#subtle ableism

[littlefirefly42]

Y'all need to get a lot less comfortable telling disabled people what they can and can't say/feel about their disability.

"My disability does not make me unworthy of life, love, or happiness."

and

"I don't like being disabled and would like to no longer be disabled."

Are two statements that can coexist. Fuck you if you want to try and police people's perspective of their own bodies.

[chloroformedhorse]

somehow it continues to baffle me just how deeply ingrained ableism is in society, and just how the fuck I managed to not notice

but thinking about it, that's probably EXACTLY how it got so ingrained in society. I wasn't in the workforce a few years ago, I didn't rely on having work to live, so even though I was disabled, I never really thought about it in any way other than "damn it sucks I'm in pain all the time."

but employers don't really like it when you get sick all the time.

and they don't really care that it's because you have a weakened immune system due to being in pain all the time.

to them, you're inconvenient. you're unreliable.

you stop being just another person in a really subtle, insidious way, because to anyone else who ISNT DISABLED (barring exceptions, of course), you being fired seems logical. it sucks, of course, and they're so sorry, but to be fair you didn't come in to work at all last week! what did you really expect?

doctor's notes don't mean shit when you're disabled.

[autisticventpage]

Whoop, there it is! 🐸☕

[thehonestfeminist]

Burning in the Snow

It used to be a ritual. Spending hours outside in the snow photographing the ways winter has touched the woods and forest preserves nearby. Bundled up   I’d take my time. I’d walk for hours through the woods, music blasting in my ears. It was therapeutic and it felt human.  The cold is now an annoyance. It hinders my existence here in McHenry, Illinois. It hurts. My fibromyalgia causes the pain, my nerves perceive every sensation differently than able bodies. It burns with pain all day long, existing will always be painful for me. But in the face of cold temperatures, I am a torch gone up in flames. The cold whips my face with a thousand tiny little lashes at once. My eyes leak, my joints stiffen, and I clench my jaw at the pain. These days I only spend time outside getting to and from my car and destinations. I don’t spend time outside because it’s uncomfortable, but because it physically harms me. People forget this, when I comment about the cold being too much for me. It’s always an erasure of my struggle when they respond with a vague insincere, “Oh, me too!”.