The Fact That John Oliver Is Anti-autism And Pro-"cure" Is Really Disappointing.

btw if you wanna see a blind character, the chief engineer on Star Trek: The Next Generation is blind. He has a thing across his eyes that helps him see

I have no idea if this is eugenics-supporting anon so I'll assume you aren't.

Yes, Geordi! Gods, I loved him growing up. He was such great representation, especially for the ti.e period.

i just wanna say, as a feeding tube haver, that it's so much more possible to get used to invasive medical devices than you might fear.

i grew up horrified by even being reminded organs exist. i was just so severely grossed out by human anatomy. i got a lot better about it through years of chronic illness, since you just have to get used to it. but that's the baseline i started from originally, in case you are also squeamish and wonder if it's possible for that to change.

so when i needed a feeding tube, i was pretty distressed by the idea. having a tube sticking through a new hole in my abdomen was a seriously horrifying concept, and i couldn't imagine coping with having a stoma (the hole) and caring for it etc. i did it because i needed it to survive but thought i might never get used to it.

and yeah, it freaked me out at first. but eventually i did just get used to it. it just feels normal now. i even feel affection towards it, because it is keeping me alive.

i feel like people should know there are differences between a kleptomaniac and a "mwehehehe I'm stealing because I'm evil and i like money >:)" character

Saying this as someone that absolutely loves silly cartoon thieves and goons, kleptomania is a compulsive disorder it's not the same thing as stealing for the need of money or becuz you're evil and fucked up

So stop calling thief characters kleptomaniacs, it's pretty frickin harmful for people that actually suffer that disorder :/

Not saying you cannot make a thief character a kleptomaniac,,but you need to know at least what the disorder is like and have some respect

So yeah, the raccoon brothers from happy tree friends are not kleptomaniacs even though so many people said that, they steal because they're evil and greedy, and if it's canon then it's a really bad stereotype or representation (flippy also is a really bad representation of a person with ptsd)

I feel like people forget that pediatric illnesses generally last into adulthood like…childhood cancer survivors often have medical complications for the rest of their (adult) lives. My juvenile arthritis will be around when I’m 75. Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, congenital heart defects - all of these things, when acquired in childhood, have lifelong complications. Childhood diseases aren’t just cute, happy kids smiling from hospital beds. Theyre pain and suffering and learning to live differently forever.

People always think that if a disabled person says they can't do something it's because they haven't tried, when in reality most of us say it because we HAVE tried and failed enough times to know for sure

Don't tell me you're tired too!

I have ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. People seem to think that it's just that I'm a bit tired and i often get comments like "I'm tired too" or "i think I've got a bit of that".

I am NOT "just tired"

Most people fail to understand the differences between fatigue, chronic fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME), so I'll explain:

Fatigue is extreme tiredness caused by mental or physical exertion or illness.

Chronic fatigue is extreme fatigue that doesn't go away with rest and last for a long period of time usually due to a chronic illness. While not an illness in itself it is a symptom of many chronic illnesses.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) is a chronic multisystemic neroimmune disease (meaning it affects a lot of stuff and lasts a long time). While chronic fatigue is the most well known symptom it is not the only one. ME/CFS can cause a wide variety of problems including but not limited to, sleeping issues, cognitive functions, muscle and joint pains, headaches and migraines, soar throat and glands, flu-like symptoms, dizziness and feeling sick, breathlessness, hypersensitivity and heart issues such as palpitations. ME/CFS can last anything between months, years, decades or even life. No matter how much you rest it doesn't go away. There is no cure and no effective treatment. It is NOT just tiredness!

I AM NOT JUST TIRED!

I have soul crushing chronic fatigue that you probably can't even imagine and it plagues every moment of my existence. I am in constant pain. My clothes hurt my skin, the light hurts to look at, the sounds make my migraines worse. It hurts to move, if i so much as breathe it feels like I'm being stabbed a thousand times. My brain no longer works correctly, i have brain fog all the time. I can't sleep no matter how badly i need it and when i do it's filled with nightmares and i wake up at 3 in the morning crying from the pain. Even if i had the best sleep of all time i would still wake up the same, more sick than i previously thought possible.

So I'll say it again,

I AM NOT JUST TIRED!

a way you can help some i/dd and cognitively disabled people is by clarifying what kind of response you want if you're not open to any kind of response

like, specifying that you want comfort or advice or solidarity or some other kind of acknowledgement, or if you want just an emoji or to change the subject, or if you want to close the conversation, like

just fucking communicate. give us feedback. tell us what you want

if you need clarification ask for it. if you need us to rephrase ask for it

we're communicating or verbalizing the only way we know how. and if you're not like this you can't even begin to scrape the fucking surface of understanding how hard it is

give me a show with disabled queer representation. and I don't just mean amputee that is not affected at all by their amputation because "we're all basically the same- woo friends!". I don't just mean non descript wheelchair user that uses a hospital wheelchair. give me young queers using canes and rollators and white canes and powerchairs. and give them bright hair and make them neurodivergent and have struggles in life relating to them not fitting in with a lot of abled queer representations and "disabled friendly" pride events that aren't disabled friendly. make them black, make the Asian, make them fat, make them interesting. make them angry, make them punk, make them pastel, make them have interest and passions, have them protest, show them taking breaks and having to take care of themselves. please.

people acting like accessibility tools are an inconvenience to them and would rather they not exist are annoying little shits. no, the captions aren’t ruining the movie. no, that ramp isn’t making your life harder because you have to go to the side entrance. abled people are so entitled to think that other peoples accessibility is a nuisance, especially considering disabled people rarely get the same kind of access abled people get automatically. equity is not oppression of the privileged

Being disabled has made me notice all of the ways the world is failing in accessibility. I’m fortunate that I can now open doors with my arms/hands, but do you know how many times I look around and there is no wheelchair access button on public doorways? Or how many times the button is broken? Or how there is no place to sit in a store, or the chairs were recently removed when I planned on using them to rest? Not to mention the uneven sidewalks, or aisles that are too narrow, or whatever else? People really do forget disabled people exist.