I keep thinking about all of the disabled activists and people before me who stranded themselves on the 4th floor of buildings for weeks and crawled up stairs and fought with airline staff and schools and doctors and refused to stop existing in the face of injustice and bigotry no matter how big and scary and hopeless it seemed. Every time I get angry and scared the protests that lead to the creation of the ADA pop up again and remind me that disabled people are so much fucking stronger than anyone has ever given us credit for, and I can't help but be proud of that. And I know not all disabled people feel like we should take pride in our disabilities and have flags or whatever, but I think not just living, but thriving, in spite of a world that wants us dead and gone, in the face of both illness and persecution, and how we've not only bought ourselves forward, but uplifted the disabled people around us, secured more equal futures for everyone who will come after, and truly changed the way so many abled people have seen us for the better is something to be damn fucking proud of.

We have always been here and we always will be, there will never be a world without disabled people because being disabled is not bad, it's a natural part of the human experience and yeah it sucks some times but even when it sucks we have fought to build beautiful, unique, happy lives with people, both like us and not, and that should be celebrated.

The first sign of human civilization is the healed femur. The body of the profoundly disabled person who would have needed help to even just eat being carefully laid to rest after decades of a full, happy life. The medicinal plants showing even before we were entirely human we were doing what we could to not just survive, but alleviate suffering while we're at it. Above everything, evolution selected not the baby who can walk and eat and be quiet, but the one that can ask for help.

Disabled people are not just angry cockroach motherfuckers who refuse to die, we are proof of humanity's HUMANITY. Proof that natural selection selected a species that takes care of each other. From healed femurs and medicinal plants to vaccines and IVs and insulin to now, we are driven to help one another, we are at our strongest when we don't leave our most vulnerable behind. And I am living proof of that. My mother is living proof of that. Every disabled and chronically and/or mentally ill person I know is living proof of that.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but will carry that shred of humanity's true nature inside me like it's my fucking soul. I am scared and angry and hurt, but I have a lifetime's experience being scared and angry, and I can shake off the kind of pain that would make Atlas crumble to dust like it's nothing but a stiff fucking breeze. Disabled people have always been here, turning fear and anger and pain into joy and beauty and connection, and I'm not going to let everyone who came before me down. I'm not going to give up. Not now, not ever.

It's okay if you're disabled and you've hit your limit, you're too scared and tired and hurt, I won't blame you. But I won't abandon you, either. I might not be able to right all of the wrongs in the world, but I'll be strong, I'll carry all of you with me, I will not give up.

As I've said before, society hates a cripple who won't die, so we must spite them and live anyway.

Please, live anyway. I know if anyone can, it's us.

i don’t know who needs to hear this but learning about disability justice will make you love yourself more. even if you don’t have a disability. training yourself with ideas of radical acceptance and celebration of all ability levels will help you treat yourself with patience and compassion because at the end of the day everyone has limitations. a rising tide lifts all boats

also, even if you don’t consider yourself disabled now, you can acquire a disability at any time in your life. you could develop arthritis in 40 years or you could get a concussion tomorrow. doing the work now to uplift and support disabled people around you and fight for disability justice will make you feel less helpless if you do acquire a disability later. fighting for disability justice is not only a moral human imperative, it’s so good for your soul and inner peace as well

You die suddenly or you become disabled. That's how it is for pretty much everyone. Period. Age is a disabling condition. You are going to rely on external support to function at some point. It is going to suck because currently that external support sucks.

Care now. Do the work now. Advocate now.

Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.

I mean, if we're talking about a more...academic? rigorous? accurate? definition of sustainability, something has to meet human needs to be sustainable. A "sustainable" system that disabled people can't use isn't sustainable. Not distracting from your point just saying that "sustainability" is supposed to actually include the needs of people.

Also. In my opinion it's a good thing we invented plastic. Plastic is good at a lot of things. There are some applications where there really Isn't a more sustainable alternative. A lot of medical equipment needs to be single-use plastic and there's not really a way around it.

When we're talking material properties of a substance, plastic does stuff that other materials can't. It's not brittle. It can be flexible. It can be lightweight. It doesn't expand and contract a bunch with temperature. It can allow light through. And it doesn't corrode or biodegrade, which is bad but it's also good because it doesn't change or become contaminated while you're using it.

The best way I ever saw anybody put this was to say that we should be treating plastic like a precious substance in terms of how thoughtfully we use it, with the focus being on using it for things exactly like this, accommodations for people who really need it. I do see how that could be a little tricky in that by treating something as a precious substance but you run the risk of raising the price and making it inaccessible to the people who most need it, and also the inherent risk that you will wind up gatekeeping accommodations from people who need them and should be able to obtain them easily, but as for the concept of treating plastic as something to be used thoughtfully and with care, I really liked that as a starting point for slightly different way of thinking about it as a necessary material.

YES THIS

We do genuinely NEED plastic for some things! Plastic is amazing! Plastic is also a finite resource!

So it pisses me off that so much plastic is used for things can be made with other materials, usually because it's "cheaper."

I put quotation marks around cheaper because the cost of a thing isn't limited to the monetary price - add in all the damage to the environment and humans in the extraction, processing, and waste of anything made of plastic and the actual lifetime cost is a lot higher than whatever money paid for it.

Plastic has replaced a lot of materials that frankly shouldn't have been replaced, like wool in clothing, because of its "cheapness."

The other thing that makes me angry is packaging. Plastic absolutely should be used to packed food and other things that can spoil! So why are there two layers and a bunch of zip ties on, like, toys or tools? Yes we should ship fragile things in plastic bubble wrap, but also paper or rags would work as well or better for less fragile things! At the very least there should be limits to how much plastic can be in packaging, and it should be actually recyclable.

I believe plastic should be part of our everyday lives. It's an amazing material, and we should use it for all those things, medical and mundane, wherein it is completely unique and necessary. It should be treated as such!

"Pride month is over"

WRONG! Your pride month is over! Me and all the other disabled queers are having pride month two: disability edition

Reblogging this again bc people in the notes are asking a lot of "Am I included? Am I disabled if I have x?" and I just wanted to add the flag here to show people who the pride month is for.

This is the new flag, the old one was more vivid and in a z shape, but it's been made more neutral to be inclusive of people with seizures or sensory issues.

Each stripe represents a different aspect of disability:

Red: Physical disabilities

Yellow: Cognitive & intellectual disabilities

White: (And this is the key one I think) Invisible AND undiagnosed disabilities

Blue: Mental illnesses

Green: Sensory disabilities

If you're autistic or have ADHD? this is your pride month. If you have a mental illness, it's your pride month. If you're hard of hearing, this is your pride month. If you have an autoimmune disorder, this is your pride month. If you are not diagnosed with anything but you know something is up with you: THIS IS STILL YOUR PRIDE MONTH.

Oh I got the whole fucking rainbow!

Happy fucking disability pride month!

I found this link on Facebook, it is resources for disabled farmers and gardeners.

Feel free to add more links and tips in the reblogs.

btw if you haven't commented on it yet, the fda is taking comments on their proposed rule banning shock devices for autistic people at the judge rotenburg center. they are taking comments until may 28th.

asan wrote a good plain language guide on how to submit a comment if you are not sure what to do!

even just a few sentences saying this is a good rule will be enormously helpful. thank you!

Very Silly Concept: a show called "Accessibility Nightmares" but it's structured exactly like Kitchen Nightmares. An accessibility specialist goes to different establishments and helps them make their businesses more accessible.

The accessibility specialist asks why the door at the top of the small set of stairs has a wheelchair symbol on it. The owner replies that's the accessible bathroom. The camera zooms in on the specialist as they process this information.

A customer with a service dog comes in to a restaurant. The hostess tells them they don't allow dogs. The accessibly specialist looks over at the hostess like

And there are web accessibility episodes too. The accessibility specialist stares at the white text on the light pink background of the home page like

The specialist asks why not a single product picture has alt text, and the business owner says "Well I mean, it's makeup, why would a blind person be shopping for makeup?" The specialist just

The specialist asks the web designer how a screen reader user is supposed to complete the captcha portion of the password reset process when there is no audio alternative. The designer admits they don't know.

When you left this tag three days ago, I thought "that's so sweet, but no. No way this concept is even close to that popular."

[ID: Four pictures of Gordon Ramsay in various states of confusion. /end ID]

This is it. This is my job. This is what I do for a living. I make those faces and then I tell my uncaring monitor exactly what is wrong with this website and what the site owner needs to do to fix it with all the fucks I can’t put in official work documents sprinkled liberally throughout.

And now I will be picturing Gordon Ramsey when I do it.

I wish there was more representation of disabilities and chronic illness in fantasy, science fiction and action genres.

Not just a side character with 30 seconds of screentime. An important character that doesn't just exist to further the storylines of other characters. I want a character that doesn't get "cured" or healed. A character that stays disabled and/or chronically ill. A character that isn't afraid to ask for help. One that doesn't think they're a burden and doesn't try to hide their disability/ chronic illness.

I want to see how it affects them, not just know they're disabled/chronically ill and it jist never gets mentioned again. I don't mean it should be their entire personality but being disabled and or chronically ill can affect many parts of life.

I just wish there was more representation of disabilities and chronic illness that shows every part of it. Especially in fantasy and science fiction it's lacking.

the government "checking in" on disabled people to make sure were still disabled is one of the most demeaning and humiliating things out there, how is there no checkbox that says "this persons disability is lifelong and incurable" why do you think people's amputated limbs will grow back, are you on the hunt for the return of jesus christ and your way of catching him is hoping that the blind will see again????

i worked at a place responsible for approving a very specific benefit and one of the doctors asked exactly that and the mind boggling answer was that this is to "avoid fraud"

you don't have a leg? come back every 2-4 years because fuck you

the doctor was justifiably upset by that and tried to argue this is pointless and bloats our workload (like 90% of what we did was renewing the benefits for people who already had it, some benefits have to be renewed YEARLY) and was immediately shut down and realized the government would rather spend millions bothering sick and disabled people than let a single one who "does not deserve it enough" get it

the super expensive benefit we handled? the fucking bus.

like someone is going to fake medical documents and our super specific required exams just to not pay the equivalent of 1 USD on a bus ride

I'm Brazilian but i have no reason to believe it's any different anywhere else

An old coworker of mine had a shoulder injury from her time in the air force. It was a fucked things up good injury that would not be healing. Somehow on a regular trip to the VA (medical care for American veterans notorious for not being great), they x-rayed the wrong shoulder and declared her cured. She had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get back to getting treatment.

I'm disabled due to mental health conditions that are incurable. I'm in the US.

It isn't just the being asked to repeatedly prove you are disabled.

It's being forced repeatedly to vomit up details of your most intimate and personal life, all your pain, all the humiliating side effects of being mentally ill are now things you can use to "prove" you are disabled. I can't shower as often as other people. My house is a gross mess. I can't keep up with friends or family and so I grow estranged and look uncaring. You have to go into this with a stranger whenever they ask you to.

And so you have your nose rubbed in the dog shit of knowing your life can never be much different or significantly better because yeah, you are legitimately and permanently disabled. Even they think so. You useless, pathetic rag of a thing.

And having that hitched to a system that won't even give me enough to live on despite drawing the absolute maximum a person on SSI can draw is just...a crowning glory of cruelty.

It kills hope and it kills the will to live and it kills creativity and vitality and desire to work for more happiness. It's awful. But the alternative to all this shit is to die like they want me to.

So I keep going to their dogshit appointments and answering their stupid questions about whether I own any burial plots or expensive jewelry or have mineral or railroad rights, and I am not allowed to get married or let them know I have an intimate partner or they slash my benefits, and I am not supposed to let friends feed me or eat their leftovers without telling them so they can deduct that meal from my monthly pittance, and if I make art I can't sell it or they take 100% of that away unless I register as a business which is insanely complicated to manage, and I can't volunteer or go to class for too many hours but they don't say how many hours that is just that they get to judge when it's too much, and I'm supposed to make sure they know I am following their rules any time they decide to call and ask about it and I have to be polite and I have to be humble and I have to do all of this to prove I am wretched enough to deserve the less than $10,000 they spend on me a year.

Meanwhile, billionaires don't pay their share of taxes. I'm supposed to make sure they know about my grandmother's diamond ring so they can benevolently tell me I loved her enough that it's okay to keep.

This is a diseased system.

As a disabled person who's loved LEVERAGE and LEVERAGE REDEMPTION since the beginning - for the characters but also the whole ethos of performing acts that help people against crap systems, it's wonderful to be reminded that it springs from reality.

Hello fellow disabled people of tumblr. I know that 2010s-2020s culture has turned against the notion of asking to speak to a manager. I know that “can I speak to a manager” is the mark of the beast.

And yet. If someone at the front desk is telling you they can’t unlock the elevator. If you get a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot when you have the dmv card. If the door to the big stall won’t close and you’re telling the front desk about it for the third time in as many weeks. If the bus driver won’t give you time to put on your breaks and secure your wheelchair

Ask to speak to their supervisor. Mention he ADA. Drop a reference to “my lawyer.” Make a nuisance of yourself. You have to get used to taking up more space, and that doesn’t just mean physical space. You have rights. You deserve access. You don’t have to just take it to be polite.

You’re allowed to ask to speak to the manager.

So im not physically disabled, im autistic/ADHD but i went to a conference for disabled students before i went to college and they had a key message for us all

"Advocate For Yourself"

Do not be ashamed to get what you need, do not be ashamed to ask or even to demand.

put spikes on your wheelchair's handles. wrap barbed wire around your cane or crutch so it'll hurt like a motherfucker if someone kicks or grabs it from under your hand. wear a personal alarm and pull the pin every time someone moves you without your consent, leans on your chair, takes a seat on your rollator, taps your hearing aid, steals your AAC device. scream for help when you're abducted. wail like you're in agony when people trip you up or knock into you. take pepper spray to the grocery store. take a knife to the club. leave cards that say "fuck you" under the wipers of inconsiderately parked cars and scratch access codes for bathrooms on the outside of the door. we are not begging for mercy, we're fighting dirty. we have to.

someone grabbed my wheelchair today and then shouted "ouch! there's spikes!"

YEAH!! GET FUCKED !!!!!!

I witnesses someone trying to shove a wheelchair user because they felt the wheelchair wasn't going fast enough, I guess. Not even a second later, this asshole is screaming in pain because the handles had razor wire on them the back of the wheelchair had a sign saying "do not touch."

NGL, I was laughing and gave the wheelchair user a nod. They just kept on going after a nod and wink at me. Fucking amazing.

When I was in hs, I had to use crutches a few times. Classmates though it was funny to kick them while I'm standing. Soooo I glues nails on the bottom 18 inches or so. Two students screaming and yelling resulted in no one kicking them again.

Do not fuck with mobility devices. They are an extension of our body. If you decide to violate our boundaries, be prepared for retaliation, much like if someone shoved or pushed you. Keep yourself to yourself.

heyyyyy reminder for other cane users.

don't forget that cane tips need to be replaced.

i've been using my cane for almost two years on a near daily basis and i JUST switched out the tip and

[image IDs in alt text]

the new tip versus the old tip. i'm not sure how clear it is but, YEAH, there's like. half a millimeter of tread left on the old tip, if that

the replacement was LITERALLY 2 dollars. i bought two to justify the four dollar shipping but. TWO BUCKS.

i had noticed that i was having slipping issues on linoleum recently, but i did not realize how bad the issue had gotten until the new tips came so. PLEASE check your cane treads and if they're notably worn out PLEASE get yourself a new tip they're SO cheap and the grip i get on the new one is INSANE

please don't forget to replace your cane tips!

Apparently It's Disability Awareness Month So Be Aware Of Me.

Hello, I'm Lee. I'm a bit deaf, have a few weird cognitive disabilities (short term memory, sequencing, that kind of thing), and a now-mostly-managed chronic pain issue that seems to be a result of garbage cartilage.

I wrote a book, and it's about superheroes, and family, and found family, and technology, and government corruption, and brain altering nanites, and several flavors of queerness, but mostly, it's about disability.

The next several books in the series will also be about all of these things. Book 2 is in edits now.

It's free as an ebook on Gumroad or you can pay money to get it as an audiobook on Audible, or in paper format from that river site, or your favorite local indie (mine is Moon Palace Books).

Please check it out

This is making the rounds because apparently it's that time again!

(PS, looks like book 2 will be out July 4th of this year!)

The worst thing about finally coming to terms and acknowledging your limitations when you’re mentally or physically disabled, especially when it’s chronic, is when someone who means well, a family member, a best friend, etc. tries to convince you that you in fact do not have those limitations. It tends to be coupled with “you can do everything you set your mind to!” but the thing is, it takes a lot of self forgiveness and self acceptance to admit yourself you have a limitation. 

It is not an easy to allow yourself limitations because it’s frowned upon when a disabled person does not do their best to hide their disability. When I say I cannot do something, trying to encourage me to do it anyway does not make me feel better. It instead makes me feel invalidated and fall back into the pattern of ‘maybe they’re right, and I’m just faking or being lazy’, which completely negates all the work put into the process of self love and self acceptance.

Today I had the spoons to hunt down my neighborhood council's email and send them an email that basically said "I would like to be able to leave my house but my neighborhood is not wheelchair accessible. Who do I talk to in order to get this fixed?" And I am planning on hunting down whoever is in charge of sidewalks in my neighborhood and getting real annoying about it.

My plan is to email them every time I want to go somewhere but can't.

Email 1: hello, please fix sidewalks so I can ride the bus places I am very passionate about public transportation and also being able to leave my house.

Email 200: This morning I woke up and wanted some delicious coffee to start my day, but upon getting out of bed I discovered we were out of coffee. I would've liked to take advantage of the city's public transportation system in order to support a local business like [examples of local coffee shops] but alas I cannot because I am a wheelchair user and my neighborhood is not wheelchair accessible. [Insert rest of arguement RE accessibility]. In conclusion I don't work I can keep these emails coming until I die please just fix my sidewalks.

This is going to be my new spite hobby. I was already mad about the abuse and general shit hand the disabled get dealt in our culture but then I started using a wheelchair and places like doctor's offices have been inaccessible to me so now I am filled with rage. So I am going to take that rage and do something with it. Like emailing my city counsel representatives at 2 am like "I crave a moonlight walk fix my sidewalks please."

I encourage you to do this!

After the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, my grandma - who used an electric wheelchair, having survived both polio and getting hit really hard with post-polio syndrome - made a hobby of filing complaints against businesses that weren't accessible.

She also used to run over people with her chair if they were blocking ramps, but that's neither here nor there.

I have cochlear implants and I can only buy parts to fix them or upgrade then from 1 corporation bc of tech exclusivity. upgrades to get new processors for both ears cost $23k & insurance only covers 90% (and it’s “good” insurance)

cyberpunk dystopia is already here for the disabled. fight for universal healthcare, fight against capitalism NOW.

Cyberpunk dystopia is already here for the disabled.