People think disability is something you can “try harder” your way out of.

They think it’ll never happen to them, or if it does they will overcome.

They refuse to listen to disabled voices.

They refuse to help build better safety nets.

They refuse to care.

It’s a minority group you can join anytime

#disability #chronicillness #ableism

#MUTUALAID update - no donations yet

With 36 days to go, we can get Aurora back into assisted living with just $67/day from now thru Jan 16!!

0/2413

PayPal.me/melissarainbow
AuroraEloise on Venmo
$AuroraEloise on CashApp

#disabled #disability #disabilitymutualaid #disabilitycrowdfund #helpfolkslive2025 #helpfolkslive2026 #begpost #disabilityjustice #housing

#MUTUALAID - urgent housing need for blind wheelchair user

Aurora has been going thru a LOT and she didn't want to bother me to ask me to post here. She was kicked out of assisted living and needs $2,413 by Jan 16 to get safe housing again.

0/2413

PayPal.me/melissarainbow
AuroraEloise on Venmo
$AuroraEloise on CashApp

#disabled #disability #disabilitymutualaid #disabilitycrowdfund #helpfolkslive2025 #helpfolkslive2026 #begpost #disabilityjustice #housing

Good morning, all. How is everyone?

Well, I’m officially 34 today. I wound up crashing hard for most of the night, but the good news is that this morning I feel pretty good — aside from the usual arthritis pain in my feet and hands and not being able to find one of my slippers, so I’ve had to walk on the hard floor barefoot. Lol. I’ve looked everywhere, so I’ll probably have to ask my mom for help when she gets up.

I ordered both compression gloves and socks, but my socks won’t be here until December 6th, and my gloves won’t come in until the 12th.

#GoodMorning #Birthday #Turning34 #ChronicIllness #Arthritis #Disability #Blind #Accessibility #PainAwareness #CompressionGloves #CompressionSocks

Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities!

This year's #IDPwD theme is: "Fostering #disability #inclusive societies for advancing social progress"

What better way than ensuring everyone has access to, and awareness of #Accessibility of technology.

* #NVDA is FREE for anyone
* Right now, get 10% off certification to show your skills (& cheap training materials to get you to that point)

un.org/en/observances/day-of-p…

#DisabilityAwareness #Inclusion #IDPwD2025 #NVDA #Accessibility

Hey lovelies

We'd like to ask you all for your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas to help us resolve an ongoing issue.

The issue

At a high-level, we are a neurodivergent (AuDHD) spoonie with a mixture of health issues that are preventing us from being able to get or do a "typical" job and earn an income.

By "typical" job, we mean one where the company and role just aren't well-suited to many folks who are disabled (including being neurodivergent), have support needs, and/or have other health issues.

Most "typical" jobs broadly:

• Have fixed hours (start/finish times and total working hours required).
• Require a minimum fixed amount of time in a physical office.
• Require a lot of interaction with other people (including colleagues).

... and so on, so you can probably understand how difficult it is for us to find any suitable paid employment that we can do 😅

This is made harder by the fact that:

• We only know how to search for "typical" jobs.
• There is zero support within the UK for finding suitable employment outside of "typical" jobs.
• The welfare system within the UK is fundamentally (and intentionally) broken

The request

We have zero idea where to even start, so we are genuinely asking for your input and recommendations here.

We have decent reading comprehension, writing ability, and neurospicy pattern recognition, but we also have an inconsistent level of executive function and energy (physical and mental), so we can't do a job where we have to clock in and out at set times, even on a part-time basis.

Even whilst writing this post, we're already out of spoons and on to knives today, meaning that we're pushing through to ask for help.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, and we'll add additional details to the post based on any questions or thoughts from others 🥺🫶

Thank you in advance for your thoughts, as well as your empathy, understanding, and kindness

#AskFedi #GenuinelyAsking #GetFediHired #neurodivergent #neurospicy #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #spoonie #disability #disabled #LateStageCapitalismSucks

update: need met!!

No donations yet. A neighbor gave Aurora a few packets of oatmeal & a blanket. She needs $45 for the space heater, and a week's worth of food to tide her over until her SNAP refills.

Please give if you can!!

PayPal.me/melissarainbow
AuroraEloise on Venmo
$AuroraEloise on CashApp

#mutualaid
#MutualAidRequest
#helpfolkslive2025
#disabledmutualaid
#crowdfund
#disability
#disabled
#crowdfunding

It’s incredible how often sighted people offering completely unsolicited help lead me astray. Took my daughter to a ballet lesson this morning and looked up a coffee shop to wait for her in. I’m walking up the block where I know the shop is, and smell coffee, so I turn to see if I can find the door. Right then, a sighted person stops me asking if I need help. I say I’m looking for the coffee shop on this block, and he says I’m close, but a couple doors away. So I think maybe the smell isn’t coming directly from the door and he must see what I’m talking about, right? Right??? He knows better because he can see, of course. He takes me to the door he thinks is what I’m looking for, and we say goodbye. I go inside, and immediately smell food, not coffee, and hear way too much silverware clinking on plates for a coffee shop. A woman greets me, and I say “I’m looking for the coffee shop on this block. I’m not there, am I?” “No, this is a diner,” she says. So I go back outside, walk back to where I was before, smell the coffee again, and walk right through the shop’s door no problem.

What good are eyes if you don’t know how to use them? #Blind #Blindness #disability

More people have died in ICE custody in last 9 months than in the entire prior 4 years.

We hear of a few, but most barely make the news.

Cases like Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel.

He was in perfect health when ICE detained him.

He disappeared in June & by August was in a vegetative state.

ICE deported him anyways.

They literally put a man who was at death’s door on a plane to Costa Rica.

Doctors there found he had encephalopathy, rhabdomyolysis and the inability to eat on his own.

What happened to him in ICE custody to cause this?

He died a few weeks after deportation:

ICE enforcement may be a mass disabling event.

Disease is rampant in the camps.

Disabled people report having their medical needs ignored and their conditions drastically worsened.

The indiscriminate use of chemical weapons and violence causes harm.

Abolish ICE.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/n…

#disability #uspol #fascism #ice #abolishice #eugenics

Family speaks out after death of man deported by ICE in vegetative state

Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel’s family alleges negligence and inhumane treatment

^{Ramon Antonio Vargas (The Guardian)}

#Mastodon, yesterday there was an influx of support on #IndigenousPeoplesDay for #SabiLewSounds & family

That support abruptly stopped last night, as the day came to a close

Please don't reserve support of the needs & pleas of those who are #Indigenous to a single day

#Society is built upon their oppression & that of their ancestors

#Fascism continues to target them as dangers of #ICE & being predisposed to #Poverty & #Disability continues

#SettlerSaturday #HelpFolksLive2025

URGENT #MUTUALAID

No donations yet this week 💔 DV survivor & toddler in need of help with legal fees (due every 2 weeks), housing, & more—about to hit the SNAP cliff w the shutdown.

Goal is $6k by Nov 14 💕

0/6000

chuffed.org/project/replace-ou…
paypal.me/natoleander
venmo/cashapp natsmith89

#transmutualaid #lgbtq #genderfluid #queer #queermutualaid #disability #disabilitycrowdfund #disabledmutualaid #soloparent #snap #helpfolkslive2025 #help #begpost #transinneed #family #poverty

Mutual Aid: Help a DV Survivor Get Financially Stable

Leaving is hard—and it's dangerous.

^Chuffed

I forgot that I did eventually edit the first line of the book. It was originally, "I did not want to write this book."

Disabling Intelligences eBook is available now link.springer.com/book/10.1007…

Image text : I’ll be honest. When thinking about what books might live in me, this was never one of them. It was certainly not the book I thought I would write first. I never wanted to become known for artificial intelligence (AI) criticism at all. I want to sit in a lab and tinker with tech, building little gadgets that delight my disabled kin. I want to maintain surreptitious code bases of free little hacks that disrupt our perpetually inaccessible and downright-hostile world. I want to share disabled DIY specs through crumpled little zines posted in libraries and coffee houses. I want to run a free digital manufacturing center just for disabled people to come and build exactly what they want without a doctor, insurance company, or bank account telling them what body they’re allowed to have.
But in order to do that, I have to fight the inadequacies in technology policy and medical care. And in order to do that, I have to fight the AI industrial complex. Because underneath every insurance rejection is a predictive algorithm, behind every assistive technology is a data collection scheme, and now, behind every technology policy is an AI hype man.

#AI #AIhype #Disability #eugenics #metaeugenics

Remember that white house executive order against DEIA, “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility”?

They went out of their way to add the A for accessibility. So this is very sad but not surprising.

"Trump administration cuts funding to Oregon disability programs"

opb.org/article/2025/09/11/tru…

"Organizations across Oregon received notice from the U.S. Department of Education that they’d lose hundreds of thousands of dollars"

#Oregon #Disability #Accessibility #DisabilityJustice #Education

BudgetBraillerBlog: BudgetBraillerBlog Intro. “A manual brailler costs a little under $1,000 and electric braillers cost significantly more. Given that I was just at a 3D printing festival and you can build a 3D printer for under $200, I decided to try to design one.”

rbfirehose.com/2025/08/16/budg…

BudgetBraillerBlog: BudgetBraillerBlog Intro | ResearchBuzz: Firehose

^{ResearchBuzz (ResearchBuzz: Firehose)}

🇨🇦 Canadians prefer the disabled and poverty stricken pushed out of sight-- invisible

Punishing unhoused people for existing doesn’t make them go away

#Canpoli #Canada #Poverty #Housing #MentalHealth #Disability #invisible

policyalternatives.ca/news-res…

Encampment sweeps won’t solve Canada’s homeless crisis | CCPA

Devin’s headlamp cut through the darkness. At the base of the pine trees lining the narrow green strip beside Notre Dame East Boulevard, he was bent, writing on the white backside of a plastic sheet.

^{Changiz M. Varzi (CCPA)}

From the Disability Visibility Project:

"Immigrant Rights Are Disability Rights"

disabilityvisibilityproject.co…

"… a true commitment to justice for disabled people must recognize that many undocumented immigrants are themselves disabled and deserving of basic rights, not total erasure from the disability rights discourse."

#USPol #Disability #DisabilityRights #Ableism #Immigration #HumanRights

Immigrant Rights Are Disability Rights

 Immigrant Rights Are Disability Rights Joe Stramondo   In 2019, a White disability rights leader with a national reputation, Bruce Darling, had a spectacular fall from grace because of commen…

^{Disability Visibility Project}

We need urgent community action to stop this incredibly ableist plan from moving forward.

The DOE has ruled that new federal buildings don’t have to meet accessibility standards.

That will mean many disabled people won’t be able to work in or access these places.

They’re literally excluding us from as many facets of life as possible, because they have a eugenics plan.

Call, email, speak out!

Accessibility is not a “nice to have”. It’s a legal right. It’s necessary for our survival.

federalregister.gov/documents/…

#uspol #fascism #disability #chronicillness #ableism #accessibility #doe

Apparently the Department of Energy is trying to eliminate accessibility/nondiscrimination regulations. If you live in the U.S., please take a few minutes to comment on DOE-HQ-2025-0015 and DOE-HQ-2025-0024:
regulations.gov/document/DOE-H…
regulations.gov/document/DOE-H…

#Disability #Accessibility #A11y #DisabilityRights

When I had my hysterectomy, I was told recovery would be quick because I was young, fit & otherwise healthy.

They were wrong. The surgeon made an error and despite signs of post op bleeding, discharged me & went on vacation.

When I returned to the ER, I was ignored & gaslit

They told me it was “normal” to be in more pain 8 days after surgery than on day 1 (it’s not).

They said “what do you want us to do?”

They refused to run any tests beyond basic vitals, and scolded me for wasting their time

I knew something was wrong, but I was young and hadn’t yet learned how to advocate for myself.

The pain, swelling and bruising were getting worse with each passing day. I was dizzy, listless and had no appetite.

I slept ALL the time.

I was not getting better

I did what anyone would do, I went back to the ER. Surely this time they would take me seriously?

They didn’t. They made no attempt to hide their frustration that I had returned”. They made misogynistic comments about how “sensitive” I was & that being in pain was normal

I went home feeling completely dejected and disrespected, but also starting to gaslight myself.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad. Maybe this was normal pain. Maybe I did need to suck it up.

I tried to force myself to eat and go for light walks. I tried to play through the pain.

I was vomiting everything up and frequently collapsing from fatigue.

I could not suck this up.

My boyfriend had to carry me into the ER for a third attempt to get help

They did the exact same thing. Asked what we expected them to do. Told us the pain was normal. Refused to call a consult or run tests.

Thankfully my boyfriend believed me over them. He was certain if I went home, I wouldn’t make it through the night

He refused to let them discharge me. He told them, loudly and sternly, that he was not taking me home to die. That they needed to do their jobs.

They threatened to call security but he did not back down.

Thankfully a doctor overheard him and decided to look in and see if he could calm the situation.

When he saw me, half unconscious and white as a ghost, he immediately ordered tests. He told the triage staff not to call security and to take me into a private room

It turns out my boyfriend was right. Had I gone home that night, I wouldn’t have made it to morning.

I had a massive internal bleed and a giant infected abscess which had been growing since the surgeon sent me home.

I was rushed to another hospital for emergency surgery and given 50/50 odds of survival. I spent over a month in the hospital, developed a second hospital acquired infection, and needed 11 months to fully recover.

I survived due to luck & privilege. Had my boyfriend not believed me, I wouldn’t be here. Had he not been a white man? He likely would have been removed & I would have died

This is medical misogyny. They didn’t listen because I was a woman. They thought I was being dramatic

I tell this story because of what happened to Adriana Smith. A young black woman in Georgia who tried to get medical care for severe headaches, and was dismissed and gaslit instead.

She suffered brain death at home because no one believed her. Because of misogynoir.

To make matters worse, she’s been turned into a medical experiment because she was nine weeks pregnant and living in a state with an abortion ban. She’s on organ & tissue support being treated as a human incubator.

No care when alive & forced “care” when dead

Misogyny in medicine kills. It maims. It disables and traumatizes.

Women are frequently treated as hysterical and not given the medical care they require.

We often need a man to accompany us just to be taken seriously.

It’s not right and it needs to change

I will forever deal with medical PTSD because of what I went through, but at least I survived.

Adriana wasn’t so lucky, and no one’s survival should ever be based on luck, privilege or their ability to find a man to speak for them

I survived due to luck and privilege, Adriana didn’t.

What’s worse, due to abortion bans and dangerous forced birth policies, her body is kept alive on organ and tissue support without her family’s consent.

We must do better:

disabledginger.com/p/adriana-s…

#misogyny #misogynoir #ableism #patriarchy #abortion #mybodymychoice #disability #ableism #uspol

Adriana Smith, Misogyny and the Cruelty of Forced Birth

Adriana Smith couldn't access competent medical care when she needed it, and it killed her. Now the hospital is forcing 'care' on her by keeping her alive as an incubator due to Georgia's abortion ban

^{Broadwaybabyto (The Disabled Ginger)}

Also totally forgot to talk about this yesterday.
As a part of global accessibility awareness day, we put out a new update for the Be My Eyes app for Windows that is completely rebuild from the ground up. Along with giving us a better base to build amazing new features for desktop in the near future, this new app also fixes a lot of the accessibility issues that people have reported over the last 1.5 or so years.
In addition Chat History is now also available on Desktop, so you can start a conversation from mobile and continue it on desktop (and vice versa).

#a11y #bemyeyes #gaad #globalaccessibilityawarenessday
#blind #bme #tech
#disability #assistivetech

Be My Eyes and Innosearch Join Forces to Bring Seamless, AI-Powered eCommerce to Blind and Low Vision Users

‍Be My Eyes announced today – on Global Accessibility Awareness Day – a strategic alliance with Innosearch.ai, an AI-powered eCommerce portal. The alliance will provide super-accessible online shopping to the users of the Be My Eyes app,, without the clutter and noise present of many other websites.

Be My Eyes users will benefit from an exclusive 2% cashback credit into their Innosearch account for use against future purchases made through the Be My Eyes app. The service is currently available in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia, with more regions to follow.

The alliance represents a significant step and new direction for Be My Eyes, as it lays the foundations of the Be My Eyes app and the underlying technology platform becoming the de-facto access-tech of choice for people who are blind or have low vision, wherever they are – at home, at work or at play.

bemyeyes.com/news/be-my-eyes-t…
#globalaccessibilityawearnessday
#gaad #a11y #bemyeyes #innosearchai #innosearch #blind #shopping #disability #assistivetech

Be My Eyes to Provide In-App Accessible Shopping for Blind and Low Vision Users with InnoSearch AI - Be My Eyes

Be My Eyes and Innosearch Team Up to Bring Seamless, AI-Powered eCommerce to Blind and Low Vision Users

^{andyb (Be My Eyes)}

Neither Simple, nor Intelligent parking system for disabled drivers.

So, you park, get into your wheelchair, wheel yourself 100m to the building where the scanner is (inside the Medical Centre), scan your badge, wheel yourself 100m back to the car, return the badge, wheel yourself 100m back to the Medical Centre for your appointment.

Could it be ANY more disabled unfriendly?
#stupidity #disability #DisabilityInclusion #medical #commonsense

Yesterday at the #PlayStation concert, a young, blind man sat next to me.

We got talking and it turns out he is an accessibility consultant for companies, including video game developers and has worked with Sony on God of War and other products!

He goes by his handle: Sightless Kombat.

He is entirely #blind from birth, but loves video games so is passionate about accessibility in the sector.

I told him to come join Mastodon as I think it’s the friendliest social network for visual impairments, he said he was thinking of joining but wasn’t sure which instance was good. I’m not sure if there is one that’s dedicated to visual impairment? I just told him to join mstdn.games 😅

Anyway, here’s his YouTube & Twitch channels, and website if you’re interested in seeing what he has to offer. The dude has platinumed God of War Ragnarok on its hardest difficulty, what a legend!

YouTube: youtube.com/@sightlesskombat?s…

Twitch: twitch.tv/sightlesskombat

Website: sightlesskombat.com/

#disability #disabled #Accessibility

SightlessKombat - Twitch

I'm an award-winning, multi-credited accessibility consultant and gamer without sight from the UK. If you ever thought "how can someone with no sight play a videogame?", you've come to the right place for answers! Relax, say hi and see just how I enj…

^Twitch

⚠️ URGENT! please help a #disabled, #queer woman cover groceries, her electric bill, & a bank overdraft. the government refused to pay her usual disability benefits because of her outstanding debts. only $125 CAD now needed!

paypal.com/paypalme/ourinsatia…

@mutualaid

#disability #mutualAid #MutualAidRequest #BlackMutualAid #DisabilityCrowdfund #actuallyAutistic #neuroDivergent #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #poverty #DisabilityMutualAid #HelpRequest #HelpFolksLive2025 #canada #queerMutualAid #queerCrowdfund

Zaplaťte uživateli Tasia Smallwood pomocí služby PayPal.Me

Přejděte na adresu paypal.me/ourinsatiabesouls a zadejte částku. Protože jde o PayPal, je to jednoduché a bezpečné. Nemáte účet PayPal? Nevadí.

^PayPal.Me

When I started The Disabled Ginger I sent it to my friends and family … as most of us do.

I was proud that I was finally standing up for disability rights. That I was taking my pain and putting it on the page in an effort to help others. That I had found something that lit a spark inside me.

Unfortunately, many of my friends didn’t feel the same way.

My disabilities are invisible, and I had become very good at hiding them. Apparently that’s what people expected of me, as they didn’t like this “new” version of Kelly.

Almost none of my friends subscribed. What’s worse, many stopped talking to me. Or would only reply in brief texts.

It’s almost been a year since I launched, and my circle is noticeably smaller. Many people I thought I was close with haven’t reached out for nearly 6 months.

When you find your purpose and your passion, it’s an incredible feeling. Hopefully people support you.

Not everyone will. And that’s ok.

It’s painful seeing so many relationships fade away. It hurts knowing they don’t see the value in me now that I’m “officially” disabled.

As painful as it is, it’s also a perfect example of why I became an advocate. Ableism is a huge problem. Being disabled can be incredibly lonely. I wanted to give a voice to those who haven’t yet found theirs.

In the process I’ve met incredible people from all over the world who inspire me to keep going. Who give me a reason to write every day. Who remind me of the compassion, love and goodness that’s still out there.

Thank you to each and every one of you. I couldn’t do this alone.

My latest looks at the reasons we hide, and what would happen if we all decided to stop hiding and show the world the realities of chronic illness:

disabledginger.com/p/why-are-c…

#chronicillness #longcovid #mecfs #ableism #disability #disabilityrights #eugenics

Why Are Chronically Ill People Forced to Hide Their Pain?

And what would happen if we stopped hiding and showed the world the depths of our suffering?

^{Broadwaybabyto (The Disabled Ginger)}

Can we get one more push on this? I need 160 dollars more for clinic and meds, tomorrow (Monday). EMERGENCY.

paypal.me/ramavabray

patreon.com/squirrellilly

#MutualAidRequest #MutualAid #Disabled #TransCrowdfund #disability #DisabilityMutualAid #DisabilityCrowdfund #IndigenousMutualAid #ChronicIllness #HelpFolksLive2025 #lgbt #crowdfund #intersex #gameDev #crowdfund #ChronicIllness #Fundraiser

@mutualaid

Zaplaťte uživateli Jason Burgess pomocí služby PayPal.Me

Přejděte na adresu paypal.me/ramavabray a zadejte částku. Protože jde o PayPal, je to jednoduché a bezpečné. Nemáte účet PayPal? Nevadí.

^PayPal.Me

140/300

We have only one day to get the rest of this money together. The clinic is ~$200 and meds are ~100.

Please help.

paypal.me/ramavabray

patreon.com/squirrellilly

@mutualaid #MutualAidRequest #MutualAid #Disabled #TransCrowdfund #disability #DisabilityMutualAid #DisabilityCrowdfund #IndigenousMutualAid #ChronicIllness #HelpFolksLive2025 #lgbt #crowdfund #intersex #gameDev #crowdfund #ChronicIllness #Fundraiser

🆕 article by @tink

Understanding the European Accessibility Act (EAA)

#a11y #EU #disability #law

tetralogical.com/blog/2025/03/…

Understanding the European Accessibility Act (EAA) - TetraLogical

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires that products and services made available to citizens of the European Union (EU) are accessible.

^TetraLogical

That's the dadgum truth, right there.

#disabled #disability #disabilityawareness #spoonie #accessibility #mentalhealth

Since this got so much attention, I'd like to use this moment of sunshine to invite you all to read with us next week:

inkican.com/gsbcw