Eregyrn Falls

i want to take the time to talk about a series of disabilities that no one takes seriously or even recognizes as a disability, which is food intolerances, and allergies. if a person can get sick if they eat the wrong foods, they are disabled, as this illness will make them unable to function all because they ate the wrong food. it's not okay to guilt someone for seeking foods that won't injure them.

in 2022, i began to lose my ability to digest land meats (pork, chicken, cow, etc.), animal milks, and eggs. it started slowly but quickly progressed to every type of land meat. i am only able to digest seafood, plants, nuts, seeds safely without becoming horribly sick. i tried to buy cow's milk because it is cheaper recently and became so ill it was genuinely traumatic. i have never been that sick in my life before. i cannot safely ingest cow's milk, the cheaper option, because it will injure me for several days or even weeks at a time. this happens to me with all land meats as well.

i cannot eat eggs. i cannot fried rice that has egg, i cannot eat most sauces like mayo or ranch dressing because of their high egg content. i cannot eat anything dressed in mayo as a sauce. anything that is baked or brushed or washed with egg is a risk. my digestive system really hates eggs in particular and they are inescapable.

people who can't digest or process lactose, gluten, meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, fiber, certain fats, proteins or sugars don't have their needs considered very often, nor taken seriously, especially when that person is poor. people with digestive issues need to be able to eat foods that don't hurt us- it's not our faults that alternative milks, breads, pizzas, snacks, sauces, dips, spreads, meats and more are significantly more expensive. we still need to be able to eat foods that don't harm us regardless of how much money we make.

caffeine, too. caffeine is a common trigger for a lot of neurological conditions, like migraine and Meniere's, and it's also a common problem for heart strains. yet caffeine is an increasingly common additive in drinks ("refreshers" my beloathed, not just coffee and sodas anymore) as well as foods (candy, etc) and is often not labeled with either "contains caffeine" or the quantity of caffeine present.

this complaint brought to you by having to walk into a store the other day and ask an employee whether any of the drinks available were caffeine-free, and having them not know and have to carefully check the ingredients label for common caffeinated products.

everyone deserves to be able to eat and drink safely, without paying consequences later on down the line. food and drink are a common center of social activity! making sure everyone has palatable, tasty options that they can partake in safely is a basic accessibility issue. so is making sure that everyone knows what kinds of things are in the foods available, so that informed decisions about what to consume are possible.

Corn. In America (apologies for the US-centrism in the ensuing post, but it's the hellscape I have the misfortune of living in), corn and its derivatives will make fun cameo appearances in bread, yogurt, salad dressing, ice cream, diced ham, shredded cheese, chocolate milk, powdered sugar, table salt, the wax they put on apples, and about 95% of all pills ranging from over-the-counter ibuprofen to lifesaving prescription medications. If my corn allergy was life-threatening, I probably would not be alive. But instead, I'm just permanently chronically ill. And I have to pay extra for name-brand Zyrtec — just to not be allergic to my own allergy medication.

Just like the caffeine situation, the corn labeling is absolute shit. "Modified food starch," or as lots of pills say, plain old "starch," could be corn starch. But it could also be potato starch — which is a lifesaver for me, but fucks over people with potato allergies instead. Yet neither of us get to be told. We have to avoid it all out of caution. Xanthan gum is another potential corn derivative, but it can come from other allergy-prone plants too, and it's never clarified.

But at least there's been legislation introduced in Congress to require clearer labeling of allergens in medications, right? Just kidding. That's only for the "main nine" allergens plus gluten. Of which corn is not one in America, despite the country's fetish for it. So we should just petition for corn to be added to the main allergen list, right? Absolutely not. There's actually nothing that terrifies me more. When sesame was added to the list in the US in 2023, companies just added it to all their products, to save money on cleaning equipment. If this happened to corn too, I genuinely don't know what I would do.

And in the grand scheme of things, I'm lucky among people with corn allergies. Here's an article about the horror stories from people with more severe sensitivities than mine. And yet, food needs are so niche and inflexible that I can't travel, for pleasure or work — and just like people with caffeine sensitivities, I'm incredibly isolated from any food-based social activities. If this isn't a disability, how the hell is it so disabling?

An electric toothbrush and an escalator are two things that can stop working and still accomplish their original goal.

Ah, wonderful! This post can help me illustrate something I’ve been trying to articulate for awhile: the concept of benign or unintentional abelism.

Escalators and electric toothbrushes are perfect examples of things that many able-bodied people assume exist for their own convenience, and this post is a perfect example of that unconscious assumption.

An escalator that has broken down is still perfectly functional, right? 

Well, sure–if you could have used the stairs to begin with. 

But for people like me, for whom the escalator was not a convenience but a mobility device, a broken down escalator is not functional. 

An electric toothbrush might seem like something that could be just as easily used turned off as turned on, but for someone with Parkinson’s, or any other number of nerve, coordination, or grip issues, the function of the electric toothbrush is a necessary feature, and without it, the task at hand becomes far more arduous (or even impossible). 

I’m not angry or trying to point out why this post is “bad” or “wrong”–I’m simply trying to point out that people who assume every time or energy-saving invention was created as a means to help able-bodied people be lazier should consider re-examining those assumptions. It might help you become more compassionate toward your disabled friends and family, or at least more aware of the struggles we face daily. 

I’ve had plenty of folks ask for examples of abelism and I am terrible at coming up with them on the spot, so here you go. This is a great one: assuming every modern convenience is only a convenience for everyone, when for some, it is, in fact, a necessity. 

^ When I heard that this is why all those infomercials show “impossibly clumsy able-bodied people” - that these random convenience devices are really made more for people with troubles like randomslasher describes, and it’s just able-bodied actors trying to act those mobility issues out - I kinda had to stop making fun of those clips.

And the reason they use able-bodied actors instead of showing real people with disabilities use the product is because if they did that, able-bodied people would see it and be like “oh what a neat product for people with x disability” and not buy it because they assume it’s not for them. And even though that’s true, the companies need able bodied people to buy it so they can make enough revenue to stay in business and continue to produce the product for people with disabilities.

^^ also the more able bodied people that buy or have a product intentionally designed for someone with disability is that it helps destigmatize it. Which is super important. 

Remember Snuggies? The blanket with sleeves? It was designed for wheelchair users/people with mobility issues so they could be warm and still use their arms without being trapped under a blanket. They were SO popular for a while, and everyone had one… which meant that if someone who was able bodied came over to your house and saw you had one too, it was less of a chance of being made fun of for it, and more like an opportunity for a conversation on about how they want one too. 

The slap chopper is also another great example. I know so many people who are able bodied that had/currently have one and sure it makes things quicker and easier for them, but someone with motor control issues or bad arthritis can use it. It won’t be an awkward “why do you have this thing” conversation. It is a “woah, I have one too!” or “I love mine, so glad you love yours too” sort of thing 

By selling/marketing them to able-bodied people, this makes it better for those of us who are disabled. It can destigmatize, which in turn normalizes it, which helps us become less Other and more Accepted. 

This goes as well for things like fidget toys. As kinda cringey as the fidget spinner was marketed, things like the fidget cube became more popular for people with adhd.

Same goes as well with weighted blankets.

And then there’s the fact that a lot of people who end up benefiting from these things are somewhere in the grey area of experiencing some level of disability but not thinking of themselves as disabled. So their hand hurts when they chop vegetables and this neat little device makes them enjoy cooking again, or they find out they can focus better in class with a fidget toy. If those products were presented as ‘only for people with this a disability’ they probably never would have tried them.