#disability adjustment

[ceilidhtransing]

It never escapes my notice, as a glasses-wearer who is severely impaired without them, that the kind of people who come out of the woodwork to tell people who take medication, use disability aids, etc "are you sure you want to be dependent on drugs / aids / whatever for the rest of your life?" never come for people who need glasses.

I need glasses to live, and I know that I will probably be dependent on glasses for the rest of my life. It's a debated topic whether "terrible eyesight that's easily corrected with glasses" counts as a Disability™ or not, but I know that I am very disabled without glasses and I'm just as dependent on them to go about my life as, say, someone completely paralysed from the waist down is dependent on a wheelchair. Yet the weird ableist attitude about how "awful" and "life-ruining" it is to be "dependent on something" doesn't rear its head for glasses-wearers.

And this attitude always baffles me because not only is it not actually a shameful disaster to be "dependent on something for the rest of your life", as it's so often presented in abled society, but also because if you need something in order to live your life - a cane, a daily dose of medication, an accessibility adjustment, a hearing aid, a pair of glasses, or anything else - then you need it, and whether it would somehow be "preferable" not to be "dependent on that for the rest of your life" is a completely irrelevant question. That's not a choice you can make. "I had to choose between being dependent on glasses for the rest of my life, or simply Getting Good and not being shortsighted anymore" - like, what?????

If you need something for your disability, then whether you'd "rather not be dependent on it" is not the choice abled people seem to think it is. Hand-wringing about "but wouldn't you rather not be dependent on that?" [undertone: "shouldn't you be trying harder to not need that"] is completely tangential to the point: because if you need something, then either you have access to the thing that allows you to live a full(er) life, or you are denied access to that thing, but whether you have it or not you're still going to need it.

And if abled people are able (...no pun intended) to not be weird about people who will be dependent on glasses for the rest of their lives, they can sure as hell not be weird about people who are dependent on medication, aids, adjustments, or whatever else.

[noliaert]

"Show me were you go at night", featuring a cigarette kiss

Fixed up on this one again

[opalsiren]

when your doctor tells you to take more medication you know won't work and come back again in three months

[defiantcripple]

Just found out the tax return I'm using to buy forearm crutches can take 8 weeks to get to me. Having legs can wait, I guess.

Also, the fact that I have to use my tax return to be able to walk is fucking dystopian as shit, I hate it here.

[transjudas]

“I found for me, being creative and writing songs or writing short stories or creating something or poetry or something like that – if it came out good, if I enjoyed it, I could kind of ride that creative high for at least a day or two. And I felt normal again,” he says. “I would have to force myself to do something productive, and then it made me forget about myself.”  (x, x)

[mrghostrat]

I FUCKING LOVE BNF AU RAHHHHHHHH

do you have a friend help you with the discord messages? or do you have two seperate accounts you made just for the fic?

i wrote them all myself! and then used a workskin to make it appear like discord in ao3 :) this way you can disable the workskin, use reader mode, or download an epub etc and it'll still appear as plain text like the rest of the fic.

[panncakes]

stuck thinking about when day gets crowded and overwhelmed on his birthday he calls out to gee of all people there to remove him from the situation; and how when day tells her he wants to be alone she makes sure he knows she wants to understand him and he can talk to her (not to help him or to fix things for him; simply to understand him) and when day reaffirms a boundary she accepts this and doesn't press further. he's her friend and she cares for him but he's still an adult and she has no problem treating him as such and i think that at the moment she is the only one from day's past who is actively able to do so

[ackee]

sorry to all the shy shawties who wish to send me asks.. literally being silenced for almost 4 weeks now...

[thatqueerbat]

how many times do people need to hear this

Do Not Touch People's Mobility Aids Without Getting Permission First !!!!

especially if you're a total stranger!!!!

idc if you're 'just trying to help'. or 'being nice'. you can mean well and do the worst shit on the planet. doesn't change anything.

ask. first. or die c:

[dykesynthezoid]

Not looking forward to the “hey some disabled people really would want the option of a miracle cure and might not consider a disabled character being cured an inherently ableist concept but also yes there is a pre-existing troubling and pervasive trend around how disabled characters being cured is handled in fiction” discussion to be had over Daniel in s3 bc nobody can ever be chill and normal about it

[warpolomewdarkmatter]

cumbersome and heavy body

[strange-nd-creature]

any tips to get exercise when you’re disabled? i recently acquired some issues that make my muscles feel weak. it’s kind of exhausting to try to do physical activity, but i know it’s really not healthy to keep living in my house like this. thanks if you help me :)

[whoblewboobear]

Chronic pain having disabled Jace with a mobility aid 💖

[voidscreamns]

./

[virtualplushy]

not gonna say too much ab this right now bc i am literally in the throes of grief as we speak but. as a chronically ill person i see a lot of discussion around grieving our past selves/what we are now unable to do, but more than anything else i feel a lot of grief about my future. everything looks so different from how it did before. it’s scary and unfamiliar and i don’t know how to navigate it. and nobody can do it for me. i have to figure it out and i have to do it myself and i have to do it alone

[b-blushes]

please clap i am facing the horrors of evolving disability and am researching if i can do anything more in my daily life instead of burying my head in the ground 👍

here's some leaflets that disabled/chronically ill pals might appreciate, i found them on the papworth hospital website (prestigious cardiology hospital in the uk) This one's about energy conservation (focussing on fatigue and breathlessness, 2 of my enemies) - using your energy wisely in order to improve quality of life https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/application/files/3215/8590/5483/PI_179_Energy_Conservation_A4_v2.pdf Here's a leaflet about general exercises "for people who are weak and/or breathless" (obligatory disclaimer that i'm not your doctor or a doctor at all) https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/application/files/9917/0049/6038/PI-48-General-exercise-programme-vs5.pdf Here's a leaflet about 'good posture' (it was written for people with cystic fibrosis originally) https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/application/files/6515/5844/9672/PI_154_Improving_your_posture_vs2.pdf some may say that this does not need to be a blog post BUT it is very lonely being ill. and it can be really hard to find resources. number one lifesaving thing for me since becoming disabled i think (apart from the times that i can get good medical care) is community (knowing people who understand and support each other). unfortunately i already do pretty much all of the suggestions in the energy conservation leaflet (the main thing that's causing me issues right now) but it is helpful to know that it's real. it just sucks that i keep looking for suggestions to make changes to improve and there aren't any more, suggesting that this is the 'best' i can get. perhaps because like. this is my condition. I find it really hard to know when to believe there's more you can do and when there just isn't and you're as 'good' as you're gonna get! I don't know who to ask about this, or if it's something/ a 'decision' (realisation?) that has to come from me.

In the meantime I'll continue to try to gently look up things when I feel like I can face it, and do my best to continue putting everything into place the rest of the time.