer desk with several monitors. She’s messing with wires on a laptop, her face tilted and eyebrows knit in concentration. The top half of the panel is drawn to show a glimpse of Gotham outside, where Nightwing is. Babs says, “…I’m trying to increase transmission power to override Failsafe’s comms blocking! Do you have something?” Nightwing, over the glitchy comms where his voice is cutting out, says, “chtt—looks like it—no sign of Batman���” End ID.
Ambulatory wheelchair used does not mean that they can just get up and stand or walk for a lot of people. Ambulatory just means that in some capacity you can stand or walk even if it is only with extensive support and only for a few seconds. Not all ambulatory wheelchair users have a choice to use a wheelchair or when encountering inaccessibility can just get out of their wheelchair to deal with it. Some ambulatory people are full time wheelchair users.
As a dancer and a highly active person the stress put on his joints and injuries to the hip and torso area gave him chronic pain. Formed a pars fracture and sprains became fairly common. With the additional injuries from his overblot it was decided that he would benefit from a mobility aid.
I'm sorry but Kelly Thompson saying the reason Babs could not be in the Birds of Prey book is because she would die on a mission is such a stupid writing choice.
If only when Babs founded and lead the Birds of Prey she did so remotely if only people respected Babs time as Oracle.
If only a single damn writer at DC respected disability representation and made the smallest push for Babs to be Oracle.
But no instead Babs gets sidelined from the team she created and lead as a disabled woman cause she potentially gets shot in the field.
Beyond frustrating at this point the way DC has all but destroyed Oracle's legacy and any hope I had as a disabled person that this book might maybe be different is gone.