Menagerie of the Multiply Disabled

A conglomeration of shiny things, experiences, and justice issues. Basically, anything that catches my attention.

[elementop123]

I made an intro-post aaaaaaand forgot to pin it, so Take 2:

I'm Zeke or Storm. My pronouns are xe/xem/xyr, and I'm nonbinary and don't fall on the masculine to feminine spectrum or understand it. I'm asexual and unsure of my romantic orientation, but my best guess is demiromantic; I don't understand what romantic attraction is, gender doesn't influence my dating choices, and I do want a life partner and to do cute things for them if they like that and to go on dates. I'm 32.

I'm multiply disabled with moderate support needs including being an ambulatory wheelchair user, chronically ill, mad, autistic, ADHD, and a traumagenic system who supports systems of all types. I'm a part-time AAC user (Lingraphica but remaking it with my speech therapist to be a core words system until I qualify to switch systems in 2.5 years. It's not a great fit). I have paid caregivers 6 hours a day and have moved from a group home to being mostly homebound but living independently.

I have an adorable senior, ESA cat. I played the flute but can't currently due to hand numbness, like ttrpgs, and have never found another special interest after giving up my decades-long special interest in Harry Potter due to JK being hot garbage. I also like other fantasy worlds and Sci Fi, and I struggle with reading but also really enjoy it. Umm... Yeah. I'm a published poet (small publications), and I guess talk to or follow me if you want to know more.

I'm struggling financially, and my Amazon Wish List is here, wants and needs on it:

[politijohn]

Source

Happy Pride Month!

[reasonsforhope]

Holy shit!!!!!!! HUNGARY DID IT!!!!

-via the Los Angeles Blade, June 1, 2026

[longsightmyth]

I bring a real 'actually people who are pregnant do deserve some special consideration because they are effectively at least temporarily disabled if not permanently after some complications' vibe to the party that a lot of people don't seem to like

[elementop123]

This is real. Also, I had periods for about a decade pre-transition, and those can be debilitating, too, and should be given special consideration if the person having them experiences things like severe pain, heavy bleeding, issues with things like cysts, extreme nausea or fatigue, etc.

[elementop123]

Can people recommend Tumblr blogs that give non-toxic positivity hope and experiences with chronic illness and chronic si?

[elementop123]

I'm not sure I can do this anymore. Im afraid to reach out for support because I've needed so much support this week, but Im afraid I won't make it to tomorrow if I don't.

[elementop123]

I have moderate support needs autism, a borderline intellectual disability, and other conditions that affect my thinking. I'm not stupid, not that being smart is the only thing that can make a person good or valuable, because it's not. But I'm really good at the small details of things. What I struggle most with with concepts is big picture concepts, like the whole timeline of history and figuring out where specific events I know about fit in time. Or political and world issues as a whole and all the things they impact and how different approaches to solving them may or may not work. I watch A LOT of videos about issues that are important to me and also try to talk them through with people with lots of different views. In the end, though, I often have to take someone's or lots of someone's word for it that I'm taking the side of empathy and compassion and protecting the earth and that what I'm trying will work the best to advance those values. Because I can't often grasp the concepts I'm trying to understand no matter how hard j try.

[bsaka7]

excerpts from erin in the morning's article on the ioc's ban on transgender women and sex testing policy

[headspace-hotel]

The fact that they're not testing men says it all.

Wikipedia articles for the two athletes mentioned who committed and attempted suicide. Horrible.

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

We've all gotten just a bit too comfortable being jerks to strangers on the internet I think

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

So I've hidden this reply, both because it's obnoxious and because I don't want the person who wrote it being harassed for it, but I need you to understand: I don't know you. We are not friends. This is not fun or cute, we are not sharing a charming joke together. You are just being an asshole.

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

literally that is what the post is about, I am saying people should be less eager to jump on any chance to be snarky and rude to total strangers on the internet

[sidedere]

DID THE JOURNAL FACTORY FUCKING EXPLODE???

you said it yourself: you're looking to vent it LITERALLY ANYWHERE

so vent it somewhere private. or at least not literally aimed AT another person, a total stranger at that

Like, this reblogger sounds so insanely self centered in their reblog. notice how both options focus on how being rude would affect THEM. "B has no consequences for me so it's perfectly fine to do"

(the only reason I didn't show their username in the screenshot is because, given how self victimizing they sound in their reblog, I believe that, if I did show their username, suddenly online stuff wouldn't seem so inconsequential to them and they'd accuse me of sending harrassment their way and putting them in danger)

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

You said it better than I could. Of all the inane and ridiculous things I've seen in my notes because of this post, "I NEED to say fuck you to strangers or I will literally die" is certainly one of them

[elementop123]

Also, "no consequence" misleading because people literally die from online bullying, too. You can vent and rant all you want in your own post (though expect clapback if you're being a prejudiced asshole in the process), but don't come direct your anger at actual other people. That's not okay online or offline, not just because of consequence for you, but because of how it affects the other people.

[elementop123]

Im really feeling like my quality of life isn't there. There are some things that might improve my quality of life temporarily, but the government has made it clear that it won't cover most of them. Some of my illnesses are also progressive, and these would only balance things towards the glimmers temporarily. I have requested a referral to palliative care and a medication review with an aim towards less medication (and less side effects) and only keeping the meds that are actually helping anything. But it feels like these processes will take years, and I'm... Exhausted and suffering.

[elementop123]

Does anyone know how power wheelchair accessible Barcelona is?

[elementop123]

My quality of life from both chronic illness and social factors is just not there right now. It has me considering palliative care. It has me considering Death with Dignity. And then, on the complete flip side, as a significantly disabled, trans person in the US, it has be considering immigrating to Spain, too.

[wheelie-sick]

tumblr users will proudly admit that they refuse to reblog from artists who put a little "reblogs > likes" on their art posts "out of spite" and then wonder why artists are leaving.

tumblr doesn't have an algorithm. a significant portion of this website doesn't check tags, they just follow people. the main way for artists to get recognition for their work is through reblogs.

reblog culture is dying and it's killing art communities.

if you like having artists on this platform you need to reblog the art posts that you like. when you don't artists feel like there's no point in posting their art here.... so they don't. they leave or they stop drawing/writing/etc.

so, if you like artists being on this platform you need to reblog their posts.

[elementop123]

I've just read on Facebook that Kaelynn Partlow is problematic. I only discovered her recently and have been listening to her audiobook. I have found it helpful so far to put words to some of my autistic experiences that, as someone with moderate support needs, I haven't found those experiences always shared in the online autism communities I've tried to join (things like eloping, being an unreliable speaker and AAC user, self-injurious meltdowns, lashing out at others, etc.). I do find them shared a lot more here on Tumblr than in like Facebook groups. I'm okay with listening to and dialoguing with creators and people who don't identify with the most popular narratives about autism, but I'm not okay with dialoguing or supporting creators who are racist/ableist/take advantage of vulnerable people/etc. Could someone fill me in on WHY she's considered problematic by some?

[titsay]

hap-pea together

[ordinarytalk]

Recovering from autistic burnout as a high-masking adult:

To recover, you literally need to manually learn skills that most people learn as a toddler

You need to learn what makes your body uncomfortable, and what to do to fix it

If you are high-masking, that usually means that you have learned to ignore every distress signal your body sends unless it is a distress signal that a neurotypical person would recognize. People have likely been unintentionally gaslighting you about your lived experience your entire life

If you feel bad or panicked for no reason, stop and try to pay attention to your body. Are you tense? You are likely feeling physical pain somewhere. If you've been gaslit about your pain your entire life, you might not be able to identify it.

Go through a sensory checklist.

SIGHT: Try closing and covering your eyes. If this gives you relief, the lights are probably too bright. You may also need differently-colored lights

SOUND: Cover your ears. Does this give you relief? If so, you may need earplugs or noise canceling headphones. You may also benefit from a neutral or pleasant background noise, like soft music or brown noise.

TOUCH: Are your clothes uncomfortable? Your chair? Your body? Do you feel greasy, like you need a shower? Do you need softer, sensory-friendly clothing?

TASTE: Do you need to brush your teeth or tongue? Would chewing on something help?

SMELL: Is there a strong or unpleasant smell in the room? Do you need to clean or empty a trash can? Would an air purifier help? Would a pleasant smell like a candle help?

INTEROCEPTION: Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? How is your posture? Are any of your muscles tight or sore? Scan your body slowly from head to feet, tensing and loosening each group of muscles. Going for a walk or doing a series of quick stretches may help a lot.

Learning how to do this stuff is not intuitive, if you've had an entire lifetime of gaslighting telling you that everything hurting you isn't a big deal and you're being dramatic over nothing.

This takes time, it takes work, it's not intuitive, and it's hard. Most people forget how hard it is, because they learned this as toddlers.

If you want to recover, you need to relearn your whole body. And get over your idea of "normal" and just wear the damn sunglasses and put on the headphones. If people stare, fuck em. You're disabled and they can deal with that.

[whatbigotspost]

What a great post! So helpful.

People often ask me about my unmasking journey and express surprise to hear that such a big part of it has been 1) accepting I must avoid light/the sun and 2) wearing clothes I can stand.

I’ll play it jokey and say it like “well it took me far too long to realize that my former wardrobe made me want to jump off a bridge.” Or “turns out my old underwear was anti-autistic.” Or “for whatever reason when it’s too bright, I can’t think.”

It sounds silly to some people. It’s very hard for the average allistic person to understand how severed I was from what my physical person was feeling. It served me to be disembodied to survive for a long time. Until it didn’t.

[headspace-hotel]

eliminating all polyester blends from my wardrobe (and polyester in general) changed my fucking life

[elementop123]

Listening to Life on the Bridge and gaining language for a lot of my autistic experiences i never had words for or didn't know werent universal before.

Life on the Bridge: linking my world to yours as an aut…

You've heard from autistic authors. You've heard from …

[elementop123]

My birthday is coming up in June, if anyone wants to send me anything off my Amazon Wish List. It contains wants and needs.