Some of our favorite things to do as kids, even as adults is to visit our local water park and stop at all the riots. Unfortunately, no water park has been built for those with any sort of disability. But a new water park, the first of its kind, opened up called Morgan’s Inspiration Island in San Antonio catered for people with disabilities.
This article is a response to a video that says “Labels are for Jars”. The author rebuts: “I actually completely disagree with the entire video. I think it is important to give children the words to understand and describe their own experiences and that it is also important to teach nondisabled children about disability in a normalized way.”
Echolalia, monotone voices, stuttered speech, slurred speech, labored breathing between words and sentences, mechanical AAC voices, AAC or sign users who consider those to be their voices, selectively mute voices, disorganized speech, speech with vocal tics, speech considered to be of “inappropriate volume”, speech with vocal stims, all disabled voices and the ways they present
Wheelchairs are used for many disabilities; it could be very painful to walk, one may lack the strength to walk, have hyperflexibility, shortness of lung capacity, fragility of joints, muscles, skin etc.
REBLOG so people STOP harassing wheelchair users when they stand up and even WALK out their chairs in public.
I hardly ever add comments to posts but i feel the need to add on. A couple years ago i was in a wheel chair because of my chronic illness. I went to an amusement park with my school and each time we’d go on a ride the people who work there must ask if i was able to walk onto the ride. A lot of people found this offensive (my sister is working at disney world and she told me that whenever there is a wheel chair the cast members must ask if they are able to walk.) I of course told them i was able to walk and when i got out of my wheel chair i got so many bad glares. After that field trip i was bullied the rest of my highschool life because people thought i was faking it. It got to the point where these girls from church ended up breaking my wheel chair. Please please stop harassing people who use wheelchairs.
There are many times when due to breathing difficulities I’ve had to use a wheelchair or motor cart in the store or other places. That doesn’t mean I can’t walk or others can’t walk but it does mean we can’t go far and we do need the assistance. It’s no ones business judging people who need the help. No one should feel bad for using what the need when they need it.
I grew up with a bone deformity in my feet in ankles that was not visible to the eye and I was still able to walk. After walling for any more than about 30 ft my feet would begin to hurt so bad I could barely function. My family took a trip to disney world when I was 9 and I needed to use a wheel chair. I specifically remember hearing a woman scoff and growl about how lazy and disgraceful I was but also my family for raising such a lazy child. And this was just because I got out of my chair to go hug Tinker Bell. Please stop harassing wheelchair users who can still walk. You made an 8 year olds first trip to disney a lot worse than it should have been.
Keep telling your stories ❤
I remember a trip to the museum back when I was 10 and my Complex Regional Pain Syndrome was just starting to spread. I hadn’t been able to be in school much, so I was so excited to finally be able to be a part of a normal, exciting day with all of my friends. I hesitantly borrowed a museum wheelchair in lieu of using crutches; I felt very vulnerable and sort of embarrassed needing to be pushed around, but I wanted so so badly to be a part of the big day. After a couple hours, I set the wheelchair aside to go to the bathroom, and then lowered myself into it when I got back out. A museum guard went fucking ham, telling me I was lazy and entitled. I hadn’t fully explained my disability to a lot of my classmates, so when they gathered around to watch the shit show, I was so crushed and embarrassed. Because of that one incident, for years, I was hesitant to ask for extra help when I needed it and I ended up worsening my condition long-term. Respect ALL wheelchair users. Treat everyone you come across with respect. You are not always entitled to an explanation.
Gonna reblog this every time I see some foolishness on or offline about someone thinking a wheelchair user is “faking” because they stood up and walked some. This time it was a YouTube video and the comment section, a curse on both their houses!!!!
Okay, he’s not autistic, but he’s very visibly disabled and uses AAC. This is a man who has to work so hard to type words and composing sentences can take him a long time since he flinches a cheek muscle which is is picked up by the sensor mounted on his glasses.
He’s a man who probably has a whole bunch of things he wants to say and rarely gets the chance to. So what happens?
Somebody will say something to Stephen or ask him a question, and then they’ll wander off while he’s composing a reply. People are afraid to approach him and talk to him because they don’t know what to do in the interim while he’s typing.
Stephen Hawking can’t do “small talk” because of the effort he has to put forth to communicate via his computer. Talking to him requires patience and a lot of waiting. For interviews, the interviewers send him the questions beforehand to let him compose responses so he can fire them off faster than if he talked “live”.
People don’t know how long it takes Stephen to respond because it’s rare to see a real-time conversation. It may take him almost fifteen minutes to say something as simple as “Hello, thank you for stopping by.”
He notices when people speak to him and then drift off while he’s trying to answer. It frustrates the hell out of him!
Sometimes, I really want to slap every person who did that to Stephen because it probably uses a lot of his spoons to type and they cause him to waste that effort. It’s a total disrespect for his communication method. The most annoying aspect of such blatant disrespect is people don’t even realize they’re doing it.
I always say that if I ever got lucky enough to sit next to Stephen at a dinner party or something and somebody tried to engage me while I was waiting for him, I would put my hand up and say “Sorry, I’m talking to him right now” and treat it like somebody interrupting/talking over somebody who was using their mouth to speak.
I wonder how often the whole “ask a question and then wander off” scenario happens to nonverbal / nonspeaking autistic people like Amy Sequenzia or @lysikan.
For future reference, what is the best thing to do while waiting for someone to finish composing a message?
My best guess is sit quietly and don’t stare at the person too much. 😛 But I don’t use AAC myself, however I would be unnerved if somebody was staring at me while I typed.
If I was with Stephen, I might move over to sit beside him and watch his screen unless he indicates he doesn’t want me to do that. I would turn to look at him to talk and then look at his screen to let him work on responding. It might even save him some effort because he won’t have to hit whatever button makes it talk.
I sometimes use AAC and I feel like this is pretty appropriate. Another thing that happens when I use AAC is if I’m not too nervous I’ll make facial expressions or grunt to show my intention. So like if I accidentally hit “I want” “to eat” when I mean “to drink” I’ll grunt and wave my hand indicating that wasn’t what I meant. I’ll assume I have more ability to do so than someone with more limited mobility. Generally in my personal experience, I don’t mind if people try to follow along with my sentences and piece together what I’m trying to say, but I think it would be rude if they tried to finish my sentence for me.
^ Cool! I would do my best to be patient because speech is difficult for me. I can do it and nobody sees the work I do because all they see is me speaking words as the end result. Sometimes words I wasn’t intending to say come out and I have to backtrack. I’m so much clearer in writing than I am with speech.
So while I don’t have too much of a time gap between hearing and responding, I can understand the frustration of somebody who takes awhile to answer only to have the person they’re talking to walk off on them.
So if that situation ever arose where I HAD to leave, I would be really apologetic.
Just wait. You can watch my fingers on my keyboard (I use a tablet/notebook hybrid for speech-to-text/text-to-speech) if you want but please do not stare at my face. While I rarely look at other people’s faces, when I do if I see them staring at me if makes me freeze – brain and body just stop.
Wait patiently (or the nearest thing to patient you can manage to simulate 😀 ) and then try to figure out what the voice says.
I do have two different voices – my personal machines have a nice Irish girl voice that I can control inflections (to a degree – it’s a work in progress). My work machine uses the default microsoft voice which is admittedly hard to listen to.
And to address @butterflyinthewell‘s original point – yes, they do walk off as soon as they see me start typing instead of talking.
Is there anything a hyperactive listener can do that isn’t disrespectful?
I can’t sit still or avoid looking at things that are moving. Would it be okay for me to pull out my phone or doodle book to play with? Is there any way to wander around or fidget without coming off as uninterested?
Fidgeting or messing with a phone doesn’t bother me – I’m usually fidgeting myself :). If the conversation continues while the fidgeting is happening then it’s fine. Wandering or walking away is what tells me the other person isn’t listening (partly because my computers are not set loud so if you move very far you won’t hear them).
On a similar note, could someone PLEASE figure out how to let EEG pick up brainwaves to simulate typing the way they can use brain waves to let people control prosthetics?
Please?
I’m likely to lose the use of my hands eventually, and the idea of being confined to the speed of current AAC technology terrifies me. I’m deadass serious that if anyone has expertise in the things that would be needed to make this happen, message me, I have ideas but not expertise.
Remind me to look it up again, but there was some stuff on @neurosciencenews recently about that type of technology being developed. Is late and I should be going to sleep so now is not the time for me to search for stuff.
Okay, he’s not autistic, but he’s very visibly disabled and uses AAC. This is a man who has to work so hard to type words and composing sentences can take him a long time since he flinches a cheek muscle which is is picked up by the sensor mounted on his glasses.
He’s a man who probably has a whole bunch of things he wants to say and rarely gets the chance to. So what happens?
Somebody will say something to Stephen or ask him a question, and then they’ll wander off while he’s composing a reply. People are afraid to approach him and talk to him because they don’t know what to do in the interim while he’s typing.
Stephen Hawking can’t do “small talk” because of the effort he has to put forth to communicate via his computer. Talking to him requires patience and a lot of waiting. For interviews, the interviewers send him the questions beforehand to let him compose responses so he can fire them off faster than if he talked “live”.
People don’t know how long it takes Stephen to respond because it’s rare to see a real-time conversation. It may take him almost fifteen minutes to say something as simple as “Hello, thank you for stopping by.”
He notices when people speak to him and then drift off while he’s trying to answer. It frustrates the hell out of him!
Sometimes, I really want to slap every person who did that to Stephen because it probably uses a lot of his spoons to type and they cause him to waste that effort. It’s a total disrespect for his communication method. The most annoying aspect of such blatant disrespect is people don’t even realize they’re doing it.
I always say that if I ever got lucky enough to sit next to Stephen at a dinner party or something and somebody tried to engage me while I was waiting for him, I would put my hand up and say “Sorry, I’m talking to him right now” and treat it like somebody interrupting/talking over somebody who was using their mouth to speak.
I wonder how often the whole “ask a question and then wander off” scenario happens to nonverbal / nonspeaking autistic people like Amy Sequenzia or @lysikan.
For future reference, what is the best thing to do while waiting for someone to finish composing a message?
My best guess is sit quietly and don’t stare at the person too much. 😛 But I don’t use AAC myself, however I would be unnerved if somebody was staring at me while I typed.
If I was with Stephen, I might move over to sit beside him and watch his screen unless he indicates he doesn’t want me to do that. I would turn to look at him to talk and then look at his screen to let him work on responding. It might even save him some effort because he won’t have to hit whatever button makes it talk.
I sometimes use AAC and I feel like this is pretty appropriate. Another thing that happens when I use AAC is if I’m not too nervous I’ll make facial expressions or grunt to show my intention. So like if I accidentally hit “I want” “to eat” when I mean “to drink” I’ll grunt and wave my hand indicating that wasn’t what I meant. I’ll assume I have more ability to do so than someone with more limited mobility. Generally in my personal experience, I don’t mind if people try to follow along with my sentences and piece together what I’m trying to say, but I think it would be rude if they tried to finish my sentence for me.
^ Cool! I would do my best to be patient because speech is difficult for me. I can do it and nobody sees the work I do because all they see is me speaking words as the end result. Sometimes words I wasn’t intending to say come out and I have to backtrack. I’m so much clearer in writing than I am with speech.
So while I don’t have too much of a time gap between hearing and responding, I can understand the frustration of somebody who takes awhile to answer only to have the person they’re talking to walk off on them.
So if that situation ever arose where I HAD to leave, I would be really apologetic.
Just wait. You can watch my fingers on my keyboard (I use a tablet/notebook hybrid for speech-to-text/text-to-speech) if you want but please do not stare at my face. While I rarely look at other people’s faces, when I do if I see them staring at me if makes me freeze – brain and body just stop.
Wait patiently (or the nearest thing to patient you can manage to simulate 😀 ) and then try to figure out what the voice says.
I do have two different voices – my personal machines have a nice Irish girl voice that I can control inflections (to a degree – it’s a work in progress). My work machine uses the default microsoft voice which is admittedly hard to listen to.
And to address @butterflyinthewell‘s original point – yes, they do walk off as soon as they see me start typing instead of talking.
Is there anything a hyperactive listener can do that isn’t disrespectful?
I can’t sit still or avoid looking at things that are moving. Would it be okay for me to pull out my phone or doodle book to play with? Is there any way to wander around or fidget without coming off as uninterested?
“Everyone thinks he’s mentally ill but he actually just has superpowers.”
Okay, but like, what if both? Can we get a superhero with a mental illness depicted in a nominally positive way? That’s not just a cheap plot twist? Is that really too much to ask?
And not the whole “I’m psychotic and I could lose control of my powers at any moment” shit. I’m sick of that.
How about “I’m psychotic, but my telepathy helps a lot. If I think I’m hallucinating, my friends can let me see what they see and hear what they hear to keep me grounded in reality.”
Or you know, maybe someone whose mental illness and superpowers are unrelated. A speedster with depression who knows they /could/ clean their apartment in under four seconds, but would rather just watch Netflix and eat chocolate. A super strong hero who also has ocd and keeps rearranging their furniture, and sure it’s physically easy, but it’s still a pain.
Like, literally just in the few minutes it took me to write this post, I probably already came up with a good 30 character concepts. It’s not that hard, as long as you like, you know, think of mentally ill people as people and not plot devices.
“think of mentally ill people as people and not plot devices” Yes please!
NEW YORK — Justin Bainbridge is 27 and works two jobs, but he wasn’t
allowed to start saving money for his future until a few months ago.
Bainbridge
has Down syndrome, and like other people with disabilities who receive
government benefits, he can’t have more than $2,000 in savings. If he
does, he would start to lose those much-needed benefits. But a new type
of savings vehicle is giving Bainbridge, and others, a chance to save
more cash.
Known as ABLE accounts, they let people with
disabilities and their families save up to $14,000 a year without losing
benefits. The accounts, which were made possible by a law signed two
years ago, are operated by individual states and are similar to 529
college savings plans. So far, 16 states offer the plans and about 10
more are expected to do so this year. Most of the states let
non-residents sign up. Each state has different rules or maintenance
fees, with some charging as much as $15 every three months.
Disability
advocates say the accounts are badly needed, since people with
disabilities were forced to spend extra money to avoid losing benefits.
With ABLE accounts, money saved can be used to buy anything that helps
the life of the person with a disability, such as rent payments, school
tuition or groceries.
“I’m saving for a new couch,” says Bainbridge, who shares a two-bedroom apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, with a friend.
Since
June, he has put away more than $1,800 in an Enable account, the ABLE
program run by Nebraska. He makes about $5,200 a year from his part-time
jobs, one folding towels at a gym and another collecting movie tickets
at a theater. But he still needs his monthly Supplemental Security
Income cash benefit to help pay his rent and live independently, says
his mother, Kim Bainbridge, who also stashes away money for him in the
ABLE account.
For
years, disability advocates have tried unsuccessfully to increase the
$2,000 savings limit, which hasn’t been changed in nearly three decades.
“It
kind of shackles you to a life of poverty,” says Christopher Rodriguez,
a senior public policy adviser at the National Disability Institute in
Washington.
The idea for ABLE accounts came about a decade ago
from parents of kids with disabilities who were frustrated that they
could not easily save money for their children. One of those parents,
Stephen Beck Jr., spent years advocating and lobbying for a law. Beck
unexpectedly passed away in 2014, just a few weeks before President
Barack Obama signed it into law. To honor Beck, the law was named The
Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act.
His
widow, Catherine Beck, is using an ABLE account to put away money for
their 17-year-old daughter Natalie, who has Down syndrome and wants to
go to cosmetology school to work at a nail salon. The Becks were able to
easily save money for their eldest daughter, who does not have a
disability. But for Natalie, they had to create a special-needs trust
that required hiring a pricey lawyer to set up.
“Her savings has not grown like her sister’s has,” says Catherine Beck, who lives in Burke, Virginia.
To
qualify for an ABLE account, the account owner must have had a
disability before their 26th birthday. Anyone can put money in it, such
as family or friends. If the account goes above $100,000, the person
with the disability will lose monthly government cash benefits until it
drops below that level again. Medicaid health benefits are never
affected, no matter how much money is saved. Money can be invested in
index funds and earnings are not taxed.
“For the first time a lot
of individuals will be able to work, save money and get some growth out
of it,” says Adam Beck, director of MassMutual Center For Special Needs
at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
When
the person with a disability dies, Medicaid can claim any leftover
money as payback for health care paid after the ABLE account was opened.
Since each state has different rules and fees, the ABLE National
Resource website has a tool that compares the programs.
Matthew
Shapiro, who lives in Richmond, Va., and works to promote the state’s
ABLE program called ABLEnow, says finally being able to have some
savings helped reduce his money worries. The 26-year-old, who has
cerebral palsy, uses a power wheelchair to get around and unexpected
repairs can be costly. He travels sometimes for his business, 6 Wheels
Consulting, which helps educate companies and organizations on
disability issues.
“Being a person with a disability is expensive,” says Shapiro. “These accounts are so much needed.”
kiragecko 