[ID: Tweet by Alex Dacy @dacy_alex “It’s 2019 & disabled people get paid below minimum wage, don’t have marriage rights, can’t access many public buildings, have the highest unemployment rate, die because of poor government services, have unequal access to education. Let’s make 2020 about disability rights.”]

wait they don’t have equal marriage rights because they’re disabled???? Holy shit that’s terrible!! What the fuck!!!

If disabled people get married, they lose their benefits! I’m disabled but I can’t get a doctor to give me even a BASIC accommodation (handicap placard)! Let alone actually getting any kind of benefits! Like because I’m married, I CAN’T get the accommodations I need cause to the government, marriage = faking disability. 

And they have strict regulations about living with other people too, in the US. If you even seem married and are living together, you could lose everything. People are told to divorce if one of them ends up disabled enough to need Medicaid or SSI. And getting any sort of in-home help when you don’t live alone is nearly impossible.

One of my clients works at a sheltered workshop. We found out today from the workshop that because of how hard she works, they are going to be increasing her pay to minimum wage. Instead of just being able to be happy for her (which is frustrating and infuriating to the point of tears that I am happy for the smallest victory for her such as being paid minimum wage when she should have been being paid minimum wage from the beginning-), I immediately began worrying about the extra money she would be making and the potential of it endangering her eligibility for Medicaid, including the waiver that allows her to live in her own home. What followed was an immediate call to my supervisor and our having to plan about diverting the extra cash flow into a specialized account where she can keep up to $15,000. The state of disability rights in the United States is bullshit and it’s time for revolution. 

My client works 25 hours a week and brings home 25-50$ per paycheck. It’s inhuman.

That's horrifying! That's about a 1/2 step above slavery!

They don't give you enough to live on with disability benefits. So you try to find a job to supplement your income. You can find these sheltered workshops or whatever they're called that hire stricky disabled folks and get away with paying them below minimum wage! The best part? These companies get praised for it and so they get away with this because look! They gave that disabled (burden) a job! They should be so grateful to have anything! How kind of that compa y for making that disabled person feel useful and god knows we need to "feel" useful! We can't actually "be" useful can we?

Hell, I don't work in a sheltered workshop or anything like tha and I can tell you all kinds of stories about my job and their blatant discrimination. People just don't wanna hear it and they don't wanna think about it because they see you as someone who has the option to "mooch off the system" and "get all this free money!" They don't wanna be told otherwise. No one wants to see the truth behind the thin veil of inclusion.

Job search while crippled

Being in the market for a part-time job or minimum wage job while being a cripple is a bitch… a lot of the jobs people like myself that are trying to put themselves through college would do are physically demanding and a lot of them would definitely not hire a cripple. There’s also the fact that very few “equal opportunity employers” have disability covered under that. Trying to get a part-time job, especially this time of year is hard enough. This is just another obstacle for me to deal with. If I would have known I would be able to leave the house on my own around this time before, I would have been doing this months ago. I feel like I’m bitching a bit too much right now, but I’m having a bad day.

Update: I have a job interview today and I am super nervous. I should have another update later today. Wish me luck! My interview is at 1:30.

Update for my update: my final interview for the job I really want will be July 3rd. That will be when they decide to move forward with hiring me. I'm really hoping for it. This is the job I want the most. It's a 3 step process and I've made it through 2 so far.

Job search while crippled

Being in the market for a part-time job or minimum wage job while being a cripple is a bitch… a lot of the jobs people like myself that are trying to put themselves through college would do are physically demanding and a lot of them would definitely not hire a cripple. There’s also the fact that very few “equal opportunity employers” have disability covered under that. Trying to get a part-time job, especially this time of year is hard enough. This is just another obstacle for me to deal with. If I would have known I would be able to leave the house on my own around this time before, I would have been doing this months ago. I feel like I’m bitching a bit too much right now, but I’m having a bad day.

Update: I have a job interview today and I am super nervous. I should have another update later today. Wish me luck! My interview is at 1:30.

I’m curious about this because I’m about to go into stem and I’m a trans man that’s not passing yet. So far in 20 years I have never met anyone with these opinions or at least anyone that actually mattered. So I’m very skeptical about this actually being a problem for women. Like she said the higher she goes the less she has to deal with. So I’m pretty sure it mostly comes from a bunch of idiot no bodies and isn’t actually a problem. Idk maybe I’m just being insensitive but if someone told be I shouldn’t be a scientist because they thought I was a women I would just tell them to fuck off and move on because it’s just someone’s dumb ass opinion. It’s my life, why would I let someone else tell me how I should live it? Plus I wouldn’t want to work with someone that dumb anyone so I would consider it a favor they didn’t want to work with me.

My cousin is a woman in STEM and she has to deal with stuff like that too sometimes, but she knows that none of that’s true and she worked hard to get where she is, so she doesn’t let it bother her.

I get somewhat worried about that myself because I’m disabled and am considering transitioning. I’m also a very hard worker, I’ve done my best to get good grades and reach my goals academically and otherwise, and have done very well in that regard. This despite my laundry list of health problems, a pretty good amount of discrimination, certain people trying to keep me from achieving things I want, etc… so I will not put up with any of that kind of shit. I know I was born into a situation that causes me to have many different types of disadvantages, and I know I’ve worked hard to deal with them. So I will not have any assholes thinking that I am some kind of a diversity hire, or that I had some kind of an advantage when the opposite is true, and I sure as hell will not be anyone’s diversity hire. I won’t let it happen. Even though I’m sure they wouldn’t hire someone like me on diversity anyway. If someone says that to me, I won’t pull my punches with them. I’ll tell them right the fuck off. Especially because there are more and more programs popping up everyday to try and get all kinds of people into all kinds of professions. Women in science, men in nursing, etc... It’s not just women who get gender diversity hires.

If You’re Gonna Make Something Wheelchair Accessible, Don’t Make it a Thing

Here’s some examples awkward accessibility being a thing:

Your at a hotel that has a lift to get you from one sub-floor to another, but the lift can only be unlocked and operated by one specific person that the hotel now has to go find. Sure, they’ve made the entrance to the sub-floor is accessible, but now it’s a thing.

The buses are wheelchair accessible but the driver has to stop the bus, take 30 seconds to lower the goddamn ramp, move passengers out of their seats, hook up the straps and then secure you in the bus. Sure, they’ve made the busses accessible but now it’s a thing.

The restaurant has an accessible entrance, but it’s past the trash room and through the kitchen. Sure, the restaurant is accessible, but now it’s an insulting thing.

Here’s some great examples of accessibility not being a thing:

The train to the airport pulls up flush with the platform. I board with everyone else and sit wherever the fuck I want. Riding the train is accessible and not a thing.

In Portland, I press a button the side of the streetcar and a ramp automatically extends at the same time the door opens. I board in the same amount of time as everyone else. This is not a thing.

I get that it is difficult to design for wheelchair accessibility, but folks need to start considering the overall quality of the experience versus just thinking about meeting the minimum requirements.

For the love of all things holy please pay attention to this

This is why universal design is so important. I had a great class that focuses on applying universal design aspects of architecture into teaching. Accessibility ideally should be integral to the design in the first place, not added on as an after thought.

OK.   I’ll say my piece.

I’m broken.   Even though I get in trouble for saying it out loud.  I have a hard time walking very far.    I lean heavily on my cane.   I have disabled plates on my truck and I sometimes drive our wheelchair van.

Some places put their handicap parking where it is most convenient for ramps, curb height, and space.   A lot of these places put the handicap parking around the side of the building so they don’t cause congestion, and they don’t have to disturb the pretty curb in front of the doors.

These make it harder for me to shop in those stores.  If I have to walk twice as far to get into the store, then I won’t be able to walk as far inside the store.   And I have to save enough energy to get all the way back to the truck.

These type of “improvements” meet all the requirements.    But do nothing to help me be independent. 

On the bus thing - I worked for a company that made bus seats, specifically the ones at the front that flip up, and the barrier that had the straps to hold the wheel chair in place.

There are multiple safety standards that have to be met. I’m a little rusty, but I believe for wheelchairs, they need 4 points of contact with a pull strength of 5000lbs (might be 2500lbs each) to ensure that the wheelchair is properly secured in the event of a crash. This is a law. If the bus was in an accident and the wheelchair wasn’t secured, now you’ve got a giant projectile of metal and human flying around.

Yes it takes an excessive amount of time to secure. This issue has been discussed, by both seat and bus manufactures. And new solutions are being invented every year to make the whole process easier, with the ADA and whatever being brought in to consult. But it will always be a “thing” because its not about your feelings, it’s about your safety and the safety of everyone else on the bus.

@secondhandcadavers:  I have enough responses from folks around the world that make me feel like it won’t always be a thing and I even got responses from folks who work in the transportation industry asking how to make buses less of a thing (you can see my response here).  

And, for the record, when I talk about something being difficult or hard to use as a wheelchair user, I’m not talking about my “feelings”. I’m talking about barriers that cause people like myself to straight up refuse to use the buses all together because of the frustration the so-called “accessibility” causes. I’m talking about the loud exasperated sighs as the bus driver shuffles people around just so I can get on board. I’m talking about having to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus because those people refused to move. 

A lot of these problems can be addressed through better engineering. Shit, if you could make it so the straps can be operated by the wheelchair user instead of just by the bus driver, that could be a literal life saver. I am absolutely terrified of a dangerous situation occurring on the bus and not being able to at least attempt to exit it because I am secured to the bus using straps I cannot operate.

I know exactly why the straps are there. I know what the law is and who it is is designed to protect. I also know that none of these proposed “solutions” were designed with input from folks like me and, if there was input, I doubt it was listened to.

@urbancripple, thank you for saying this, I'm a wheelchair-bound cripple and this is fucking annoying. @secondhandcadavers, both me and UC understand that we have needs as wheelchair users that are more difficult to meet. We understand that there are a lot of things that need to be considered, but you have to understand that both of us are saying this, not as a "fuck you" to ables, but as an expression of how fucking frustrating it is to have to deal with these constant inconveniences and then have a bunch of assholes clearly demonstrating how annoyed they are when they have to be inconvenienced by the disability that I get inconvenience by everyday, or be forced into a situation where my being in a wheelchair is inconvenient for everyone else I'm with. We aren't saying that we don't appreciate it when we can get our chairs where we need to go, but what we are saying is that these things need to be considered more from the perspective of actual disabled people instead of it all being designed by able-bodied people that have never had to experience actually being disabled, which is often the case. I usually Advocate that people that are disabled should be hired to help others design things for use by disabled people. We are saying that things could be way better than they are as far as accessibility.

I can’t believe this needs to be said, but…

- Withholding medication from a disabled person is not a joke, it’s not a punishment, it’s abuse.

- Withholding mobility equipment from a disabled person is not a joke, it’s not a punishment, it’s abuse.

- Withholding stim toys, comfort items or similar from a disabled person is not a joke, it’s not a punishment, it’s abuse.

- Stopping a disabled person from using harmless routines or coping mechanism is not a joke, it’s not a punishment, it’s abuse.

Stop.

@typical-atheist-scumbag

*Gasp* how dare you suggest that disabled people need things that help them?

Also, can you see this post, oh people I will keep anonymous out of respect. ( one or two of you will know who I'm talking about and I know that there are occasional snoopers that like to document everything they don't like that I do, so I'm sure you know who you are too.) My inhaler is a need. It's NOT a cry for attention, it's not something I use for fun, and it's not something that you can just opt not to get because you don't feel like dealing with it, and "I don't understand why you're having this problem." (Which you SHOULD if you know everything about my conditions, as you claim to.) My wheelchair is not something that you have the right to just take and play with when you want it and claim I'm being an asshole when I tell you that I don't want you touching it. I'm so sick of you thinking that you're entitled to the ability to play with my wheelchair! It's not a fucking toy! It's a mobility device, it's my legs! You know it pisses me off, and you know why it does, so stop! I have to respect everyone else's pet peeves, why can't you show even the slightest respect for mine, huh?

I could go on for days and days bringing up times where I was denied a mobility device, (my wheelchair) despite begging for it because l was "doing it for attention" and forced to use a walker, when it hurt my entire body and I'd basically collapse after a few steps, then I'd be made to keep having to do it and then I'd end up crying from the overwhelming pain and it's happened occasionally. It's humiliating.

Same with medicine, I could give you so many examples of times I've been accused of being "addicted to my NON NARC pain medicine and not really being in that much pain." Which has made me paranoid to the point where I do not want to take any of my medicines if I know they are looking at me.

Some of you able bodies really need to chill.

Don't be mean to fat disabled people

Some disabled people are fat.

Some fat disabled people have mobility impairments, and need to use wheelchairs and scooters.

Some fat disabled people need to sit down a lot.

Some fat disabled people need to park in handicapped parking.

Some fat disabled people need to sit in the disabled seating on busses.

Some fat disabled people need to use the bathroom stall that has grab bars.

Some people act like fat people are somehow “not really disabled, just fat” as though the two are somehow mutually exclusive. They’re not. Fat is not a cure for disability. Fat disabled people are as disabled as thin disabled people. Fat people have every right to exist in public and use mobility aids and other adaptations.

Some people act like being mean to disabled fat people will somehow force them to stop being fat and disabled. It won’t. Being mean is not a cure. If you yell at a fat disabled person for needing to park close to the building, it won’t give them the ability to walk further safely. It will just mean that their day got worse because someone decided to be pointlessly cruel to them.

tl;dr Fat disabled people exist, and have a legitimate need for access and accommodations. Being mean to fat disabled people for having access needs doesn’t cure their disability. It just makes the world a crueler place. Don’t be a jerk.

We know there are fat people who are disabled. We’re just saying that the fat itself is not a disability. Do you see the difference?

@sini-sterility