Thread by @RancidGinger

Well it’s disability pride month and I would like to discuss how we mistreat disabled people in America… strap in. This is going to be hard to read.

Let’s start with sexual assault. Disabled people are 3 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than abled people.

Disabled people also don’t have the ability to marry people that they love and keep their disability benefits and free healthcare. They have to choose the person they love, or their ability to have their medical needs met. Because in this country, they can die if they lose ins

A bankrupt millionaire can keep their mansions and cars, but a disabled American isn’t allowed to have more than 2000 dollars in assets. They are forced to live well below the poverty line, or they lose their insurance and disability payments.

A rarely talked about issue that my sister suffered from constantly was getting random letters from the social security office informing her that her benefits were removed and she had to refill completely. For people who are bedridden and completely reliant on others this is bad.

The amount of emotional stress the SS office would put on her, and her ability to feed her kids was sickening. Her life was already so painful, and she would have to call me crying because she couldn’t feed her children and had no idea when she would get her benefits back.

Processing can take months, and for some disabled people, they can’t have that amount of time with no income or insurance.

Accessibility is still a massive issue. Especially in larger older cities where businesses were grandfathered in to not have to update their code to give ramps and access. Disability parking spot laws are rarely enforced, and people think they are entitled to them.

Disability processes take months and when my dad was diagnosed with dementia when I was 16 we almost lost our home waiting for social security to get it done, all because we care more about not helping “fake” disabled people than we do helping disabled people.

Disabled people are still made fun of. The r-word is still used regularly, and so is variations of calling people “libtard” “fucktard.” So much so that my disabled son, who gets called that regularly school, hates himself and thinks he’s stupid.

Disabled people can lose so much on a whim. They live in constant fear of making ends meet. They are not given access, safety, security, or care.

We should all be ashamed of ourselves for how we treat them in society. We must demand better of our government. They need our help.