Ghost

Weird creative type, disabled and queer several times over (all/any pronouns)

[autisticsiphonophore]

Accessibility help pls

Hi ^^

I'm planning on uploading some videos about my art and I'm not sure how to make sure its accessible for deaf/hoh folks and visually impaired folks. The script includes a discussion of an art related topic over footage of me designing and illustrating something related. My current plan is to include caption descriptions of what I draw, as well as describe it in the audio throughout. And of course captions. However, I don't have any sensory disabilities so I want to make sure that its actually accessible and not just like a surface level attempt

any suggestions are very welcome

[nightmaretour]

I see a lot of posts around this time of year that talk about getting a mobility aid if you need one and that you aren't "not disabled enough" to get one if it'll help, which is true! But I don't see a lot about making sure you get the right mobility aid. You do need to do some research to make sure it's the correct one for your needs, because using the wrong one long term will hurt you. If you can see a specialist about it that's even better, but that's not accessible to everyone.

One thing I see a lot is people suggesting canes as a catch-all mobility aid for everyone who has mobility issues. Canes are not for weight bearing! If you use a cane for heavy weight bearing long term, you will hurt your wrists and back! Canes are for balance. There are also different types of canes, but someone else can probably explain those better than I can.

A crutch/pair of crutches is better for bearing weight, particularly forearm/support crutches if you're going to be using them a lot and don't want to strain your wrists, or platform crutches if you don't have a lot of arm strength.

Walkers/rollators are good for if you do have arm and hand strength and need a place to sit down or need to carry a lot with you, but very very bad if you can't weight bear well with your arms or pull the brakes easily. You will often need to be able to use your foot to maneuver it over a slight lip, too. If you can't do all of those things you will hurt yourself.

Wheelchairs are a whole lot more complicated and I don't feel qualified to speak on that (I've only ever used improperly fitted chairs, and have suffered permanent damage because of it).

Mobility scooters are great for going outside alone if you don't have the arm strength for a manual chair, as they can handle terrain that an motorised wheelchair often can't, but are harder to maneuver in small spaces (especially bulky class 3 scooters, which aren't designed for indoor use at all) and usually aren't suitable for full time use. If you need more support they most likely won't be suitable either, the seats are usually not designed with support for people who cannot hold themselves upright and generally do not have a seatbelt by default. I'm working on a proper guide for this and will hopefully post it soon!

There's also deconditioning to keep in mind, which is very important to think about if you aren't doing physiotherapy. You also need to consider things like pressure sores, which you will be especially prone to in seated mobility aids if you aren't able to reposition yourself regularly or have loss of sensation in or awareness of any part of your body.

Do your research! Don't just default to a cane!

[autisticsiphonophore]

Absolutely this, and look into how to use the mobility aid you choose for the problem you have.

As an example, I use forearm crutches but in a monster walk looking gait because thats more appropriate for balance issues, not for if you need to support one leg

also. Don't listen to abled people about what aids help with which symptoms. find a real source. Please. I didn't get crutches for so long because everyone told me they would be horrible for my symptoms and my wrists suffered so much from my cane

[autisticsiphonophore]

the thing that is annoying me the most about chronic illness/disability rn is having to explain to currently abled people how many situations arent safe for me. No I can't skip a meal its not safe. No I can't sit in a warm classroom its not safe. No I can't go on a walk no one would be able to come get me if I fell and got stuck. No I can't watch the movie that makes me nervous I'll have a seizure. No I can't go to the er i can't risk being medicated for epilepsy/schizophrenia (I don't have either but my symptoms of pnes and ptsd/did look like them and the meds would make it worse). No I can't sit in the hard chair I could loose the ability to walk for the day.

they just. don't. get it.

[autisticsiphonophore]

When its the new moon and your platonic partner is monitoring your symptoms in case you need to go to the er bc youre period is too heavy and you can barely keep your head up :/

The irony of this is not lost on me i am refusing to do a cleansing ritual now out of spite

[autisticsiphonophore]

Hi i saw your post and i got startled because your pfp is my pfp on other social medias and my old username used to be musicalsiphonophore and i love siphonophores and have autism and for a confused second i thought i somehow had a secret other blog LMAOOOO

Anyway hiiiiii bathyphysa conifera is fucking sick

That's so funnyyy I freaking love siphonophores they're so cool ^^

hiiiiiiiiii

[autisticsiphonophore]

I am a baby witch, but as i am learning i am…. So annoyed that some seem to suggest that everything is either masculine or feminine and have very rigid ideas about what those mean. I personally am neither fully masculine or fully feminine and i feel that my practice ought to reflect that

[autisticsiphonophore]

Everytime an aspec person is pressured into an allotypical relationship an angel loses its wings :(

[autisticsiphonophore]

Theres a hole in my heart in the shape of my friends when they were little. I have so much love for a sweet little boy who Ive never met. You don’t exist anymore but you don’t deserve any of what happened and i love you

[sweetfirebird]

Hey the US government is proposing to get rid of the Endangered Species Act. Please go comment.

(yes this entirely for corporate profit)

Cut and paste the docket number to put in your response if you remember. You can comment anonymously if you want.

The Oregon Zoo has some sample arguments you can make.

We have until December 22nd!

[autisticsiphonophore]

If anyone is nervous to write a comment or overwhelmed on what to say, i will have notifications on until the deadline and i will ghost write a comment for you to submit ^^

[autisticsiphonophore]

Lowkey its messed up that “recovery” for me was framed as being able to cope with (ei. Ignore and not react to) what was in fact a lot of pain and distress instead of giving me ways to express it that didnt hurt me which is in fact what i wanted and needed and its taking a lot to unlearn that the healthy option is being undisruptive

[autisticsiphonophore]

The trick much of body positivity content plays is trying to explain why your body secretly fits the standard. You arent fat, youre clothes just dont fit properly, you arent flat you just arent using the right camera angles, ect ect. But the question really is can you love the fat? Can you love it even if uou dont diet, even if its not protecting your organs, even if its not an unavoidable part of your genetics? Can you love your flat chest without the cute bra, without the lights, without the viewers? Can you love the broken, the disabling, the gross without convincing yourself its none of those things? When you are alone, when there are no angles to manipulate, no person to convince of your worth, do you still care? Can you still feel your worth?

[autisticsiphonophore]

If you cant be normal about cluster b disorders your disability activism means nothing to me :)

[thepioden]

Chai tea bag + lil but of brown sugar + apple cider packet + 16 oz. mug of hot but not quite boiling water

it will not Fix You but like. maybe. maybe.

[thepioden]

tags by @eridan-ampora

[thepioden]

Update: this is the best post I've ever made because everyone is sharing their Warm Beverage recipes in the notes. Go check the notes for more Warm Beverages That Will Fix You.

[hugsandchaos]

Reblogging to stay on Warm Beverages

[nshtn]

@bonsoir-oiseau

[autisticsiphonophore]

so freeing to be aro lowkey. kissing's just a thing. hugging's just a thing. consent extends to all interactions. the boundaries of a relationship are solely determined by those involved. just do what you want and call it what you want the lines are made up reject the cages of society kiss your friends be gay platonicly no one who matters cares

[afronerdism]

The conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has been so severely mutilated by white “allies” that the original intention behind that conversation has become almost unrecognizable in most social contexts.

[afronerdism]

To explain what I mean, the conversation around cultural appropriation was started by black and native people to discuss the frustrations we feel at being punished socially and financially for partaking in our cultural heritage while white people could take, I.e. appropriate, aspects of our culture that we are actively shamed for and be heralded as innovators. It was about the frustrations we feel when the same white people who shamed us would take our culture and wear it as if they were the ones who created it while still actively shaming us for doing the same.

The original push behind naming cultural appropriation and having these conversations were so that we as a society could evaluate why we were punished for our heritage while white People were not. It was supposed to be about seeking solutions. The idea was to create a society where we could celebrate our cultures with impunity. It was never about telling white people that they “weren’t allowed” to do certain things. We did ask that white People stop doing certain things because they weren’t doing them respectfully and were not invited to do them, but the primary reason we asked them to desist was to reclaim the things they had stolen and to reassign them culturally back where they belonged.

White “allies” saw these conversations happening and instead of trying to aplify our own voices or even try to learn about the complexities behind why we were saying what we were saying, they instead began screaming over us and creating a narrative that was hardly even the bones of what we originally set out to say. It was like they took the conversation we were trying to have, completely decontextualized it, and stripped it of all it’s nuance in order to gain social currency by seeming progressive.

So the conversation around cultural appropriation went from “This aspect of our heritage belongs to us and we find it egregious that we are shamed for it. What steps can we take to address the racism that’s creating this situation as well as rehome the things that have been stolen” to “you’re not allowed to do that because if you do that you’re racist, we don’t really understand why that’s racist but you’re not allowed to do that and if you do that you’re a klansman no exceptions. So you’re not allowed because because”

At the end of the day, did I like the fact that sally was wearing dreads? No. But my primary concern was not that sally was wearing dreads but rather that sally could wear dreads and I couldn’t. THAT was the intended focus of those conversations. It was about addressing the inequality. It was about us. Now the conversation is just about sally and were completely forgotten.

White People are always asking me what they can do to help. You want to know? Stop talking. Aplify our voices and shut the fuck up because you all have pretty much derailed this conversation and many more like it to the point that we no longer are trying to make steps to understand and dismantle the racism around cultural appropriation and instead are just using it as social shaming tactics.

[afronerdism]

TL;DR: read my post. Most things worth learning about can’t be summarized in the bullet points of a buzfeed article. Don’t come into academic circles and complain because everything hasn’t been conviently summarized for you. Stop pretending that things aren’t accessible to you because you refuse to do the intellectual labor that is learning.

[autisticsiphonophore]

Fuck divine feminine. My feminine has nothing to do with divinity. I cut it off a skirt to make it shorter. I picked it out of a hairbrush. I tore it out of ophelias ramblings. I threw it away and then dragged it back out of the trash when i decided i still wanted it. It smells like a claires employee on a smoke break. Its the glitter someone put on the virgin mary statue. I got it from a dumpster behind joans fabric. Its not for being soft and graceful and submitting to some guy. Its for wearing slutty little outfits and laughing too loud in public and screaming that weve been forsaken by the gods

[autisticsiphonophore]

Every building should have a secret hidden corner where no one goes for me specifically to hide in