Post by @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

2026-10-16 08:22 UTC

Newly disabled people are likely to resist using equipment that could ethically meet their access needs. Don't do it! Disabled people do not just suffer #ableism from the outside - many of us have internalized the oppressive system known as ableism and apply it to ourselves. This is especially true of people who were not born disabled, but became disabled later. The later you became disabled, the longer you likely lived fully enveloped in an ableist way of thinking with no internal evidence to gainsay it. It's not merely a matter of years, but also of one's upbringing, one's ability to change habits of thinking, but more years living as abled do tend to make internalized ableism once you've become disabled harder to eradicate from your thinking and behavior. If you're starting to be sensitive to screen time but also want to work in a field that uses screens, start training on how to use a screen reader. If you are ambulatory, but can't walk that far per day, use a scooter or wheelchair! #Disability

Replies (1)

@ucaccessnow@sfba.social 2026-10-16 08:27

The longer you identify with ableism and feel some BS sense of shame about doing what you need to do to take care of your health and preserve it, the more pain you are likely to put yourself in, the more you are likely to harm your health. The sooner you look into and start using the accessibility aids you can afford to obtain, the sooner you're going to get good at using the ones that have a learning curve and the more of your health and stamina you are going to preserve. Systemic ableism is not there to save you - it won't be there at your hospital bed, it won't pay for your funeral. You don't need to serve ableism by resisting using the accessibility aids you are able to obtain. If you're newly disabled or relatively recently so, please seek out pan-disability community so you can get exposed to a variety of lived disabled experiences that can help break you out of the oppressive system we were all socialized to maintain. #Disability #Ableism #InternalizedAbleism #Accessibility

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