Disability Awareness - Blog Posts

I'm constantly explaining to people, how my skin/joints/bones work. Sometimes people believe me and let me rest through weirdly specific things. Other times they think I'm exaggerating about my constant dislocations and intense pain 24/7.

It's a constant struggle but aome abled people are nice, and genuinely consider your health, I promise!

What not a lot of people know about asthma is that different substances trigger it for different people. And because of this sometimes people without asthma won’t believe you when you tell them something is hurting you.

Like I’m fine around weed smoke and can even take a drag or two off a joint but if my brother catches even a whiff of marijuana smoke he’s already using his inhaler.

I can’t be around floral perfume but some of my friends with asthma can be. I can’t be around tobacco smoke but another friend of mine with asthma is a heavy smoker. Some people can run and exercise fairly easily. If I start running I get an attack fairly quickly.

Some people get attacks more easily in the fog. For some people wet weather helps. Some people get triggered by dust. I don’t. Someone I know does.

So just because your sister with asthma uses perfume doesn’t mean you can spray a bunch of it near your coworker who’s told you it sets off their asthma.

Believe people when they give you info about their chronic conditions, basically.

Blog Update ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡

Salutations all! Just letting everyone know that I've gone through all my posts and updated everything with alt text to make it more accessible. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Also I now have everything up on my AO3 and will be posting on there alongside this blog. So if you prefer to read on there, thats also an option! о( ˶^▾^˶ )о

Please let me know if there is any tweaks, things I can do, or keep in mind to make this blog easier for you to use. I have a family member and close friend with dyslexia, so I've been trying to use emphasis and colors in my posts to assist with that.

In case anyone is interested, here are some references for blog, website, and graphic designing in a disability friendly way~

PSA

If you have chronically ill and/or immunocompromised friends, you have to tell us when you are sick. Not just with COVID or the Flu. Even a cold can be a massive deal for us. This is not optional.

And if we tell you we cannot be around you for a while for our own health and safety, you should know it's not you, but you also do not get to be offended.

Also, unless you have a really good reason not to, wear a mask when you're sick. It's a small sacrifice to protect those around you, it's really not hard.

Thank you.

My insulin pump doesn't make me unattractive. Neither do my scars, or all the tubes that hang off of me, or the needles and ports and machines that are attached to me at all times. Parts of my body don't work like they should. I have neuropathy in my hands and retinopathy in one eye. My kidneys need help to work. I've been on beta blockers since my 20s because my heart doesn't work right. That doesn't make me undesirable. I'm worth having sex with. I'm worth pursuing romantically and sexually. I am a whole person that deserves love and to feel good about myself.

feeling sexy and being disabled are things that can exist together. I can have medical devices and a feeding tube and still feel sexy, and i really dislike that people think that the two are completely separate and cannot exist together. I'm allowed to feel confident and love myself and the way i look even if i look a little different, and every other disabled person is too. I love myself and i have a feeding tube, not i love myself but i have a feeding tube.

OC art! This is Qibs!

She’s a Holland lop bunny who can’t hear or speak. She forgives herself for her disability.

Her inspiration was from actual lops - many truly are hearing-impaired because rabbit ears are not designed to flop in that position. The canals in the ears can decay over time. Qibs’ ears were so large and heavy that she lost her hearing.

She is Australian and speaks using Auslan, or Australian Sign Language. Her name is pronounced “Kibs”.

I did a thing! I'm going to need my walker for BotCon next week, and it's just so drab. So I got a bunch of flame decals and Transformers stickers and went to town.

Two weeks ago my cane got a similar treatment.

Gaza has a large disabled population. Wissam is just one of tens of thousands, who need medication and care, facing the devastating choice of being slaughtered at home or out on the streets. All districts in Gaza but one have been declared combat zones.

the thing about disability is it really does sometimes boil down to "wow i wish i could do that" and then you can't. and it sucks.

oh hey btw, apparently tumblr mobile now has an option to report ads for having flashing lights, if you click the three dots in the top right corner it should show up. not sure how long thats been there but i dont remember it being there at least a few months back, i would venture to guess it came with the recent update but shrug. fucking ridiculous that they cant just not put flashing ads in our faces in the first place, but at least this is an option.

people who dont have issues with flashing lights are allowed and encouraged to reblog

Hey little info for all you able-bodied folk, don’t push someone’s wheelchair without their permission! It is so annoying it’s the equivalent of someone deciding to pick you up and start carrying you around out of nowhere 💀. Plz just ask first 😭

2025 leads to this 4th year of epilepsy life. READY FOR THIS NEW YEAR ♥️

Same disabled anon again: apology accepted. I recommend looking at disability blogs by disabled people as a good starting point. The community is really diverse, so there's a lot to learn! Best of luck :)

Oh thanks! I know it's so diverse, people with disabilities are very diverse, even more diverse than those without disabilities. There are all different types and levels of abilities as well as all different kinds of people, Black, Asian, white, Hispanic, and all other colors and ethnicity, plus I know it crosses over with LGBTQ+. I already looked at some stories from those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD, and I will definitely look at blogs by disabled people.

Thank you again, anon, for teaching me so much about the disabled community!

:)

Friendly (or unfriendly if you're against this) reminder that this blog is supportive of ALL disorders. This blog does not think ANY disorder inherently makes someone a bad person, and is against any disorder being demonized. This blog wholeheartedly believes that a bad person having a disorder, yes, even if things that are also symptoms of their disorder are part of what caused harm, does not make the disorder a "bad" or "evil" disorder or excuse ableism and demonization directed towards the disorder.

Yes this includes personality disorders

Including npd and aspd

Yes this includes all psychotic disorders & disorders that cause psychotic symptoms

Yes this includes paraphilic disorders. All of them.

Yes this includes disorders that cause, or are even characterized by, attention seeking

Yes this includes disorders that directly have lying as a common symptom

Yes this includes dissociative disorders

Yes this includes any disorder with "gross" symptoms

Yes this includes physical disorders too

Yes this includes disorders that can cause loss of control of any kind- control of speech, control of body movement, etc.

Yes tis includes disorders that make someone "look scary"

This goes for literally any fucking disorder. There are not exceptions.

You know what is a terrible disease that people don’t talk about enough? Eczema. People think that its just itchy skin, but it’s not. It’s an autoimmune disease that has no cure and doctors don’t even know what actually causes it.

I’m dealing with a bad flare right now due to the heatwave in my area and all the smoke in the air from wild fires and my skin fucking hurts. Really fucking badly all over my whole body. It hurts to move. It itches so bad but when I give in and scratch, it hurts more. It hurts and it itches and all I can do is lay here and try to distract myself.

It makes it hard to sleep. I wake up from pain every time I switch positions.

It’s on my neck and I can’t turn my head without major discomfort.

It’s on my back and torso and I can’t turn my body without major discomfort.

It’s on my legs and it hurts to walk.

It’s on my arms and it hurts to reach for anything.

All I can put on my body is Vaseline because anything else used to moisturize makes it burn.

It feels like I’m on fire. My immune system is literally killing my skin.

And guess what? One tube of ointment, the only thing that gives me relief, costs $100. My insurance only pays for it every two weeks but a tube only lasts me five days.

Eczema isnt just a nuisance, it’s terrible disease that causes pain and scarring and sometimes even disfigurement. It deserves more attention and sufferers deserve more support. The medicines we need to stop our suffering are exorbitantly priced and we have no choice but to pay whatever amount they demand because we cannot function without it. And in the fight to lower medicine costs, we are forgotten because people think it’s a minor disease with minimal symptoms whos affects are only superficial in most people’s eyes.

Don’t forget about us in your disability activism.

i want you all to know that there is an artist (carmen papalia) who, after he started using a white cane, assembled a 12 foot long white cane and began using it in downtown vancouver. the length of the cane made it functionally useless as a device and the only purpose it served was making him an obstacle for sighted people. dare i say… 2019 goals

It almost seems like non-disabled people have a harder time accepting when a chronically disabled person will never get better - and maybe even deteriorate over time, than the affected person has.

"Aww don't lose hope"

There is no hope to be had? Stop pushing your toxic positivity down my throat when I have come to terms with my situation and am grieving already.

Losing hope is what has given me an ounce of peace of mind. This is what life is now. It's not your grief, it's mine.

Why are universities and colleges obsessed with packing as much as possible into a shortened term? I’m trying to figure out where and what I want to get degree in, and I keep running into the issue of 6.5-8 week terms that are normally 14-16 weeks long.

It’s fine and dandy if you can adjust to that schedule and learning pace, but I have several disabilities that make this extreme learning obsession impossible and very defeating. Not everyone can do that and so many schools don’t accommodate for that because it’s built into the basic degree structure! Does anyone else feel the insanity of this? Get your degree in half the time but burn out before you finish. That’s super healthy! /sarcasm

And sometimes we just don’t know how to answer that because we don’t really know what happened. One day we were okay and over some period of time things just kept getting worse and we woke up one day and realized, “Fuck, is this what disability feels like?” And we still struggle to admit we’re disabled. Or maybe someone was born this way and nothing “happened.” Either way, we aren’t obligated to tell you anything. And that’s just how it is.

One thing abled people need to realize, is that when you ask a disabled person "what happened", not only are you inquiring about a person's medical history, which is personal information, but also you are potentially asking them to relive what might have been the most traumatic time of their life.

An accident that left them unable to walk again. An illness that wrecked their life. A natural or man made disaster that took their loved ones.

Your curiosity simply is not worth digging up someone else's pain.

Barbie Celebrating Women, Diversity and Disability Awareness

Today's contribution for Disability Pride Month

Obligatory "I don't have this disorder. I'm raising awareness because I'm so fucking sick of women that drink while pregnant bitching about how hard it is being an 'autism mom'". (Autism mom in quotes because a) it's probably not autism and b) the phrase "autism mom" to describe "mom if an autistic kid" is stupid.)

(I'm going to use the term "women" instead of "uterus haver" not to be exclusionary or transphobic. But because I have a severe headache effecting my ability to find words. I am trans-masc. Don't cancel me. I'm not a FART.)

(This is not to demonize people that suffer from alcoholism. Addiction is a very real disability. This is to raise awareness for one of the only known preventable birth defects and hopefully seek help.)

Thank you for the people at @bfpnola discord for checking my post to make sure this doesn't sound eugenics-y.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

FASD (previously known as fetal alcohol syndrome) is a disability that can range from mild to severe dependant on how much the mother drank while pregnant. It only takes one glass of wine while pregnant to cause this disorder

I already know what the fuck this is. Why are you talking about it?

Because your only know about the severe cases diagnosed as fetal alcohol syndrome. You THINK you know what it is. But the reclassification has only come up in like... 2003? Fetal alcohol syndrome is like... the far end worst severity of FASD. And since the new information of it being a spectrum disorder, estimates have the disorder as high as 5% of the population (and I really think it's higher based on some information I'm about to share).

Fine. So what is this... spectrum disorder?

Very good! So this disorder is HIGHLY misdiagnosed as autism. So all those boomers bitching about "the rates of autism going up?" Yeah they probably caused it. Symptoms include low body weight, facial differences, poor coordination, difficulty maintaining attention, poor memory, poor emotional regulation, slower development, poor reasoning skills, issues with the heart, bones, and kidneys, shorter height, shorter head size,

I have all of those things. How do I know it's FASD and not the autism?

That's kinda the issue. The only real way you can know is ask your mom if there's ANY possibility she's had a drink while she was pregnant. I can't stress this enough IT ONLY TAKES ONE DRINK. For instance I have a lot of those issues, but my mom was so paranoid she wouldn't even dye her hair or drink coffee. Like there's NO WAY.

Like what do I do about it?

Mostly get your accommodations met and raise awareness. Like people are still actively drinking while pregnant because they are still under the pre-2000 belief that just a couple of drinks are okay. It's really not. Not to mention most women don't know they're pregnant until 4-6 weeks in. So they shouldn't be drinking if they're actively trying to have a child. Because that increases the risk.

What the fuck. People are drinking while pregnant? I don't believe you.

Each of these claims are linked.

30.3% of all women reported drinking alcohol at some time during pregnancy, of which 8.3% reported binge drinking (4+ drinks on one occasion)

According to the Center for Disease Control, one in 10 (10.2%) of pregnant women in the United States reports drinking alcohol in the past 30 days.

Despite clear evidence that primary prevention of FASD is possible if prenatal alcohol exposure is avoided, up to 80 % of women drink during pregnancy, many before pregnancy recognition

What? Women are drinking while pregnant? That's fucked up.

This is not to say people with FASD are lesser than.

But all of this "curing autism" when most of this "autism" is caused by a pregnant person's ability to stop fucking drinking for literally 5 minutes. THESE WOMEN THAT ARE DRINKING WHILE PREGNANT ARE THE ONES CAUSING ALL OF THIS GIVING "AUTISM". IF YOU DRANK WHILE PREGNANT. IF THERE'S EVEN A SLIVER OF A CHANCE THAT YOUR DRANK WHILE PREGNANT? ITS PROBABLY NOT AUTISM. ITS PROBABLY THIS DISORDER.

I'm just really fed up with all of these "autism moms" that also make "wine mom" jokes and making light of literal alcoholism bitching about how hard it is to be an "autism mom" because YOU'RE THE PROBLEM. STOP LAUGHING ABOUT YOUR ALCOHOLISM AND PUT THE DAMN GLASS DOWN.

But my parents are literally autistic

So they don't really know the generational effect of FASD because the new knowledge is so new. But since FASD is literally genetic issues caused by alcohol while you're in the womb. It's assumed that it can cause issues that are passed down.

But like this diagnosis is SO NEW that we really don't know much.

-fae