#disability group

[shepandem]

At my adventure group last week, we made resolution bingo cards. We had to write nine things that we wanted to do personally, or with the group.

Some of my personal goals include: reducing my meltdowns to a maximum of once a month; trying an alarm to stop my bedwetting; and learning how to be less direct and blunt in conversations (my ABA therapist calls it “adding fluff” to what you say so you don’t hurt people’s feelings.)

My big thing that I want to do with my group this year is daytime camping. We can’t do overnight camping because it’s too hard to work out logistics and staffing, but my ABA therapist, who also runs the group, said we can go to a campsite in the afternoon to evening and roast hot dogs and marshmallows and do all the camping stuff, just without the sleeping part. I love love love campfire food, it’s my favourite, especially s’mores!

I want to tell scary stories around the campfire like they do in books and movies, but the staff might not let us in case people get scared. I have bad nightmares most nights, and can’t watch scary movies because of them, but I get frustrated sometimes, and just want to be able to do what everyone else does, even if there are consequences for it later!

[a-little-revolution]

hi there! i run the disabled student group at my school, and since it's dawrfism awareness/acceptence month, i was planning on making an announcement about it. i have some basic stuff down, but is there anything that you would reccomend including?

Hello!! That's excellent!!!!

I'd mostly give a little blurb about how little people are a highly stigmatized group, and resources to where you could find more info on our experiences. That could be blogs like mine or aubreysmalls, or local LP sites like Little People of America or Little People of Ontario.

I love to hear that your group has taken the time to include my community in your discussions! Hope all goes well!

-Elliot (they/them)

[remyxavierr]

I'm gonna say something controversial, but have you ever thought that maybe you aren't asexual/agender/aromantic/aplatonic, you're just 15/16 years old???? Like yeah, maybe you feel nothing for the kids in your school, but you're also still just a kid. You've barely hit puberty, you've literally never seen any part of the world, just your high school, you're just a kid. I had no sexual or romantic attraction to anyone in high school either, it's because I was focused on my school work and my hobbies and wanting to graduate asap because I lived in a small town and wanted to get the fuck out.

You don't need to have 17 labels to describe you, you need to graduate high school and get the fuck out of the town that you hate.

And oh my god, I know, kids will be kids, but I just wanted to be a part of a disability group to meet people who understand what it's like to have disabilities, and there's so many young teens joining and going on and on about their sexualities and shit like those are disabilities. They're not.

[marauders4evr]

So...listen...

Would anyone want to help me with a gigantic project?

Admittedly I probably should have done this over the summer but I’ve noticed that there are very few, if any, organizations out there for college students with disabilities.

Oh, sure, there are organizations that you can join that advocate for all college students, including students with disabilities. I should know. I’m in like 50 of them. And then there are the...how do I say this? Okay, I’ll say it bluntly. Has anyone else noticed that almost all of the organizations that are solely focused on college students with disabilities are for abled people?

Take a look at this list of membership requirements for one of the largest (and only) organizations out there:

-

Are you…..

an administrator with oversight for programming for students with disabilities on your campus?

a disability services staff member?

an ADA Coordinator?

a professor teaching a course on a disability-related topic?

a graduate student preparing to work in the field of higher education?

a secondary teacher, guidance counselor, or transition specialist?

a parent of a student with a disability?

an organization whose product/mission is related to the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education?

or simply someone who is interested in promoting the full participation of students with disabilities in higher education?

-

There is nothing for students with disabilities!

Now I’ve been in college for five years. I’m actually looking at going into graduate school for higher education so this website works out but at the same time, I need something that I can join as a student. We all do.

I know that I could have really benefited from this in the past five years and I really wish that it had existed. And so I figure - why not create it ourselves?

The only requirements - You need to be a college student with a disability.

No admins.

No allies.

Just students.

The main purpose of the organization would be to advocate for accessibility in higher education and to serve as a support group for students. 

I’m picturing the website in my head. We would need a name and a logo (I am 100% open to any suggestions). The website’s main feature would be a forum wherein students with disabilities can talk to one another and get advice, support, etc. There can also be a page for resources (aka: other groups/organizations). And then there can be a shop featuring shirts/buttons that have the logo on them. There can be a membership sign-up (possibly to access the website, if I can do that?) but membership will be free because we’re all broke college students. Oh and the backgrounds will be van Gogh paintings because why not?

This won’t be easy. It’s going to take a lot of work. Ironically, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be graduating by the time the website is up and running but it is what it is.

Thoughts?

And suggestions for the name/logo?

I personally thought about calling it Access Denied and having the logo be one of those red official-looking ‘Access Denied’ signs that you see in restricted areas for two reasons:

1.) It’s a play on the fact that colleges are extremely inaccessible.

2.) It’s play on the fact that we’ve been kept out of so many organizations.

But again, I’m open to suggestions.

Maybe we can link the name/logo to van Gogh since the backgrounds will be his paintings? No particular reason. I just really like van Gogh. And he was someone with multiple disabilities. Man I love van Gogh so much. 

Which brings me back to:

Thoughts?