Carys
@blindandb0ujee
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Underdeveloped main character. Guide dog owner.
Wales, United Kingdom
Joined December 2011
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Pinned Tweet
This is your pre-Paralympics reminder that:
Paralympians don’t have special needs.
Paralympians aren’t handicapped.
Paralympians aren’t differently abled.
They’re disabled. It’s not a dirty word.
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My boyfriend of six years, who has treated me like shit for most of them, has just left me - not for the first time. The last time it felt like my world had been ripped apart. This time it doesn’t. I’m on my way to the pool.
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Them: Excuse me! Would you like a hand crossing? This road is very busy.
Me: That would be great, thank you so much.
Them: How shall we do this? Do you want to take my arm, or shall I take yours?
And that, my friends, is how you offer a visually impaired person assistance.
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I think disabled people should spice it up a bit and start asking for unreasonable adjustments.
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A conversation from today:
Stranger on the bus: So how much can you see then?
Me: Why do you want to know?
Them: I’m just curious.
Me: I can see a bit. Have you had a prostate exam recently?
Them: Sorry?
Me: I’m just curious. I thought we were sharing medical histories.
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‘We don’t have a budget for accessibility’ is very often code for ‘we don’t value accessibility enough to put our hands in our pockets to fund it’.
I said what I said.
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Nobody has a “duty” to work. Not disabled people. Not non-disabled people. Nobody.
That mindset reinforces the idea that your worth in society is based on your productivity under capitalism. It isn’t.
Fuck anyone who tries to tell you that it is.
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You can’t make this shit up. Sign reads: Notice, to use the diabled (yes, diabled) lift, please come upstairs to the buffet and notify a member of staff so that we can turn the power on. Thank you.
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The disabled people/work/benefits discourse currently going on is soul-crushing and my two cents is that I think people who can’t work AND people who can’t be arsed to work are equally deserving of support.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this today but ‘able bodied’ isn’t the opposite of disabled.
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‘Disabled people aren’t our target audience so we don’t need to prioritise accessibility’.
Disabled people account for between 20-25% of the general population. Some of your target audience will be disabled, whether you like it or not. Why are you prepared to exclude them?
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If you use terms like “special needs/special educational needs” or similar, now would be a great opportunity to commit to switching them out for “disabled” ❤️♿️
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It’s a little bit jarring to hear people speaking as if our 2024 summer of sport is done and dusted now that the Olympics are drawing to a close. The Paralympics start in a fortnight. They’re also held in Paris, in case anyone didn’t get the memo.
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#YouMightBeAbleistIf
you ‘don’t see me as disabled’. It’s not a compliment. I want you to see me as disabled, because I am disabled. When you ‘don’t see the disability,’ you attempt to erase a fundamental aspect of my identity.
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@poppyoa
@ShanellShanise
I need to know if she went for the own brand stuff or really splashed out on the boujee sweets
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A concept that non-disabled people often struggle to grasp is that to many disabled people, being called an inspiration is insulting, not complimentary.
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Sharing in case anyone needs a case in point reminder of why many disabled people who may be “fit for work” are unemployed.
Absolutely disgusting ableism from Toby Carvery. This needs calling out and they need boycotting.
#tobycarvery
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Them: That’s a very personal question. It’s not really any of your business.
Me: And how much I can see is none of yours.
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Some tongue-in-cheek unreasonable adjustments (do not shout at me):
- disabled people can smoke wherever we want to, inside or outside
- disabled people go straight to the front of the phone queue at the GP
- we can return anything without a receipt, no time limit
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The takeaway here is don’t be so bloody nosy. Learn to sit with your curiosity and stop asking literal strangers intimate questions about their bodies and medical histories.
I hope the person took some time to reflect after this chat.
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- disabled people who are also plus-size/fat get upgraded to business class on planes for free
- supermarkets must open a new till so that disabled people don’t have to queue for a long time
- free carrier bags for disabled people in the UK
- no passport needed for travel
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In case you’re unaware, July is
#DisabilityPrideMonth
. Take this month as an opportunity to learn. Learn about us and learn from us. Please tag some of your favourite disabled / chronically ill activists, bloggers and creatives below ⬇️♿️
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- if we call into work and say “sorry i’m not coming in today I cba” we get legal protection from being sacked
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I have just sobbed in the car all the way home from the pool where I not only went for a swim, but was treated with so much kindness, dignity and respect. Elmo was welcomed on poolside with no issues whatsoever.
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Overheard in the bus station:
“Mammy! That’s a guide dog! They help blind people and we can’t touch them when they’re working”
Kids get it. More than some adults.
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The ‘don’t let your disability define you’ mindset is a toxic one often perpetuated by both abled and disabled people alike.
It’s cool if YOU don’t want to be defined by YOUR disability. It’s not cool to come down hard on me because I AM defined by mine.
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Hey service providers,
I’m really sick of saying this, but if a visually impaired person approaches you to request documentation in an alternative format, ‘don’t you have someone who can read it out to you?’ is never an appropriate question to ask.
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Today in People Being Good: Train packed to bursting, no seats, loads of people standing. I’m standing in a corner with the dog. Very confident lady starts strutting up and down the carriage demanding to know who is going to move so that I can sit down. I have a seat now.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this today but alt text should NOT contain phrases like ‘image of’, ‘picture of’. It’s redundant info - especially for screen-reader users.
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So many people in the replies outing themselves as folks who believe disabled people were put on this planet to satisfy their curiosity lmao. Gross.
Today in a cafe, the man serving asked "What's that?" pointing at my face and then "What's wrong with you?"
It's not even the first time this week that this has happened.
Having your body very loudly and publicly labelled as 'wrong' is intensely painful & embarrassing.
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Designing for accessibility only seems hard because you’ve spent so long in an industry where exclusionary design is the default.
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One year ago today I got the life-changing call from
@guidedogs
that I’d been waiting two and a half years for. They had a dog who was looking like a potential match for me. My Elmo ❤️🦮
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I feel bloody awful for doing it but I have contacted the market to let them know about the issue I had accessing the brow bar last week with my guide dog.
I have asked them to remind all traders that allowing access to these dogs is a non-negociable and has been for decades.
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Dear non-Disabled people,
Now is a really good time to re-evaluate the associations you make between productivity and value. Many of you who deem disabled people ‘lazy’ for being unable to work are now in the exact same position. You have a lot to think about.
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#DisabledTwitter
, what are some of your favourite (awful) platitudes that have been thrown at you in an attempt to excuse or justify inaccessibility? My favourite has to be ‘we don’t get many blind people here.’
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This reminds me of the time when a miserable old bastard of a man got on the bus, saw me in the priority seat, clicked his fingers and said “up you get now love, it’s your eyes that don’t work, not your legs”.
Needing extra space doesn’t always have a “look”.
Healthy young people please fucking stop sitting in priority seats on tubes and buses also don’t sit in the seats where the mums with buggies need to sit - and if I ask you to move so a v old man can sit down - don’t tell me to fuck off - you can fuck off - ok
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@chloeltear
@northernassist
@guidedogs
To not even grant you the basic human courtesy of at least asking you if he could pet Dezzie is quite despicable, really. I’m so sorry so many people have such poor manners.
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FYI, ‘we didn’t have the time to find disabled actors’ is code for ‘representation wasn’t our main priority’. A lack of representation doesn’t happen by accident.
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I don’t know about any other disabled people but personally I am forever flitting between wishing we were represented more in the media and being so repulsed by the way the public talk about us when we are in the media that I actually wish we were represented less.
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I think using blind people for content and excluding us from accessing the pictures in said content is a bit rude, personally. Where’s the alt text?
🚨 NEW: The guide dog in the Commons belongs to the new Lib Dem MP for Torbay Steve Darling, who is registered blind
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People don’t ‘suffer’ from disabilities. The suffering comes from ableism. The deep-rooted societal belief that disabled people are worth less by default.
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'It must be so awful being blind'
Let me make this clear: Living with a disability is not awful.
What IS awful, is living with a disability in a world that is filled with inaccessibility and discrimination.
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Something about Rosie Jones has never really sat all that well with me. I’m appalled by the title of her documentary and am upset that so much feedback from other disabled people on why it is unacceptable has been ignored as if our opinions are worthless.
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In Tesco buying some snacks.
Child: Mammy, why does that lady have a stick?
Parent: She can’t see very well. The stick helps her find things that she might trip over.
I’m very impressed with this interaction. Parents, please take note.
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What a lot of people don’t seem to realise is that the whole idea of ‘you can’t have this reasonable adjustment until you prove your disability’ is not new to us over here in the disabled community. This isn’t ‘just’ about masks.
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Strange and unsettling experience with a sight loss charity that I volunteer with.
Myself and another blind volunteer aren’t allowed to fundraise without a sighted person being present to “keep us safe”. This is a health and safety policy.
Thoughts?
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Braille and large print menus at restaurants. There is no excuse not to have them in 2020. Yes I absolutely will die on this hill.
Disabled people, what are some easy/simple accessibility fixes that abled society just seems to be ignoring?
Here’s one: It is inconceivable to me that, in the year of our Lord, 2020, there are still buildings I can’t get into because no ramps.
#Disability
#DisabilityTwitter
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This is your daily reminder that disabled people do not exist to:
- educate you
- inspire you
- make you appreciate your own health
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Sia has deactivated Twitter. Not even 7:30 in the morning and today is already shaping up quite nicely indeed.
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@susanpawscom
I put my headphones back in and carried on listening to my music after that because I was bored of the conversation — so he didn’t have much choice. He was definitely very uncomfortable though. Mission successful.
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It took me a long time to unlearn and unpack the idea that my worth in society was measured solely on whether or not I was working. I spent so much time sobbing in bed wanting to end it all because nobody would hire me, despite having a lot going for me on paper.
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A guide dog owner (me), a wheelchair user and someone with a buggy are all on the same bus. The space has been well-designed so that we all fit comfortably and can go on our journey with no fuss. There is enough priority space for us all.
A Christmas miracle.
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Seeing non-disabled people shitting a brick over vaccine passports is a real treat, isn’t it? A gift, if you will. Not keen on handing over your medical info to strangers, eh Karen? What a shame.
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I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if you’re in the camp of people who believe that reasonable adjustments and accommodations are always provided for disabled people in the workplace because ‘that’s the law’, you are very, very naive.
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Today is
#GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay
. May your videos have captions, your images have alt text and your forms have labels and instructions. Check the contrast of your colour pairings and for the love of all that is holy, make it work with a keyboard.
#GAAD
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If disabled people doing normal, everyday tasks inspires you, it’s time to sit down and think about the way you view disability.
‘You’re so inspiring for doing x’ usually translates to ‘I didn’t think you were capable of doing x and I’m shocked that you are’
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There’s a cool bus driver who shouts “I ain’t moving this bus until someone gives this lady a seat” whenever I get on when it’s busy and I love her. True ally behaviour.
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Lots of nasty little goblins all over social media giving really insightful takes like “well if I had a life threatening allergy I would just simply never eat or drink anything I hadn’t prepared myself” in response to this and it’s so jarring lol.
BREAKING: Hannah Jacobs, 13, died after a sip of Costa Coffee hot chocolate due to 'failure to follow allergies processes', coroner rules
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Non-disabled people shouldn’t be delivering disability awareness training.
Also, anti-ableism training has a nice ring to it. I think we should start calling it that. Disability awareness feels a bit too passive.
White people shouldn’t be delivering anti-racism training.
Men shouldn’t be delivering anti-sexism training.
End.
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Just a polite FYI: those ‘Official sources stated that…’ tweets are - as far as I can tell - inaccessible to screen reader users. Yet another trend that excludes us 🙃
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I’ve had another incident where a member of the public has demanded an explanation after being told not to touch my guide dog.
People don’t owe you an explanation of their boundaries. The correct response to “don’t touch him, thank you” is “ok”, not “why not?”
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Please, I beg. Stop putting asterisks (*) in the middle of words in an attempt to ‘hide’ them. It doesn’t work, and has the potential to make your whole tweet inaccessible to screen-reader users. Please pack it in.
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Anyone who doesn’t wish Elmo a happy 4th birthday is getting blocked xx
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Today in “women confidently asserting boundaries” I’ve just been called “aggressive” for telling a man to get his hands off my medical equipment (guide dog). 😇
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Disabled people are under no obligation to be polite in the face of inaccessibility.
Inaccessibility is discrimination.
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In an act of disabled defiance I’ve just signed up for a 12 month membership at the pool that I still haven’t heard back from so that I can pull out the old “I just want to access the services that I’m paying for” line when I turn up there to swim later in the week.
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Asking disabled people to user-test your app or website for absolutely nothing in the way of payment is offensive behaviour.
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I’m self employed now, but for the last few years work hadn’t been high on my list of priorities. I don’t think it ever will be again. I can’t be arsed — and I don’t care if other people can’t be arsed either. I am more than my employment status, and so are you.
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I’ve never followed a religion or considered myself religious but in my darkest moments when I feel most at risk I am drawn to the idea of going to a place of worship to just sit and look for peace. Are you allowed to do that? Like just go to a church if you’re not religious?
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Just a quick reminder that styled fonts often don’t play well with screen reading software. VoiceOver for iOS reads this tweet as ‘racism is banter’. The ‘never’ isn’t read out at all, changing the tweet’s message entirely.
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#DisabledTwitter
, what are some questions you get asked regularly that just make you want to slam your head against a brick wall?
My number one pick is ‘You can see a little, so you’re not ACTUALLY blind, are you?’
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Imagine making brand new trains and actively making the decision not to put wheelchair spaces in first class. Who is the pleb that signed that idea off? In 2020?
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There is so, so much more to creating an accessible website than ‘does it work with a screen-reader?’
Reject the assumption that only blind people encounter barriers when using the Web.
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Non-disabled people will vehemently deny that society devalues disabled people with one breath while saying ‘I can’t think of anything worse than having x disability’ with the next. My eyes don’t work, but I see you 👀
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What are some of your pet hates? Like the really petty pet hates? The more trivial the better.
Mine? When people say ‘on route’ when they mean ‘en route’.
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I think every time a disabled person talks about a TUAG rail assistance fail and some absolute dickhead claps back with “well WHY didn’t you pre-book assistance?” the disabled person should be compensated with a million pounds.
'It's exhausting, I was really angry'
Former Paralympic champion Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson spoke to
#BBCBreakfast
after she had to crawl off an LNER train at London King's Cross - when there was no-one to help her
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I can feel a thread coming on about what does and does not constitute ‘good’ alt text. I see poorly written alt text a LOT in this neck of the woods.
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The pool finally got back to me this morning 🎉
After being chased by the uni, they have sorted out all their policies/risk assessments/red tape and I can swim from the 1st, when my paid membership begins.
A resolution, finally.
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Someone touched the dog while we were walking. The dog got distracted, I lost my footing and walked into my friend’s buggy. I wasn’t hurt but it’s a case in point example of why you shouldn’t touch guide dogs. If that had happened on a set of steps I may have fallen.
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If there was one bit of advice I would give to new guide dog owners it would be to never give advanced warning about your dog. The exception being for hotels and travel. But for restaurants, shops, gyms, pools, etc — don’t tell them. Don’t give them time to create barriers.
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My cane and I can confirm that cobblestone is the root of all evil. Can we keep the straws and ban the cobbles instead?
“Is there anything worse than cobblestone?”
Signed,
A wheelchair user
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What I’m saying is that it’s good to ask people before you touch their animals, but it’s worth considering not asking at all. Your interruption could be a drain on someone’s already depleted social battery. Some guide and assistance dog owners desperately want to be left alone.
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Puffin Books have come under fire this morning for a now-deleted tweet promoting a sequel to Roald Dahl’s “The Twits”.
In an attempt to make characters more revolting, more hideous, more disgusting… someone, somewhere signed off on giving one a prosthetic eye. 🧵
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I feel a very deep sense of shame over how long I spent with a man who would use my disability for his own gains. Sitting right next to me on the sofa using Grindr with the brightness down, believing my visual impairment meant I couldn’t see him doing it. I allowed it to happen.
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Look I’m not particularly proud of myself but today a bloke on the bus bent down to touch the dog, my mouth opened and the words “don’t you know that touching someone’s medical equipment without their consent is a hate crime?” just… flew out of it 🤷🏼♀️
Touching guide and assistance dogs without permission during Disability Pride Month is a hate crime. I don’t make the rules.*
*I made this one.
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A gentle reminder for myself (and any other ill/disabled pals who need it):
My worth is NOT determined by whether or not I have a job.
My worth is NOT determined by whether or not I have a job.
My worth is NOT determined by whether or not I have a job.
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Today there has been a lot of that thing where parents draw their child’s attention to my dog because they’re bored/acting up, the child wanting to stroke my dog, the parent asking me if they can and me saying no. I am begging parents not to use my working dog in this way.
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I’ve just had someone try to tell me that Elmo is untrained, dangerous and a “shit guide dog” because he barked at their dog in the bus station.
Very out of character for him but you can’t expect any dog to be perfect 100% of the time. Even guide dogs get it wrong sometimes.
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Be very wary of disability advocates and activists who do not practice basic digital accessibility.
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I know people mean well when they share sentiments like “you should always ask the owner before touching a guide/assistance dog” and I agree, you shouldn’t touch anyone’s animal without consent. But here’s why I don’t like it and why it doesn’t work for me:
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Queuing in the shop when the woman behind me starts bleating on about how cruel I am for having Elmo out in the rain, because he’s “soaking wet and looking very sad”. I did offer her my details so that she could report the cruelty directly to Guide Dogs but she declined.
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Every day I’m shocked by the amount of people who believe that ableism is simply the act of ‘being unkind to disabled people’. We wish it was that simple, folks.
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People are (rightfully) up in arms about this. It’s a shame there doesn’t seem to be the same widespread anger when it comes to disabled people having to “prove” their disability to access complimentary companion tickets and other necessary accommodations within society.
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Man on bus: *reaching down to touch my dog*
Me: No.
Them: I can’t stroke him?
Me: No.
Them: Why not?
Me: Because I said so.
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