#Repost @gogreensavegreen

Not so fun fact: my high schools policy for disabled fire evacuation was just to not

This needs to be talked about more, I’m sure my school wasn’t the only shitty one. We had no evac plans for our disabilities. We just had to stand next to the elevator and wait for help to come or for someone to call it drill and send us back, traumatised, to our classes.

When I moved to my college, they had to tell me what a personalised evacuation plan was. When we had a fire drill, my new teacher had to guide me out of the room as I shook in fear from the times we had sat upstairs on the third floor smelling smoke from a kitchen fire and not knowing how big that was or if someone was gonna come get us.

I was lucky, back then, that 2 sixteen year olds were in their last year, and had done this countless times before. They comforted me while I freaked out. That one was a drill. When there were fires, they were small and easily controlled, but when those came I was older, I comforted the younger students as we all stood there with the stench of burning filling our nostrils. Sometimes we’d move up the hall to the hallway balcony areas and lean over to see if the cafeteria was the culprit. We’d text friends outside asking for explanations, updates. Was it real, was it drill, where is the fire?

Sometimes I find myself beating myself up. Sometimes I say there was never any real threat, stop being dramatic.

But that’s not fair, no teenagers, no children, should have to spend a day every few months in fear waiting for a fire that might not be there. It’s cruel and it’s fucking lazy.

actually i think we need to talk about how lonely and isolating it is to be young and chronically ill. of course being older and unwell is no picnic either, but there’s something about watching people around your own age live their lives as normal that stings. everyone i know my age is working, studying, exercising, travelling, going out for walks, for drinks, to dance or to see a film or buy groceries, making new friends and learning new things and trying new hobbies, just existing in public in a way that i am not able to do. i am stuck, here, feeling like i can’t grow up while everyone else around me gets to have these normal experiences. of course i know i am not the only disabled twentysomething on the planet, but the knowledge that most people my age are reaching milestones that are just beyond my reach makes me feel isolated, helpless, and ultimately, alone.

reblog if you think sign language should be taught as a language in schools.

Credit: @pet_foolery

Did you know?

Searching for Cane Decorating (as in the mobility aid) gets you pages of results for Christmas craft videos. Even specifiying by adding the term "disability" or "mobility" still leaves you with a bunch of DIY home decor with cane webbing, for some reason.

So! Here's some videos to get you started on making your mobility aid reflect your personality:

First is this video featuring a lot of general discussion around mobility aids and being disabled, but does feature large sections for making your aids work for you in a fashionable way--including how to wear heels while using a cane!

Next, we have this short and sweet (under 5 mins.) aesthetically pleasing video on decorating a cane, that's not just using stickers or bedazzling. It's quite a unique end-product that I haven't seen with other mobility aid customizations.

EDIT NOTE: while the above creator is femme presenting, the result is pretty gender neutral and looks like a high fantasy elf's cane!

This is another video for decorating that isn't just stickers and bedazzling, but it's much longer than the previous vids with a lot of the YouTuber (Voice Actress Cari Favole) talking about their life and disability in the first 14 minutes before starting the customization.

Last off, is this video review about just buying a walking stick that is already fashionable and customized for you.

Do you know any other videos about making your mobility aid work with your fashion & personality that you love? Feel free to add them below!

Okay this is gong to sound condescending on several levels but:

There's a kind of cliche about training a dog - that if you want it to always come when it's called, you should never scream at or punish it when it does. Even if you just spent twenty minutes getting increasingly panicked thinking it was dead in the woods! Even if it had been trampling through the neighbors garden! It is very important that it's direct association is 'stopping whatever super interesting thing I was doing to go back to human = being praised and rewarded'. If the association is instead being screamed at or punished, the dog will be less enthusiastic to stop whatever fun thing it's doing to run to that.

I feel like a great many people would noticably improve their own lives if they started applying the same logic to how they treated other humans.

Elizabethan Peasant 1: Look yonder! Someone has writ upon that ceiling that thou art most easily gulled!

Elizabethan Peasant 2: More fool they, for I cannot read.

Elizabethan Peasant 1: *sighing, lowers his visage unto his palm*

physically disabled people should be allowed to do activities that might cause a flare up or illness without other people acting like the time they need to recover is no longer owed to them.