My broadband stopped misbehaving long enough for me to be interviewed for STEM with disabilities this morning. I think it's at least a month out from publishing, but in the meantime read the great profiles they've already got there! https://www.stemwithdisabilities.com/
The rules for SSDI/SSI and a lot of other ableist policing are like the old trial by water for witches:
If we toss you in the water and you drown, you're innocent and not a witch, but you're dead.
If we toss you in the water and you swim or float in the water we've tossed you in, you're a witch and therefore we kill you by burning you. @disability#Ableism#Disability
At the time UC Access Now released the Demandifesto on the 30th Anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the UC Board of Regents had not discussed disability/accessibility for TEN YEARS.
UC Access Now was the 1st org we know of that advocated for a systemic approach to dismantling ableism throughout UC - prior to us, ppl were focused mostly on students, only at one campus. UC brass have ignored us as much as they can, even when cherry-picking things to improve from our analysis.
@disability All along UC has erased UC Access Now from the discussion of disability within University of California and used groups that would not press them as hard as ways to buffer them from critique and from the public knowing that UC Access Now's approach had had an effect. We know we had an effect because people would inform us that we were mentioned....in closed door meetings where we were not invited.
@disability How will this Office of DIsability Rights go? Well, if we don't see UC acknowledging and relying upon the expertise of UC Access Now coalition members, if we don't see them taking the things currently easily within their power - their own communications, events, training programs, and projects begun hereafter - and making them highest common denominator by default...we know it's just another way of extenuating people's fights for justice...another delay before having to sue in court. #UCAccessNow#Disability#Accessibility#DIsabilityLaw
@disability Help us find more folks in the University of California anti-ableist community. Urge your friends to follow this account so when news like this breaks, we can make sure folks know more details than they're likely to get in any media coverage. #UCAccessNow#Disability#Accessibility#DIsabilityLaw
Doctor appt today, and he happily wrote up all the pain relief I needed prescribed for my shoulder.
I thought it might be difficult to get him to prescribe endone, panadeine forte, mobic, panadol osteo, and palexia.. but we went over how I was taking them all and he agreed that I was fine with how I was approaching it - and that taking such a variety of things meant actually taking less opioid based meds because I was able to keep on top of the pain with things like panadol osteo.
We also did my mental health plan and I hit a 40 on the K10.. which is Very Fucking High. We talked about that, and about how therapy is helping and that a big part of the 40 score is probably actually pain related as well.
He agreed that I showed great insight into my illness and that I was comfortable with being vulnerable enough to ask for help, so I get to skip hospitalisation (fucking yay!) because I have a good support system and I know how to access acute assistance if needed.
But still, 40 was even higher than I was expecting tbh. I'm usually around a 25-27.
How welcome do I feel as a disabled grad student here? Well, I keep seeing image fliers sent without alt text for maskless in-person events with no creative accessible online options (or any online option at all).
I woke up having a hypo this morning and I don't know if I still feel gross after that, if I'm getting sick, if it's a fibro flare, or if my body is just overreacting to the sudden change in temperature.
But I feel exhausted, I have such a headache, and my pain is like a 7/10, and I can feel my brain moving slow like molasses.
🛍️Research opportunity for blind people in the UK | ‘Greetings from our research group at the London College of Fashion! We are reaching out to you with an opportunity to be at the forefront of a study that aims to revolutionize the fashion retail landscape, making it more inclusive and accessible’
#CfP for the edited #volume "#Disability in German #Literature", which will be "published by Peter Lang Verlag under the series "Jahrbuch für internationale Germanistik".
I've started a new Fetlife group for disabled people. It was started after it became apparent that the other group was going to allow chasers to fetishise and objectify disabled people and that the group wasn't safe for us.
Have you nominated your favorite #IndieBooks for the #IndieInkAwards yet? Nominations are open for the month of November for several awards from Side Character MVP to Wittiest Character, & to highlight amazing #LGBTQ Representation, #MentalHealth Rep, #Disability Rep, #BIPOC Rep, & more. Open to all fiction genres and YA, NA, & Adult books. While you're there, you might find more #BooksToRead !
Relieved to see this outcome! I was one of the thousands who submitted a passionate response to the consultation #transport#Disability@disability | ‘Transport for All, a disabled-led organisation, called it "the best possible outcome", but added that while the government was "eventually swayed, it is appalling that disabled people's concerns were dismissed for so long".’
The #conference "#Literary and Cultural #Disability Studies. British and Continental Perspectives" will take place at the Universität Freiburg (Switzerland) on November 2-4, 2023.
Lordess, spare me from the inspiration porn of #NDEAM and make employers actually focus on dismantling their own ableism. @disability#Disability#Ableism
The two major "holidays" for disabled people in the US are July 26 - the anniversary of the signing into law of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) in October. The former at least has real ties to disability activism and history although it is also focused on cheerleading the legislative floor that institutions still haven't met 33 years later.
The latter is aimed at (abled) employers and is even more about cheering the status quo.
"Accommodations" is a term that says inaccessibility is the desired default - anything that differs from that is noblesse oblige from abled people - rather than our actual right as co-equal members of this society.
Because this is nominally for disabled people - this is one of the few University of California events with captions and (presumably ASL) interpretation, and an online option.
@academicchatter@disability The disabled community in the US should found its own holiday, driven by our own history, culture, and joy, not making a celebration of the barrel scrapings systemic ableism has been legally pressured into doling out. #NDEAM#UCAccessNow#Disability
I've wanted to tell this true story for 10 years. Today, my book, "Freeing Teresa," is live in print and as an e-book. 🙌 Please help me spread the word!
Advance praise:
“A courageous, personal account of fighting the system—and family— to free Teresa from #forcedcare.” Alanna Hendren, Executive Director, Developmental Disabilities Association
Institutionalised parent carer blame is rife within services that are supposed to support neurodivergent children. A lot of this is because there is too much focus on safeguarding, and little to no understanding of the nuances of disability, how to assess need, or resources to meet those needs.
A co-follower that I've had many interactions with, posted the following mutual aid request for me on several platforms. I thought I should give some details:
I'm used to be one who helps, and have never had ask for mutual aid but, the need is increasingly desperate. My SSDI (SS disability) was unjustly cut off and the fight to restore it could take months or years.
I don't even know how to go about mutual aid but, I've been laboring over a more detailed explanation of my situation to post at a later time. In short, I'm struggling to have enough to eat, facing eviction from an ablest/abusive environment and having what little I own being held hostage by a person who offered storage in the guise of "Christian" charity. When I did not respond to his recruitment and grooming, he became aggressive, abusive and locked my belongings away from me.
The belongings include sentimental items, all of my legal docs and IDs, medical devices, and a few furniture items, one of which is an expensive recliner to accommodate my physical disabilities. The individual is threatening to sell them, give them away or throw them out. There are many other challenges I'm facing and have set a goal on my ko-fi page that I hope will be enough.
There's not a lot of work for a person with one functioning hand and a myriad of other physical and invisible disabilities. My numerous attempts to find online work from home have been unsuccessful and soon, may not have a home to work from. As my health allows, I spend 24/7 writing and fighting for disability rights, posting regularly on Mastodon.
Any assistance in the form of mutual aid and online "work from home opportunities" would be greatly appreciated. Monthly donors of small amounts would be a tremendous help to help me to continue what I do. One-time donations of any amount would also be helpful to my survival. My phone has also recently been cut off. If I end up on the street without it or Internet access, it could spell the end of my writing and advocacy efforts. This is not considering what may happen to me in that situation. I would be internally thankful for any assistance that would help me to survive and continue my work.
Immediate needs: food, funds for housing, phone reactivation. I also apparently need to rent a truck and pay people to retrieve my belongings from this "director of international Christian missionary ministry" who has possession of everything I own.