Hi. Alt-text discourse is back again, it never goes away, really. I just took a shower and I am full of shower thoughts.

So, prepare to be lambasted with my thoughts on alt-text, accessibility, ableism, and a hint of anarchism!

A hefty thread begins...1/15

I'm gonna let you all in on a secret, that isn't a secret at all. When our collective got this twitter, we were not great with alt-text. Our founding core was largely comprised of sighted individuals, and we messed up--a lot. 2/15

Fortunately for us, there were lovely people who gave us feedback about that. For example, "this image doesn't have alt-text."

Maybe it's because I'm disabled, or maybe it's because the collective was born out of a desire to be a resource for the community, we listened. 3/15

But not only did we listen, we corrected our course. You see it was no problem for us to hear, "hey, we love your collective, but you're leaving people out" Because we are committed to accessbility, and being disabled myself, it was easy to take corrective action. 4/15

Which leads me to my next point. When your comrades are asking for you to provide accessibility and you do not do that you are actively excluding them. You are deciding who is more deserving of being included in discourse, events, etc. This is ableism.

No buts about it. 5/15

Ableism is pervasive, it's in our language, it's in our social life, it is in our daily functioning, and even in our opinion of ourselves.

We have to actively fight against it, and we have to listen to our disabled comrades when they use their precious energy to teach us. 6/15

I know the left isn't entirely comprised of anarchists, but many of us are. And it pains me to watch leftists create hierarchical structures based on abled-bodied privilege. It pains me to watch comrades reject our needs. 7/15

It pains me to watch you fight for liberation while holding us down. Sometimes you won't even recognize us. We see that you are excluding us, it doesn't slip by unnoticed.

Here's an example that stung: I was listening to our beloved Robert Evans' podcast awhile back. 8/15

It was the episode on population control, and Margaret Sanger--who practiced eugenics on disabled people. I had to turn the episode off because he tipped toed his way around calling it what it was--ableism. It was incredibly frustrating. I just wanted him to recognize it. 9/15

This is exactly what we mean when you exclude us, I felt that so sharply. I felt less than. I know we are a large marginalized group, with many different needs, and some even in conflict with each other. So it can feel intimidating to mention us. 10/15

But being disabled intersects with every other marginalized identity, each one adding another layer to our diverse needs as a group. More reason to recognize us, and our needs. A Black disabled persons fight against racism is linked with their fight against ableism 11/15

I'm not where I am now by some chance, I wasn't born being a disability advocate. I came to learn all of these things not just because I am neurodivergent and became chronically ill, but because I LISTEN to other disabled people. 12/15

Because even though I have disablities myself, I don't know what it's like to live everyday with a wheelchair. I have a friend who does, spending a day with him was enlightening. I am surrounded by other disabled people, and they teach me so much, and I'm willing to learn. 13/15

That's what I want to drive home. Get to know disabled people, interact with us, listen to us. Understand that one day you could be in our same position, illness and accidents can strike anytime.

And when we tell you we need a little extra to be included, please do it. 14/15

We all a have internalized ableism, I fight with mine every day. We are asking you to please grapple with yours, too. Please do not recreate hierarchical structures that do nothing but harm, and do not gate keep leftist activism with abled-bodied privilege. Fin. 15/15

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