As a disabled kid who was in the same phys ed class as everyone else with predictably horrifying results, HARD SAME

“Nobody should have to compete against people with biological advantages in the biological advantage assessment game!”

effing this.

motherfucking this, exacrtly. When group activities would pause for a rest, *until I caught up* and then keep going. Hey fuckers, if I was far enough behind for *you* to get a break, what about a break for me, the fat asthmatic asshole who actually needed to sit for 5 minutes, and instead found that every single time they caught up, the group moved on, which just made it even harder to keep up. Fuckers. If you stop for a break while someone catches up? Extend that break for at *least* 5 minutes after they catch up. They're the one who most needed that break in the first fucking place, and you're the one not letting the most needy have it, often at ages where they're too young to ask for it. My mom asked why i didn't complain about that as a kid? I had no idea that me saying shit would matter, or that anyone would listen

hey just a little pro-tip to abled people

if a disabled person is talking about how their disability affects them, or how a particular tool might help their disability… it’s not helpful to say something along the lines of:

you, as an abled person, are probably either misunderstanding something or are not experiencing the issue to the same extent as the disabled person.

stop talking over the top of disabled people when we talk about our experiences and our disabilities.

Still reeling from the realization that bullet journaling was essentially created to be a disability aid and got legit fuckin gentrified

Like I'm at work and don't have the time to properly organize my thoughts atm but like.

-bullet journalling was invented by a man with a learning disability (99% sure it was ADHD but his website now just says learning disability so I can't be 100%) as a system for organizing his life/way to work WITH his learning disability

-the general concept is bullet point the important things you need to do and use a simple system of symbols to mark whether it's done, rescheduled, cancelled, etc. with very little fanfare, keeping it all in one notebook so you know where to easily find the information at a glance

-people pick it up and it starts getting popular

-bullet journaling becomes an aesthetic movement largely populated by white neurotypicals

-bullet journaling has turned into creating an extremely pretty notebook that has some function, but largely depends on complicated decoration and aesthetic function that takes more time to set up than is tenable for the people it was created for

-new entries to bullet journaling feel pressure to shop at particular stores, use particular brands, purchase lots of stationery purely for its aesthetic value, and prioritize the artistry of the pages rather than the information being stored on them

-people who would massively benefit from the original system can only really find information on it from members of the aesthetic movement. There is now a barrier to entry for ppl with ADHD and other similar conditions, as bullet journaling now requires a focus and motivation to start that these same people often lack or struggle to maintain consistently

-bullet journaling is no longer a disability aid and has become an aesthetic movement largely for middle class white neurotypicals, pushing out the people who the system was created for to begin with

This is the original guide from the person who made bullet journalling. Super simple. Not at all high maintenance.

It was eye-opening to rewatch this after getting used to bullet journal meaning "work of highly decorative art you might journal in if it doesn't detract from the decoration" everywhere online.

Oh man. O h m a n.

Personal discord servers are the new bullet journal ngl. But this is really sad. Yeah.. as much as normalization of aids and accomodations are helpful for cheaper stuff, this kinda be the opposite and real bad side of commercialization of disability tools.

Destroy the idea that refusing to use a mobility aid is some kind of accomplishment.

It’s just like “well done you are struggling more each day than you need to be, congratulations!”

When I was younger I refused to use my wheelchair because I wanted to appear “more normal”

You know I love how so many people are like “respect boundaries respect consent” until it’s time to respect people w OCD who can’t shake hands or be touched or when an autistic person tells their family member they can’t give hugs or when a chronically ill person tells you “no I can’t do this thing” and you think “maybe if I just make them do it anyway it’ll make them stronger” or when a mentally ill person or someone who has been abused is like “I don’t want to be around this person/thing it’s triggering” and you get people guilting them to “just get over it”

If you’re about consent and boundaries, good, you should be, but remember to keep that energy when moms of autistic kids are like “I still hug my child even tho it makes them have panic attacks” or when someone’s like “yeah they said they don’t want to be around this person cause it’s “triggering” but I’m their friend so they should do it for me” or when a disabled person says they can’t go up the stairs and you’re begging them to “try anyway”

Don’t lose that mindset, or that energy when it’s time to respect the boundaries or consent of mentally ill and disabled people.

You know I love how so many people are like “respect boundaries respect consent” until it’s time to respect people w OCD who can’t shake hands or be touched or when an autistic person tells their family member they can’t give hugs or when a chronically ill person tells you “no I can’t do this thing” and you think “maybe if I just make them do it anyway it’ll make them stronger” or when a mentally ill person or someone who has been abused is like “I don’t want to be around this person/thing it’s triggering” and you get people guilting them to “just get over it”

If you’re about consent and boundaries, good, you should be, but remember to keep that energy when moms of autistic kids are like “I still hug my child even tho it makes them have panic attacks” or when someone’s like “yeah they said they don’t want to be around this person cause it’s “triggering” but I’m their friend so they should do it for me” or when a disabled person says they can’t go up the stairs and you’re begging them to “try anyway”

Don’t lose that mindset, or that energy when it’s time to respect the boundaries or consent of mentally ill and disabled people.

For those with chronic pain, living our lives with others can be tricky. Amanda Lehr shares strategies that’ve worked for her (and might for you!) to re-learn how to listen to her body & herself.

Here are some floral pride canes I made, feel free to repost with credit 💖

Image description: ten digital drawings by @fibromyalgicgay of canes on top of different pride flags with flowers near the bases and handles of the canes. The pride flags in order are the LGBT/gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, asexual, demisexual, aromantic, pansexual and polysexual pride flags.

Could you possibly attempt a queer one? :)

-Kiwi

Of course @the-queer-and-beloved ! I will try to remember to do so tomorrow. Could you attach/send me a picture of the one you’d like me to do?

Thanks so much! I believe this is the most commonly used queer flag:

Here you go! Sorry that it isn’t as good as the other ones, I had to remake the template because apparently it didn’t save, whoops :)

(Image description: a digital drawing of a black cane with flowers near the base and the handle. The background is a messy drawing of the queer pride flag, a tan background with two purple arrows pointing downwards in about the middle of the cane.)

Do people realise that in constantly saying don’t desexualise disabled characters as an argument or warning against ace people creating ace headcanons for disabled characters, they’re actually saying that desexualisation and asexuality are the same?

Do people realise that ace people headcanoning characters as ace–be that person disabled or abled–are not likely to portray this character as desexualised, because ace people desperately want and need agency, identity and authority in their portrayals and headcanons? Something that doesn’t exist in a desexualisation narrative?

Do people realise that this constant slew of warnings is incredibly, unbelievably harmful to disabled aces? In no way is the experience of being asexual that of being desexualised; to conflate the two strips disabled aces doubly of agency, identity and authority. Yet every time we turn around, we see warnings about never linking two of our identities; we are told that being a disabled ace is the same thing as being a desexualised disabled person.

This constant narrative of warning doesn’t support me, a disabled ace. In fact, I suspect that being told that disabled ace headcanons are a form of desexualisation strips me as much of agency as a disabled ace as does the desexualisation of disabled characters as a disabled person!

Neither, in any way, treats me as a person with agency, identity or authority over my own experience and intersecting identities!

Asexual people do not benefit from desexualisation any more than disabled people do. A desexualisation narrative isn’t an ace-positive one. Allosexual abled people write these sorts of narratives, engaging in both ableism and allosexism because they see both being disabled and being asexual as less adult and less human, thereby linking these in coding that strips the character of agency. When you say that ace people shouldn’t headcanon disabled characters, you are placing the fault for the very allosexism that harms us–the way we are seen as less than adult and human–at an ace person’s feet. The narrative of desexualisation isn’t ours, so why do people insist on denying ace people expression when abled allosexual people are the problem?

When people say “don’t headcanon disabled characters as ace unless you’re disabled”, I don’t feel protected. I just see fewer headcanons–and resulting canon narratives–about people like me, in a world where there’s few ace protagonists and few disabled protagonists created as empowering representation.

We are told, over and over, that being a disabled ace is the same thing as being a desexualised disabled person.

How is that supposed to be good activism?

Disability Protip: Calling our needs “special” leaves the door wide open for able people to think of any reason to deny us, because why the fuck should we get anything that might give us an “advantage”? Make things “easier”? Because what makes us so “special”?

My needs are not “special”. They are needs. They are needs because without them, I and others like me are at a very profound, very visible disadvantage from the rest of a society that was clearly not initially designed with us in mind.

It’s not our fault that the able world has to play catch-up to include us and make sure we can be on equal footing.

When you call our needs “special“, you single us out, hold us accountable and make us jump through hoops because we were born without the ability to adapt to the world you created without help, and that – THAT is not fair.

“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”

We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”

Or “little Jonathan doesn’t talk but does a good job herding the sheep, contributes to the community in his own way, and is, all around, a decent guy.” That happened a lot, too, especially before the 19th century.

Or, backing up FURTHER

and lots of people think this very likely,

“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”

The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.

To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science)  indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.

Given this evidence, and how common we now know autism actually is, the Changeling myth is almost definitely the result of people’s confusion at the development of autistic children.

Weirdly enough, that legend is now comforting to me.

I think it’s worth noting that many like me, who are diagnosed with ASD now, would probably have been seen as just a bit odd in centuries past. I’m only a little bit autistic; I can pass for neurotypical for short periods if I work really hard at it. I have a lack of talent in social situations, and I’m prone to sensory overload or you might notice me stimming.

But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.

I’m not trying to romanticise the past because I know it was hard, dirty work with a constant risk of premature death. I don’t actually want to be a 16th century farmer! What I’m saying is that disability exists in the context of the environment. Our environment isn’t making people autistic in the sense of some chemical causing brain damage. But we have created a modern environment which is hostile to autistic people in many ways, which effectively makes us more disabled. When you make people more disabled, you start to see more people struggling, failing at school because they’re overwhelmed, freaking out at the sound of electric hand dryers and so on. And suddenly it looks like there’s millions more autistic people than existed before.

“…disability exists in the context of the environment.”

Reblog for disability commentary.

That last paragraph is absolutely important.

Dear Fellow Parents,

LET/ENCOURAGE YOUR KID TO USE DEVICES THAT WILL HELP THEM FUNCTION WITHOUT YOUR HELP AND GET AROUND EASIER AND BE BETTER AT HUMANING. 

And ya know what, while we are at it, the reason you’re probably telling them not to do these things is because you dont want to be stared at or questioned, so maybe it’s time to be an Adult and handle other Adults. Maybe explain to your friends that yeah, my kid CAN walk but it’s hard for them.  Yeah, my kid can see some things but she has a white cane cause we walked here and crossed several streets and it’s safer to use her cane because she can’t see out of one eye and the other’s low vision. Yeah I know the kid is only 15 and hearing aids are usually associated with older people but old people aren’t the only ones with hearing loss.

Stand up for your damn kids. To your other family, to people in stores, to their teachers. You’re supposed to be on their god damned side. 

Happy pride month to all the disabled LGBT+ people!!

Regardless of whether you are able to go to a pride parade or not, you are so special and deserve to be so happy during this rainbow-filled month!!

things to consider when advocating for a tech-free, back-to-earth future: 

Thank you. If your pro-nature, pro-green, pro-DIY future is anti-me-living, I don’t really want to be a part of it, thanks. I mean, not that I would be anyway.

Say it with me, kids

SOLARPUNK

“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”

We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”

Or “little Jonathan doesn’t talk but does a good job herding the sheep, contributes to the community in his own way, and is, all around, a decent guy.” That happened a lot, too, especially before the 19th century.

Or, backing up FURTHER

and lots of people think this very likely,

“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”

The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.

To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science)  indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.

Given this evidence, and how common we now know autism actually is, the Changeling myth is almost definitely the result of people’s confusion at the development of autistic children.

Weirdly enough, that legend is now comforting to me.

I think it’s worth noting that many like me, who are diagnosed with ASD now, would probably have been seen as just a bit odd in centuries past. I’m only a little bit autistic; I can pass for neurotypical for short periods if I work really hard at it. I have a lack of talent in social situations, and I’m prone to sensory overload or you might notice me stimming.

But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.

I’m not trying to romanticise the past because I know it was hard, dirty work with a constant risk of premature death. I don’t actually want to be a 16th century farmer! What I’m saying is that disability exists in the context of the environment. Our environment isn’t making people autistic in the sense of some chemical causing brain damage. But we have created a modern environment which is hostile to autistic people in many ways, which effectively makes us more disabled. When you make people more disabled, you start to see more people struggling, failing at school because they’re overwhelmed, freaking out at the sound of electric hand dryers and so on. And suddenly it looks like there’s millions more autistic people than existed before.

“…disability exists in the context of the environment.”

Reblog for disability commentary.

That last paragraph is absolutely important.

There’s also some disabilities that effectively don’t exist in a modern environment. Shitty eyesight, for example, is 99% of the time effectively and easily treated with glasses, and is not a disability at all (assuming you can afford the glasses, of course). I don’t have to go to my school’s disability services and request accommodations because I need glasses, and I don’t have to alter my daily life because I wear glasses, because today’s modern environment is perfectly navigable to a person with glasses. If I lived 500 years ago and had the same shitty eyesight, it actually would cause me problems. If only we build the world to accommodate other disabilities the way we accommodate glasses.

All. Of. This.

I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist today, and when I saw that Edward had a metal arm and a metal leg I started crying. I saw how cool and awesome he was even when he was disabled. shows like these are what gives me hope for my future. it bugs me when I watched grays anatomy that all the patients are shown as disabled, weak, helpless, annoying, unwanted, and so forth. I watched the episode that featured my illness in it and it made me so mad and frustrated. I saw how they said that they just saved her life yet they did not. it made me feel like a burden. as a teen, not many people want to hang out with me because of my illness. sometimes I don’t think I will ever be able to live alone. yet when I see shows like Fullmetal Alchemist it makes me feel cool, important and makes me feel like I can do anything.

I’m so sorry, I just had to share that.

Guys if you ever feel down, remember

Remember, be curious.

Focus on what you can do instead of thinking about something you weren’t able to do.

Keep talking.

Keep going.

Keep discovering.

Look up.