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I love sunflowers so much truly a marvelous plant

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Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

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ID: A cropped photo of text from a letter reading “EPIOC Delivery. Date: Wednesday,May 8, 2024 at Before 1:00pm”

The excitement on reading this was joyous and overwhelming – I was like one of those videos of children opening Disney tickets and happy stimming with a huge grin

#wheelchair user #full time wheelchair user #powerchair user

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Disregard everything I just said about not knowing when I’ll get my new chair – I just got home from another doctors appointment and my wheelchair letter was waiting for me as I got home!

I’m getting my chair on 8th May!!!!!!!!!!!

Less than two weeks time!!!!!

My body will be at right angles again!

The headrest will be properly attached and will reach my head!

The footplates won’t fall off every time the van hits a pothole!

Four point chest harness my beloved!

#this chair I’m borrowing really is the pits

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I feel like I’m getting somewhere medically. My GP reckons my symptoms are mostly because my current borrowed wheelchair isn’t (and to a lesser extent my old wheelchair wasn’t) meeting my postural needs and my breathing has been more restricted which is causing more issues (because oxygen is important). We’re running some tests to check there’s nothing more sinister going on but it’s a pretty good explanation I probably should have thought of myself.

Which means that hopefully my new wheelchair will make things easier when it eventually gets here. I was initially told that it would be around May time, but I still haven’t had the letter with the appointment date so I’m suspecting that it might be a longer wait than anticipated.

And also fuck the tories for taking funding away from the nhs and wheelchair services causing horrendous waiting times with people trapped in bed or inadequate wheelchairs for months or years at a time and all the health problems that causes.

#cripplepunk #wheelchair user #powerchair user #full time wheelchair user

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Today I have another attempt at getting a doctor to take my new symptoms and unusual test result combo seriously.

Even if it is explainable with my current diagnoses it would be nice to just get a decent explanation a plan for how to manage it would also be great but baby steps).

#wish me luck #I have famously bad luck with medical stuff and doctors #so I’m going to need it

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As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.

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Real conversation I had on zoom:

[talking about marathons]

Me: there’s no way I’d be able to finish a marathon

Person: that’s such a fixed mindset! If you open your mind to the possibility I’m sure you could do it!

Me:… I mean I also can’t walk so I think it’d take a bit more than an open mind.

#the harness which holds me upright in my chair was also visible on screen #but maybe she thought it was my clothes? #idk

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So. While the current arsehole serving as UK PM is currently coming out with all kinds of nasty policies to appeal to the worst of his voter base, I wanted to say two things to fellow disabled and long term sick Brits.

Firstly, Sunak does not believe he or the Conservatives are going to be in power by the end of the year, so most of this shit isn't going to happen. While the alternatives are also not great, they are marginally less horrible.

Secondly, if/when you are forced to go through a Work Capability Assessment, it is your right to demand it be recorded. They will try to dissuade you, but you can refuse an appointment unless and until they agree. You receive a copy of the recording (just put it somewhere safe, don't listen to it unless you need to). Now you have concrete proof of what happened in the assessment, which makes it harder for them to screw you over.

My last WCA was during lockdown, so it was a remote one. It was delayed for 2 months because I demanded a recording. And it was the second time ever in 15 years that I didn't have to go to tribunal. I also was moved from the limited work group to the support group.

Hopefully this helps someone. Hang in there everyone. We are worth it.

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Inspiration comes from the oddest places. This one was inspired by the colour scheme of my Dad’s newest golf shirt.

#reblogging this again because the weather is sunny and the flowers are coming out #and the flowers and colours in this make me smile!

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It was a little boring but I survived even without coffee!

On a more serious note though, no one should have to sit in a used nappy for several hours just to go to work. Changing places toilets need to be everywhere and just aren’t

I had to get up at six this morning to go to a conference thing today with work.

It’s about an hour away and there’s no changing places toilet nearby which means I’ll need to be dehydrated all day. I also had to forgo my morning coffee

Wish me luck

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I had to get up at six this morning to go to a conference thing today with work.

It’s about an hour away and there’s no changing places toilet nearby which means I’ll need to be dehydrated all day. I also had to forgo my morning coffee

Wish me luck

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Me when my able-bodied friends walk too fast

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Inaccessible tech is such a vicious cycle it’s beyond frustrating. My computer knowledge is dreadful for someone my age, and I know it’s dreadful but it’s incredibly hard for me to do anything about it.

Dragon, the software I use to control my computer with my voice costs £679.99. I have access to it through a scheme to help disabled people in work – without a job I’d have to pay for it myself or find another source of funding (without access to a laptop/ PC).

The software is great in many ways, but limiting in others. It’s mainly targeted at able bodied professionals as a way of dictating quickly, so while it’s absolutely brilliant for dictating into a word document, it’s a bit more tricky to control your computer with it.

One of the biggest problems though is that I can’t easily try out different software and browsers. Google docs aren’t as compatible with my software as word is. I can’t learn about alternatives because it’s a lot of time invested in something that probably won’t work well.

Each different browser requires me to download a different extension so that Dragon can interact properly with the pages. Until that’s all set up, rather than just being able to click on things I have to guide the curser through a series of increasingly small numbered grids to the right point on the screen like this: “mouse grid [pause] 3 [pause] nine [Pause] one [pause] two [pause] Mouse left click”).

But Firefox, the browser I’m most often recommended to use, I can’t use. From what I can tell there used to be an extension but Firefox now considers the Dragon extension to be a security risk and won’t allow it to be installed. I’ve looked into finding alternative ways to download the extension, but it gets really complicated really quickly – especially when each and every mouse click takes so long. After failing several times I gave up.

And it’s frustrating because if using a computer wasn’t so difficult l me, I would probably be better at finding my way around these kinds of obstacles better.

And if technology wasn’t so expensive and difficult to access more disabled people would be creating better software and hardware for disabled people.

Similarly if adaptive controllers were less expensive I might know more than I do about gaming. And more game producers might be disabled, or might create games with disabled people in mind.

But we’re stuck trying to make do with technology that’s either financially out of reach, incredibly limited or both and it means it’s incredibly hard to learn enough to come anywhere close to solving those issues (or being able to properly describe them in the first place)

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I’ve just found an affordable(!) adaptive controller for the switch (and other things) that looks really promising for me. I found it for less than £30 so I’ve ordered one to give it a go.

I really struggle with pressing small buttons and anything on the back or side of a controller (like trigger buttons). So I’m really limited to games that either don’t use them in any situation where time is of the essence or don’t use them at all.

This controller has all the buttons on the front and close together and claims to not need as much pressure to activate them. If it works as well as I hope it will open up so many games for me!

It isn’t modular so you can’t add anything like extra switches (as in buttons, not the console) like you can with the more expensive adaptive controllers, but its the cheapest adaptive controller I’ve ever come across and looks like a good option if the adaptions work for you.

#physical disability #adaptive technology #disabled gamer

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i'm conducting an experiment. everyone who's from an english speaking country state your country, regional area and what you call the following images. i need to see something

#england uk #chips or fries #crisps #scones? #biscuits #fizz #sweets #cigarettes or fags #beanie #candyfloss

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Having immigrants as carers has made my life so much richer.

International travel isn’t on the cards for me because of my disabilities, and I love it when people chose to share about the different places they’ve lived. Hearing stories about jungles and mountains and crocodiles and lunar new year celebrations brings those parts of the world so much closer

And I love when I get to share my knowledge of the local area with people who are newer to the UK. I get to show people the nice places to visit and where to get the best scones and answer questions or tell them about the wildlife and offer local history facts.