I hate how people believe that AAC will automatically fix and make everything better. Like it’s this magical thing that will fix all your problems. And I’m mostly referring to the parts of the community that are mostly speaking people. I realize completely that AAC could help a LOT in these situations, but sometimes, it can cause more harm than good.

This is just in my observations and experience, but the amount of ableism that AAC users experience is ridiculous. The amount of people who believe that if you use AAC, you are this zoo animal who has suddenly gained a talent and must be stared at and gawked at.

AAC will NOT fix your family problems. Your family will still be ableist. AAC will not fix all your speech problems, you will still have speech problems. AAC is hard to figure out. AAC will not make everything better, and I’m tired of people acting like it’s some magical thing that will. Will it make your life easier if you’re nonverbal or nonspeaking and NEED a way to communicate? Absolutely. But that doesn’t change the other shit.

I have read nonverbal and those with very limited speech discuss how they are often hung up on on the phone because their aac sounds like a robot, that they are at massive risk of police brutality as a result of seeming "disrespectful" or "dangerous", that they are left behind in conversation constantly because they take longer to communicate (esp those who may use pictures/word folders instead of typing, and/or those who may have physical disabilities that affect their speed at typing/tapping/searching for the words they need).

yes ! Before Pixie get Sunshine , just going for walk could get Pixie murdered by Police officers . because . Pixie have very few chooses in how to communicate with them . and . no safety in any choice made .

1- Use Pixie sign and hope them not shoot Pixie for “ waveing hands around “ when was told to stop moving and answer questions .

2- Try getting AAC device , Or communication cards , out from bag Or pocket . and . hope them not shoot Pixie for “ Possibly reaching for weapon “ .

3- just walking away , risk getting murdered for “ not doing what am supposed to “ and “ running means am not innocent , but an actual criminal “

Pixie have had these things happen to Pixie . and . been very very very very very lucky to be able run away quickly enough to be safe every time this happens . Pixie lucky in so many ways .

Pixie keep hearing about more and more nonverbal autism people , especially black men , who have been murdered , or shot , by Police officers .

And . Pixie walk kind of different … people can definitely tell there be something wrong . and so many people they Call Police officer s , usually because assume is drugs makeing Pixie behave strangely

the reality of being nonverbal is often so awful and scary …

Autism and Isolation, discussing my experience and my characters

I think i've said here before that my robot characters represent my experience growing up disabled where I live. My characters being robots specifically were made to represent feelings of being made to feel less human in some way due to it. While all my characters in that story are on the spectrum and represent different parts of my experience, I used Mikey as the cover of this post because he represents a certain part of myself that makes me incredibly attached to him (there's a reason I say I like writing him so much, despite him not being the main protagonist). He's the part of me that understands I need help with things but is too afraid to ask leaving me in horrible positions, he's the part of me who screams in public when I feel trapped, he's the part of me that could probably never live by myself, he's the part of me who's scared and vulnerable. Among other things. But also he's the part of me who, like many of my peers, feels isolated in everyday spaces and autistic spaces alike due to peoples perceptions of what autism "should" be, these same people welcome fidget toys and stimming with open arms turn around and think its okay to call me the r slur or infantalise me or make fun of until I cry. But I only cry because I thought i'd be welcomed in those spaces with my autistic peers and I cry because I told my younger self it would get better and people would be nicer to us once we were an adult with like minded people. These same people who, despite being open and proud about supporting neurodiversity still think its okay to use the word autistic as an insult against me. I feel like while people appear so much more accepting of disabled people with these small gestures than I was when I was growing up, I still feel like an outsider in these spaces but this time it feels like I've hit a wall. Like a, "who will support me if the people who are meant to don't?" it leads to a lot of insecurity and self loathing, it makes me feel like I'm not autistic in the "right way" and there's just something wrong with me as a person. I wrote these into Mikey, which makes him seem like he has a 'thin skin' to people like Tandy. Mikey, in my story, is often left behind or teased by other characters in my story even the ones who are also on the spectrum. They also struggle with their own battles with facing ableism and self hatred due to it but don't realise the first step to tackling that is unpacking how they treat others around them. You'll never be able to love your true authentic autistic self if you throw ableist rhetoric at people around you. That includes saying shit like "I'm autistic and I don't act like that guy does whats their excuse" or "I'm not making fun of them because they're autistic they just act weird" I'm low support needs autistic, I've seen how people treat high support needs autistic people and its even more sickening, other low support needs autistic people like to pretend they don't exist or throw them under the bus to make themselves more appealing to ableists: "See autistic people don't actually act like that, support me because I can mask" or even trying to say autism isn't a disability. My characters and writing while being a representation of myself being disabled is also a scathing criticism of the cruelty I see in the world at large, the cruelty I see in other people in ND and disabled communities and the cruelty I see within myself. I get scared about my future with how people treat me, but when I have characters I can write these struggles into it makes it a little easier. I know there's people who love me for who I am and there's people out there who love you guys for who you are too.

it is actually ridiculous how able bodied people think mobility aids work. my physical therapist is hellbent on "getting me off" of my rollator so i can "be more independent" as if my rollator isn't what gives me independence in the first place. without my mobility aids i wouldn't be going anywhere and would be even more dependent on my wife. pt is great and all but it isn't going to cure my chronic fatigue or pain, and i am perfectly content with using mobility aids for the rest of my life if i need to. it isn't a death sentence like some people think it is. lord knows im not finna tell this guy im getting a wheelchair

It IS ableist to laugh at politicians displaying symptoms of disorder.

It IS ableist to say that them becoming disabled is punishment for being shitty.

It IS ableist to say that a politician becoming disabled is a reason they shouldn’t be in office.

Those politicians are shitty. That’s it. You don’t have to being disability into it. Disability isn’t a punishment for being shitty. Disability isn’t the reason they shouldn’t be in office.

Also, that politician isn’t who sees you laughing at them for being visibly disabled— it’s your disabled community members who do.

Tbh, I hate most politicians. But them being disabled, fat, etc. isn’t why I hate them. I don’t need to talk about it at all actually. You can point out egregious human rights violations and abuses without ever mentioning them being disabled. When you actually hate someone for being shitty and harmful, but all you make jokes about it their disability, you’re not accomplishing anything helpful aside from furthering ableist stereotypes.

Stop and consider: Does this joke actually bring light to the ways they’re genuinely awful, or does it just make people hate them for being a part of a marginalized community?

It’s thinly veiled ableism and y’all will say we’re sympathizing when we’re literally just saying don’t pin their shitty behavior on them being disabled.

You can hate someone’s actions and leave their disabilities out of it.

Some people have brought up “but what if their disability prevents them from doing their job” which is a whole other conversation and is derailing my post. If you want to have that conversation, please have it outside of my notes.

My post is asking for people to not make ableist jokes. Thats it.

Yup.

Every time you make shitty disableist “jokes” about politicians, including outstandingly horrendous ones like Trump, what you are saying is “I want to mock and belittle all disabled and ill people”, and “I don’t actually care about this politician’s actions, but I want to mock and belittle a disabled person and this feels like a situation I won’t get much pushback for doing so”.

The number of people who claimed to be “shocked” by Trump mocking the disabled reporter (none of whom were disabled, I’m pretty sure; disabled people are not shocked by disableism) and then went on to mock, belittle and concern troll Trump for walking unsteadily coming off a plane, or make “zombie’ jokes about Mitch McConnell is extremely telling.

If you do actually hate their actions, mock and belittle their fucking actions,not their disability or illness. It’s actually that easy.

I don’t think non-cluster b’s should be allowed to educate people on what it means to have a cluster b disorder. They almost always get it wrong/are incredibly ableist about it, even if they don’t mean to be.

What blows my mind is that people listen to them far more than they listen to any of us. We try to properly educate others and are called selfish, monsters and abusers while the ableists spewing ignorance are praised for turning vulnerable victims of abuse and their anger so it’s misdirected at us.

And I know that by saying this I’m going to get an influx of people proving my point by telling me I’m just trying to manipulate people/I have no empathy and therefore I can’t have an opinion/etc. but it needs to be talked about more.

Narcissistic/Borderline/Anti-social/Histrionic abuse believers DNI.

after what they did with the movie I would be happy if they just killed off detective pikachu as a series forever

the movie went out of its way to establish that wheelchair users cannot go on pokemon journeys. not even if they are one of the richest people in the world. decades of discussion about disability in pokemon was tossed in the trash to hurt countless disabled pokemon fans just to give one fictional shithead some of the worst possible motives: being a wheelchair user made him bitter and evil. not being able to travel with pokemon made him bitter and evil. inaccessibility made him bitter and evil. also he built the fucking city he kept complaining was inaccessible. he built it. he built a whole entire city then whined it was inaccessible and woe is him, the poor multi billionaire who decided not to mandate ramps.

so an extremely poorly written villain was prioritized over every wheelchair user who wanted to imagine they could go on a journey with pokemon. I used pokemon to motivate me throughout extremely painful medical treatments. pokemon got me through a lot. and knowing that there were disabled kids who wanted to imagine themselves going on a pokemon adventure, and went to the first live action pokemon movie with so much joy and hope and enthusiasm just to be told there are no trainers like them

was cruel beyond anything I could have imagined would be in the movie. I almost puked in the theater.

for anyone who has not seen detective pikachu: a huge theme in detective pikachu is that traveling with pokemon and going on an adventure is an almost essential part of life. and that people feel incomplete without having done it.

the main villain, one of the richest people in the world of pokemon, goes into detail about how not being able to journey with pokemon made him evil. because of being disabled and being a wheelchair user. so he chooses to hurt people and pokemon to try to get himself a better body because he lives in envy of those who get to travel. and if a fucking billionaire cannot figure out how to have a pokemon adventure with a wheelchair, what fucking hope is there for your average disabled kid?

detective pikachu also heavily implies that accessibility and disability rights in pokemon are worse than what we have now, if not even a city planner with infinite money can design an accessible city. and right now in real life we have all terrain wheelchairs. a ton of them! there are all kinds of wheelchairs for all kinds of terrain. and with the help of pokemon and an ounce of creativity, your average disabled trainer could have come up with many ideas to make that kind of setup work. this type of problem solving for disabled trainers has been a mainstay of the pokemon fandom since the beginning.

and yet along came detective pikachu, saying that none of those are possible, even if you are an inventor, even if you have mountains of gold.

detective pikachu decided to make the world of pokemon hostile to wheelchair users. the villain made his own city hostile to its fictional disabled residents, and made the franchise hostile to actual disabled fans. for no good fucking reason

also the disabled villain was blatantly compared to giratina and has a ditto as a partner who gets used to harm others through trickery. very kind imagery for one of the only wheelchair users in all of pokemon, whose motivation is being disabled made him evil.

I take teeth jokes or people mocking teeth very seriously. My grandmother had black teeth that fell out and my grandfather had to have all of his teeth pulled and the shame and disgust and self loathing others made them feel for it has stayed with me to this day. You're a classist shithead if you mock ppl's teeth or use it as a sign of morality. All perfectly straight white teeth prove is access to money literally that's it!

I take teeth jokes or people mocking teeth very seriously. My grandmother had black teeth that fell out and my grandfather had to have all of his teeth pulled and the shame and disgust and self loathing others made them feel for it has stayed with me to this day. You're a classist shithead if you mock ppl's teeth or use it as a sign of morality. All perfectly straight white teeth prove is access to money literally that's it!

I know this just got spat out of my queue but I'm still so angry about this!!

It's a form of social shaming that literally makes people force themselves not to smile!!

Every laugh has to be carefully blocked in order to avoid showing teeth: no big belly laughs or unfettered joy. Every smile must be controlled and muted so the lips remain shut: no wide grins or carefree good humor. Even speaking: make sure not to show too much, and if it's difficult to be loud enough to be heard without a wider open mouth, well, guess who won't get to be part of the conversation?

And it's something I never even thought about until I met someone, a cousin's then-girlfriend, who spoke and smiled and laughed in such a way that made it clear that she was forcing herself to hold back and that is because of the shame and stigma!!

My parents actually took me aside before I even met her to explain that she had bad teeth and was self-conscious about it, so I shouldn't comment on it if I notice. They explained that she would cover her mouth when laughing or smiling, and that I shouldn't bring attention to it.

This is something I'm glad they discussed with me, not only because it's something that we all should be taught as children, but because it brought my attention to the fact that not only were there people with serious dental issues – or sometimes just aesthetic differences that aren't themselves bad! – but that these people face a serious, pervasive stigma that not only causes deep-seated shame, but also forces them to leash their happiness.

I take teeth jokes or people mocking teeth very seriously. My grandmother had black teeth that fell out and my grandfather had to have all of his teeth pulled and the shame and disgust and self loathing others made them feel for it has stayed with me to this day. You're a classist shithead if you mock ppl's teeth or use it as a sign of morality. All perfectly straight white teeth prove is access to money literally that's it!

full offence but it should be illegal to use flashing or strobing images in adverts like straight up if a company has paid to force strobing shit in front of people then they have paid to directly hurt and potentially kill disabled people and whatever company they paid was fine with it. go to fucking jail and rot there.

SAY THAT!!! the amount of artists that use strobing effects is ridiculous, same goes for theatre shows and musicals. you need to say that shit up front and loudly or even better DONT INCLUDE STROBES AT ALL.

multiple times i’ve gone to see something that’s allegedly seizure safe with a photosensitive person and ended up having to tell them when it’s safe for them to continue watching the show they paid to see, its fucking horrible.

the concept of a freakshow never fully went away. nowadays people collect posts/screenshots of disabled/mentally ill people literally just Existing Online and put them on their accounts with the intention of displaying them for people to hurl abuse towards. And they think that this is a Normal and Moral way to behave and carry themselves.

Also? TLC shows are often freakshows rebranded to be inspoporn or "these are obviously freaks but we're HELPING them". I'm a literal bearded woman and had a TLC show producer reach out to try and make a show about me in 2018. See also: British tabloids and reality shows. They're even more aggressively obvious that they're into freaks. Freakshows are everywhere in modern media.

i just deleted this post ^ bc i’ve been seeing it circulate more but without the additions i’ve made n honestly i’ve had it up to here lmao

for like months on end ppl have been reblogging this unknowing that this led to me getting diagnosed w aphasia after an incident at school a few years ago that left me w some brain damage that went undetected at the time. while it answered a lot of things for me it also made a lot of things worse. originally when i didn’t know i had aphasia, i was fine w ppl reblogging it but now seeing people reblog it with things like “LOL THIS IS SO FUNNY HAHA ITS FUNNY THAT THIS PERSON JUST FORGETS THINGS A LOT” or people treating it like a spectacle or worst of all i’ve seen people REDRAWING IT WITH CHARACTERS FROM FANDOMS!!!! LIKE REDRAWING ME LITERALLY GETTING A DIAGNOSIS FOR BRAIN DAMAGE WITH FANDOM CHARACTERS. like i’m not even a person and that my struggles are the main center point.

and look i’m not here to say you CANT laugh at this post. i have many times and i’m genuinely thankful i learned i had aphasia even if it wasn’t thru conventional means but good god am i fucking tired of seeing people treat my condition as a joke. i am fucking tired of seeing people treat me like i’m lesser or that aphasia is a funny thing to go through.

aphasia is not a fun thing to deal with. there’s times where it feels like hell. i forget major parts about things i am extremely passionate about. there’s times where i forget what my house looks like, or where i even live. worst of all, what i before being diagnosed chocked up as nothing but typical monthly art block has instead being me forgetting entire parts of how to do art and having to pick up the pieces over the course of weeks to the point where even simple things can seem virtually impossible to draw. i say this is the worst because art is genuinely my main passion in life like in a way i can’t describe and having to deal with that at least once a month when i know i have the capability to do amazing things but my condition is halting me back from achieving that greatness is. fucking infuriating.

so yeah. there’s no harm in laughing at this post because it is really funny. i don’t blame you if you do. but to see it and then to decide trivialize aphasia like it’s just “haha funy dumb forget disorder” is really upsetting, and just shows that the ableism on this site, especially towards those w conditions that affect memory, is way more prevalent than you may think because for half a year ive had to put up w comments like that. with people basically calling me dumb because of something literally engraved in my brain. and i’m done. even though i like this post because it let to a major veil looming over my life to be lifted….you guys really gotta treat disabled people with Basic Human Respect for once LMAO

It's honestly interesting to me the way inaccessible infrastructure affects fat people and wheelchair users in such similar ways and how 85% of the time if it's inaccessible for one it's not accessible for the other either. Like I am a pretty large fat person and one of my best friends needs a wheelchair for anywhere he'd need to walk for extended periods and it's kind of shocking how much our struggles overlap and has really cemented how much of fatphobia is directly rooted in ableism. Like when we're at the mall or shopping somewhere, if his wheelchair can't fit down an aisle chances are I can't either (at least not without knocking something over). When a space excludes fat people it'll exclude a huge portion of physically disabled people too, and vice versa. Feel like there's also some parallels in the way that anyone at any point could become affected by these (become disabled or gain significant weight) but able bodied/thin people don't acknowledge it and try to rationalize it as some sort of failing on our part. Idk. Fat people🤝wheelchair users = WHY IS THE TABLE BOLTED TO THE FLOOR 🖕

this is extra fun when u consider we need wider wheelchairs when we use them.

It is wild what kind of shit people will report to you in a security uniform. "Hey, that guy in the wheelchair? He doesn't need it, he was walking outside earlier" like ??? Okay?? First off you don't know his medical status, second what the fuck am I supposed to do with that information? Take it away from him?? It's still his fucking wheelchair, he brought it from home

like I don't have any physical disabilities that I'm aware of so stop me if I'm not in my lane but I feel like even if a dude is fully able-bodied, if he owns a mobility aid and he wants to use it then unless he's swinging it around wracking toddlers with it then it's really none of my damn business

Also?? "Hey there's a junkie in the bathroom" ??? First off I saw them go in and I know for a fact that person has cerebral palsy, and also, are they actively using drugs?? Are they in medical distress?? No?? Then let them piss oh my God would you rather they shit on the street

and actually, another thing, because fuck it, but did you know?? "Security" means "safety"?? If nobody is using drugs inside the building and nobody is hurt or being hurt or bothering anyone or fucking in the lobby ar yodeling into the intercom or fucking, I don't know, supergluing the toilet seats up and running off with the furniture, then what precisely are you expecting me to do about it? I'm not not the goddamn Social Norm Enforcer. If you're wearing clothes and leaving people alone and you aren't stroking out or freebasing coke with your non-service animal then I honestly do not give a fuck. "There's a man in a dress in the women's room" Okay and are they watching you poop? "I don't think that's a real service dog" is it humping someone? "That girl smells like weed can you get her out of here" Weed's been legal for like five years get with the goddamn program. She probably works here. Do what you came here for and go hoooooome

To the Reform Jewish community:

I think I have some misconceptions about the reform community. I think I'm wrong about how I perceive reform Jews and their level of observance, and I want to be educated.

No.

Reform is not “less observant, the end.”

Reform is “understand the *principles* behind the mitzvot, not merely the *form* of the observance, and work out how those principles can be manifested in the place and time you’re living right now.”

So a Reform Jew might look at kashrut and try to work out what the principles behind it are and say, ok, compassion for the things we eat, not everything exists for us to consume, etc. and decide that the best way to live that principle is to be vegetarian. Or to only eat ethically sourced meat.

It’s an approach that says our ancestors get a vote in how we carry on the tradition, but not a veto. That doesn’t mean Torah or Jewishness or mitzvot are less important to Reform communities: it means we have to figure out what they *mean* and how they interface with fully engaging with the world we live in.

Judaism is and always has been an adaptable, living culture (most Orthodox communities aren’t practicing medieval Judaism, let alone Second Temple Judaism). We differ in how we adapt to modernity.

What the person above me said. And I will be equally harsh: Frankly, I'd love to believe we're reaching a time where we don't need movements. But my first major experience with the Orthodox was my first Seder, when I was still in the conversion process, and I went to a Chabad. I offered to shake the rabbi's hand, not knowing that was going to be a whole thing, and he just looked at me in a way that made me feel like absolute slime. I didn't know what I was doing! This was supposed to be a learning experience! They knew I was a ger! I think of that night and I still feel ashamed because it feels like I impinged on something by wanting to learn. Put me in a room with an Orthodox person and a Nazi and you'll see an Orthodox person and a Nazi agree for the first time, and what they'll be agreeing about is that I'm a shame to the human race and would be better off dead. I'm a sterile genderqueer Reform ger and in the eyes of the Orthodox that makes me a mentally-ill Jew cosplayer who adds nothing to the faith or culture because my genes don't let me pop out babies, and in the eyes of the Nazi it makes me a race traitor and Jew, and neither thinks I should exist. And yes--I have actually been told this by Orthodox people, that I'm "not really Jewish," that they're allowed to be as rude to me as they want because I don't follow all the mitzvot so they're not required to follow mitzvot when talking to me (yes really I'm not joking), that my mind would "heal itself" if I married a man and accepted that G-d made me a woman, that Judaism would be better off if people like me were gotten rid of. As for "Reform Jews don't keep kosher," tell that to my Reform shul, which will not serve meat and dairy together, and to me, who gave up more than half the foods I can eat when I converted because part of my conversion was a commitment to give up pork. I don't work on Shabbat, either, and at my current job I risked getting fired to get on a schedule where I had Friday and Saturday off. Many of the men in my shul wear tallitot and not a single one will enter the sanctuary without a kippah, except the six-month-old who can't be trusted to keep on his socks, much less something on his head. (It's a work in progress. Dad is trying.)

I would say your example is a man who is off the derech. He hasn't become Reform, he's chosen not to engage with Judaism. Reform isn't where all the "bad Jews" go. It is a robust movement with a deep sense of tradition that happens to be different, and far less cruel, than Orthodoxy. The reputation the movement has is not unearned. Not by a long shot.

You know you can uplift Reform Judaism and Reform Jews without comparing Orthodox Jews to Nazis, right? Right??

I say this as someone who grew up Orthodox. Chabad, even. I have seen the worst outcomes of the movement taken to extremes, but I have also seen great community and love. My parents are Orthodox, and while they struggle with my decision to transition because they're concerned about my health, they absolutely support me even if they don't always agree with my decisions. There are plenty of queer Orthodox Jews, too, although I don't identify as Orthodox not functionally maintain all the observances I grew up doing.

You can't (rightfully) call out the way some Orthodox Jews treat Reform Jews and then in the next breath generalize and demonize all of Orthodox Judaism. You're doing the exact same thing to Orthodox Judaism that some Orthodox Jews do to Reform.

And fuck you for denigrating the value Orthodox Judaism puts on reproduction - I've said this before and I'll say it again - the main reason Orthodox Judaism encourages childbirth is because of extinction anxiety. And not all of Orthodox Judaism is like that- you are applying your experience with Chabad, which while it is a very vocal community, does not speak for all of Orthodox Judaism. Not to mention that no one shames anyone for not being able to have kids, and birth control is very much a thing within Orthodox communities, yes, even the ones you think are "ultra-Orthodox".

Orthodox Judaism has made massive progress in the last few years in regards to LGBTQ and women's rights, and just because it doesn't follow the same pace other movements do, doesn't mean you should demonize an entire group of people for it.

I'm a disabled trans man, and I can confidently say I have a lot more firsthand experience with Chabad than you do. Do I disagree with a lot of Chabad values? Absolutely. Have I seen immense harm come to people because of it? Most definitely. Would I venture as far as to call Chabadniks, and all Orthodox Jews, Nazis? No! Are you out of your mind???

I understand you come from a place of hurt, but that does not give you the right to compare Jews to Nazis and make assumptions about an entire Jewish community because of your personal experiences.

I love the "glasses are disability" thing because it applies to basically every complaint abled people have about disability

Disabled people are free to add

I am aware this is not a 1-to-1 perfectly accurate post. Do not come into the notes trying to "um actually this isn't a perfect comparison." I know. Just don't