Just Wanted To Share The National Down Syndrome Society’s Message For This Year’s World Down Syndrome

We need shittable cities (actively maintained public restrooms).

i love when i see another cane user/ disabled person in public and we make that eye contact of solidarity

like yes!! you are like me!! i am like you!!

i know we're all sick of self-care being a marketing tactic now, but i don't think a lot of us have any other concept of self-care beyond what companies have tried to sell us, so i thought i'd share my favorite self-care hand out

brought to you by how mad i just got at a Target ad

What able bodied authors think I, an amputee and a wheelchair user, would want in a scifi setting:

Tech that can regenerate my old meat legs.

Robot legs that work just like meat legs and are functionally just meat legs but robot

Literally anything that would mean I don't have to use a wheelchair.

If I do need to use a wheelchair, make it fly or able to "walk me" upstairs

What I actually want:

Prosthetic covers that can change colour because I'm too indecisive to pick one colour/pattern for the next 5+ years.

A leg that I can turn off (seriously, my above knee prosthetic has no off switch... just... why?)

A leg that won't have to get refitted every time I gain or loose weight.

A wheelchair that I can teleport to me and legs I can teleport away when I'm too tierd to keep walking. And vice versa.

In that same vein, legs I can teleport on instead of having to fiddle around with the sockets for half an hour.

Prosthetic feet that don't require me to wear shoes. F*ck shoes.

Actually accessible architecture, which means when I do want to use my wheelchair, it's not an issue.

Prosthetic legs with dragon-claw feet instead of boring human feet or just digigrade prosthetics that are just as functional as normal human-shaped ones.

A manual wheelchair with the option to lift my seat up like those scissor-lift things so I'm not eye-level with everyone's butt on public transport/so I can reach the top shelf by myself.

A prosthetic foot that lights up when it hits the ground like those children's shoes.

The Dance of a Thousand Hands.

btw while people continue to fight the system don't forget about Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt), a charity that buys and forgives medical debt. on average a donation of $10 will forgive $1,000 of medical debt.

You are not a creep if you find yourself sexy with your disability aids. full stop. If your partner is disabled, you are not fetishizing them if you find them sexy when they're in their wheelchair, or wearing their diaper, or have braces on, etc.

Disabled people are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to find them sexy. People with facial/limb differences and other physical differences are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to be attracted to them.

The problem comes from lack of consent and dehumanization. Expecting all disabled people to fit your sexual fantasy and sexualizing them openly without their consent (i.e. posting/reblogging normal pictures of a disabled person on your fetish blog or sexually harassing a disabled stranger) is fetishization and horrible. Asking us how we have sex or taking secret photos of us to jack off to later is creepy and crossing the boundry into dehumanizing fetishization. Seeing us and our sexuality as an oddity or a funny joke is not okay.

Reminder, sex toys were first and foremost created by and for disabled people. We have always been having sex and have always been seen as attractive by our admirers, without them fetishizing us. Having sex with a consenting disabled person isnt rape, and yes it is possible for us to eagerly consent! While some disabilities make it hard to consent, that isn't true for all of us.

We get horny, we have sex, we jack off, we wear sexy clothes and show off our bodies. We aren't freak shows for abled peoples amusement nor objects for fetishization. We aren't poor innocent virgins who don't know what sex is, we are a diverse and beautiful community all connected by our disabilities.

(post is edited for terminology, please rb this version instead)

Hi friends!

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Thanks friends! Stay hydrated!