Ableism - Blog Posts
“Overcoming” your disability is an ableist narrative and I’m disappointed to see it perpetuated by able-bodied people, but especially by disabled people who refuse to check their internalized ableism. This idea insinuates you have to become or act like you aren’t disabled in order to succeed. It holds non-disabled people as the norm, as the ideal for disabled people to aspire to. This is the very definition of ableism, which is discrimination in favor of non-disabled people. Successful disabled people are still disabled. They have not overcome their disability. They may have overcome fears, systemic barriers, or circumvented obstacles non-disabled people don’t have, but they are still disabled. Overcoming disability is not a supportive or truly positive notion.
If you aren’t disabled, stop telling us what is and isn’t ableism, no matter how good or harmless it seems to you. We know more about the nuances of the situation than you do. Listen to us and accept what we tell you. Do not use arguments that occur among disabled people to prop up your own harmful ideas.
If you are disabled in some way (or if others might consider you disabled and discriminate against you), examine where your ideas came from. Trace your logic. Examine the messages your culture, friends, or family have given you and consider their impact on your values. Consider how these values may uphold ableism without you realizing it. Consider that success and hard work are not straight lines for everyone and may look different from specific tasks or people. Consider that others may have to deal with other physical, mental, or systemic barriers that you may not.
This post originated from an expirience I had with eye strain, with some people telling me to push through when there was no reason to push through and I needed a break.Those who told me to push through valued productivity instead of my health. This is not directed at any one person, especially not online. I simply wanted to share my thoughts and the wider reasoning behind why I was pressured and given disapproval when I decided to take a break.
If I do something where my blindness was an obstacle, I am still blind. I didn’t overcome my disability. I overcame ableism, both external and internal. Sometimes, like with writing this blog, my disability is not often an obstacle and so if someone were to say I overcame my disability to write it, I would be confused. Maybe even feel as if they were focusing on my disability rather than my small success.
Non-disabled people can reblog, but do not add any comments in the reblogs or replies. If you have a question, send me an ask. I will answer only if it is polite and coming from a good place.
Verbal communication is not the only form of communication. There’s AAC apps, writing, typing, sign language, etc.
And just because a person doesn’t communicate verbally doesn’t mean that they’re not capable of advocating for themself or making their own decisions.
It’s ableist and dangerous to assume otherwise.
"Actually many disabled people do contribute to society" is not a great argument against eugenics, by the way.
You said this far better than I ever could. I'm autistic myself, and I can relate with Tech in a few ways, especially the infodumping (and being ignored or silenced when I do it 😅) and being WAY too literal, so it's nice to see that there are others who feel the same about Tech.
i decided to yell into the twitter void about tech today because i’m an autistic person who is tired of seeing a fictional character who exhibits behaviors similar to my own condemned for those behaviors and called a negative stereotype.
I need non autistic people to realise meltdowns are a real debilitating thing that has a serious effect on your mental and physical health NOWWWWW!!! The way its been trivialized and lessened pisses me the fuck off. It's not a tantrum and it doesn't come from "being too weak-willed" it's painful and it's embarrassing AND MOST OF ALL IT'S INVOLUNTARY!! Don't claim to be an ally to autistic or disabled people and then make fun of people who have meltdowns. Literally get the hell out of my sight
yall are pro mental illness until they hallucinate
yall are pro mental illness until they dissociate
yall are pro mental illness until they self-isolate
yall are pro mental illness until they're paranoid
yall are pro mental illness until they split
yall are pro mental illness until it's too Scary for your comparatively neurotypical brain to handle
There are no disabilities which are raised above ableism. The person in the wheelchair, the autistic person, the person with schizophrenia and the person with an invisible chronic illness may all experience society's ableism in different ways, but none of them can expect to avoid it. So the "you wouldn't say X to Y" advocacy needs to retire yesterday. They say all kinds of ableist shit to all of us and it's time to try out some actual solidarity instead of arguing about who has it slightly worse
Begging begging begging leftists... "leftists" to stop using ableism to attack fascists and people who are threats to humanity and the Earth
White supremacist #57 is not "smooth brained" or "psychotic" or "a sociopath" he is anti-human, violent, and a fascist
Stop making jokes about old politicians having strokes or having cancer or catching x y or z life-long illness because disability is not a punishment, it is a morally neutral state of being
Stop and actually think about disabled people for once. We exist. And we're not in greater leftist circles because nondisabled people never include us, never think about us, never wonder what a perfect world would be like with us in it unless they're also disabled
It's always infuriated me hearing people say that children have it easy. It's only gotten worse as I've gotten older and have been able to reflect on my childhood and see the children around me grow up.
They do not have it easy. They don't get a say in most important things. They're seen is unintelligent, yet expected to understand things that full grown adults struggle with.
They've got a job, which is school, that is actually proven to not be working for a lot of them; myself included. They're expected to sit still and in silence for at least forty minutes at a time, and those with ADHD are treated as though they're immature and lazy because they often physically can't do it.
Far too many of them have abusive parents that lie through their teeth to make people think everything is fine, and of course, who would believe the child over the parent?
Aspects of abuse has been normalised. Parents are sympathised with when children open up about the things they've gone through, especially if they're not physical. They're told that their parents are only doing this because they love them, or that the child needs to start seeing things from their point of view. Meanwhile, adults can freely complain about their children on public forums and to friends and family and get away with it because "it's hard being a parent".
Fuck off and do better.
DNI Believers of narcissistic/borderline/anti-social/histrionic abuse.
SO many assumptions buried in this little assertion. "Obvious distinction" Obvious to who? "someone who is able to work and chooses not to" What work? For who? Why? Why are they choosing not to? "a morally bad thing" according to who? why should I care? I thought rejecting bourgeois morals was sort of a 101 deal.
- the lady at the welfare office cancelling my benefits
Abled Person: Hey man, can you hold this wad of $2,000 and this one penny for me while I open my wallet?
Disabled Person: YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOL!
The United States Government:
(Watch how many people don’t get this.)
every time someone talks about someone "faking disability to live on welfare" or anything to that effect i think about how my mom worked in law and directly knew of a case of a guy who had terminal brain cancer with an estimated few months to live and got rejected the first time he applied for disability income. like, he was 100% going to die and that wasn't disabled enough to not have to jump through a million hoops and get lawyers involved. non-disabled people "living off of welfare" is such a non issue because i cannot bring myself to care about the like, 3 people who maybe successfully do it compared to the thousands of people rejected who need aid
This is exactly what I mean when I say the society even more “progressive” societies are inherently ableist
i was talkin with some europeans about their healthcare and i realized like, even if i had the means to immigrate, i most likely would not be allowed to in most countries as a single person because I am disabled. This is another major aspect of ableism I don't see talked about often, the way immigration systems across the globe are designed to keep disabled people (who would be 'burdens' on the welfare system) out.
"Oh but parents do have a right to control what their children eat. What if they just want to eat candy for every meal?"
Most parents can't even distinguish between random whims and autism dietary limitations and end up saying shit like this and starving their disabled children.
A lot of “progressive” people on here strike me as the types that absolutely relish in being ableist but they have managed to find more socially acceptable ways to do that so many other progressives don’t notice it or consider it justified.
The most known and controversial example is the whole “These abnormal people are cringe and deserve abuse” thing but there are other patterns that seem to cause less pushback.
what abled ppl think is a massive problem for disabled folks: 13 year old on the internet faking something
what is actually a massive problem for disabled folks: "well you don't LOOK disabled, are you sure you're not faking? I'm not giving you accommodations until you PROVE you're not faking. Please give me, a stranger, your medical info and explain your condition to me in detail so I know you're not faking and only then will I respect or take you seriously"
Ableds be like, if I eat this diet/do this exercise/wear or don’t wear these clothes/live this lifestyle I’ll never become disabled!
Buddy have I got some harsh news for you…
"I know someone else with this disorder and they're nothing like you!!!"
Maybe that's because we're entirely separate fucking people who have lead different lives, are at different points in our life, and literally have different brains, not because I don't actually have the disorder.
:)
Friendly (or unfriendly if you're against this) reminder that this blog is supportive of ALL disorders. This blog does not think ANY disorder inherently makes someone a bad person, and is against any disorder being demonized. This blog wholeheartedly believes that a bad person having a disorder, yes, even if things that are also symptoms of their disorder are part of what caused harm, does not make the disorder a "bad" or "evil" disorder or excuse ableism and demonization directed towards the disorder.
Yes this includes personality disorders
Including npd and aspd
Yes this includes all psychotic disorders & disorders that cause psychotic symptoms
Yes this includes paraphilic disorders. All of them.
Yes this includes disorders that cause, or are even characterized by, attention seeking
Yes this includes disorders that directly have lying as a common symptom
Yes this includes dissociative disorders
Yes this includes any disorder with "gross" symptoms
Yes this includes physical disorders too
Yes this includes disorders that can cause loss of control of any kind- control of speech, control of body movement, etc.
Yes tis includes disorders that make someone "look scary"
This goes for literally any fucking disorder. There are not exceptions.
Also there's something to be said about the way they approach the doctor striving/demanding for people to recognise his autonomy and rights and the way they approach the same thing with, for example, data.
Everyone who treats data as less than human is portrayed as clearly wrong and often downright evil and while the doctor does also get his fair share of plotlines that affirm him being an equal to the humans around him, for every such plotline there are multiple throwaway jokes and off hand comments that basically read as "look at the silly hologram, he wants to be treated like the sentient being that he clearly is", often by characters that the narrative wants us to like and see as morally righteous and while I'm sure that was never intentional it does seem like a reflection of real life attitudes towards disabled people and other minorities.
Namely the shockingly pervasive Notion that, in the case of disabled people, they only deserve accommodations if they're nice and kind and happy and never ever do anything to even mildly offend or disgruntle any given abled person they interact with.
To use datas portrayal as an example yet again, if data offends someone it's almost always due to his lack of understanding of social norms and never portrayed as bad or malicious by the narrative, only misguided. Because data is "nice" the only people who deny his rights or autonomy are villains or quickly proven wrong. The doctor on the other hand, while not a bad person, can be conceited, rude, snarky and sometimes even a bit of a dick and while, again, I'm sure it's not intentional it does feel like the fact that he dares to have an attitude that's anything other than beyond reproach is part of the reason why the narrative doesn't seem to want to grant him his rights quite as easily as other characters both within and outside of the franchise.
Yknow I really wish voyager didn't treat the doctor's frustration with his limited mobility & being treated like a non-person like he was being ridiculous because. He was right. And nobody ever took him seriously what the hell was that about
Every person need to be taught disability history
Not the “oh Einstein was probably autistic” or the sanitized Helen Keller story. but this history disabled people have made and has been made for us.
Teach them about Carrie Buck, who was sterilized against her will, sued in 1927, and lost because “Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough.”
Teach them about Judith Heumann and her associates, who in 1977, held the longest sit in a government building for the enactment of 504 protection passed three years earlier.
Teach them about all the Baby Does, newborns in 1980s who were born disabled and who doctors left to die without treatment, who’s deaths lead to the passing of The Baby Doe amendment to the child abuse law in 1984.
Teach them about the deaf students at Gallaudet University, a liberal arts school for the deaf, who in 1988, protested the appointment of yet another hearing president and successfully elected I. King Jordan as their first deaf president.
Teach them about Jim Sinclair, who at the 1993 international Autism Conference stood and said “don’t mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we’re here waiting for you.”
Teach about the disability activists who laid down in front of buses for accessible transit in 1978, crawled up the steps of congress in 1990 for the ADA, and fight against police brutality, poverty, restricted access to medical care, and abuse today.
Teach about us.
I see this a lot in leftist circles but mental illness, trauma and abuse will exist with or without capitalism, your “mental illness is a social phenomenon” might be true for your depression and your anxiety but I beg all of you to think about psychotic people, systems and people with personality disorders when you make posts like that. It might be true that we wouldn’t be labeled as mentally ill but we would still need resources to help us cope, there’s still something we would need help coping with and you should focus on making that help available and accessible and free of bigotry for all of us instead of living in a “no mentally ill people” pseudo progressive eugenicist dream.
There’s a big problem in the autistic community we need to address
I am a semi speaking autistic with high support needs, when strangers see me, they know I’m autistic.
I’ve often seen fully speaking autistics refer to me and other autistics like me as “just stereotypes”
But I’m not just a stereotype, and neither are other autistics like me.
We deserve to be seen too, we deserve to be seen as people with our own personalities.
Please don’t forget us
(Absolutely ok to rb, please spread this around)
Some rando: You should think about stopping your prescription
Me: My pills make me not want to die tho
They: You shouldn’t want to die, that’s not normal
Me: Yeah that’s why I’m taking my pills