I realised I’m using a new disability aid that some people on here might find helpful! It’s called a sixth digit from ActiveHands
ID 1: a photo of a Sixth Digit - a plastic stylus with a metal end with two loops to go over your fingers. ID 2: the same device worn on a hand with a wrist splint. The short stylus comes out perpendicular to the pinky finger /end IDs
It is like an extra finger to help people with poor hand function type and use touch screens. It slides on like a ring over your last two fingers so there’s no need to be able to grip it at all. They even work with my resting hand splints if anyone uses those.
VD: the sixth digit is used on a tablet to scroll the disability tag on tumblr /end VD
I’m struggling more and more with voice control at the moment because of my speech impairment so I’ve been looking for other ways of accessing technology and this has been huge. The biggest issue for me has been moving my arms accurately and reaching the device I’m using.
As well as touchscreens I’ve also used it for ATMs (I can type my own pin!), and as they come in pairs I’ve been able to use a mechanical typewriter (very slowly, but once I’m set up with pillows supporting my arms it’s weirdly easier for me than typing on an electric keyboard)
The sixth digit 2 is a wearable stylus for those with reduced hand function, enabling you to use touch screens and press buttons.
I wanted to share a disability resource that I think a lot of people don’t know about! In the US, each state is required to have an assistive technology program that helps people get assistive tech (including things like AAC, mobility devices like walkers, wheelchairs, shower chairs, and more, depending on the program). Each program is required to have a device lending library for assistive tech, a device reuse program, a device demonstration program, and a program to help people access funding for assistive tech.
The assistive tech program in my state does free 3D printing of assistive tech, has a mobility device borrowing program, has a program to get people AAC devices, and does a ton of other cool events. Each program will function a little differently, and some might have fees, while others are completely free. Generally, my experience with programs have been that you do not need any medical documentation to borrow things from the lending library, but that you will likely need various kinds of documentation to access grant funding to pay for assistive tech. I’ve generally had a much better experience with assistive tech programs than with things like vocational rehabilitation when it comes to how many barriers there are before you can access support.
Check out the state directory of assistive tech programs!
today I learned about "thumb book holders" in my search for ways to read giant fantasy paperbacks without injuring myself, and then I realized I could make one out of the 20-year-old polymer clay that I had lying around... so I did.
and god DAMN it's more effective than I ever expected, so I thought everyone should know about them. You can get really cheap mass-produced ones but this was fun to make and I'll probably make more ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
especially on tumblr, when people think of AAC, they only think of high tech, symbol based, and without any assistive technology. it doesn't just start and end with apps! there is so many options <3 (heart). and i think it is really cool that theres so many creative solutions to access communication!
i also think it's important not to limit in our heads, what a certain disability aid looks like, and who uses it and why. in my experience on this website, not many people include spellers, Deaf or blind (or both) AAC users, and AAC users with motor related disabilities (who can't press buttons on a screen), and a lot of other types of AAC users (racialized AAC users are especially left out, or kicked out, no matter what kind of AAC they use).
i truly believe from the bottom of my heart that all AAC users can learn and benefit from each other. i think we need each other. its an ecosystem, not a monoculture.
i hope something good happens to you today! thank you so much for reading :3 (smiley)
also before anyone asks me, YES! the phone and tablet are t4t. they are girlfriends. and they are in love.
ps - i know my handwriting can be hard to read, so please check the alt text if its too confusing!
How do you feel about characters with a dynamic level of blindness? Depending on eyestrain and luck, I've got a character whose eye ranges from "visually impaired but can manage with magnification" to "straight up only sees light and dark shapes"
It's meant to sort of echo my own (disabled but not blind) experiences with varying levels of function, and it serves the narrative theme of "you deserve to live in a way that doesn't require you to wait for your body to cooperate. You deserve to use Accommodations on your worst days so you can still do the things you want to do no matter how bad your disability is that day."
This sounds great. Even for people with relatively stable disabilities, stress, anxiety, exhaustion, or sickness can still influence it. For example, my vision is highly reduced in low lighting and by anxiety. The scenario you described is common. I also love accommodations being used since so many blind people are expected to rely on residential vision even at great cost to them.
Trigger Warnings: Reader has a tremor in her hands, though I left it ambiguous as to why.
Author’s Note: There's a line attributed to the man who invented the latex glove for his nurse wife: "I loved her to the point of invention." This is inspired by the devotion of that line.
Masterlist
The case was sitting on your bench like it had always belonged there.
You hadn’t seen it yesterday. There was no note, just a matte black shell with gold trim so deliberate it pulled your breath in. Subtle, clean, almost warm, like the lines etched through the metal of his arm.
You stared at it for a full minute, hands still smudged with graphite from the scope calibration you’d been repairing. There was no label, no SHIELD barcode, no identifying signature. But you already knew who it came from.
The case unlatched with a quiet hiss.
Inside was a full set of miniature precision tools, black and steel with gold-banded collars, each one tucked neatly into foam-cut recesses. Sleek, ergonomic, and slightly heavier than they looked. Each tool’s handle was shaped to fit the curve of your grip. Not bulky, not clumsy, and perfectly balanced.
Below them, in the second fold of the case, was a folded pair of fingerless gloves, black mesh with tiny copper threading stitched into the fabric, almost invisible until the light caught them. The pads of the thumb and index finger were full-coverage, soft and pliable. The copper would give it high conductivity, though you weren’t sure what for.
You picked one up and turned it over. The palm had a gentle magnetic charge, not strong enough to yank, just enough to guide. You felt it as it passed over the tools.
*****
You found him in the library, where he always went when he wanted to be left alone but hoped someone might find him.
The door creaked behind you and his shoulders tensed, not startled but braced.
He didn’t look up, but he knew it was you.
You held the case loosely in one hand and set it down beside him without speaking.
He glanced at it once, then away, like he didn’t recognize it. As though it wasn’t a heavy weight in the dark between you both.
You gave him a moment before you broke the silence.
“The gloves fit perfectly.”
His jaw tightened, not a single other muscle moved.
“The thread work is insane. Magnetics are smooth. Tools are better than anything they’ve given me upstairs.”
No reaction.
You turned your head, not pushing, just waiting.
“Want to tell me how you knew exactly how far my tremor drifts left when I solder?”
Still nothing.
“How long have you been watching?”
His eyes finally flicked toward you, quick, like a cornered dog afraid to be approached. Then his eyes shot back down and away.
“I wasn’t—” he started, then stopped.
You didn’t interrupt. When he spoke again, his voice was low and rough, like it scraped its way out of him.
“I just… noticed things.”
“Noticed me?”
That earned you a look, slower this time. His eyes held yours longer than they’d ever had.
“Yeah,” he said. “I noticed you.” He paused, like the next part was going to cost him everything he had. “The way you brace your elbow. How you hold your breath when you’re trying to thread a line. The way your hand tightens when you’re getting tired, but you still don’t stop. I’ve… seen it.”
You swallowed. He looked away again, jaw clenched. “I didn’t mean to make a thing out of it. I just thought—maybe you’d use them. That’s all.”
“That’s not all.” Your voice was soft and kind. “This took time. Detail. Intention. The gloves alone—this is high-level gear. You don’t just ‘notice’ someone’s hand anatomy and build something this precise.”
His mouth twitched, almost a wince.
“I had help,” he admitted. “Not much. Just—on the tech side. But I did the design. And the materials. The build.”
You looked down at the case.
“It’s the same finish as your arm, but you didn’t sign it proper.”
He didn’t answer.
“Did you not want me to know it was you?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I think I wanted you to know.” A breath. “I just didn’t want to see your face when you found out. In case you didn’t…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, so you did it for him, “In case I didn’t feel the same?”
He didn’t even nod, just looked down, as if he didn’t have strength to even raise his head, waiting for the blow that would finish him.
You looked at him for a long time then, seeing as much of himself as he’d let you.
You saw the roughness, the effort, the way his fingers curled tight in his lap like he was preparing to be hit with something.
You opened the case again and slipped the gloves back on.
When you flexed your fingers they moved more fluidly than they had in years. It was as if the gloves gave you back a part of yourself that you’d lost.
You turned to him.
“Bucky.” You said. He looked up. “Just tell me why.”
His throat moved when he swallowed.
And then, so quietly it barely reached you over the wind, “I love you to the point of invention.”
It wasn’t practiced, but it rang with truth. And it knocked the breath right out of your lungs.
You crossed the space between you and sat beside him on the window seat, your knees brushing.
You didn’t say anything.
You just slipped your gloved hand into his, and felt the slight magnetic pull where the copper thread met the gold in his palm.
Most accessibility options don't actually make things easier for the average person.
"But what if people will pretend to need this accessibility option so they can be lazy! People who don't need it will use it!!" - those people probably aren't using it to be lazy, either.
Most people will take the stairs, because they're shorter than the ramp, and that makes them easier. Most people will screw off the cap themselves, because it's easier than finding the grippy pad that helps. Most people will prefer the shower without a chair, because it's easier to move around with more space.
The curb-cutter effect is real - most accessibility aids will help people they weren't directly designed to help - but that doesn't mean that they make things easier for the majority of abled people. In the spring, curb-cuts are really annoying to me - they let the puddles spread out up the sidewalk and I usually skirt around them to where the curb lets me jump over the water.
Most accessibility devices don't actually help the lazy. They're slower than the normal way, they require special devices you need to keep track of, they get in the way. They have a cost. Even for people needing aid, they sometimes aren't worth it. In university, accessibility services offered me multiple supports, and I had to turn them all down, because all of them had more downsides than benefits for me.
Most kitchen gadgets just make the job harder if you're abled - all those fiddly places to wash afterwards - and the ones that don't? Food processors and electric mixers aren't considered accessibility devices. Because they're helpful to everyone. Is it lazy to not whip your cream, or blend your smoothies, by hand?
If translating someone else's notes is more helpful than making your own, you aren't being lazy if you accept a volunteer note taker. (For most people, the main benefit of note taking is in organizing the thoughts yourself and highlighting the ones that will remind you of the rest.)
If using a cane causes less long-term pain then going without, and seems worth the effort of dragging a cane around all day, you definitely aren't being lazy using one! (Canes cause their own type of strain and soreness, and get heavy after a while.)
It's often incredibly difficult to find the right type and dosage for antidepressants. If you're willing to brave possible hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, feelings of emptiness, allergic reactions, weight gain, and dozens of doctors appointments - you probably really do need that medication.
Even if you're using an accessibility option that isn't actually helpful, and is increasing dependence/degrading skills (what's usually meant by 'laziness') it's almost always because you are trying to deal with an issue that DOES need accommodation. You're just currently using the wrong accommodation. That's NOT LAZINESS!
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tl;dr: Most accessibility devices have a cost that isn't worth paying if you're abled. In fact, they're sometimes not worth the cost even if you ARE struggling in that area! If they're actually worth the cost for you, it isn't laziness to use them.
