Btw While People Continue To Fight The System Don't Forget About Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical

can we have a conversation about how abysmal the state of "handicapped" parking spaces are in some places? ive been to two separate places in the last week that labeled a normal spot as an accessible one and just painted it blue. ive been to hospitals and doctors offices that had like 3 spots total. sometimes they're even more inconvenient than the regular spots because they were put somewhere stupid just to get away with the bare minimum. this sucks

You are not a creep if you find yourself sexy with your disability aids. full stop. If your partner is disabled, you are not fetishizing them if you find them sexy when they're in their wheelchair, or wearing their diaper, or have braces on, etc.

Disabled people are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to find them sexy. People with facial/limb differences and other physical differences are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to be attracted to them.

The problem comes from lack of consent and dehumanization. Expecting all disabled people to fit your sexual fantasy and sexualizing them openly without their consent (i.e. posting/reblogging normal pictures of a disabled person on your fetish blog or sexually harassing a disabled stranger) is fetishization and horrible. Asking us how we have sex or taking secret photos of us to jack off to later is creepy and crossing the boundry into dehumanizing fetishization. Seeing us and our sexuality as an oddity or a funny joke is not okay.

Reminder, sex toys were first and foremost created by and for disabled people. We have always been having sex and have always been seen as attractive by our admirers, without them fetishizing us. Having sex with a consenting disabled person isnt rape, and yes it is possible for us to eagerly consent! While some disabilities make it hard to consent, that isn't true for all of us.

We get horny, we have sex, we jack off, we wear sexy clothes and show off our bodies. We aren't freak shows for abled peoples amusement nor objects for fetishization. We aren't poor innocent virgins who don't know what sex is, we are a diverse and beautiful community all connected by our disabilities.

(post is edited for terminology, please rb this version instead)

As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.

As a part time user of crutches (specifically smartcrutches, hence the below image), I've found a couple small products have been able to improve the quality of my experience when using them out n about n decided i might as well make a post with them on :) i might add more as i try out other things in the future and such also

The first thing is a small storage bag to attach to your crutch, you can get ones made specifically for crutches, and smart crutch even has their own branded one for the sizing of their crutches, but I got a bag intended for use on bicycles and found that it fit quite well for a fraction of the price, and likely would also do so on normal forearm crutches. I can't put too much stuff in the bag for regular usage as it would throw off my balance but it's great to have my phone and some change in to be within easy reach.

The second thing is new ferrules, specifically I got flexyfeet's ferrules which are available in a variety of sizes to fit pretty much any crutch or cane, they have shock absorption and their flexibility also means I get a lot more grip and feel safer walking with them than I did with my previously very worn down standard ferrules.

every time anyone talks about liberation for the intellectually disabled in any real material way (i.e. creating plain-language educational resources accessible to adults reading on a first-grade level, detangling literacy from basic requirements to participate in society, destigmatizing inability to benefit from pedagogy, criticizing the construct of financial literacy as a necessary skill, etc etc etc), some chud comes along calling it "anti-intellectualism" and blabbing about how you're a morally inferior person if you only read middle-grade novels for fun, i'm so tired and we are never making it out

It's the last weekend of data collection for my thesis survey on disability, so if you're 18 or older and identify as disabled or partially-disabled (even if you live outside the U.S.) I'd love to hear from you! The survey is about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people, and takes about 15 minutes to complete. It's also completely anonymous.

As an incentive for participation, there's an optional raffle that you can participate in for the chance to win an Amazon gift card (yep, even if you live outside the U.S.).

"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)

Big thanks to everyone who has already completed the survey, and if you fall into that group, you don't need to take it again.

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This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board.

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@fishdavidson in Disabled Hardcore Life community

I'm running a survey for my graduate thesis at Delta State University about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disable

This is an archive link of a previous post I made on January 23, 2025, so I can grab the link for citation and inclusion in thesis appendices. If the link doesn't display the text or you aren't a member of the community in which it was posted, this is what it said:

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I'm running a survey for my graduate thesis at Delta State University about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people. The survey probably takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, and I'm looking for respondents from individuals 18 or older who identify as disabled or partially-disabled. If you've already completed the survey, you don't need to do it again. As an incentive for participation, there's an optional raffle that you can participate in for the chance to win an Amazon gift card. Both the survey and the raffle are open to individuals outside the US!

"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)

Thank you everyone who has participated in the survey so far, and special thanks to the people who helped identify places where the survey could be improved!

This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board.

My husband and I became catechumens in the EOC for which we are incredibly grateful. Here’s my dilemma though.

I can’t attend Divine Liturgy because of my chronic illness. The priest is very understanding of this and is genuinely trying to accommodate us the best anyone can.

He wants us to get plugged into the community despite my limitations and is thinking of safe ways for us to do so, since I am immunocompromised and my husband (who has lupus) is also facing potential new health concerns. Though we want community as well, I am having debilitating anxiety around it.

My illness is so unpredictable. I have good days and bad days. Some days, I need my wheelchair or another mobility aid (which I don’t like using because I don’t like being vulnerable but I NEED to use them for safety and/or energy preservation). But other days, I do not need anything. Chronic illness has SO MANY facets and triggers and layers of unpredictability! In the past, many people (mostly people from our old church) have accused me of faking my disability when they’ve seen me on a good day, or when they’ve seen me without a mobility aid after needing one a previous day. They’ve told me I’m making excuses, that I’m faking for attention, etc.

No one but my husband ever sees the “details” of my chronic illness, after all. They don’t see me when I’m curled up all night on the bathroom floor bc of gastroparesis agonizing and crying for it all to end, or being SO extremely fatigued due to POTS that I can’t move a limb out of bed. They didn’t see me when I fell that morning which warranted me using my rollator for the rest of the day to prevent another concussion. They don’t see the painful internal struggle of trying to walk in the summer heat without support. Anyone with a chronic illness can relate!

People from my last church (not an OC) said hurtful things and more and told me I’m going to hell for a number of reasons- because I don’t have kids, because I don’t go to church on Sundays etc. i had poured my soul into that parish. Then, everyone left. We felt abandoned.

This served as the catalyst to question our faith -tradition, theology, and everything- and ultimately, everything came together to lead us to Orthodoxy which is a HUGE blessing! But I’m just SO EMOTIONAL because though I’m more than ready to embrace the fullness of faith and the Sacraments when the time comes, I don’t think I can ever be a part of a community.

It’s exhausting to have to try to explain the ins- and- outs of my illness to new people, many of whom wouldn’t even believe me. And I just don’t want to get hurt again. I know it’s wrong of me to assume that every new person I meet will eventually judge me and leave, but that’s just what we’ve consistently experienced. That’s all we know. I have a small circle of friends, and I’ve known all of them for many years - those friendships have stood the test of time and I’m grateful for them.

I honestly don’t know why I’m making this dumb post. I’m not trying to throw myself a pity party, I just need a place to vent and let it all out. I’m also just in a totally bad headspace right now and my anxiety levels overall are insanely high with my husband preparing for a high stakes surgery in a few days and me having side effects from the rescue medication I had to take last night. But if you’re reading this and have any advice, please tell me. And please pray for us. Please pray for peace and healing in our lives, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Please pray that i can stop myself from spiraling into depression - I can feel it happening. I feel like a burden to my husband and the few friends I have and the devil is probably angry that I made the decision to become a catechumen. Please pray that we can find joy this Pascha, even though we are separated from the Church, knowing that we rejoice in Jesus’s resurrection. The pain runs deep but His love runs deeper.

Thank you. 🤍

Blind people must save a lot on electricity.

Trump accidentally does a good thing.

Though I'm not sure if this will actually do anything. Sometimes I feel like his EOs are like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy. He doesn't seem to understand what he actually has power over.

And I wonder if he knew "woke" disability activists were asking for this if he would have changed his view to spite them.

In any case, banning straws will not save the world. A tiny drop in a vast bucket of plastic waste. Fishing nets cause orders of magnitude more damage to sea life. This was mostly a PR move that some thought would be an "easy win" because they had a photo of a turtle with a straw up its nose.

Single use plastics are absolutely a huge issue. I don't like having plastic in my brain as much as the next person. But an item by item ban is a Sisyphean approach and, in this case, hurts disabled folks more than it helps turtles.