Blind people must save a lot on electricity.
What able bodied authors think I, an amputee and a wheelchair user, would want in a scifi setting:
Tech that can regenerate my old meat legs.
Robot legs that work just like meat legs and are functionally just meat legs but robot
Literally anything that would mean I don't have to use a wheelchair.
If I do need to use a wheelchair, make it fly or able to "walk me" upstairs
What I actually want:
Prosthetic covers that can change colour because I'm too indecisive to pick one colour/pattern for the next 5+ years.
A leg that I can turn off (seriously, my above knee prosthetic has no off switch... just... why?)
A leg that won't have to get refitted every time I gain or loose weight.
A wheelchair that I can teleport to me and legs I can teleport away when I'm too tierd to keep walking. And vice versa.
In that same vein, legs I can teleport on instead of having to fiddle around with the sockets for half an hour.
Prosthetic feet that don't require me to wear shoes. F*ck shoes.
Actually accessible architecture, which means when I do want to use my wheelchair, it's not an issue.
Prosthetic legs with dragon-claw feet instead of boring human feet or just digigrade prosthetics that are just as functional as normal human-shaped ones.
A manual wheelchair with the option to lift my seat up like those scissor-lift things so I'm not eye-level with everyone's butt on public transport/so I can reach the top shelf by myself.
A prosthetic foot that lights up when it hits the ground like those children's shoes.
This person said this to me over a random tag I left on a photo months ago and I don't know how to tell them I have a debilitating mental illness that makes me unable to leave my house
People love to talk about whether or not disabled people can work
but if you can work just fine and your disability is destroying your ability to have a life outside of work (because work takes all your energy and more)
Dead silence. Nobody cares.
everyone dunking on that automated fleshlight sex toy needs to remember that disabled people get horny too ok 💜
Housing is a privilege.
“Fewer than 5 percent of units have the features needed to accommodate a person with moderate mobility difficulties. The percentage of wheelchair-accessible units is even smaller; less than 1 percent of all units are equipped with features that would allow a wheelchair user to live independently.”
Marriage is a privilege.
“The [SSI] monthly maximum Federal amounts for 2023 are $914 for an eligible individual, $1,371 for an eligible individual with an eligible spouse.”
Minimum wage is a privilege.
“Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes employers, after receiving a certificate from the Wage and Hour Division, to pay special minimum wages — wages less than the Federal minimum wage — to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed.”
We still need to fight for accessibility and equity for all disabled people.
Despite the ADA, equity is still out of reach.
I hope this helps anyone who's trying to design their oc using a wheelchair, it's not a complete guide but I tried my best! deffo do more research if you're writing them as a character
You are not a creep if you find yourself sexy with your disability aids. full stop. If your partner is disabled, you are not fetishizing them if you find them sexy when they're in their wheelchair, or wearing their diaper, or have braces on, etc.
Disabled people are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to find them sexy. People with facial/limb differences and other physical differences are allowed to feel sexy and people are allowed to be attracted to them.
The problem comes from lack of consent and dehumanization. Expecting all disabled people to fit your sexual fantasy and sexualizing them openly without their consent (i.e. posting/reblogging normal pictures of a disabled person on your fetish blog or sexually harassing a disabled stranger) is fetishization and horrible. Asking us how we have sex or taking secret photos of us to jack off to later is creepy and crossing the boundry into dehumanizing fetishization. Seeing us and our sexuality as an oddity or a funny joke is not okay.
Reminder, sex toys were first and foremost created by and for disabled people. We have always been having sex and have always been seen as attractive by our admirers, without them fetishizing us. Having sex with a consenting disabled person isnt rape, and yes it is possible for us to eagerly consent! While some disabilities make it hard to consent, that isn't true for all of us.
We get horny, we have sex, we jack off, we wear sexy clothes and show off our bodies. We aren't freak shows for abled peoples amusement nor objects for fetishization. We aren't poor innocent virgins who don't know what sex is, we are a diverse and beautiful community all connected by our disabilities.
(post is edited for terminology, please rb this version instead)
every time anyone talks about liberation for the intellectually disabled in any real material way (i.e. creating plain-language educational resources accessible to adults reading on a first-grade level, detangling literacy from basic requirements to participate in society, destigmatizing inability to benefit from pedagogy, criticizing the construct of financial literacy as a necessary skill, etc etc etc), some chud comes along calling it "anti-intellectualism" and blabbing about how you're a morally inferior person if you only read middle-grade novels for fun, i'm so tired and we are never making it out
A friend of mine recently broke her foot.
She's a wonderful friend. A deeply kind and considerate person. One of the first things she did after getting out of the hospital was to apologize to me.
"I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
"Hun, you're the one with the broken foot. What are you talking about?"
"I had no idea it was so hard for you all the time... There are stairs everywhere... Even in places where there's supposed to be a lift. And often the lift doesn't work. And there's pavement where my crutches keep getting stuck.... I'm so tired because walking like this isn't the same but there are no benches where I can rest....
You tried to explain and I thought I understood.... But I really had no idea. And this is what it's like for you ALL THE TIME.... I'm so so so sorry"
God how I cried.
I'm working on my graduate thesis at Delta State University (fear the Fighting Okra!) and I'm looking adults with disabilities to take part in an online survey. The survey will probably take 15-20 minutes to complete and it's about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people. So if you're 18 or older and self-identify as disabled or partially-disabled, I would love to hear from you on the survey:
"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)
This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board. It will be live and accepting responses for the next 4-6 weeks depending on the number of responses received. But there's also something for you!
The survey itself is anonymous, though you can optionally enter a drawing for an Amazon gift card at the end of the survey. I can't buy a gift card for every response (as much as I would like to be able to do that) but I can give away a token of appreciation to a randomly selected portion of you. Email addresses are collected only for those who wish to participate in the raffle; any collected emails are deleted after each weekly drawing and only used to contact whoever won that week.
If you have any questions about the project, feel free to send me a message on tumblr!
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