#crip justice

[pleaseletmeexist]

When I say “school should be disability accessible”, I don’t just mean we need handicap rails and EAs. Kids should be able to miss a day without failing out of school. You shouldn’t be dismissed from clubs because your attendance record is “spotty” (true story). I once missed an entire week of school because of a terrible, unending migraine. I was expected to keep up with my studies despite the blinding pain that came with working on my computer. When I heard my teachers say that you couldn’t miss exams, I asked what I would have to do to be excused from them. Their response? “Either get a doctor’s note an hour before the exam or death of an immediate family member.”

I cannot express how rigid this expectation was. First of all, with my condition, I wouldn’t have enough warning about my sickness to go to the doctor and request a note. For many people, this is exceptionally difficult, especially with the current shortage of medical professionals. Next, it ignores the fact that my schedule may not line with theirs because of my medical needs. Once, I had to visit a hospital a province away (which I was on the waiting list of for over a year) on the same day as an exam. I begged my mother not to take me because I was so nervous that I would be marked as an automatic fail. I was lucky enough to make it work, but that’s only because of my spectacular support system consisting of family members and wonderful doctors.

Disabilities aren’t always about needing a bus that can accommodate wheelchairs. It’s already difficult enough for many of us to maintain school attendance without the harsh punishments involved for skipping a day. We need to be able to miss school without being punished. Only than can you claim that the school is “accessible”

[majaurukalo]

Disability benefits shouldn’t be tied to the income of a disabled person’s partner/spouse/parent.

Do you hear me?

DISABILITY BENEFITS SHOULDN’T BE TIED TO THE INCOME OF A DISABLED PERSON’S PARTNER/SPOUSE/PARENT.

This is the straight forward way to deprive a disabled person of their financial freedom and independence and trap them into possible abusive relationships.

[phinniastuff]

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

reminder this pride month that disabled people in the US on SSI and SSDI do not have the same marriage equality as people not on SSI and SSDI. its called the marriage penalty.

by getting married, a disabled person can lose their income, benefits, and health insurance.

if a disabled person marries an able bodied person, and combined their assets are $3000 or over they will lose all benefits, including medicaid (health insurance).

if a disabled person marries a disabled person, their assistance is lowered 25%.

we don’t have marriage equality until all disabled marriages are equal.

sources x x x x

[ash-the-fluffy-cat]

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say black lives matter

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say disabled lives matter

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say First Nations lives matter

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say neurodivergent lives matter

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say women’s health matters

You don’t get to say queer lives matter if you don’t say ANY other marginalized communities’ lives matter

Intersectional identities are here and won’t go away

[transsexualfiend]

If you want to call yourself "madpunk", "cripplepunk", "neuropunk", etc, your activism better not stop at the things you find "bad". People with no empathy. People with personality disorders. People who need their aids in daily life. People who have extreme fluctuating emotions. People with paraphilias. People with dissociative disorders. Psychotic people. People who have different modes of eating, excreting, having sex, etc. Homeless people. People who wear diapers. People who have violent urges/thoughts. People who you think are "dangerous". People who use drugs. People who need medication to survive and live. People with physical deformities. People who have delusions. People who struggle with feeding themselves, cleaning, working, etc.

If you think any of these factors make someone "abusive", you are ableist. Abusers are abusive. None of the above things make someone an abuser.

Madpunk and cripplepunk aren't just "adhd and autism punk". Or "mobility aid user punk". Keep that in mind.

[icannotgetoverbirds]

Calling all cripplepunk folks!

So I have been asked to lead a group at my recovery center about disability etiquette. This is much-needed as I have had my mobility aids manhandled three times in the past three weeks with staff brushing it off and blaming me for being in the way instead of making an announcement for people to not do this.

This is a fantastic opportunity to have a significant impact on a place that desperately needs it. All i am asking is that you reblog or reply to this post with at least one thing you wished abled people would do differently regarding your disability.

I'll pick as many as I can reasonably fit into one presentation to show to the recovery center, and I'll be sure to update y'all on how it went!

Additionally, if you have any resources on disability etiquette, feel free to share them!

If you can't, reblogging it to spread it would be appreciated too!

[library-fae]

being disabled is expensive

i hardly ever have the energy to cook

and sometimes physically can't stand long enough to do so

so i have to get quick premade, precut or precooked food

im also autistic and there are certain foods i can't eat

and safe foods i need for days im struggling from a sensory standpoint

its tiring to have to equate for these extra costs

and disability insurance doesn't cover them

food has become a luxury item in this economy

and the first affected are going to be the poor and disabled

[almostfini]

In the spirit of Disability Pride month I have a personal question to disabled folks especially but really any marginalized person:

How do you square "not everything is for you" with "I have a right to be included and represented"? Because speaking a trans, disabled person, I know basically nothing is designed for us. And yet there's that voice in the back of my head (probably my mother's but we don't need to get into that) saying "not everything is for you, stop making it about you".

I need help arguing with those thoughts and the irl ableists I keep encountering who repeat them.

[intersex-support]

Something that has been helpful for me when having conversations about what counts as intersex is to really engage in enquiry about what the label means and how we're using it. To me, it's been more helpful to think through questions like:

What purpose does labeling a variation as intersex serve?

In what ways is societal understandings of "typical" changing?

Why was the label of intersex created and has our use of the label shifted?

What ways are we building intersex community? What do we want intersex community to look like?

How do our experiences of oppression impact our understanding of intersex as a term?

What sources are we drawing from when we develop definitions of intersex?

What is the history of the way intersex has been used?

What ways has intersex community been exclusionary in the past, and is that in line with our current values?

Definitions of intersex have always been tied up with what the medical world decides to classify as differences of sex development, but especially in the past twenty years as intersex community has grown more connected, we've started to have a lot more self-determination in our communities. But I think a lot of people still really have a misconception that intersex is a biological "third sex" that is strictly medically defined, and that there are clear cutoffs between intersex and endosex.

Instead, I'd like to bring in the concept of compulsory dyadism to introduce a framework where intersex is an intentional political label used as a way to build community for the people whose variation of sex characteristics are most impacted by the stigma and violence associated with compulsory dyadism.

Sex diversity is not just limited to intersex people. Even within the boundaries of dyadic/endosex bodies, people have variations like different amounts of body hair, penis size, hormone levels, breast size, as well as things like disabilities affecting any of those traits. For example, very few people actually have all the "ideal" traits that line up with this constructed idea of an endosex body that has the exact "correct" amount of estrogen, the right size chest, the ability to bear children, "normal" periods. Many endosex people might have a variation in one of those aspects at differing times during their life, such as during menopause, for example. And this framework can help us understand how diagnoses such as endometriosis are not intersex, but people might still notice overlaps in certain experiences.

But the reason that not everyone is considered intersex and the reason that having a separation between endosex and intersex is important is because of the stigma and violence associated with straying further and further from that dyadic norm, and intersex is a label used to describe people who are the most impacted by that stigma and violence. We have been socially labeled as "deviating" the most from the "normal" sex binary, and consequentially face intersexism both on a systematic and personal level. Our collection of sex variations becomes located entirely outside of the sex binary, and as a result, we often face curative violence, social stigma, and systematic exclusion from many parts of society.

This definition isn't a perfect definition. I think we need to have room to develop more nuance around the fact that many intersex people might not feel like their experience of being intersex has brought them any personal stigma or violence, as well as understanding that there isn't going to be a universal intersex experience. Even when discussing how intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism compared to endosex people, I think it's important to recognize that within the intersex community, our additional intersecting identities are absolutely going to influence our experiences with oppression and that it's vital to intentionally uplift the members of our intersex community who are most impacted by oppression. In the United States, the creation of the sex binary was an explicitly racist process, and racialized intersex people are subject to additional layers of stigma, violence and scrutiny. (Check out chapters 4-6 in the book Cripping Intersex by Dr. Celeste Orr for a really in depth discussion of how antiblackness and compulsory dyadism are forces behind why the Olympic sports sex testing has pretty much exclusively targeted Black women from the Global South, regardless of whether or not they are actually intersex. Also recommend reading The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr Kyla Schuller.) I also have talked with many intersex people who are tired of us always being represented through trauma narratives in the media, and who want us to be able to build a definition of intersex that isn't based around violence or tragedy. And I think that's really important that we also share our stories of intersex joy, and pride, and healing. I think that claiming intersex can be something really radical, and that's super valuable to me.

Overall I think that if we build our discussions around who is intersex on concepts to do with our social and political location, and take into consideration concepts like compulsory dyadism, sex diversity, and disability, we are going to be able to understand why any of it matters better than if our determinations of intersex identity are based solely in medicalized concepts of a third sex.

TL;DR: Although endosex people also have diversity when it comes to sex traits, intersex is still an important label that not everyone can claim. Compulsory dyadism is a force that affects all of us, but intersex people are the most impacted by compulsory dyadism and face intersexist stigma and violence for our intersex variations. As a result, intersex is an important label for us to claim so that we can build community and solidarity around our experiences. I think it is better understood as a sociopolitical label that describes the relationship between our biological bodies and the cultures we live in, rather than as a medicalized term that described a coherent "third sex."

other intersex people feel free to add on to this post-I'm only one person without all the answers, and would love to hear other perspectives!

[intervex]

Poll: what model of disability would you associate with the colour green?

[Poll at bottom of post]

A a few months back, I proposed new meanings for the Disability Pride Flag that was designed by @capricorn-0mnikorn in consultation with a bunch of disabled folks. For those unfamiliar, it's this rockin' flag:

I proposed instead of having the coloured stripes being associated with categories of impairment (red for physical disability, yellow for neurodivergence, etc), we could instead have the different colours refer to different models of disability. I proposed:

Red: disability due to injury / the debility model of disability - e.g. injury due to armed conflicts caused by colonialism, injury due to gun violence in a country which fails to regulate gun safety, preventable illness due to sociopolitical neglect 😡🩸

Yellow: disability due to natural (beneficial) differences / affirmative models of disability - e.g. autistic people who lead lives that take advantage of their autistic traits, DSPS folks who are able to work night shifts and take pride in doing so 😄🌟

Blue: situational disabilities / critical models like the social model, e.g. a Deaf person who feels their only disability is that people don’t speak their signed language and don’t provide captions/etc 🗣️♿️

Green: disability due to illness / biomedical models of disability - e.g. people with conditions like ME/CFS and Long Covid who actually do want to be treated/cured 🤢🦠

White: disability caused by unknown or other factors / other models

I'm pretty happy with all of the colour-model associations except green, and would like input on if there's a more suitable colour to use instead.

👍️ Advantages of green for medical model: - green is associated with disease, sickness, poison, etc - it is a major model of disability, even if it is one that disability organizing tends to be organizing against

👎️ Disadvantages of green for medical model: - the original meanings had green down as meaning sensory disability, and a lot of folks with sensory disabilities like the Deaf community reject the medical model quite strongly - from what I've since seen of other disability-specific flags, green is the most common colour used for neurodiversity (e.g. this autigender flag), another group that strongly rejects the medical model - there are almost no flags that embrace the medical model, and the only two I'm familiar with - the Crohn's flag and the transmedicalist flag - both use *white* as the colour of medicine. Lab coats etc. - rolling the medical model into the white stripe ("other models") would fit both the medicine-as-white association and how invisibly disabled people are often those fighting for care

Some weeks back I posted asking for alternative ideas for a model of disability for green. These are the options sent my way:

⚖️

Option 1: human rights model. Disability is viewed as a natural part of being human, and humans should have basic civil rights. This is a legalistic framework. It's used for advancing legal protections, gaining workplace accomodations, etc. Unlike the social model it can be kind of (but not entirely) individualistic: a given individual has their rights infringed, so laws need to be created and enforced to protect them.

Green is a colour used sometimes to represent humanity (though teal/cyan I think is a bit more common.) It's a model compatible with the neurodiversity movement and Deaf pride. People who are sick and want to be treated are also compatible in that they deserve a right to medical care.

🧬

Option 2: biodiversity model. Disability is beneficial for the gene pool because genetic variety makes for more resilient populations. Unlike the affirmation model, this doesn't see every disability as actually good to have - for example, sickle cell disease sucks for those who have it, but the heterozygosity advantage it provides for the population makes it a net asset.

Green is a colour associated with nature. I'd say this is also compatible with neurodiversity & Deaf pride + sick people.

✊️

Option 3: radical model. Disability is entirely a social construct. There is nothing wrong with any of us (Withersaj, 2012). The social construction of disability was created in order to marginalize segments of society - such as how IQ testing and the idea of "intelligence" was created by eugenics to rationalize slavery. This model is strongly connected with mad pride (Ralph, 2018)

This one probably isn't compatible with sick people who want care. Many neurodivergent & Deaf people would resonate with it, but I suspect some folks who feel their neurodivergence can be at times legitimately disabling may push back on this.

🕸️

Option 4: political/relational model. Any discussion of disability is inherently political. Rather than disability being an individual problem or a macro-societal problem, this is a hybrid: "disablement as something that occurs because of ideological systems that disenfranchise disabled people, not individual needs or choices." (Price, 2021). This model pushes back on the disability/impairment dichotomy from the social model: "This model recognizes that it is not the environment that disables us, but our own bodies and minds (e.g. chronic fatigue or pain)." (Accessible Academia)

Green is a colour often used for symbolizing relationships. I think this is compatible with neurodiversity & Deaf pride, while also being open to sick people who want treatment.

🍃

Option 5: eco-crip model. This is in some ways the opposite of the political/relational: the environment is disabling. For example, many environmental toxins are known to cause disabilities. Many disabled people are particularly vulnerable to changes in the physical environment, especially climate change: smoggy air, power outages, evacuations from disasters, are all things that hurt disabled people much harder.

Unlike the radical model, this model views disability as not (only) a social phenomenon: even in a world with universal design everywhere and accommodations in place, a paraplegic still can't hike most trails.

📊

This brings us to six options for models of disability for green. Tumblr lets you only vote for one, but if you like multiple (or you're AGAINST one or more) let me know in the replies/reblogs. 💚

[kn0w-h0p3]

for @kissadyke

[majaurukalo]

But the way we perceive health and ability is truly problematic. No, eating protein shakes, avoiding ultra processed food, training everyday, running on the treadmill, etc. don’t put you out of the “dangers” of disability and illness (if we want to call it that).

No one is immune to illness, bad genes, accidents or old age. And becoming disabled or ill isn’t synonym of failure or “bad behaviours”.

Our bodies are fragile. Human beings are fragile. That’s why disability needs to be taken into account more seriously and considered as a social issue. For you, your loved ones and all the people you don’t know of but who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect no matter the state of their health and abilities.

I didn’t get sick at one year of age because I deserved it or because I was morally corrupt. How could I be? I was 1. It just happened. It was an autoimmune disease. That’s it.

[jarjarblinks]

guys should i go to med school? because based on my health care team, all you have to do is gaslight patients, tell AFABs they have hysteria and Black people that they can’t feel pain. is that— should I go for it I guess? /sarcasm

[olskuvallanpoe]

the fact that disabled people—real OR fictional—have to fall into one of two categories in non-disabled people’s brains is so fucking ableist and really just total bullshit.

I swear some of you can only see disabled people as:

1. the disruptive monster who ruins things for other people

or

2. the weakling who needs never-ending support and is lesser bc of it

the worst part is that people can’t see how dehumanizing and ableist this shit is. treating disabled people not like people but like hindrances. either viewing them or their disabled life as an enemy (1) or assuming this condescending savior role over them like you’re any fucking better than they are just becoming you have a different life experience.

in literature this gets even WORSE bc even if a writer creates these dimensional, believable disabled characters, the audience will still sort them into these two categories. and this is what we teach society: that being disabled means you’re either disruptive and gross or burdensome and pathetic.

as a disabled person myself, I have dedicated my life to trying harder than any non-disabled person around me just to try to get a SHRED of what they get handed to them. and it’s bc of viewpoints like these that disabled people are shut out from these opportunities. higher education holds these prejudices, most places of employment hold these prejudices, and enough of society views disabled people as lesser than that any of the very few accommodations we already had are becoming either physically or socially unusable. Anti-homeless-people architecture that makes it impossible for people to sit down, social profiling based on physical deformities, fucking tsa breaking canes in half just bc they don’t give a shit.

educating our society about the consequences of such blatant misinformation is the first step to improving our world for disabled people. but people can’t even read a book with a disabled character in it without stereotyping them to death.

[sea-critter]

all i know is leslie would have still been masking up and i’m proud of that.

[through-the-heathers]

disability liberation is queer liberation. queer liberation is racial liberation. racial liberation is trans liberation. trans liberation is fat liberation. and so on and so on.

our struggles are not the same, but we belong to the same struggle. we cannot survive without community.