I have a list in my head of all the assholes who treated me badly because I'm autistic, from the guy who kicked me out as a roomie leaving me homeless, to the group of thugs that held me down and beat me, to the random assholes that punched me in the mouth for looking at them the wrong way or using the wrong words, to the bank manager who decided I was being flippant and did what she wanted with my money instead of what I asked, to the judge who yelled at me and humiliated me in court for asking questions about what the different pleas actually meant, to the boss who nicknamed me "autistic boy", to the boss who refused to promote me and picked me to lay off because of my social skills, to the boss who actively tried to get me fired for refusing a command that I couldn't understand... It goes on and on. If you think ableism isn't real, isn't an actual source of disability all on its own, or is a thing of the past, think again.
Air Canada lost the wheelchair of Canada's Chief Accessibility Officer! 🤯
Description for image in link:
A tweet from Stephanie Cadieux (@Stephanie4BC) "Well. Air Canada left my chair in Toronto. I'm now without my essential equipment. Independence taken away. I'm furious. Unacceptable. #RIghtsOnFlights" There is a photo of her sitting in a manual wheelchair at the Air Canada desk.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of a hotel company that was unwilling to update its website, the right to sue for accessibility may come to an end. #DisabilityRights#Ableism
Philosophy and Madness a combination that makes me smile!!! #MadLiterature
Too mad to be true II - The promises and perils of the first-person perspective
The second Too Mad To Be True conference that was dedicated to exploring the various links between philosophy and madness. The atmosphere was vibrant and it initiated new ways of thinking and communicating around issues of madness and philosophy. The central theme was both relevant to philosophical and mad theories and practices: ' The promises and perils of the first-person perspective'. The conference was hybrid: both in person, in Ghent, Belgium, as well as online.
For the first few years of the pandemic, my employer was really good about accommodating people's working styles. Whatever made you more productive was okay (WFH, hybrid, or in the office). But I suspected it wouldn't always be this way, so I asked my manager to move me to a permanent WFH contract. He said he didn't think that was necessary. He promised he'd support me, that we could just agree it between us.
At the start of this year, they picked my role up and moved it to a new team. My new manager doesn’t like me. Also, senior management in the new area are less open to permanent WFH.
I made another formal request to move to WFH. They could have reclassified my role as one that was possible to do from home. That would have been easy. There’s a form. It takes 2 minutes. If your manager approves it, it gets sorted within a week.
On Tuesday, September 12, the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act was introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Representatives Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
This bill makes long-overdue reforms to the SSI program that would empower millions of people with disabilities to earn and save more money for their futures.
I'd like to take some time to discuss #consent when dealing with #DisabledPeoples & am open to others sharing their lived & witnessed experiences & related thoughts.
First off, for folks who don't know me well - I'm a 48 yr old polio survivor, who is now living w/PPS, scoliosis & osteoporosis. I walk daily w/2 full leg braces & wooden cane. I have a mobility scooter & electric wheelchair for my really bad pain days(I live w/daily chronic pain).
Most folks never try to touch a person who isn't disabled, without consent & be able to get away with that shit in public very much.
You touch a disabled person in public & if disabled person isn't OK with that - it's the disabled person being treated like they're a bad person & not the person who touched disabled person without asking for consent first. (3)
Unlike the majority of citizens, selfish politicians who promote & enact unsafe public health policies that bring great harms to the general public, can afford plenty of private medical care services & avoid a lot of suffering because they're very privileged.
They don't care if more citizens die or become disabled or go bankrupt or homeless from being unable to access/afford essential medical care, prescriptions & medical supplies. They don't suffer like many citizens have.
Federally Sanctioned Exploitation Of Workers with Disabilities – Happy Labor Day:
On this Labor Day, Out Of Exile – Invisible Disability Rights gives thanks and honor to workers and the unions that protect them. Without unions, the experience of many workers may be similar to that of the disabled. This piece will focus on the exploitation and abuse of disabled workers by employers , and how it's perfectly legal under federal and state laws in the US. Section 14(c) of the US Department of Labor's "Fair Standards And Labor Act" (FSLA), has been virtually unchanged since it was enacted in 1938. Under the almost century old regulation, employers can apply for a certificate which allows them to pay workers with disabilities, an unspecified subminimum wage.
The average sub wage and the number of disabled people seemingly exploited by this legislation, seems to vary among the sources linked below. By any account, even one person with disabilities being preyed upon in this way, is far too many. The wages are inhumane. A 2021 Forbes article claims over 320,000 people with disabilities, the majority with invisible disabilities, earn an average of $3.34 an hour. A previous Forbes article put the figures in excess of 420,000 people being paid as little as $2.15, while others cite drastically lower wages. Some organizations like Goodwill, form their own "sheltered workshops", determining their own limits on sub wages for their disabled workers. There seems to be no bottom limit on how little individuals with invisible disabilities can be paid.
"The non-profits use “time studies” to calculate the salaries of Section 14 (c) workers. With a stopwatch, staff members time how long it takes a disabled worker to complete a task. That time is compared with how long it would take a person without a disability to do the same task. The non-profit then applies a formula to calculate a rate of pay, which may be equal to or less than minimum wage".
A decade ago, NBC reported that Goodwill industries, presumably by authority of their DOL "Section 14(c) certificate", paid disabled workers twenty-two cents an hour. The report claims that some were paid as little as three or four cents an hour. Think about paying your bills 10 years ago on a wage like this. Some nonprofits, even place Section 14(c) workers in outside, for-profit endeavors in restaurants, stores and even, "IRS centers". That sounds more like calculated exploitation, rather than accommodation and equality. Though the "NBC-Goodwill" article and figures are old, the problem is older and still continues today.
The theory of sheltered workshops is to prepare individuals with disabilities to transition to outside employment. In Missouri, disabled workers packaging T-shirts or sorting and counting dog treats to be sold for profit on Amazon, rarely "graduate" these workshops into regular paying jobs. Pay for sorting the $15 Amazon dog treats? $1.50 an hour while Jeff Bezos builds rocket ships. The title of the recent ProPublica article linked below, says it all. "Missouri Allows Some Disabled Workers to Earn Less Than a Dollar an Hour. The State Says It's Fine If That Never Changes". I say, show me change in the Show-Me state and across the country.
In a follow-up to that story by ProPublica, some participants of sheltered workshops said they approved, saying the alternative is to sit at home and do nothing. Are these opinion formed as a result of gas lighting or years of oppression accepted as "just the way it is"? It's time for new attitudes and alternatives for the disabled community when it comes to wages and employment. In some states, now there are.
About 16 states have changed or passed laws regarding disability subminimum wage exploitation but, nothing to speak of federally. A three year old press release from the National Council on Disability that "Applauded the US commission on civil rights call to repeal section 14(c)", seems to be the sum of that effort. Other states have actions in progress including: Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York. If you live in any of these states, now's the time for activism and to let your representatives know how you feel. Follow the ""legislation watch" APSE link to track progress. The Alternative? Similar actions introduced in Kentucky and West Virginia died in committee allowing this despicable injustice against disabled people in those states to continue. Change is up to everyone. What will you do to help stop the exploitation and abuse?
@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice@disability@disabilityjustice And it isn't as if disabled people are truly given the equivalent to a full time minimum wage job in SSI monthly money's either, even as in theory that's exactly what it's meant to replace, especially with it's ridiculously strict and numerous means tests, including marriage penalties. This problem compounds the minimum wage loophole, especially with how vocational rehabilitation services often prioritizes sheltered workshops as "best" for disabled people. #DisabilityRights
Busting the Deinstitutionalization Myth: We Actually Have More Beds Than Ever Before
New data upends common beliefs about asylum closures, deinstitutionalization, and rates of psychiatric coercion.
Mad Crip doula: offering holistic and emotional spiritual bodymind care, mixed with practical and crisis support (and plant medicine). moving from a liberation-centered and anti-oppressive lens. a transition doula with skills in: abortion, death, grief, Madness, and Disability.
endorsing: non-carceral, peer-led mental health care systems that exist outside of the state, reimagining everything we’ve come to learn about madness, and intervening in systems that oppress, disappear, and kill Disabled and mad folks.
Please Note: I don’t know Them in any capacity and They sure look bad-ass
Ever since the pandemic started, I've seen more people read about #DisabilityRights and #ableism. A good thing! ✊
People are upset about what they're learning and I'm glad that they care. At the same time I've seen many responses over the years that are just so... naive?
The absolute scope of systemic ableism, the intent behind it, the horrific history of it all: it's a lot. Whenever I share my own stories, people regularly react with extreme surprise, or think that this is new since the pandemic. I appreciate people's worry and good intentions, but I wish it was more well-known that ableism has always been rampant. And it's not surprising at all, it's business as usual.
I keep wondering if I should put effort into writing down some of my experiences. Would it help raise awareness (mixed feelings about that term)? Would I be risking my anonymity? Would I feel too exposed and regret it later, sharing such painful private memories? How many clueless outrage comments would I have to deal with?
I am curious what others think about this. If you personally deal or have dealt with ableism, do you share your stories with people online? Does it feel worthwhile? If you don't personally encounter ableism, what is it that has opened your eyes to the severity of it the most? General activism, personal anecdotes, a loved one who deals with it, something else?
Open Minded Online
sharing ideas and resources about holistic approaches to emotional and social wellbeing
We are two people who both have a great passion for holistic approaches to mental health. This passion has grown out of our own experiences of receiving traditional psychiatric treatment and finding it lacking.
We believe that it is possible to make sense of intense states of mind often described as psychosis.
I am really, really, REALLY irritated by what I just saw. The #ImageDescription function of Microsoft's #Bing is outright lying to people with vision impairments about what appears in images it receives. It's bad enough when an #LLM is allowed to tell lies that a person can easily check for veracity themselves. But how the hell are you going to offer this so-called service to someone who can't check the claims being made and NEEDS those claims to be correct?
How long till someone gets poisoned because Bing lied and told someone it was food that hasn't expired when it has, or that it's safe to drink when it's cleaning solution, or God knows what? This is downright irresponsible and dangerous. #Microsoft either needs to put VERY CLEAR disclaimers on their service, or just take it down until it can actually be trusted.
the circus that currently performs in finnish government is getting so out of hands that im just waiting for the day it just implodes in on it self like couple billionaires in a submarine.
it is not usual in Finland that the new government starts first thing to undermine decisions of the last government, or unanimously made decisions of the whole fucking parliament.
but so far the nazi-joke-government has overturned at least 2 climate laws and now the unanimously accepted disability service law that was supposed to become active just weeks from now is moved at least 2 years into the future.
Opposition parties have marched out today in protest for governments aim to save money by postponing and shrinking new disability law, leaving disabled people without equal human rights in Finland.
“it’s all done according to laws.” says NCP politician defensively.