#me when the service dog autism

[shadesofjinx]

There was a guide dog at the MN Gophers v. PA Mercyhurst hockey game!! 🦮

[permanently-sprained-ankle]

Disabled POC face a unique combination of racism+ableism in reaction to their disability.

I’m more likely to get the cops called on me for bringing my service dog into a shop than a white person with a service dog.

I’m often labeled aggressive and violent when advocating for myself, while white people are more likely to be dismissed as a frustration or a nuisance.

Disabled people of color are more likely to be viewed as a threat whereas white disabled people are more likely to be viewed as weak and pitiful.

While all disabled people, regardless of race, are going to face medical neglect/mistreatment, disabled POC will face additional neglect due to racial bias in healthcare.

In fact, POC are more likely to *become* disabled due to medical negligence than a white person.

My experiences with ableism are largely impacted by race in a way that white disabled people don’t face when experiencing ableism.

[Image ID: White text in a Galaxy background reads If you: Derail my posts; are an “aspie”; run a sh/ed blog; are under 16; are a TERF; think cripplepunk is for mental disabilities; think that autism isn’t a disorder; are pro-transabled, trace, transage, etc; are pro-map or pro-zoo; are a transmed; want to completely demedicalize autism, I will probably block or mock you. End ID]

[vind3miat0r]

Disabled Speaker hcs :3

sum headcanons for disabled!speakers that i thought i would share :3 (aka me realizing i have a horrible habit of keeping headcanons to myself 💀)

enjoy :3

hard of hearing and autistic David who didnt like wearing his hearing aids when he was a teen because they were uncomfy and everything was too loud and overstimulating. he eventually acclimated himself to them but some days doesnt wear them bc he knows it would be too much for him

Asher with an audio processing disorder (projection moment)

Milo loosing 50% of his sense of taste after stepping into the ward during the Inversion. he started packing spices into the food that he cooked so he could taste them again

more under the cut

Sam had Wilson’s Disease before he was turned (bonus hc that vampires’ bodies are forever caught in whatever state they were in when they got turned. example: if someone had gotten chemotherapy the day before they were turned, they would always have that lingering sense of fatigue afterwards. their disease never went away, it was just put on hold forever. so, Sam still has Wilson’s Disease, it was just caught at a time where it was under control)

Vincent has pain flareups + some numbness in his left arm due to it literally getting separated from his body during the accident (William managed to reattach it) (bonus hc: Vincent had asthma before he was turned :3)

Porter has panic disorder (Treasure has implored that he looks for a doctor or therapist that could help him, but he believes that he doesnt deserve the help 💔)

*projects my autism onto the entire DAMN Crew*

Caelum who isnt disabled but makes sure to research disabilities any of his charges have

autistic Gavin because i said so

Lasko having some sort of spine/leg injury related to his home life as a kid and having to use a cane/crutches as a result

Damien who had mild anxiety that spiked after the Inversion, and ended up getting a service dog

Huxley with sleep apnea because i said so‼️

uhh yeah thats abt it :3 lmk if i should make a part two :D

[immaculatemadonna23]

It's Innocence's birthday and I really didn't have the slightest idea what to draw for her. I've always considered myself more of a writer type but maybe a little fic or two here on tumblr wouldn't hurt. So to accompany this simple post I'll give you some little facts about her <3

• She is 1:45 tall, she could be said to be 4'9, she is shorter than Ivy Pepper.

•  She likes to have long conversations with the pigeons that perch on her window in her small room.

•  She has undiagnosed Asperger's, at that time there was still no name for autism spectrum disorder grade one. (That's one of the few things she got from me.)

•  It is obvious that she is Catholic, she would probably get along a bit with Nina. There was a time when she thought about becoming a novice but the world of American shows caught her attention more.

•She is asexual but she wants her own baby.

•  Her father's real name is Antonio Lunanova (I changed the origin of the surname a little) a Spanish man of Sicilian descent, albino, cigar fanatic and captain of merchant ships. He does not know that he has a daughter but he suspects that paying for Keiko's services without protection could have had its consequences.

• If she were a modern girl, she would have a fixation on the magical girl genre Mahou Shoujo and shoujo in general.

• She came to America in October 1923, met Rocky at a train station when she was 14 and he was 17, becoming traveling and wandering companions. This being an Au, things change a little but most everything stays the same.

• As we know, she has feelings for Rocky since she met him but he doesn't see her as anything more than a little sister or someone who gives him the closest thing to "motherly concern" and "having Calvin around." He doesn't really notice her until 1927 when she is about to turn 19, but he has always appreciated her.

• She has a very good relationship with Viktor, she likes to ask him for favors and she thinks she bothers him a lot but he doesn't really care, he doesn't find her scandalous.

•She has a collection of not so ugly sweaters and cardigans that Mrs. Bapka makes for her, in exchange for living with her for free she does the housework for her and prevents her from throwing food in the pipe.

• She doesn't have a good knowledge of the underworld, to her Rocky is just a musician in a cafe, Calvin is the guy who comes to fix the pipe, Ivy is that archetype of girI she would like to be and Viktor is her kind tall neighbor with a cool accent. Her first contact with the criminal world as such is having been hired by Asa to do small singing shows at the Marigold Room because of how exotic she seemed to him, they have a good relationship, but she doesn't really know much about him. Maybe i can dig deeper into that later.

• If she were a dog (Lackadogs xD) she would be a toy poodle, and if she were another non-domestic animal she would be a lamb. I like to lower her ears a lot because it reminds me of little lambs.

• Her favorite series would probably be Wallace and Gromit.

•And Her favorite tale of all the time is the Little Mermaid by Andersen.

•She adores the people with black and blonde hair.

•She would have loved Malice Mizer, Mecano, Metallica, Madonna, Melanie Martínez, Mitski and My Chemical Romance (And more things but without M Caravan Palace... The musical tastes are mine too).

•I could say that the flower that most symbolizes her is the white poinsettia.

•Her voice/singing claim Is Adriana Caselotti in the Snow White movie and in spanish is Amparo Garrido and Lupita Pérez Arias for her singing claim. (from the 1964 mexican dub of Snow White of course.)

[winn-schott-throughtheheart]

I am a truther of Winn with disabilities like hearing loss, POTS (reflecting onto him from myself hehe), chronic pain, uses mobility aids n stuff, stuff like that!!! Do u have any headcannons like that? :33

for continuity's sake i won't be including specifically autistic headcanons in here even though it is a disability, just cause I already answered an ask about autistic headcanons :33

(also I realised I misread the original ask so it took me a hot minute lmfao)

POTS:

• i think I put in the post this ask was about about him leaning on the solid mass of kara or mon whenever he feels faint or dizzy and just. yeah that's good stuff. monwinnara my beloveds

• he Will steal salt packets whenever he can. they're fucking everywhere. if you put your hand into any one of his pockets in any item of clothing, there will be a salt packet.

• which also works in warding kara off eating his food, and also anyone else in the break room

• he Will fall if he stands up too fast.

• Floor Time is a must. when he gets home it's Floor Time.

wheelchair/mobility aids:

• The way I imagine this one is the explosion at the funeral in 3x14 injuring his back. maybe it doesn't paralyse him fully, but he spends a lot of time in a lot of pain and it takes a long time for him to get around on his own.

• he uses crutches on good days, but can walk short distances without them, he's just a little wobbly because his legs are weaker

• he's just overcome with fresh hatred for his father, because he's spent literally his whole life doing things on his own and refusing help, and now he's constantly relying on other people just to move around, and he hates it.

• "do you know how pathetic this makes me feel?"

• it takes a long time for him to get used to it, but the anger he feels towards his father never really goes away.

• under no circumstances is anyone allowed to push him. at all. he needs to maintain some kind of control and independence

• James is awful at acknowledging this

• as he gets more used to it the more comfortable he gets using his wheelchair. he decorates it with stickers

• he mostly uses his crutches at home, since the distances are shorter and it's bulky and frustrating having to maneuver a wheelchair in his apartment

• he hides it well, but he's always in some kind of pain. it's worse when he pushes himself, even though he won't admit it, because winn schott is a stubborn bastard.

• it also very much impacts his autism- he's a lot more aware of everything now that he has to be so aware of his body, and he gets overstimulated (and melts down) a lot more easily as a result of that.

• maybe he has a cool cane too- it takes him a while to get round to using it, because it's a lot more obvious he's chronically disabled using a cane than using crutches

• a part of him hates all of it because he doesn't like drawing attention to himself especially in public (he will around the people he trusts, when he feels safe)

hearing loss:

• in my mind this might go hand in hand with the wheelchair one, the explosion at the funeral damaging his hearing

• maybe it takes him a while to notice. as an autistic person, I personally have SUCH a hard time recognising patterns in real time- stuff like taking medicine making me feel better, specific things causing allergic reactions, etc etc, so it might be similar for winn. takes him a while to notice that, no, this is wrong

• if it's enough for him to need hearing aids, once he's used to it, he'll just take them out whenever he needs a bit of peace and quiet like when he's working

• and then he'll get in the zone and won't notice people trying to get his attention, which makes him a hell of a lot more jumpy

service dog! :

• autism service dog? maybe pots? some kind of fainting spell service puppy? ptsd?

• kara is utterly enamoured immediately. it takes SO much of her energy not to distract the dog.

• mon-el had to have a very stern talking to about how to act around the dog because he'd never met a service dog before

• he was very understanding but it took a while before he felt comfortable petting her or anything when she was off duty just in case he hurt winn by distracting her

• man I want to come up with a cute name and everything.

• im gonna go with mable mable is cute

• with the amount of times the deo gets attacked on the regular, it does make winns anxiety spike at the thought of bringing her to work

• they manage to train her to run to a specific place when the alarms go off so it's easy to find her- this actually took a while because she was very reluctant to leave winns side in an emergency

• im imagining cat not being all that happy about having to have a dog in the office lol. of course she allows it without question, but she is pleasantly surprised/relieved at how she will just stay put and sleep under winns desk unless she's alerted to something

• i SO need to draw this

• it took a while for his cat to acclimatise to the dog. winn felt bad so he made sure to pay extra attention to him to make sure he didn't feel left out

Fibromyalgia/chronic pain:

recently learned that this can be caused by significant mental trauma, so thought it'd be interesting to explore for whump reasons

• like the hearing loss one, it takes him a long time to notice something is wrong

• maybe it starts to manifest after the events of 1x10- I mean the guy was kidnapped, drugged and bound by the person he despises most in the world, and then forced to almost kill someone, I would count that as significant mental trauma

• he thinks he's just tired and sore because he's overworking himself. he's struggling to sleep and the nightmares get worse because of it, making him reluctant to even try

• particularly because it hurts most in his neck, back and hips, he thinks it's because he's spent too long slouching over a screen

• he starts declining invitations to go out on the weekends because he just needs to rest and recover, literally just lying in bed or the couch for days. it's like this for months before he realises this is probably not normal

• the fatigue and the brain fog start impacting his work and the first time cat sends him home because of it is the wake up call

• eventually he learns to hide it, because it just isn't going away no matter what he does, so he's gonna have to learn to live with it

• when he moves to the deo and starts spending more time around j'onn, there's something that's about winns mental/physical signature that j'onn notices is different from every other agent

• it takes him a while to realise that it's pain, winn is just in pain all the time, and had he not been psychic he literally wouldn't have known, because winn just buckles down and gets on with the tasks he's assigned, usually going above and beyond, without so much as a sigh

• not that he was hard on him before, but j'onn goes easier on him after he realises this. when he notices winn rubbing/massaging his neck or trying to stretch his back more often than usual, he'll make up a task for him to go do that lets him relax for a little while

• sometimes he stops by and does some dishes or some laundry when winn physically can't bring himself to get out of bed and there's stuff that needs doing, which he is infinitely thankful for. winn schott x healthy father figure my BELOVED

anyway ill stop here for now, but please let me know if you want some more/specific conditions to project onto him ! i want to draw winn and mabel like as soon as humanly possible oh my god. also I feel I should clarify just in case this isn't meant to romanticise or sexualise or villainise disabilities!! this is only meant to explore different conditions using my fav blorbo as the test subject <3

[autismisaokay]

Hey everyone with pride month coming up wanted to go over a couple of things for autistic folks but can be applied to neurodivergence too.

For my autistic audiences:

- Bring headphones or ear plugs Pride is usually loud. If you are doing this and are with a party of people make sure you have some sort of signal for when someone wants your attention that you have agreed upon before entering Pride.

- This brings me to my next point, if you can, go in a group or at least with one other person. Especially if your Pride is one of the bigger ones. It helps to have people with you who can talk to vendors if you struggle with social situations, volume control, or are non-verbal.

- Try and map out which areas are going to be quietist and where to meet up if you get lost. For example if there is an area for picnicking that might have less people. If you are able to get to the car you arrived in easily and need to take space and can come back into Pride without that being a problem go there.

- To brings: re-fillable water bottle, cash, credit/debit card, ID, phone charger, portable phone battery, snacks, sunblock, a light but secure bag or fanny pack, a disposable water poncho, headache meds, sun burn gel or lotion, bug spray, fidget, if you have one an autism/neurodiversity card explaining what’s going on and accommodations that help you. They may not be met and not everyone will know what to do with that information or respect it but it’s better to have it then not incase someone does.

- Wear comfortable shoes you may be doing a lot of walking that day.

- Pets and service animals come to pride too! Please respect the animals space and their owners. Look for a vest stating if they are a service animal or do not touch. Always ask if you can pet the animal before interacting.

Signs of distress in dogs: ears are facing back, tail is in-between their legs, the whites of their eyes are more visible, the dog looks rigid or more weight is in their rear legs, pacing, shaking, panting this may mean they are hot or excitable as well, turning their face away.

- If you get lost and your party is not at the meet up spot and you can’t get ahold of that person. Go to the information both, find staff or a volunteer, or find the area where all of the non-profits and medical organizations are. Non-profits may have someone who works with neurodivergent folks or has training on it, same for medical areas.

- Look for local prides that will be smaller in size if larger crowded areas are a struggle.

Interacting with vendors:

- Common apps vendors use are Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal. Pre-download them onto your phone if you haven’t and feel comfortable doing so.

- When taking a free sample take 1-3. Unless a vendor has specified verbally or with a sign on how much to take. If you would like a specific thing make sure there aren’t as many people around while picking because it make take a while to find it and can lead to crowding and larger waits. If Pride is closing make sure to also not take long and if you can’t find what you are looking within 2 minutes then leave.

- Speak directly and clearly to a vendor. Or have a person you’ve brought to help you or an assistive tech device.

- People work hard on their crafts and art unless they are willing to negotiate do not haggle or give someone a hard time on a price.

Last but not least:

Pride is for everyone if you see someone there that is making you uncomfortable but is not physically harming you or someone else then leave that area.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for not giving someone the wifi password and not telling my parents about it when they asked?

this happened a while ago and ik it sounds trivial but i feel so damn guilty and i just need to know if i did something wrong (fake names used ofc)

so about seven or eight months ago a friend of mine (liz, 16f at the time, now 17) was brought to our house. child protection services had taken her and her two brothers (they're all adopted, but one of the boys is her biological brother, who i'll call james) from their parents because the boys did something to their neighbor's dogs and were found wandering all over town at night. i'm not sure exactly what as i've never been told, but i deeply suspect it was something sexual. i'm not sure. about a week before this, my friend's dogs were brought over here, again because cps wanted them removed.

so my friend is now staying with me (16f) and my twin sister sister (anna). we have a large "closet" that is really more of an attic than anything, so we put liz in there because our house is small and we didn't want her sleeping on the couch.

for about a month, things went pretty well. we had a good time! we hung out a lot, and she told me about some volunteer firefighting she did, and also some farming stuff she did with her adoptive uncle (this is important for later). but she had a secret cellphone (her parents weren't big on cellphones and they were kinda strict) that she used to do social media behind their backs. most importantly, she was talking to an older guy (axel, 28m) via snapchat. anna and i have autism and adhd and are kinda clueless about some things, so we didn't think it was such a big deal at the time. so when she asked for the wifi password, i thought nothing of it. one day when my mom asked if she had a phone, i told her no bc liz asked me not to tell my parents and i thought being loyal to her was the right thing

well, one day, liz found her biological family via facebook and started contacting them

from what little i've heard, liz and james were taken from their bio parents because the mom was an alcoholic and doing drugs, and the dad was abusing them. they never visited the kids once. but now this mom is telling liz that she wants the kids back, and because of this, liz really wanted to go back to her bio family, even though they lived in another state that was pretty far away.

so she goes up to my mom and tries to talk to her about it. also, cps came by again and said liz couldn't sleep in the room she'd been sleeping in anymore because it had no windows and thus no fire escape. and my mom found out about the phone and the older guy she was talking to. things finally got so stressful that my parents had to have liz moved to another home about an hour away

now here's why i think i was the asshole. apparently, liz had been lying to me A LOT. she never actually did the firefighting work (she did some cooking for them. that's it) and when she said she knew how to milk a cow, she actually didn't know how, AND THEN WENT ON TO MILK OUR COW ANYWAY. IN FRONT OF MY DAD. it was insane and it made anna and i freak out because we have a hard time making friends sue to previous bullying issues at a school we'd gone to

later on i overheard my mom telling my dad that she was afraid that the bio parents were trying to groom her or something, and they didn't know i'd heard that. so now i'm afraid that i'm responsible for my friend leaving and all that. also, since she's left, liz has gone on to refuse to go back to her adoptive parents and has basically made their lives hell. and she keeps getting james upset by trying to convince him into thinkking that he should want to go back to the bio parents

so am i the asshole for hiding stuff frmo my parents?

(fyi: they have since known that i gave her the wifi password. they were pissed, but they realized that i didn't know any better and aren't mad at me)

What are these acronyms?

[fuck-customers]

I really wish people would understand that I don't read minds.

Right before I went home yesterday, a family came in with a huge metal water bottle. Like, a full gallon/3 liters. We don't allow metal bottles because we've had them used as a bludgeoning weapon.

Me: "Unfortunately, you're not really supposed to bring in the metal bottle."

Customer: "No its fine, we've done it before." [Starts to walk past me towards my manager]

Me: "You can ask my manager if you want, and if she says you're good, then you're good. But I'm not allowed to okay it."

So he starts chewing out my manager about how I'm horrible and hate disabled people because his son needs the giant metal bottle for his medical condition. So the manager tells him he can bring the bottle in and then comes over to talk to me.

Manager: "Next time, when you tells you it's for his son's medical condition, just let him being it in"

Me: "Literally all he said to me was 'no its fine, we've done it before.' He said nothing about his son having a medical condition."

Manager: "Oh. Well, just for next time, let them bring it in"

But I see hundreds of customers a day and I'm bad with faces (autism) and have brain damage that affects my vision; I can't promise I'll recognize them next time, if he doesn't fucking say anything. And no, he doesn't need to tell me how son's full medical history and all that; I am multiply disabled, and I know how this shit works. I see it as no different than a service dog. If my friend walked in to a grocery store with her dog, who isn't wearing any sort of vest or any indication that it is actually a service dog and not just a pet, and then just said "no its fine, I've done it before" instead of being like "its my service dog", then of course the store is gonna tell her she can't bring her dog in.

They were already in their movie by the time I left, which was a little sad because part of me wanted to wave with my cane in hand (they don't let me use my cane while I'm working, which is a whole other story that I've talked about before on here) because other than my cane, I don't look visibly disabled, other than the fact that a lot of people interpret my Autism Vibes and Generally Dopey Face (I have a big head and tiny eyes, so I look a bit like that meme/filter people do where they shrink the face) as meaning I'm intellectually disabled, which I'm not (no shade on intellectually disabled people, y'all are great, it's just the wrong term in my case). I don't think the customer made that assumption though, given what he said. But if he did, he's even more of a dick. Just use your damn words. It's not that hard.

[mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers]

Okay I just speedran The Sunshine Court in like 12 hours. I will be rereading it soonly and giving more coherent thoughts but here’s my main takeaways:

- Thought #1: Holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck this book exists. I am on the floor I’m so fucking excited.

Spoilers below the cut

- I absolutely love that we get both Jean and Jeremy POVs. It’s great especially because Jean is an oblivious and traumatized and if we just see things through his eyes we would never get to see Jeremy PINING like an absolute icon. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s about the pining, the waiting, the yearning. I’m simple man, I like my books gay, angsty, and with tension you could cut with a knife. This delivers on all accounts.

- I love getting to see the end of tkm from Jean’s perspective. Getting to see him watch the Foxes v Ravens game was incredible. I’m a very big fan.

- Renee and Jean time! Renee giving Jean her cross necklace. I’m in tears, I’m dead, I’m on the floor. It’s not the right time for us 😭. Excuse me? I’m unwell.

- Kevin Day, queen of my heart! Getting to see how someone other than Neil canonically sees Kevin is an absolute treat for me. Jean’s weakness for beautiful men has become known. Me too Jean, me too.

- Jeremy, light of my life, I can’t believe you’re rich. At least your family sucks because I don’t think I could take it if your family was wealthy and nice.

- Jeremy + Jean meeting for the first time. Jeremy trying and failing to play with a yo-yo. I’d die for you. They are ADHD 🤝 Autism solidarity me thinks.

- Montana has a pro Exy team which is not at all plausible but I’ll let it slide because one Montana mention for the win and two the team is called the Rustics which is absolutely what we’d call a pro sports team if we had one. The only reason Montanan’s at large would commit to indoor lacrosse is that Kayleigh Day was Irish and so solidarity.

- Laila and Cat, my beloveds. The description of their apartment has me yearning for the same. They have a bay window with a window seat okay. That’s like in my top three desires for a home.

- Carboard cutout dog with a classic Nora pet name. I’ll love Mister B forever. I love how Jeremy keeps moving him around. I love how Jean hates it.

- Trans characters! Poly characters! Nonbinary characters! Nora, my birthday has come a little late but damn this was a gift!

- I am absolutely pronouncing Jean wrong in my head probably 70% of the time.

- I’m so fucking angry at the Ravens. My blood is boiling and I want to cry. Jean deserved better, Kevin deserved better, Riko deserved better. All the Ravens deserved better. I want to put Tetsugi Moriyama into a blender and feed him to the crows.

- Jean was 16. I’m absolutely incandescent with rage.

- Jeremy is so patient with Jean and I will forever love him for that.

- This book was a lot shorter time frame than I was expecting, mainly because I keep forgetting there’s going to be another one.

- The food control but is driving me crazy. It makes me so fucking mad. Let my boy eat. I want him to be happy.

- Jeremy has seen Jean looking 👀 ummmmmm hello? “More exclusively than you do, I think.” I’m on the floor.

- Laila buying Jean a sex toy?!? Oh my god. What would she even get him? I feel like he deserves a vibrating cock ring or something fun like that. That way service top™️ Jeremy Knox can use it on him when they finally get together.

- I love seeing Neil from Jean’s perspective. It’s funny how different he is from my perspective and Jean’s/everyone else’s. I’ve spent so much time thinking about him from Andrew’s pov that it’s weird seeing him through anyone else’s. Everyone is like this scrappy irritating son of bitch is gonna get what’s coming to him, and Andrew is like, well I can’t not fuck him.

- The second Jean mentions Drake to Neil. And then Neil immediately calls a hit out on Gr@yson. Neil, you will always be famous to me.

- Jean-Yves! I hope he starts using his full name again at some point.

- Elodie :(((((( I can imagine what Jean’s going through and I am so afraid for him. If he keeps pushing all these feelings down he’s going to break sooner or later, but probably sooner.

- Jeremy’s unconditional support of Jean has my whole heart. Jean has friends now. I’m crying.

[tuttleturtle]

Feel like the myth that a service dog is always faster, cheaper, or more bonded to you if you owner train is one which costs a lot of people who would do better with program dogs but are being told they are Too Expensive a lot. Owner training can fit some people better, paying a private trainer for board and train can fit some people better, but these are expensive because service dogs are expensive, and they're gonna take a long time because it takes a long time to get a service dog. It's not gonna be fast or cheap in any manner! I'm going with a tiny program. I did a lot of research and they fit me better than any of the large well known programs because of the ways my disabilities present and my access needs. This means in my case I'm spending more money to get a dog in a similar amount of time as the big well known programs. I know many people who owner trained and ended up paying more than for a program dog from a large program but less than I owe for my future dog and once again it took just about the same amount of time. And being more expensive than some programs didn't make it the wrong call for them any more than it does for me (it's not!) but its a choice for what benefits and costs match you specifically. And telling people program dogs are always $50k isn't helping anyone. People should owner train when they want to because it *makes sense* for reasons besides being afraid of the cost. The people I know who have dogs that are competitive sport dogs and service dogs both, great that was a decision made for a reason. The people I know who owner trained because of not being able to find anywhere which would train for someone who needs a dog primarily for autism - not good to have the choice taken from you but it was made having evaluated options. Someone who is a full time wheelchair user looking for a mobility dog being told its impossible to find a program dog for less than $50k is just not being told the truth. And I keep seeing this happen to people who *want* program dogs. Being told you can't owner train its always wrong is a problem (though one which I saw a lot more of in the past than currently), but so is being told that you only ever possibly can owner train because nobody could ever afford a program dog.

[packcoventhing]

Some of the physical disability rep in me and @romeave-wives-club's rewrite because lets face it the lack of disability rep in MCD is unrealistic and even in MYS it was still "how do you know so many people and not one of them has a physical disability??"

[this isn't all of it, but it's some of it]

So, excluding the two entirely new OC characters because look they may be self inserts but Aph herself was one

Zane in both MCD and MYS has troubles with his balance, so, walking stick. In MCD he has this fancy and sleek one, while in MYS it's covered in stickers and paint and no that's not a pinkie cake sticker what do you mean. He's blind in one eye, in MCD it was from a relic incident and in MYS it's the infamous snowball incident. He finds it too much of a hassle to have it uncovered, that fucks with his perception of things more than it helps. He's also immunocompromised in MYS, which I thought was canon but now that I'm thinking about it it was never said in canon that he still gets sick a lot.

Laurance was partially blinded upon his return to the overworld, while Ungrth took the blunt of the void burns- he got a nasty one covering his entire left eye. It healed, slowly, but it left his vision severely blurry and hazed over with a dark-tinted film. He pulled a Zane, covering it with his hair or an eyepatch, for a while. But eventually that stops, and he adjusts to it the best he can.

Aaron was fully blinded when his village was wiped out, he was also very soon after turned into a werewolf. He can make out levels of light if the change is extreme enough, but that's about it- lets his hair cover his eyes, or a blindfold, just because the light tricking him into seeing movement was more of a hinderance in battle than a help. (Post S6 in MYS he's also blind, and either has a white cane or a service dog (or both) to help him around)

Post MYS S6, Travis is an ambulatory wheelchair user! He switches between his wheelchair and crutches, but if he's out and about he's probably in the wheelchair.

MYS!Aph has a walker, when she first got it she went over to Zane's house arms filled with stickers and "dragging" my OC along and the three of them had a hangout of just decorating their mobility aids

They're both background/more minor characters unfortunately, but both Nana's sister Shi and Blaze's sister Adira are deaf!

Some additions

Aaron has died 10 times over and will not stay in the ground, he has some form of chronic pain and will probably join the mobility aid crew at some point

Hayden uses a walking stick because yes

also there's a plethora of mental disabilities ranging from learning disabilities with Blaze's dyspraxia, all the meif'wa being autistic (this comes from the theory of cats not being able to be diagnosed with autism because they're all autistic, and you can pry this out of my cold dead autistic hands), dissociative disorders like MYS!Gene with chronic dissociative amnesia and Travis with DID

and more!

[dandelionsresilience]

This is gonna be a weird personal post, you have been warned, but please help it reach as many people as possible

Community is essential to both personal and societal wellbeing. I moved halfway across the country a year ago and still haven’t been able to get involved in any kind of group. I have no friends, I almost never go anywhere except work, and I literally only ever talk to two people, one of whom is my partner. I personally need to increase my opportunities to socialise, and friend networks are about to become even more important than ever.

Please message me if you live near Chicagoland and are open to attempting friendship!

or send this post to your friend who lives there! Ideally, I prefer to talk through telegram or discord, but I can also do tumblr or email if you need. If you live near Chicagoland you’re probably familiar with what that means, but in case you’re not, this is where it is:

and if this comes off as inauthentic and utilitarian, that’s because I’m Autistic and haven’t socialised at all in over a year, and I feel out of options to try to make friends - it’s unconventional and a little bit desperate, but not inauthentic. I hope to develop real friendships with anyone I click with.

If you want to message but don’t know what to say, I’m always open to opinions about my Dandelion News, and I’m good at talking about Autism, service dogs (and dogs in general), the capitalist hellscape, and LGBT stuff. I can also offer resources on a load of topics, just ask and there’s a decent chance I have a link for that lol. I’ll never intentionally make you feel bad for any question asked in good faith, and I typically give a lot of benefit-of-the-doubt when it comes to positive regard, so please take a chance if you’re nervous about messaging

[littleraccooncarl]

The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about Carl the Collector's Pennsylvania influence!

A new character is making his big debut — and children’s television history — this week on PBS Kids.

Carl happens to be the Collector, a bighearted little raccoon on the autism spectrum, who along with one of his animated furry friends, will be the network’s first neurodiverse central characters in a series created for children ages 4 to 8. The creators behind the show hope real children will see themselves in Carl and his friends.

For local viewers, Fuzzytown — the home of Carl and his crew — may look familiar.

That’s because it’s Narberth.

“Narberth is a big part of it,” said Zachariah OHora, creator of Carl the Collector and an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books.

OHora, who’s lived in the Montgomery County borough for the past 16 years, basically mapped out Narberth for the show’s animators, from its houses to its downtown, the regional rail station, the library, even the iconic old clock. “Anybody who’s been here, if they see the show, they’ll recognize right away that’s where it is.”

OHora is well-known to some parents for his beloved kids’ books, like My Cousin Momo. Originally from New Hampshire, he lives in Narberth with his wife , their two teen sons, and a dog named Waffles.

Some of the seeds for Carl the Collector were sown about a decade ago when OHora’s sons attended Belmont Hills Elementary, a Lower Merion school where children with special needs get additional services and help but attend class with their general education peers as much as possible.

“It was just a lightbulb moment for me,” said OHora. “My kids were just friends with everybody right out of the gate. It took away any kind of stigma or mystery and normalized that people are different, operate differently, and think differently.”

It was very different from the schools he grew up with.

“I was like, ‘This is the way it should be.’”

Around that time, Carl the character had begun stirring in OHora’s imagination. And then a contact he had made at PBS approached the children’s author to see if he might have any interesting program ideas.

The series, premiering Thursday, breaks new ground for the children’s network. While other shows have had neurodivergent characters, PBS Kids officials say this is the first time they are the stars.

“Representation is critical to our mission, and we’re proud to debut the PBS Kids series to feature central characters on the autism spectrum,” said Sara DeWitt, senior vice president and general manager of PBS Kids. “We always say we want our content to be both a mirror and a window: showcasing characters who reflect their lived experiences and introducing audiences to kids who are different from them.

“Carl the Collector builds on this commitment by portraying a close group of neurodivergent and neurotypical friends, modeling how all of us can be helpful, supportive, and appreciative of each other’s ways of thinking, and importantly, how we can all sow seeds of empathy and understanding for one another.”

The show puts that into practice both on and off the screen. In addition to Carl the raccoon and Lotta the fox, both on the autism spectrum like an estimated one in 36 children, according to the CDC, the series has a character with ADHD and others with their own unique challenges.

Meanwhile, the show’s production team includes neurodiverse writers, animators, advisers, and others. The voices for Carl and Lotta are provided by two children on the autism spectrum. Some of the staff have contributed their own experiences in the making of the show.

For Lisa Whittick, the series director and mother of a son on the spectrum, working on Carl the Collector has brought her professional and personal lives together in a meaningful way. She said it would have been helpful if a show like this was around when her son was younger.

“If a show like this had been out back then when he was growing up, I think he would have been diagnosed a lot earlier because we would have seen some of the traits that we are reflecting in Carl and Lotta,” Whittick said. “It also would have alleviated a lot of the stress and unknown around what the diagnosis meant and not be scared of it.”

She thinks the show will help children both on the spectrum and those who are not.

“I think this series is going to go a long way in teaching kids who are neurotypical empathy and learning what autism looks like,” she said. “I absolutely think my son would have benefited greatly from a show like this, and he would have loved it because it’s actually very funny and fun as well.”

And, of course, there is the Philadelphia-area angle in all of this. And what’s Philly without a cool, weird mascot?

“There’s a pizza place that the kids always eat in, and it’s called Pyramid Pizza,” OHora said. “An arm comes out and it’s a pizza yeti, who is one of my favorite characters in there that fans of Gritty and the Phanatic will love.”

Philadelphia gets its props, too.

Carl lives with his mom in Fuzzytown, but he also spends part of his time with his dad, who lives in an apartment in a nearby city that will seem a whole lot like Philly, with perhaps a whiff of Brooklyn, another city where OHora has lived.

Carl’s mom and dad, who aren’t married, are great co-parents, OHora said. Having two rooms in different homes can be a challenge for a youngster on the spectrum like Carl, he added, as it can also require adjustment for neurotypical kids. It’s just another way children may see themselves or kids they know in the series.

That’s one of OHora’s hopes for the show.

“I hope people love it and they love Carl,” he said. “I hope it spreads empathy for neurodiversity, and I hope that neurodiverse kids and caretakers see themselves in it, and that neurotypical people can understand a little bit more.”

(Looks like I was wrong, Carl's parents ARE divorced, not just separated)

[everythingwasnormalhere]

could you give me blind Craig headcannons for my story? Thanks ^_^

all these are assuming he loses his sight later on, aka hes not blind since birth, so tell me if im wrong lol (also partial blindness hcs bc its very underrepresented though a lot more common smh,, but like, can make him totally blind if you want lol you do you)

mandatory disclaimer im not blind nor i know that many blind people so this might be Very wrong lmao (feel free to correct me yall 😭) (also if u arent blind either i recommend u to ask blind ppl and/or blogs like @/cripplecharacters for advice with this)

big on the ignore it till you make it<3

nooo hes not going blind wdym his vision is awesomeee (this guy cant see shit)

probably hid it for as long as he could bc internalized ableism + pettiness = bad decisions

also this overwhelmed the shit out of him, meltdowns often bc autism aint good yall

didn't get the diagnosis till he was almost not leaving home bc he could barely manage there without seeing, outside was a big fat nope

when he did get it, he already could assume what was happening, but the diagnosis made it real- cue the panic attacks<3

he clyde and tweek decorated his white cane with space stickers to make it fun :) (will always be a sucker for characters decorating their mobility aids im not sorry)

spends his nights looking at the stars, trying to memorize them before he cannot see them at all. the thought of losing them forever terrifies him

insecurity oh my god. his friends have to reassure him they won't leave him after he can't see every other day. little guy acts all confident and craps but oh boy he's actually Not 😭

jimmy teaching him cpunk he's just that awesome<3

"how does he deal with ableism?" well he curls up and sobs actually :) /hj

ppl grabbing his cane would send him in a panic at the beginning

THEY'RE NOT HELPING FFS

went from frozen and almost in tears to cursing them out though; he's vocal about his feelings like that<3

when he's with friends they're typically the ones who proceed to curse them out first btw lmao (possibly trip them too. oopsie 🥰)

holding hands with tweek. yes using the cane is easy but tweek is easier. craig would genuinely trust him with his life yall

he's very used to holding tweek's hand since before too, so not much of a change really :)

learnt how ppl's walking sounds very early on

cartman cannot be normal abt disabilities ever so he probably "pranked" craig a lot early on

he got so much shit from everyone for that though so not anymore

craig and butters bond over it :3 with butters' eye injury and all

(their experiences are not the same but taking into account butters is who has most experience with vision problems in all south park, its the best craig can get atp)

got pissed at like 20 screenreaders until he found one that worked for him

will listen to space documentaries, close his eyes, and imagine everything they say. makes him very happy :)

gets a guide dog later on im not sorry service puppies are the best ever

not gonna learn braille his ass is too lazy lmfao

...these arent a shitton of hcs wdymmmmmmm (sorry for text wall it will happen again)

[seven-oomen]

A service dog for Ben

My name is Ben (33 years old) and after 20 years of mental health treatment, I have been discharged from further treatment. For years, I have been struggling with ADHD, Autism, and PTSD. The latter causes me to have multiple dissociations on a daily basis, which are attacks where my body continues on autopilot, and I am not aware of what I am doing. This can lead me to walk into traffic and come face to face with a car. Furthermore, I experience non-epileptic seizures where my legs give way and I fall to the ground. This happens to me in public on the sidewalk, but also along train tracks, in the middle of an intersection, and in other dangerous places. I am also regularly pulled back into flashbacks, old unpleasant memories or emotions. And my nights are filled with nightmares. The happy, creative, adventurous animal friend who enjoys walking, writing, and taking trips with friends has been locked away. Due to my disabilities, I live in isolation and my world has become ever so small.

But there is hope. My dream to reclaim my life as a thirty-something-year-old, expand my social network again, return to work, and spend time with family and friends can come true. How?

Through the help of a psychiatric service dog. I'll dog myself with the guidance and aid of a professional assistance dog school. This is a task I am capable of thanks to my background as a certified veterinary technician with experience in raising assistance dog puppies, and an internship at a police dog training academy.

The dog will alert me in time when an attack is coming, allowing me to go to a safe and quiet place to sit. The dog will be trained to fetch and bring my medication on time, wake me up and provide support during nightmares, lie on top of me to calm me down through pressure on my body, and prevent me from harming myself by licking my hands.

With the dog by my side, I can go out on the street again, visit family and friends, go on outings, do groceries, return to work, and resume living life.

But the training for this dog is costly. It amounts to around 11,000 euros for the training and acquisition of the dog. The health insurance company does not cover this type of assistance dog, and the WMO (Social Support Act) does not provide reimbursement for this process either. Hence, the request if you would like to make a contribution.

Every little bit helps. I greatly appreciate any donations and/or sharing of this donation drive.

For Americans and others that have trouble donating through the platform, I can also receive donations through Paypal or Ko-fi.

[asdpawprint]

Accuracy of behavior interruptions as alert tasks.

One of the tasks my service dog is trained to do for my autism is alert to early signs of an oncoming meltdown or panic attack. The specific signs he is trained to recognize are ones I usually don't notice myself: shaking, bouncing my legs, and rubbing or pinching my hands.

Sometimes, especially if he's extra excited to task, he has trouble differentiating these specific symptoms from similar stims that aren't caused by stress for me: flapping and happy wiggles.

I often let him follow up with DPT even when he's not quite accurate. Happy emotions can unfortunately be just as overstimulating as stress, and DPT is just as effective at regulating no matter which is the cause. I'd rather have occasional inaccurate alerts than have him miss alerts due to confusion, especially when the inaccurate alerts are still sometimes helpful!

When I don't let him follow up, I tell him "happy wiggles." He's starting to understand that to mean "you can stop alerting, I'm ok," which might also improve his accuracy over time!