I hate that if you've ever been through psychosis you are expected to literally never talk about it just because it freaks other people out

This and also have had people downplay my experiences or ignore me/think I’m being stuck up when I tell them I can’t be around a specific thing which induces it in me.

I always think it's very interesting that there are so many mildly disabled people who would classify me, another mildly disabled person, as severely disabled just because I use a wheelchair. even when I needed my wheelchair more often than I do now I was still able to complete all ADLs and most iADLS (though the iADLs I was missing were because of my autism, not my physical disability).

it just shows that a lot of disabled people, and particularly newly disabled people, don't understand the depth of disability. their idea of maximum disability is often "can't walk" and they don't realize that some people's disability is can't walk, can't breathe, can't eat, can't sit up on their own, can't talk, and more all at once. being an ambulatory wheelchair user is being in the 12ft deep section of the pool while other disabled people are out in the ocean.

I preach a lot about autistic nutrition on here because a lot of us aren't getting it

I recently talked about fiber and the fact that colorectal cancer is one of the fastest rising cancers in young people in the US who aren't getting enough fiber.

the suggested daily intake of fiber for an adult is 25-30g

I previously talked about chia seeds being a great option for fiber but if that's not really your thing I found out about trader joe's gummy worms that have 14g fiber per 8 gummies (about 50% of your recommended daily intake)

a lot of autistic people find candy more approachable than other foods (which is ok!) so if you need help meeting fiber goals and you have a trader joe's near you maybe try these?

Lots of sugar free/low sugar candy is similarly high in fiber!

Another warning note is to carefully increase your fiber intake - if you've been eating almost no fiber, try to gradually increase it over a few days. Suddenly increasing your fiber intake can have unpleasant effects on your bowels.

Want to add here that many sugar free products also contain sugar alcohols that the body can't break down.

It's fine in moderation, but eating larger quantities at once can produce laxative effect especially if you have diagnoseable bowel issues (ibs, ibd, etc.) Sorbitol is a big one that does that.

Im on lotscof meds

I got given an IV of haldol, ativan, and zofran in the hospital to help treat a major drug interaction

My psychiatrist prescribed me fluvoxamine when I was already on ramelteon and it made me sick

I'm better now, but yeah that's where this loopy-ass post came from lmao

For disability pride, think I want to focus on this one thing that been bothering me

Been very frustrated lately by lack of phone call accessibility as someone who lacks speech but needs a lot of resources to stay healthy.

With rise of AI, it's only getting worse and worse.

More places changing their systems to incorporate AI answering machines.

Thing is...

Whenever I hear most people ranting about this change, it's usually about how annoying it is from an abled-person perspective or environmental or ethical impact.

Which are important valid reasons to be upset. I share those sentiments too.

But feel like disability is once again forgotten about within important discussion about change.

AI creates terrible language accessibility issues.

In fact, that's why it so annoying to deal with it.

In the past, if a place didn't have a call center or desk person to answer calls, they use extentions.

That meant you had to press a few numbers to get the right person.

Now with AI, you're expected to have a full conversation with a robot.

Tell them why you're calling, who you need to speak to, verify your info so the humans don't have to later, etc.

These bots can be bad at understanding what able-people are saying, so imagine how they handle these disabled callers:

(i don't know if there is a different preferred term for this. Im sorry if I sound offensive. Please Lmk)

Ability to understand what AI is saying can be harder too:

(AI can't help people who need things explained a certain way. AI unreliable and fails to adapt a lot.)

The problems I often face with AI answering machines (and that I'm sure many other disabled people have faced as well):

These are the machines being put in front of

It's another example of some of the most vulnerable being pushed away from the things we need, and we're also being forgotten in these discussions about things that can affect us a lot

Next time someone is ranting about AI job interviewers, please also remember:

Human beings need to be at the forefront of human resources and issues for disabled people especially. Please remember us. Please fight.

Happy disability pride ♡

[Image ID: Screenshot of tumblr tags. They read "#disability #accessibility #only accessible by phone is inaccessible!! #ai #piss" /end ID]

‼️Only accessible by phone is inaccessible

[PT: red double exclamation marks emoji. Only accessible by phone is inaccessible. /end ID]

I try to surround myself with whimsy in order to make being disabled and tired and in pain suck less but sometimes it just. sucks. no matter how much you try to romanticize your life.

Sometimes you are just stuck in bed in a messy room, surrounded by trash you couldn’t sit up to throw away, dishes piled on the floor by the bed. Your body aches but you’re too tired to get up to get a hot pack or some pain meds. Not to mention you’ve needed to use the bathroom and have for hours but no one is home to help you get up so you just have to wait. And you’re dehydrated but ran out of water by your bed. But you can’t get up. So you just lay there and it’s not whimsical at all.

By the way it's like. Really fucked how society's thoughts on epilepsy is just "get over it." Seizures can cause permanent brain damage. Seizures can kill people. Seizures hurt like hell. Allow me to reiterate that seizures can kill people. And you're just gonna casually put flashing lights, a common trigger for seizures in your advertisement, in your animation meme, in your edit, on your billboards, without even thinking about putting a simple disclaimer? That's unbelievable. Your little anime edit could deadass cost a life and you're not gonna put a warning because it's "inconvenient" or "people like that shouldn't be on the internet" (ableist) (the problem exists outside the internet also). Or you'll give insufficient ones like putting it in the captions or only giving like one second before the flashing lights appear, meaning that the trigger's already in motion before anyone who needs the warning can read it and save themselves from literal physical danger.

We need to start commenting under other people's posts about how to properly warn for flashing lights and eyestrain. We need to be emailing and calling companies about their possibly triggering advertisements that could induce seizures. We need to stop tolerating ableism and start speaking up for the more vulnerable.

Also, stop putting epilepsy warnings. That's like saying "warning: schizophrenia" on a post including unreality or "warning: dyslexia" on a post with a typing quirk. First off, the disability mentioned isn't the only group of people that this could trigger. Second, it doesn't truly get the message across and instead makes it worse for those with the disability-- scrolling through the epilepsy tag on Tumblr should get you to view the content of other epileptic people, but no, you just get a bunch of flashing lights and eyestrain, even though you could instead tag for, oh I dunno, flashing lights and eyestrain.

Anyways this Disability Pride, and for every month that comes after, think about epileptic people and others who are triggered by flashing lights/eyestrain. Happy pride to those who experience seizures too frequently due to the unaccommodating and ableist societies we live in!

Also, I'm so sick of this "safe space" nonsense. Do you know how exclusionary these safe spaces are? Do you know how many autistics are constantly being kicked from "autism safe spaces" because of their autism symptoms?

I have yet to see a single safe space that actually was safe for autism. It just doesn't exist.

All these safe spaces have these seemingly arbitrary and unspoken rules. You have to constantly read between the lines. You have to meet the unspoken social expectations of the group.

If you don't meet these unspoken expectations then you're kicked from the group.

They are only "safe spaces" for very specific types of people who just happen to have autism. It isn't safe for autism itself.

spent forty-five minutes today helping an 87yo woman who does not own a computer or a cell phone try to set up an email account so that she could then set up a second account in order to access benefits. went with protonmail, because they don't require 2fa, but it turns out that while you can still make a protonmail account without authentication you can no longer use it to create OTHER accounts without it, and the benefits page she needed to get to required both an email and a cell phone to create an account anyway. asked if she wanted to try going in person to see if someone there could help her, and she said that she had, and they'd directed her to the website. she tried signing up with her landline, but of course that didn't work because you can't do SMS authentication that way. finally ended up writing up detailed instructions for how to log in and authenticate her account so she can drive to her severely disabled daughter's house forty minutes away because that's the only person she knows and trusts who has both a cell phone and a computer.

anyway i fucking hate mandatory 2fa and i think the people responsible for it should have to spend a year navigating their lives with no cell phone and no internet access beyond the public library pcs. fuck.

fuck it I will make this my Disability Pride Month Request: if you are able-bodied, or just unfamiliar, look up the prices of things. Look up what life-sustaining medication costs, look up what good manual¹ and any power wheelchairs cost, look up what corrective surgery and accessible vehicles and home meal delivery services and service dog training and special dietary restriction food costs. and look up how much money is available for people who can't work.

how many months of government support does it take to afford something like a power wheelchair if you're someone who needs one to get out of bed? how much expense is incurred while saving up for that, making sure you still get food, cleaning, other appointments while you're saving up? is it enough to pay rent? is it enough to still have nice meals, streaming subscriptions, a new video game? is it enough to help family or friends cover emergencies? are there resources available to help with dating, girl's nights, family events if you can't do it all yourself? how in demand are those services, how far in advance do they have to be reserved, how much do they cost?

I've had a few posts about disability get relatively well-shared at this point, and there's always an element of surprise in it - like, what do you mean there's subscriptions, what do you mean it's that expensive, isn't there something else? - and while I understand why, it would really mean a lot if people who don't know about this stuff took the initiative to find out just how bad some of this shit is on their own time

¹ and not just the folding ones on Amazon, which are still expensive, but which I can say from experience are also really uncomfortable and not suited for full time use

Look up cost of dedicated AAC devices too!!

And then look up the cost of a newer gen ipad.

And then also look up the cost of robust AAC software and add that to the cost of either device!!

It isn't a one-time purchase either btw.

The devices have planned obsolescence (which is why you want to go for the newer gens).

And some apps only support a subscription.

And the ones that don't, if you get a new device, you often need to repurchase the app.

I rely on this to ask for help in emergencies btw.

...

I keep seeing people frame hyperfocus/monotropism as a good thing, as a good ability to have.

But I'd also just like to start seeing more people talk about the dangers that hyperfocussing can cause. I'd like to see it more talked about how these things can also cause neglect.

I want to see the negative effects of hyperfocus talked about more.

yall are so fucking weird about gnc people. a woman wears a suit and she's "conforming to the patriarchy". a man wears a skirt and he's Secretly A Trans Egg. have you considered It's Fabric