Oh, I forgot to say here! I'm speaking at www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/ev... #DisabilityTheology conference in May! In person and online sign-ups close on 14 May, and financial assistance is available.

"I am a 15-year-old non-speaking Autistic with ADHD, Apraxia, Developmental Coordination Disorder, Scoliosis & Pectus Carinatum. My life is hard, but it could be easier if my policy idea was adopted for me & other Autistics." -Patrick Saunders, to Parliament: www.thestoryspeller.com/post/teen-pa...

"[...] our lives are so easily forgotten, ignored and excluded. When we are alive, we have to fight for recognition and in death our lives are cast in stereotypes and clichés that robs us of our innate humanity." #DisabilityDayOfMourning

Every year I forget about #DisabilityDayofMourning. I remember it the next day, today, when it's over in this part of the world and I see the memorials. I remember our people every day but I never remember to do it with community on the one day about that.

"We are calling for the Government to honour its commitment to genuinely co-design reforms with the disability community and for a more careful, well-paced process which will lead to better, fairer and more effective reforms."

Due to recent event in life, realize evidently world need more "AAC 101" information. Have some here. (This is a thread.) Some AAC users (like me) can use big words. Some AAC users (like me) are literate and use symbol-based AAC anyway.

Excellent news - Autism Speaks Canada will be ceasing operations on January 31, 2025! www.autismspeaks.ca/autism-speak...

If you're seeing encouragement/demands to do alt text and you're overwhelmed or confused about how to do it and you're worried you're going to do it wrong... this thread is for you. First: prompt questions to get you started.

And this is why I learned to make it clear that talking about ableist language isn't about lists of no-no words. It's about pointing out how and why ableist language is part of ableism. It's not about "this word hurts my feelings". It's "this language conveys ableist ideas and is harmful".

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but it would be nice if the Disability Support Pension would align with the national minimum wage, rather than, y'know, 55% of it.

Here's a pretty easy way to know if you're doing brain-based ableism (e.g. sanism, intellectual ableism) with your words: Do your words imply that someone's bad behavior or opinion is because of a brain-based illness or deficiency (as opposed to being a choice or value)? That's probably ableism.

OFFICIAL RELEASE: Star Trek and Disability; Volume 1 - The Trouble With Cripples. A short zine made by disabled academics critiquing the utopian vision of Star Trek—FREE to read here: files.libcom.org/files/2024-1... OR linktr.ee/disabilityark

Oh, good! Self was working on that but you have it.

" ABA has never been shown to be even slightly efficacious "

It's that time of year again (the season for applying to attend next year's CRPD Conference of State Parties as part of the civil society delegation).

An excellent article. thinkingautismguide.com/2016/08/when... " Sometimes people try to get your attention by doing things that can appear to be aggressive, but they’re really saying, “I have a problem, and I need help.” "

I was also unsurprised and appalled to find that what little public-facing documentation was available was so inaccessible that a significant portion of the segment on 7:30 last night (the TV version of the story) [1/2]

Introductory thread: Hello there! I’m Maria, a multiply Disabled intersex person living on Turrbal and Yugambeh land. My profile picture is a drawing of myself, a pale fat person wearing headphones, glasses, and an N95, holding up an AAC tablet.

Disabled people are cool as fuck

Today, we reached the milestone of 4,000 AAC symbols by us, for us, available for all AAC users to use!

We have the power to shape this platform into the refuge we want it to be—and it’s important to be cognizant of that moving forward. Avoiding ableist language, using alt text, amplifying Disabled voices, and choosing GIFs mindfully are all small ways to make a big difference for Disabled users.

Keywords for what I'll likely be talking about here: - disability theory, inc. critical disability theory - dehumanisation - AAC - societal ableism - disability rights & disability justice (as interdependent, not oppositional, concepts) - inclusion & accessibility - policy - NDIS - UN CRPD

We've had enough of nonDisabled people deciding what we get to talk about and how we get to talk! At AACIL, every single image is coded into the website by a symbol #AAC user. Every single image is drawn by a Disabled person. Most images are drawn by AAC users.