I hope people eventually realize that ableism isn’t just being mean to a disabled person just because they’re disabled.
It’s the American government not allowing us to have over $2,000 at any given time without threatening to take away our only source of income. It’s still not having equal marriage opportunities, I cannot get married to my fiancée without my money being taken away. I bring in $750 a month from SSI. That’s not even enough for rent. (In case you didn’t know, $2,000 isn’t enough to live off of for a month, so to not be able to have it explains enough.)
Ableism is also taking away disabled parking and adding spaces reserved for cops. [That part is specifically aimed at Walmart.] Cops are abled, that’s how they can do their “job”. They’re even allowed to park at the very front of a building, they don’t need their own spaces.
Ableism is claiming a building is accessible when the “accessibility” features are broken or out of date, which can endanger mobility aid users.
Ableism is choosing to attack someone who doesn’t “look” disabled and shame them just because their disability/chronic illness is invisible; it is leaving notes on the cars that belong to disabled people who can walk, yet still need to park in the disabled parking space, that state that they’re “faking”, “going to hell”, or that they should be ashamed of themselves for “taking a spot from someone who actually needs it”. This includes the phrase, “But you don’t look disabled.”
Ableism is stopping autistic children from stimming, forcing kids with ADHD to sit still, infantilizing adults with down syndrome or other conditions because ableds assume that they don’t know what is going on around them.
Ableism is doctors not listening to their patients, the person who knows their body the best, due to medical racism, fatphobia, or misogyny.
Ableism is assuming every disabled person’s condition is the same, and that all treatments are a one size fits all; in reality, our treatment programs, the accommodations we need, which aren’t “special needs”, are all different and work with a case by case foundation.
Ableism is so much more than what the surface shows it to be. It’s not just treating people unfairly, it’s deliberately ignoring our basic needs for your comfort.
baratheonpilled
prguitarman
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
