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i'm sad because whenever i'm looking for resources, videos, etc about blindness on social media most of the stuff is about "time blindness." (the correct term is time agnosia by the way)

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using a computer without a screenreader as a person with low vision is just *squints* *tilts head* *lowers brightness* *squints* *increases brightness* *rubs eyes* *squints* *increases font size* *squints*

if anyone has screenreader tips please send help because I have so much trouble using a screenreader. currently I'm using voiceover

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Once again bringing up the fact that albinism is always tied to varying degrees of visual impairment. Disability is inherent in our condition and glossing over this (due to ignorance or not) is an act of ableism and fetishisation. Before you create an original character or any sort of fiction you ought to not stick to lazy research. Albinism affects real people, not just animals and social stigma because of our looks is only half of the story. Please do not contribute to a superficial understanding of an already rare and not researched enough condition, happy 10 years of international albinism awareness day.

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Goose introduction

Hi everyone! I'm Goose and I'm taking over this blog. Azrael, my headmate and the previous owner of this blog is taking a break from Tumblr, so in the meantime, this blog is all mine (mostly). I'm going to be posting a lot more about our low vision, because it's something that interests me a lot more than most in our system. We are still collectively Fizzy and will post about our other interests as well.

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book recommendation for disabled queer community

QDA - A Queer Disability Anthology

It is a collection of stories, poems, images (all described) and more from queer disabled artists. Highly recommend. It's on libby and kindle.

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How I read print books as a person with low vision

I do read braille, but braille books are often expensive and hard to come by, so I often read print books.

To read print, I use the magnifier app on an ipad. This app allows me to not only enlarge the print, but also change the colors, brightness, and contrast. It allows me to transform a regular print book, with small black font on a white background, to yellow font on a black background. I use the app to take a picture of a page, and then change the settings so it looks like this:

ID: a picture of a page in a book. The contrast and colors have been modified to be yellow text on black background. End ID

Then, I can zoom in.

ID: the word "walked" in yellow font on black background fills the image. End ID

I also usually use reading glasses to see the ipad screen more clearly.

I am happy to answer any other questions about low vision! Just send an ask.

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you know how every few months someone tries to invent captioning glasses and sign language gloves for Deaf people and they're almost always useless and never what people actually want? yeah the Blind equivalent of that is smart canes

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I've dunked on them before, but like, Reddit's "support" community for visuals snow makes me sit back in my chair and go "wow, the sheer level of flippancy and negativity I see here has me leaning even more in the 'you have something else going on' direction just to not associate with you all."

Also the whole, you know, "Varian 'can't read anymore" thing.

I have *never* seen another community where the main "advice" is "ignore your symptoms," "leave this sub and never come back," "find a new hobby that's not obsessing over your BSS," etc.

Nor have I seen a community where almost every "recovery" story is "I ignored my symptoms like you all told me to, and now it no longer bothers me. But I still have all my symptoms, I just don't think about them anymore."

I *already* had vision that was 20/200 before the visuals snow (?), and what most of that community can seemingly ignore, totally turned my entire life upside-down.

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forever tired of our voices being turned into commodity.

forever tired of thorough medaocrity in the AAC business. how that is rewarded. How it fails us as users. how not robust and only robust by small small amount communication systems always chosen by speech therapists and funded by insurance.

forever tired of profit over people.

forever tired of how companies collect data on every word we’ve ever said and sell to people.

forever tired of paying to communicate. of how uninsured disabled people just don’t get a voice many of the time. or have to rely on how AAC is brought into classrooms — which usually is managed to do in every possible wrong way.

forever tired of the branding and rebranding of how we communicate. Of this being amazing revealation over and over that nonspeakers are “in there” and should be able to say things. of how every single time this revelation comes with pre condition of leaving the rest behind, who can’t spell or type their way out of the cage of ableist oppression. or are not given chance & resources to. Of the branding being seen as revolution so many times and of these companies & practitioners making money off this “revolution.” of immersion weeks and CRP trainings that are thousands of dollars and wildly overpriced letterboards, and of that one nightmare Facebook group g-d damm it. How this all is put in language of communication freedom. 26 letters is infinite possibilities they say - but only for the richest of families and disabled people. The rest of us will have to live with fewer possibilities.

forever tired of engineer dads of AAC users who think they can revolutionize whole field of AAC with new terrible designed apps that you can’t say anything with them. of minimally useful AI features that invade every AAC app to cash in on the new moment and not as tool that if used ethically could actually help us, but as way of fixing our grammar our language our cultural syntax we built up to sound “proper” to sound normal. for a machine, a large language model to model a small language for us, turn our inhuman voices human enough.

forever tired of how that brand and marketing is never for us, never for the people who actually use it to communicate. it is always for everyone around us, our parents and teachers paras and SLPs and BCBAs and practitioners and doctors and everyone except the person who ends up stuck stuck with a bad organized bad implemented bad taught profit motivated way to talk. of it being called behavior problems low ability incompetence noncompliance when we don’t use these systems.

you all need to do better. We need to democritize our communication, put it in our own hands. (My friend & communication partner who was in Occupy Wall Street suggested phrase “Occupy AAC” and think that is perfect.) And not talking about badly made non-robust open source apps either. Yes a robust system needs money and recources to make it well. One person or community alone cannot turn a robotic voice into a human one. But our human voice should not be in hands of companies at all.

(this is about the Tobii Dynavox subscription thing. But also exploitive and capitalism practices and just lazy practices in AAC world overall. Both in high tech “ mainstream “ AAC and methods that are like ones I use in sense that are both super stigmatized and also super branded and marketed, Like RPM and S2C and spellers method. )

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Btw shout-out to disabled people who feel sexual attraction but can't have sex or masturbate. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex or masturbate because it hurts. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex or masturbate because they're dependant on a caregiver. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex or masturbate because they're deemed "too mentally immature". Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex or masturbate because they would be bedridden for days if not weeks on end. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex because they can't get into the right positions. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex because once their partner finds out they're disabled they refuse. Shout-out to disabled people who can't have sex because they can't go out to meet people.

Disabled people are not your uwu sexless perfect babies or broken people incapable of sexual pleasure. We deserve to be talked about in all aspects of life and the fact we aren't taught sex ed besides from an able bodied and able mental standpoint is genuinely god awful. No one talks Abt this and we deserve to be seen

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huge thanks to aac i will be talking shit

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Plurality isn’t always scary

Made with childhood pictures taken when we were co conscious.

Even if the world will never be normal about plurality, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to work with it and achieve functionality. Even though I don’t think we’ll ever be fully functional, we’re at a point where most days are calm and everyone gets along. Sure, I can’t remember three whole years of my life. Sure, I can’t control who switches and when. But we communicate well enough to trust each other no matter what happens.

No, plurality isn’t always easy. But I’d not trade the system for the world.

Happiness with your system is possible.

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okay

Let's talk police interaction and Deafness and protests

PT: Let's talk police interaction and Deafness and protests

Generally it's good advice for disabled people to never discuss medical conditions or disabilities with the cops. ... unfortunately this does not hold true with Deafness.

While discussing your Deafness with a police offer does put you at risk it's far safer than not hearing an instruction, being perceived as willfully disobeying, and ending up with charges for it, injuries, or dead.

Know your rights!

PT: Know your rights!

‼️ You are legally entitled to an interpreter beginning at arrest. ‼️

.... unfortunately prior to arrest you are not entitled to an interpreter. In these situations police officers are still legally obligated to communicate via notepad and pen. (Which rarely happens, but, like, it is required)

How I manage

PT: How I manage

Keep in mind I have residual hearing, some of this advice will be specific to people with residual hearing because that's my own experience.

I always go with a hearing buddy. The buddy system is important for all people at all protests but it's especially important with Deafness. I make sure that whoever I'm with is A. aware of my Deafness and B. aware of how to respond to a cop trying to interact with me. I usually prefer going with someone who can interpret in a pinch but have not always done that. I give whoever I'm with a script to follow in the event a cop tries to speak with me. This is the script I personally give to people, I'm not sure of its legal soundness but I wanted to share it anyways: "He is Deaf. He can't hear your instructions and is not resisting. If you want to communicate with him you will need to find another means such as writing your instructions down. [and, if applicable] I am able to facilitate communication if needed" I also make sure that whoever I'm with informs me of any important announcements. Even if I choose to stay in a situation where I am risking arrest I like to know I am risking arrest. Having a hearing person say you are Deaf is important beyond facilitating communication. I am personally able to state I am Deaf but cops often don't believe me. I am more likely to be believed if I have someone else tell them that I am Deaf.

I do not rely on residual hearing. Even if you have significant residual hearing it is important that you accurately understand directions. Use the most effective modality for you, not the one most convenient for the officer.

I do not sign around police. Police are known to murder Deaf people for signing because they view our signs as threats. It's also always important not to talk to the cops, whether hearing or Deaf. Even if they don't kill you they will translate your signs and use them against you. Once the cops show up my hands stop moving.

I do not speak once cops are around. Cops have rocks for brains and think that speaking = hearing. They might deny you an interpreter if they hear you speak. This is illegal but will not stop them.

I do not nod my head or otherwise show agreeability. The Deaf nod serves us well in regular conversation but this is not regular conversation. Nodding when you don't fully hear something to seem agreeable can turn into a confession of guilt in the court of law. Do. Not. Nod.

I make sure protest organizers are aware of my presence. I like to let organizers know that I'm Deaf and exactly what I need during the protest. Speaking as someone who has organized protests, we are there to help you. I let organizers know exactly what I need, which for me looks like: making announcements repeating anything said to the crowd by cops, repeating information multiple times so I have multiple opportunities to hear it, and announcements when cops show up--this will look different for everyone based on preference and the specific protest. It's something you get a feel for with practice. Additionally, having more people who know you are Deaf means more people to back you up if the cops don't believe you. I also like to let organizers know that my FM system is not recording- this just makes people feel less paranoid about it.

I sometimes let street medics know I am Deaf. This is just in case I get injured or otherwise need help. Street medics quite disproportionately know sign language, this makes them very cool. They usually want to know how to communicate with you in the event you need help, this is really up for you to figure out. My personal advice is to not rely on anything visual in case you get a chemical weapon in your eyes. I really only do this if I'm planning on being around if/when it becomes a shit show. While there's always a chance of getting caught up in something unexpected, if you're planning on booking it when riot cops show up this is less necessary. (If it's a low risk protest I also usually identify myself as Deaf in other ways, see point #9)

I film everything. The minute I see cops the camera comes out and it's all on video tape. This is generally good protest advice even for hearing people but especially if you encounter a cop refusing to accommodate you then you will need evidence to protect yourself. Deaf people end up with unjust resisting arrest charges all the time and you do not want to be one of them.

I sometimes wear clothing identifying me as Deaf. I have a pin I wear on my mask that says I'm Deaf. This is a tough one to balance because it makes me identifiable. It is sometimes worth it and sometimes not. Weigh the risks with this.

This is all coming from personal experience and may not be the absolute best way but I haven't ever seen advice for Deaf people protesting before so I wanted to put something out there. Just like, go into this with the consideration that I'm some guy with protest experience but by no means am I an expert.

Additions/discussion welcome but only if you're knowledgeable about this. No guesses please, experience-tested tactics only 😁

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It’s possible to condemn the roots of the endogenic community (the Naturally/Healthy Multiple movements) while simultaneously acknowledging that the community, by and large, has started to shift away from that mentality, while also simultaneously acknowledging that a lot of endogenic systems hold onto that same ableism without even realizing it, while also again simultaneously acknowledging that you don’t have to be anti-endo to do all of that.

And instead I see anti-endos focusing entirely on the past, and pro-endos blatantly ignoring it.

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this YouTube channel called Just Keep Stimming has a playlist of 10 different AAC apps and their opinions on them. The videos are pretty short and easy to understand. They compare GoTalk Now, Sono Flex, Predictable, LAMP, Grid, TD Snap, Proloquo2Go, Speech Assistant, Proloquo4Text, and Proloquo. Hope this helps!

how can i find simple comparisons for aac apps. does that even exist

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you don't have to forgive everyone and you don't have to not forgive everyone. some of my abusers I forgave, some of them I know I never will. you don't have to go one way or the other.

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Calling all autists: tell me about your experience! This is a casual, completely anonymous, 13-question-long survey about how others perceive and treat you. Only one of the questions is required. Results are for fun, not for professional or academic study. Check it out: