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I am really struggling with ppl who have never shown even the slightest interest in mental health and accessibility more broadly trying to justify taking unnecessary COVID risks because of "mental health" and calling it an "accessibility issue".
Yes, mental health needs are important and the pandemic has been a nightmare for folks who experience mental illness. But I'm not seeing this behaviour from them; they are doing their best to keep themselves and others safe, mentally and physically.
So these "I have to endanger folks for my own 'wellness'" ppl either need to learn from the disability community about how we navigate conflicting access needs or they need to stop pretending that they actually care about accessibility.
If the issue is mental health, learn from how our community meets mental health-related access needs in a pandemic. This has been a robust conversation in our community!
Stop acting like the only solution is to put high-risk ppl in harm's way without our consent so that you can achieve some modicum of "normalcy" in very abnormal circumstances.
Stop trying to achieve "normalcy" at other ppl's expense.
Stop conflating your privilege with mental health.
Stop conflating your entitlement with access needs.
This does not do anything to support disabled, neurodivergent, or mentally ill ppl.
It only serves you.
Stop conflating your privilege with mental health.
Stop conflating your entitlement with access needs.
This does not do anything to support disabled, neurodivergent, or mentally ill ppl.
It only serves you.
I should also say that a lot of folks are confronting longstanding mental illness for the first time because they can't employ their usual coping strategies in a pandemic.
Please let this experience radicalize you; do not use it to marginalize others.
Use it to demand change.
Please let this experience radicalize you; do not use it to marginalize others.
Use it to demand change.
The responses to this thread break my fucking heart. They demonstrate how hard ppl are working to keep each other safe. Thank you so much, everyone. You deserve better than to have your experiences coopted to justify unnecessarily risky actions.
