buried things

I keep thinking about all of the disabled activists and people before me who stranded themselves on the 4th floor of buildings for weeks and crawled up stairs and fought with airline staff and schools and doctors and refused to stop existing in the face of injustice and bigotry no matter how big and scary and hopeless it seemed. Every time I get angry and scared the protests that lead to the creation of the ADA pop up again and remind me that disabled people are so much fucking stronger than anyone has ever given us credit for, and I can't help but be proud of that. And I know not all disabled people feel like we should take pride in our disabilities and have flags or whatever, but I think not just living, but thriving, in spite of a world that wants us dead and gone, in the face of both illness and persecution, and how we've not only bought ourselves forward, but uplifted the disabled people around us, secured more equal futures for everyone who will come after, and truly changed the way so many abled people have seen us for the better is something to be damn fucking proud of.

We have always been here and we always will be, there will never be a world without disabled people because being disabled is not bad, it's a natural part of the human experience and yeah it sucks some times but even when it sucks we have fought to build beautiful, unique, happy lives with people, both like us and not, and that should be celebrated.

The first sign of human civilization is the healed femur. The body of the profoundly disabled person who would have needed help to even just eat being carefully laid to rest after decades of a full, happy life. The medicinal plants showing even before we were entirely human we were doing what we could to not just survive, but alleviate suffering while we're at it. Above everything, evolution selected not the baby who can walk and eat and be quiet, but the one that can ask for help.

Disabled people are not just angry cockroach motherfuckers who refuse to die, we are proof of humanity's HUMANITY. Proof that natural selection selected a species that takes care of each other. From healed femurs and medicinal plants to vaccines and IVs and insulin to now, we are driven to help one another, we are at our strongest when we don't leave our most vulnerable behind. And I am living proof of that. My mother is living proof of that. Every disabled and chronically and/or mentally ill person I know is living proof of that.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but will carry that shred of humanity's true nature inside me like it's my fucking soul. I am scared and angry and hurt, but I have a lifetime's experience being scared and angry, and I can shake off the kind of pain that would make Atlas crumble to dust like it's nothing but a stiff fucking breeze. Disabled people have always been here, turning fear and anger and pain into joy and beauty and connection, and I'm not going to let everyone who came before me down. I'm not going to give up. Not now, not ever.

It's okay if you're disabled and you've hit your limit, you're too scared and tired and hurt, I won't blame you. But I won't abandon you, either. I might not be able to right all of the wrongs in the world, but I'll be strong, I'll carry all of you with me, I will not give up.

As I've said before, society hates a cripple who won't die, so we must spite them and live anyway.

Please, live anyway. I know if anyone can, it's us.

Abled people can rb this btw. And when I say I include mentally ill people in with disabled people I fucking mean it. I'm not tolerating ANY division anymore, I don't care if it's EDS or lupus or cancer or bipolar or autism or ADHD if you're disabled you're fucking disabled and we're in this shit together. Just like we always have been, and we always will be.

You don't have to be in a wheelchair to fight alongside me, and I will not leave you behind, so don't leave others behind because they don't have the exact same medical conditions you do. The BEST thing about disabled people is how we bridge gaps, big and small, how varied our communities are because we do not balk at the sight of the other or snidely insist that the only people who could ever understand us are our carbon copies. We are diversity incarnate, and we know more than anyone else that solidarity is everything.

We get there together or we don't get there at all. That's how it's always been and how it always will be. Unity above division, liberation above assimilation, radical acceptance and a vibrant, angry, joyous, rabid refusal to give up and die over all else. That's the plan. Stick to it.

i just wanted to say you're not gross if you deal with gastrointestinal issues. even if people treat your symptoms and disorders like they're disgusting, they're not. they're genuine health problems- health includes your entire body. if you are having issues digesting/processing foods, eating, controlling your bowels or having diarrhea or constipation issues or frequent gas and bloating, you're not gross. if you need a colostomy bag, you're not gross. if you need to use diapers you're not gross. if you frequently vomit you're not gross. if you deal with acid reflux and chronic heartburn you're not gross.

people and even doctors will treat people with these kinds of issues like we're disgusting but we're just people with health issues. a GI issue is no less worthy of attention than a broken bone. it doesn't matter where it's located in the body you still need help with it. there are many issues people can have with digestion that aren't necessarily "gross" and they don't deserve to be looked down on. you deserve care and respect from everyone in your life. you don't deserve to be treated like your health problems don't matter

It's so weird talking to people who's view of "here's the way life is for everyone" is shattered as soon as they talk to someone with disabilities (physical, mental illness, any). Like you'll say you'll have a problem and instead of helping you they'll argue with you about how you're not actually facing that problem. Like,

Me: Hey, I'm really struggling to find a job and a part of it is my resume. I was depressed & psychotic during highschool so I didn't do anything to gain skills or achievements to put on my resume. I also don't have anyone to put as a reference. What can I do?

Them: You can add your skills, hobbies, clubs you're in, and different volunteer work you've done! You can also get your teacher as a reference.

Me: I already know what to put on a resume, my issue is that I don't have things that I can use. Also, I'm in my mid 20s so I don't know if I can put my highschool teacher as a reference.

Them: Well if you're a part of a church or an activity group, you could add that. Also, think of any projects you've worked on in the past.

Me: I already know you can put these things on a resume. I'm not looking for suggests of things I've already done, I'm looking for what I can do now if I haven't done anything.

Them: There's no way you didn't do anything during highschool?? What about some odd jobs you definitely did for extra money, like babysitting or mowing the lawn?

Me: I spent all of highschool either in modified classes or in bed doing nothing - not even hobbies, what about that do you not understand?

And then you talk to someone who's also disabled and they're like "Here's a bunch of jobs you can do from home that don't pay much but look good on a resume, here's some free online courses that also look good on a resume, here's how you can be making small amounts of money in the meantime, here's some things you can put besides a professional reference, and here are your rights if your future employer tries to take advantage of your disability - which you probably shouldn't tell them about unless you need accommodations."

And suddenly my will to continue trying returns!

c...can we maybe get some of those ideas in full? Pls?

Two other people asked as well so okay! Though this post will be rather long.

Freelance Jobs You Do From Home That Look Cool On A Future Resume

Please research any company before sign up with then. So many companies are scams and pay you way less than you deserve for your work. Go to r/freelancers and search to make sure nobody has had some horrid experiences. There's also usually reviews of a company on YouTube as well.

Small Amounts Of Money

If You Don't Have Anyone To Put On Your Resume As References

Once you have some, this is how you would format your references.

None of these are long term solutions and not everything will work out for everybody. These are just helpful suggestions I've received over the years!

May I add Zooniverse for participating in citizen science projects? It gives you a Research Background, plus you can talk about admin/data entry etc

There's also a whole bunch of YouTube tutorials for learning Excel. And, if you've a mind to learn it, there's a mapping software called QGIS that's free to download, and the internet is full of tutorials. If you can learn it, it is an EXTREMELY sought-after skill in a lot of fields.

OMG I know somebody who needs to see a list of How To Money While Body Is Nope.

Accessibility takes too goddamn fucking long.

My brother was paralyzed in October 2023. We got him home from the hospital (in Texas, when we live in Iowa) in a clunky old hospital chair. He hated it. He was scared and angry and in pain and his life had just changed forever and he couldn’t do anything for himself in that wheelchair. His first goal (aside from learning how to transfer) was to get a wheelchair. My family was lucky enough to afford one so we thought it would be easy enough. Nope.

We couldn’t buy him a wheelchair. He needed a prescription. For a wheelchair. A doctor had to examine him and declare him in need of a wheelchair. It wasn’t good enough that he had scans and tests showing tumors cutting off his spinal cord. He needed his primary care doctor to examine him during a physical and write a prescription. He was making 2-4 transfers a day, tops. He had no energy to get to a doctor. Home health was in and out every day. He had no time to get to a doctor. He didn’t get a prescription for almost a month. Then it had to go through insurance.

We asked if we could skip insurance and just buy a wheelchair for him. Nope. They wouldn’t sell us one, not even at full sticker price. It needed to be approved by Medicare. We ordered a wheelchair, a nice one, a good shade of green, sporty, small. It would let him move around the house. He would be able to cook, to reach drawers and get stuff from the fridge and brush his teeth and put his contacts in at a sink. We were told it would take awhile, maybe two months. Silently we all hoped he would be around to see two more months.

He went on hospice care on a Saturday in March. On Monday, I was calling his friends to come see him before he died. I got a call on his phone. It was the wheelchair company. They were about to order his wheelchair, she said, but there was an issue with insurance— had he stopped being covered by Medicare? Well, yes. When he started hospice care, he got kicked off Medicare. The very nice woman I talked to told me to call her if he resumed Medicare coverage so she could order his wheelchair. He died less than 12 hours later.

We ordered that chair for him in early December. Medicare didn’t approve the order until March. He was dead before they got around to it. He wanted that fucking wheelchair so badly. The only reason he had any semblance of independence and any quality of life for the last five months of his life was because the wheelchair company lent him an old beater chair, a very used model of the chair he ordered. If I could go back and change one thing about his end-of-life, I would get him his dream wheelchair. He told me again and again he couldn’t wait to get it, so that he could feel like a person again. He made the best of what he had with that old beater chair, but it still makes me mad to this day. He was paralyzed. He needed a chair that afforded him dignity. We had the money for it. And yet, we were left waiting for five months, for a chair that wouldn’t even get ordered until the day he died.

I feel pretty awful contradicting this post bc it is so frequently what people experience, and someone died. But I also don't want people to fall into despair. You can order a chair without a prescription. I didn't have a diagnosis or proper support for EDS yet and I was able to get a chair here. I had to pay full price, and in fact prices had gone up since the chair I was buying was listed so I had to pay more than it was advertised for. But I was able to have a life

Having a different experience is not contradictory. The tragedy of my brother’s situation is that we didn’t have a resource like the one you shared, and so we were stuck going through the “official” channel of Medicare, which took too long to be of use. Yes, we probably could have found this website or one like it, and we probably could have gotten my brother his wheelchair before he died, but we were busy and scared and grieving, working on an ever-changing timeline leading up to his death, dealing with constant trips to the ER and cross-country hospital visits. The point of this post is that the avenues accessible to us, the “proper” ones, were far too long to be truly accessible. We did everything the “right” way and it still wasn’t fast enough. (And let’s not forget that my brother’s medical care team was, at minimum, 20 very knowledgeable people, and not a single one of them told us about any alternate way of getting a wheelchair, despite knowing that his time was limited and Medicare would take months to approve it).

I am genuinely so glad that you got your mobility aid without having to jump through bullshit insurance hoops. I do not want people to fall into despair. I hope the link you provided can prevent someone else’s tragedy.

No doctor or medical professional ever told me, either. I found out where to get one, and what kind was right, and how to measure myself for it, through a Facebook support group for people with hypermobility spec disorders.

Posts like this, groups like that, are lifelines. It makes me so angry that they are so necessary

Queer history and the history of disability are inherently connected. Beyond the myriad of queer disabled people throughout history, the medicalization of queer people has existed for a long time and continues to this day. This means that a lot of the abuses of disabled people have overlapped onto the queer community, and ideally this would give queer people a greater understanding and ability to stand in solidarity with the disabled community. In practice, this often isn’t the case. Eugenicist beliefs, ableist rhetoric, and a deep fear of aging and losing access to an abled body, are all things that run rampant within the queer community. It is past time to do better.

There is so much to learn from the people sitting on the intersection, and the queer people who have been forced through the medical system because of their queerness. Queerness and disability are connected, and that’s a strength for both communities. Within queer history is the history of disability and within the history of disability is queer history. To learn one is to learn the other, and let that be the joy of it.

"disability only exists because the world isnt accessible" idk how to tell you this but chronic pain still hurts

i like the sentiment and i think its true in many ways, but people with mobility issues will still have mobility issues in an accommodating world, people with sensory disabilities will still have those disabilities in an accommodating world. and thats not including neurodiversity where two people with the exact same disorder will have very different experiences with them. like there's not a world where someone with agoraphobia wont be scared to leave the house just cause outside is more accessible

i dont think it accounts for the wide range of disability experience and caters more to low-support needs people. i think life would be so much easier if being disabled was less stigmatized, but disability wont just go away once it is

you can't autism proof a bright summer day, but you can normalize stimming and using sensory aids in public

Because my comics have gone around the internet, many people have asked if I’ve “gotten better yet”. The answer is a firm NO because that’s not how post-viral illness triggered by an infection that causes organ and brain damage works. Please consider your behavior and who you are leaving behind.

Check out the People’s CDC here where they provide weekly updates on the COVID situation in the U.S.

ID in alt text and below!

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People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I’d pass it on.

I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?

These people seem to get it, though. It’s very simple in places. It’s basically the cookbook for people who think, ‘I’m really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can’t think of anything else to cook that won’t exhaust me’. And it’s free!

I’m glad so many people have discovered Judith “Judy” Heumann through this silly little gif set. I am sorry to say she has died at the age of 75. She was known as the mother of disability rights. In 1970 she sued the Board of Education to become a licensed teacher and she won. In 1977 she was one of the organizers of the 504 Sit-in, a 24 day protest for disability rights. You can learn more about her story from her book Being Heumann, the picture book Fighting for YES! or the documentary Crip Camp.

Judy Heumann believed in the inherent value of each disabled individual and would never back down on what she thought was right. Her friends and fellow activists remember her as a strong leader.

Judy Heumann

December 18, 1947 - March 4, 2023

May her memory be for a blessing.

hey if you're not a mobility aid user, and you want a simple way to make public spaces more accessible to those of us who are, i have a tip for you:

push in your chairs when you get up from tables.

when people don't push in their chairs, people with bulky aids like wheelchairs and rollators can't get through. also a lot of people who use canes have wider gaits than able bodied people, and having a chair in the middle of their walking path is a real obstruction. while some of us are able to push chairs out of our way, a lot of us are not, and wind up boxed in/out because somebody didn't push in their chair.

so if you want to do something simple that can make a big difference in terms of like. navigating an outdoor food court or a cafe or what have you. push in your chairs.

teaching yourself how to deal with mildly annoying inconveniences is imo an essential part of treating the disabled people around you with compassion and no i'm not kidding

sometimes you have to share a public space with someone who has loud verbal tics. sometimes a chronically ill friend will have to cancel plans because of a flare up even if you were really looking forward to hanging out with them. sometimes an autistic person will talk over you or interrupt you because they missed a particular cue. sometimes people who struggle to take care of themselves will smell bad. sometimes people with intellectual disabilities will need you to give them more detailed, patient instructions, even if it seems simple to you. sometimes you will need to give up your seat on the bus for a physically disabled person even if you don't want to move.

accommodating disabled people is not always easy or comfortable; being an ally means doing it anyway.

Today I had the spoons to hunt down my neighborhood council's email and send them an email that basically said "I would like to be able to leave my house but my neighborhood is not wheelchair accessible. Who do I talk to in order to get this fixed?" And I am planning on hunting down whoever is in charge of sidewalks in my neighborhood and getting real annoying about it.

My plan is to email them every time I want to go somewhere but can't.

Email 1: hello, please fix sidewalks so I can ride the bus places I am very passionate about public transportation and also being able to leave my house.

Email 200: This morning I woke up and wanted some delicious coffee to start my day, but upon getting out of bed I discovered we were out of coffee. I would've liked to take advantage of the city's public transportation system in order to support a local business like [examples of local coffee shops] but alas I cannot because I am a wheelchair user and my neighborhood is not wheelchair accessible. [Insert rest of arguement RE accessibility]. In conclusion I don't work I can keep these emails coming until I die please just fix my sidewalks.

This is going to be my new spite hobby. I was already mad about the abuse and general shit hand the disabled get dealt in our culture but then I started using a wheelchair and places like doctor's offices have been inaccessible to me so now I am filled with rage. So I am going to take that rage and do something with it. Like emailing my city counsel representatives at 2 am like "I crave a moonlight walk fix my sidewalks please."

I encourage you to do this!

After the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, my grandma - who used an electric wheelchair, having survived both polio and getting hit really hard with post-polio syndrome - made a hobby of filing complaints against businesses that weren't accessible.

She also used to run over people with her chair if they were blocking ramps, but that's neither here nor there.

IM GOING TO CRY THEY MIGHT INCREASE THE SSI ASSETS LIMIT TO $10,000.

it's a bipartisan bill too! and for anyone unaware, people on SSI (which is different from SSDI), can only have $2,000 in assets (unless they have an ABLE account, which comes with its own rules). this assets limit has been in place for FORTY YEARS and is a giant part of why being on SSI keeps people incredibly impoverished.

i've also heard they might remove the marriage penalty but i don't have the spoons to read or explain it so someone else please add on!

this is huge! please spread the word and do what you can to help ensure this happens!

Now would be a GREAT time to call/email/write your Congressperson! And it will still have different amounts for couples and individuals but it will be much less punitive. And it will be tied to inflation!!! It will be increased to $20,000 for couples and $10,000 for individuals.

For reference here's the link to the Senate bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2767 and the House version: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5408 I recommend looking at these to see who is already sponsoring them and make sure to either call in support OR to call asking them to work on this.

It's also pretty short! Here is the full text of the bill (same text for both the Senate and the House):

SEC. 2. Update in eligibility for the supplemental security income program.

(a) Update in resource limit for individuals and couples.—Section 1611(a)(3) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1382(a)(3)) is amended—

(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking “$2,250” and all that follows through the end of the subparagraph and inserting “$20,000 in calendar year 2023, and shall be increased as described in section 1617(d) for each subsequent calendar year.”; and

(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking “$1,500” and all that follows through the end of the subparagraph and inserting “$10,000 in calendar year 2023, and shall be increased as described in section 1617(d) for each subsequent calendar year.”.

(b) Inflation adjustment.—Section 1617 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1382f) is amended—

(1) in the section heading, by inserting “; inflation adjustment” after “benefits”; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

“(d) In the case of any calendar year after 2023, each of the amounts specified in section 1611(a)(3) shall be increased by multiplying each such amount by the quotient (not less than 1) obtained by dividing—

“(1) the average of the consumer price index for all urban consumers (all items; United States city average, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor) for the 12-month period ending with September of the preceding calendar year, by

“(2) such average for the 12-month period ending with September 2022.”.

IM GOING TO CRY THEY MIGHT INCREASE THE SSI ASSETS LIMIT TO $10,000.

it's a bipartisan bill too! and for anyone unaware, people on SSI (which is different from SSDI), can only have $2,000 in assets (unless they have an ABLE account, which comes with its own rules). this assets limit has been in place for FORTY YEARS and is a giant part of why being on SSI keeps people incredibly impoverished.

i've also heard they might remove the marriage penalty but i don't have the spoons to read or explain it so someone else please add on!

this is huge! please spread the word and do what you can to help ensure this happens!

does anyone know where I can find good reference images of victorian-era wheelchairs? I want to draw the jovial contrarian but all the wheelchair art refs/tutorials I can find are for modern wheelchairs

okay so here's a few photo's i have on hand for ref

Here is an article on the history of the wheelchair, which has some info on the victorian era ones

Image from that one, circa late 1860s.

Another from the science museum, late victorian era:

This one in particular is noteworthy as : "unlike a typical bath chair, the wheels are fitted with an extra ring to allow the chair to be driven by the passenger. " so perhaps keep that in mind for drawing too

So i usually go off of the old picture combine some facets of modern wheelchair for Fallen London, since i think The Neath could have some of it own technological advancments

Hope these are helpful!

Here are a couple of pages from two Silber & Fleming catalogues from the 1880s (first, second), listing various types of wheelchairs for sale.