Tag: ableism

mistformsquirrel:

gaypeachs:

Y’all realize poor eyesight (aka needing glasses) is an actual disability right?

Its simply one our society has normalized and made accommodations for. Its one you can function with at virtually no impairment for most because its easy to get glasses/contacts and enough people need them that we’re taken into account.

People laugh at the concept of needing glasses being a disability, but that’s because its become the standard to see disabilities only as things extremely difficult and unbearable to live with, or things that aren’t for “normal people.”

That’s wrong. How life is for people with glasses is how life should be for people with any other kind of disability – normalized, unstigmatized, unquestioned, accommodated, with resources made available.

It should be just as easy for someone in a wheelchair to have access to things that make life functionally indifferent from people without wheelchairs – just like living with glasses is for most.

Society needs a redefinition of disability – or, scratch that, they need reorienting on what “disabled” looks like and how life should be for disabled people. Being disabled isn’t defined by its hardships – it is a state of being that is unfortunately 99% accompanied by ridiculous hardships because society refuses to accommodate and still thinks they don’t have to because to them, its a simple fact that “being disabled is hard.” Why should they change?

A disability is something that leaves you at a disadvantage, in pain, non functional, etc. without some sort of aid.

Without glasses I could not drive or work, and it would severely impair my ability to even be social. You know what else does that? My other disabilities that are considered “real disabilities.”

You know what aid I have ease of access for? The thing not considered a disability. And I’d bet money that’s a direct reason why.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
All of this.

arctic-hands:

theconcealedweapon:

Disabled Person: “I struggle with this.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. It’s not normal to struggle with that.”

Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a disability.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. Unless you’ve been diagnosed, you don’t have a disability.”

Disabled Person: “I struggle with this because of a diagnosed disability.”

Ableist: “I don’t believe you. You’re high functioning. Disabilities are overdiagnosed. You’re nothing like those low functioning people who actually struggle.”

Watch this stir up a shitstorm because you’re not REALLY disabled if you could find the will to get on the computer and type this out

myceliorum:

“They do psychological testing before you’re hired here.”

—

44 Pages, employee quoted in documentary about Highlights children’s magazine

In context, this is supposed to be about what a great place it is to work because everyone is genuinely cheery and well-adjusted and wholesome and shit.

I just figured out why it bugs me:

I hate when people manufacture a utopia by excluding people without cause, and then act like they’re all beautiful and utopian as a result.

A much, much worse example on a much more devastating scale… I never trusted Bhutan’s publicity crap about being a beautiful Buddhist utopia (playing on Western stereotypes of  where everyone’s success is measured in happiness.  But I had no idea how they’d gotten to be a Buddhist utopia until I met refugees forced out in utterly horrific ways for being Hindu or otherwise non-Buddhist…

Obviously discriminatory hiring practices aren’t even in the same league as ethnic cleansing.  And I don’t mean to imply that they are.  They’re just two examples I’ve seen where someplace declares itself practically utopian… after making sure that everyone or nearly everyone within that place fits certain criteria, whether by forcing people out or making sure they never get there in the first place.

I always consider the use of psychological testing in hiring contexts discriminatory.  But this one is bugging me more than usual, probably again because of the way it’s being used to weed out anyone not utopian enough and then declare a place a utopia.  It’s like there’s a giant sign out front saying “Don’t even bother applying to work here, we don’t want people like you, but we’re a wonderful place to work because y’all aren’t here!”  And they probably see absolutely nothing wrong with any of this…

FUN FACT

myceliorum:

transgenderpsiioniic:

livebloggingmydescentintomadness:

livebloggingmydescentintomadness:

some people who are ill and/or disabled CANNOT DO WHATEVER THEY SET THEIR MIND ON! some people are LIMITED by their bodies and their health and they are UNABLE to “"just choose”“ to do something! you can’t STOP being disabled by DECIDING to have a ”“good attitude”“! I am PREVENTED from doing whatever I want because I am D I S A B L E D!! 

I would super appreciate it if healthy/abled people reblogged this post, because when people say these things it is so harmful to disabled, chronically ill, and mentally ill people

also! saying “I can’t do this because im disabled” is NOT “negative self-talk” or a “bad attitude”!!

Also it is not your job to “encourage independence” by randomly withholding support because you think that’s all it’ll take to make us able to do the thing. And if we do the thing once under pressure it doesn’t mean “progress” or that we can always do the thing. And the whole attitude behind treating us this way, the fear that helping us will “make us dependent” or make us too lazy to do anything for ourselves ever again? Patronizing, paternalistic, deeply fucking ableist.

I was once so sick (pneumonia complicated by other things) I shat the bed, and nurses at the hospital said to each others that because I had a developmental disability then I couldn’t be allowed to continue doing this or I would never want time use a toilet again. I had actually exhausted myself so badly trying to get to the bedside commode and back that I’d collapsed.

So yeah some people will actually take that prejudice that far. But milder examples are terrible too. Just this whole idea that we need to be pushed because we’d never want to be “independent” otherwise, it’s really condescending and I’ve seen it taken to extremes that reached the point of abuse and neglect.

Strawgate: The Ableism Behind Exclusionary Activism

hrhthebirthdayprincess:

Blanket bans don’t work in a diverse society filled with all different kinds of groups of individuals with unique needs and lived experiences, and disabled people shouldn’t be forced to draw attention to ourselves through never-ending requests that you make accommodations for us.

Maybe if disability inclusion training was normalized, this wouldn’t have to be said. But until then, I have to make these points. Blanket bans unreasonably force disabled people to advocate for special considerations about necessary and reasonable accommodations requests that should already be in place. This often results in arbitrary and inconsistent decisions reflecting often inaccurate perceptions about necessity or merit that are framed by ableist biases and assumptions, from individual staff members that may not have the knowledge, understanding, or training about disability inclusion and accommodations.

Strawgate: The Ableism Behind Exclusionary Activism

fandommember:

analogueswords:

Autistic children are not infants.

Autistic teens are not toddlers.

Autistic adults are not children.

Your 23 year-old autistic cousin does not have “the mind of a 7 year-old.”

Stop calling autistic men “buddy.” Stop calling autistic women “sweetie.”

Don’t act like it’s a crime to swear in front of an autistic adult.

Don’t assume that because someone is nonverbal, they can’t understand what is going on. ESPECIALLY don’t assume that they can’t communicate at all.

Stop infantilizing autistic people.

This is important. I once went to a group meet up for autistic adults with a friend. It was a game night for adults only at a local college. Since it was a game night I brought a bunch of games with me, most notably Cards Against Humanity.

 The game we all decided to play was cards against humanity and we all had a lot of fun. The one issue was the person “overseeing” the meeting, didn’t like how adult the game was and didn’t like how we were all making “inappropriate” jokes. Right before I left I asked everyone what they thought of Cards Against Humanity, and everyone of the autistic people in the room all said it was a lot of fun and they really wanted to play it again. I never went back to that meeting at first due to issues attending, but my friend went to the game night the next month and was told that “Cards against humanity is now banned for being to crass”. 

After hearing that I decided not to go back to any of those meetings since there is nothing wrong with a group of adults having fun and playing CAH. To be told we could not play that game because it wasn’t PG was BS. It was a group of adults. I had had to show i was an adult to attend. It felt like the message was that because it was a group of autistic people we couldn’t play a game that was a lot of fun. 

flyingpurplepizzaeater:

lol, you know that sj line about how you can’t be friends with anyone who has bigoted beliefs? imagine if that was supposed to apply to beliefs about disabled people! just imagine everyone trying to not be friends with anyone who believed in guardianship, or forced treatment, or institutions, and still ever talk to anyone ever! i am sure we would solve a lot of problems through NO ONE HAVING ANY FRIENDS