#neurodivergent people stop intruding on physically disabled people challenge: impossible

[biosblades]

Wheelchairs aren’t seen as morally neutral and (especially ambulatory) wheelchair users are called lazy, told to try harder to push through without, and people accuse them of faking/being dramatic/using their mobility device as a “crutch” (a loaded fucking statement in itself) all the time, hope this helps!! 🥰🥰

But seriously, this whole post is about making assumptions about a community you don’t understand, insisting they don’t face the same stigma as poor you, and asserting that their needs are understood and get met WHEN THAT’S DEMONSTRABLY NOT THE CASE

There’s this whole brilliantly articulated post about why this sort of rhetoric is untrue and it harms another community and you’ve gone and doubled down.

It even told you how you could get the same exact point across instead. But you ignored that so you could insist that no actually, you deserve to put this other group down because your suffering is so so special and the only way you can make that point is by emphasizing how nobody else would experience such poor treatment as you (the most stigmatized person in the world)

All you had to do was not claim that nobody would ever do this to wheelchair users when yes they fucking would. “The same people who think I need to toughen up” think wheelchair users need to toughen up and stop being dependent on the chair too. The people who “see anything a normal person could abuse as a privilege” see a chair as something a “normal” person could abuse to get special treatment or avoid having to walk if they wanted to be lazy. There’s stigma around beginning to use mobility aids you need because it’s “giving up” (a moral failing), because “why does everyone suddenly have chronic illness/need mobility aids” (which disregarding the usual, they were hidden away/died before, might have something to do with the mass disabling event that started a few years ago and is still happening. But say that and you literally start getting death threats from the covid deniers, A WHOLE VERY PROMINENT TYPE OF PERSON WHO DENIES OUR EXPERIENCE AND OPENLY CLAIMS PHYSICALLY DISABLED PEOPLE ARE WEAK AND DESERVE TO DIE). People who consume this rhetoric without realizing it think all the “newer” cardiac/mobility/neurological/respiratory issues are over diagnosed. They think we’re looking for the easy way out, we don’t really need mobility aids/treatment, we’re letting ourselves depend upon these devices. That’s stigma baby. Our shit’s made unavailable too (sometimes we actually do die because of it). We’re seen as “lucky” to get the privilege of a better parking spot, designated spots on the bus, etc. What, you thought you were the only one getting these sorts of comments??

Even PHYSICALLY DISABLED people are literally treated as drug seeking (sometimes having it directly noted in their charts) when they present at the hospital with a VISIBLE ailment and have the audacity to ask for treatment. This is not exclusive to pain meds. This includes asking for saline. These are literally life or death scenarios and they still aren’t taken seriously. This isn’t even getting into how invisible illnesses are treated. Your experiences aren’t unique, you’re not suffering in some unheard of way, and you aren’t more misunderstood. But what you are doing is actively dismissing the lived experiences of physically disabled people and contributing to making us more misunderstood

(and for the record, I have ADHD and I use a wheelchair/have chronic illness. The stigma is nowhere near comparable, but not in the direction you’re asserting. Stop insisting on your right to speak on an issue you know nothing about. I love neurodivergent spaces and acceptance movements, but not when they step on physically disabled people to get there, which y’all seem to love doing)

I just saw a video of someone saying something along the lines of “being without ADHD medication is like being without a wheelchair! If people were waiting this long for wheelchairs and having to crawl around their homes then something would be done immediately, so why can’t I get ADHD meds??”

And just, can people stop assuming that wheelchair users get handed everything on a plate. Because we absolutely are not.

People wait months and years for wheelchairs – yes, even non ambulatory people. That’s months and years of suffering, of crawling or being confined to bed or stuck in unsuitable wheelchairs.

Yes, medication shortages are serious and need addressing… but making comparisons to wheelchair users when not knowing a single thing about the processes of accessing a chair in various countries is not the way to go about it.