Day: January 5, 2018

ndpsych:

star-anise:

neurocripple:

i know u all dont mean any harm with it but… i feel like a lot of people act like ableism is exclusively about nd abled people.. and while not everyone might believe that disabled people don’t face any form of oppression… a lot of people tend to act like it.

for example people say stuff like “you wouldn’t say a disabled person doesn’t need their cane/wheelchair, so why would you say an nd person doesn’t need so and so?” and it’s like.. people say stuff like that. people poke people’s hearing aid, ask intrusive questions to blind people like “how do you know when to stop wiping?”..

and often people do tell disabled people to just get over it, that they don’t have it that bad, that they just are exaggerating about pain or incapability to do something… or they demand too much of us physically… and this is all unfortunately a thing.

people will say that if you can stand at all, you don’t need a wheelchair.. people will say that you don’t need a cane if you’re capable of walking any distance without it.. or people say if you can hear anything at all you don’t need hearing aid.. and people will try to dismiss a lot of conditions as not being severe enough, or people will say someone’s symptoms aren’t serious enough..

and while i get people don’t mean to be dismissive.. they way too often do act like neurotic abled people are the only people ever to face invalidating struggles from nt abled people.. and that “people would never say this to a disabled/blind/deaf person!”..

because people do actually say these things to us.. and it often leads to not getting help, accommodation, support, and medication we need… it leads to actual material disadvantage to have our disabilities challenged.

Look, just any time you say, “No one would ever say [bigoted thing] to [oppressed group]” you’re wrong. 100% wrong.

Just straightup change your phrasing. “The SAME WAY it would be wrong to say [bigoted thing] to [oppressed group], it’s ALSO wrong to say [other bigoted thing] to [other oppressed group]”

Look! One tiny change in phrasing, and you’ve gone from totally invalidating another group’s struggle to supporting and showing solidarity for them as well!

Okay, but can we not with the “neurodivergent abled vs. disabled” thing? It’s all disability. 

Just say ND vs. able-bodied or something. I know it’s semantic but I can’t go back to the days of terrible marauders4ever comics mocking people who call out ableist language and insisting that mentally ill/developmentally disabled/intellectually disabled people are privileged over wheelchair users please