Starbucks has banned someone for kindly asking those without a handicapped placard to leave the handicapped spots alone. I get that this could be seen as harassment and loitering and so Starbucks may feel as though it’s a justifiable move. However, the fact that it doesn’t seem like they care that much about their disabled customers scares me. When I read this article, I was actually sitting in a wheelchair in the airport debating getting Starbucks… and quickly changed my mind.
At least I didn’t run into this cop.
Did you know that disabled people have worse unemployment rates than their ‘normal’ counterparts?
If you’re tired often, this Buzzfeed post may resonate with you.
Even if you don’t have multiple sclerosis, you likely can identify with the struggles Matt highlights in this article. While he focuses mainly on dealing with the SSA and having a cyclical disease, I think that there is truth in that being a barrier to so much that we do. We’re in this interesting place often where we don’t look sick but we’re not normal; we don’t need help all the time, but often get denied it when we need it; we’re looked at as freeloaders and not people frustrated that they can’t fit into today’s ideas of productivity (as misguided as they are).
Speaking of MS, check out this video where President Obama speaks about Michelle’s father and his MS.
Have you heard the terms step therapy or fail first a lot, but don’t know what it means? Prescription Process has a great and simple page to explain it here.
Autoadapt has created this badass swivel seat for cars that could change how some people with disabilities get around. How cool is that?
Nike came out recently with shoes that are great for people with motor impairment and who can’t do shoelaces. The price is basically what you expect from the company ($100+) but these shoes are getting great reviews.
With my recent trip to the Juvenile Arthritis Conference, it was stated over and over again that we are lucky to have biologics and more treatment options now than others have had in the past. On the other hand, those drugs are insanely expensive and can bankrupt families. Insurance is constantly changing and not covering things as well as before in some cases.
Also, if you love someone with anxiety, check out this post on what it’s like to live with it.
About 1 in 5, or 20%, of American adults have a disability. So many of us have invisible ones. It’s hard on every aspect of our lives to have something that no one can see, and yet we can at least pass for ‘normal’ when we can. People don’t believe us or on the other hand coddle us to feed their ego. The suggest things that can be very dangerous like homeopathy. We often have to change medications in rapid succession, and the realization that you can’t find something that works for you is so difficult emotionally to handle. We either tell everyone we see about our illness or we try to hide it, much like my guinea pigs do with injuries due to being prey animals. Either way we get weird reactions. We’re admonished for not being as active as we maybe once were and yet at the same time we’re treated like addicts when we try to control our pain. It gets to the point where we or our sweet loved ones are fighting others off like emotional wolves… or we spend all our time trying to educate them.
We have GOT to start treating disability rights as a mainstream thing. It’s about basic human rights, and we deserve those – visibly ill or not.