Some Of Y'all Be Like "Oh Yeah I Support Cluster B" Until They:

I love to use my disability “as an excuse.” Fuck yeah my disability is an excuse. It’s the most valid excuse I have. I’m not helping you lift that box/etc because my disability would make it fucking painful. Not wanting to be in pain is a good enough reason. I’m not going to put myself in pain to comfort your sensibilities.

Yes I’m using my disability as an excuse because I refuse to hurt myself for you. If you’re mad about it you can cry! ❤️

put spikes on your wheelchair's handles. wrap barbed wire around your cane or crutch so it'll hurt like a motherfucker if someone kicks or grabs it from under your hand. wear a personal alarm and pull the pin every time someone moves you without your consent, leans on your chair, takes a seat on your rollator, taps your hearing aid, steals your AAC device. scream for help when you're abducted. wail like you're in agony when people trip you up or knock into you. take pepper spray to the grocery store. take a knife to the club. leave cards that say "fuck you" under the wipers of inconsiderately parked cars and scratch access codes for bathrooms on the outside of the door. we are not begging for mercy, we're fighting dirty. we have to.

i want you all to know that there is an artist (carmen papalia) who, after he started using a white cane, assembled a 12 foot long white cane and began using it in downtown vancouver. the length of the cane made it functionally useless as a device and the only purpose it served was making him an obstacle for sighted people. dare i say… 2019 goals

Can y'all please stop using words like "delusional", "psychotic", and "narcissistic" as insults. These are terms used to describe mental illness. Mental illness does not make people evil, stop acting like does.

Man, I’m going to have to put something like ‘lifters don’t interact’ on klepto things going forward, aren’t I? Like it really sucks, but they make actual!kleptos look shittier than we already are and I don’t want people to think the two are the same thing.

I want people to understand this.

Nonverbal and nonspeaking people are capable of going into higher education, and many have.

Does this mean every nonspeaking and nonverbal person will go into higher education? No. Lots of nonspeaking and nonverbal people are not able to go into higher education for various of reasons. This however does not mean that every nonspeaking and nonverbal person is unable to go into higher education.

College is something that a lot of people want, including nonspeaking/nonverbal people. If you’re able to, then go for it! If you want to, then go for it!

Nonspeaking/nonverbal people have been kept out of higher education for a very long time, and to see blog posts and articles about nonspeaking/nonverbal people going into higher education, it just makes my heart happy, because I’m not alone. Stop underestimating nonverbal/nonspeaking people. Stop saying we can’t do things. Some of us can’t, and that’s completely ok, but we need to start making it more possible for nonspeaking/nonverbal people to achieve their goals and dreams.

“Don’t let your disorder define you”

Okay but do you support the people whose disorders do define them?

Do you support people with the chronic illnesses who have had to develop whole lives around their conditions? Do you support the intellectually disabled people whose whole way of thinking is defined by their disorder? Do you support the people with personality disorders who literally have a disorder as a personality? Do you support the autism/ADHD people whose disorder you can’t separate from who they are? Do you support the DIDOSDD people who have multiple definitions of themselves because of their disorder?

Or are you just saying that because a disorder defining someone means you can’t ignore it.

Good video about the problematic history of freak shows and PT Barnum. It's around thirty minutes so fairly short, but he put a lot of effort and research into the history here

“No Offense, But If You’re Blind How do You Read, Type, Write, or Do Anything Online?” A Resource Post For Your Everyday Ableism

This is a question blind people get almost every time they go online, use phones, write, etc. Sometimes the questions are genuine and gently curious. More often than not they hold assumptions meant to mock, to silence, or even to justify harassment. Often, this is a way to accuse blind people of faking.

While there are bigger issues within the system, this kind of ableism perpetuated by individuals can be harmful and often makes the bigger issues worse or renders them invisible to the general public. For example, assumptions like the ones hidden in the question in the title are what keep blind people from employment. This kind of ableism can be used to justify physical violence.

While we may feel like we can’t fix systemic issues, the best things the average person can do is educate ourselves and change our behavior. This is true for ableism. If you ask the questions I list above, you are dealing with ableism.

Yes, even if that is not your intent.

Why Are These Questions So Bad?

To read more about how ableism harms blind people, check out this post about myths.

If You Really Want to Know How Blind People Do Things

Here is this post where I answer your common questions.

Here is a post about making content accessible for blind people. You will find information there about how blind people use online, print, Braille, and audio content. Link here.

Here is a post about how people write in Braille.

If You Want to Know And Don’t Have Time to Read Long Posts

You are online now. You should have access to a search engine. Put in some work. You can also search on YouTube if you like videos or audio.

If It Was Just a Joke

I have a post for that as well.

If You Are Wondering Who You Can Ask, When, and How to Ask in a Way That Isn’t Ableist

First, do your own research. This will remove the assumptions from most questions you have. People are also more willing to answer questions they have not heard millions of times. Also, examine your reasons for asking. Do you want to know because you don’t want to look it up yourself or are you looking for ways you might best help your student or a co-worker?

Second, accept no as an answer. Note that some people are perfectly fine answering questions in person, but some are not. Also, online questions can get overwhelming and frustrating, mostly because people are able to research before asking and choose not to.

Most people are happy to answer questions from children.

Third, consider going to people open to doing the work. Pay them if possible. That includes people writing books, consulting, doing presentations, or even blogs like mine that are specifically dedicated to answering questions. The difference is that we are prepared to do this and can do so when we choose. You aren’t stopping us when we’re in the check-out line or on a date. At least I hope not.

Fourth, listen to what that person says.

If You Want to Support Blind People

If you engaged in this before, change your behavior. Inform your friends and family. Support blind people. You can do so financially by donating a nonprofit helping blind people such as the ones listed on my blog. You can also buy things from this list of businesses.