#abledsareweird

Polite ableism is just harder to talk about, you can't describe how it makes you feel enough, how it rips away your autonomy and makes you feel lesser than, and it's especially hard for those with intellectual disabilities to talk about and speak against, because it's so covert and it's EVERYWHERE.

You should care about disabled people’s rights because you should care about the disenfranchisement of a marginalized community.

Hey, the main entrance to your business is up some stairs, is there a wheelchair accessible entrance with a ramp or something available?

non-disabled business owners:

No, we don't get any customers in wheelchairs so there's no point

Wheelchair users:

...do...do you think there might be a reason for that?

Non-disabled business owners:

Because disabled people don't need [whatever product or service we provide], obviously.

hey little language PSA for neurodivergent folks:

“abled” is a term derived from the term “able-bodied,” not “nondisabled.”

while “abled” may often be used as a synonym for nondisabled, it originates as and is also used to refer to able-bodied people.

when a disabled-bodied person refers to abled neurodivergent people, they are not saying those people are nondisabled. they’re saying they’re able-bodied.

Because too many abled people seem to think that you must do physical labor or you're lazy

also because my mom like "aren't you excited to do yard work!?" and its like..no..I am physically disabled , doing physical labor causes me even more pain besides just having chronic pain and hurting because scoliosis ..no I'm not excited to hurt myself more

Once there was no more medical stickers all over them and the crutches were now a matte pink instead of hospital metallic, there were no more questions about "what happened???" Or "I hope you feel better soon". And I think I know why...

When people see crutches that look metallic and have stickers on them, they think you've just gotten out of the hospital and that this is some new development (maybe a sport™️ injury or something) but with customized or non standard medical aides, it looks like something more permanent...

And that makes them uncomfortable.

The permanence of a disability, something that won't go away, weakness that won't go away, and knowing that it could happen to them as well. Not to mention that no one is taught how to interact with people with disabilities that are permanent (I might talk about non permanent disabilities at another point, but that's not important here) there only people that they're taught to interact with who have permanent disabilities are the elderly or children who are terminal, and they are extra nice to them and expect them to die at any time. But they don't know how to handle someone who has a permanent disability and aren't going to die any time soon.

People still stare at me. But people aren't willing to interact with me about my disability. Which is actually sort of sad. When I got them painted, I was so proud of my matte pink crutches, I was wanting to hear compliments from people who know me, or even strangers! This whole time, I've only received one compliment on my crutches, and I believe it's because the other person also has a disability.