“ew Thick Water Gross And Weird” ITS NOT FUCKING FOR YOU!!!!! “ew Why Buy Pre-cut Vegetables When

Being disabled has made me notice all of the ways the world is failing in accessibility. I’m fortunate that I can now open doors with my arms/hands, but do you know how many times I look around and there is no wheelchair access button on public doorways? Or how many times the button is broken? Or how there is no place to sit in a store, or the chairs were recently removed when I planned on using them to rest? Not to mention the uneven sidewalks, or aisles that are too narrow, or whatever else? People really do forget disabled people exist.

The r slur is a nasty, nasty word and I do not understand how so many otherwise progressive people hurl it around like confetti. A lot of yall have zero solidarity with those who are intellectually disabled. You are not ""reclaiming"" it when you use it to insult someone. Be real, you just wanna use it cuz it gives you a little surge of catharsis whenever you are Big Mad. Fuck you.

I see a lot of posts about how shitty it is to film disabled people in public and to make jokes when someone is having a medical emergency, and while in general I absolutely agree, there is a degree of nuance.

I have seizures, (most likely psychogenic/nonepileptic, I'm still going to be working with a neurologist to confirm my brain is intact though) and sometimes my friend @corypaws films them so that I can show my doctor. They have expressed guilt about doing this, but here's the thing: not only did I consent to this, it was my idea.

I had a seizure yesterday, and another friend, @thosegoodbois , made a joke about Caesar salad during it. They also felt guilty about this, but it was still incredibly helpful for me. On certain rare occasions, I'm fully conscious and aware for seizures. This was one of those times, so I heard everything. The people around me staying calm helped me stay calm too.

If a disabled person outright asks you to film them, you should really consider doing it. If a disabled person asks you to stay calm during a medical situation, you should at least try. Videos can be a very helpful diagnostic tool, and help make sure we are believed by doctors*. Freaking out when we have a medical problem might cause us to freak out too.

So basically I agree that in general filming disabled people and making jokes during medical emergencies is bad, but it's fine if you have consent.

Remember: disabled people are not a hive mind. At the end of the day, it should come down to what the individual wants.

*you probably shouldn't post it online though

just a reminder that insulting the way people speak because it’s “weird” (i.e. too fast, too slow, too monotone, too animated, slurred, etc) is ableist. many of us with intellectual disabilities, developmental disorders, autism, traumatic brain injuries, physical disabilities, and other conditions speak “weird” because of our conditions.

i see posts all the time like “POV you’re talking to that person who talks like they’re in an anime” or “people who speak monotone are so creepy, they’re like robots” or “people who slur their speech gross me out”. it’s ableist and dehumanizing. insulting the way “certain people” speak may seem harmless on the surface but under the surface those “certain people” are almost always disabled, and these traits are just traits of our disabilities.

I feel like people forget that pediatric illnesses generally last into adulthood like…childhood cancer survivors often have medical complications for the rest of their (adult) lives. My juvenile arthritis will be around when I’m 75. Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, congenital heart defects - all of these things, when acquired in childhood, have lifelong complications. Childhood diseases aren’t just cute, happy kids smiling from hospital beds. Theyre pain and suffering and learning to live differently forever.

imagine if disabled people could scroll through our own goddamn tags without being bombarded with OCs and medfet. imagine.

so here’s a quick lesson about having patience with kids.

I have a 6th grade student who isn’t really interested in doing her homework (big surprise). from my experience, kids who aren’t trying to do their homework usually fall into two general categories – “this is too easy and therefore boring” and “this is too hard and therefore i’m not even going to attempt”. it became clear by October that she fell into the latter group, but most of the staff chalked it up to “she doesn’t understand it”. I didn’t really believe it because she was a very smart, emotionally aware girl and it didn’t seem like she didn’t always want to try, just that she would rather do other things than struggle with her work. 

yesterday, she got sent to my office, just so that she would have a space away from her friends to focus on her work, and she asked me to help her with two questions. I looked at them and they were fairly straightforward, simple questions about the results of using various amounts of force on an object. I did what I always do – I read the question out loud first, and then tried to help her use recall to figure it out. she did in a snap. I did the same with the second question, and before I even finished it, she went “OH!” and started writing her answer.

that’s when it hit me – she doesn’t have trouble with the material, she just has trouble reading and processing what she’s reading at the same time. big difference! I asked her and she confirmed that it was easier to hear a question and understand it than to read it and understand it. so I got her phone out, pulled up her voice recorder, and told her to try reading the question aloud and then playing it back to herself so she could process it and she looked like i had handed her the holy grail.

the moral of the story is that sometimes you have to set aside what you think is a problem with a kid and just watch for what’s easier for them. will she be able to do that during a test? maybe not, BUT now that she knows that the issue is processing reading and that she’s an auditory learner, she’s in a better position to ask for resources to help her work better in school.

so i’m off to the school counselor to let her know so she can possible get more tools for auditory learners.  

Some of y'all be like "Oh yeah I support Cluster B" until they:

Have debilitating cognitive problems

Are depressed

Have emotions that aren't aesthetically pleasing

Don't know healthy coping mechanisms

Have a different view of social norms

Struggle with relationships

Do actions that for you are "obviously purposefully evil"

Explain the thought process behind their actions, not excuse them

Have trauma that just by existing doesn't invalidate yours but somehow that thought scares you

It's almost like you don't support Cluster B, hm.

Good morning to people who grew up and became pathological liars and now are attempting to stop Doing The Thing, you’re doing great

Because she was lonely.

So, today, a woman came into our shop. It was a woman I’ve only heard my parents refer to as ‘the Deaf Lady’. My mum had told her about me, explained that I was doing Sign Language, and come to find me on a day she knew I was working.

But today, she didn’t need her lawnmower repaired. In fact, she hadn’t touched it since it had been, and as far as she knew everything was fine.

She’d come in to sign to me.

She waved hello, and instantly explained that my mum had told her I would be in today. I asked her how she was, and the smile that she had on her face was the biggest I’ve ever seen.

And we spent about an hour in my family’s little shop, talking about everything. She told me about her life, about how she’d lived in the same house for 60 years.

She’d been born deaf, and been a Brownie, but never a Guide, because of the War… she’s now 86.

She had some amazing stories to tell, and twice she cried. One of those times was remembering her youth, and the other was when she was explaining to me that her husband had died around 20 years ago, and how he’d been the last person she’d known that could communicate with her.

She’s been alone for 20 years, living in a silent world, unable to communicate with anyone for the most part. The most interaction she has is when she writes things down for people, but she’s struggled to make any recent friends, and her family is long gone.

Now someone explain to me what’s wrong with every school teaching a certain amount of Sign Language, and for colleges to offer it more freely and frequently. People should be encouraged to learn BSL, because otherwise we’re cutting ourselves off from talking to around 8 million people or so (in the UK alone).

That’s millions of people who are no less important than you are, who have their own stories to tell, and the same need for communication as anyone else on this tiny little planet.

J. cried today because it was the first time for a long time that anyone has asked her for her name, or listened to her stories.

She’s also coming back into work tomorrow, to sign with me, and help me practice. But also - because we’re only human - for the company.