as small as a world and as large as alone

10:20am July 8, 2014

lichgem:

silversarcasm:

any time disabled people succeed at anything abled people rush to shout how they can’t be called disabled

because they have built the world so heavily against us they cannot fathom us doing well

Most disabled people can do something. Most of us have talents and skills. Ableists have made an entire dichotomy of what constitutes disability that most of us cannot possibly ever get accommodations, because if we can so much as appear smart to people, they’ll decide we can do anything else abled people can do, too. And on the other side of that line, a person who looks “truly disabled” to them is not human anymore. Is “deformed” and an object of pity and disgust. There’s no room anywhere for the reality of us. The reality of wheelchair users who can  walk some, but not enough to navigate public spaces without a wheelchair. The reality of people who test high on IQ scores and are well-spoken but sink like lead in the school system.

And the line they draw between disabled and abled when evaluating us always changes. They constantly move it as they see fit. It differs from person to person, and one person can contradict themselves without even noticing. It’s like with misogyny- a woman can be shamed for dressing ‘too slutty’ even wearing a calf length skirt, just because a man was ogling her legs. No matter what she wears she can be called whatever people need to call her so that a man’s behavior is never his own responsibility. With disabled people, whatever we do can be seen as evidence we’re either not disabled, or not people.

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