Whgskl. Okay.

PSA to all you fantasy writers because I have just had a truly frustrating twenty minutes talking to someone about this: it’s okay to put mobility aids in your novel and have them just be ordinary.

Like. Super okay.

I don’t give a shit if it’s high fantasy, low fantasy or somewhere between the lovechild of Tolkein meets My Immortal. It’s okay to use mobility devices in your narrative. It’s okay to use the word “wheelchair”. You don’t have to remake the fucking wheel. It’s already been done for you.

And no, it doesn’t detract from the “realism” of your fictional universe in which you get to set the standard for realism. Please don’t try to use that as a reason for not using these things.

There is no reason to lock the disabled people in your narrative into towers because “that’s the way it was”, least of all in your novel about dragons and mermaids and other made up creatures. There is no historical realism here. You are in charge. You get to decide what that means.

Also:

“Depiction of Chinese philosopher Confucius in a wheelchair, dating to ca. 1680. The artist may have been thinking of methods of transport common in his own day.”

“The earliest records of wheeled furniture are an inscription found on a stone slate in China and a child’s bed depicted in a frieze on a Greek vase, both dating between the 6th and 5th century BCE.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]The first records of wheeled seats being used for transporting disabled people date to three centuries later in China; the Chinese used early wheelbarrows to move people as well as heavy objects. A distinction between the two functions was not made for another several hundred years, around 525 CE, when images of wheeled chairs made specifically to carry people begin to occur in Chinese art.^[5]”

“In 1655, Stephan Farffler, a 22 year old paraplegic watchmaker, built the world’s first self-propelling chair on a three-wheel chassis using a system of cranks and cogwheels.^[6]^[3] However, the device had an appearance of a hand bike more than a wheelchair since the design included hand cranks mounted at the front wheel.^[2]

The invalid carriage or Bath chair brought the technology into more common use from around 1760.^[7]

In 1887, wheelchairs (“rolling chairs”) were introduced to Atlantic City so invalid tourists could rent them to enjoy the Boardwalk. Soon, many healthy tourists also rented the decorated “rolling chairs” and servants to push them as a show of decadence and treatment they could never experience at home.^[8]

In 1933 Harry C. Jennings, Sr. and his disabled friend Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, steel, folding, portable wheelchair.^[9] Everest had previously broken his back in a mining accident. Everest and Jennings saw the business potential of the invention and went on to become the first mass-market manufacturers of wheelchairs. Their “X-brace” design is still in common use, albeit with updated materials and other improvements. The X-brace idea came to Harry from the men’s folding “camp chairs / stools”, rotated 90 degrees, that Harry and Herbert used in the outdoors and at the mines.^{[citation needed]}

“But Joy, how do I describe this contraption in a fantasy setting that wont make it seem out of place?”

“It was a chair on wheels, which Prince FancyPants McElferson propelled forwards using his arms to direct the motion of the chair.”

“It was a chair on wheels, which Prince EvenFancierPants McElferson used to get about, pushed along by one of his companions or one of his many attending servants.”

“But it’s a high realm magical fantas—”

“It was a floating chair, the hum of magical energy keeping it off the ground casting a faint glow against the cobblestones as {CHARACTER} guided it round with expert ease, gliding back and forth.”

“But it’s a stempunk nov—”

“Unlike other wheelchairs he’d seen before, this one appeared to be self propelling, powered by the gasket of steam at the back, and directed by the use of a rudder like toggle in the front.”

Give. Disabled. Characters. In. Fantasy. Novels. Mobility. Aids.

If you can spend 60 pages telling me the history of your world in innate detail down to the formation of how magical rocks were formed, you can god damn write three lines in passing about a wheelchair.

Signed, your editor who doesn’t have time for this ableist fantasy realm shit.

couragethecowardlyqueer:

the-ink-addiction:

eolithandbone:

hotephoetips:

otaku-sugar:

toastyhat:

foolsdiamond:

toastyhat:

toastyhat:

if your stomach’s sensitive because of anxiety, by all means spread out the food you eat over the course of the day instead of having large meals, just don’t…not eat. you will go into hypoglycemic shock and that will suck.

By the way, symptoms include:

Shakiness.

Nervousness or anxiety.

Sweating, chills and clamminess.

Irritability or impatience.

Confusion, including delirium.

Rapid/fast heartbeat.

Lightheadedness or dizziness.

Hunger and nausea.

(because of the nausea, eating might not feel like the thing to do at first. I’d suggest drinking a coke or something.)

I’ve dealt with sugar crashes before and I’ve collapsed and whited out. I’ve had friends do it too. If you think you’re going into hypoglycemic shock, and if there’s anyone else near by, tell them you think it’s happening, even if you’re not prone or it’s never happened before. If your’e alone, make your way slowly to the kitchen/wherever you have food/drinks. The standard rule is to take in 15 oz of a sugary drink (orange juice and soda–not diet–are the best) and wait 15 minutes to see if it’s over, then keep doing that until your sugar is stabilized. Then you can eat. If you think you’re about to collapse, especially if you start to feel dizzy, sit down and lay down or lean against something. Don’t risk injury, it’s better to pass out while you’re laying down than it is to collapse and hurt yourself.

*points at this more educated person*

If you are having trouble eating please keep in mind the BRATY diet. Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, Toast, and (sometimes) Yogurt. These foods have been shown to be harder to throw up. By no means should this be the primary diet, but this can assist in the between times when it’s harder to keep things down.

this was really helpful

As someone who has a super nervous stomach this is super useful!!

I get this all the time at work particularly, good to know!

I’m actually pretty prone to this, and there’s been quite a few times that I’ve come close to passing out at work because they didn’t want to send me on break so I could eat. It’s a really horrible feeling.

So yeah. Take it from someone who’s hypoglycemic issues: please don’t just not eat.

Plain wheat crackers got me through large portions of high school. And ginger ale is given to sick people for a reason: the bubbles and a trace of ginger help calm the stomach.

disability benefits, and the excuse of “weeding out the fakes”

chronic-illness-support:

thechronicchillpill:

Its hard for disabled people to get disability benefits, no doubt, and were always told its to “weed out the liars who pretend to be disabled”

All theyre saying, is that they want disabled people to pay the price for abled people who lie to get something they dont need.

Now, when i first heard that excuse i wasnt taken aback by it,

I mean, abled people? Feeling entitled to something specifically meant for disabled people? To the point where disabled people cant get it anymore? That just sounds like another day that ends in “y”.

But i am frustrated with this constant excuse, and why am i?

Because the answer to weeding out the liars isnt to make it ten times as hard to get disability benefits, its to teach abled people that those benefits ARE NOT THEIRS, if one person needs a drink and the other person is stealing drinks, the answer isnt to make it near impossible to get drinks, its to stop the person stealing drinks. Its to teach that person not to steal. And yes, there will always be thieves, you cant stop them all, but these are the LIVES of disabled people that youre messing with, not giving them what they need can KILL them.

*opinion here* Id rather have one or two abled people be ableist and take what isnt theirs, ya know, like they do with our parking spots and elevators and bathrooms, than have it be ten times harder than it already is for disabled to fucking live. Between the time a disabled person gets denied for benefits and the next time they can apply and appeal and possibly get approved(or most likely denied again), their meds, doctors appointments, mobility aids, therapy appointments and general medical problems can increase and cause mental, physical and financial stress that couldve been avoided if they were not denied in the first place.

If youre worried about the “fakers” the answer is not to assume all disabled people are liars and run the risk of making their lives harder and them sicker.

Its to teach abled people to not treat disability as a money grab, its to teach abled people to not take what isnt theirs,

Adding to the ableism isnt gonna make ableism go away

👆🏻

onfirewhenifoundit:

serenemolly:

rainewynd:

aegipan-omnicorn:

shitrichcollegekidssay:

entitledrichpeople:

I know I’ve posted numerous times about how welfare fraud is in fact very, very rare and welfare programs have lower fraud loss rates than things like businesses. Which is true, but it’s also true that most actual technical welfare fraud doesn’t look much like the stereotype either. Pretty much the only people who “get rich” off fraud are service end things like stores, hospitals, etc. Nobody else really gets rich from lying on their food stamp paperwork.

Welfare fraud looks less like “cadillac and mansion” and more like:

a disabled person lies about their level of mobility because medicaid will often only cover wheelchairs if you need them in the house, not if you need them to go out or do anything outside of the house

a poor woman claims her boyfriend lives separately from her because the amount he contributes to her and their kids counts against her less if it’s listed as childsupport instead of part of the household income and that small difference can be enough to keep the children from going hungry

a poor person sells part of their food stamps and lives on things like instant ramen because almost nobody gets cash assistance anymore and they need things like toilet paper or tooth paste

a disabled person who could not hold down a regular job sells $100 a month in homemade crafts and doesn’t report it because they might have to spend months or even years re-fighting their social security case if they reported it

a homeless person makes more than $20 a month begging but lists their income as zero because that’s less confusing

other things like that

A lot of that is just survival. It’s not a system set up in a way that makes it easy to even live unless you “cheat”. People aren’t doing it to get rich, they do it to cling to the very basics and just manage to live. I don’t blame people who violate the laws to keep their heads above water, I blame the people who set up a horrific system like this and who benefit from harming and exploiting poor people.

also looks like being homeless while you’re on food stamps 8) because thats illegal. you can’t have food stamps if you don’t have a home 8)

8) also looks like having multiple sources of income even if both are minimum wage jobs that you only work for 3 hours a week 8) 8) if you have multiple sources of income and are on food stamps that is illegal.

welfare fraud is bullshit. plain and simple. if people are “cheating the system” its because theyre drowning in it, and the only cheating they’re doing is surviving. which. is. not. allowed.

The people are not cheating the system.

The System is Cheating the People.

Someone told me years ago that if they lived in Michigan, they couldn’t get married because they would have a combined income that was greater than the threshold for the wife to get disability benefits, even though it was still below the poverty line. So they moved to another state where they got less in benefits, had to deal with more red tape to prove every year she was still disabled, and once had to deal with someone claiming that because she could walk, she wasn’t disabled. But hey, they were able to get married, and therefore claim they both needed assistance because the husband couldn’t work a job that paid big money because he didn’t have skills or a degree.

One of our politicians recently confessed to this type of welfare fraud when she was younger to demonstrate how broken the system is. She did it to feed her kids. The political fallout was so severe she had to step down from her role as party leader. Another MP was identified as fraudulently claiming extra on his pension despite a massive salary, but the sole fallout from that is a hunt to seek out the leak of his private information.

A young woman commits minor fraud because it’s the difference between starving and having enough money to feed your kids? Intolerable! How dare you? A wealthy man cons the system to obtain an extra $60 a week that would be insignificant compared to the rest of his income? How dare we breach the privacy of a man clever enough to find a loophole!

If someone asks to be paid for a job (handywork, commissioned art, etc) in cash, it’s not necessarily because they don’t have a bank account (ooh, red flag! sigh) or they’re trying to evade taxes. They may just be on Social Security and trying to earn enough on the side to get closer to the poverty line.

People starve on assistance. People lose their homes on assistance. people die of preventable illnesses on assistance. The social safety net is better than nothing, but we mustn’t delude ourselves into thinking it’s enough.

dysfunctionalqueer:

Neurotypicals: Don’t let your condition bother you or affect your life in any ways! I know you have x disorder, but the symptoms shouldn’t really impair your life!

DSM Diagnosis of Literally Every Disorder: The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

mttheww:

uglylilmonster:

pardonmewhileipanic:

thefemcritique:

lestieloftus:

How most people with invisible illnesses are treated by health care “professionals”

The Golden Girls didn’t fuck around

pls watch

honestly i really appreciated this scene when I first saw it bc it took me like two years to get a diagnosis for what’s wrong with me

Dorothy: Dr. Budd?

Dr. Budd: Yes?

Dorothy: You probably don’t remember me, but you told me I wasn’t sick. Do you remember? You told me I was just getting old.

Dr. Budd: I’m sorry, I really don’t–

Dorothy: Remember. Maybe you’re getting old. That’s a little joke. Well, I tell you, Dr. Budd, I really am sick. I have chronic fatigue syndrome. That is a real illness. You can check with the Center for Disease Control.

Dr. Budd: Huh. Well, I’m sorry about that.

Dorothy: Well, I’m glad! At least I know I have something.

Dr. Budd: I’m sure. Well, nice seeing you.

Dorothy: Not so fast. There are some things I have to say. There are a lot of things that I have to say. Words can’t express what I have to say. [tearing up] What I went through, what you put me through—I can’t do this in a restaurant.

Dr. Budd: Good!

Dorothy: But I will!

Dr. Budd’s date: Louis, who is this person?

Dr. Budd: Look, Miss–

Dorothy: Sit. I sat for you long enough. Dr. Budd, I came to you sick—sick and scared—and you dismissed me. You didn’t have the answer, and instead of saying “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” you made me feel crazy, like I had made it all up. You dismissed me! You made me feel like a child, a fool, a neurotic who was wasting your precious time. Is that your caring profession? Is that healing? No one deserves that kind of treatment, Dr. Budd, no one. I suspect had I been a man, I might have been taken a bit more seriously, and not told to go to a hairdresser.

Dr. Budd: Look, I am not going to sit here anymore–

Dr. Budd’s date: Shut up, Louis.

Dorothy: I don’t know where you doctors lose your humanity, but you lose it. You know, if all of you, at the beginning of your careers, could get very sick and very scared for a while, you’d probably learn more from that than anything else. You’d better start listening to your patients. They need to be heard. They need caring. They need compassion. They need attending to. You know, someday, Dr. Budd, you’re gonna be on the other side of the table, and as angry as I am, and as angry as I always will be, I still wish you a better doctor than you were to me.

why do you call yourself disabled you have agoraphobia 😂

smolita:

ahp-discourse:

Because I have agoraphobia and it is disabling. It has made it so I can’t leave the house, which means that I cannot go to work and earn a living; If you can’t earn a living (and don’t have family that can help), you’re pretty much fucked.

Here’s a screenshot from the Social Security Administration’s website, showing that they consider Agoraphobia to be disabling enough that they will approve disability for those suffering from it.

Even if I didn’t have agoraphobia, I have severe Panic Disorder – which is the original cause for my disability. I have been under the treatment of various mental health professionals for over 10 years now. Unless you somehow went to school, got a degree in psychology/psychiatry and reviewed my personal medical files, I’m going to chose to believe them when they say I’m disabled rather than some random on the internet who says that I’m not.

Screw this anon, they have no idea how much of a disability agoraphobia and panic disorder are, and thinking that someone else’s suffering is funny is really pathetic.

YES. Not to mention the hardship and struggle it can sometimes be to maintain disability, especially if outwardly you look fine and healthy. Plus the amount of money a person recieves is usually not enough to cover bills and other essentials. And even if a disabled person tries to work, disability benefits will usually automatically be taken away, despite you know needing the money and struggling with whatever it is that made a person disabled in the first place. It is NOT a privlege and it is by NO means fun. I’m sure anyone who is disabled, myself included, would rather be healthy enough to work and enjoy life rather than be homebound.

Not to mention the fact that most, if not all of us, still have to constantly struggle with the ignorance and stigma mental health gets. Sometimes from friends and family, which makes it all the more painful and hard.

We didn’t ask to be like this. And we deserve the same recognition, respect, and support like everyone else.

I have a backpack on my powerchair, but I can’t actually reach it myself so I always have to ask for help. I was wondering how you carry around small stuff that you might need (lip balm, sunglasses, phone, etc.)? Thanks!

disabilityhealth:

grimthetransman:

disabilityhealth:

I have a wheelchair arm bag that hangs off the side of my chair. Pretty cheap on amazon and super handy.

Also my lap is my favorite shelf.

Fanny packs! You can get pretty big ones and I personally could fit everything I need in one! They even have waterproof ones for when it’s raining.

How has this never occurred to me you’re brilliant!!

andreashettle:

mmmyoursquid:

seananmcguire:

mmmyoursquid:

chameleonchild:

eenymeenypia:

mmmyoursquid:

People love to talk about whether or not disabled people can work

but if you can work just fine and your disability is destroying your ability to have a life outside of work (because work takes all your energy and more)

Dead silence. Nobody cares.

File this under, oh you can be active for 4 hours? You can work part-time. Um no, I have to get ready for work (30 min) get to work (15 min) get home from work (15 min) feed myself all day (30 min) maintain myself, my home and my life (15 min, yeah right), which leaves 15 min for work and absolutely nothing else.

This is so accurate, back after I’d relapsed I wanted to try and go in for one class at school so I could still stay in contact with the education system. I let slip during a meeting that I managed to drag myself to that I could manage about 4 hours of activity a week, which the teacher sprang on to mean I was being lazy for just trying to get to 1 hour class. Never matter that it was 30 minutes travel, that I would have to get washed and dressed, that I would probably still need to recover for 3 days from it.

Far too often abled people see the things they do easily as “non activities”, they don’t realise that for many disabled people these things have to be carefully planned and measured, and sometimes they simply can’t be done.

reblog bc the non activities thing seems really important words

I get X number of pain-free steps per day right now, which means that, for large conventions (like SDCC), I need to be in a mobility device. I had someone ask if I used up my steps every day before transferring to the scooter, and look surprised and a little horrified when I said “no, I save them so I can go to the bathroom unassisted.” Like, they had never considered that walking is involved in peeing.

!

Reblogging for the important point that the term “activity” may mean something very different and much broader for a disabled person with a chronic pain or fatigue related condition compared to its meaning for a non disabled person. If you’re tired enough, simply sitting up in a chair rather than lying in bed is an activity that drains energy otherwise usable for other things. A thing I knew from other people with pain and fatigue related conditions, but worth reinforcing for followers who didnt know or had forgotten.

mrwolfe1920:

ultraviolet-techno-ecology:

daloy-politsey:

daloy-politsey:

Disabled people deserve a living wage

This means there shouldn’t be ridiculous limits on how much someone can make while on disability benefits

I’d like to add that this also means acknowledging that being disabled is often expensive, and thus should actually be given proportionately more to ensure they can afford expenses like wheelchairs, medically prescribed diets, prosthetics, modified vehicles, and accessible housing as needed for their condition.

Example: My disability benefits are less than $1000/mo. If I work, I can only make up to $200/mo. Anything over that, social security takes half.

And they take it out of your future benefits, so if you push yourself to try and make some extra money for the holidays or an anniversary/birthday/family emergency, later when you’re laid up and can’t work at all you’ll have to get by on even less.

This goes for everyone in your household, btw. So if you’re disabled your spouse/kids/roommate can’t work more than part time or you’ll lose your benefits.