accessibility_fail | Follow up to yesterday.

Follow up to yesterday.

Went back in to Remploy, turned out my adviser had had a word with the guy about the cane-snatching after I left. I told him if it happens again, I'm walking and there will be a serious complaint put in. Cane-snatcher apologised then spent the rest of the afternoon ignoring me and refusing to look at me while in the same room. (Yes, he is in fact a grown man and not a six year old. Allegedly.)

So that was sorted... and then my adviser promptly started lecturing me again on how he was sure I could use a phone if it was "Just a bit". Thing is, I know how "Just a bit" works - you start off with a little, then they go "he's coping fine, see?" and give you more, then they ask how why you're not doing your job. He also doesn't seem to understand that I'm not used to phones and I actually don't respond to them. You know how if someone calls someone else's name, you don't look up or respond because it doesn't apply to you? That's me - I'm just not used to phones, so I tend not to register they're ringing. It's a habit rather than a disability but it's due to my disability. It's not me "being awkward"

I don't get it. I'm hard of hearing, why are they the ones not hearing what I say? Why is it so hard to understand that no, I can't hear/understand you if I'm not looking at you? I've told the adviser a few times - get my attention, then when I'm looking at you, talk. Saying "But I called your name" when I had my back to you working on a computer isn't helpful.

And yes. These are the people whose entire job is to help with disability issues.

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My niece just said "It seems unfair they let you carry a big stick then don't let you hit anyone with it. It's almost mocking." I dearly wish I could... (Why did you nearly, if you don't mind me asking?)

We were in the grocery store the day before SNOWPOCALYPSE!!!!! (the middle of the US east coast is getting hit with a massive snowstorm calling for around a meter of snow over three days, they're not good at snow removal at the best of times, and many locales used up their entire snow removal budget in the last major storm). Local joke is that the first thing Marylanders do when they hear "snow", no matter how small the amount, is to go to the store for bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper. Even if you have them. Even if you don't need them. It was also the last day of shopping (again, due to the impending snow) before Sunday, which is the Super Bowl, a ridiculous bit of American culture that involves a bunch of people gathering around to watch a bunch of grown men chase a ball down a field, usually betting large sums of money thereupon, while consuming chips and beer and salsa. So people were shopping for that, too.

We were legitimately there to restock the pantry. But there were thousands of people, and the shelves were bare. (We literally got the last peppers available in the store. I don't know why peppers are a snow-survival food...) There were lots of other people there. One of them ran me down with her cart, looking straight at me the entire time. Another rammed into me from the aisle as I was walking past the endcap.

I did not hit any of them. I very carefully did not hit any of them. I was really tempted, though. (I did use the cane to reach over people's heads to grab things off the top shelves.)

Oh yes, I heard about snowpocalypse. We've had some here, it's over now touch wood, but it's kind of funny to see what people were buying. I stocked up on pizza, pasta, cereal, and chocolate - stuff that would last and keep me warm, plus some treats. Guys in line behind me were stocking up on beer and bacon.

And gah, yeah - I've had people push carts into me. I'm a bastard though, if I'm on an OK day I push back. I consider it my public duty as someone who is able to do that, in case the next person they try to run over is (physically) weaker. It's amazing how surprised they look. It's so bloody rude though. We really should be allowed to hit them.

Survival of the fittest!

It's not the size of your stick, it's how you swing it. ;)

(Aaaaand I just had a lightbulb moment. I'm pretty sure you're the author of the fic I keep pointing people to to go "See? See? Disabled character, done well!". I never commented because I ran out of spoons way before the end and it's not even my fandom so I feel like I missed bits, but. JD and cane-using Cam? Or do I have you confused with another human bean?)

That is indeed me! (It's got an alternate universe of the alternate universe where Cam is-and-always-has-been a girl, but JD is still queer, too.) That story is pretty much "hi, my issues, let me show you them". :)

Huh - I *thought* I saw one with girl!Cam, but then I never saw it again so I figured I'd just lost my mind while browsing Delicious. OK, very cool - I have to admit, I wondered if the author was a cane-user because I'm cynical and I didn't see someone without experience writing it that well, but. It's fucking fantastic, btw. I need to get back into it, I got a bit muddled around when JD had to go (Is that vague enough to avoid spoiling folk?) because I know nothing about the universe and my brain was made of soggy cotton. But yes. Amazing story.

Ah, yes, that started book two, A Howling In The Factory Yard, in which I drop an action-adventure spy thriller in the middle of my cozy domestic romance. *G*

The girl!Cam story is here: http://kekkai.org/synecdochic/sg1/mezzanine/index.html

I like to say that Broken Wings is a story about disability, while Mezzanine is a story about queerness. Even though they're the same setup. It's all about the concentration, yanno?

(And thank you. I tried like hell to write it with "this is how Cam would deal with this" rather than "these are my issues, let me show you them". *G*)

However it was written, it was brilliant - and it was the kind of thing I've been dying to see, something where Life Happens to someone who is disabled, not Disability Happens to someone, if you see what I mean? And all the little things - I'm not as badly off as him, but it's nice to recognise the little things in a story like having to think twice about going out on ice/snow, and dealing with the kitchen, and people looking, and stuff like that.

Anyway. Ahem. I shall stop fanboying now. *sits on hands*

Oh please, do you think I object to people fanboying me? *G*

And yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to do: portray that Cam is living with this disability, and it sucks, but hey, whatcha gonna do, except send your hot young partner out to the supermarket for you (my own hot young partner comes in girl-flavor rather than boy-flavor, but still) and grit your teeth and take the damn pain meds. It's like he said in one piece: his injuries don't cripple him. All they do is make it harder to walk. Or something like that.

I hate stories with PWD protags that are Disability Happens stories. It's like how every queer character in the movies is either the comic relief, the villain, or the dead guy at the end.

*Grins* Well that's OK then!

Clearly, I need me a hot boy/girl/one of each to do my shopping. *Nods* It's A Plan. Think I could get one down the supermarket?

(If you don't mind me asking - because I'm clueless and haven't picked up - are you male, female, other option, etc? I'm just wondering how to refer to you.)

And yeah - the "Disability happens" is OK for one chapter, after that it just gets ridiculous - because that's how life is. You can't wallow, or you don't get to have a life. So it's nice to see a queer disabled guy having himself a life - with stuff like work and sex and family being family, and troubles with all of the above, and realistic (Um. Well. If you discount the alients...)

Heh. I was going to apologise for going off-topic. Wait. I'm the OP!

I am standard issue female! Well, queer issue female, at least. :)

And yeah, part of teh fun of writing Cam is that you get to figure out how he deals with all this plus the disability...

I'm a dude. Which was one of the other things I liked with the fic. *points up* Men knitting!

I tend not to push back. I tend to fall over (in a controlled way so that I don't actually get hurt). It's amazing how people get the point when you show them consequences to their actions... The bus drivers who drop me off near work in the mornings have mostly got the point that accelerating the 30m or so from the traffic lights to the bus stop and then stopping with a jerk is a jerky thing to do.

Ugh. Not to butt in, but that just reminds me of a woman I encountered while Christmas shopping in the supermarket a couple of years ago who actually used my shoulder to push herself up to reach the top shelf - the shoulder which, at that time, was dislocating on a weekly basis. I didn't know her at all, and it wouldn't have been okay for her to do that even if I did! *snarls at stupid people*

Yeowch. I'm not sure I could've kept myself from punching her.

I was too shocked at the time to even say anything but "Excuse me!" in a very pointed tone of voice. My younger sister was with me, and she was also pretty much shocked silent. That anyone would do that to an able-bodied person was beyond me, let alone someone with a disability.

I hear you about the Maryland shoppers thing--especially because I'm a born and bred Michigander. My wife, our friend, and I went to the Costco up in White Marsh, then the Safeway in Canton yesterday for actual shopping. Big mistake.

Do we really have to be nice to people when they're being inconsiderate a-holes and doing things like stopping in the middle of aisles in front of the man in a wheelchair? Or zig-zagging past us and stopping to grab something (when we're clearly moving) like we're not even there?

Can't we hit them? Just once? Please?

I am busy teaching my recently-disabled SO that being in the electric cart means that other people get to move out of his way. Keeping a straight line course makes it easier for them to do so, and means that any clod who continues walking towards him in his "lane" and clearly seeing the oncoming cart deserves to have a bruised kneecap. I give out dirty looks to the clueless walkers in exhange for him making pointed remarks to twits making obnoxious "deaf jokes" that their target is, in fact, a Real Live Deaf Person™.

Unless the oncoming clod has balance, sight, pain, or other issues themself.

As a fairly recently converted scooter user (who as a walker has balance and pain issues), I go for a bit of give and take both ways, so long as it's all good faith. (and there's a fair bit of _not_ - I'm personally more irritated by the ostentatious dudes who think they're being 'chivalrous' and want everyone else to know it, than by people who don't immediately see me and jump out of my way.)

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Follow up to yesterday.

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