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Sun, 09 Nov 2025 03:50:16 GMT

Disabled & chronically ill people are taught we’re not “good enough” in ways so normalized, most don’t even notice... or realise they're complicit. Let’s talk about it. 🧵 #disability #DisabilityJustice

👉 Media often shows disabled people as either tragic, burdens, brave inspirations, or as people in ened of fixing. We’re rarely complex, joyful, or agentic, and we’re rarely the hero.

👉 Disabled people are erased from romance, adventure, and survival stories, as if we don’t fall in love, fight for justice, or persevere. Conversely, we're often also depicted as having to persevere and overcome our conditions to be "worthy".

👉 Infrastructure treats access like bonus charity, and capitalism worships productivity. If you need rest or flexibility, you’re less committed, or maybe just lesser than, and not an ideal employee. Thus, we're often passed over and left unemployeed.

👉 Medical systems gaslight us; We're told our pain isn’t real, our symptoms are anxiety, and our bodies need “fixing”. We're shamed for needing pain meds, and often treated as "drug seekers" or as "lazy".

👉 Support is often conditional. Disabled people must prove again and again that we’re suffering enough to “deserve” help, and often times our access relies on someone being "kind enough" to help us.

👉 Our "benefits" are always under attack, and we're often called greedy/spoiled liars who are "entitled" and "scamming the system", when in reality we just want to stay alive.

👉 Products designed to help the disabled and elderly are mocked, seen as "weird", and even called "lazy". We're judged for not being able to peel and cut food, for needing mobility aids, for ordering food when we can't physically get it ourselves.

👉 Our rights are always under attack too. We do not have marriage equality in many countries, and many disabled people are paid under minimum wage. When we ask for better, we're often called "entitled" and told that nobody owes us anything.

👉 “You don’t look disabled” is framed as a compliment. So is “You’re so brave” when we're doing normal things. “If I were you, I’d kill myself” is meant to tell us we’re strong. These are all rooted in ableism.

👉 Friends stop inviting us out. Strangers offer prayers, pity, or bigotry. Our bodies become public property, questions that others feel entitled to demand answers to. Invisibly disabled people are often accused of faking.

👉 Buildings and events are often designed without consideration of disabled people. "Reasonable access" is up to interpretation. Segregated entrances tell us our access is an afterthought, not a priority. We're often expected to get over it.

👉 We learn to feel guilty for existing, to downplay our needs and overcompensate so we’re seen less as a burden and as “worthy” of inclusion. We often have to work harder to prove we're "worth" hiring, or listening to.