#motor impairments

[atozofsoftwareengineering]

Creating Inclusive Digital Products: A Comprehensive Guide to Accessibility Features

UI accessibility features are tools that can help make digital products more inclusive and easier to use for people with disabilities. Read more...

In today’s digital age, it is more important than ever to make sure that our digital products are accessible to everyone. UI accessibility features are tools that can help make digital products more inclusive and easier to use for people with disabilities. In this blog post, we will explore what UI accessibility features are, why they are important, and some common examples of UI accessibility…

[atticollateral]

going in for an autism assessment on the 23rd of April (go me!) so in honour of my potential autism, my short term memory issues and my diagnosed ADHD & Tourette's I would like to present to you:

my favorite phrases, which I say so much that they are now knee-jerk comments & tics but I always end up forgetting what I'm going to say (if I'm going to say anything at all), a master list.

fun fact,

did you know-?

I need everyone to understand,

can we talk about-?

and another thing!

have you ever

has anyone here

do you know where...?

have you seen...?

what if

yes and also

it's...

no, but...

well, about that...

did i ever tell you / have i ever told you

what if i told you

jesus

General Stammering. ex: i- but? wait. no. i uh. shit, wait. what?

[wronggalaxy]

"Weaponize your mobility aid"

First of all: why am I responsible for keeping people from murdering me?! Second of all, what land are you living in where you can bring open weapons in schools and stores and literally any public place?! And third of all, considering I'm DISABLED all that's going to do is hurt ME.

I swear the second a physically disabled person can't weaponize their stuff for whatever reason, can't sow patches or make their own clothes because of disabilities, have to use brightly colored things for safety or to be able to see it, or is really anyone other than a mostly able-bodied person who just needs a cane to walk around half the cripple punk community wants to crucify them. Stop getting mad at me for not engaging in the physically disabled community, when your rules to join are impossible because of my physical disabilities.

[bizarrebazaar13]

oh if I could sew I would totally make plushies of the Whitsun creatures

[thespacesay]

i find it fascinating (/negative) how people think there's some clear and present divide between physical and mental disabilities, and treat it as if the only overlap is when you have both.

like... for one, can we acknowledge that there is not, in fact, a binary of types of disabilities? how do you describe cognitive disabilities that affect both physical and mental function? what of disorders that originate in exclusively physical ways (ie, post concusive syndrome) but present with strong mental symptoms (anger, change in personality?)

how can you claim to support neurological disabilities and claim that ADHD is not, in any way, a physical disability? why is it different only if the presentation of a disability is seen as mental?

like... genuinely speaking, when I see posts insisting that movements around disabilities are meant for only the physically disabled, all I can believe is that you too have fallen victim to ableism. You are using a baseless categorization to separate and divide when the border is always going to be fuzzy, and always going to be used to hurt rather than help on a systemic level.

[rasairui]

Disability in pokemon universe needs to be expanded upon please please please ple

[8aji]

I absolutely adore your current theme :0

thank u so much omg !! i think its rlly pretty as long as you dont look at it on desktop *giggles and twirls hair*

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers have just discovered a process in fruit flies which links inflammation with impaired motor function, providing researchers with a potential target for treating the persistent muscle fatigue that follows many infections. Of long COVID's numerous symptoms, an intolerance to exertion could be considered one of the more debilitating. "This is more than a lack of motivation to move because we don't feel well," says Washington University developmental biologist Aaron Johnson. "These processes reduce energy levels in skeletal muscle, decreasing the capacity to move and function normally."

Continue Reading.

[medicinemane]

It should be illegal to have a slider that lacks buttons to move it one point at a time

Nothing worse than wanting to set a slider to say... 50, but you keep going 49, 52, 47, 51, 49, 52, 48, 51... let just let me press a button that takes it up or down by one

Dead serious on this too, if you're ever making a slider you better include arrows at the end to be able to make minor corrects or frankly... you're just a bad person. Like I get you don't mean to be, but that's the behavior of a bad person

Tell me you haven't been annoyed at least once in your life trying to set a slider to a specific number, and now tell me I'm not right that this is just basic functionality

[ur-mag]

Drivers cannot be pulled over by cops for ‘very annoying’ habit – even if it impairs your vision of the road | In Trend Today

Drivers cannot be pulled over by cops for ‘very annoying’ habit – even if it impairs your vision of the road Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[vamps0ul]

Normalize the physical symptoms of Schizophrenia.

Normalize memory loss

Normalize repetitive movements

Normalize excitability

Normalize speech disorder and frenzied speaking

Normalize impaired motor skills

It's not just all in our heads

[river-neurodivergent-willow]

"Nonverbal people are communicating, they can use AAC devices!!! The only reason a nonverbal person can't communicate functionally is because the people around them are not trying hard enough!!!"

(Sometimes this statement in some situations is true, but I am talking about when it is not true)

Have you tried using symbol based AAC? Do you know what any AAC apps are called? Do you know there is different types of AAC? Have you even actually looked at the home page of a high tech AAC device?

For someone without impaired communication, I think it would probably take about 1-2 months if not more to fully learn their way around a high tech AAC page set.

Now imagine an illiterate person, a person who has severe fine motor delays, a person who does not understand what people are trying to get them to do when given an AAC device, a person who doesn't understand any language at all, a person who doesn't understand what AAC is or even the concept of communication in the first place, a person with little interest in communication.

Can you imagine that person, handed an AAC device? Do you seriously think they will suddenly starts expressing their thoughts in great detail?

Have you ever talked to someone who used to fit the criteria of being profoundly autistic or someone who's profoundly autistic caregiver? Have you listened to how many hours of therapy a week they have for their communication? Sometimes five hours a week and sometimes even more. Do you know that? Do you know how hard some peoples caregivers try? How much they wish their child could be able to communicate functionally?

How much money they spend on AAC apps? Do you even know how much an AAC device costs? A SGD? Thousands.

Stop calling caregivers lazy when they say their child can't functionally communicate their needs. You have no idea how hard they are trying.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Wait... Autism and dyspraxia share symptoms? I've had diagnoses for both of them for at least a decade and I had no idea.

I thought dyspraxia only affected my co-ordination and autism had nothing to do with that...

All neurodiversity has overlaps with others somewhere. I'm synaesthetic, which seems like a fun wacky brain thing with no downsides, except it often goes hand in hand with sensory overload. My ADHD also gives sensory overload at times, so between the two, I have to wear earplugs when I go shopping so that I can stay long enough to actually buy what I need.

But also, when we talk about "The part of the brain that does X", we forget that X will not be the only task done in that region; and, of course, that X tends to be the 'output task' that we see and understand, rather than something more fundamental. This means, for example, that we go "Ah, dyslexia, the condition that means you mix up letters in writing"; forgetting that written alphabets are invented by humans, and we do not have a brain region that evolved to allow writing. What's happening in a dyslexic brain is more fundamental than that. Mixed up letters are a symptom, as it were, but so is impaired time management, and impaired executive function, and forgetting words and names in verbal speech, and sometimes maybe going semi-verbal or even non-verbal during times of high stress.

(Also, dyslexic symptoms present far less in languages with consistent orthography. This comes up a lot in Welsh-medium schools; dyslexic kids can read and write far better in Welsh than in English.)

Anyway, a very common characteristic of dyspraxia - generally described as just being about physical coordination - is that planning tasks becomes difficult. Another is time blindness, and time management challenges. Another is executive dysfunction. And there's a body of evidence about motor difficulties in autistic people, ranging from issues with hand-eye coordination to atypical gaits.

So: yes! There's crossover between the two, and you may or may not have characteristics to that effect.

[birdofmay]

What's the difference between nonverbal and nonspeaking?

I have posts about nonverbal autism, but none about the single topic "What's the difference between nonverbal and nonspeaking?" So this will be a handy linked blog entry for my pinned post.

All summed up: There is no real difference, it's a matter of preference. Please ask us what term we prefer and respect that choice. It's a sensitive topic because there has been a lot of discourse around it ☝🏼

Alright. First things first: Nonverbal is a medical term not exclusively for autism. In the medical field, "nonverbal" simply means that your speech is extremely impaired or fully absent. Yes, there are many meanings of "nonverbal", but this is what doctors mean. Did you know that there's nonverbal cerebral palsy too? (External link)

But let's focus on autism. Autistics who can't speak are said to have "nonverbal autism".

Discourse #1 - the mind is intact

There are many reasons why some autistics never learn to speak. One reason can be non-acquired apraxia (i.e. not due to a stroke, TBI, Alzheimer's, etc.), which leads to limited motor control. If it affects the mouth and throat only, individuals "know what they want to say", but their mouth doesn't cooperate. They either struggle to get words out clearly/don't get anything out at all, or their mouth seems to have "a mind of its own" - they say things they didn't want to say. If apraxia affects the whole body, this goes for actions too. Either they can't make their body do what they want to do (e.g. they want to point at a ball but their arm won't move) or their body does things they didn't want to do (e.g. they want to point at the ball but instead their finger points at the floor).

As you can imagine, this situation is really unfortunate when a therapist wants to test your intelligence. You can't get words out, so they ask you to show them what a triangle is. You know what a triangle is, but your body does its own thing. You point at the circle instead of the triangle, and your therapist concludes that you don't understand simple instructions. They assume intellectual disability. You're misunderstood all your life and everyone thinks that you can't learn to communicate, that you don't understand language. You're frustrated.

Luckily, at some point some people realised that these autistics CAN learn to communicate and in fact are very capable and understand language just fine. That was when apraxic autistics talked about this misunderstanding online. They talked about how they were mistreated and underestimated, that people should always "presume competence". They coined a new term for themselves: "Nonspeaking". In their opinion, "nonverbal" doesn't describe their experience and makes it sound like they can't learn to read or write. "My mind is intact, I can make intelligent choices about my life!" (External link)

Sounds good? Well, it may be surprising to know that most of us on Tumblr who can't speak either don't mind being called "nonverbal" or actively prefer nonverbal over nonspeaking. How can that be?

Discourse #2 - the mind isn't always intact

There are other reasons why some autistics never learn how to speak. Most of the time, in contrast to "nonspeaking self-advocates", we do struggle to understand language and our mind is not "intact". We have language disorders, brain damage, slow processing speed, often ID. The latter is why most of us aren't on any social media. My ability to communicate isn't average for us, it's an exception!

When the "say nonspeaking" wave reached Tumblr, I think at first most of us who are on social media liked that idea. We spread awareness about how terminology is a preference thing, that "nonspeaking" is about overcoming years of mistreatment and about empowerment. That some of us think that "nonverbal" sounds like we can't communicate and can't understand language, when that's not true. But, as I said, most autistics who never learned how to speak aren't online and therefore can't participate in this discourse. "Nonspeaking self-advocates", on the other hand, are on social media and love to participate. But they are a minority among those who can't speak.

The result? At some point it got a little ableist. The mindset "We are intelligent and understand language" turned into "You guys with ID and language disorders make us look bad" and THAT turned into speaking over and ignoring us. Or harassing even. "You have to call yourself nonspeaking, otherwise you're a bad person!" and so on. We responded "No, you say you're intelligent and your mind is intact. Good for you, but ours isn't. You erase our existence and we don't relate to your experience. We don't identify with your word." It was worse on other platforms, at some point the term "nonspeaking supremacist" was coined similar to "aspie supremacist".

Discourse #3 - free interpretation of a term that's NOT loosely defined??!

And last year, a really strange thing happened: Speaking autistics somehow mixed up the "To me personally, nonverbal sounds like I can't learn to communicate and don't understand language at all" and incorrectly informed others "So there's a difference between nonverbal and nonspeaking. Nonspeaking means that you can't speak and nonverbal means that you also can't communicate in other ways".

They took it as a fact and informed us that we "by definition" actually are nonspeaking because we can communicate via text. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I repeat: Most of us who can't speak aren't on social media. So this misinformation again spread everywhere because we weren't enough, we weren't loud enough. We can't ever be loud enough because, exactly: Most of us aren't on social media.

Now we weren't harassed by fellow nonverbal/nonspeaking autistics, nope, NOW suddenly speaking autistics from ALL over the world tried to inform us that we shouldn't call ourselves nonverbal - NOT aware that by now "nonspeaking" got a slightly ableist connotation in the process 😵

Here's an example of how wild things were last year...

And that's not enough: Suddenly everyone assumed that autistics who can't speak due to apraxia MUST call themselves nonspeaking because that's where the movement started. No, even apraxic autistics sometimes prefer "nonverbal", and they have every right to do so!

As things are now...

So, that's why most of us on Tumblr prefer nonverbal. Oh, and by the way:

Whenever someone isn't aware of this and makes a "To me, nonverbal means..." post, all I think is "Oh, not again, please not again", and I see this war flashback meme in my mind's eye 😅

Every "To me, nonverbal means..." post that ends with "And that's why I prefer nonspeaking" has the potential to get loud and start this harassment and misinformation all over.

Every new post that tries to define nonverbal and nonspeaking could start this all over again.

Because nonspeaking supremacists are very very loud. And speaking autistics are usually very very uninformed about us. And most nonverbal/nonspeaking autistics aren't on any social media.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

did you know that…

while autism functioning labels never really had set diagnosable descriptions like autism levels & autism itself in DSM, so different clinicians may have different definitions, but—

did you know that for many of them (more than you imagine, even now), what different between high functioning & low functioning is just. intellectual disability?

way they use is:

high functioning autism = autism without intellectual disability

low functioning autism = autism with intellectual disability

(so back in asperger’s vs autistic disorder diagnosis days, asperger’s & high functioning autism/HFA & low functioning autism actually all mean slightly different things)

.

yes, one thing tumblr autism community tend get wrong is: unlike autism ADHD learning disabilities, intellectual disability (as single disorder) *directly* affect *everything* about person. from conceptual/cognitive/thinking/learning/etc to social to daily living & adaptive functioning to everything you can think of. and autism community tend downplay ID & ignore autistics with ID. so someone with even mild intellectual disability can be quite different than someone with similar presentation of autism but without ID. however—

intellectual disability being only criteria for medical label, that follow you n impact you for rest of life, that claim to describe how much you overall “function” (want everyone imagine be told by everyone that you function lowly). is wrong.

am nonverbal. have high support needs & need 24/7 someone close by. diagnosed with autism that border level 2 & 3. have many severe symptoms, very impaired theory of mind & often do not even understand people exist & have own different thought n feelings that not like my own, have little to no interest in social, cannot mask n is visibly autistic, have behavioral issues, motor skill lower than bottom 1% of age group, etc etc

& another autistic with maybe mild ID, who with support & hard work is living more independently, who struggles but can speak by mouth, who have job, who with right guidance have enough social skills to keep some good in person friends

am would be called high functioning. n second person, low functioning. all because they have ID while me, don’t.

so, me get “very fortunate (sarcasm)” experience of be grouped in category n be black sheep n be expected assumed able to & be questioned why can’t do things other “high functioning” autistics can do, because they have lower support needs than me & lower autism levels than me. while second person get assumed they not able do things it too dangerous too risky & others be shocked about them do every small thing, simply because they have ID & thus must be low functioning, not because they actually cannot do it.

though. even if there someone like me but have ID. still don’t think anyone should be told they so terrible at functioning they “function lowly.”

diagnoses can be important & having comorbid disorder especially something as general as ID can mean different things compare to someone without that comorbid disorder. but language about person should be individualized based on each person, not something general that only look at diagnoses n not the person. and, that language need be actual respectful about person, because that who we are: people. even if some of us have a LOT of struggles where we physically depend on other people 24/7.

(n everytime talk about autism functioning labels, feel need to say: forcibly labeling someone with functioning labels problematic because everything just said. not because all autistics same & by same, mean verbal low support needs)