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#disabled solidarity
clownrecess · 10 months
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I want to talk about using AAC whilst talking to somebody who is deaf or HoH.
If you do not know me, hello. I am a nonspeaking autistic and I use AAC to communicate. More specifically I use a high tech AAC device. This can be a little bit tricky when talking to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and I think it's an important discussion to be had. I have multiple people in my life who are deaf or heart of HoH. My mother, and my boyfriend.
When I use my AAC device, my device generates spoken words or plays recorded messages. This works great for individuals who can hear, but it becomes difficult and frustrating for both people when interacting with someone who is deaf or HoH. They probably won't be able to understand or hear the audio from my device. However, there are strategies we can use to try to overcome this barrier.
Normally, I hate when people try to watch my screen. It isn't okay, and unless you have consent please do not do it. However, when talking to someone who is dear or HoH it's actually really useful! My mother asks to see my screen quite often, and she reads my message window so she can understand better. An alternative to that is using a form of AAC that doesn't include audio, like writing something down or typing on a phones notepad app.
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crazycatsiren · 1 year
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Listen. Listen to me.
You "not having it as bad" as others doesn't mean you don't have it bad.
It may be very true that there are indeed people who are more disabled than you are, who are sicker than you are, who require more help than you do. But none of this is a competition. Some people will always have it worse and some people will always have it better. Your struggles are valid. Your hardships are valid. You are valid.
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enbycrip · 10 months
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I’m seeing the “people don’t expect physically disabled people to be less disabled for their comfort so why do they expect mentally ill/neurodivergent people to do so?” memes making the rounds again, and I am here to remind you, as an autistic and ADHD, mentally ill, chronically ill person with multiple physical impairments that this is just not the case.
If you are both and that is your personal experience, I obviously do not expect you to deny that, but please be aware that this is very much *not* universal.
I am a full time mobility aid user and part-time wheelchair user. Both my personal experience and thousands of accounts from the wheelchair user community reflect the fact that most wheelchair users and other mobility aid users *continually* have our boundaries pushed around our use of mobility aids for the ease and comfort of others.
“I know we said step-free access but it’s just a couple of small steps so that counts, right? Our staff can lift you if you *really* can’t manage.”
“Oh we can’t really fit your chair or rollator in the car so you’ll just have to manage without them. You walked that far last week with the rollator so doing a few days around a city with a stick should be fine, right?”
“Your cousin really doesn’t want a stick in her wedding photos so you’ll just have to manage, but there will be lots of seats and it’s not like you have to stand up really.”
“You’re much too young to be using a stick anyway. Wait til you get older and you *really* know what pain is.”
“I know that restaurant is on the second floor and there’s no lift but the rest of the team really like the food there so I’m sure you’ll manage, won’t you?”
“We really don’t like you using that wheelchair - surely it will make you more disabled?”
“I know our accessible toilet is down a flight of stairs but people don’t really need to use a bathroom in a restaurant do they?”
“Oh, we booked this restaurant for x celebration (bonus points if it’s for *your* birthday/graduation etc) because it’s so nice and it just *didn’t* occur to us to check if it was accessible!”
These are just picked off the top of my head as a number of things I have encountered over my years as a mobility aid and wheelchair user.
I picked this out of my various impairments because wheelchair users are so frequently regarded as the sort of “iconic” disabled person, but my boundaries on pain and mobility aid - including wheelchair - use are genuinely pushed at least as much as those of my neurodivergences and mental illnesses. I have been accused of “bad behaviour”, “doing it for attention”, “faking it”, “making a scene” and “not really disabled” multiple times when the issues causing the problem were physical - including when my legs have physically given out on me in public places, causing me to fall.
None of this is peculiar to my experience. I have encountered hundreds of thousands of similar accounts and experiences from other disabled people all over the world.
I will absolutely allow that it sometimes feels easier, more “valid”, to ask for reasonable adjustments/accommodations for physical impairments than for neurodivergence or mental illness, but I would also contend that that is an issue of internalised disableism at least as much as anything else.
I believe at least part of the issue is that the image of disability the majority of the abled population has is that it is an unchanging, monolithic thing. “Can’t see”. “Can’t hear”. “Can’t walk.” “Can’t speak.” Whereas the majority of disability is *considerably* more nuanced than that. This is *very* much the case with neurodivergences and mental illnesses, but it is also very much the case with physical impairments.
Basically - being disabled is often pretty awful. The world is extremely inaccessible. It is often tempting to view other types of disabled people as “having it easier” or “encountering more understanding” etc etc. While this may absolutely be true on an individual level, particularly intersectionally (money, race, gender, queerness etc *absolutely* affect life as a disabled person) on a systemic level, it is equally absolutely *not* the case.
And various institutions *massively* benefit from internal envy and infighting in any marginalised community. Perpetuating the idea that “those people have it waaay easier/are stealing your resources etc etc” lets institutions off the hook. The only way we can practically improve the situation - accessibility, services etc etc - for *all* of us is by solidarity with each other as oppressed, marginalised disabled people.
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fandomsoda · 8 months
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Reminder that it is ok to “get worse” or regress in your mental/physical health and/or disability as long as you’re doing your best. You don’t need to be constantly improving to deserve respect. Illness gets worse, mental and physical, even if you’re doing what you can.
Additionally using aids and accommodations more is not inherently regressing. You are not becoming lesser just because you use headphones to regulate sensory input or are using chairs and more mobility aids in order to conserve your energy/move easier, those things are supposed to help you and don’t let anyone convince you that it’s a step back.
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selectivechaos · 9 months
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i’ve never seen anything more beautiful than disabled solidarity. and i know solidarity is a loaded word. but..
making eye contact with the only other person on the bus wearing a mask, and i know we’re both smiling under it all.
standing next to the other ‘quiet person’ at work, in complete silence, but we both know what it’s like.
my autistic sibling getting me ear defenders and tangles for my birthday. it’s an unspoken thing but they see me in pain at every loud noise. they seen me chew pens to bits just to have something to do.
person i live with buys me coffee. she knows it prevents or alleviates migraines. she also knows coffee addiction brings them on. but she follows the ‘torture is bad’ harm reduction principle.
i tell him he’s not cruel for being mentally ill. because he isn’t. he’s hurt people; i’ve hurt people. we’ve got enough guilt.
when i say i’m anxious, everyone else says “do it! then you’ll get used to it!” but she says “do you want me to go with you?” “i can speak for you” and offers me aac.
they celebrate sobriety with me. they tell me when they’re proud of themselves. we celebrate going outside, getting up, drinking water, getting enough sleep. i remind them that meals exist, and that meds exist.
i see a sunflower lanyard and feel safer.
teacher with a speech disorder told me it’s okay if i can’t speak. let me sit alone at the back. and let me sit out of presentations.
am new to the concept of disabled joy. but think we can be each other’s joy. 🌹🌹
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esrah-rah-rasputin · 9 months
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If you really want a gay wrath month, be wrathful in solidarity with disabled people and lift us up, don’t drown us out during our own pride month. We make up at least one third of this community, and we are siblings in arms. Bodily autonomy forever! Solidarity of the marginalized forever!
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Disabled solidarity is honestly the most important thing
Story time! I’ve been at Disney the past few days and since my pain has reached a level where it’ll only take between 10 minutes to an hour of standing/walking for me to be unable to, we rented one of the scooters.
Like okay first off, having a mobility aid??? Freaking MAGICAL. It truly does feel so freeing. I’m an incredibly shy person, so the idea of having people stare and see me get on and off of it and then judge me on that was terrifying, but it was so so so worth it. Also it genuinely helped my confidence!! Again, I’m very shy and non-confrontational, but mobility aids are very much a “they move for you, you don’t move for them” and I won all of those stare downs.
Back on topic, there was a guy who (while I was having some difficulty navigating a tight turn) started heckling me and I was genuinely about ready to cry. And then a person also using one of the rented scooters drove by, said “Hi friend!” And gave me a tip on how to handle the turn and it immediately made me feel so much better.
Disabled solidarity is the most important thing.
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disagigglebilities · 2 months
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so glad to hear you’re moving in somewhere/found a place to stay!!! - chronicles-of-illness
@chronicles-of-illness
It's been wonderful! Not just finally having a place of my own to rest at night but the people here are so nice. I honestly have never felt so welcomed by a community of people. Like I know from experience that disabled people online are so nice and helpful but it's an entirely different experience to find out that it is true in person too
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Why do disabled people have to pay extra for everything?! Like our medical bills aren't enough so now we have to pay extra for adaptive equipment, (all of them but I'm specifically talking about adaptive driving right now). I have to buy a car like a normal driving young adult, but I also have to go to a special driving facility to get supervised driving hours because my school doesn't have adaptive stuff, (which fine, ) but then I have to be good enough at driving to get a prescription for the equipment, but I can't practice at home BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE THE BLOODY EQUIPMENT. I also have to have 60 hours of practice before I can get my license and, again, it REQUIRES THE EQUIPMENT. Unlike the abled kids at school I can't take my driving test after my supervised hours because I need to go to that facility and they can't do that! I also have to provide my own vehicle for the driving test because I need adaptations! It's almost like ableds want disableds to be helpless so they have someone to pity and make fun of 🤔🧐
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tiredoflyme · 1 year
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I was getting in my chair outside the grocery store today as a woman, about 10 years older than me, was coming out of her handicap van with ramp. We waved hi and I went inside ahead of her. We ran into each other halfway through shopping (not literally) and chatted for a minute. We complimented each other's chairs, I was envious of her sweet ride. She told me she had a spinal cord injury and she always uses her chair. I explained that I'm an outside-of-the-house chair user because of the degenerative affect my illness has on my joints. We both shrugged and said "is what it is" almost at the same time. That interaction made me smile the rest of my shopping trip. Neither of us ever said "oh I'm so sorry." We gave our chair reasons as a mutual exchange and there was no pity involved at all. It was so refreshing.
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katesattic · 1 year
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I feel like my body is falling apart.
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cursed--alien · 2 years
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There isn't a single disability that doesn't cause people to be gatekept from society and autonomy. The disability community is broad, with many different experiences, but this is what unites us in solidarity: our needs are treated as inconvenient at best, and society views us as lesser and our lives as not worth living.
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crazycatsiren · 2 years
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People on the train with their multiple oversized strollers making it nearly impossible for the person in a wheelchair to get through to the wheelchair spot make me want to set them and their damn strollers on fire.
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houseofpurplestars · 1 month
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Senate trying to pass a bill that would force you to use your government id just to use the internet. That means no anonymity at all, ever, and that every pro-Palestinian organizer is immediately a target that the government can track. And they will use it explicitly to come after protestors and organizers.
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shaythempronouns · 8 months
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so fucking sick of reading thinkpieces worrying about "widespread dependency" on adderall and other psychostimulants used to treat ADHD
i am disabled. i have a disability. it is treated incredibly effectively with methylphenidate. i will continue to be dependent on this drug for the rest of my life. if you see that as a moral failing, i invite you to go fuck yourself.
nobody writes concerned letters to congress about the risks of promoting wheelchair abuse.
no one issues guidance restricting access to crutches to avoid recreational crutch use.
medication is accessibility. this fight doesn't stop until we all have unbarred access to the things we need to live a healthy and dignified life.
fuck the DEA.
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unveilandresist · 3 months
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by January 10th 1 in 3 people will have had this wave of covid. covid causes long term damage with each infection and wears down your immunity. you do not want this. there is no cure for long covid or me/cfs and there is a significant chance (last I checked I think it was 1/5 infections) of getting long covid that increases with each infection. please protect yourself and your loved ones by wearing a mask. variants have become more transmissible so a n95 or kn95 is the minimum protection to keep yourself reasonably safe(r) from getting covid.
it is important to understand often viruses do not simply clear up and go away. like chicken pox and shingles or what we now think of as polio that is actually post polio syndrome. polio symptoms were mild and 75% of cases are asymptomatic. we do not yet see the full scope of what this virus will do over our lifetimes. as someone who had my entire life derailed by me/cfs after having mono, (almost 10 years ago! it hasn't gotten better!) we have to take pathogens more seriously if we care about ourselves and our communities.
I'm willing and open to talk with people who want to understand better what covid does to our bodies and how we can best practice community care and also harm reduction if we're stuck in unsafe situations at home or work (certain mouthwashes and nasal sprays can help).
if you're watching what's happening in Palestine and live in the US, the government doesn't care about your life either. They lied about palestine and they lied about covid too. It is not just a cold.
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