#disabilityjustice — Public Fediverse posts

I stand in my kitchen wanting to use an appliance I have already paid for. Its smooth touchscreen gives me no tactile information. I use a camera app to find the controls, place markers where I think buttons may appear, and hope the layout has not changed. One accidental tap can take me somewhere I cannot identify or exit without sighted help. A task that should take moments becomes a process requiring concentration, technology, and luck.

Many disabled people know this experience. We become skilled at adapting. We label buttons, memorise layouts, ask friends or family to help with setup, search for accessible workarounds, and learn to make do with only part of what a product offers. Those strategies can be useful, and they can protect our independence in the moment.

Yet the effort is rarely recognised as work. It takes time, money, energy, confidence, and sometimes privacy. Products then appear “accessible” because a disabled person has managed to force a way through, even where the design itself has excluded us from using the product fully and reliably.

The barriers differ across disability experiences. A device that communicates only through sound can leave Deaf and hard of hearing users without vital information. Controls requiring fine precision, force, or repeated physical effort can be inaccessible for people living with pain, fatigue, mobility limitations, or reduced dexterity. Busy, inflexible interfaces can overwhelm or exclude people with cognitive disabilities and neurodivergent people. Voice assistants cannot serve everyone, especially people whose speech is not reliably recognised.

Manufacturers have choices. A touchscreen appliance can include tactile controls and meaningful feedback. Digital instructions can be made accessible. Settings can be simplified and personalised. Disabled people can be included while products are being researched, designed, tested, and supported. These approaches recognise that disabled people are customers, experts in our own access needs, and members of every household.

Sharing adaptations with each other remains important because people need solutions today. We also need to expect more from society, from businesses, and from the institutions responsible for consumer access. When access barriers are treated as individual problems for disabled people to solve, exclusion becomes routine. Naming the barrier, reporting it, supporting disability led advocacy, and insisting on inclusive design can help shift that expectation.

#AccessibleDesign #DisabilityJustice #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs

#Money, the interesting thing about it is if you #exist in #poverty, you desperately need it for your day to day survival, then if your on the opposite end as in being a multi million or billionaire in reality money means nothing, because everything you own and do is leveraged off of debt that you one don't actually own and second can never actually satisfy, and the rules of the game are very different for those in poverty, and the rules are slightly different if your in the middle, but if your on top, the rules don't apply to you unless somehow your generation and hoarding of wealth imposes upon another top income holder, basically if your in poverty all the way to the bottom end of double digit millions, your beholden to the entire state if it where, and beyond that the entire state apparently is beholden to you and your ability to leverage debt, it is a rigged system of epic inequality and strongly embraces prejudice against the rest of us whom simply would appreciate the basics in life to be readily available without so much turmoil, and stress to our mental and physical wellbeing, money is an illusion of power and has left far to many of us going hungry, literally;

You can encourage my continued useless #poetry, creativity and expression of self, #commentary, random thoughts, #philosophy and ideas, and by doing so your helping to feed, house and clothe a #disabled man living in #poverty, $5-10-15 It All Helps, via #cashapp at $woctxphotog or via #paypal at paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=…

#Austerity #Awareness #BrokenSystem #Capitalism #Change #ChronicPoverty #CorporateGreed #CriticalThinking #DailyStruggle #DebtSlavery #DisabledVoices #DisabilityJustice #EconomicInequality #EconomicJustice #EconomicViolence #Economics #Education #ExistentialThought #Financial #FinancialTrauma #FinanciallyDistressed #FoodInsecurity #Hunger #Homelessness #HumanCost #IllusionOfWealth #Inequality #Justice #LateStageCapitalism #MarginalizedVoices #MentalHealthMatters #MutualAid #Neoliberalism #Oligarchy #PhilosophyOfMoney #Plutocracy #Politics #PovertyAwareness #PowerAndControl #PowerDynamics #RealTalk #Reform #RiggedSystem #SocialCommentary #SocialEconomicWarfare #SocialJustice #Society #Solidarity #SpeakTruth #StatusQuo #SupportDisabled #Survival #SystemicOppression #SystemicPoverty #TaxTheRich #TruthBomb #TruthToPower #WakeUpCall #WealthGap #WealthInequality #WorkingClass #WorkingPoor

My new video essay breaks down compulsory able-bodiedness, fascist rhetoric around "deformity," and why disability is actually a vital source of human diversity and innovation.

https://youtu.be/Bbj1stZwDsc

#DisabilityJustice #DisabilityRights #Ableism #DisabilityStudies #VideoEssay

I drew this after my recent art workshop in partnership with ME Action! I felt so much connection and awe (also, exhaustion and brain fried ofc).

Thank you everyone who participated in the workshop or helped make it happen in any way. It was truly magic.

P.S. I have art in an art exhibition about art for therapy & health, and I think the exhibit is really incredibly curated. I can’t believe 21 views of long covid received an honorable mention amongst so many phenomenal artists’ & powerful pieces!

You can check out the virtual gallery here:

Divulge: A National Exhibition Featuring the Use of Art for Therapy & Mental Health Awareness

Mutual Aid Checkpoint Returns!

https://wrzky.com/mutual-aid-checkpoint-returns/

@mekkaokereke Yup, and the Black Panthers practiced solidarity, too! For example, the nascent disability rights movement in the United States was helped out by the Black Panthers.

Early disability rights activists credit the Panthers with giving them advice and support, as well as spreading word about their organizing. The Panthers also brought food every day to the Section 504 sit-in.

https://disabilityhistory.org/2021/12/19/the-504-protests-and-the-black-panther-party/
https://emergingamerica.org/blog/brad-lomax-disabled-black-panther-who-fought-section-504
#DisabilityRights #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory

Dreamspace Lantern for 2/2/2026: Embrace Resistance: Every Act Matters

https://dreamspacestudio.net/dreamspace-lantern-for-2-2-2026-embrace-resistance-every-act-matters/

Heute ist der Internationale Tag der Menschen mit Behinderung und ich denke an mein jüngeres Ich. An einen jungen Menschen, dem niemand zutraute, jemals sichtbar zu sein. Der ohne Vorbilder aufwuchs, in einer Welt, die behinderte Leben klein hält.⬇️

#InternationalerTagDerMenschenMitBehinderung #Behinderung #Inklusion #Inkluencer #Disability #FaceSMA #DisabilityJustice #DisabledAndProud #BarrierefreiheitJetzt #CripPride #DisabledVoices #HumanRights #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #DisabilityPower

For International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrate and educate with Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution! Get our free Crip Camp lesson plans to teach about ableism, disability rights history, and the connection to disability justice.

https://journeysinfilm.org/film/crip-camp/?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=Social+Media&utm_campaign=IDPwD&utm_content=Link

@histodons

#DisabilityDay #IDPD #DisabilityPride #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #Activism #DisabledVoices #History #Education #Homeschooling #Edutooters #Movies

Wenn Menschen wie ich politisch Stellung beziehen, kommt sofort der immer gleiche alte ableistische Reflex: Wir seien "missbraucht", "vorgeschoben" oder "manipuliert". Dahinter steckt kein Zufall, es ist eine Strategie.⬇️

#DisabilityJustice #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #Disability #IntersectionalFeminism #QueerAndDisabled #AntiAbleism #Ableism #AntiRacism #QueerResistance #DisabledAndProud #Solidarity #Solidarität #Inklusion #SolidarityIsPower #MarginalizedVoices #Behinderung #FaceSMA

Narratives, Pacing, and Conundrum of Ableism

Crossposted to Comradery

The day starts cold, the wind brisk, and the pain I feel simmers at the usual 5 out of 10 pain scale. It is rare for it to drop below 5, even with pain meds like Tynelol, but after awhile, the body grows accustomed to the pain, making it an annoying background noise at best. Other days it consumes my awareness like a furious tornado, and that is when I know the flare-up has started.

When it comes to being disabled, I’m hyperaware of many different factors, which I have to be to navigate a world that is often not accessible and a minefield of ableism. To avoid the minefield, I hyperanalyze the words I say, and will try different communication styles.

This can prove exhausting over time because I am a human being not a programmable robot. Thus when I am upset, I tend toward very direct language to describe why I’m upset and my exact emotions. 

NARRATIVES WE TELL OURSELVES

The narrative I tell myself has its roots in how I was socialized growing up, the experiences I’ve had throughout my life, the oppression I’ve faced, the healing and good things I’ve done, and the harmful things I’ve done. No one person is ever perfect, but some may feel that drive to be perfect, to set impossible standards. I have spent many an hour examining the narratives I tell myself in order to unlearn the biased and unhealthy narratives that impede communication and empathy.

Some of the narratives we hold derive from societal narratives. For example, we live in a culture that villianizes neurodivergent communication and thinking styles, thus being direct can be viewed as ‘aggressive,’ ‘too emotional,’ and/or ‘illogical.’ Even if we provide logical and rational thoughts, because of the ‘directness’ the content of our words is ignored in favor of how the neurotypical, non-disabled person perceived our tone. A story is written in their head that superimposes over us, and thus we cease to be a person. Tone-policing is one way this retaliation to our words can manifest, through the critiques of our ‘tone’ and dismissing of the content of our words. 

When we interact with one another, we build stories of ourselves and those people in our head. If we are not conscious of this act, the stories built often are riddled with stereotypes about various groups of people rather than based on who the person actually is. These stories — or narratives — are also influenced by the culture within which we live, our upbringing, societal norms, community norms, and how we’re educated and by whom and various historical events.

Humans are a story-telling species. We love to share stories with one another, and through this sharing of stories, we create community and a sense of safety. Building community can also go awry the same way our story-telling may — the biases that society socialized into us can contaminate the community-building if left unchecked. Unlearning our biases is a life-long practice and not easy to do, but if we are to build authentic, accessible, inclusive, and loving communities then the work of unlearning biases must be done.

It takes effort and practice to meditate on the stories we build of others and the places in which we exist. By meditating on the stories we craft, we can carefully edit the biases and untrue narratives and replace with more accurate evidence based on what is shared with us, what we witness, and knowledge we’ve gained. This skill must be taught and practiced, and even then, it is still possible to run awry of biases that sneak in periodically, especially if we have not yet admitted or discovered the bias within ourselves.

However, when people’s biases are confronted, regardless of how — whether directly or subtly — defensiveness may rear up to blockade communication and retaliate against whoever confronted us.

As a disabled trans queer person, I have learned that confronting people on their biases and microaggressions can cause this defensiveness, where they cease to see me as a person. Instead, a story is built up for them to defeat, which in turn dismisses my words in order to preserve their view of themself as a ‘good person.’

It is this attachment to ‘being a good person’ that can stifle our growth and ability to build community with others. Lama Rod Owens in Love and Rage: the Path of Liberation through Anger writes:

“We’ve learned how to pack everything away, because we’re really invested in being good people. You may say, “I am a good person. I am not a misogynist. I am not transphobic. I’m a good person.” Sometimes being a good person or my attachment to being a good person actually gets in the way of me looking at all the rough spots, at all the shadows that I’m working with.”

That story all of us have built of ourselves is often riddled with unconscious biases, especially if we are unwilling to acknowledge those biases exist.

For example, in a gaming community I frequented, a member would consistently ignore what I shared about obstacles I faced due to the systems within our society and within communities. In response, this person would say: “The only obstacle is yourself, and you can overcome anything!”

Except this is a denial of everything I’d shared about obstacles outside my control. When I confronted the person to attempt a dialog about how hurtful this ableist microaggression was, the person became defensive and retaliated. Other people jumped in to join sides and it transformed into a battleground instead of being a simple dialog. In the end, the harm caused by that person’s words ends up brushed aside as the dialogue becomes about their feeling uncomfortable at being held accountable. 

When another person seeks to hold us accountable, they are trusting us with the knowledge of their hurt, and they are sharing hope that healing and growth can still occur. Being held accountable isn’t meant to be an attack or to label someone as ‘bad,’ but meant to build community and dialogue for healing. Conflict will happen in any community, but if the conflict is brushed aside to keep the illusion of ‘peace and harmony’ than those harmed are further wounded by this lack of empathy and care. The narratives the group has built around accountability become an impediment to their growth and empathy.

In the Beyond Survival Anthology, Kai Cheng Thom’s essay called ‘What to Do when You’ve Been Abusive,’ has a list of steps to assist people on that journey toward accountability and healing. Thom writes: 

“‘The first step: Learn to Listen When Someone Says You Have Hurt Them.’ When one has been abusive, the very first — and one of the most difficult — skills of holding oneself accountable is learning to simply listen to the person or people whom one has harmed:

• • Listening without becoming defensive.
  • Listening without trying to equivocate or make excuses.
  • Listening without minimizing or denying the extent of the harm.
  • Listening without trying to make oneself the center of the story being told.

When someone, particularly a partner or loved one, tells you that you have hurt or abused them, it can be easy to understand this as an accusation or attack…”

Part of the reason one may fall into seeing it as an accusation or attack is this attachment to ‘being a good person.’  In the case of that gaming group, the person refused to accept my experience because it collided with what they thought ‘being a good person’ is. I had disrupted their story of their own self, and instead of sitting with that uncomfortable feelings and working through it, the person lashed out instead.

The attachment we have to ‘being a good person’ often is the root of our defensiveness. Other roots may be wounds a person has that they are in denial about or are in the process of healing, or roots in how they are socialized.

So when defensiveness happens, it places those harmed in an impossible position — how do we hold dialogue with the other person without placing ourselves in danger of being hurt further? If the other person will not meet us halfway by enacting Thom’s steps, then healing cannot happen. That wound between me and the other person causes a rift, that can easily become impassable.

Lama Rod Owens writes: 

“Look at how the narratives keep us from actually doing the really important work of liberation within our own experience. It’s not supposed to feel good. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be really uncomfortable. If it were easy and fun, everyone would be doing it.”

“People come to me and say, “Oh, this practice that you gave me, it hasn’t helped me feel good.” I get that, because when I started my practice, it didn’t feel good either. I felt as if I was suffering more. I wasn’t. I was finally paying attention to how I’ve always felt. It’s really not fun, but it definitely gets better. It gets better because I learned how to get really curious about my experience. I learned how to be re-embodied and to actually understand that all these really difficult experiences I was having were composite — there were all these different pieces of things smashed together.”

The socialization we received as children often wounds us by instilling biases that create narratives that stunt our growth. As Owens wrote, unlearning biases, seeking to heal the wounds within us, and letting go of our attachment to ‘being good’ is not easy to do. It will be hard, but it is the only way to truly grow as a person and build more holistic and healthier communities.

Part of understanding our own narratives requires us to understand not just our biases but also our strengths, weaknesses, triggers, and especially our limitations. For disabled people, understanding our limitations is forced on us by the nature of our disability, thus we must consider our limitations in order to navigate a day without causing painful flare-ups or other frustrating and/or painful reactions within our bodies.

When I do trainings about disability or about trans issues, I often ask participants to step into our shoes for a day. To imagine themselves living the narrative disabled and/or trans people often face. I may use myself as an example or a friend may assist me and offer up their narrative. We then walk the participants through our stories, and through that, we can build a shared empathy. That empathy becomes the foundation for further dialogue.

NAVIGATING A DAY

So how do I navigate a day as a disabled trans and queer person? The first step for me is analyzing my energy. I do this partly based on how I feel and some of my vitals, but I must also carefully analyze each step I take. I must analyze the words I say and who I share my story with — where I must assess the risk level with sharing based on where I am, who is present, and whether there is a safe way to exit if the situation turns toxic or too exhausting to continue.

Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll start with how I pace my actions to avoid painful flare-ups that can leave me bedridden. I start this practice when I am still in bed.

I open up the Visible app and log my sleep and vitals — this app was made for disabled people by disabled people and uses a mathematical formula based on research to calculate a score between 1 and 5 for my stability for the day. It does this by detecting the pulse in my finger and the minute changes in skin coloration from the blood flow in my finger. Today rates me a three and suggests I pace myself gently today. To simplify this analyzing, I use spoon theory, where each spoon represents energy required to do a task.

I slowly sit up to take my morning/day meds for the day. I keep a cup of water by my bed for this purpose. Cetaphil Face Cleanser sits by my bed, so I can do a dry bath. I rub it on my face and neck and a few other areas and wipe it away, which uses up half a spoon. I can’t do my whole body as that would be one too many spoons, so I leave it at that.

I pet my cats and slowly stand — if I stand too quickly I become lightheaded and may pass out — then I grab my mobility device (cane, arm crutches, rollator, or wheelchair) and navigate to the bathroom to use the toilet, dress for the day, and brush my teeth. This takes half a spoon. I have now used up one spoon simply waking up and washing up for the day.

After the bathroom, I prepare a cup of tea and select a morning snack. I return to my bedroom and assess my energy levels again. Preparing for the day has used two spoons, and I have only five today. On other days I might have six spoons, but I generally sleep and stay in bed all day to prepare for six spoon days.

Since I only have three spoons left, I boot up my computer to write, check email, check Discord and/or Signal chats, and listen to music. This will use up two spoons. That leaves my final spoon for my cats, where I feed them and play with them and clean their litter boxes.

When it is time for bed, I will take my night meds, wash up in bathroom, and read or play puzzles on my phone with its blue-light filter on until I fall asleep. This is half a spoon that I often forget to account for throughout my day.

If I plan to leave the house, I must rest the day before to prepare for a six spoon day, where five spoons is used to leave the house, go to my destination, do the activity or appointment at my destination, and return home to recover and care for my cats. Thus I only have one spoon for washing up, cat time, and eating.

If I take a shower, I will lose up to two spoons, which is why I schedule showers for a day where I do not need to leave the house. On days I must leave the house, I resort to a dry bath using Cetaphil cleanser and Rinse and Clear shampoo/conditioner.

Sometimes I must use up spoons I simply don’t have. When I push myself like this, those spoons come from future days, meaning I will crash. A crash describes how the body, overcome with fatigue from lack of sufficient energy or from intense pain will resort to forced rest, where one simply can’t get up do to an activity. On those days I have no choice but to rest as my body will not be responsive to much else. Crashes can last days, and for some disabled people can cause a backslides in their pacing and/or healing journeys.

By walking through what navigating my life is like and inviting others to do the same, where we endeavor to keep an open mind, to actively listen, we can lay a foundation for further dialogue and understanding. It’s part of how we rebuild our internal narratives. 

SPOON THEORY

Since I have evaluated how I navigate my day using ‘spoons,’ let’s discuss what exactly spoon theory is.

It was developed by Christine Miserandino, when she spoke to a friend in early 2000s about her Lupus. She decided on spoons to illustrate to her friend the difficulties of navigating through a day. She asked her friend to describe how she walked through a day, but Christine would gently interrupt and share how each task cost either a full spoon or half a spoon — brushing her teeth, showering, leaving the bed and dressing, making breakfast or tea, eating breakfast, cleaning up after breakfast, preparing to leave, getting in the vehicle, the act of driving, leaving the vehicle, entering the destination, etc.

Since she had limited spoons it meant each time she left the house, she had to carefully evaluate whether she had energy for anything else. The friend was stunned because just describing her own day and using Christine’s limited spoons meant the friend wouldn’t make it through the day safely. 

Christine shared this theory at the 2010 Lupus Conference and in various blog posts. Many disabled people caught wind of it, and soon ‘spoonies’ became a term some disabled people decided to call themselves.

Many disabilities can eat up a person’s energy, which makes navigating the tasks in a day difficult. The spoon theory has become a useful tool in discussing energy-limited diseases and how we navigate them. In a way, it offers abled-bodied people a glimpse into the lives of disabled people, and that can assist in fostering empathy.

Using spoon theory can build a narrative that describes disability in a relatable way. This can help with unlearning biases about what disabled people can or can’t do. Often, abled-bodied (nondisabled) people unconsciously react to disabled people by speaking and behaving as if they know more than disabled people about the disabled person’s own limitations and needs. Spoon theory helps break down that bias to reveal the truth of the disabled person’s experience, which can help open dialogue between us and others.

PACING AND ABLEIST NARRATIVES

When I attempt to describe the above to people, some people will ask why I just don’t push through and overcome this. Our culture teaches us from a young age that the only way to success is through pushing oneself hard, to not give up, to see the body as a tool to force into the mold one needs to succeed. Except that’s not how bodies function; the body isn’t a machine but a living organism that can easily break down due to illness, injury, insufficient nutrition or oxygen, allergies, etc. 

Overcoming one’s own body pushes the consequences overextending ourselves to a future date, where our bodies will retaliate and force us to rest. Some people term this burn-out, which is a lovely term that encompasses not just a physical crash but also an emotional and/or mental crash. 

That’s another phenomenon that people do not realize is possible — we can crash due to being overwhelmed from emotions or heavy mental activity. For example, many a friend, who worked on their PhD, admit to feeling burnt out by the time they finish. They often did little physical activity but intense mental activities, so they share frustration and confusion with me on why they feel burnt out. Part of that frustration stems from the narrative society and/or our parents built that dismisses the impact heavy mental activities have on a person’s wellbeing and health. We may be unaware this narrative exists within us, but recovering from burnout often can’t progress until we unlearn that biased narrative.

Our brain uses twenty percent of our body’s energy, and when we are engaged in a cognitive activity this can increase energy usage between five to seven percent depending on the task. We often forget how our brain is the most energy-taxing organ in our body. So when it is heavily used without must rest, our brains can decide enough is enough and force us into resting because not enough energy exists to execute the cognitive activity.

For abled-bodied — as in non-disabled people — many are in denial about these realities. They simply do not wish to acknowledge their bodies have limits, that they might someday end up disabled. The narrative about disability being bad stems from society’s classifying disabled people as a disposable class. Even if a person may not be taught directly this history, these narratives of disabled people as ‘less than’ can still be instilled in a person just by navigating their capitalist society’s productivity norms.

Marta Russel writes in Capitalism and Disability about the origin of disability as a disposable class: 

“With the advent of capitalism, people were no longer tied to the land, but they were forced to find work that would pay a wage — or starve; and as production became industrialized people’s bodies were increasingly valued for their ability to function like machines. 

 Bosses could push non-disabled workers to produce at ever increasing rates of speed. Factory discipline, time-keeping and production norms broke with the slower, more self-determined and flexible work pattern into which many disabled people had been integrated.’ As work became more rationalized, requiring precise mechanical movements of the body, repeated in quicker succession, impaired persons — the deaf or blind, and those with mobility difficulties — were seen as — and, without job accommodations to meet their impairments, were — less ‘fit’ to do the tasks required of factory workers, and were increasingly excluded from paid employment…”

This focus on production shifted the values of society more toward who is productive versus who is not productive. It built a narrative around this ideology and socialized it into the workforce through job trainings, various educational experiences, and how we are taught about the world in childhood by parental figures and educators.

In turn, these narratives built a negative connotation around disability. Russell continues:

… as a result, disabled persons came to be regarded as a social problem and a justification emerged for segregating them out of mainstream life and into a variety of institutions, including workhouses, asylums, prisons, colonies and special schools…

.. being categorized as ‘disabled’, however, and the subsequent impoverishment that so many face when struggling to survive on disability benefits, serves another class function: it generates a very realistic fear among workers of becoming disabled. At base, the inadequate safety net is a product of the owning class’s fear of losing full control of what they do with the means of production; the American work ethic is a mechanism of social control that ensures capitalists a reliable work force for making profits. If workers were provided with a social safety net that adequately protected them through unemployment, sickness, disability, and old age, labour would gain a stronger position from which to negotiate their conditions of employment. American business retains its power over the working-class through a fear of destitution that would be weakened if the safety net were to actually become safe.”

Within capitalist societies, this narrative of disposable classes unconsciously influences how we react to limitations, to disabled people in general, and to witnessing someone experiencing hardships.

People often may not realize how much historical views, events, and ideologies can influence our interactions and how we are socialized today. These unconscious biases and unexamined narratives influence how we react to other people, to situations, and how we navigate our days.

Disability, due to how capitalism prioritizes production, has been labeled ‘disposable,’ and capitalism often uses it as a fear tactic to control the workforce. This bias then becomes embedded within the narratives people unconsciously build about themselves and other people. in turn, those narratives can often be painted over the person we interact with, thus failing to see the person as they actually are.

In the case of that gaming group, several members, who engaged in ableist microaggressions, had failed to examine their own biases about limitations, disabled people, and narratives of productivity. So when I presented them with my marginalized experience that directly contradicted their unexamined narratives, they choose to react defensively rather than meeting me halfway to build understanding.

Understanding often fails when these biased narratives, especially denial of one’s limitations, turns a person too defensive and retaliatory. Often in these cases, the person who tried to hold them accountable is punished for speaking up. This breaks down trust within the group, impedes understanding, and seeds the group with negative narratives surrounding conflict, limitations, and accountability.

Yet, we cannot fully realize our own potentials without assessing our limitations and examining the narratives we tell ourselves. Our bodies are not limitless energy sources no matter how carefully we care for it, and anyone can become ill or injured at any time, which can limit oneself further. The idea society taught us of “overcoming our limitations” sets an impossible standard that often injuries people in attempts to reach that perfect state. It is far healthier to find ways to work around our limitations, while respecting what our bodies have to tell us.

Pacing is the term used to describe how one works within their limitations, while respecting what truths our bodies may share about such limitations. For those of us with energy-limited diseases, we must learn the art of pacing, but this concept isn’t unique to disabled people.

Everyone needs to pace themselves in order to navigate a day, but they may not realize that is what it is. When people craft schedules and determine what they will work on in a day and what they save for another day — that’s the start of pacing work. The next step is facing one’s limitations and factoring our health and wellbeing into planning.

However, if the person is in denial about their limitation, if they have attached themselves to society’s perfection ideal, they increase the risk of burnout, injury, and/or illness. It also blocks understanding of other people, thus breaking attempts at dialogue.

Part of unlearning that harmful narrative of denial about limitations involves addressing the narratives we build about ourselves and other people. We cannot build healthier communities if we are unable to address the unexamined narratives and biases that poison our waters.

The narratives we tell ourselves play a major role in all we think and do, so it is crucial to examine them if we are to build empathy and dialogue with one another. This takes effort and work to allow oneself to be held accountable for harms done, and to unlearn inaccurate and biased narratives. This journey isn’t easy to do, but then building truly loving and healthy communities is never easy.

To end on a hopeful note, Amanda Leduc, a disabled author, writes: 

“If society is used to not seeing disabled people in stories, society becomes used to not seeing disabled people in real life. If society is used to not seeing disabled people in real life, society will continue to build a world that makes it exceedingly difficult for disabled people to participate in said world, thus perpetuating the problem. In this world, there is no need for a wheelchair ramp because hardly anyone who wins an award will need one to get onstage. But what if we took it for granted that anyone, regardless of ability, might be able to achieve [that award], and built our stages and our environments accordingly? 

It is time for us to tell different stories.”

#accountability #biases #buildingCommunity #chronicIllness #communication #disability #disabilityJustice #disabled #empathyBuilding #health #laborHistory #mentalHealth #narratives #oppression #stereotypes

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution shares with insight, humor, and joy the experiences of a group of disabled teenagers at a summer camp for kids with disabilities and their journey to adulthood and activism that shaped disability rights.

The film includes footage of historic protests for disability rights that are important viewing for anyone who cares about effective activism!

https://journeysinfilm.org/film/crip-camp/

#Activism #Democracy #History #Protest #DisabilityRights #DisabiilityPride #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #Disability

Für manche bedeuten Seile Begrenzung. Für mich bedeuten sie Befreiung. Mein Körper ist kein Widerspruch zu Lust, Kontrolle oder Hingabe. Bondage gibt mir den Raum, in dem ich bestimmen darf, wie ich gehalten werde und von wem.⬇️

Foto by @fotokunst_razupaltuffsp

#DisabledAndDesirable #Consent #ConsentIsEverything #Kink #Selbstliebe #BDSMCommunity #Bondage #Intimacy #RadikaleZärtlichkeit #DisabilityJustice #Disability #ShibariArt #BDSM #Behinderung #BodyAutonomy #SensualResistance

Pioneering disability rights advocate Helen Keller was born on this day in 1880. An inspiration to many, her legacy is extensive. We're pleased to offer powerful tools for teaching with Crip Camp about Disability Rights and the contemporary Disability Rights activists who picked up her torch.

Get the free Crip Camp curriculum guide and bring this engaging film to your classroom.

https://journeysinfilm.org/product/crip-camp-guides/

@education @disabilityhistory
#HelenKeller #Education #Homeschooling #Disability #DisabilityRights #DisabilityHistory #DisabilityJustice

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a "direct final rule" that would eliminate the requirement that new buildings constructed with federal funds must be accessible to people with disabilities. This move would weaken the civil rights protections guaranteed by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

We want to recommend an outstanding resource for teaching about the 504 Regulations: Crip Camp. 1/2

#USNews #USpol #DisabilityRights #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #DisabilityPride #Accessibility #Netflix #Education #Edutooters #Homeschooling #HumanRights @disability @disabilityjustice @disabilityhistory @education @edutooters

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution follows a group of disabled teens as they become historic disability rights activists.

Crip Camp chronicles decades of disability activism and the fight for disability justice. The film includes the 1973 504 Sit-in, where people with disabilities and the disability community occupied US federal building to push for groundbreaking disability rights legislation. It also highlights the 1990 protests in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the most stirring scenes imaginable—disabled activists pulling themselves up the Capitol steps in what became known as the “Capitol Crawl.” No overview of US protest history is complete without Crip Camp. 6/n

https://journeysinfilm.org/product/crip-camp-guides/

#CripCamp #DisabilityRights #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #Activism #Protests #Education #Homseschooling @film @disability @disabilityjustice @disabilityhistory

Educate your students and yourself about the battle for this landmark legislation. Get our free Crip Camp resources to bring this story to your learning community.

https://journeysinfilm.org/product/crip-camp-guides/

2/2 #CurrentEvents #Education #Homeschooling #Disabilty #DisabilityRigths #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #USHistory #Histodons #CivilDisobedience #CivicEngagement @education @histodons @disabilityjustice @disabilityhistory

What We’re Up Against and Where To Go From Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

This video discusses the playbook these techbros are using. The agenda discussed is exactly what we are seeing playing out in real time right now in the USA. They want corporate-owned “network states” to hoard more wealth and make it impossible for others to gain their wealth; as well as having a trapped workforce to extract more wealth.

We need to understand their plan, so we can work to sabotage and stop it.

Their plans Will Kill People and already have.

Plane crashes lately were impacted by not enough air traffic controllers. The timing of Trump’s executive orders and actions to cripple FAA is alarming. It’s possible Trump/Musk’s actions contributed to their deaths; however, their crippling of FAA likely will cause more accidents in the future.

There is also people who will die or are dying due to the freeze on federal funds for nonprofits, USAID, state programs, healthcare institutions, and other crucial agencies and social programs that focus on the most vulnerable.

More will die from the active purge of studies and health data on CDC.gov. A lot of health workers use that data and study results to improve health outcomes for patients. Also, the purging of data for infectious diseases will result in an even steeper rise in diseases, less vaccine availability or research from which more people will die.

Due to the purge of documents and sites pertaining to LGBTQIA people, Black Indigenous and People of Color, and any terms related to us such as transgender, gender, sex, pregnant people, Black, Indigenous, etc., we are seeing a digital book burning across a massive scale.

Musk and his cronies are hacking the US government’s agencies and US Treasury Payment System without being confirmed by Congress nor hired as a federal worker. They’re often acting in secret and seem to be installing private servers to download massive reams of data. They are pushing untested code into the Treasury’s Payment Systems with little to no understanding of how the system works, which is massively dangerous and could destabilize the entire system. All of which is illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and massive security risks.

They are even making ‘target lists‘ that list anyone who has been involved with Diversity and Inclusion or used pronouns in their bios. These lists are incredibly dangerous for marginalized communities, particularly Jewish, Black, Indigenous, Disabled, and LGBTQIA people, who are often the first to be harmed.

It’s great that lawsuits are happening now, but they won’t save us. What we need is people to march in, kick out these goons, and blockade them from entering again. FBI could do this, but instead they’re suing Trump which is good but not enough. Senators should be doing blocking access physically, but instead they do speeches and write strongly worded letters.

So it’s up to us to sabotage the techbros vile plan as much as possible. They are fascist, tech-nazis, and they don’t care who they destroy and kill in their thirst for power.

SO WHAT NEXT?

We need to engage in care toward one another and ourselves first and foremost. We can’t survive a fascist/Nazi coup unless we have energy and health to do so. So make sure you take care of yourself and your friends/loved ones.

For other actions to take, there’s a lot to consider, and below is just to get people started.

Make a safety plan first, which I cover in the below post (Censored Secret expanded on mine here):

https://www.tumblr.com/thatonebirdwrites/774367966546526208/thanks-for-that-right-up-i-didnt-have-the-spoons?source=share

The following are other actions to consider taking. It can be helpful to have people you trust to have your back work through the safety plan and the list below with you.

We are not alone, and although the US culture tries to instill this rugged individualism, that isn’t true to human nature. We’re naturally cooperative creatures, and we can work together collectively to stop the fascists and build up better.

• Archive documents. Archivists right now are working to archive and save thousands of government documents, especially those pertaining to health and other scientific studies. Create your own archives. Here’s two sites that explains how to do that: Practical Guide to Fighting Censorship AND Archiving 101.

• Read up on how to craft a safety plan here: My Post and explore the indepth dive in @CensoredSecret’s Post

• Make a list of your skills and capacity. Make it a skill list party with friends, where you all work on your lists together. (Can do this with crafting safety plans too.)

• Find like-minded groups such as local mutual aid groups, protest groups, mask blocs, etc., who are doing the community care work. Offer to help and follow through with the tasks you agree to do.

• When working with a group/org, make sure the group has some sort of delegation system and accountability. Draft a mini-constitution. This video has a good overview. Also, check out the short but thorough Anarchic Agreements by Ruth Kinna, Alex Prichard, Thomas Swann, and Seeds for Change.

• Plan and/or Engage in Community Grief and/or Community Care sessions. Be creative! Use the arts or writing or talking in a circle (where whoever holds the stone speaks). This can help avoid burnout.

• List people you trust that have your back and make sure you have their contact information in a secure offline location (go-to bag from safety plan for instance).

• Learn some new skills such as first aid, archival work, gardening, etc. Be open and willing to learn from others who have done the work for awhile. Be open to offering to teach others your own skills. A skill-share can be crucial.

• Write up and get notarized an Medical Power of Attorney and Will to avoid your safety and wellbeing doesn’t fall into the hands of people you don’t trust. Make sure you and your loved ones have copies.

• Make a list of needed medications, where you can source them, and alternate healthcare options in the case of emergencies where you cannot access your usual healthcare or pharmacy. This may require a little research.

• Have your group/org work on building up mini-libraries for repair, books, food, essential supplies, and other items. Andrewism has some excellent videos about this here.

• Check on your most vulnerable folks and find out what they need then follow through. Ask for their consent and only assist in what they ask for. Never presume to know what another person needs.

• Do a Digital Cleanse (this site has actions you can do daily to work toward this). Secure your data using encrypted tools, such as encrypted email, Signal, and tools like cryptpad.org for any organizing/protest conversations.

• Defend your community by organizing together for safety and care — this site has a good guide. Books on disability justice, transformative justice, and climate justice often have good organizing strategies and action items.

• For more tips see an easy-to-read version in CensoredSecret’s Post.

Andrea Pitzer on Next Comes What covers a lot of good tips and ideas to consider in order to survive and fight fascism. She digs into past examples as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwFZpROLvX4

For another good video, check out Imani Barbarin, a disabled activist and writer, who discusses how to establish a Progressive Media Apparatus: https://www.patreon.com/posts/establishing-121218731

For ways to build up library ecosystems, Andrewism has some good starter videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYa3YzVtyk

Books and articles to read about organizing and mutual aid:

• Surviving the Future edited by Branson, Hudsen, and Reed.
• Imarin Barabarin has a set of videos on how to organize.
• Mutual Aid by Dean Spade (also in anarchist library).
• How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong
• A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice by Katie Tastrom
• The Sea is Rising and So Must We: A Climate Justice Handbook by Cynthia Kaufmann
• Creative Interventions Workbook
• Building Accountable Communities by Project Nia
• eBook repositories may have the above books if one can’t find at local library or have funds to purchase.

Protest Tips (I wrote in this reblog/post but copying here):

Protests rely on the movement of large amount of people. Signs can be made for them, plans on routes can be done (keep offline or use encrypted tools for planning), and assigning roles to help keep it organized.

When organizing sit-ins, it’s even more crucial that people be trained to NOT talk to random folks pretending to be journalists. Have a designated communications role with people trained on what to say, and direct all journalists to that group. Stick to your assigned role’s tasks.

If the care work for a sit-in is on a rotating schedule, make sure you are aware of that and pitch in your part to keep the sit-in safe, secure, and fed/watered.

Below are tips that focus on safety and security:

• Wear a mask with and safety glasses. (Harder to identity you and it protects you from smoke, tear gas, and diseases.
• Do Not Bring Your Phone. Or at the very least Do NOT turn it on as it can be used to identify you or obtain your location.
• Do NOT advertise the full details of the protest and who is coming to the protest all over social media. Share about the protest’s start locations as needed in your groups, but don’t advertise it’s march pattern or its end goal location or who is attending. These conversations about the march route, goal location, assigned roles, and etc need to happen either in-person with all phones off OR use an encrypted chat. You want to limit what the surveillance state can pull from posts.
• Have designated medics who can help in case of injury or if Police try to shoot people or throw tear gas.
• Have designated frontline people. These are the people at the front of the protest, the ones that are most likely to deal with police and/or fascists first. Use make-shift shields to help protect frontline people.
• Have designated communication roles for people who are educated/trained on how to speak to journalists/news and who can keep the message consistent.
• Have designated people who assist those with disabilities to make sure they care able to stay safe and escape if things turn sour. Stay with your assigned peeps!
• Have a designated protest partner to help watch your back. Stay with your assigned peeps!
• Have designated suppliers, who carry supplies for medics and/or frontline and/or other roles.
• Have a plan in case the police try to kettle protesters. A kettle is when police block off routes to escape, thus trapping protestors in a smaller area. This is done to shut down protestors, demoralize, frighten, and mass arrest. Make sure everyone knows the plan and abides by it.
• Write on your arm the numbers of lawyers and/or people you can contact in case of arrest.

We’re in a fight for our right to exist and for survival.

Be safe all.

#activism #anarchism #antifascism #communityCare #disabilityJustice #fightingFascism #fightingTheNetworkStateAgenda #justice #mutualAid #networkState #organizing #politics #protest #protestTips #usCoup #USPolitics

We were deeply impressed with the Crip Camp filmmakers' commitment to accessibility.

The film is available with closed captions, open captions & audio description in English on YouTube, and with multi-language options for audio description, closed captions and subtitles on Netflix

Check out the Crip Camp trailer with audio description. below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6TB7KEqhRo&t=2s

#DisabilityDay #IDPD #DisabilityPride #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #SocialJustice #Education #Homeschooling #Histodons #Accessibility #Filmmaking #Film #Documentary @disability @disabilityhistory @disabilityjustice @histodons @education @edutooters @film

For International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrate and educate with Crip Camp! Get our free Crip Camp lesson plans to teach about ableism and the connection to disability justice.

https://journeysinfilm.org/product/crip-camp-guides/

#DisabilityDay #IDPD #DisabilityPride #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityHistory #SocialJustice #Education #Homeschooling #Histodons @disability @disabilityhistory @disabilityjustice @histodons @education @edutooters

"Project 2025 would end efforts to tackle issues such as #ClimateChange, and politicized research produced to back the project’s views on #EnvironmentalPolicy, the 'evils' of #Transgenderism, and #WomensHealth would take priority." https://globalextremism.org/project-2025-the-far-right-playbook-for-american-authoritarianism/
#Project2025 #ChristianNationalists #ChristianNationalism #ReproductiveRights #LGBTQ+ #DisabilityJustice #Immigrants #Women #PeopleOfColor #DEI #Equity #RacialJustice

A US Government Accountability Office report found that most #SubMinimumWage workers earn less than $3.50 an hour. https://bit.ly/42Dn8t3
The US Department of Labor is currently reviewing the 14(c) certificate program, but it is not clear if they will end the subminimum wage. See a list of companies with 14(c) certificates at https://bit.ly/3StfRHG
#DisabilityJustice #DisabilityPolicy #HumanRights #WomensHumanRights

A US Government Accountability Office report found that most #SubMinimumWage workers earn less than $3.50 an hour. https://bit.ly/42Dn8t3
The US Department of Labor is currently reviewing the 14(c) certificate program, but it is not clear if they will end the subminimum wage. See a list of companies with 14(c) certificates at https://bit.ly/3StfRHG
#DisabilityJustice #DisabilityPolicy #HumanRights #WomensHumanRights

📚 Today at Lighthouse Books #RadicalBookFair 2023 in #Edinburgh …

✨ Adapt or Remake: What if it’s the system and not you? ✨

🤔 "We talk about "earning a living" - as if "living" is something you have to "earn"

#DisabilityJustice is about listening to disabled people to learn what we - all of us - need to live" ✊🏽

@fionaswriting 📚 Your Life is Not Over: A Guide for Newly Sick and Disabled People

📚 Today at Lighthouse Books #RadicalBookFair 2023 in #Edinburgh …

✨ Adapt or Remake: What if it’s the system and not you? ✨

🤔 "We talk about "earning a living" - as if "living" is something you have to "earn"

#DisabilityJustice is about listening to disabled people to learn what we - all of us - need to live" ✊🏽

@fionaswriting 📚 Your Life is Not Over: A Guide for Newly Sick and Disabled People

Labor department weighs future of #SubminimumWage for workers with #Disabilities https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2023/10/23/labor-department-weighs-future-of-subminimum-wage-for-workers-with-disabilities/30596/
Federal officials have been under pressure in recent years to do away with the subminimum wage employment model, which can leave workers with disabilities earning as little as pennies per hour.
#DisabilityJustice #DisabilityPolicy #InclusionMatters

#introductions No.2 - Searchable post of hashtags I am about, for the purposes of making new connections on here :moji14:​

#DisabilityJustice #ACAB #NEISvoid #RaiseTheRate #DeepEcology #LandBack #TreatyNow #DisabledJoy #ChronicPain #NeuroSpicy #Neurodivergent #Poetry #houseplants #SnailMail #PenPal #PaperCraft #BlackLivesMatter #Hypermobility #TransRights #Queer #QueerJoy #nonbinary #CatParent #TraumaInformed #Permaculture #BrainFog #Writers #PlantBasedRecipes #FatJoy #FatEmpowerment #FatAcceptance #ProChoice #mspec #ChildrensRights #FatLiberation #ChildrensLiberation #DisabledQueer #DisabledLiberation #MelbourneQueer #ArtsAndCulture

Kinda hard to find ppl as I flee birdsite (&missing its overlapping worlds). I'm a DJ, professor, writer, teacher & try to work towards liberation. Interested in #disabilityjustice #abolition #reproductivejustice #landback #antifa & more, I research + write about #sts #soundsystemculture #surveillance #intimacy #pirateradio #dancemusic #mediastudies, how oppressed ppl carve out spaces/sites in which to foster autonomous culture & I love #jungle, #footwork, #gqom #globalclub #dub +genresmashing