Saying that a disabled child or adult “will never live independently” is such a slap in the face. I think it’s unacceptable and I think it’s lazy. No one will ever live independently! No one is living independent of medical care, emotional support, and goods/services provided by others. Humans are a deeply interdependent species. Disabled people are sometimes rendered ~dependent~ specifically on a state or family apparatus in a way that makes them vulnerable to abuse or exploitation, but this isn’t the only way to experience “”dependency.”“
Some people are just told that they are “independent” because their lives and needs are normalized to such an extent that the enormous amount of support they receive is invisible.
I feel like there are trauma reactions that we are very hush hush about because we’re afraid of other people judging us.Â
there are survivors who crave abuse because it is all they know
there are survivors who crave getting beat up and called every horrible name
there are survivors who age regress
there are hypersexual survivorsÂ
there are survivors who’s trauma has left them with kinks they are ashamed of
there are survivors who fantasize about being raped, about reliving their trauma
there are survivors who want their abuser to die, and there are survivors who would die for their abuser
trauma reactions can be messy and ugly, because trauma is a messy and ugly thing. this does not mean we support abuse, but rather, our bodies and minds had to adapt and cope. people respond to trauma differently. we are not Bad Survivors.
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.
i am curious as to why kyle is so often seen as disingenuous when it comes to his beliefs. yes he can be hypocritical and a know-it-all and self-righteous but no one is putting it in his ear to think the way that he does; kyle is usually very sincere in how he thinks and more often than not he is on the right side of things. kyle is sympathetic and kind and genuinely wants to see good in people and there’s so much context to support that. i think where his egotism comes from in expressing his thoughts is a result of cartman constantly challenging and manipulating people against him has made kyle someone who feels he isn’t allowed to be wrong, which only exacerbates his stubborness and makes it harder for him to admit when he’s wrong or taken things to a dangerous extreme. kyle is and tries to be a good person who just sometimes gets too into his own head
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)Â
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.
I’ve seen so many posts about firework safety and warnings to keep an eye on your pets, and I think that’s all very important, but I have yet to see a post about PTSD triggers.
As many of you know, PTSD can manifest itself in many ways, and some of the most common triggers tend to be loud noises and bright lights.
So basically, fireworks are hell for a lot of people suffering from PTSD.
What can you do to help?
-Home fireworks are illegal in a lot of states, but let’s face it…we all manage to get our hands on at least a few firecrackers or sparklers. If you live near someone who you know suffers, then find a place to set them off that’s our of earshot/eyeshot!
-If you know someone personally, make sure you check in with them. And not just the day of. Sit down with them beforehand. Have a talk. Ask them if there’s anything you can do to accommodate them. Make a plan for how to avoid triggers and what to do if something goes wrong.
-REMIND THE PERSON THAT IT IS OKAY. It’s unfortunate, but when it comes to mental illness, people can still consider it to be a weakness or a burden on others. Remind them that they should not be ashamed, their condition is completely valid, and you wouldn’t be offering to help if you didn’t care. Trauma is a very difficult, and very real thing that people have to live with. Make sure they know you understand that.
-Accommodate them. Don’t offer to help and then complain if they ask you to stay home with them and miss the fireworks that year. There will be other chances. The mental health of your loved ones should come before fireworks.
-Keep in mind: all types of people can experience PTSD from all types of traumas, their triggers can vary as well. However, when it comes to explosions and bright lights, the large majority of the people impacted have been involved in the military. I bring this up because The 4th of July is a day to celebrate freedom and independence. Something we would not have without those serving our country. It is because of them that we can continue to celebrate this holiday and they deserve to enjoy it as much as we do.
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.Â
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.
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.
🔥 There is beauty in destruction🔥 