(mostly retired)
Posting largely from @perceptualcontortion
Since Tumblr deleted that one and won't reply, now its @perceptuallycontorted for however long that whim if not the account itself lasts.
Not today Justin

blake kathryn
Show & Tell

izzy's playlists!
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Three Goblin Art
Claire Keane

if i look back, i am lost

@theartofmadeline
hello vonnie
NASA

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Jules of Nature
Cosimo Galluzzi
Misplaced Lens Cap
dirt enthusiast
Stranger Things
noise dept.
wallacepolsom

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seen from Netherlands
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seen from Türkiye

seen from Hungary

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@systematicsalvation
(mostly retired)
Posting largely from @perceptualcontortion
Since Tumblr deleted that one and won't reply, now its @perceptuallycontorted for however long that whim if not the account itself lasts.
Repose en paix, dear Marjane Satrapi (1969-2026).
You were my goal during my teenage years. Photographs by Rahi Rezvani 🖤
Source
Happy Pride Month!
Holy shit!!!!!!! HUNGARY DID IT!!!!
-via the Los Angeles Blade, June 1, 2026
The model has been to put intelligence behind a paywall since the dot-com bubble burst, since news sites began more collectively putting articles behind a paywall in 97. Hell, since before that. Its always been the case. ALWAYS!
Linktree will be feeding your images with DALL-E, Open AI from 5th July 2026.
Warning to anyone using Linktree.
From the 5th July, they'll be feeding all imagery you use on your landing page into DALL-E by OpenAI.
I deleted my account just now, because there was no way to turn this off or opt out.
Update with some alternatives-
Carrd.co. Free alt with paid features.
Bento.app Currently free, integrated with bluesky
Everlink.tools Closest to Linktree, has some paid features.
Omg.lol Currently $20 a year. If paying for Linktree features this is a great upgrade.
The White House will prioritize the “neutralization” of groups it considers “anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”
As opposed to the previous administration targeting white supremacists, this is who our current regime is going after.
DCBLACKOUT: The DC Comics Boycott Explained #dcsowhite
I think it should be mentioned though that if you're doing this, it would be important to pick up what's already been ordered so you don't screw over your comics shop. Those items already count for sales for a publisher. The FOC for them has happened already and DC has already made those single-issue and pre-order sales up to three months out. By not picking them up, the only person you'd be doing any harm is the storefront that might even feel the same way as you.
I'd also say, giving a title immunity fron cancelation shouldn't come built-in to its release plan but rather be something that is on the table if the first arc of issues meets or surpasses a certain threshold of sales. The sales of the first four to twelve issues of Poison Ivy, Green Arrow, and Birds of Prey are probably good base lines for that. There has to be some form of quality quantifier so its not just this dead duck floating across the water that nobody is enoying.
Plus, me, I'm still picking up the Dream Girls books. I think this works more in abstract but there are certainly various details that would make sense to be different for each person and the works of real humans and livelihoods that one might want to support in the meanwhile, people who are possibly relying on their visibility within Marvel/DC to help their name recognition when it comes to further selling their independent works. But then, what is a boycott? Obviously, its not a flat discussion.
random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google
I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.
also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo
also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)
Keeping a list of Google alternatives just in case…
i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:
Search Engines
Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)
WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.
Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.
Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines.
Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted.
Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy.
Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.
Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden.
MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.
Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching.
Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar.
https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results.
https://www.mojeek.com/
https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites.
https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.
https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.
https://yep.com/ is a crawler
https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx
https://www.dogpile.com/
https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)
https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?
https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?
https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.
Other Searchers
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine
Text of tweet under the cut because it is loooong.
But... Stochastic Parrots.
This is the paper. It's excellent, highly recommend reading it.
I remember reading about Gebru's firing but I had no idea this was the paper she was fired over.
Here is an article from NPR about it (May 22, 2026):
Carolina Milanesi, an independent technology analyst, said Google is trying to make its cash cow business — search — richer and more personalized, and it will make shopping easier. But there is a risk that users may have fewer choices about what to click. "Right now it's: I ask a question, I get a bunch of answers and I feel that I'm in control as to which answer I take, or if I'm looking for something, which product I'm going to end up buying. That is going to be less so going forward," she said. Milanesi envisions AI-enabled search and agents proposing products to consumers — perhaps even those they have requested — but with less clarity or choice around where it's coming from. "If you're going to say: 'I want a pair of Jordans, go find them,' you're not necessarily sure what steps have been taken and whether the AI has used a source or a store that was paid for and therefore came up in the search results," she said, "or if AI actually went and did their due diligence and picked the best for me as a customer."
And here's one from Time magazine (May 20, 2026):
While Google already has “AI Mode,” the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model. Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questions—similar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.
And a little more from Time's article on how this may affect the websites that we are trying to search for:
When Google first started implementing AI-assisted results, news publishers warned of “catastrophic” impacts on the industry, much of which relies on Google search to drive users to their websites. Last year, news websites saw significant traffic declines as chatbots increasingly replaced Google search as the primary way to find sites and ask questions. Small businesses also noted drops in traffic to their sites from Google, which has traditionally delivered customers. Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy & research at Amsive, a digital marketing agency, warned as early as last year that Google’s planned changes to search are “going to have a devastating impact on the Internet.” “It will severely cut into the main source of revenue for most publishers and it will disincentivize content creators who rely on organic search traffic, which is millions of websites, maybe more,” she told Technology Magazine.
noai.duckduckgo.com blocks all AI content in search results automatically
The idea that it would seems tied idealogically with functionary self flagellation and the sense of inherent purity and validation created and encouraged by that particular sense of religiosity.
"While those working at private companies can at least earn a little money, they face possible punishment if they refuse, from being denied family visits to being sent to higher-security prisons, which are so dangerous that the federal government filed a lawsuit four years ago that remains pending [note: article is from 2024], calling the treatment of prisoners unconstitutional.
Though they make at least $7.25 an hour, the state siphons 40% off the top of all wages and also levies fees, including $5 a day for rides to their jobs and $15 a month for laundry.
Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry."
No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama.
Check out this page via the Business and Human Rights Centre
This is what they want for all of us.
I highly recommend watching this testimony from Aliya Rahman, the disabled woman who was dragged out of her car and kidnapped by ICE on her way to a doctor appointment in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.
Truly my worst nightmare.
Transcript of Aliya Rahman's speech:
Thank you members, for taking the time to be here today, and thank you staff for making this happen.
My name is Aliya Rahman, and I am a resident of South Minneapolis. I am a Bangladeshi American born in Northern Wisconsin. And I’m a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury.
Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns. And while what the world saw happen to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple center.
So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home, and I offer this data because these practices must end now.
On January 13th on the way to my 39th appointment at Hennepin County’s traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it. I had not wanted to pull in to a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, “Move! I will break your f-ing window!”
His first instruction.
Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians.
Then, the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face.
I yelled, “I’m disabled!” at the hands grabbing at me and an agent said, “Too late.”
I felt immersed in a pattern, and I thought of Jenoah Donald, an autistic black man killed by the police during a traffic stop in 2021.
I remembered mister Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year.
An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt. Shooting pain went through my head, neck, and wrists when I hit the ground face first and people leaned on my back.
I felt the pattern, and I thought of mister George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away.
I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally.
I was never asked for ID.
Never told I was under arrest.
Never read my rights.
And never charged with a crime.
Approaching the Whipple center, I saw black and brown bodies shackled together, chained together, being marched by yelling agents outdoors. I continued to hear the word “bodies”, because that is how agents referred to us:
“We’re bringing in a body.”
“They’re bringing in bodies 7, 8 at a time, where do I put ‘em?”
“We can’t use that room, there’s already a body in there.”
You have no reason to believe you will make it out alive if you’re already being called a body.
Agents repeatedly had to stop and ask how to do tasks. I received no medical screening, phone call, or access to a lawyer. I was denied a communication navigator when my speech began to slur. Agents laughed as I tried to immobilize my own neck. I asked for my cane and was told no, pulled up by my arms and prodded forward in leg irons by agents laughing and saying, “Walk! You can do it, walk.”
Agents did not know if the facility had a wheelchair.
When I was finally placed in one to be taken to interrogation an agent taunted, “You were driving, right? So your legs do work.”
I pleaded for emergency medical care for over an hour after my vision had become blurry, my heart rate went through the roof, and the pain in my neck and head became unbearable.
It was denied.
When I became unable to speak my cellmate pleaded for me.
The last sounds I remember before I blacked out on the cell floor were my cellmate banging on the door, pleading for a medic, and a voice outside saying, “We don’t wanna step on ICE’s toes.”
When I opened my eyes at Hennepin County’s emergency room, I learned I was brought there to be treated for assault.
The impacts of DHS detention on my physical, mental and financial well-being and safety have been very severe, but I do not deserve more humane treatment than anyone else, US citizen or not. And I am here today with a strong spirit and a duty to the many people who haven’t had the privilege to tell their stories or see their loved ones come home. I am extremely distressed by the pattern that violence from law enforcement has been happening to black and indigenous communities for centuries, and to DHS survivors for over 20 years.
We call ourselves a civilized nation, but we lack rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement is permitted to do to another human being.
I am not afraid, and I’m not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone. Thank you for your time.
FUCK THIS LOL
Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and
The era of the “ten blue links” is officially over.
At its Google I/O conference on Tuesday, Google unveiled an AI-powered overhaul of Search centered around a reimagined “intelligent search box” — what the company describes as the biggest change to this entry point to the web since the search box debuted more than 25 years ago.
Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google Search will drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences at times. Google is also introducing tools that can dispatch “information agents” to gather information on a user’s behalf, along with tools that let users build personalized mini apps tailored to their needs.
The resulting experience will no longer look much like how people envision Google Search, which has long been defined by ranked links to websites that have the information you need.
With the revamped Search experience, the new search box simply expands to accommodate longer, more conversational queries, rather than making you decide what type of search experience or mode you want to choose at the start of your query. It will also have a new AI-powered query suggestion system that goes beyond autocomplete to help people craft more complex and nuanced queries, Google says.
Google’s AI Overviews will also allow users to ask follow-up questions in AI Mode, beginning Tuesday, the company noted.
You Belong Here:
Disabled Students’ Field Guide to Starting College
You Belong Here:
Disabled Students’ Field Guide to Starting College
Section 2
A Letter To The Disabled Student Reading This:
You’re starting college! Congratulations!! You should be so proud. That said, college was not built for us. The lecture hall has stairs. Your professor doesn’t do excused absences. The campus map lists every coffee shop on earth and zero accessible bathrooms. The dining hall is sensory hell.
This is the thing I wish someone had handed me before I showed up at orientation. A field guide to the rights you actually have, how to email, how to request accommodations, the tips to best adjust to college life, how to find community, and find your place.
You’re walking into a lineage, disabled people who fought, got arrested, organized, and made room for the next generation. This zine is your inheritance. Use it. Write in it. Argue with it. Photocopy it. Pass it on to someone else.
Section 3
The Fight That Got You Here
Every right in this zine came from somebody. Not from a politician. Not from a grateful university. Disabled people, organized and furious, tired of being pitied into invisibility, risked jobs and bodies so students later could walk into a disability services office and register. That anger is you.
Every accommodation letter you send is a thank-you note to the people who won that letter into existence. Every right you use is a right you keep alive.
1962. Ed Roberts, who used a wheelchair and slept in an iron lung, became the first significantly disabled student admitted to Berkeley. The university had no accessible housing except the campus infirmary. He found other disabled students. They called themselves the Rolling Quads. By 1972 they’d built the first Center for Independent Living on earth. (Every CIL traces back to them. So does your campus disability office.)
1977. Judy Heumann, Kitty Cone, and 150+ disabled activists occupied the San Francisco federal building for 25 days — the longest sit-in of a federal building in U.S. history — until the government finally signed Section 504. The Black Panther Party cooked hot meals and smuggled in supplies; Brad Lomax, a Black disabled Panther, made that coalition happen. (Section 504 is the law protecting you in college. Right now. Because of them.)
1990. Activists climbed out of their wheelchairs and dragged themselves up the marble steps of the U.S. Capitol to shame Congress into passing the ADA. Jennifer Keelan was eight years old. The photo went around the world. Congress passed the ADA four months later. (That's the law making your dorm, classroom, and campus job accessible.)
2005 and onward. Patty Berne, Leroy Moore, Mia Mingus, Stacey Park Milbern, and Sins Invalid articulated disability justice — insisting that liberation center the people mainstream disability rights too often left behind: disabled Black, Brown, queer, fat, poor, undocumented, and institutionalized people. (They shape how we talk about access today, whether we name it or not.)
Section 4
Know Your Rights
Before you walk into any office, professor's hours, or meeting with a defensive administrator, know what the law guarantees you. These aren't favors. They're not negotiable. You are entitled to every one of them.
Section 504 (1973) & the ADA: Any college taking federal money can't discriminate based on disability. The ADA extends that into housing, facilities, events, the fitness center, the career fair. You have the right to reasonable accommodations across your whole academic and campus life.
FERPA & Your Privacy: Your documentation and accommodation records are protected. Professors get told what accommodations you're approved for, that's it. Not your diagnosis. Not your history. That's yours. To get accommodations, you do NOT have to name your disability. You just need to provide documentation showing a disability creating a functional barrier.
The Right to Appeal: If accommodations get denied or watered down, you can appeal, through disability services, up to the Dean of Students, and if needed, the U.S. Dept. of Education's Office for Civil Rights. OCR complaints are free. No lawyer needed.
K-12: IDEA vs College: 504/ADA
With K-12: The school identifies and evaluates you, IEP team is required to meet & plan with you, Services and evaluations are free, Curriculum modifications are available, Parents and case managers are included in planning, and Aides, specialized instruction, behavior plans are possible. In college: You need to contact Disability Services and provide your own documentation, You must schedule meetings and self advocate now, Documentation is often on you (and sometimes pricey). Services like PT, OT, and Speech, are not provided, Fundamental program alterations are NOT allowed, Parents and case managers have no automatic role, you must bring them in, and Only "Reasonable" academic and physical accommodations (not prohibitively expensive or alterations to fundamental requirements).
Examples of College Accommodations include:
Extended Time
Note-Taking Assistance
TTS/STT Software
Priority Registration
Flexible Attendance
Calculator
Digital Course Materials
Large Print/Braille
Alternate Testing Locations
Reduced Course Load
Recorded Lectures
Word Processor
Audiobooks
FM Systems
Section 6
Medical Planning
The Medical Binder: Yes, nerdy. Do it anyway. This thing has saved people in ERs where they couldn't talk. Include: diagnoses (plain English + clinical), all meds (name, dose, prescriber, pharmacy, refill date), allergies and what they actually do to you, relevant history, emergency contacts and healthcare proxy, a list of all your providers (physical and mental health) and their contact info, insurance info, vaccination records, recent labs/imaging, and a one-page summary you can hand to a stranger in an emergency.
Switching & Meeting Providers (If moving far from home): If you are moving far from home, and might not have reliable transportation back for medical appointments, start the switch 3–6 months before you leave. Get a written summary letter from each of your current providers. Ask about a 90-day med supply for the transition. Check whether your insurance covers out-of-state providers, this catches a lot of people. Book first appointments before the semester starts, wait times balloon fast. Ask about telehealth options too. Do NOT expect campus health to be able to do anything beyond what an urgent care can handle.
Mental Health Planning: First semester is rough on almost everyone's mental health. Get on counseling waitlists early, either through your school, or with an outside provider. Save the numbers: 988 (call or text), Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741), and any campus safety lines. Look for both formal and informal support groups, disability affinity groups, peer support, clubs. Isolation is a real issue. Make sure you have a safety plan. Write down: (1) your earliest "something is off" signs, (2) what actually helps (specific: which friend, which playlist, which room), (3) who you can call, (4) a backup for when you can't get to a therapist, (5) the accommodations that protect your mental health most. If you feel comfortable, give a copy to a person you trust.
Section 7
Scholarships & Financial Support
Most disabled students don't know how much money is earmarked for us. These aren't charity pots. They exist because disabled students deal with costs and barriers others don't. Apply to anything you're remotely eligible for. Worst case is "no." Best case is a check. Always apply as soon as possible for all of these.
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR): The biggest one most people have never heard of. State-federal
program covering tuition, books, assistive tech, transportation, sometimes more. Apply BEFORE you start college, it's income-sensitive and has waitlists. Search "[your state] Vocational Rehabilitation."
SSDI Student Exception: If you're on SSDI, college can affect your benefits in surprising ways. Look into the Student Earned Income Exclusion and the Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) before you take a campus job.
Campus Disability Fund: A lot of universities have emergency funds for disabled students, for medical costs, assistive tech, or when something goes catastrophically wrong. Ask disability services. These are wildly underused.
Disability-Specific Orgs: Almost every major disability has an org with scholarships: National MS Society, Epilepsy Foundation, Autism Society, AAPD, NDEC. Search your condition + "scholarship." Smaller pots, less competition.
Section 8
Campus Life
Campus Accessibility: Get the actual accessibility map, not the brochure version. Mark accessible entrances, working elevators, accessible bathrooms, quiet spaces. Scout rest spots: the disability resource lounge, library low-stim rooms, the certain couch nobody knows about. Ask about winter access before winter, does facilities clear accessible routes when it snows? What to do when they inevitably don’t? Walk your route to and from classes before they start! If you rely on elevators or push buttons, always give yourself an extra 10 minutes of transport time.
Housing Accommodations: Housing has a separate process from academic accommodations, and often a separate deadline, usually Residential Life with documentation through Disability Services. Apply EARLY. Like, before the general housing lottery early. Schools use limited accessible housing as a reason to deny late requests.
Stuff you can usually ask for: single room, accessible room, first floor or elevator access, A/C, fridge for meds, space for a PCA, quiet floor, ESA or service animal, proximity to accessible parking or the health center, flexible dining hours or meal plan mods.
Telling Professors: You are not legally required to tell any professor your diagnosis. Ever. You're only required to give them your accommodation letter. What happens around that letter is up to you. Disability services generates letters each semester. Getting them to professors is on you, most schools want this in week one. Email is fine. Attach the PDF. Ask for confirmation of receipt. You don't have to explain anything, you can just say: "Please see attached accommodation letter from Disability Services. Let me know if you have any questions."
If a Professor Pushes Back: If a professor refuses your accommodations or starts a thing about how back in their day nobody needed extensions do not fight that battle alone. Loop in disability services. They are legally on the hook for compliance, not you. Keep everything in writing. Escalate to the Dean of Students or ADA/504 Coordinator (every college has one). You are not being dramatic. You are using the legal remedy the law gives you.
Section 9
When You Need Legal Support
Most accommodation issues get worked out at disability services. But sometimes colleges fail disabled students badly. When that happens, you have real options that don't require a lawyer or a retainer.
Internal Escalation:
Disability Services - request a formal review in writing
ADA/504 Coordinator (every college has one, by law)
Dean of Students or Ombudsperson
Your college's Grievance Procedure (required under Section 504)
External Options:
OCR at the U.S. Dept. of Education - its free, online, no lawyer needed
Your state's Protection & Advocacy (P&A) - federally funded free legal advocacy
NDRN or Disability Rights Advocates for org-level help
Disability rights attorneys often do free consultations
Document Everything: Every accommodation letter. Every email. After verbal conversations with disability services, follow up with an email summarizing what was discussed. Email is better than phone calls when stakes are high. Dates on everything. You'll probably never need this paper trail. If you do, you'll be grateful you kept it.
Section 10
Tips:
Give Yourself the first semester: The first semester is rough, new schedule, new bed, new rules, new everything. Chronic stuff flares during big transitions. Do not commit to four clubs in week one. Don’t take any heavy classes. It gets better, as you adjust, learn your limits, and build supports. You can gradually take on more commitments.
Asking for Accomidations: When you first register with your school’s disability office, ask for every accommodation that might apply including the ones you "probably won't need." Approved ones you don't use cost nothing. Ones you didn't ask for and suddenly need in October are way harder mid-crisis. Extended time, notetaker, flexible attendance, alt formats, reduced-distraction testing, lecture recording, priority registration, temporary flare accommodations, housing. Put it all on the list. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it
Emailing Professors: If you are going to miss a class or need an extension, you should email your professor as soon as you are able. It is really helpful toCreate copy-and-paste templates ahead of time, that way, you can just fill in the blanks for each professor and situation as needed. This takes a lot of pressure off when you are going through a flare.
Required Reading: If you are someone who benefits from audio or digital books, get Yourself a library card, don’t just use your school’s library. Many Libraries have free services through apps like Libby, Hoopla, and PressReader which may have your textbooks for free in digital and audio formats!
Section 11
Resources:
Independent Living Center (CIL): Federally funded, community-based orgs run by disabled people, for disabled people. Every state has them. Free peer support, advocacy, skills training, and help navigating housing, benefits, and transportation. Cross-disability, no diagnosis gatekeeping. Not charity for you they are your people. Find yours at ilru.org or Google "[your city] Center for Independent Living." They can connect you with just about every resource in your area!
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988. 24/7, free, confidential. There is also a Veterans Crisis option (press 1) and an LGBTQ+ youth option (press 3).
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741. If talking isn't an option, text is. Free, 24/7, and the counselors are trained, not bots.
Job Accommodation Network (JAN): askjan.org: free one-on-one help figuring out what accommodations to request at work.
Vocational Rehabilitation: Search "[your state] vocational rehabilitation." Apply early. Tuition, assistive tech, job training etc.
National Disability Rights: Network ndrn.org - find your state's P&A organization. Federally funded free legal advocacy. Yes, free.
Dept. of Education OCR: File a free disability discrimination complaint against any college that takes federal money (essentially all of them).
Other Disabled Students: Start a group chat. Find or create a student union. Community is what makes all this survivable.
Section 12
My Resources:
(Fill in the blanks)
Campus Disability Services, ADA Coordinator, Counsiling Center, Local CIL, Preferred Crisis Line, Pharmacy, Case Manager, PCP, One person on campus I can call, and One person off campus I can call.
Section 13
The Field Map: When & How To Do What
12 - 18 Months Before: Start the Medical Transition Gather documentation. Get summary letters from current providers. Figure out the insurance situation. Ask about 90-day prescription supplies. While applying, check each school's disability services page, it tells you a lot. When visiting a school ask about quiet spaces and student organizations. Disability student unions are usually a good sign. Consider campus size and the condition of walk ways, especially if you have limited mobility.
6-12 Months Before: Register With Disability Services & Housing. Reach out to the disability office before you arrive. Many allow early registration, do it. You'll want to get accommodations squared away ASAP, they may push back against certain requests and you’ll want time to appeal and fight it if necessary. Housing accommodation deadlines can be as early as April for fall enrollment. Don't wait for the summer checklist email.
3-6 Months Before: Build Your Binder & Line Up Providers. Finish the medical binder. Use your insurance directory to find in-network providers near campus. Book transition appointments. Request records transfers in writing. Confirm everything was sent, Medical offices are chaotic.
Week Before/First Week: Send Letters & Scout Campus. Email accommodation letters to every professor. Go to disability services and put faces to names, they remember the students who show up. Find the accessible bathroom, quiet room, good couch, health center. Make sure you can get into all your classes.
First Month: Appointments & Community: Get first appointments with new providers on the books. Register with the counseling center even if you're "fine right now." Find a disability student org. Identify one person you could text at 2am.
Each Semester: Renew, Reassess, Expand. Accommodation letters do not auto-renew. Send them out again. Check whether what you have still matches what you need, bodies change, courses change, so should the list. Revisit your mental health plan. Drink water.
Section 14
Imagine your future - not imagined futures
There's a long tradition in disability thinking about utopia, the "imagined futures" where disabled people’s lives are marked by tragedy, where our futures may only exist in our imagination, where the future has no place for us in it.
But your future is not hypothetical. It's the one you will actually live in. Your graduation walk. Your apartment lease. Your first real paycheck. The community you will find and build. A Tuesday afternoon ten years from now, in a life you built. That future isn't imagined. It’s bright and it's coming. Picture it specifically. That image is yours to hold onto when the semester is hard.
Somewhere along the way we got told to be grateful for the minimum. A plywood ramp tacked on thirty years after the building. A professor who "made an exception this one time." You don't owe anyone that gratitude. Gratitude for crumbs is how systems keep feeding you crumbs.
Ask for everything.
Build the door you actually need.
Bring the others through with you.
The people from page two, Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, Brad Lomax, Kitty Cone, Patty Berne, Stacey Park Milbern, Jennifer Keelan, and the thousands whose names we'll never know, didn't get arrested, didn't sit on cold federal floors for 25 days, didn't drag themselves up the Capitol steps so that we could imagine. They did it so we could have. A future. A life. A Tuesday afternoon. So when you email your accommodation letter, walk into disability services, file the OCR complaint, take a nap, rest without apology, you are not just surviving college. You are spending currency they won for you. You are keeping those rights alive. You are compounding them for whoever comes next.
Your future isn't a collective fantasy. It's your actual life. Go live it, and leave the door propped open behind you.
Made with love and stubbornness for disabled students everywhere.
Copy this. Fold it. Hand it to someone. Cross out what doesn't fit. Write in what does.
New Free Minizine - "Online Alternatives"
100 random non-social media websites, 20 offbeat youtube channels to check out, 20 online missions to do instead of scrolling on social media -- the internet is so much bigger than the algorithms would have us think so I hope this inspires you to go out and explore!
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