Sustain-the-stain - Sustain The Stain

YES OFC IT'S SO AMAZING WE'RE LITERALLY SO PRIVLEGDED

stardew valley culture is making multiple saves just so you can marry your many villager crushes while not hurting their feelings by divorcing them.

Things I would like non-wheelchair people to know

Do not touch my chair. Unless I’ve lost control of my chair and am rolling into traffic, if I have not given you explicit permission, that is a huge violation of my personal space. Think of grabbing my push handles like grabbing someone’s shoulders. That’s not a thing you just do to people.

If I don’t know you, nothing about my chair, my body, my situation, or what I’m doing is any of your gods damned business. Think of commenting on these things to a stranger like catcalling. (If I know you it’s probably fine, as long as you’re respectful. Just like any other personal topic you might ask someone about.)

If I decline an offer of help, do not insist. I know what things I need help with a lot better than you do. (Nothing wrong with offering, help is definitely welcome sometimes, just respect my response.)

Okay, things that should be obvious out of the way, here’s what the post is actually about:

I still prefer the terms “walking” and “running” for the ways I get around. I might say “rolling” or “wheeling” if the distinction is relevant for some reason, since I am ambulatory some of the time, but in general I prefer the same words as you tall people.

I need a much wider space to turn, or especially to turn around, than I do just to pass through a space.

Ask me, rather than assuming you know whether or not I can do something. I would love to go hiking with you, actually, if the trail is light and friendly enough to wheels. No, I can’t ice skate, but I’d still rather you ask if I want to come along than assume I don’t want to be included.

Which activities are notably more difficult is often not obvious. Popping a wheelie to get over a small amount of difficult terrain or even climbing a single step (if I have something to pull myself up with) can actually be pretty easy. A long stretch of ground tilted slightly to the left or right takes a ton of effort. Carrying anything that fits in my lap is trivially easy, but transporting anything that doesn’t fit in my lap is quite hard (though I recently discovered my vacuum fits nicely on my footplate if I wrap my legs around it a little which is cool.) I am constantly surprised by little things that are or aren’t harder than I thought they’d be, or are actually easier than before because I’m sitting.

If you are in my path, you moving suddenly is actually really unpleasant for me. I know you’re there, I’m not going to run you over. If you’re in my way, please do move! But jerking suddenly makes you unpredictable and I might have to stop suddenly to be certain everyone is safe while I process the change, just like if I were driving a car. Also like driving a car, stopping suddenly is unpleasant and a lot of effort, but the small adjustment to my direction I was planning to make is very easy. (Same goes for bikes honestly, or any other vehicle. That’s what the chair is, a vehicle.)

If we’re walking around together and need to get past some stairs, it’s nice if you come with me on the ramp, especially if that ramp is out of the way. It can be really isolating to have to go a different way than everyone else.

If we need to walk close together for whatever reason, you walking directly in front of me is best avoided if possible. Bumping into your heel with my metal footplate is going to be a lot more unpleasant for both of us than it would be if I were on my feet.

In general, you should let me speak for myself. It’s my joints that don’t work, not my brain or my voice. But. If someone else is being disrespectful, your voice is likely much more impactful than mine in that situation. Use it.

I’m not expecting anyone to memorize these things; as long as you’re treating disabled people like people, that’s enough. And if you want to do more than that but don’t know how, respectful questions are generally welcome. I just wanted to share these thoughts, for people who don’t live with them all the time. There are a lot of little differences to being seated all the time that you just don’t think about until you’re there.

Also, while I think most of this is generally true for anyone in a wheelchair, obligatory reminder that I speak only for myself.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tylerandhistummy/video/7086509725671722286

Video description and transcription:

Tiktok by Tyler from Fig (tylerandhistummy)

[Tyler faces the camera and speaks to it.]

If this video helps even one person, it was worth it.

So, I've got a ton of ingredients that my body reacts to: corn, citric acid, gluten, chocolate, bananas, peanut oil--I'm all over the place.

It was so hard to read ingredient labels and just find food that I could eat. Grocery trips were unbearable, they took like two or three hours usually.

But I always had this idea on how to make it easier. So I quit my job and helped build an app over the past few years. And that app's called Fig.

[A phone screen showing the app interface, which Tyler scrolls through. Top text reads: "First up: Do you follow any of these diets? Dietary restrictions are complex - it's ok to select more than one!" Underneath is a checklist of ingredients and dietary restriction, including categories with suboptions.]

What makes fig unique is we're trying to help pretty much everybody that has to avoid certain ingredients.

That means we've got a ton of things that you can select from--even really specific ingredients.

[Camera briefly returns to Tyler's face again.]

And like I had dreamed of for so many years, checking ingredients is as quick as this.

[A phone camera scans the barcode on a bottle of spices. Details about the product appear, including an ingredients list and allergen statement. The ingredient "citric acid" appears in red all-caps. There is also an accompanying message that says "This product does not match your Fig."]

And finding food you can eat is as simple as this.

[The app displays a scrollable list of food items, similar to a storefront. Each item has a save toggle and is accompanied by a photo, the product brand/name, and its size. There is a search bar labeled "search for a product." There are also menus for narrowing the search; one is set to "allowed," one is set to "Whole Foods," and another unaltered menu is titled "Category."]

[The camera returns to Tyler.]

So if you know anybody with food allergies, stomach issues, other dietary restrictions, I'd really appreciate it if you shared it with them.

[The appstore listing for Fig: Food Scanner & Discovery.]

It's called Fig, it's completely free, and you can get it on iOS and Android in the US.

[Tyler smiles at the camera.]

Thanks for helping out.

Fig: Food Is Good

Food Scanner App - Fig: Food Is Good

Fig is the fastest way to find food that works for you: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Low FODMAP, Vegan, Food Allergies or just avoiding additive

i haven`t seen people spread this on tumblr, so

https://mariupol.is/stories/

here is the link to the online archive dedicated to life stories of mariupol siege survivors. 

if you are a foreigner, i would highly encourage you to spread it and read them yourself. as a ukrainian, i hear those stories every day, be it through opening my social media account or through talking to my friends and acquaintances. 

for foreigners the situation is a bit different: you hear most of the information about mariupol from news and, therefore, tend to get a more polished, purely informative read. but by reading just those articles, it`s easy to forget that stories behind them are those of real people. and it`s much harder to feel as emotionally distanced when you actually see a person whose leg was torn into pieces, instead of just hearing that those people exist. 

which is why i think such projects are valuable. and which is why i would like for them to be more known. 

Accessible Activism

Welcome! Thank you for engaging with Accessible Activism, a guide created to help transform the way disabled people plan for and participate in multiple forms of activism with the support of community and fellow organizers. We hope this contributes to the life-affirming and essential practice o...

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@ people who don't celebrate christmas and are currently having christmas shoved down their throats

i hope whatever holiday you celebrate is fun and well!! and if you don’t celebrate any holidays this time of year, i hope your day is nice anyways!

i wish trends would stop. i wish things would stop being popular for two weeks and then time moves along like it always has. i wish things would last longer. i wish some trends or popular things would stay main-stream forever. i wish i just had more time.

People: *debating whether Turning Red is about generational trauma or the silencing and demonization of female self-expression and sexuality*

Me: ...movies can be about two things

i love my bass guitar but i hate how much my fingertips ache for like, days afterwards? 😃