angry cripple coming your way! watch out

they/them lesbian. audhd & physically disabled cane user. tired. i complain.

[disableddyke]

ableism is a disease, but luckily there’s a cure:

[disableddyke]

anyway gam devs should be required to have disabled play testers

[disableddyke]

i do actually think a lack of an easy setting on games is an ableism issue

[disableddyke]

i just feel like if your game is inaccessible to disabled people due to difficulty stacking and you add no option to make it more accessible then you’re not really a good game designer

[disableddyke]

i do actually think a lack of an easy setting on games is an ableism issue

[disableddyke]

pro tip: wet a washcloth with water, wring it out so it’s moist, place in the freezer & bam. lightweight & versatile cold compress

[disableddyke]

happy fourth day of disability pride month and no other holiday

[disableddyke]

if accessibility can break a system then the system needs to be broken

[disableddyke]

happy disability pride month

[disableddyke]

it’s disability pride month which means it’s time for abled queer people to awkwardly pretend they can’t see or hear us

[questionable-method]

no but im so tired of how self-deprecation is always more accepted than self-advocacy. if i say i can't drive because im autistic i get questioned on how exactly that works and given a million suggestions on how to do it anyway and i look like im trying to be special so it's easier to just say im a loser. yeah i don't drive because im kind of a loser lmao. oh well. and people say lmao back and we move on. at worst they say "oh im sure you'll figure it out haha." but no interrogation!! being a loser is more respectable than being disabled. being a loser is something that doesn't make other people feel uncomfortable about their own biases. so no, no im not disabled. i don't struggle to keep friends and do the laundry and make quick trivial decisions and clean my room and brush my teeth because im autistic. it's because im a loser. it's my fault. it is what it is. at least im funny now. do you think im funny? please think im funny

[disableddyke]

the other thing about ableism in academia is that the way that most institutions are structured inherently makes it hostile to disabled students, so fewer of us graduate and even less of us manage to make it to a graduate degree, then to a post doc and then faculty position and so on. so naturally we comprise only the smallest sliver of academic faculty, like it’s no wonder we experience so much ableism, because none of the people in higher positions know shit about disability! we are so sorely, thoroughly underrepresented, we are an afterthought and none of these abled people have any clue what it’s like to be a disabled student and what kinds of barriers we have to face just to hit the bare minimum marks that abled students can unimpeded. “i’m not equipped to handle your disability” yeah i know, none of you are

[disableddyke]

in a shocking turn of events, a child accused of constantly faking illness to get out of school grows up to be a chronically ill adult

[byjove]

One time I told my gastroenterologist that I thought the new immunosuppressant I was prescribed for my ulcerative colitis was causing my hair to fall out. I had not been warned that hair thinning was a potential side effect of the medication so I was startled and when I began shedding like a husky, not because I’m vain but because it is alarming when you suddenly begin losing significant amounts of hair with no cause you’re aware of. It took some googling to find out it was a somewhat common side effect of my new medication.

I casually informed my gastro about this phenomenon near the end of our next appointment because I hadn’t been informed that was something that could happen and I thought it might be important to note, possibly a sign of a deeper problem with the way my body was reacting to the medication or sometime like that. Instead of responding with ‘That happens sometimes.’ or even ‘Huh. Weird. Didn’t know it could do that.’ he turned around and looked at me and said in the most condescending and judgmental voice imaginable “Your colon is more important than your hair.”

Which is a really funny one liner out of context and if he had said it with any other expression and tone, I might have laughed. But he was so fucking serious. I was taken aback and immediately tried to explain I just thought it might be of medical relevance. Like, yes, I fucking know my colon is more important than my hair and it seemed like this man was prematurely annoyed with me and (I assume) he thought I was going to try to switch treatments for my severe ulcerative colitis because my fucking hair was falling out. Far from the cruelest thing a medical professional has ever said to me, not egregious enough to make me feel the need to comment on it or try to switch providers, just demoralizing in a way that felt like a branding. I left the appointment feeling so fucking small. I thought, oh, he thinks I’m stupid and vain. This doctor, who has seen me at my most vulnerable and heard me have to describe shitting blood so much I needed iron infusions for the anemia, this man who has shoved a camera up my ass on multiple occasions thinks I am a vapid dumbass who would value my hair over not being in fucking pain and incontinent and sick and bleeding.

Anyway, being chronically ill and always dependent on the healthcare system and medical professionals is death by a thousand paper cuts mentally. No dignity, attempting to perform being polite and genteel and not hysterical or emotional or troublesome while also being in severe pain, just so you will be taken seriously. And you can do your absolute best and still be put in the ‘stupid and annoying’ box while fighting a serious illness.

[disableddyke]

idc if i hurt abled peoples feelings. you’re upset because i acknowledged your behavioral patterns. i’m upset because I’ve been systematically barred access from institutions, dehumanized, bullied and belittled for existing and daring to ask for fair treatment. not even remotely comparable!

[disableddyke]

it’s not just undergrads either, grad students and other professors worth their salt hate these types of professors too. i worked at a bio institute with a bunch of upper academics and teachers and i’d tell them about some bullshit my professors were on and they’d be like “this is the problem with tenure” and “that’s unethical asf” like yeah girl ik

[disableddyke]

idek why i’m so full of rage rn like my undergrad is basically over, ive got a week or two left before i get my degree but goddamn these last 5 years have been grueling. i’ve been put through the wringer more times than i can count and all i have to show for it is a major depressive disorder and a plaque

[disableddyke]

also they love to get high & mighty whenever you imply that they’re being unreasonable if you’re a student. they go “well you don’t understand the pressures we’re dealing with” and “you don’t know how hard it is for us to keep up with our work without having to help you” like damn that’s crazy cuz when i said the same thing you told me to go fuck myself. so is it “making excuses” or do you just think that your time and health matter more than mine?

[disableddyke]

as an undergraduate who, in a few rare instances of compassion and understanding, has actually received the mystical and supposedly impossible accommodations that are apparently just “too difficult to provide,” i’ve come to realize how ableist and inconsiderate most professors really are for no genuinely good reason. i am grateful for my kind and thoughtful professors who accommodated me when i was struggling, but it also makes me angry to think i could have had help all along and it wasn’t actually that difficult to do, but that my other professors simply couldn’t be bothered to put in any more effort than it takes to clock in and read lecture slides. i feel failed by the system and by these teachers who claim to lead the next generation of intellectual minds. truly it enrages me. and the worst ones all have fucking tenure

[disableddyke]

professors also love to say “we’re human too” but like it only applies to them. they’re human, they’re real people with real feelings and lives, you however are just another name on a spreadsheet