This Is A Fascinating Article About How The Medici, Who Had A Hereditary Mobility Condition, Adapted

Cripplepunk, madpunk, and neuropunk aren't just "I'm disabled and also left-leaning". It's a specific realm of activism rooted in dismantling the systems that put disabled, mad, sick, etc folks at a disadvantage in society. This mean not only being against the very systems that harm us but also understanding their colonial origins and continued racist legacies. (Anti-ableism, anti-sanism, anti-psych, etc). This means not only just identifying and finding pride in your disability but also building and constantly evolving your understanding of disability and diversity and learning how you can change your worldview to accurately highlight the struggles of disabled people. (EVEN if it sometimes means you will be uncomfortable or unsure of unlearning some kinds of hate.)

Disability History Crash Course

Throughout history, disabilities has been viewed in many different ways, from curses and bad luck, to simply unfortunate differences some are born with.  In some ancient civilizations, disabled individuals were often marginalized or viewed through religious/superstitious lenses.  In ancient Greece and Rome, individuals with physical or mental disabilities were abandoned or ostracized from civilization. 

 In Europe during the Middle Ages, disabilities were often linked to sin, religious disfavor, or divine punishment, which lead to social exile.  Often, if the disabled individuals received care, it was from family members or religious institutions.  As the age of Enlightenment came to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries, society began to shift towards medicalization, which changed the view of disability from punishment, to a natural defect, to be diagnosed and treated. 

The 19th and 20th century brought about the rise of sanatoriums, asylums, and institutions designed as a way to 'treat' people with disabilities.  This new approach of 'treatment' was, in reality, a way to hide disabled people from the public, and often lead to isolation and severe medical mistreatment of the patients.  This, along with the creation of Eugenics movements, lead to many harmful stigmas surrounding disability.

As disability rights movements gained momentum in the mid-20th century, different bills and acts were passed in order to protect disabled people.  Some  landmark events were the Independent Living Movement and the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990).  As the U.S. shifted away from seclusion and towards inclusion, equality, and accessibility, many of the stigmas surrounding disability began to easy, and people began to see disability as not just a medical issue, but as a social and political issue.

I fucking hate that the general response to RFK Jr's eugenist take on autistic people is "autistic people do pay taxes, autistic people do work, autistic people do date!"

Some autistic people don't and that shouldn't make them less worthy of life. Some autistic people do need constant help and support and that shouldn't make them less worthy of life.

Once again we're falling in the right wing trap of :

They make a hateful, fascist statement

Instead of focusing on the fact that it is hateful and fascist we try to show them that they are factually wrong

We throw our own allies and the most vulnerable of us under the bus in the process

We legitimise an only slightly less hateful, fascist view as we go

They have completed their goal of making us accept the still hateful, fascist second version, hurrah. What a victory.

Right now what we're getting to with that is that autistic people who can work and pay taxes are okay, and the others aren't. Fuck this shit.

Same thing happens with the people who are being deported ("they have a visa!", "they didn't even have a criminal record!" -> even if they didn't have a visa, even if they did have a criminal record, deporting them and detaining them in what's essentially a concentration camp wouldn't be okay, you absolute tools of fascism.)

A real, unbutchered pain scale.

Based on this, my base level of pain is a 7. Sounds pretty accurate

Reshaping Reality

A History Lesson: Disabled Activists and our Right to Exist in Public

For a History Lesson and reminder of the role Disabled people have played in activism, I singled out a few instances, but there’s hundreds o

"For a History Lesson and reminder of the role Disabled people have played in activism, I singled out a few instances, but there’s hundreds of thousands throughout America’s history. Many of the privileges and rights people have had are due partly to the fight of our disabled ancestors."

My article details the oppression we've faced for centuries (how it impacts disabled folks of different races, genders, orientations, citizenship status), it talks about the strikes organized by the Disabled Miners and Widows in conjunction with other union groups (and the solidarity this created across union lines). I also talk about the origin of the concept of Accessibility.

As a reminder, Disability is the one marginalized group you can join at any time. Everyone can become disabled, and that is not something to fear -- society taught us to fear it, but I am here to remind you that disabled people are worthy of care, dignity, and respect. We matter and fighting with us will help save all of us including non-disabled people as what impacts us will impact you.

I'd recommend reading it all! I pull out this one example since we're having to defend Section 504 yet again. These tactics used for Section 504 was also used to push for the ADA. I believe it is time for solidarity and more sit-ins/occupations of federal offices:

SECTION 504 Sit-ins

In 1972, Congress drafted the Rehabilitation Act, which was driven largely by the needs of Vietnam veterans. However, this act drew the gaze of the civil rights activists largely due to Section 504.

In Section 504, it stated that people with disabilities should not be “be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

The bill was first vetoed by Nixon in 1972, however, activists across the country from various disability advocacy groups and many student groups testified before state legislatures and Congress to push for the elimination of architectural, educational, bureaucratic, and other barriers. They argued heavily for elimination of these barriers and for the ability to be considered for jobs.

Despite Nixon vetoing the Rehab Act a second time, it passed in September 1973. Its section 504 gave disabled people legal and cultural frameworks to gain access to the parts of society they’d been denied prior.

However, these laws were not enforced. Through the lawsuit Cherry v. Matthews, activists pushed for enforcement regulations, and in July 1976 a federal judge ordered the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) to develop regulations.

With the continued federal failure to enforce Section 504, Disability activists staged demonstrations in Washington D.C. and in each of the ten HEW offices across the country. This sit in lasted twenty-five days. Judy Heumann helped lead one of the largest sit-ins of federal offices.

“Oh deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome today,” protesters sang at the sit-ins.

These protests gathered allies from local and national labor unions who joined protestors and wrote statements of support.

When phone lines were cut, the Butterfly Brigade, who were a group of gay men who patrolled streets to stop antigay violence, smuggled in walkie talkies.

The Black Panthers provided one hot meal a day, and Chicano activists brought food regularly.

Chuck Jackson, who was part of the Black Panthers, joined the protest by provided attendant-care services for Disabled Black Panthers in the sit-ins and other protest members.

Increasing media attention brought the focus of the nation. Images and video of disabled people crawling up the steps to reach the sit-in were heavily publicized.

Four weeks into the occupation, HEW secretary Joseph Califano signed the enforcement regulations, thus ensuring all programs receiving federal funding could not discrimination based on disability.

READ THE FULL POST HERE.

Disability Timeline

A non-comprehensive list of important events about the Disability Rights Movement from 1800-1990

1815-1817 - Formal Deaf Education Begins in the U.S

1829 - Louis Braille Invents the Raise Point Alphabet

1907 - Eugenic Sterilization Law for People with Disabilities is Enacted

1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Person with a Disability, Elected President

1934-1940 - National Federation of the Blind Founded

1935 - Social Security Act Signed into Law

1939 - Nazi Program Kills Thousands of People with Disabilities

1946 - National Mental Health Foundation Founded

1947 - Paralyzed Veterans of America organization founded

1954 - Brown v Board of Education

1963 - Community Mental Health Act signed into Law

1965 - Medicaid Assistance for People with Disabilities and those with Low-Income

1968 - The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968

1973 - Disabled in Action, PA founded

1974 - Last of "Ugly Laws" Repealed

1975 - The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act Enacted

1975 - United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons

1978 - National Council on Disability Established

1982 - United Nations Encourages Global Equality and Participation for the Disabled

1990 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law.

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.

I've been disabled for almost 29 years. Here's what I've learned.

Tablets sink and capsules float. Separate out your tablets and capsules when you go to take them. Tip your head down when taking capsules and up when taking tablets. Liquigels don't matter, they kinda stay in the middle of whatever liquid is in your mouth.

If your pill tastes bad, coat it with a bit of butter or margarine. I learned this from my mom, who learned it from a pharmacist.

Being in pain every day isn't normal. Average people experience pain during exceptional moments, like when they stub their toe or jam their finger in a door, not when they sit cross-legged.

Make a medical binder. Make multiple medical binders. I have a small one that comes with me to appointments and two big ones that stay at home, one with old stuff and one with more recent stuff.

Find your icons. Some of mine include Daya Betty (drag queen with diabetes), Stef Sanjati (influencer with Waardenburg syndrome and ADHD), and Hank Green (guy with ulcerative colitis who... does a bunch of stuff). They don't have to be disabled in the same way as you. They don't even have to be real people. Put their pictures up somewhere if you want; I've been meaning to decorate my medical binders with pictures of my icons.

Take a bin, box, bag, basket, whatever and fill it with items to cope with. This can be stuff for mentally coping like colouring books or play clay or stuff for physically coping like pain medicine or physio tape.

Decorate your shit! My cane for at home has a plushie backpack clip hanging from the end of the handle and my cane for going places is covered in stickers. All of my medical binders have fun scrapbooking paper on the outside. Sometimes, I put stickers and washi tape on my inhalers and pill bottles. I used my Cricut to decorate my coping bin with quotes from my icons, like "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se" and "I need you to be angrier with that bell".

If a flare-up is making you unable to eat or keep food down, consider going to the ER. A pharmacist once told me that since my eye flares can make me so nauseous that I cannot eat, then I need to go to the hospital when that happens.

Cola works wonders for nausea. I have mini cans of Diet Pepsi in my coping bin.

Shortbread is one of the only things I can eat when nauseous. Giant Tiger sells individually-wrapped servings of shortbread around Christmas or the British import store sells them year-round. I also keep these in my coping bin.

Unless it violates a pain contract or something, don't be afraid to go behind your doctor's back to get something they are refusing you. I got my cardiologist referral by getting in with a different NP at my primary care clinic than who I usually saw. I switched from Seroquel to Abilify by visiting a walk-in.

If you have a condition affecting your abdomen in some way (GI issues, reproductive problems, y'know) then invest in track pants that are too big. I bought some for my laparoscopy over a year ago and they've been handy for pelvic pain days, too. I've also heard loose pants are good for after colonoscopies.

Do whatever works, even if it's weird. I've sat on the floor of the Eaton Centre to take my pills. I've shoved heating pads down my front waistband to reach my uterus.

High-top Converse are good for weak ankles. I almost exclusively wear them.

You can reuse your pill bottles for stuff. I use my jumbo ones to store makeup sponges and my long skinny ones to hold a travel-size amount of Q-Tips.

Just because your diagnostics come back with nothing, it doesn't mean nothing is wrong. Maybe you were checking the wrong thing, or the diagnostic tool wasn't sensitive enough. I have bradycardia episodes even though multiple cardiac tests caught nothing. I probably have endometriosis even though my gynecologist didn't see anything.

You can bring your comfort item to appointments, and it's generally a green flag when someone talks to you about it. I brought a Squishmallow turkey (named Ulana) to my laparoscopy and they had her wearing my mask when I woke up. I brought a Build-A-Bear cat (named Blinx) to another procedure and a nurse told me that everyone in the hall on the way to the procedure room saw him and were talking about how cute he was. Both of those ended up being positive experiences and every person who talked to me about my plushies was nice to me. If you don't feel comfortable having it visible to your provider during the appointment, you can hide it in your bag and just know it's there, or if you're in a video appointment, you can hold it below frame in your lap.

Get a small bucket, fill it with stuff, and stick it in your bed (if you have room for it). I filled a bucket with Ensure, juice boxes, oatmeal bars, lotion, my rescue inhaler, etc. in October 2023 in anticipation of my laparoscopy and I still have it in my bed as of January 2025.

If your disability impacts your impulse control (e.g. ADHD, bipolar disorder), you should consider setting limits around your spending -- no more than X dollars at a time, nothing online unless it's absolutely necessary, and so on. Or, run these purchases by someone you trust before committing to them; I use my BFF groupchat to help talk sense into myself when I buy stuff.

Feel free to add on what you've learned about disability!

Disability and Theory

"Disabilities have been perceived differently throughout history, through a variety of different theoretical lenses. There are two main models that attempt to explain disability in our society: the medical model and the social model. The medical model serves as a theoretical framework that considers disability as an undesirable medical condition that requires specialized treatment. Those who ascribe to the medical model tend to focus on finding the root causes of disabilities, as well as any cures—such as assistive technology. The social model centers disability as a societally-created limitation on individuals who do not have the same ability as the majority of the population." (Wikipedia, 14th Apr. 2025)