#academic ableism is such a great read

[salt-baby]

I just sent my accommodation requests to my professors for this academic year and I felt this gut punch of dread and shame and fear. I’ve had so many bad experiences with disclosing my disability to professors that I always have this reaction. I hate it…

I totally get it. I'm actually procrastinating mine right now...

It's always so uncomfortable to write an email to a professor that's basically "Hi! I'm disabled!" and have that be your first introduction. I've also had some really bad experiences with professors and my accommodations in the past, and because of that, sending these emails out always feels like a mountain of a task.

It really makes me think about that part of Jay Dolmage's book Academic Ableism, where they point out just how much of this process is forced onto the students - we have to know what accommodations to request without being told what the options are, and we have to facilitate our accommodations getting signed off on and fulfilled every semester.

Sometimes it can make me a little melancholy how much extra labor, not to even mention the emotional labor, we as disabled students have to go through just to sit in the classroom.

[communistkenobi]

does anyone have recommendations for where to learn more about “scary” mental health issues (psychosis, schizophrenia, etc) because every time I google them I just get true crime podcasts and news stories about serial killers

[cyberstudious]

✨ 📖 ✏️ studyblr masterpost jam ✏️ 📖 ✨

📌 what is this?

this is a masterpost jam, like a game jam or a hackathon or a writing challenge, but for creating masterposts! the goal is to share knowledge and resources, as well as connect with other cool folks on tumblr! this challenge was born out of the studyblr community, but anyone who loves learning is welcome to participate. each day, share a masterpost following the prompts below and tag your posts with the hashtag #studyblrmasterpostjam so we can all reblog them and share the love <3

🗓️ when is this happening?

the main challenge will run August 12th through August 18th, although you're welcome to participate on your own timeline :)

✨ everyone is encouraged to participate in whatever way is comfortable!

you don't have to be an academic or a professional! tell us about your special interest, a favorite hobby or craft, or something else that you like learning about!

even if you're a beginner, you still have a valuable perspective that's worth sharing (and writing posts for this challenge is a great way to do some research and learn!).

you don't have to do all of the days or share posts on the "right" day! pick and choose your faves if you want, combine things, and take as long as you need to put them together.

you don't have to make super long posts! if you have a single resource or tip to share, please do and we will appreciate it all the same <3

if you don't want to write any posts, you can still participate by reading posts that other people make and reblogging them so we can all learn from each other!

please feel free to interpret the prompts below in your own way and expand upon them! there are so many different topics out there and the questions I've written probably don't make sense for some of them, so take what makes sense and use the rest as inspiration!

✏️ prompts

[monday, august 12th] an intro to your topic or field of study

how would you describe this topic to someone who has never heard of it? what careers are available? what professional organizations/conferences are big? what journals do academics publish in? what are the big questions, goals, or challenges? what are the sub-fields/sub-topics/areas of specialization? what are some resources for learning about the field itself?

2. [tuesday, august 13th] books

textbooks, fiction that relates to the field, inspiring memoirs, biographies, art books, graphic novels, audiobooks… anything that you think is relevant to your topic and helpful!

3. [wednesday, august 14th] free resources

online things! resources that you might be able to get from your library! and and all ways to learn/study/practice that don't require money - feel free to get creative here and come up with some cool ideas beyond just links to websites!

4. [thursday, august 15th] notable figures

who has made important contributions to the field? is there anyone who made big contributions in the past that are now outdated or incorrect? who has done great things but been overlooked because of racism/sexism/ableism/etc.? who is making interesting contributions today? is there anyone in the field that you look up to? this is a great time to do some research if you don't already have some notable figures in mind!

5. [friday, august 16th] study tips

what are your favorite tips and ways to study this topic? are there lots of things you need to memorize or tricky concepts that are hard to understand at first? is there a skill that requires lots of practice? tell us about it and how you approach it!

6. [saturday, august 17th] tools of the trade

do you work with software? lab equipment? art supplies? your favorite pen and notebook? certain analysis frameworks or processes? tell us about them!

7. [sunday, august 18th] beginner's guide

what resources were most helpful when you were a beginner? what are the important concepts/techniques to start with? are there any prerequisite skills? also, include links to your previous masterposts!

remember to tag your posts with #studyblrmasterpostjam! if you want to participate, feel free to reblog this to spread the word. I'll see y'all on August 12th for the first masterpost!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for removing my friend from our editorial team for our student publication club due to her actions?

I (F26) recently graduated from community college after a long and difficult academic journey due to my disabilities. As I was in college for many years, I became very involved on campus and became a recognized and dependable student leader. Unfortunately, this often resulted in campus leadership coming to depend on me to take up the slack left by other students, which is exactly what happened when I was asked to became the leader of our campus student publication club editorial team. It wasn’t necessarily that I was forced to accept the position, but that the organization would fold if I didn’t take it on and that would be a great loss to our campus community.

Once I assumed the position, I attempted to rebuild the rest of the editorial team so we could begin accepting student work to be published in our virtual magazine. One person who stepped up readily was the club representative from the previous semester (F50ish), who I quickly bonded with over our shared struggles as disabled women who had faced ableism on campus. She also provided support in all the planning and prep that went into revitalizing the organization, so when it came time to accept submissions again I was more than ready to publish anything she wrote.

Then unfortunately, I read her work. Although we had often commiserated about various campus issues and the inefficiency of the student government, I did not expect that to translate over to what I can only classify as defamatory hit pieces against multiple people both in campus leadership and among the student body. Although I understood many of her grievances I felt that these articles (that went wildly outside of the pre-established length we had agreed upon for article submissions: 6k words), I knew I could not in good conscience allow them to be published.

However, when I attempted to address these concerns with her and give her the reasons why I could not publish them, she seemed to tune me out entirely. She also implied that I was being a hypocrite as I had been very passionate about the publication serving as the student voice of campus, but I don’t feel that bad about stifling the voice of someone who decided to straight up attack her fellow student leaders and label them “incompetent shithead teenagers.” I myself have had multiple issues with the people she launched her multi-page rants against, but I would never attempt to formally publish an 10k word call out over petty little interactions.

After she brushed off my concerns, I was forced to push back the day our team decided on the final submissions for publication due to finals and graduation. I had hoped I could have time to prepare to press the issue again at the end of the summer, but alas another issue came up.

I had been very clear on what was not allowed for publication in the magazine when we were reworking the submission guidelines. Two of the biggest rules barred the publishing of anything pushing specific belief systems and also required that all submissions be taken only from the student body. These seemed simple enough rules to understand, and all of the editorial team voted and agreed upon them. However, I received an email from a mysterious person outside of our college who was demanding that we publish his article for “the good of the community.” When I looked into what his article might entail I discovered he had a very detailed post of his desires to rid the earth of religion and all religious individuals which set off more than few alarm bells in my mind. I firmly established that we would not be publishing his work as he was not a student and it was not eligible for even a review by our team, then I asked him who had referred him to our magazine. At which point he mentioned my friend.

At this point she has violated the rules we established in our organization manifesto, mostly that we specifically would not encourage or promote the publication of works with facist or hateful ideals, and the writing of this man definitely ticked off those boxes. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt and hope that she and this man had simply fallen into the same progressive circles and she had not seen the islamophobia and antisemitism in his belief system, however the writing is quite literally on the wall of his Facebook page. I also feel very hurt as she knows I am Jewish and even being contacted by this man made me feel incredibly unsafe after seeing what he had written.

I feel like the only thing I can do now is formally propose to remove her from our team, but she was such a huge part of the rebuilding of the group I feel like it would be an incredibly asshole move after all she did for the club. Despite everything, she is still a good person and incredibly helpful friend and I would hate to hurt her over this. She has struggled with so many things in her life and I know it has shaped her worldview in a way. I would hate to see her feel rejected by this after all the love she poured into the club.

What are these acronyms?

[campgender]

hey! I'm currently writing a paper discussing experiences of disabled and neurodivergent students at my uni (spoiler alert: it's not great lmao), and while I have a couple references so far (mostly Lund and Pearlstein) about the larger Disabled Student ExperienceTM I'm struggling to find academic papers talking about this, particularly since my field of study is psychology rather than disability theory/disability justice. are there any texts regarding this that you would reccommend? doing my best to lean on crip theory for this essay and you were the first person i thought of! no worries if you don't have the energy to answer this rn ofc, i hope you're having a good day ✨

omg what a fabulous & vital project! i’d love to hear more about your work both out of interest & to potentially refine my recommendations because this is such a complex, multifaceted area of experience + research + activism — i tried to draw from a variety of perspectives so you can dig deeper into what seems most relevant!

my number one recommendation is the book Academic Ableism by Jay Dolmage, i still need to read most of it rip but it’s absolutely considered foundational in this topic. the rest i’m gonna put under a cut because it got super long lol, i’ll also reblog to my disability sideblog @crippleprophet in case anyone else has suggestions!

best of luck with your work, i hope some of this is helpful! feel free to reach out for more recommendations, input, or encouragement❣️💖

on the built environment – eg, the physical campus & how it impacts students

if you’re in the US, this summary of colleges’ responsibilities under the ADA has been helpful for me (link).

Building Access by Aimi Hamraie

Accessibility for Historic Buildings: A Field Guide, 2nd Edition (link to pdf)

written by David Provost and revised by Joseph Hoefferle, Jr. as part of the University of Vermont Graduate Program in Historic Preservation

back in 2020 i used the first edition of this document in a project arguing my undergraduate university should make its historic buildings more accessible

lays out policies & options in tables with photo examples from their campus

Aimi Hamraie & Kelly Fritsch’s Crip Technoscience Manifesto (2019)

Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 5(1), pp1-34.

this piece is honestly just incredibly life-giving for me in general so i highly recommend giving it a full read when you have time. specific parts that i thought might resonate with the experiences of students at your uni:

“user-initiated design” (Hendren & Lynch, cited p9)

“access as friction” (p10):

Emerging out of historical fights for disability rights, the terms accessibility and access are usually taken to mean disabled inclusion and assimilation into normative able-bodied relations and built environments. […] However, the etymology of the word access reveals two frictional meanings: access as “an opportunity enabling contact,” as well as “a kind of attack” (2016, p. 23). Taking access as a kind of attack reveals access-making as a site of political friction and contestation. While historically central to the fights for disability access, crip technoscience is nevertheless committed to pushing beyond liberal and assimilation-based approaches to accessibility, which emphasize inclusion in mainstream society, to pursue access as friction, particularly paying attention to access-making as disabled peoples’ acts of non-compliance and protest.

noncompliant users and assistive technology as friction (p11):

Lifchez and Winslow offer the concept of “non-compliant users,” illustrating this with an image of a powerchair user wheeling against traffic on a street without curb cuts (1979, p. 153). This technology-enabled movement against the flow of traffic marks anti-assimilationist crip mobility: not an attempt to integrate (as in the liberal approach to disability rights), but rather to use technology as a friction against an inaccessible environment.

collaborative mapping of (in)accessibility, something i know happens more informally among disabled students on many campuses (p15):

Unlike mainstream disability technoscience “crowdsourcing” projects, which invoke a charity model of disability wherein non-disabled people collect data but do not engage in disability culture or politics, emerging projects such as Mapping Access are making participatory access-making the basis of a kind of technoscientific “access intimacy” (Mingus, 2017) through practices such as “critical crowdsourcing” of accessibility data (Hamraie, 2018). […] Collaborative mapping visualizes the evidence of inaccessibility while creating opportunities for collective response. Crip cartographic technoscience thus enables more critical design, and interrogation of the everyday built environment.

access to education

the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities includes the right to inclusive education (Article 24). scholarship in this area is about primary & secondary education, not postsecondary / university education, but a lot of the concepts can be applied

in addition to inclusive education, “universal design for learning” (UDL) might be a helpful keyword but it definitely trends toward the liberal as a whole

“Hidden contradictions and conditionality: conceptualisations of inclusive education in international human rights law” (2013) by Bronagh Byrne (link)

references the importance of identifying barriers as a step in the process of accessible education, which depending on your work may be a nice succinct justification of its necessity (p234):

Inclusion ‘necessitates the removal of the material, ideological, political and economic barriers that legitimate and reproduce in equality and discrimination in the lives of disabled people’ (Barton and Armstrong 2001, 214). According to this view, an identification of barriers within the school’s environment, teaching and learning strategies, and attitudes that prevent the full participation of children with disabilities, will also be required.

argues for a focus on inability of schools to meet students’ needs rather than students’ inability to conform to an ableist environment (for example, p242):

International human rights law has conditionalised the right to inclusive education for children with disabilities by making inclusion contingent upon the extent of individual rather than institutional or structural deficits.

psychological/emotional impact on disabled students

“psycho-emotional disablism” may be a useful search term for you, with the disclaimer that a substantial portion of scholars in feminist disability studies are TERFs / express “gender critical” beliefs / etc. so like i’m listing one paper i came across that looked relevant + two from my grad program’s recommended reading, but i haven’t read these & suggest vetting authors before citing them:

“The psycho-emotionally disabling impact of academic landscapes of exclusion: experiences of a disabled postgraduate in perpetual lockdown” (2023) by Joanne Hunt (link)

Reeve, D (2004). Psycho-emotional dimensions of disability and the social model. In C Barnes & G Mercer (eds), Implementing the social model of disability: theory and research. The Disability Press, Leeds, pp. 83-100. http://donnareeve.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ReeveChapter2004b.pdf

Reeve, D. (2014) 'Psycho-emotional disablism and internalised oppression', in J. Swain, S. French, C. Barnes and C. Thomas (eds) Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments, 3rd Edition, London: Sage, pp. 92-98. http://donnareeve.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ReeveChapter2014a.pdf

[autism-alley]

augh found my old post abt pjo and disability from before the show came out but it was on ye olde blog so i’m literally just gonna copy and paste, 3, 2, 1—

ok now that i’ve got it on the brain, i want to talk about disability in pjo and specifically how calling percy jackson dumb or treating him as such is not only a mischaracterization, but ableism. as a quick note, i’m keeping this to just percy to avoid having this already long post be even longer, but there are other disabled characters in pjo worthy of discussion, though i hit many of the same points in this post. i bring up percy specifically because he is mostly the character i have seen people treat as stupid.

percy is a dyslexic teen with ADHD who comes from a low-income family, raised by a single mother, and deals with an abusive step-father. i cannot stress enough how much of his character is shaped by that experience, but as hard as it is to single out any one part, i am going to focus on his ADHD and dyslexia. this kid has nightmares of being forced to take tests in a straightjacket as teachers ask him if he’s stupid and withhold him from recess with his peers. he is constantly labelled as “troubled” and blamed for things he didn’t do or aren’t his fault. he is told, over and over again, even from trusted adults, that he is “not normal” (othering him). he bounces between schools. he struggles to make friends. he deals with bullying. he has difficulty studying and reading, even when invested. teachers struggle to connect with him and tend to just give up on him. these are real disabled experiences, and rick does a good job at presenting them in the pjo books. sometimes, it feels like everything is a struggle. you are living inside a system that not only is restricting, but actively works against and punishes you.

in contrast, CHB is a great example of how when environments meet the needs of disabled people, it hugely changes how disabled we are in that environment. demigod brains are hard-wired for ancient greek, not english, and they’re born impulsive, with high energy levels that help them survive battle—but aren’t very good for a classroom setting. but by having them read books in ancient greek, regularly do lots of training/physical activities, and have genuine opportunities to express themselves...they function pretty damn well. percy discovers that while he struggles academically, he is brilliant in combat and capable of saving the world numerous times—he is a hero. do you know how important that message is for disabled children? disabled adults, too? that we can be heroes?

it is here, in camp half-blood, that percy finds a place he belongs, that shows him his worth—finally, somewhere is built to not only include him, but to nurture and genuinely prepare him for the world outside its boarders. however, i think people forget that just because percy functions in the world of CHB and the gods, that does not mean he doesn’t face ableism in the mortal world—and that there is an entire group of people who see ourselves reflected in his character.

i could talk on for hours about how much being disabled shapes percy’s identity and how he interacts with the world—like how percy’s humor revolves around coping with his environment and actually displays a very low self esteem after being looked down upon his entire life. this kid doesn’t even have to say anything and he screams i had a neurodivergent childhood. but about 5-6 years ago, when i was more regularly tuned into the fandom, every time i saw someone call percy jackson dumb or an idiot, even jokingly, i raised an eyebrow, and now that the series is getting fresh coverage from disney+, i have wanted to make this post. so much of this kid’s life and personality comes from being treated like he’s dumb or incapable, so it’s troubling to watch part of the fanbase reflect the harmful parts of this character’s upbringing. i truly hope it does not become common again. it’s also one thing coming from a neurodivergent/disabled person with similar experiences (and even then i personally find it a little uncomfortable), it’s another to be said by a neurotypical/able bodied person.

percy jackson’s experiences make for very important representation, and for people to characterize him as just a goofy, unintelligent guy is not only an insult to his character as a kid who is intelligent, but previously lacked the environment to show it, but also ableist. so in the dawn of the new tv series era, i ask that we cut that shit out. rick riordan did not create rep for neurodivergent and disabled kids for them to be called stupid by the fanbase. even jokingly.

[liskantope]

I of course agree about disliking this thing where people go "X political opponent of mine is weird and awkward, haha", including when it comes from Democrats. In addition to it simply being ableist and hurtful to people who have struggled with social skills - I'm certainly no fan of J. D. Vance, and I imagine you aren't either. But I think there are lots of very intelligent, thoughtful people who would make great policy decisions but aren't especially socially charismatic. (1/2)

(2/2) I really don't think it's a good idea for liberals to reinforce a norm that such people should be disqualified from office.

(This is regarding this post from 10 days ago -- I've been really busy with the new academic semester and so am struggling to find time and the right mindspace to respond to stuff on Tumblr.)

You're right that I'm no fan of Vance: his book that made him famous might have some merits for all I know (I haven't read it), but at least since then he seems to be a completely phony chameleon, and, worst of all, he's chosen to run on a ticket with Trump, which is pretty automatically disqualifying for my respect. That, and all his vitriol towards childless people and cat ladies and so on is much worse than any of the specific examples of ableist undertones I see from the other side.

I'll also say that all the ridicule of Walz's son for standing up and tearfully shouting "That's my dad!" a bit non-neurotypically after Walz's words of love for his children (ugh! God forbid! actual exemplary family values are just dumb and cringey, at least if they come from Democrats!) made me far angrier than any kind of ableism that would come from David Pakman. The only reason I didn't go on a rant about it here is that I already got it out of my system on Facebook. And there's plenty of other garbage coming from the Trump/Vance side about Harris laughing a little strangely (supposedly? her laugh seems pretty normal to me) which makes her intolerable and so forth.

Still, two wrongs don't make a right.

And anyway, I agree that social skills shouldn't be considered such a huge factor in what makes for a qualified politician -- it does need to be somewhat of a factor, but I wish we didn't live in a world where most public support for politicians is based on vibes and most vibes come from superficial mannerisms. It wasn't true 150 years ago and is an unfortunate product of our modern technological world.

Also, if Pakman and his ilk want to point out that Vance was very awkward in the donut shop by typical politician standards and this doesn't bode too well for him because that's how politics works, I wouldn't really have a problem with that. (That's essentially the treatment they gave deSantis.) It's the "ha ha ha, nyah nyah nyah" -flavored mockery, which comes across as being independent of the context of politicians being held to extremely high standards of charisma, that gets to me.

I also might as well mention (though this is less in response to your ask) that this came somewhat in the wake of an earlier Pakman clip that I mentioned in the other post that I was even more annoyed by, didn't bother to post about it at the time, but I just recovered it. Seriously, Pakman, in an uncharacteristically halting way, says the following in anticipation of showing Vance issuing a few kind of evasive and sub-par answers at an event and being a little awkward by politician standards but still less awkward than most ordinary people in their everyday lives:

The only -- uh -- how can I even say this?... The only people I know personally who are this uncharismatic-seeming... Man, it's just so hard to say this without sounding so offensive. There's, like, some explanation, um, that sometimes is... medical in nature... uh, it just sounds so horrible to say... I-I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's... it's a personality that he seems to have that is really an edge case. It's a fringe personality of some way to be this unappealing as a person, some traits of which sometimes connect to medical explanations -- I don't believe they do with JD Vance -- I think he's just really a horrible person, is what I'm trying to say. I hope I'm being kinda like sensitive and not offending anybody.

He can worry as much as he wants about coming across ableist, but, well, what he says is still what he says.

[whilereadingandwalking]

First, a quick spoiler: this book is groundbreaking because it was a YA novel featuring two queer girls who get a happy ending. I know, I'm sorry to spoil it, but it's vital. In our age of blossoming queer YA contemporary, it's important to see why Annie on My Mind was so important, and so controversial, given a past where the only gay books permitted were those with unhappy endings.

In this book by Nancy Garden, two girls from across New York City meet at the Met and begin to have feelings that they don't, at first, understand. And when they are caught, their academic careers, friendships, and family relationships are all put at stake. This novel is simple, and to those who grew up with all kinds of queer novels around, it might feel outdated. It reads as historical fiction, with the sheer shockwave the adults in the book feel at finding lesbianism in their elite school. But there's nothing wrong with that, and it's a great book about a time when queerness was ok if it was just experimenting, or secret, or hidden, and where two girls are determined not to let go of each other, no matter the cost. A really good, quick read about coming-of-age queer and finding acceptance within yourself.

Content warnings for outing, homophobia, lesbophobia, ableism.

[crippleprophet]

hi, i just ordered my first cane n wanted to ask some questions about how to. idk not be too self-conscious about it/handle people asking about it (esp older folks)?

ik the main thing is to just. ignore people but i struggle with not paying attention to ppl who wanna be weird/intrusive

congrats on your first cane!! i hope it’s helpful for you & you have as easy an adjustment as possible 💖 i’ve answered some similar asks in my cane user & faq tags so you might find some other relevant info there :)

there are a few things that were helpful for me when i was adjusting to new mobility aids & the ableism people often meet that with –

planning my response ahead of time. i’d often feel bad about myself for not defending myself or whatever when people asked invasive questions, but if i had a plan like “okay i’m gonna just be like ‘oh yeah i have knee problems, it’s been super helpful!’ & disengage as quickly as possible” then i didn’t feel bad about not directly addressing their ableism or whatever bc i’d already decided it wasn’t worth my time

surrounding myself with as many other mobility aid users as possible, on social media & in art & in the theory i read &, when i was able to, in person. knowing that other people are going through the same thing (& talking shit whenever possible) really helped me feel less alone

if academic writing is accessible to you, rosemarie garland-thompson’s staring: how we look is a great starting point for disability theory around this topic imo! there’s also a lot of community knowledge + theory around (hyper)visibilized disability, which has only grown more robust in the wake of ableist responses to wearing masks

in this kind of situation i firmly believe that whatever response best helps you survive in an ableist society is the right one. whether that’s cursing somebody out or pretending you didn’t hear them or pacifying them with as polite a response as possible depends on the circumstances & the people involved, & all of them have different risks. in my experience it gets easier over time to get a feel for weighing those decisions

self-care afterwards in whatever way(s) you prefer. my senior year of undergrad my go-to after an obscenely ableist class was taking my mobility scooter on a fast ride through the park next to campus, blasting an angry playlist; the best response for somebody else might be a bubble bath or getting high or gay sex or listening to a disability podcast or all of the above or something else entirely – whatever makes you feel like you have a right to exist.

i also started a (18+) bitter cripple discord server when i was overwhelmed by the ableism i was experiencing a few years ago, which @cane-you-dig-it & @autismnep now moderate, so if you or somebody reading this want to join that just shoot one of us a dm!

i hope some of that was helpful, i’m wishing you the absolute best of luck & feel free to lmk if you have any other questions! 🖤🖤

[shower-thoughts-last-responder]

Im going to be very calm here and assume that there's something mentally wrong with you, im going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you never learnt to read, im going to be very very nicies (and generous, benevolent, saintly, aspirational, etc etc) and assume your mother threw you head first into a brick wall as a small child and consequently feels more guilt than shame when seeing you act like an idiot online 🤭🫣🤔

So, I get these silly little messages from time to time, usually following even slightly social/political commentary and for the most part I just ignore them. They don't bother me and I try to keep my blog a mostly positive place, but this seems a great opportunity to highlight a really common for of casual ableism.

While I appreciate it's a very common form of language/insult, why exactly do people think it's funny to imply someone has an intellectual disability or brain injury? The joke here is the the only possible to hold the beliefs or behave the way I do is if there was something wrong with my brain; thus implying that you, the one doing the insulting, believe that people with intellectual disabilities cannot be trusted to form their own opinions. Of course the reality is, this loser doesn't think I'm intellectually disabled and neither does anyone else implying anyone who disagrees with them must be stupid. It's just that from childhood anything that constitutes "stupidity" is heavily punished while "intelligence" (usually academic) is reward. This ends up creating a powerful sense of shame associated with being perceived as unintelligent. Implying someone is stupid for disagreeing with you is just a method of social control, and this kind of outright insult is relatively easy to brush off but I think it becomes far more insidious when it's more subtle. I'm sure we've all had the experience of talking with someone who is able to make you feel incredibly foolish just from the way they speak to you. Just remember, if someone resorts to questioning your intelligence, it means they don't have the capacity to defend their ideas directly and honestly and are trying to shame you into backing off.

But if we really get down to it, why exactly are intellectual disabilities considered something to be ashamed of? Why do so many people think it's okay to mock, belittle and generally laugh at people less intelligent then themselves? And this is a problem across the political/social spectrum and isn't unique to one side or another; would your directly mock someone for using a wheelchair, or do you recognizes how wrong that would be? (I do know their are absolutely people out there who would do this, but those people are out and out able-ist pieces of shit so maybe fuck those people). The point is, if you can recognize why it is wrong to insult someone for a physical disability, then you can recognize why it's wrong to insult someone for an intellectual one

Lesson in ableism aside, can I just add, honestly, these people are 8 feet tall and tough as nails behind the keyboard but couldn't say shit irl and really, why on earth would I be upset about an anon? Whoever this is, they can't even be brave hiding behind a keyboard on the completely anonymous website. Personally I mostly thinks it's kind of funny in a sad sort of way

[some-pers0n]

Hey I need tips on writing a fan fic I am starting my first one involving Darkstalker and the rest of the legends gang. I usually love to slander Darkstalker but I also like the idea of Darkstalker using the one brain cell he has to unlock common sense and realize he's in the wrong. So I came up with the idea of Darkstalker basically processing everything and his actions while baking just so that he isn't festering all the time, also because he gives water he makes to Clearsight and friends for being crazy. I came up with the idea based on that one throw away line when Clearsight met Darkstalker and she said she smelled like cinnamon from the baking class he just left.

Now that I have the premise how do I write that because the only thing I have ever written are academic essays and I don't want the fic to read like one. Also I want to have Whiteout in the story but I don't want to write her wrong, you know. I don't want to fall into any pitfalls or any ablelist tropes since Whiteout has synesthesia and is autism coded. So since I have neither of these any tips for writing her would be greatly appreciated even some sources where I can read up and do some research would be great because I love Whiteout and want to write her well because she deserves it.

Ay sorry it took me a bit to get back hold on,,

Nice nice Darkstalker AU where he experiences remorse for the first time ever. Always like those. Him also realizing while baking because of that lil' detail is so cute I completely forgot he bakes.

Okay, for the writing? Honestly just go at it. Maybe read or use a book for reference. Got a question for grammar and such? Plenty of tutorials await behind a simple Google search. However, here are some tips off the top of my head

Research is honestly the best way to combat accidental ableism. Research a bunch of tropes relating to autistic people and educate yourself on the topic so you can work around them and not play into them

Generally just pick some book you like and read it before it. Your style is influenced by the books and authors you enjoy

Practice always is perfect! You just gotta do it over and over again constantly to get good. I mean, look at me. I've been writing for like four years and I think I'm moderately alright at it

If you don't like something or think you can do better, make another draft! No shame in that

Read over Darkstalker Legends just a lil' bit to get a feel for Darkstalker and how he talks and thinks and acts. This also takes a lil' while to get good at but it's fine

[californiannostalgia]

Homestuck is about a planetary apocalypse across spacetime, and four kids who are not yet gods. Set in the late 2000s - early 2010s (subsection: niche american internet), it's got convoluted plot, cool use of visual medium, popping colors and stunning imagery, loads of great music, playable games, and a boatload of characters you could latch onto to write in-depth meta about.

Homestuck has been called the internet's Ulysses. It taught me how to swear in English. There have been peer-reviewed academic articles written about Homestuck. There are Homestuck fics longer than the 7-book wizard series. The sedentary layers of Tumblr house the years and years of incredible fanart and AUs that have flourished, been buried, and newly birthed.

It's got all the horrible stuff of the internet of that time reflected in it (ableism, racism, sexist creeps, shock gore etc), but offers some mind-bogglingly stellar representation (all the gays, all the gender, disabled characters are Main characters, + has some of the best women I've ever seen written) (also there is mental illness rep).

It will fuck up your sense of humor and how you think about storytelling. And interpersonal relationships. The pain and melancholy of growing up, that's a big one.

If you need a life-consuming distraction, download The Unofficial Homestuck Archive (which is pretty official from reader standpoint) and open your third eye to interpret a fifth of tumblr's usernames and in-jokes.

((P.S. Your favorite animated show created after 2013 has a very high chance of at least one creator being a Homestuck.))

[kitchensunflowers]

9-1-1 lone star 4x04 thoughts! this took a bit to write up in part because i'm busy and ill lol, and in part bc i get nervous about 'writing about ableism' being my main contribution to fandom sometimes

The positives:

-- ronen and rafael were both phenomenal in this episode. ronen portraying the different stages of tk's panic, worry, desparation. rafael, as carlos dealt with injury in a scary and life-threatening situation, trying to keep control, staying ever polite as he did his best to handle his captors and find a way out. amazing physicality and characterisation on both accounts.

-- even though we saw less of the rest of cast (looking forward to you, future eps, even if the promos are stressful!), I'm really grateful, in season four, for how embodied these characters are. We only got what, two lines? maybe? from marjan and nancy but still within that totally got that marjan kind of has a big sister role to tk while nancy, like tk, is one of the kids (specifically tommy's kids, missed you tommy!); we saw a nod to grace's friendship with carlos, too which was great. (and again, can't wait to watch them have their own storylines in future eps!)

-- I mention the owen storyline below, but even though it's not my favourite, rob lowe's comedy beats as owen are great. 'Our codes are... fire' - ngl, I exhaled through my nose

-- and ofc carlos' love declarations... 'she will be at the wedding... i think she's sending her love through me' truly so emotional

i have hope for the future that there will be more mentions/memories of gwyn, more tk interacting with the reyeses (they were so excited to see him!), and more delving into tk and owen's relationship (i liked that they showed that owen's trying, but he hasn't gotten it quite right yet, and that it is impacting tk... 4x08 here we come!)

The not-so-positives (below the cut; content is mainly discussions of ableism, but also includes brief mentions of scenes from when carlos was captured, including mention of the drugging/overdose, and of the nazis and copaganda in owen's storyline):

-- the 9-1-1 cinematic universe has always had a bit of an ableism problem, which, yeah, its a mainstream procedural from hollywood, ft. regular doses of copaganda, what do i expect? i guess i hope its still worth talking about and acknowledging within fandom? idk. in any case iris mentioning that her captor had some kind of burn marks on his hand in 4x03 immediately signalled: the writers room has made a disabled/disfigured villain -- if you're unsure as to why this might be an issue, disfigurement has a long history of being used to signify evil in media (as a harmful trope), and means that a significant portion of the already highly limited representation of disfigurement on tv is as villains. disability and disfigurement are practically only allowed to exist on screen when they exist as either plot devices or as a representation of internal flaws/brokenness/villainy/evil. And this is a problem, because disabled people and people with scars or other forms of disfigurement are not metaphors. To quote disability and disfigurement activist (and author and YouTuber) Jen Campbell, "It is clear that producers are not thinking critically about disability at all. We are not metaphors; we are people." actually Jen Campbell has a video overview of this topic that I recommend watching (though content note for discussion of the h*rry potter series from the apprximately 11 through 14 minute mark), and has other great videos related to this topic as well. Or if you're more into reading an academic paper, disability scholar Paul K. Longmore's essay, 'Screening Stereotypes' (Temple University Press, 2003) is a classic.

-- so yeah, needless to say i wasn't a fan of the close up on the guy's scars to identify him as the evil man, or the discussion of how his mom believed he became villainous (framed as 'a monster' in the show) after the accident that scarred his hand. this is also not the first time lone star has linked scarring/disfigurement to villainy

-- anyway, some of the parallels in the episode also didn't work for me - the baking cookies and use of retro music parallel to the coma dream in particular. some of them did work! - i did think the narcan post-overdose parallel was meaningful in terms of TK's arc from s1 to s4, and the 2x08 parallels were fun (in the stressful storyline, notable moments kind of way) - but i feel like we've had so many parallels to significant tarlos moments within the first 4 eps and a not insignificant number of them have not landed with me personally, which ig is a little disappointing.

-- and last but not least, still not a fan of the owen storyline - the copaganda of it all, for one, and the fact that the show has yet to address that owen associating with nazis (even if his goal is to ultimately take them down) could put those around him in danger? his son, his future son in law and in-laws, the majority of his staff/colleagues at his work... we have yet to see any indication that he has taken them into consideration at all.

that all being said, i am looking forward to storylines for the rest of the 126 now! tk is forever my baby, but as much as i am here for tarlos and excited for more storylines related to tk and carlos this season, i'm not here for sidelining the rest of this amazing cast/characters, and glad to have indication from the cast that they all have interesting stories in the work.

overall, very much looking forward to what this season brings next!

[castielcommunism]

I’ll just make this its own post but like I remember about a year ago when the fandom was at a high point, a lot of people were heavily invested in posting about supernatural as a queer allegory, reading queer subtext into it, and analysing it as if it were a piece of queer media. There was a lot of meta posting about doing like gender studies and queer academia to it, a lot of it being half ironic but a lot of it also wasn’t. And that’s not inherently wrong, but I think it gave people a very convenient “intellectual” reason to not engage with spn on other terms (ie, it being a show that is deeply concerned with racial purity and racial hierarchy). If it’s a show about oppressing the gay angel or about dean being female coded or whatever then you can be given a very convenient lens to approach spn critically, and to perform that criticality publicly, but leave the other bigoted elements (racism primarily, but also ableism and misogyny) on the cutting room floor. The classic “I’m not racist, I’m gay” routine, but given a more academic polish to it.

And to be clear I’m not accusing anybody of deliberately using “supernatural gender studies” or whatever as an excuse to ignore or downplay the racism in the show. The show has 327 episodes and there is a LOT of content that can be discussed and analysed through various lenses, and one perspective or interpretation doesn’t cancel out another. But I think if you primarily engage with spn as this grand queer allegory, or think its most grievous sin was the homophobia directed at cas, then like I’m sorry but I think you’re injecting too much of yourself into the story and need to take a step back. I think there’s a popular trend in fandom where people are expected to preface their critical perspective on a piece of media before they’re “allowed” to engage with it, and the path of least resistance for a lot of white (mostly lgbt+) fans is making hay about about the homophobia and then trucking ahead like all the work is done.

So like no you don’t need to write a college essay about how problematic spn is before you’re allowed to make memes about it, nor am I shitting on people who want to engage with spn as a queer text (I have made a bunch of posts about it myself!), nor am I also saying all the queer studies posting was done by white people in the fandom because that is obviously untrue. I just think it’s a very easy and comfortable frame of criticality that people get to use and then not really give a shit about anything else in the show beyond that. Which isn’t actually being critical, it’s just the performance of it. Again lol I don’t want to belabour the point, I make a bunch of critical posts about spn and I’m very much involved in that part of the fandom, so this is coming from someone who has spent a great deal of time in this environment and actively contributed to critical spn posting or whatever you want to call it. It’s just a trend I think people need to be mindful of, that’s all.

[blindbeta]

Question. Would it be ableist to have a blind witch in a world of magic? I was thinking he’d read textbooks through Braille, concoct potions through smells (like the potion should have a certain smell after this step or two), and gather ingredients by touch & and smell. I’m a bit stumped on how to make him do magic though…

Making Magic Accessible

This sounds great! I love a good disabled witch story.

What you are describing is actually accommodation. This allows your blind character to participate in witch society and practice witchcraft. Having access to Braille textbooks is a very good sign for the accessibility of this world, because Braille textbooks are difficult to come by in real world academic spaces. Students often use devices to read text files of the textbooks in Braille.

There is something nice about having Braille textbooks available. I suggest books that describe images or come equipped with spells that enlarge images when needed. I am also thinking of potential adaptations for any sigils, such as descriptions, tactile sigils included in the text, or having someone help create tactile models of sigils. In real life, blind people use different ways of accommodating themselves depending on what is available. Your character can have a similar experience or one that is consistently accessible, such as universal design. Magic may also allow for things like reading text out loud like an audiobook, so the potential for increased accessibility is there even if your character prefers one way over others.

I am also happy to find blind characters who read Braille.

Preparing potions by smell will work, as people are often surprisingly good at discerning different scents. He can also choose ingredients by recognizing the shape of bottles, such as in this video in which a blind man lists his toiletry products through shape and size. Braille labels, tactile markers, and strict organization of ingredients are also options.

As for helping him do magic, this depends on how your Magic system works. He can either do what everyone else does or find a way that works for him.

If the magic system uses a wand, someone can help him move through the wand motions until he memorizes them. If the system uses internal mechanisms for magic, he should be able to do it no problem. If the system requires drawing or some artistic endeavor, look into accessible art as examples, such as a 3D pen. Runes and glyphs can also be turned into tactile models for memorization using small, flexible items such as twigs or Wikki Stix or whatever the magical equivalent would be. Something tactile and positionable. There could also simply be a spell that embosses writing if it isn’t already embossed in the textbooks.

When it comes to magic, you probably only need to worry about ableism when it concerns lack of accessibility (that is not addressed or fixed as part of the story) or magic that erases a character’s blindness. For example, a character drinking a potion that made them not blind anymore would be disappointing. However, a character drinking a potion to get rid of eye strain would be relatable.

I hope this helps.

[ileftherbackhome]

no offense but nowhere in this post did i say being "not smart" means you're less than and it's hilarious that you did the thing I was complaining about in this post.

this was tagged with personal tags where i was ranting about a specific portion in a book I was reading that made everything in my academic career make sense and was about how allistic people love to make assumptions about low supports needs autistics and how they perceive their own "intelligence" because of their own insecurities rather than anything the autistic person actually did or said to make them feel that way. aka making assumptions about the intentions of the words autistic people are using to communicate that were never directly communicated to begin with. this was specifically about *my own* personal memories of people mistaking my anxiety over my grades or academic performance as passive aggressive judgment on their own performance.

nothing in my original post was tagged with the broader autism tag because this was a very specific rant post about the frustation I felt growing up having people perceive me as a know-it-all because I got good grades in school and I was also being abused at home to get those good grades so I was highly anxious whenever I received less than the acceptable range of not getting a beating.

maybe instead of assuming things about rant posts people making unpacking their own grief at how their entire life was packed with invisible ableism they couldn't communicate or identify until their mid-twenties, you could idk just not be a cunt?

thank you very much, have a great day.

"oh gifted kids have such a superiority complex about their intelligence" is allistic speak for "im a fucking moron who doesn't bother to research everything that I'm interested in so I don't have any useful facts stored in my brain, just stupid football stats and which celebrities are being weird on instagram again and I want to make that autistic people's problem like google isn't fucking free and nothing is stopping my dumb ass from just fucking learning"