yall will respect disabled people until theyre the "funny" disabilities and it pisses me off.
i am a little person. i am 4'0, i have ccd and achondroplasia. i have various other genetic conditions that affect me but i will be mentioning my identity as a little person mostly.
quit using little people as the butt of your jokes. no, you cant use the m slur it is a slur, no you cant call us gnomes or elves or dwarves or whatever the fuck you call us. we are real people, we arent little characters or creatures. we are LIVING BREATHING PEOPLE. quit treating us like kids or idiots. you dont have to baby us. quit making fun of little people's heights, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WITH DISPROPORTIONATE DWARFISM. you are fucking ableist if you make fun of little people, you dont see us as people you see us a joke. im sick and tired of people i love and care for treating me as if im a joke and making fun of my height. fuck off
i dont care if we "look funny" or "haha tiny" its so fucking annoying and disrespectful to be treated as if the body isnt a living, breathing, full grown adult.
Guest Post: Upper Limb Difference - from a friend of Mod Rock's.
This is not so much writing advice as it is personal experience, but it's about living as an upper limb amputee. If you have any questions for M, I can pass them along.
My name is M. I was born without an arm, specifically below the elbow on my right arm. I'm a college student.
I find as an amputee, approaching and asking about other amputees is much more socially acceptable. It’s like a shared experience that people acknowledge and whatnot. It’s great seeing another amputee out and about!
My personal preference is that I don’t mind answering questions or giving insight on the amputee community. I know that this is not an idea shared by everyone and a lot of other amputees don’t like stares or questions.
I do just about everything with my left hand which means my left hand is at more risk of being overused. It’s a common thing amongst amputees, especially as they grow older.
Some things I do to adapt is use my nub (term used to refer to the shortened limb - others, usually leg amputees, may call them stumps) and my knee and a pinch action when opening items or things people normally do with the thumb to hold this down. I do have an elbow so if I have any light bags I usually just hook it on my elbow and I can carry it without thinking about it too much. Heavier items may mean I can’t do this. I applaud using my left hand and right elbow.
I find adapting to things comes more naturally to me as I was born with my differences. I utilize a lot of other body parts to make up for a hand. I also sometimes use any walls or other surfaces to help.
For example, if I’m putting up my hair, I go against a wall and use the wall to help hold up my hair while my hand ties it into a ponytail. I have found that hair claw clips are really easy to use. I do ask my friends to help me or hold stuff occasionally and they are really nice about it!
Sometimes I have to get creative to adapt, like playing the guitar (I taped a guitar pick to my nub to strum).
I have similar adaptations for opening sodas or packaging, although sometimes I genuinely do struggle. Getting larger containers is usually tricky so I am used to asking others for help when I need it.
Since I was born an amputee, I found prosthetics difficult to use. I never liked wearing a prosthetic for an extended period of time because the effort outweighed the use. When I did wear one, it would often clonk against things because I’d forget it was there and my brain wasn’t used to calculating space or dodging with the added length. It would also be uncomfortable in casual settings, where I’d have to try to find a position that worked around the arm.
No amputee wears their prosthetic all the time. They become uncomfortable and exhausting to use.
Advanced prosthetics such as bionic ones are much more costly as they are able to move around, at the price of having to be charged + the expense. A lot of more affordable ones are more stagnant; they usually only have a specific use. They can be made more versatile with removable attachments for various individual functions.
In general it is easier for me to adapt tasks using my body or my surroundings than with a prosthetic.
I think people are often shocked I can do pretty basic things like tie my shoe or cut paper. They're also surprised I can do more athletic things like cartwheels and handstands (which I can't do now but when I was younger I could). I can do elbow planks or one handed regular planks; although I can do a regular plank, I’m just really slanted. Pushups are more falling than the push up itself.
People also definitely do infantilize me sometimes. Sometimes I get ableism where they think I can do everything an abled person can, but sometimes I've had people think I can't do anything, even when I advocate for myself. It can be hard for people to realize they're being ableist.
Asking someone you barely know what their disability is equatable to just coming up to someone and saying “hey what’s the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to you?”
Able-bodied people assume most people with mobility aids ESPECIALLY wheelchairs, have been in some sort of traumatic accident, and yet y’all still come up to us asking.
disclaimer: i am not an amputee or limb different person in any way. this is just a short post on resources from amputees and limb different people that i find very interesting and educational. if you find issue with this post or the links here, please tell me!
i mostly use these resources for designing osc gijinkas and for imagining those gijinkas in various situations as with any other character (e.g. since arm prosthetics are quite difficult to use, i like to learn about how exactly a character born without arms might prefer to use their feet for most activities). you can use these resources just to learn for the sake of learning. you can use them for making ocs. you can use them for gijinkas. whatever you like, i just hope this can be helpful :)
number 1
the channel is almost entirely in French but the visuals work just fine (and many videos on here have english captions, and iirc some are spoken in english too). this is super useful if you wanna learn more about people with a total lack of arms, especially because she doesn't have any arms from the very Top of her shoulders. she doesn't use prosthetics (can't, she doesn't have enough residual limb) and was born this way which gives a really interesting insight into how people without arms live daily life.
Sur cette chaînee, je partage des bouts de vie en tant que femme et maman en situation de handicap.
Née sans membres supérieurs, je ne peu
number 2
this video is what i mainly base my nickel gijinka's prosthetic on! intriguing look into how body-powered prosthetics work as fully mechanical devices. no electric components.
number 3
of course i have to add this post. it's a Classic which goes into a problem i see a Lot in all sorts of media and fandoms. it's also in video format on youtube if you prefer. great read/watch!
[ID: A screenshot from the movie Nimona, showing Nimona, a small white girl with red hair, grabbing the right prosthetic arm of Ballister, a
number 4
this is a tumblr blog about disabled characters and how to represent them properly! you can find lots of information on all sorts of disabilities so it is generally just a very Useful blog. However, since none of the mods are amputees, ive added a post they have made with links to many reblogs of posts From amputees & limb different people that they have found & reblogged!
[large text: Navigation: Helpful Posts - specific disabilities]
This is the long-awaited sequel to the first post that unfortunately hit th
Would love to feature some real people in this blog's header image instead of stock photos! If you're happy for your face to be shown*, submit your pics via an ask
🩷💛🤍🩵💚
Open to all mobility aids and prosthetics.
Please only send photos with a decent resolution.
Please don't send more than 5 photos.
*Photo doesn't need to show your face but if your face is in the picture you send, I want to make sure you're ok with it being shown in the header.
Submitting a photo doesn't guarantee it will be featured.
okay so im a writer, im also disabled so i wanna include disabled characters, but obviously i dont have all the types of disabilities, im autistic, epileptic, mild hearing loss, legally blind, and i have eds, pots, and mcas, so thats the stuff i know about, i wanna write a character that was born with a limb difference but idk anybody irl that i can ask so im asking here, so thats my main goal, someone come please rant about their experiences with having limb differences, born or amputees. and if you have a disability not listed here, tell me about it anyways, i wanna make a master post on how to write all the chronic illnesses, disabilities, sicknesses, mental illnesses, Everything so people will have something to reference and maybe people will include us in their writing more
