Are you ableist? 17 hints to help answer that question
As we hear the news that the deadline for making trains accessible will definitely not be met, Twitter gave us the hashtag #YouMightBeAbleistIf that could make people think twice about how they behave around those with disabilities, and the language they use.
The good people over at Bored Panda provided us with the heads up, and these were the 17 we found most telling.
1.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you call someone “high functioning” as a compliment. pic.twitter.com/mjAZXhMtKH
— René Brooks | Black Girl, Lost Keys (@blkgirllostkeys) December 29, 2019
2.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you think "eating healthier" will cure medical issues or disabilities. Eating vegetables will not cure me Karen!
— Tyler J (@wicked_jr89) December 29, 2019
3.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you park on the lines next to the handicapped parking spaces… they’re there for a reason!! pic.twitter.com/v57eRYI3xy
— Amanda Dillon ♿️ (@adillon845) December 29, 2019
4.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf your first response to someone taking the time to open up to you about their struggles is informing them that there are several others who are far worse off than them.
— Alexandra_Destria (@Alexa_Destria) December 29, 2019
5.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you congratulate every teen taking someone with a disability to prom. They don’t need medals for treating people as human
— (@hathatsgayyy) December 29, 2019
6.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you share nonsense like this. Nature is lovely. But antidepressants are my antidepressant. pic.twitter.com/fvLDnQvnuE
— egg-free nog beverage (@am_lehr) December 29, 2019
7.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you use or passively support ableist language, like when 34,000+ of my twttr fam recently liked a famous author's "be kind, not blind" twt. We are not the negative side of your "cute" analogy. It's not clever word play when it demeans ppl w disabilities…
— RunBTS (@RunRunRunBTS) December 29, 2019
8.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf you you regularly ignore the boundaries of disabled folks to "help". You're not doing it for us if you can't be bothered to ask first, you're just doing it to make yourself feel like a hero
— Miss Owl (@twitchymoogle) December 29, 2019
9.
#YouMightBeAbleistIf if you think it's a miracle or a sign of "faking disability" when ambulatory wheelchair users stand up out of their wheelchairs.
— dov (@DovZeller) December 29, 2019