#learning disabilities

Be queer

Be trans

Have a physical disability

Have a neurodevelopmental conditional 

Have a mental illness 

Be chronically ill 

Be “weird”

Be intersex 

Not follow gender norms 

Have a learning disability 

Be nonbinary

Be on the aro/ace spectrum

Choose a non-STEM career

Have different religious beliefs than you

Not have a similar personality to you

I do NOT mean that you cannot grieve the life you would’ve wanted or expected for them. You are allowed to feel upset or struggle when things change, but you cannot stay there. What I DO mean is that it is your job as the parent to accept that that was your first reaction, and then work with someone, whether it be a friend, therapist, or whoever, to get yourself up to speed. That part is not your child’s job. You should be there to support them, be there, help them however you can, learn for them, and prove that your love for them is not, and will never be, conditional. 

I understand being concerned about ableists taking advantage of people with IDDs, I really do, and I know its a horrible thing that happens to them a lot.

But you also need to keep in mind that this is a group of adults who suffer from severe infantilization from the general public, and are treated as solely incapable of understanding their surroundings.

And yes, not all people with IDDs are aware enough of what is happening to consent to sex (still, these people may masturbate or consume sexual content! And they still shouldn't be infantilized, they're still adults!) But many people with IDDs are more than aware.

IDDs do not make a person asexual non-libidoist. People with IDDs can be acespec or on the hypolibidoist spectrum, but they aren't inherently that way.

I recently started my clinical working with very high support needs autistic kids. This is not the first time I’ve worked with disabled students, but this is the first time I’ve worked so in-depth with them. I’m interacting with them for 7+ hours a day, constantly talking to them, helping them learn and develop new skills, taking them to gym and art and all sorts of other things. And this has really solidified the belief I have that 99% of neurotypical who think they know the first thing about autism do not know a damn thing about it.

There are so many people who are literally raging hate campaigns against literal children just because they’re autistic. “You just don’t get what it’s like having to parent them,” “they’re so difficult,” “they can never learn,” “they can’t contribute anything to society,” “they’re missing something inside.”

None of that is true in the fucking slightest. I knew this before, but it has become INFINITELY more apparent. My heart hurts for these kids because it’s so obvious sometimes that people have never even tried to get to know or understand them. They think there’s nothing going on in their heads, that they’re incapable of love, that they can’t learn, meanwhile these are some of the smartest, kindest, and most caring kids I’ve ever been around.

Start putting the people who struggle more in the spotlight. Those with intellectual disabilities, those with learning disabilities, those with cognitive disabilities, those who are just generally stereotypically “dumb” and embrace it!

Twice exceptional is when some is considered academically gifted and has a learning disability (or any other neurodivergence) - and someone in my comments said if you have two neurodivergence it's called thrice exceptional (*vomit emoji*).

This ranks intelligence and implies a higher IQ is better

This implies people with learning disabilities and other neurodivergence cannot/do not normally have high IQs (which is positioned as a negative) and only certain people are (quote unquote) "exceptional".