Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 0 Comments

crybaby-commie:

stop calling people “stupid” when you actually mean “a horrible person”.

stop blaming bigoted views on an inability to understand.

bigots aren’t bigots out of a lack of understanding of the harm they’re causing. they perpetuate/support systems of oppression because on some level they DO know exactly how those systems work, and therefore know that it works to their own benefit. nor is it an inability to feel empathy. it’s an active choice they make, to put their own interests ahead of other people’s suffering.

non-comprehension is not the same as moral failing. conflating the two erases the conscious forethought and deliberate reinforcement it takes to maintain an oppressive system by those who benefit from it, in favor of referring back to a social construct that is itself oppressive (intelligence.)

non-comprehension is not the same as moral failing.

stop throwing disabled people under the bus because you want to pretend oppression is all caused by inherent traits some people just *have*- which you, of course, don’t have, thus conveniently absolving yourself of social responsibility and opting out of self-examination/criticism.

non-comprehension is not the same as moral failing. 

This is a huge huge problem with the social justice movement (as I know it anyway) so I’m relieved to see this post. Really relieved, actually. Any system that punishes misunderstanding with the same vigour it punishes malice is always going to be an ableist one.

People with disabilities are worthy of money and effort

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 0 Comments

realsocialskills:

In the part of special education community that promotes inclusive education, I often hear advocates say things like “inclusion doesn’t have to be hard,” “inclusion doesn’t have to be expensive,” and “inclusion doesn’t require special skills.”

This isn’t really true, unless we exclude a lot of people from “inclusion”. Some access needs are easy to meet; many are not. We can bring some people in without too much trouble. In order to commit to full inclusion, we’re going to have to be willing to spend money, acquire expertise, do hard things, and make changes.

For instance, people who can’t rely on speech as their primary means of communication need support learning to communicate. This is inherently expensive:

• They usually need expensive devices
• (The cheapest good option is an iPad with a $200 app; some people need dedicated devices that cost upwards of $10,000.) 
• They also usually need therapy
• Having a communication device doesn’t solve all of someone’s problems; they also have to learn how to use it
• (And they usually need help learning how)
• Or they need something like RPM, which is low-tech but requires twice-daily 1:1 lessons which use scripts that generally have to be prepared in advance specifically for that student.
• If they are in school, they need teachers who know how to teach them (which generally means that experts have to teach their teachers how.)
• AAC communication is slower, and can be hard to interpret
• Inclusion doesn’t happen automatically; teachers have to learn how to make sure AAC users are able to participate and be heard in class
• (Eg: If someone isn’t using complete sentences yet, it can be hard to know what they mean. You have to be willing and able to do the work of helping them to clarify).
• (And: if someone responds slowly, you have to proactively make sure they get a chance to express their thoughts in class discussions)
• All of this requires money, expertise, effort, and willingness to change
• If we’re only willing to consider cheap options, people who need communication support are left behind

Another example: People need to be able to get into the building

• Many buildings were built incorrectly
• They may have large flights of stairs at all entrances
• They may have many floors that can only be reached by stairs
• They may not have any accessible bathrooms
• The bathrooms may all be too small to enter in a wheelchair (which means there’s no way to fix them without moving walls)
• All of the doors may be big and heavy
• Often, there’s no cheap way to fix this
• There may be inexpensive starting places; we can’t stop there
• If we care about including people with mobility disabilities, we have to be willing to spend money to fix buildings
• We have to hire architects who have expertise in accessibility
• We have to make sure that people with mobility disabilities are part of the conversation, even if no one with a mobility disability has expressed interest in accessing the building recently
• We have to be willing to make changes that make the building look different, in ways that may mean changing or destroying things that longtime users of the building are emotionally attached to.

We can start with the low hanging fruit; we should not pretend that all fruit is low-hanging. A lot of access needs are inherently expensive. There are a lot of needs that no one even knows how to meet yet; the expertise we need does not yet exist. If we want to commit to full inclusion of children with disabilities in schools; if we want to fully include adults in all aspects of society, we need to be in it for the long haul.

tl;dr In order to stop excluding people with disabilities, we’re going to have to spend money. We’re going to have to bring in expertise and develop expertise. We’re going to have to do difficult things. We’re going to have to make changes. We’re going to have to start seeing this as normal. People with disabilities are worthy of money and effort.

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 1 Comment

unuvocheto:

If I could somehow find everyone who ever bullied me and ask them why they targeted me, not a single one would say it was because I was autistic. None of them even knew I was.

Instead they’d say it was because I liked Pokemon too much after it stopped being cool, or my clothes looked ridiculous and I wore the same pair of jeans 3 days a week, or that I was just weird/nerdy/unpopular. In many, many cases, that is what neurodiversity looks like. Not someone with an obvious disability, but someone who’s just weird.

I see so many allistics and neurotypicals on here that claim to be anti-ableism but turn around and make jokes at the expense of people who are eccentric but harmless.

If you’re an allistic that claims to support autistic people, but then you turn around and make fun of the woman who wears a bizarre outfit or the guy who speaks in a monotone or the teenager who carries a teddy bear everywhere, you’re a bad ally and I don’t trust you.

This is why I’m really, really done with tumblr’s ‘lol nerd’ humour. You know the sort I mean, right? Stuff like this (that’s one of the milder examples). It’s always done under the banner of ‘well….superwholock/sherlock/supernatural/whatever is problematic anyway, so it’s alright to mock its fans, even if they’re not displaying any offensive behaviour whatsoever, just enthusiasm.’ –

– or when tumblr decided the best response to nerd culture being so white-male-dominated was to start making jokes about shoving nerds into lockers, that sort of thing. When it is usually not privileged, allistic people who get physically assaulted in school…

Anyway, ableism hiding under the guise of progressiveness is the worst, but it’s everywhere. School, tumblr, adult life – you can’t escape it. It depresses me no end.

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 0 Comments

autismserenity:

evilflux:

remember that every time someone mocks “weird” or “oversensitive” behavior such as stimming, not being able to eat certain foods because the taste/texture/etc. are too overwhelming, having a shutdown because of too much sound/lights/people, stuttering, trembling, dissociating, or other things, they are being ableist.

it doesn’t matter if they don’t know about your autism/anxiety/etc., they are still mocking you for not acting like a neurotypical person would. They still are associating your “weirdness” to being mentally ill, and think it’s funny because society thinks it is.

don’t accept shitty apologies like “how was I/were they supposed to know?”. They subconsciously know what is going on, they just want to make fun of neurodivergent people without looking bad for it.

I was just thinking this morning about how much sitcom humor is based on “laugh at this person with obvious autistic traits” and here it is

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 0 Comments

winterywitch:

ppdmage:

honestly fuck people who use the word ‘trigger’ as a joke. Especially fuck the neurotypicals that go around telling people what a trigger is/isnt when they have no knowledge on said topic and then turn around and hurt mentally ill people with their # TRIGGERED XD jokes. 

Fuck you. You basically took away useful vocabulary from me and other people. I literally can’t use the word “triggered” in most cases because your shitty jokes stigmatize the word so much. Thanks a lot, :) 

for all the people who don’t know what a trigger is: a trigger is literally anything that changes your mood or makes you more likely to do something. there’s triggers for anger. there’s triggers for anxiety and depression and eating disorders and literally every condition ever. “trigger”, in the psych world, means a lot of different things. no, it is not only for veterans with PTSD. that is how much neurotypicals have fucked with the way we communicate our symptoms with each other.

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized ableism 0 Comments

agentelderofshield:

roccondilrinon:

crpl-pnk:

ok very funny guys. you got me. now seriously who left all these neurotypicals in charge of the mental health field

who left all these healthy doctors in charge of the hospital

is literally what this sounds like

God, can you imagine how awful that would be? People with amputations consulting on things like prosthesis?

People in wheelchairs designing living and working spaces for people with mobility issues?

Autistic people actually trying to help other autistic people?

OMG, just thing – wouldn’t ti be awful if people who are now in remission actually helped manage the pain and other symptoms that come with having and treating cancer?

I mean seriously, what on Earth do any of those people really have to add to the discussion? What could they possibly know that an able-bodied neurotypical wouldn’t already know? I mean, experience doesn’t teach all that much!

/end sarcasm.