Do Not Support The "NEXT For Autism" Fundraiser On April 30th

Able bodied parents I'm begging you to teach your kids about disabled people. Not just because they could become disabled themselves one day but also because even if they don't, they have a very real chance of being rude to us if you don't teach them.

Yes, kids just say shit. They have no filter. That doesn't make it any less humiliating when your child sits near me on the bus and incessantly grills me on why I have a stick when I'm not old. Or laughs at us for things our disability causes. It doesn't take away the hurt when they bully a disabled classmate. For a large part these things could be avoided if you just taught your kids to respect us. It's really not that hard.

As an autistic person I do not identify with the “autism creature” meme. I am an autism monstrosity, I am an autism beast, I am even an autism horror.

“No Offense, But If You’re Blind How do You Read, Type, Write, or Do Anything Online?” A Resource Post For Your Everyday Ableism

This is a question blind people get almost every time they go online, use phones, write, etc. Sometimes the questions are genuine and gently curious. More often than not they hold assumptions meant to mock, to silence, or even to justify harassment. Often, this is a way to accuse blind people of faking.

While there are bigger issues within the system, this kind of ableism perpetuated by individuals can be harmful and often makes the bigger issues worse or renders them invisible to the general public. For example, assumptions like the ones hidden in the question in the title are what keep blind people from employment. This kind of ableism can be used to justify physical violence.

While we may feel like we can’t fix systemic issues, the best things the average person can do is educate ourselves and change our behavior. This is true for ableism. If you ask the questions I list above, you are dealing with ableism.

Yes, even if that is not your intent.

Why Are These Questions So Bad?

To read more about how ableism harms blind people, check out this post about myths.

If You Really Want to Know How Blind People Do Things

Here is this post where I answer your common questions.

Here is a post about making content accessible for blind people. You will find information there about how blind people use online, print, Braille, and audio content. Link here.

Here is a post about how people write in Braille.

If You Want to Know And Don’t Have Time to Read Long Posts

You are online now. You should have access to a search engine. Put in some work. You can also search on YouTube if you like videos or audio.

If It Was Just a Joke

I have a post for that as well.

If You Are Wondering Who You Can Ask, When, and How to Ask in a Way That Isn’t Ableist

First, do your own research. This will remove the assumptions from most questions you have. People are also more willing to answer questions they have not heard millions of times. Also, examine your reasons for asking. Do you want to know because you don’t want to look it up yourself or are you looking for ways you might best help your student or a co-worker?

Second, accept no as an answer. Note that some people are perfectly fine answering questions in person, but some are not. Also, online questions can get overwhelming and frustrating, mostly because people are able to research before asking and choose not to.

Most people are happy to answer questions from children.

Third, consider going to people open to doing the work. Pay them if possible. That includes people writing books, consulting, doing presentations, or even blogs like mine that are specifically dedicated to answering questions. The difference is that we are prepared to do this and can do so when we choose. You aren’t stopping us when we’re in the check-out line or on a date. At least I hope not.

Fourth, listen to what that person says.

If You Want to Support Blind People

If you engaged in this before, change your behavior. Inform your friends and family. Support blind people. You can do so financially by donating a nonprofit helping blind people such as the ones listed on my blog. You can also buy things from this list of businesses.

people be like "oh so killing disabled people because there should be less disabled people in the world is EUGENICS now? smh what has the world come to"

Everything coming out about Dream right now and the people defending it simply because “he’s autistic uwu” just reaffirms to me something that I’ve known since childhood— autistic men will always be coddled while autistic women are belittled.

It’s not only infantilizing to people with autism, but offensive. Being neurodivergent is never an excuse for having a fundamentally insane predisposition and worldview, and exploiting and hurting other people. I can’t believe I have to say this!

So, I have a morbid curiosity issue but also OCD and anxiety, so sometimes, when I fall down a rabbit hole of something just a bit too creepy (especially when it comes with creepy pictures, like this schoolboy9 thing,) I find myself irrationally afraid of stupid things. Like twenty-ish minutes ago, I was afraid of seeing that schoolboy9 guy in my closet if I got up to go to the bathroom. I knew it was irrational, but I was too scared of that to get up. So here's a solution that worked for me;

Reaction content for kids under twelve.

Seriously. Azzyland, Kyutie, and Reaction Time, Azzyland and Reaction time slightly more but Kyutie does have some more adult-geared content if you'd prefer that. I just watch a couple videos and boom, I'm feeling better and I can get up and do what I need to do. I recommend it.

(Also, those merging games! I know there's a trick with Tetris, where if you see something scary you can play Tetris for a while and it helps you forget whatever than thing was, but I've never been good at Tetris. But merge gemstones games, like Candy Crush or, my favourite, Enchanted Kingdom; Eliza's Adventure, those help me take my mind off of whatever I saw. Plus they're easier.)

AuDHD means that someone has both ADHD and autism

pixie have question, for whoever know this word .. what is "audhd " ?

years later House is still as relevant as he ever was

Writing A Blind/Visually Impaired Character: Canes, Guide Dogs, O&M

Wow, back in June I decided to take a few months break from blogging to recharge and focus on my mental health. About a month ago I began writing this specific post, slowly and in stages because of how demanding, detailed, and long it is.

I’m not sure when I planned to come back. I have about 200 posts with tags and image description in my drafts folder, waiting to be queued, but I wanted to finish this guide before I fully came back.

Come back with a bang, right?

But this blog, and specifically, my Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character  guide, has gotten so much traffic and support that I felt incredibly motivated to come back now.

So I finished the guide, and now here it is. It’s been a year+ in the making. Since the very beginning of this writing advice series about writing blind characters, I’ve promised to write a guide specifically about canes, guide dogs, O&M, and other accessibility measures the blind community relies on. 

In fact, if you look at my master post for this guide (now pinned at the first post on my blog) you’ll find that it was reserved as Part Four, even as other guides and additions were added over the last year.

In this post I’ll be explaining 

What Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is

How one learns O&M

About canes, from different types of canes and their parts, as well as how to use a cane. 

I will be explaining the sensory experiences of using a cane and how to describe it in narrative. 

I will include small mannerisms long-time cane uses might develop. 

At the very end will be a section on guide dogs, but this will be limited to research because I have no personal experience with guide dogs, being a cane user.

Disclaimer: I am an actual visually impaired person who has been using a cane for nearly three years and has been experiencing vision loss symptoms for a few years longer than that. This guide is based on both my experiences and my research. My experiences are not universal however because every blind person has a unique experience with their blindness

Keep reading

imagine if disabled people could scroll through our own goddamn tags without being bombarded with OCs and medfet. imagine.