I wanna talk about something. Or not talk about it just mention it. Actually idk i just need to share this.
It often happens that awareness about certain topics... remains amongst the people who directly experience that topic. I'll elaborate. I'll use the disability example, but this can apply to gender, race, queer issues etc.
The term "invisible disability" started making its way around a while back, raising awareness about "hey there are people who don't LOOK disabled but they still are! Because that's a thing" which is GOOD. But who did this awareness reach? Who knows about this term? It's majorly just disabled people, abled people with disabled family members/friends, and maybe a handful of other really woke people.
But that's not really the people who NEED to be aware about invisible disabilities. A visibly disabled person doesn't NEED to know about this term because out of their own experiences they will already approach situations and other people from a lens of "disabilities exist, accessibility is an issue" for example. Abled people don't have those experiences so they just forget that disabilities exist if they're not seeing them. THEY need to know the term "invisible disability" and THEY need to be actively aware of this.
I don't have a solution for this and i don't have a well formed point besides the fact that frequently a lot of "let's raise awareness" content never makes it to the people who do need to see it, who need to be actively aware.
There are exceptions, such as BLM which did reach white people, but even such a massive movement has trouble fully educating white people about Black issues. Same with these trends of like "ladies show ways in which you protect yourself when going out" on like tik tok and stuff, because sure, SOME men are seeing it and realising the shit women face every day, but those videos often mostly reach only other women, and most men are still unaware of the extent of the challenges that we face.
I started thinking about this because I was working with some people on a project, and one of them mentioned that they received feedback from someone saying that our product should take accessibility into consideration, and the team was like "great point!" And the girl who mentioned this immediately went "well i don't know anyone with a disability but if you guys do we could talk to them? Maybe get like an accessibility consultant?" And i had to unmute myself and "come out" as (invisibly) disabled to all of them bc hey! Your accessibility consultant has already been in the team for 10 months! But it was awkward for everyone bc some probably thought that they offended me, others probably didn't take me seriously, and I was left to wonder if they're going to treat me differently now.
So, abled people of tumblr, just as we are all woke enough to, for example, not assume that someone is straight, please don't assume that there ISN'T a disabled person in the (virtual) room!
