#systemic ableism

[neuroticboyfriend]

once again thinking about how fucked up it is that special ed used me and other disabled children as unpaid, coerced labor. i worked enough to be making $100 a week. i was "paid" in fake money redeemable only at the school cafeteria, which i worked at, and was forced to do things that distressed me. they gave us $1 a week, if they remembered to give it to us at all.

this was while i would sometimes go the entire day without eating because i didn't have the money to buy food and the free food was not sensory safe. we also worked outside the community - grocery stores, warehouses, shoe stores security tagging items. all under the guise of job skill development, we did $100 of labor a week without ever getting paid. and we were demeaned while we did it. and we were just teens.

so no, i don't want to hear about how special education is good. not with the way me and my peers were treated and taken advantage of. death to institutionalization, in all forms.

#softspoonie #disabled #special education #special ed #disability #disability rights #disabled community #neurodivergent #special needs #autistic #autistic spectrum #autism spectrum disorder #autism spectrum #autism #neurodivergency #ableism #sanism #systemic ableism #unpaid labor #labor rights #workers rights #anticapitalism #anticapitalist #working class #leftist #leftism

[crippled-peeper]

I need non-Americans to understand that 1 single ambulance ride in this county, going less than a mile, is well over 1,000$ and that’s why absolutely nobody here wants to get in one. It’s not because we’re stingy it’s because ambulance companies are run by greedy slimy shitty bureaucrats who love to sue poor people

#ambulance #ableism #systemic ableism

[rjalker]

Ableds are like "Yes I know you don't want to literally die, but have you considered that I want to eat out at a restauraunt?"

#ableism #cripplepunk #cripple punk #cpunk #eugenics #covid eugenics #long covid #systemic ableism #covid19

[describe-things]

"it's not an accessibility problem or a symptom of systemic ableism if the OP doesn't add the image description to the original post, people can just reblog it from you if they want to. Asking people to add the ID to their post is rude and self-absorbed"

the only people who think this way are ableists.

You know all the Mickey Mouse art I hurt my wrist frantically writing image descriptions for?

Yeah, a lot of it is being reblogged without any image description now with thousands of notes, because people only see the original post, they don't bother to check the notes to see that there's an ID right there that I took the time to write.

Tumblr encourages you to reblog a post as soon as you see it, and people who don't make a conscious effort to stop and try to be accessible do not take the time to stop and check the notes for an ID before rebloggging.

Adding an image description to your original post, and any important reblogs, is the most accessible thing you can do, second only to writing the post with an image description in the first place.

If you actually care about disabled people (or disabled people other than yourself and a select few family members), then when someone takes the time to write an image description for your art, add it to the original post or reblog. I don't care how many notes the post has, if you care about disabled people and care about accessibility, do it.

Especially if you're ablebodied. Many people have said it before me, but it's absolutely evil how most of the people on this site who write image descriptions are physically disabled, the people who have to put in the most amount of effort to do so, at the highest cost to ourselves.

It's been 4 days since I hurt my wrist typing so many image descriptions. It's probably going to continue hurting for another few days at best.

If you are physically abled and will not be put in literal physical pain from writing image descriptions, then you need to start writing them. It shouldn't always be left to disabled people to do all the heavy lifting for accessibility. If you call yourself a leftist or a communist or an anarchist but won't even write an image description for your art or memes or even edit it into your original post, then just stop pretending you care about disabled people, because you clearly don't.

See this post for tips on writing image descriptions.

If you do nothing else please start checking the notes for an image description before you reblog undescribed art. It's the absolute bare minimum.

#ableism #systemic ableism #image descriptions #accessability #Mickey Mouse #art #artist on tumblr #small artist #cripplepunk #cripple punk #actuallyphysicallydisabled #actually physically disabled #physically disabled

[pro-birth]

The letter stated that Gerhard was born on February 20, 1939, that he was blind, had one leg and part of one arm was missing and was described as "an idiot". Hitler sent his personal physician, Karl Brant, to see the child in a hospital in Leipzig. Brant testified at the Nurembourg trial that he had been instructed that if the father's letter was correct that the physicians at the hospital would be told that euthanasia could be carried out - in Hitler's name. Gerhard was euthanized on July 25, 1939.

History indicates that the German T4 euthanasia program began with a parent's request for euthanasia and in the end resulted in the deaths of 250,000 to 275,000 people with disabilities.

Further to that, the technique killing large numbers of people by gassing them to death was first developed in the psychiatric hospitals for the euthanasia program and later installed in the death camps for killing millions of people. According to the Holocaust Museum, T-4 staff were redeployed to the death camps.

#euthanasia #Canada #child death tw #ableism #systemic ableism

[arctic-hands]

For real tho health freaks who scream about how sugar and salt will kill us all and try to push for restrictions on things like candy and chips for SNAP recipients or politicians who try from time to time to replace food stamps all together and give out Government Approved Staples like bread and peanut butter and Government Cheese are gonna kill a whole lotta sick and disabled people like

Diabetics

POTS sufferers

Hypotensives

People with peanut allergies

People with celiac disease or wheat allergies

The lactose intolerant

People who can't eat solid food

People who are undernourished for any reason and need all the calories they can pack on

So-called "picky eaters" who can't tolerate certain tastes and textures without getting violently ill

A myriad of other human conditions that cannot be neatly tallied into categories because the human body and human experience is vast and infinitely variable

But I don't think ableds really care about us and our health like they like to claim so they can harass us about it, do you?

#tag yourself I'm five out of ten #health food is gonna kill me one day i swear to God #vasovagal syncope/POTS was actually a fun disease to have since the treatment is honestly junk food #to get my sugar and sodium levels up quickly so i don't pass out #but then the United States government in their infinite compassion slashed my food stamps in half #and now i can't afford 'luxeries' like enough chips and candy i need to not faint and concuss myself. again #add the celiac and to a lesser extent the lactose intolerancy and now two fruit allergies... #and I'm paying three times the amount for like fifteen food items and that is accounting for the food inflation even ableds are facing #whatever food shortages ableds are going thru right now i swear to you it's much much worse if you're sick/disabled #stop policing what food people buy with the money their given i don't care if it's a paycheck or welfare #SOMETIMES I'll get a pitiful and defensive 'well how was i supposed to know?!' when i confront people bugging me about this #you don't know so shut your trap about it in the first place #most people just ignore the reason and accuse me of making up excuses to eat 'unhealthy' foods tho #health nut #ableism #systemic ableism #food #Salt blessed Salt

[cripple-punk-dad]

I genuinely think a lot of issues would be solved if people put as much if not more time into praising, uplifting, and supporting minority artists then they did trying to de-platform problematic artists. Obviously there are some people who absolutely should not have a platform (J.K Rowling comes to mind).

then again it's easier to fight against something rather than for someone. And it's important to have people who are fighting directly against those systems. But maybe think about why you're fighting. Yeah you can (and should) hate cops, and should work towards dismantling their control, but do you go out of your way to love and care for the communities that are heavily over-policed? You can (and should, obviously) hate Nazis but do you actually give a shit about Jewish people and protecting their spaces and communities? You can rail against ableism all fucking day but are you writing image descriptions? Advocating for more accessible spaces? Go ahead, shit on terfs. It's certainly not hurting a trans people. But, are you helping uplift trans voices? Sometimes being angry and channeling that anger and hurt and frustration towards the people who are hurting you is all you can do. I think every bit helps, really I do. I just wish more people would channel their rage against the oppressor into love for the oppressed.

#trans community #acab #disabled community #queer community #systemic racism #systemic ableism

[flowercrowncrip]

The fact that disabled people are more likely to suffer abuse from partners, family members and carers is really not a surprise to me. The messages I got as a disabled growing up in an ableist society left me (and others) dangerously vulnerable to being manipulated and abused.

I didn't need much convincing that I was a burden or unlovable, because I'd heard it so many times before from the media, family, school, and my peers

My abusive ex wasn't far from the first person to tell me that I owed them in return for care, but they were the first person to make me pay with sex.

My abusive carer didn't let me have boundaries, and would refuse to give me help when I needed it if they were upset with me, but strangers will come up to me in the street to tell my carers that they're "saints" for working with someone like me.

The whole world teaches me that accommodating my needs is too expensive, too time-consuming, and just not worth it, it's no wonder that I accepted that the same treatment from relationship was inevitable.

We really need to be showing disabled young people that they deserve to be treated well, that they are not burdens, and that they deserve good healthy relationships. We need to teach them how to recognise abuse and early warning signs, and that they don't need to accept second best.

Because that is something I'm only just experiencing now, which is great, but in many ways it's way too late

#Ableism #Systemic ableism #Domestic abuse #Ableist abuse #Actually disabled

[snakeautistic]

Reminder that autistic individuals are heavily over policed. Cops are not your friends. Their institution is one built on systemic violence and aggression. Any deviation from perceived normal behavior is seen as a threat, and the police are trained to react to threats with their guns.

This is especially dangerous for Black autistics who may not have the ability to mask around cops. “Erratic” or “suspicious” behavior can literally get them killed, because they are profiled as inherently dangerous.

This is an example of it’s so important to understand how intersectionality plays a massive role in minorities lives. I am visibly not physically strong, not prone to aggression, and not a racial minority unusually targeted by the police. Due to those reasons I am much less likely to be a victim of police brutality. A friend of my father has a medium supports needs, autistic, Black son who is unusually physically tall/large. He’s still quite young now, but when he’s older he will be seen as inherently threatening due to these attributes. Simply existing as all of those things is incredibly dangerous for him.

So even if you’re not particularly afraid of cops yourself- even if you know they’re not that likely to mistreat you- they aren’t your friends.

Source on overpolicing of autistic people: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13623613221140284

#acab1312 #1312 #acab #actually autistic #neurodiversity #systemic racism #systemic ableism #leftist #leftism #autistic #neurodivergent #autism

[nokingsonlyfooles]

The Future is Allistic?

Murderbot is the best thing about All Systems Red, and I think the author knows that. That's cool. The humans don't need much for development, this isn't their story, they're just another thing Murderbot has to deal with. We've only got about 150 pages for this, and it's book one, so we're going to gloss over some aspects of the world to focus on the character.

Murderbot does not wish to exist in the sort of well-meaning institution where the humans would put it, a place where being "cared for" means a loss of autonomy. Murderbot would like the ability to get up and microwave a burrito at 0100 hours. ...Or whatever "passing the burrito test" means in the future, for a robot. So would we all!

But, uh, where are "we"? Where are the autistic humans who would read a book about Murderbot, go "oh, it me" and then talk about it with other humans, autistic and allistic both?

There are "humans," who may be well-meaning but clueless or openly hostile towards Murderbot, and who produce media with happy robots coexisting with humans and some level of personhood. (Either robots do not produce media in the future, most robots are not like Murderbot, or we just never see robot media or robots like Murderbot. Not much time for world-building!) There are robots, all of whom have no autonomy and are hostile cannon-fodder - although Murderbot doesn't feel great about that, it'll still kill them and move on. And there's Murderbot, who appears to be the only autistic thing in the universe.

And, I get that. I get how that feels. I get how someone in the YA audience who masks and passes like Murderbot probably feels like the only autistic thing in a hostile/clueless universe. It was like that for me and often it still is. For a book of limited scope, maybe that's enough. An author can't fix everything, and sometimes you gotta play the ball where it lies. But the real world is so much bigger than how it feels: there are lots of us, we have communities, we are seen, and we talk about ourselves.

We are human beings! We don't have to be created autistic like a robot, because we are naturally-occurring, and you would need to do some serious fucking eugenics to make us go away. (Even then, it probably wouldn't work. Eugenics hasn't been the society-purifying, scientific success so many people wanted/still want it to be.) It's not like you could just stop vaccinating kids, or abuse them a bit less, or abuse them a bit more - just until they're normal! - or any of these other "solutions" that have been floated to deal with us. You'd have to change how we function on a fundamental level as we develop in the womb, or shortly thereafter, or kill us, but I repeat myself.

On some level, in general, I think we do know that "curing" someone of autism, even if nobody physically dies, is a type of murder. Here, I am thinking of another future where autism doesn't seem to exist and nobody knows how to deal with it. Julian Bashir, in Star Trek: DS9, is the closest thing we get to an autistic human being who has a regular job and just gets to exist and interact like another person. And he's the illegal result of eugenic experimentation! His parents didn't like that he was underperforming in school, so they did some eugenics on him, and he calls that murder. That plotline is criminally underdeveloped, but it is there. It was there in the 90s, when the general view of autism was a nightmare disease with no cure that ruins children. We still knew that rewiring someone's brain to make them more convenient was wrong.

(Funnily enough, we do grab children who are underperforming in school and force them to mask better, like Julian. But it involves putting them in a Skinner Box and training them like Pavlov's dogs, with punishments for acting autistic and rewards for acting less so. It doesn't make them stop being autistic, but it makes them easier to deal with. And in so many cases, that's all we care about!)

If the public at large figured out that Julian was created autistic (because autism doesn't just happen), if he didn't mask like Murderbot, he'd go in an institution like the Jack Pack. Like where they wanted to put Murderbot. He clearly doesn't need to be there, but that's where society has decided he belongs, because he should not exist. He's only like that because someone made him that way, and they shouldn't have.

Just recently, I got smacked with the realization that people with complex intersections can't just happen in fiction. If I knew a queer, deaf person, I would write them the funnest queer and deaf character to play. It wouldn't be hard to write that character! They would fit into Hyacinth's house or the Black Orchid just fine! Calliope could've been deaf (along with being GNC, and multiracial, and autistic), instead of just growing up where there's a deaf school with a deaf friend whom we only meet briefly. ...So why didn't I do that? Why didn't that occur to me in the first place? I'm trying to create a diverse world like the real one, but we don't see that person.

Part of it is that I didn't see media with that person. But the reason it's hard to see that media is, it's hard to justify that character. We, the audience, have a default "blank" character in our heads (it's not blank at all, it's cis, het, white, male, and a lot of things the usual protagonist is), and the artist needs to tweak that into an individual with words or paint or a performance or something. The more tweaks someone has to do, the more likely the audience will get bored or confused and wander off. Beyond the privileged default, everything that makes a character has to be relevant, and stay relevant. That's why they say "murder your darlings." The worst sin is boring the audience, so don't involve them in unnecessary shit. Pare down the story until it bleeds.

Now, think how much space explaining something complex like "queer AND deaf" would need. And how much research from someone who isn't both of those things, or doesn't at least have a patient queer and deaf friend. And if, say, they were Black too? In the real world, a person like that can just exist and be seen. Probably they just live their lives without including you, it's not about you. But maybe they sit down next to you on the bus, you say hi, they speak with a specific accent or sign or hand you a card, and they have dark skin and a rainbow flag pin. Existence confirmed! In writing, I have to do pages and pages of work to get you to see them as a whole person, because they need me to create a place where they fit. If they don't have a place where they fit and we need them, why are they there? Real people don't have to justify themselves, they just are, and everyone else better fucking work with it. Everyone doesn't, but they should. You can't just ask someone why they're Black! But in fiction, you do, you must, you're supposed to, and if there's no reason, well, maybe they ought to stop being Black.

So, if I'm going to write a story in which Murderbot is autistic, especially if it's a short and simple one, it fucking well better be ABOUT Murderbot being autistic, or else why spend all these pages explaining what it's like to be autistic? "Autistic people exist" isn't a plotline, that dull and preachy. I need something better than that... Ah! "Murderbot hacked its chip and became autistic!" Yes! That's relevant for the plot and lets me do all kinds of worldbuilding about robots and how they work and how they are seen! There's my elevator pitch and a significant portion of the jacket plot summary right there!

"Autistic people exist in a community" isn't relevant to "autistic robot fights society and other robots." It should be, inasmuch as autistic people are part of society, but it would add pages to the story if the humans who are so clueless and stress-inducing weren't also the nice humans who live with robots and treat them like disabled people. Why add another type of human when we've already got the corporation and the other surveyors and the evil surveyors and a whole world to explain? There's no room!

But that means that, somehow, a group of scientists (!!) living in human society haven't met an autistic person and have no clue how to treat one. There can't be an autistic scientist who goes, "Why the FUCK would you look at someone to PUNISH them, what is WRONG with you?" That would make it less likely Murderbot will wander off to explore the galaxy and find itself! This is Book One! Where's the story if Murderbot finds a community right away and hangs out? That's boring!

So, in the future, there isn't a community among the "free" robots that we just don't see, because it would derail the plot if there were. The world wouldn't look like that if the robots alone talked about their way of being and the humans who lived with them listened. If there were also human beings who existed like Murderbot and they added their voices, it would blow Murderbot's adventure to find itself out of the water, and the point of the story is the adventure. It's not as fun to watch an autistic person look for friends by paging through websites and social media, and then they have lunch and go back to work. That's not a YA novel, that's just life.

If I pick up this series, and I'm not sure I will, I suppose there's room for a Planet Autism. Perhaps as a happy ending, or perhaps as just another place Murderbot doesn't fit in (this would be more realistic, it's hard for us to connect with each other, but much less happy). But they're not out there producing serials and saying they exist and shaping society. They probably hide, so Murderbot has to find them. As one does! One does have to find a community where they fit, and that's hard. But there are lots of us who don't hide, and can't hide. The first time Murderbot mentions a popular serial in a public forum, we ought to come running. Regular autistic people, who are not institutionalized, and who work regular jobs and have lunch. I'm almost positive we won't, though. There's no room. That "darling" needs to die.

It's systemic and it sucks. Like must systemic problems that suck, I've had to spend paragraphs just beginning to unpack it, and probably no one will bother to read it because I don't get seen. If I wrote a whole doorstopper about this, I couldn't get it published because I'm too autistic to navigate the system and too anarchistic to want to anymore. And Tumblr ain't gonna care because they're primarily concerned with short takes that get likes, just look at their app. The world doesn't elevate Murderbots and listen, that much is true, but we find each other and are seen, regardless.

If we want to change what we see in media, we have to change how media works. "The correct way to tell a story is to get from A to B as efficiently as possible and we must create everything that way" is a darling that will have to die, so other darlings can live, and people can just exist as they are without having to cough up a reason. I have no idea how to fix this, but that's how it seems to me.

And this is probably full of typos and awkward phrasing because I got distracted by it and needed to find some way to say it. I'm not gonna go back and edit it until it looks shiny, smooth, and efficient. I exist like this, messily. You may not see me, but I'm here.

#autism #murderbot #all systems red #writing #writblur #long post #characters #media #diversity #representation #inclusion #tell better stories #how do i tell better stories when this is how we've decided stories work? #systemic injustice #systemic ableism #this machine is broken #but i'm not dammit

[spoonful116]

TW: Ableism, gaslighting by healthcare providers

A doctor noted in my chart that I was non-compliant, manipulative, and trying to direct my care. Some of his reasoning:

Refused to take the extended release capsules of the medication prescribed. Also noted that I have dysphagia and a PEG tube

Told him that I needed to address the chronic UTIs before I considered overactive bladder treatments

Became concerned that I had an underlying genetic condition that was causing my issues. A lot of tests were coming back normal, but everything was very abnormal. I do have a genetic condition.

Stopped seeing my first urologist and suggested that I change doctors when they don't do what I want. My first urologist let me have 1-2 UTIs a month and wasn't trying to find a cause

"Refused to give a urine sample at any appointment" when I had been fainting a lot during transfers and they didn't have any exam tables that were wheelchair user friendly.

Communicated with them often about questions or concerns

Didn't do my 24 hour urine collection with an indwelling catheter and thus accused me of not doing it correctly and not collecting all of it in order for my results to be worse

Lying about my water intake and how much I eat

I am truly amazed by this man and the level of fragility, ego, and privilege you must have in order to see those actions as negatives with ulterior motives.

#spoonie #disability #chronic disability #disabilities #chronic uti #chronic illness #chronic kidney stones #kidney stones #medical malpractice #medical neglect #medical trauma #ableism in healthcare #ableism #bias in healthcare #sexism in healthcare #urologist #medical horror stories #american health system #systemic ableism #bad doctors #medical gaslighting #gaslighting #medical ptsd #fragile ego #fragile masculinity

[neuroticboyfriend]

honestly you probably shouldn't go into the medical profession if you aren't prepared to treat patients with dignity and respect - even if your job exploits you, even if your bosses suck, even if you're exhausted.

yes, you are allowed to have feelings and be tired. but you have to be willing and able to either admit when you can't do something (and take the consequences), or put how you feel aside and do your job. for the sake of your patient.

you and your job may be harmed by the medical industrial complex's wrongness, but to your patients, you are part of the complex that is also gravely failing them. you have the power to be a force of goodwill and care, or an instrument of oppression.

that is what you're signing up for when you become a medical professional. don't like it? don't become a medical professional.

#softspoonie #medical industry #medical professionals #medical #medical system #medical ableism #medical abuse #medical trauma #disability advocacy #health #health advocacy #ableism #systemic ableism #systemic oppression #nurses #doctors #medical neglect #medblr #medical student #medical studies #medical malpractice

[cistematicchaos]

I genuinely hate people who run around acting like the history of the US government actively socially and systemically murdering and abusing disabled people is something of the past. 

Yes, your ER is doing it. Yes, your hospital is doing it. Yes, the psych wards are still doing it. Yes, people are still being sterilized. Yes, people are still being violently abused with little-to-no accountability or backlash. Yes, people are still being murdered for being “too disabled” or just “disabled” at all. Pretty much any and everything people list as a thing of “the past” happening to disabled people is still happening today.

Especially with COVID going around, you have got to be wild calling this shit stuff of the past. But by all means, keep regurgitating propaganda. Why not. It’s not as if our lives hang in the balance and quite possibly your eventual life. It’s not as if framing all of these things as evils of the US government’s “past” is dangerous and completely ridiculous. /s

#ableism #sanism #just saying bc #like #its so common? #i dont understand how ppl are even livin with themselves pretending it doesn't happen #disability #disabled #mad punk #cripple punk #systemic ableism #chaos is speaking #tw murder #abuse #medical abuse #forced sterilization

[rjalker]

if you see a screenshot of a tweet that has ALT text, before you reblog thinking "Oh, great, it's already described!" check the ALT text.

If the tweet includes a picture, the picture is probably not included in the ALT text.

When you share a link to a tweet (as of December 7th 2023, who knows if/when Elon Musk is gonna break this feature), it automatically converts itself into a "screenshot", with ALT text automatically generated listing the poster and the text content.

It does not do anything for any images in the tweet, because it's literally just copying the text.

You have to manually describe the images that were in the original tweet.

And because most people don't need image descriptions, they will just see that the image has ALT text, not check to make sure it's accurate, and reblog without realizing they're reblogging an inaccessible post.

Please check that ALT text is correct before reblogging. Even if it's not automatically generated, some people are just using it completely wrong because they don't know what it's for.

If the ALT text is incorrect, create a plain text image description, explain the problem, and ask the OP to add the full ID to the original post.

#accessibility #image descriptions #Twitter #Tweets #ALT text #ableism #systemic ableism #image description tutorial

[starfl-3-sh]

A gentle reminder that the medical world is an ego-fuelled shitfest and your experiences are valid.

#ableism #disability #actually autistic #actually plural #actually disabled #systemic ableism

[arctic-hands]

[Image Description: a photo of a flight of stairs in front of a brick building. The concrete stairs are five steps and a black metal railing going up a grassy hill. Next to the stairs is a concrete ramp. The ramp, should we continue to call it that, is about a fifty degree (? math not my strong point) slope and concave in the center. The top of the photo says in allcaps "ableds be like" and the bottom says "'this is a wheelchair ramp'". End I.D]

The "A.D.A. accessible apartment!" search is not going well, lads

#image described #wheelchair #cane user #ableism #systemic ableism #accessbility #Baltimore #this was the only 'ramp' in the entire complex btw