The moment I hear someone accuse a disabled person of faking it, I lose all respect I previously had for them. I have absolutely zero tolerance for fakeclaimers.
People have passed out on buses after being denied seats, because people thought they were faking it. People in excruciating pain have been turned away from hospitals, because people thought they were faking it. People have been publicly shamed both online and in person for their disabilities, because people thought they were faking it. People have lost their jobs after being denied accomodations, because people thought they were faking it. And I'm partially talking from my own personal experiences. I've been yelled at for having meltdowns at school after being told I wasn't allowed to wear ear plugs, because people thought I was faking it. These aren't hypothetical situations. Lots and lots of real disabled people have suffered for the entertainment of fakeclaimers.
The harm from fakeclaiming real disabled people is much, much worse than the harm from taking the few fakers there are seriously. I would rather help a hundred disabled people when one person among them is actually faking it than fakeclaim a hundred fakers when one person among them is actually disabled.
Yes, there are people who fake disabilities, and yes, that's awful and harmful. But accusing people of faking it has never done anything good for anyone, while it has harmed a lot of disabled people who needed support but were ridiculed instead. There is no net positive to fakeclaiming. All it does is serve to stigmatize, mock, and encourage the neglect of disabled people. It's sickening.
I mean this all the time. Even if they do something you assumed they shouldn't be able to do (part-time AAC users, ambulatory wheelchair users, and other people whose disabilities aren't constantly visible exist). Even if you think their accommodations are excessive or unnecessary. Even if you think they have "too many" conditions. Even if it's DID or schizophrenia or any other disability that you're uncomfy acknowledging. Even if they have dyed hair or neopronouns or anything else you've decided is "attention-seeking behavior."
The moment I hear the phrase, "they're probably faking it," leave your lips, I know not to trust you. Because you want disabled people to earn their rights, their support, their ability to live, by first meeting your arbitrary standards for what disabled people must look like.
whenever I have been visibly disabled enough to need a seat on public transport, the ONLY people who have ever offered me their seat were other disabled people
