Aargh Ableds* *headdesk*

[davidgillon]

Twice in five minutes twitter has had me not just *facepalm*ing, but full-on head-in-hands over abled attitudes to disability access.

First up were a bunch of pedestrianisation/sustainable transportation advocates arguing public transport meant no one needed cars. Someone had already made a point about public transport not meeting their needs that was probably disability related, so I pointed out mass transport fails as an access solution for disabled people because it doesn't address the mobility barriers between stop and destination. Not the built environment, but the physical environment of how far is it and how steep is the slope that determine accessibility if you have very limited ambulant mobility or are a wheelchair user. Not only did I get a general denial that it's an issue, but I had someone arguing that the solution to disability access was e-scooters (I really, really, really wish I was kidding).

And I just read the twitter profile of the main guy (not e-scooter guy), and he's not some random green, he's a senior transportation specialist at the World Bank. FFS!

Then I noticed a thread about the latest edition of the 'D&D Combat Wheelchair' rules. Yes, it's a thing, there are even figures available, and it's a thing that an ungodly number of ableds seem to find threatening in some way. So threatening that someone has actually spent several hours drawing an annoyingly well illustrated cartoon with character 1, in wooden wheelchair saying "Thank god, an accessible dungeon", and character 2 promptly magicking them them into an abled. So the first post in the thread was "Hey, new version is now out," and the second was the cartoon. After which it degenerated into D&D nerds who don't get the point saying but what about Spell X, and people who don't just get the point but know rather more about disability and why the D&D spells are a very limited solution. But seriously, what kind of a abled arsehole posts that cartoon as an immediate response?

Aargh, Ableds*

* Obviously not all ableds, but far too many of them.

Comments

[lilysea]

*see icon for my feelings*

Not to mention that buses without wheelchair restraints aren't safe for wheelchair users

a bus took a corner

and my 150kg powerchair and myself were flung across the bus aisle

and I landed on my left side with 150kg of powerchair on top of me

10 years later I still have major pain issues with my left hip...

Oh, and the bay I was flung into was fortunately empty, but most of the time there would have been a pram/stroller in the bay I was flung into, so a baby could easily have been killed

I made a claim for compensation and it was determined that the bus driver was *driving normally* eg, the bus would have been unsafe for any power wheelchair user under any bus driver...

[davidgillon]

I finally worked out one of the things that was niggling at me in World Bank-guy's points.

He kept making divide and conquer points about cars not being available to all disabled people, and cars themselves being in some way "discriminatory". I finally realised he was either ignoring, or ignorant of, one of the fundamental principles of disability law, that equality doesn't come from equal treatment, but from equal outcomes. So if disabled people need cars for equal access, that's equality, not discrimination, in action.

[jadelennox]

I am very grateful that the YIMBY/urbanist/anti-car folks I follow are adamant at shouting down the "no cars are ever needed" and the "look at this cool building we could make if we ignored elevator code" people, but there's an infuriating number of the shitty ones in a movement I care passionately about.

Bikes are awesome! Cities should design with bikes as first principles, not cars, 100%! And I still can't ride a bike, you utter numpties! Or a scooter, ffs. (Even leaving aside how much "it's great to bike in Amsterdam" doesn't necessarily translate to biking being a viable alternative in Los Angeles during fire season, or to Madrid in August, or to any of the myriad places with a more extreme rainy season.)

(On the other side you have people defending self-driving cars running unregulated through US cities as "important for accessibility," and, like, yeah. But. None of you people give a shit about accessibility, which is pretty clear from the rest of your lives; none of the self-driving cars being proposed is a wheelchair-accessible van; Elon would happily eugenicsize us all into space if he could; and in the long time period between "today" and "100% self-driving cars that people who can't drive at all can use", it would help if you assholes stopped doing everything you can to destroy accessible public transit.)

ETA: re my userpic: do you think those are people who don't know that wheelchair fencing is a paralympic sport for amazing athletes? because fuck anyone who likes swordfighting of any kind and doesn't think wheelchair fencing is the bomb.

[sovay]

So threatening that someone has actually spent several hours drawing an annoyingly well illustrated cartoon with character 1, in wooden wheelchair saying "Thank god, an accessible dungeon", and character 2 promptly magicking them them into an abled.

What the fuck?

[edit] I am not asking for an exegesis of the cartoon, just expressing an opinion on the person who considers it an appropriate response.

[vass]

Very argh. I haven't seen the rules, but 'Combat Wheelchair' is just such an inherently badass concept that it should be popular even with people who don't have personal reason to want to see wheelchair-users represented in adventuring parties.