Our Disabled Voices
Stories, essays, opinions, analyses and more from across the different disability communities and from their friends, families, and allies.
It’s time for accessible cabs in our nation’s capital
As a wheelchair user living in Washington, DC, I have found accessible taxi service highly unreliable for decades. I have filed too many complaints to count. I participated in mediation after charging a taxi company with discrimination, resulting only in empty promises for improving service with no actual actions to do so. I joined the…
Caring for the Caregiver?
All along I have been writing about the missing disabled perspective from the media narrative. How the society (and media) overlooks issues surrounding disability, challenges faced by the community, resulting in their absence from the mainstream scheme of things. But there is something that finds even less of a mention in discourses around disability and…
Autistic Awakening
“I’ve started to wonder if I’m autistic,” I told my husband. By “started to wonder,” I meant that I’d been doing extensive research for weeks. I’d taken multiple adult autism self-assessments and read first-person accounts of women diagnosed with autism later in life. I really meant that I’d already figured some things out. But as…
Autism “Special Interests”
I open this essay for autism acceptance month with this moment as it, and the exhaustion from the weekend, contains a lot of information on what it is like to be autistic. It is easier to convey the experience of being autistic through everyday life rather than a filtered presentation as it affects your life…
What is Autism?
So, you want to learn more about autism? Here are a few things you need to know. I am autistic. The world of autism is quite diverse, so my experience is just that, mine. And I am writing this for non-autistic people or, using the language of the autism community “neurotypicals” (NT) – my family,…
Disability and the Invasion of the Ukraine
In the desperate circumstances that Ukranians find themselves in, disabled people are hiding in their bathtubs because they cannot get to the shelters. Institutions of disabled people are being bombed and families are struggling to survive and unable to leave. In the words of one leader in the Ukrainian disability movement, we’re “easier to kill”.…
Ending the Evusheld “Hunger Games”
Secretary Beccara – As 1 of the 7 million immunocompromised people living in the U.S., I am appalled at the hoops I am having to jump through to try to get my Evusheld injections. Having been in my home now for almost 2 years, without going to the grocery store, seeing my friends in person,…
On Life With Chronic Illness, Long Covid and Disabilities
So you have a new chronic illness, Long Covid, or disability and now your world has changed. I’m so sorry you’re facing this situation. You’ve probably not had time to adjust yet and you had no way of knowing that you’d be going through this. Contributed by Asher Wolf, originally published as Beyond The Bullshit…
Divergence – Neurodiversity and Pathology and Acceptance and Cure
The Neurodiversity Movement is growing as advocates push for acceptance instead of a cure for numerous neurodivergences including, but not limited to, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As a person with ASD and Other Specified ADHD, I too am pushing for a world of acceptance instead of a cure. Because if…
Practical Pain – How should you talk to your Doctor about Pain?
You’d think that, considering their job, doctors and healthcare workers would be willing to treat someone in pain. It feels like common sense that if you’re experiencing pain, new or ongoing, you go to a doctor, and they help. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. More than 20% of Americans have chronic pain In…