Inspired by This is White Privilege, this Tumblr is (to borrow their words) a compilation album of Abled Privilege's Greatest Hits. Authored by two (and possibly more in the future!) people.
NOTE: This Tumblr has experiences recorded that may be disturbing for some reading them. All that is posted here will undoubtely lead to being reminded of the ableiist society that we live in to the point where it triggers you. In other words, this blog has a trigger warrning for ableism for every post. We encourage you to practice self care and read at your comfort level.
THIS SITE IS Queer positive Trans* positive Deaf positive Indigenous People and People of Color (IPPOC) positive Asexual spectrum positive Fat positive Disability positive Gender positive Sex positive Transethnic [adopted and transplants] positiive Transabled positive Neurodivergent/Neurodiverse Positive Youth positive Anti-oppression Anti-imperialism ASL videos of the posts we make
Abled privilege is... Getting excited about the prospect of a cure for those with down syndrome that involves tests on children with the genetic condition.
Abled Privilege is... lecturing your daughter for stuffing thirty-two Kit Kats in your purse prior to a family vacation and then refusing to take an adequate number of snack breaks throughout the trip despite knowing your daughter has hypoglycemia.
Abled Privilege is... getting annoyed when your daughter reveals that she never took the Kit Kats out of her purse, and winds up consuming all of them to manage her hypoglycemia.
Abled Privilege is... becoming angry when your hypoglycemic daughter becomes anxious at the idea of being away from a ready source of food for more than two hours.
Abled Privilege is...yelling at her for having a blood sugar melt-down after she has not been given access to food quick enough, despite her numerous warnings that she was becoming hungry.
Intersection of abled and thin privilege and possibly wealth privilege:
Abled Privilege is... justifying your annoyance at your hypoglycemic daughter's fear of being separated from food for any amount of time by telling her to look around at all the fat people, and that the large number of them signifies that in America, food is so plentiful and available that there is no legitimate reason to worry about going hungry.
Context: Basically what happened was, my freshman year of high school, I was pulled out of gym class without warning and taking to the psychologist's office. The psych made me take some kind of evaluation, but I wasn't previously informed I would need a new evaluation, or what the evaluation was for. I'd very recently had my need for accommodations questioned, so I assumed they were gonna try to use the evaluation to force me to use a scantron and take away my extra time. So when I took the test, I was very careful to make sure I knew exactly what ever question was asking, and even more careful to give happy, positive answers that emphasized how everything in my life was fine if I had my accommodations.
Then, my junior year of college, I was looking through old paperwork and found out that the psych had noted my answers were overly positive, threw out my written test, and "diagnosed" me with an anxiety problem. They'd used that diagnosis to broker a deal with my parents, where everything relating to anxiety would be taken off my file if I would attend an "intensive social skills" class. I did not want to attend this class and expressed concerns that it would be designed to help people with far more serious social difficulties than I had, like autistics. They made me take the class anyway, even though I was right, it was for people with autism. (There is absolutely nothing wrong with being autistic, but there is something wrong with forcing a kid who does not have autism and functions at a much higher level socially to attend a class geared towards people with low functioning autism against her will.) I was unable to leave that class, or social work, until my social worker killed herself in the middle of the year.
I called my mother, extremely upset that this information had been kept from me. At the time of the evaluation, I did not have a problem with anxiety but likely had some of the precursors to what would become (what I believe) is a full-blown anxiety disorder. (I'm undiagnosed, thanks to my mom, but do experience panic attacks, extreme avoidance tendencies, phantom choking syndrome, and my heart will race or skip beats when I get nervous. Getting my wisdom teeth out triggered a hysterical, sobbing, meltdown.)
Abled Privilege is... getting upset and hurt when your 21 year old daughter was angry after finding out she was flagged as having an anxiety disorder in high school, never told, and forced into a social skills class for autistic people against her will without knowing why.
Abled Privilege is... telling your daughter that her anger is unjustified and invalidating her feelings because you felt the administrators didn't know what they were talking about and she and your father felt that if you knew you'd been labeled, you would internalize that.
Abled Privilege is... claiming it's unfair that your daughter got so upset with you about not disclosing her diagnosis while it is perfectly okay for you to be angry with her for going behind your back about her 19 year old brother's drinking.
Abled Privilege is...never having to worry that your parents aren't telling you everything about your diagnosis.
Abled Privilege is...never having to worry that people think you "enjoy" being different, disabled, or not NT because they stop trying to "pass."
Abled Privilege is... having several conversations with your daughter about how stressed and chronically anxious she seems to be, and telling her that she needs to decide to be more relaxed. While knowing she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in high school.
(Submitted from http://pietra-dura.tumblr.com/ - I posted the actual submission at the wrong time)
Context: Part of my Learning Disorder NOS is a serious deficit in visual memory retention. I’m literally in the 0.4 percentile in that area.
Abled Privilege is…having to explain to your roommate once again that no, you do not know the streets surrounding your block by name, and that is not for lack of trying.
Abled Privilege is… getting excited upon finding out you scored in the 0.4 percentile in visual memory on your GRE accommodation evaluation because your roommate keeps insisting that you need to learn the names of the streets surrounding your apartment and refuses to believe you have a “real” problem with directions because that’s “not what dyslexia is,” and now you have proof that she’s wrong about you.
Context: (Disability disclosure) Officially, I have a learning disability not otherwise specified, hypoglycemia, a penicillin allergy, and a sensitivity to heavy foods. Unofficially, I almost definitely have heat stroke, an anxiety disorder, and some social deficits I was treated for/am being treated for but my mom won't let me get a diagnosis. I also cannot smell and extreme motion sickness, but I do not know if that's on my medical record yet.
Abled Privilege is... having to prove to your father that it is in fact possible for people with penicillin allergies to be allergic to cheese cultured with penicillin mold, and you weren't making up all the times you had a reaction from accidentally eating that cheese.
Abled Privilege is... never having to worry about how your father will react when you ask him if he used the same knife on all the cheese he just cut because of your allergy.
Abled Privilege is...never having to apologize after said father goes on a rant about how the household is "too allergic for him to deal with" and how unreasonable it is for you to expect him to inform you if the cheese is safe to eat or not.
Abled Privilege is... when your father doesn't tell the doctor you're allergic to red dye because he doesn't believe medicine could cause you to have an allergic reaction, even though if the antibiotic is pink.
Context: (Disability disclosure) Officially, I have a learning disability not otherwise specified, hypoglycemia, a penicillin allergy, and a sensitivity to heavy foods. Unofficially, I almost definitely have heat stroke, an anxiety disorder, and some issues with texture/social skills I was treated for/am being treated for but my mom won't let me get a diagnosis. I also cannot smell and have extreme motion sickness, but I do not know if that's on my medical record yet.
Abled Privilege is... not having to explain to your father that no, the reason you were able to sit outside for an hour in ninety degree weather was because the specific conditions required to prevent heat stroke (unlimited supply of cold water, shade, a breeze, and an air-conditioned place to escape to nearby) were met. It is not because you were being dramatic and fussy the numerous other times those conditions were not met.
Abled privilege is... not being constantly corrected for your manners or physically steered out of people's way in public because your dad thinks you being mentally ill means he has to protect other people from your strangeness.
Able privilege is not having your dad be overly corrective for even minor mistakes or social misunderstandings that people who aren't mentally ill make, too.
Able privilege is having him stand up for you or correct other people too when they make YOU uncomfortable.
Abled privilege is… having to sit quietly and smile while your brother and his girlfriend casually use ableist slurs in conversation because your parents have told you to stop making such a big deal over everything and quit fussing.
Abled privilege is… asking if your (visual memory impaired) roommate really needs a parent to come help verify that their property has gone untouched after a recent robbery, and getting annoyed when the answer is, in fact, yes.
Abled privilege is… informing a student that their self-advocacy is causing problems and they need to work harder at getting along better with their teachers, because that will somehow stop them from withholding your accommodations.
Abled privilege is… explaining that you don'tt know if you will be using my extra time on a final, and your roommate's response is, "Well, how well do you know your shit?" Abled privilege is… when said roommate gets angry and gives you the silent treatment after you calmly tell her that what she was was really insulting and that your use of extra time depends on the format of a test, not how much you studied.
Abled privilege is… refusing to let your child be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or heat stroke because you're worried about having a preexisting condition on insurance.
Trigger Warning: (censored) ableist slurs Abled privilege is… calmly explaining that no, stating that "you're not ret*rded, you can read," is not nearly as offensive as when your dyslexic sister requests that you stop using that language because your other dyslexic sister just decided to go to a school specializing in reading difficulties.
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