#disability liberation

[low-empathy-advocacy]

don't say "empathy" when you mean "helping others."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "moral values."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "taking people's problems into account."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "sense of justice."

don't say "empathy" when you mean "doing right things."

[osokasstuff]

it is possible to live happy life and have a happy future when you have medium/high support needs. it's possible for us to be accommodated. it's possible to get needs met. it's possible to find a satisfying way of existence.

i want to bring some hope for us. yes, we are often trapped in unsatisfying situations. from abusive homes/bad caretakers/unsupportive environments/etc. to dictatorships that we have additional barriers to escape from.

but. we aren't doomed to stay like this forever. we aren't doomed to live unsatisfying life.

it's possible to get more needs met. it's possible to get supportive and accessible environment. it's possible to flee abusive/toxic/dangerous situations. it's possible to get more joy. it's possible to find community. it's possible to find things that bring you joy, make you feel like you do something meaningful. it's possible to be happy.

i can't promise everything will be good. but i can hope. and i want to share this hope with you. i wish we all get some hope on better future.

[destroyingangelneveragod]

Hi friends, please help this family out. He's under constant sensory overload.

[glitterfop]

Anyway, I'd like to take Brian Thompson's death as an opportunity to remember Carrie Ann Lucas, who was killed by UHC in 2019 in an effort to save the insurance company $2000. She was an activist, lawyer, and mother of 4 in Colorado who helped secure the right for disabled parents to have and keep custody of their children. I had the privilege of meeting one of her colleagues and friends a year or two ago, who introduced me to her work. Rest in peace, Carrie Ann Lucas, you deserved better. My thoughts this week are with her family and the families of everyone who has lost someone to abusive insurance practices.

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2019/02/26/creating-a-disabled-family-the-life-of-carrie-ann-lucas/

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2019/02/26/carrie-ann-lucas-was-a-bamf/

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

I know the Disability Day of Mourning traditionally commemorates disabled people murdered by their parents and/or caregivers, but I wanted to take a moment to also commemorate the disabled lives lost during the genocides taking place in Palestine, the DRC, Sudan, and across the globe (including in the US). There are many ways for a system to perpetuate ableist violence and we must struggle as a community against all of them.

May the disabled souls taken from us rest in peace, every single one, and may the members of the disabled community currently fighting for their lives and the lives of their loved ones receive the support and safety they deserve.

If you have a bit to spare, please consider donating to Crips for eSims for Gaza and supporting their vital work.

[aughwl]

My hottest take on neurodiversity is that I think self-diagnosis isn't just "good enough" when psychiatric diagnosis is too expensive, it's in fact *more legitimate* than an official psychiatric diagnosis. People will always understand themselves better than an outside observer can. Psychiatrists are not neutral reality describers, but play an important role in ableism, as gatekeepers of care.

To be fair to psychiatrists, some of them are less ableist than others and they often do have a lot of experience of interacting with neurodivergent people, so they can connect the dots that people wouldn't be able to connect themselves, and they can teach the vocabulary people need to express themselves. But in a post-ableist society, psychiatrist will only be able to provide people information and insight, and they could not be the gatekeepers of who 'counts' as belonging to a certain category. It stands to reason that in this society, an official diagnosis would not be necessary to get accommodations, as those would be provided according to need by default.

A diagnosis is much more than just a description of someone's psyche, it's an official document that people have to use to interface with other institutions like work and education, and it is thus a political device. It asks you to submit yourself to bureaucracy and official recordkeeping before you can ever get your needs met, it asks you to sacrifice time, money and dignity to get something we could just provide for free if we weren't hung up on making sure people "really deserve it". (this will sound very familiar to trans people) It's not a key to care, it's the gate as well.

Central to mental ableism is the assumption that the mentally ill are untrustworthy and incapable of understanding the world and themselves, and that we need a strong medical authority to straighten their minds.

[jewish-microwave-laser]

i walk into the coffee shop. there is an old couple there. spaghetti western standoff begins playing. i pick one seat and have him lay down, but then i notice another, better seat is open. i grab my things and put them on the new seat. the old lady notices omari and begins cooing and awwing. i ignore her and give omari the command to come, which would mean he needs to walk past the couch the couple is on. he's slow and sleepy, but he makes his way over. at one point, he's almost distracted by a piece of food on the ground, but then redirects himself and continues moseying on over. the old man reaches his hand out right into omari's path and begins waving his fingers to get his attention. omari turns his head to sniff. very firmly, i go "please don't distract my service dog." he pulls his hand back. omari lays down in the new location. the old man mutters sth about omari "being in training." once again, my voice is firm, as i say "he's not in training, he's a full service dog." the man mutters something about me not needing one. instead of causing a scene and cussing him out, i sit down and type this out

[feedists4progress]

[oliveasaltylife]

So funny* to me when very loud disability “activist” type folx will angrily post about needing necessary accessibility accommodations and then turn around posting maskless selfies in public. Your lateral ableism is showing and it’s louder than you intended it to be.

*By funny I mean completely infuriating, but laughing helps me cope

[giantkillerjack]

Hi there, I just wanted to stop by to say thank you for making your recent post about ‘getting dependent on mobility aids’ — I was tempted to comment on the post itself, but since replies have been shut off (which I’m assuming is because people were missing the point?), I figured anonymity would make it easier for me to share this😅 I think it’s important that you know it’s helping not only able bodied people look at it from a different perspective, but other ‘disabled’ people as well.

I’m 23, and have a whole host of health conditions, only a handful of which have actually been diagnosed, the others are still a mystery, and struggle a lot with feeling guilty about taking up space in the community, and the fact that I’m considering getting a mobility aid, because of all of those same reasons people around me have been telling me since I got sick. Reading this post helps make me feel a little bit better about the whole thing, and I just want to thank you for that❤️

— 🥀✨ Anon

[Anon is referring to this satire post I made]

Hey, this is the sweetest most rewarding goddamn message, and I'm incredibly grateful to you for it!! 💖💖💖💖

Also, it validates that everything I write about disability is ultimately written with the hope of making disabled people's lives better, and comments like this mean I am making worthwhile writing/art!!!

Also,

I want to make one thing very very clear:

There IS space for you here.

Obviously I don't speak for the entire disabled community, but I know I am not the only one who sees someone struggling to accept a disabled identity and has the thought, "Hey. Impostor syndrome is basically universal in the newly-disabled. Dont sweat it. You are welcome here."

So... You are welcome here. Says who? Says me. You are allowed to take up space in this community. You have more than permission, you have an invitation. You never needed one to take pride in your identity, but you have it now, in case that helps.

(Learning to undo our own internalized ableism is literally a lifelong process, but it is a worthwhile one.)

The best chances we have at survival and at thriving are by holding onto each other like a goddamn gundam made of cripples and neurodivergents, with no one being left behind.

Therefore, your presence (if you are respectful and kind, which seem to be your vibe) actually ADDS to our collective strength, rather than taking from it.

The actual "limited resources" that we're told disabled people must compete over are a result of systems that enforce a false idea of scarcity and trap us in isolation, poverty, and sickness.

Often, disabled people are the primary lifeline to other disabled people, actually. In my own personal experience (as disability is a huge category and no experience is universal among us except ableism), I've seen VERY little IRL competition among disabled people, but many instances of disabled people working together to demand a better conditions, plus countless instances of disabled people taking care of each other in everyday life.

The "prove you are disabled beyond a shadow of a doubt" mentality also supports these deadly ableist systems because it allows those in power to deny aid to those who cannot meet a ludicrously high burden of proof.

- Fuck that. Fuck that. I believe you. You have a condition that limits your ability? You can't do one or more vital tasks without constant pain?? That's a disability. You're disabled. And there's room for you to sit with us. Welcome.

I know that some people have internalized ableism, and occasionally this community does deal with the issue of gatekeeping. But I really believe those people are a vocal minority of the community as a whole - Most of us are just glad to have another comrade and co-conspirator!

There IS enough for all of us, and historically the only way these systems have actually changed is through a whole lot of disabled people banding together and helping to keep each other alive in the meantime.

And it's okay if what you need to do is just focus on keeping yourself alive. Like I said, you're a vital member of the team now, and the core of disability advocacy is someone should never be left behind. - It is morally and socially right for you to take care of yourself both on a collective and individual level, and that includes experimenting with mobility aids!

BUT ALSO - and this is VITAL - even if you go your WHOLE LIFE using more resources than you are able to provide, even if you can "only" contribute the extensive labor of keeping yourself alive for your entire life, you'd still DESERVE COMFORT, RESPECT, ACCOMMODATION, AND CARE. You would still be a valued part of this team because people who need a lot of help are not "drains", they are ENTIRE PEOPLE.

YOU are an entire person!

And if we as disabled people only measure value by how much a person can DO, then we become no better than the ableist systems that terrorize our lives whether we have accepted disability as an identity or not!

You are worth the effort of caring for you because you are ALIVE and a PERSON.

And while I don't believe in laziness as a concept, this would include you even if you were "lazy". Even if you were mean. I probably wouldn't want to invite a mean person to stuff - but like I said, you don't need an invitation to be in this community. You don't need permission to care for yourself or to have the rights of a full person!

Sacrifice for no reason is just self-harm!

You deserve accommodation because it is a HUMAN RIGHT to reduce pain and improve your quality of life without hurting anyone!!! You are wanted here even if you cannot fight or advocate or produce!!! It is not selfish to care for yourself with the tenderness you would show to a little puppy in pain! Or if it is, then maybe selfishness can be beautiful sometimes! - That is the core tenet of cripple punk and of disability liberation. ALL of us matter. Period. End of sentence. Full stop.

... All this to say, I think getting a mobility aid is a great idea!! And it makes me so so happy to rep how amazing it is to have the accommodations you need!

Just yesterday, I went out with my new rollator for the first time (now that I finally live somewhere without stairs!), and I felt so happy and free that even though I just went to a grocery store pharmacy, I had the BEST TIME. I can't run on my own, but with the rollator? I can really move!! I was beaming the whole time!

I even crossed paths with an older woman in my building who was complaining about how embarrassing it was to be the only person with the walker on the floor, and the way that her expression changed when she saw me and when I said how happy I was to have my new walker is something that will stick with me forever! (Her aid worker actually hugged me - it was a magical pharmacy trip, y'all - and my joints feel AMAZING getting exercise I couldn't do without the walker!)

For years now, every time I stand or walk somewhere, being upright has been a matter of calculating how much pain I can take before it is unbearable - mapping out stoops to sit on, places on the ground less likely to be wet from rain, store floors to collapse on - but with my rollator (which I have named Blue Gator the Rollator)??? I SIT THE SECOND I NEED TO, AND WITH THIS POWER I WALKED FURTHER THAN I HAVE IN YEARS.

It brings me immense joy to let people know how important that is, how important their comfort is. To get people to question how much pain and isolation must actually be cultivated and sacrificed on the altar of "move like an abled person"!!

What a badass act of rebellion to say "fuck you I'm getting that goddamn cane and I might get a walker while I'm at it!!!", "fuck you I don't deserve to be in unnecessary pain!!!", "fuck you i don't deserve to be doing constant damage to my joints and nervous system by standing in pain all the time!!!"

Plus, I keep a water bottle and a folding cane (and a phone charger and a notebook) in the little pouch under the rollator seat! (and this time I actually read the safety manual, which everyone should do!)

Okay this got really long (and at some point half the draft got deleted and had to be re-written from memory), but tbh I'm not sorry. I don't know you, but I'm terribly proud of you. Like, the pride fills my chest with warm expanding light when i think of someone coming closer to getting the things they need to thrive.

I hope you get all the accommodations you need and then some more on top of that! You deserve less pain! You deserve to take up space! You deserve to sit with us if you want to! Welcome welcome welcome welcome welcome. ❤

P.S. I actually didn't get any nasty replies to the post itself - I had to change the reply settings on my account because of an unrelated post in which I criticized the queerbaiting in a popular piece of media, and thus was suffering a Deluge of people sliding into the replies to defend the queerbaiting like they were Sherlock/Supernatural fans in the year 2010. 😅 but I am very happy you reached out anyway!!! Thank you again! You made my day!! 🥰🥰🥰

[low-empathy-advocacy]

shout out to nonhumans/alterhumans/therians/otherkins/etc. with low/no empathy. if "empathy makes us humans," then i'd rather not. i don't care about being human (tm) because i'm very much not.

and it's kinda funny when you have to argue with ableists about "empathy is what makes us humans!" while internally you are like "sounds like your problem because i'm not human so i don't give a slightest fuck about being seen as human."

while it's important to recognize that:

- empathy isn't an universal human experience (tm)

- empathy shouldn't be required to be treated with basic decency and respect

- dehumanization is an oppressive tool that used to justify abuse towards marginalized groups ("they're lesser than us, they're not real beings, so harm made to them doesn't count")

- apathetic individuals, humans or not, deserve their rights respected

- apathetic humans shouldn't get their humanity stripped away from them

- there is no such thing as "universal human experience" (tm)

there are some kind of temptation to reply to "empathy makes us humans!!" with "well i'm not one of you so stop applying your human expectations to me."

[osokasstuff]

"don't you want everyone to be healthy?!?!" actually, no. i don't want everyone to be healthy. i'm perfectly able to survive the fact that some people won't be healthy under no circumstances and that some people don't want to be healthy at all. i don't want these people to disappear. i appreciate their existence and their perspectives.

people aren't obligated to be healthy or strive to be healthy. being healthy isn't the best option for everyone. being healthy isn't the main goal (or important goal, or goal at all) for everyone.

there's nothing wrong with being unhealthy. and there's nothing wrong with choosing to be unhealthy/not trying to become healthier.

and i won't even talk about how far society's perceptions of "healthy" are from what is actually healthy, at least now. and how the whole concept of health is full of prejudices.

being healthy isn't the greater good. being healthy isn't the best way of living for everyone. being healthy should never be a requirement.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Hello Earth! Looking to make connections with likeminded people and share good news and positive ideas. Not sure what this blog will evolve into (probably nothing as I have a busy life) but I’d love to follow you if you’re posting about similar stuff!

[sen-thebootmutt]

listen i'm also in the camp of anti surveillance spy devices but you gotta think about what you're actually telling people when you say shit like that about smart home devices. i'm disabled and mostly bedbound and i can control my own lights for the first time in years and i can control my tv without struggling to move my fingers around a remote control because of my smart home setup. i have to give up my own privacy to do it and i'm not happy about it but you have to think of them as accessibility devices too. predatory accessibility devices i'll give you that, they absolutely pray disproportionately on profoundly disabled people like me who rely on them for day to day life and harvest data from vulnerable folks who can't live without them and i'd really rather google wasn't listening to everything i said. but there's a good number of people in the world who don't get much choice at all and they're not even that much of a minority or exception. maybe instead of taking your anger out on people who use these devices you could use the same energy to target companies, not for creating smart devices, but for using disabled people's accessibility devices for unethical data harvesting and spying. i can promise you that telling people they're Bad and making Bad Choices for using these things isnt going to do much other than make people feel like a bag of shit for relying on them.

I'm gonna be honest with you anon, on two things. 1:) I don't know which post you're talking about. These are absolutely things I've said, and things I think, but I don't recall the post. And 2:) you are absolutely right. I never considered smart home devices in terms of accessibility. This is my abled privilege, that I never had to see the world with this lens before. And you're right on another count; capitalists absolutely pray on disabled people's need for accessibility to buy and sell their privacy. And we should put the pressure and the blame squarely at the foot of the capitalists who target disabled folks.

I'm taking an L on this one, y'all. And I'm shifting my politics to be more intersectional with disability liberation. Thanks for educating me, anon.

[rainbowpopeworld]

The moral of Rudolph the Red nose reindeer is that no one likes you unless you’re useful.

[thesquishyfish]

Reading a lot of disability liberation posts today and so many people have to prove to everyone around them, including medical professionals, that they are in fact disabled for real and not just faking it, that they actually need that wheelchair or those crutches or whatever, and my question is why does it matter? If someone else is using a wheelchair that they “don’t need” it really does not affect things that much. Also I’d rather have a bunch of people “faking it” and “getting away with it” than having people get harassed for tools they need