#inaccessibility

[daisycowgirls]

wow subtitles in a film or videogame, awesome!

nevermind it

has no background, thus not being fully readable.

says [speaking foreign language] when not English.

is too small.

is one word at a time, thus hurting our eyes like flashing lights.

is in an awful font.

is in a colour that hurts or is hard to see.

is delayed.

[stuffieautism]

if you didn’t realize, ableism is actually bigotry and systemic ableism and inaccessibility are really oppression and it’s not something disabled people brought on ourselves by having bodies&minds that you think are inferior and therefore not worth fighting for. disabled people’s lives and wellbeing matter. we don’t have to earn our worthiness by doing “enough” to deserve a good life. nobody does.

[smoov-criminal]

something i dont think pedestrians (non-wheelchair users) understand is that being a wheelchair user in and of itself is traumatizing, even outside of the medical reasons someone needs a wheelchair. the combination of structural inaccessibility, ableist comments and behaviors, and sometimes even assaults makes it incredibly hard to not feel like the entire world hates you and wants you invisible or dead.

every time i see some jackass without a placard taking a spot, get an invasive question, see inaccessible disabled bathrooms, see trash cans and power lines and construction equipment blocking the sidewalk, get stared at/whispered about/TOUCHED, get fake claimed, encounter broken elevators or no curb cut or no ramp, get infantilized*...it's incredibly traumatic.

i love my wheelchair, it's the only reason im able to go anywhere, but holy fucking shit is it exhausting to be constantly reminded that the vast majority of people out there either don't give a shit about us or actively hate us.

*disclaimer that i know these things happen to disabled pedestrians as well but i am speaking about my experience as a wheelchair user who experienced ableism like this increase significantly since getting my wheelchair

[evergreen-pumpkin]

A snapshot of one morning, on a relaxed day with mild weather. Now imagine this when it's crowded or when it's raining or snowing.

Video description below

Video description: POV from the lap of a wheelchair user. Very shaky. OP is going downhill on a fall day. Lots of trees and fallen leaves around. There are construction trucks to the left in the very beginning. Every now and then, you can see a German Shepherd on the left. Second obstacle shows a food robot crossing the sidewalk to drive in front of OP, but it stops suddenly and OP crashes into it. OP continues down the hill until she reaches another food robot, which is obstacle 3. This robot sits in the middle of the sidewalk while OP navigates around it. Then OP comes to a concrete ramp with iron railings, which is obstacle 3.5. It is very steep. After the ramp, OP goes to cross the street, where a black SUV blows through the crosswalk. Obstacle 4 is a ramp with red brick. OP struggles to move up and pauses at one point before continuing again to obstacle 5, where there is a big concrete building and manual doors. The German Shepherd service dog goes up to push the accessibility button multiple times to no avail. A student comes and opens the door, OP enters through two sets of doors into a hallway. Clip change to obstacle 6, OP is wheeling down a hallway and approaches a white elevator with out of order signs.

End of description.

[cy-cyborg]

Hey, able-bodied folks, if a disabled person is complaining about something being unfair/inaccessible because of our disabilities, you know you don't have to explain to us why that unfairness/inaccessibility a thing, right? Chances are we know it is the way it is. It's still unfair and we still want to talk about it.

I saw a video by an amputee warning other disabled people not to go to Thorpe Park in England, as they paid full price to enter, but were only allowed on 3 rides due to their amputation. This is something I also experienced when I went to the Gold Coast (mostly at Movie World, Wet n' Wild and, to a lesser extent, Dreamworld) and at Lunar Park in Sydney. There were also several others in the comments talking about similar experiences elsewhere.

But among these comments were dozens of people saying, "it's for health and safety reasons! The ride won't be able to hold you in!" And like... yeah, we know why. It doesn't make it any less unfair that we pay the same as you for a fraction of the experience. It doesn't make it feel any less shitty when you scrimp and save to do something like go to a theme park only to have to sit on the side line and watch your friends/family have fun without you. It doesn't make it any less scummy that there's very little warning that this will be the case (most of the time) until you arrive. It doesn't make it any less frustrating that so many recreational and fun activities don't even consider the possibility that disabled people would want to join in.

It's not just this video. It happens a lot. Any time someone complains about inaccessibility, there's always someone there trying to explain why the inaccessibility is there.

A resteraunt or shop isn't accessible? "Have you considered the person just didn't know/didn't have the money to fix it/were renting and weren't allowed to fix it?"

You called to see if some place was accessible, were told it was but when you arrive, it's not? "Have you considered the person didnt actually know/ thought it was and just made a mistake?"

You complain that a device/item/furniture item you bought isn't usable because of your disability despite there being no indication this would be the case before you bought it/no way to further verify it before hand? "Have you considered that disabled people make up such a small minority of their buyers they just didn't realise?"

Yeah, we know. Every single one. We considered it. a lot more than you did, i promise. We know why. We know sometimes mistakes happen, people don't think to consider us, there could be health and safety reasons for the lack of access, that people just don't know, and that it's not usually maliciousness or intentional ableism. I promise, we know all of it. We still need to talk about it though, so things can get better.

[softandorsweet]

being fat is hard because you don’t just run into inaccessibility that affects only you. for example, if i’m bigger than a car seat is built for, then i inconvenience those sitting next to me. if i’m bigger than a room is built for, i encroach on others space. it makes the fat person feel like it’s a personal fault, and skinny people are often not kind to fat folks who take up space. i want to make this clear: it is Not the fat persons fault AND i understand the strain and shame it can cause fat people. this world is built to exclude fat people. fitting of my favorite phrase inspired by the social model of disability; it’s not the fat persons fault, it’s the worlds fault.

[disbabeled]

Do you know how many times a day I want to scream at people "THIS ISN'T FOR YOU!" ?

Just yesterday, I was ten minutes late to my tutorial class because for whatever reason, almost every single person in my lecture decided to use the elevator instead of going down one flight of stairs while me and my classmates -- the ones who didn't have that choice -- were stuck waiting for the next elevator.

I constantly have to navigate around people walking up the ramps -- or, worse, standing in the middle of them -- because they couldn't get off their phones for two seconds to use the stairs instead.

At least twice a week I end up in far more pain than usual because people who don't need them take up the accessible seats on the bus and I either have to stand there and wait for somebody to get up (Which is already hard on my body) or just wrap my arm around the pole and try to suffer through a few stops until somebody gets off (Which has already caused several dislocations). As much as people like to brag about how they'd "always give up their seat for a poor handicapped person", they're far more likely to stay right where they are and ignore you in favour of watching Instagram reels on their phone.

And I've tried asking people to move. Directly. Making eye contact and everything. They'll just look down at their phone and ignore me until the bus driver or somebody else says something. And only then can they magically notice me and get up.

Before I get a bunch of people leaping to yell about people with invisible disabilities: I know. I know there are people with invisible disabilities, I spent most of my life with only invisible disabilities. I can guarentee that not every single person in my lecture of 60 people has an invisible disability. This is not the problem.

The problem is that able bodied people see these resources and supports made specifically for physically disabled people and assume they're entitled to them. Most of them see it as something that's put in place just to comply with certain rules or laws or regulations as a 'just in case' thing. Nobody thinks that disabled people are actually out and about. We're an afterthought to them.

And I get it. I do. We all have our blind spots.

But seriously, this is getting ridiculous.