So much fucking disability policing comes from this sense that disabled people are a burden to society, so you shouldn’t claim disability if at all possible, because then you’re being more burdensome than you can possibly help.
Especially since society decided to allocate the burden this way. Have you ever tried to point out that something people are planning isn’t accessible to disabled people? (I have, it’s one of the least fun forms of activism I’ve ever tried.) You get these kinds of responses:
“We’ll figure that out if the need arises.”
“That can be added in later.”
“Well then, they’ll probably bring their own accessibility device with them.”
That is society EXPLICITLY REFUSING to take up any part of the burden of caring for disabled people. This is deciding the burden will fall on the disabled person, and whoever’s standing nearby when they show up.
This is deliberately making disability a burden, by refusing to plan ahead and treat disability as part of the default. It’s saying, “We’ll plan for people who can see and hear and read and walk on two feet and use two hands and handle noises under, oh, 80 decibels, so if anything would inconvenience them, we’ll plan to avoid it, but anyone less abled than that? They’re not worth considering.”
The social construction of disability means that society chose to make people with certain impairments disabled.
It could have chosen differently. It still can.
required reading for anyone building anything.
ALTaccess for those of us who are differently abled, makes access available for everyone.
Khonsu X
