In the same way that it isn’t enough to not be racist, & that we need to be anti-racist—it isn’t enough to not be ableist. We need to be anti-ableist.

We ALL need to fight for accessibility, even if we don’t need it ourselves.
We ALL need to call out ableism when we see it.

We ALL need to fight for access to healthcare, even those of us who are perfectly healthy.

This is something we ALL have to do as a society.

Not just the disabled and the chronically ill. And not just those of us who have loved ones who are disabled or have chronic illness.

Ableism is literally killing us.

Ableism is literally making the sick even sicker because of a lack of access to healthcare. And the stress of that, that stress literally damages the body.

Ableism is what results in easily preventable deaths from a lack of access to healthcare.

Ableism is why a man died from sepsis. All because he had an infected tooth that he couldn’t afford to see a dentist for. He just needed that tooth pulled.

Ableism is why a boy died from rationing his insulin, not long after starting a gofundme in an attempt to pay for it.

Ableism is what has turned us into a society that resorts to gofundme to pay for medical bills. Keep in mind, not everyone makes their goals and not everyone is able to get the money in time, like the boy mentioned above. Many of those people die, just like that kid.

We seem to have this attitude that ableism won’t ever effect us, which I find terribly perplexing. We act as if it’s tragic that x person needs access to healthcare and they can’t get it, but that doesn’t effect me, so it’s not at the top of my list.

I find this perplexing b/c as I said in a previous thread, we will all need it one day. We all grow old. We all grow frail. All our bodies eventually break down, because that’s what the human body does as it ages.

There is no one among us who is immune to the effect of ableism.

But what can I, a single person, do?

Let’s say you see a that a disability advocate is one of the writers/game designers in a wildly popular new @Wizards_DnD book. Let’s say her dungeon is accessible with ramps & elevators, & she starts getting a lot of trolls and hate for that.

Looking at that debacle and going, well I would never do that—I’m not one of those creeps that’s going troll her. That isn’t enough.

What can you do? GET MAD. Fucking call it out. Publicly make a point of saying that the way @dreamwisp has been treated is fucking unacceptable.

It isn’t enough to not be ableist. We all have to make it really fucking clear that ableism isn’t welcome or tolerated. We have to make it clear that ableists, go right in the trash with the racists.

We also need to ask for more disabled and chronically ill characters in our media. Characters whose personalities and story lines don’t revolve around them being sick or disabled. And push for disabled actors to play disabled characters. Just like we push for PoC to play PoC.

We need to push for characters that are disabled or ill, and that isn’t some superpower. An ill character that doesn’t die at the end so everyone can learn a lesson.

Normalize the day in day out benign reality.

Disability and illness that isn’t a plot point or a plot device.

The other trope we need to avoid is the ill character that gets a diagnosis and they magically are better (*cough* House) or they get the diagnosis and that’s the end of the story and we act like everything will be fine now.

It isn’t just that you get better or you die.

A part of exposing society at large to the idea of chronic illness is to write it into our media. (And for the love of god consult people who actually have that illness.)

Because right now, a lot of people think it’s either you get better or you die. And we need to change that

What can you do?
Be VOCAL.
GET MAD.
Be an ally.
EDUCATE YOURSELF.
Support disabled/chronically ill creators.
Listen to the disabled and chronically ill.

It WILL effect you personally one day.

Don’t be the person who only cares once it effects you personally.

CARE NOW.

Fight NOW for universal access to healthcare.
Fight NOW like your life depends on it, because one day it will, if it doesn’t already.

Fight NOW for accessibility.
Fight NOW because you’ll likely need it one day.

Fight NOW and don’t stop fighting until we get it.

Seriously, get fucking mad. And if you aren’t mad, listen and educate yourself, because you SHOULD be mad.

You should be furious.
Furious at the discrimination, lack of healthcare, lack of accessibility, it goes on.

We should all be absolutely fucking LIVID.

BE ANTI-ABLEIST.