DISABILITY

This blog is meant for every disabled person. Whether your disability is common or rare, whether you have many comorbidities or none, and no matter what type of marginalisation, we aim to include posts and be able to answer questions about your situation. We realise this isnt an easy task, but we will do our best to get there. In order for us to be inclusive, we will try our best to tag, close caption, describe images as well as space and and tl;dr texts. Please let us know if we can make anything more accessible to you. The ones advising the content have many disabilities and marginalisations, listed here. If you want a particular advisor to answer a question, please let us know. I call them advisors since they dont have the spoons to moderate the blog regularly, but are my absolute closest friends and are happy to help in particular cases. Currently looking for moderators, more information on that can be found here. 

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

The mythical disabled person who is so disabled that everyone consistently supports and accommodates them without question is a straw man which only exists as a hypothetical for the political purpose of denying real disabled people care while still being able to argue that said care would be accessible to disabled people who "actually deserves it"

[captainstarburst]

this is not to say you shouldn't make characters with strabismus- you should! i want to see people with my disabilities! but i think a little research can go a long way. i'd love to see it given more depth in writing than just being an indicator of intelligence (which it isn't and never has been!)

[piercingcomet]

[ID: graphic titled "THIS IS A VISUAL IMPAIRMENT CALLED 'STRABISMUS'!!"

below, are four drawings of a very fluffy creature with different presentations of strabismus. they're each labelled "hypotropia (eye points downward)," "exotropia (eye points outward)," "hypertropia (eye points upward," and "esotropia (eye points inward)."

the last has an arrow, with text reading "i looked like this when i was born!"

bottom text: it's not a quirky character design, it's a real disability!

it does not mean someone is clumsy, "stupid," or autistic

(ableist depictions of autistic and/or otherwise intellectually disabled people often have strabismus. why do you think this is?)

strabismus can occur from birth, later in life due to separate visual impairments, or because of physical trauma or strokes. it can cause permanent vision issues.

i'm partially blind in one eye!

when you design a character, think about if the traits you give them exist on real people! they often do!

what do you want your art to say about disabled people?

/end ID]

[terraswallows]

So happy for them 💓

[aandriskobold]

[ID: photo of a disabled parking spot. There are two icons of a person in a wheelchair facing opposite directions and overlapping so it looks like they are embracing. /end ID]

[couriernewvegas]

how to stop feeling like i was not meant to be a human being and that im bad at everything that encompasses being human

[mousegirlheart]

able bodied people love to forget that they're only temporarily able bodied. everyone, unless they die early for whatever reason, will become disabled in some way. you're not invincible. you're not "doing something right" that the rest of us failed at. time is coming for you. everyone becomes disabled eventually.

[lamignonette]

[flowercrowncrip]

This disability pride month I would like the community to understand that Sometimes wheelchairs aren’t freedom.

Sometimes using a wheelchair means you can no longer get to the places that used to be important to you, and not because of man-made inaccessibility. I have sat with someone as they cried because they could no longer visit the place they had scattered a loved one’s ashes because not even the most expensive wheelchair in the world could handle the terrain. As much as I wanted to, my wheelchair meant that I couldn’t position myself in a way that would allow me to give them a proper hug. In that moment, our wheelchairs felt more like heavy weights than freedom.

And sometimes wheelchairs are like the legs of someone who can walk but would maybe benefit from a wheelchair themselves. Sometimes wheelchairs are exhausting and painful and you’re counting down the time before you’re able to be lifted into bed. Sure, like painful legs, you can do more with them than without, but constantly performing gratitude for something that hurts you is exhausting. And again, not because you need a better wheelchair, but because those are the limits of your body and the technology that exists.

Yes it’s important to challenge the idea that wheelchairs are always a tragedy. And yes, there are lots of people who have a positive relationship with their chair. But for a lot of people, including me, the pressure to love your wheelchair and see it as freedom is painful and feels like it erases huge amounts of my experiences with disability.

[bebsi-cola]

this disability pride i wanna keep in mind the disabled people who are in a difficult situation because of their disability. people who were made homeless because of their disability, people who are stuck in abusive homes and can't get out because of their disability. people whose disability was used against them to facilitate abuse, like taking away their autonomy - medical, legal, or otherwise - taking charge of their finances, taking advantage of their vulnerabilities. it's reasonable to think that a lot of disabled people, especially disabled people in difficult circumstances such of these, would struggle to connect with the idea of disability pride. but pride or otherwise, this month should also be disability solidarity month. this month and every month is for all disabled people in all sorts of circumstances

[hug-your-face]

via @swatercolor [insta]

[hug-your-face]

This is the best tag I've ever received on a post, I think

[mxjackparker]

Don't leave your friends and even acquaintances to go to the hospital alone. If they don't have someone already going with them and don't explicitly tell you they don't want you there, go to advocate for them. Outcomes for sick people change dramatically when they have someone else there to observe doctors (making them know they can't get away with negligence) and note symptoms from an outside perspective.

Going to the hospital is scary and even someone totally unprepared to be a medical advocate or physical support will be better than nothing, purely from their presence. You can grab food, be there with your phone to search if theirs dies, go in search of a doctor, distract them from pain or discomfort... go with them.

[meret118]

I don't know how anyone makes it out of a hospital alive without someone to advocate for them. It's especially important if the patient is elderly, a woman, or a minority. Basically anyone that isn't a white, straight man under 60, because if you aren't in that small group you're far more likely to receive substandard care.

One of those pamphlets or papers they give out in admittance will contain the number for the hospital ombudsmen or patient advocate. Save that! I had to contact them when they twice messed up a test prep for my grandfather by giving him food when he wasn't supposed to have any so they couldn't do the test. He was moved off that floor to the cardiac wing of the hospital, even though he wasn't in for cardiac care that time, in less than an hour after I called the ombudsmen. It was a much nicer room, and the patient to nurse ratio was better too. Document everything, and be firm but calm.

Don't be afraid to ask for a second opinion or another doctor. The best resource I found was to ask all the nurses which doctor they would use for their grandfather etc. I found him a different heart doctor doing that who was so much better than do nothing doctor he had before.

I've found, "How would you want your grandparent, sister, daughter etc treated," to be a bit magic in terms of getting them good care in general. I've literally seen medical people pause, and rethink what they're going to say after I phrase it that way. Also, women doctors generally spend more time listening to patients. I'm not saying that's always true of course, but there have been studies backing that up, and it's certainly been my experience as well. I went with my grandfather to an appointment with his GP, and reported all these symptoms I was seeing. He literally laughed in my face, and circled his age on the chart. I took him to my doctor, a woman, and it turned out he had Parkinson's.

The Internet is your friend, provided it's a legitimate medical site like the Mayo or Cleveland clinic etc. I saved my mother's eyesight finding an off label usage for a med, and found some stuff my vet ended up using for other patients.

Sorry if I this too long winded! I've unfortunately have a lot of experience caretaking.

[phleb0tomist]

it’s such a basic part of the reality of disabled people as a whole but it’s STILL so hard to get ppl to understand that some people will simply die without 24/7 care. their care is not for comfort, it’s not for fun, it’s literally a matter of life and death. “if their care was taken away i’m sure they’d learn to suck it up like the rest of us!” – something ive heard time and time again. no they wouldn’t, they would die. they HAVE died. they continue to die as cuts are made to welfare and health. why is this so impossible for people to grasp.

[scooplery]

"it's just growing pains" -> "you're too young for that to hurt that bad" -> "you just need to get in better shape" -> "welcome to being old, everyone is in pain"

[morsobaby]

Often disabled people wildly overestimate their ability purely via ableist conditioning where they feel pressured to, or mistakenly think they Should be able to do all the same things as their ablebodied peers.

In this case, accurately assessing their comfort levels might feel like underestimating themselves. But it's necessary to not overexert and avoid further burnout.

So remember if you're disabled, underestimate your abilities more often. Either you were mistaken and end up feeling good afterwards despite the activity, or you were correct and spared yourself extra grief by stopping just when you needed to

[wobblefloss]

ESPECIALLY IN THE HEAT.

Heat adds, like, 500+ difficulty points. Please be patient with yourself. Please be gentle. It's not your fault. You're being rational.

[creekfiend]

CSF leak week info from the Ehler-Danlos Society FB page ✨

[dead-mad]

Spending day 1 of disability pride month listening to The Completed Schizophrenias and crocheting. My hands Hurt

[dead-mad]

Also so many things are giving me contact dermatitis and there are also more mystery rashes I'm so itchy. Guess my body just needed to make sure I rembered I was disabled this month

[vanglaggle]

"why are so many leftists disabled" maybe it's because disabled people don't really care for the "kill all disabled people" parties but who can say

[nudityandnerdery]

Hey, we’re in line for some absurd temperatures here in the southwest this week. This is very important to know and keep in mind. Be safe, stay hydrated, stay out of the sun as much as you can.

[katajainen]

For my fellow Europeans south of us who are currently suffering from extreme heat. Stay safe!

[belovedapollo]

I’d also like to add this

Additional you can also put them on your palms, also, make sure to always use a light towel or kitchen paper and don’t put the ice bags directly onto your skin!