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American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Pinned Post OMG THIS IS AMAZING the Japanese grammar guide is almost 400 pages 😳 reference i need to get back into having hobbies. im retroactively making this one of my new years resolutions

doberbutts

When I was first in recovery for my brain injury, the physical therapist's office was incredibly mobility-friendly and the majority of people there used wheelchairs. I was paralyzed down my right side due to my neck and back injury from the same car accident so I also was in a wheelchair until I had recovered enough to use a cane instead.

The lights were so bright that I spent the first several weeks of exercises with a towel covering my face as I laid on the bench and my PT worked on me and then I would be driven home to cry for hours in the dark because even with that it was still Too Much Too Loud Too Bright Too Tactile Too Much. At some point, several weeks in, my PT suggested we move to a private room instead of the main exercise area where she could turn off the lights and we could work in the dark instead.

During that period I couldn't talk to advocate for myself so there was no way for me to communicate my needs besides through gestures and grunts and forcing single word sentences out. I couldn't hold a pencil long enough to write and I couldn't look at a screen long enough to type.

So yes actually I have been places where mobility needs are met but no one else's are, and I've also been places where other needs are met but not mobility. Funny enough ableism in society is a weapon used against any and all disabled people and having inadequate accomodations should be a uniting factor between us rather than a dividing point. It sucks to be disabled in ableist society. I think we all know that.

a-polite-melody

I’d also like to add the thing I think about every time people talk about trying to be inclusive to people with mobility issues. Not as a counter to this, but to reinforce that people can have every intention to make something accessible and end up making it accessible for Some People, but still have a space that is ultimately inaccessible to people who weren’t thought about in the process.

My hometown built a new library and as it was being designed it was touted as being super accessible.

When it opened, my grandparents were excited to go, because they frequented the old library and had been missing it while there wasn’t a library in town as construction happened, and there was also a built in area that was specifically meant to be used as a seniors centre.

They get there and immediately there’s an issue. My grandfather was at a point in his life where he was having some mobility issues, but was not yet using a walker (he’d sometimes use a cane), and wasn’t in a wheelchair either. The entire building was built around ramps. Which I’m sure would be perfect if you used a mobility device with wheels! However, what it meant for my grandfather was walking longer distances on slopes to get from one elevation to another, whereas it would have been in some cases maybe three stair steps which he would have been much more able to do had there been stairs included anywhere (there were also whole floor elevation changes, just pointing out the ones that he specifically remarked on.)

Meanwhile, the old library was fewer levels—just two floors rather than a weird multi-tired space with floors above and below that—with stairs and and elevator. It was actually more accessible to people with a wider range of mobility issues than the new one ended up being.

Accessibility will never be a one-size-fits-all thing!

It’s great that mobility needs are actually sometimes thought about in designing buildings, but it’s true that it’s still not enough. That doesn’t mean that other disabilities aren’t also critically underserved because a lack of accommodation for them and extreme lack of awareness that those accommodations even need to exist!

doberbutts

Conflicting needs is the phrase you’re looking for!

For your grandfather, similar to my father, as his body breaks down he needs to walk less. A short staircase is less steps than a gently sloping ramp. What makes it easier for a wheelchair user makes it infinitely harder for someone who is capable of walking, just not walking much.

I will faint if I have to stand still without moving for too long. A long line to gain access to a building, or even just a slammed grocery store with a limited amount of cashiers near a holiday, is much more difficult for me than it is for someone who is already seated.

An elevator is great for everyone except someone who has a panic reaction in small, enclosed spaces, especially those containing strangers in close quarters or those where you can feel the floor move beneath you.

A larger stall is wonderful, but not so much if it means there’s less toilets overall after installing one.

Shorter counters are great until the person whose back literally doesn’t bend needs to use one.

All of these are conflicting needs! And it doesn’t mean that one should be prioritized over the other! It means that there needs to be accommodations for both! There needed to be stairs and elevators and more space-efficient for your grandpa, while continuing to keep the ramp options. A seat, cutting in line, express lanes, or even just fucking hiring more cashiers and scheduling more than just a skeleton crew (retail challenge: impossible) would work for me. Having the option to take a different route besides an elevator doesn’t mean you’re getting rid of the elevator. Designing bathrooms to be more space-efficient and larger overall while keeping an adequate number of toilets and accessible stalls is the correct answer. Having the option for both a shorter counter and a taller one, or making it user-adjustable, would be better than one or the other.

There are times when it is not possible to accommodate everyone due to conflicting needs. That’s not an excuse to not try. Every time this comes up where someone says “well [x need] gets accommodated but never [y need]” my response almost always is “I think it’d be better if both of you had better options actually”. Inadequate accessibility is a thing across all disabilities. We’d do better to demand better rather than telling others that their needs don’t matter as much.

officialcountdooku

cannibalchicken

chariotofgod

daisies-and-bruises

marzipanandminutiae

duncebento

GRADE SCHOOL SJWS stop using social justice language to explain shit to your conservative parents IT’S NOT GONNA GO THROUGH now all they have are some new words to make fun of. don’t tell your mom she’s being fatphobic tell her she’s being a dick

theothin

#Terminology is for when someone has already recognized the existence of the phenomenon #Its a communication shortcut that presumes shared understanding #You need to establish the understanding first

(via @lilietsblog)

officialcountdooku

thesilveregg

I’ve seen people complain about Gwen saying to her dad “you’re a good cop” but I don’t think they understand what that scene actually means. Gwen’s dad is supposed to represent the “good cop”. It’s like Gwen says: he puts on that badge everyday so someone worse than him doesn’t. Pre Gwen’s reveal, he SEEMS like a good person, advocating for bringing peter’s killer to justice. But then he finds out, and in that moment, values the law over his teenage daughter. He even shows it in their reconciliation scene, even after not seeing his daughter for MONTHS, by arguing against Gwen being a vigilante despite the all the good shes done. When Gwen says “you’re a good cop,” she’s not saying “youre a good person” or “youre a good dad”. She’s saying “youre a BAD person. You’re a BAD dad. you value the law over my life, no matter what I do. You’re willing to sacrifice me for what you assume is the greater good, but it’s not even that.”

So he decides not be a good cop anymore.

merganfm

twocarsonenight

it should be illegal to tow a car as punishment and i’m not even kidding

twocarsonenight

you park in the wrong spot somewhere. maybe at a friend’s apartment complex, or at a store when you’re actually walking somewhere else, or whatever. they could ticket you—still charge you a fine for parking where you’re not supposed to. but instead, in a far more crippling way than a fine (which is already hard enough for low income people), they call a third party and steal your car. so you have lost your means of transportation, which you will only learn the next time you need your car, because they don’t have any need or care to notify you.

so first, you have to figure out which towing company they used. which you can only do if the place that decided your car was in the wrong spot is still open, or if you can get someone on the phone.

assuming you figure out which company towed your car, which one time took me over an hour on its own because the number on the signs warning about towing in the parking lot was a dead number, you then have to figure out how to get there. without a car. god help you if you don’t have someone in your support network to pick you up or public transportation, because most of the time it’s at least a mile away.

you find a way to get there, you call them to see if your car is even really there, and they tell you they won’t give your car back until you pay them. how much? well, it’s not regulated, so they can pretty much say whatever number they goddamn feel like. i recently got towed by a company infamous in my college town and they charged me a whopping $180–half of my paycheck for two weeks during the school year. when the same company towed my brother last year, and we both have the same sized cars, they charged him $300. they don’t have to justify the charge, they don’t have any itemized receipt, because what are you going to do? not pay it? you have to get to work and you’re already short on time because you had to walk to the goddamn towing place or have someone come get you to bring you there or spend an hour on the phone with different people trying to figure out where the fuck your car was in the first place.

it’s extortionate. it’s absolutely insane that they can, without exaggeration, steal someone’s car and hold it for ransom under the assumption that you will pay anything to get it back, because of the extent to which our society is dependent on cars.

when i was 18 i had a work event in the downtown of a nearby city. i was freaking out abt running late and couldn't find parking i had never parallel parked before either. so im panicking and driving around trying to find any spot and finally i find one! i park and get to the event on time yay it turns out said spot was in front of someones driveway. which i didnt notice bc i was panicking abt being late trying to get my car back was one of the worst things id ever experienced if my dad didnt happen to be working 5 minutes away at the time i would have been truly fucked i dont even remember how my dad found where my car went bc i was crying so much and then i spent half my weeks paycheck getting it back and that was all bc i had genuinely fucked up!!! and i was so lucky!!! its truly horrible and should Not be a thing imo

uss-edsall

the-meme-monarch

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THERES A CYAN HEART EMOJI NOW 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵 ARE YOU SEEING THIS 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵LOOK🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

pigeonperch

the-meme-monarch

when i said “are you seeing this” i meant it genuinely and it turns out the answer is a resounding no

dovesndecay

guerrillatech

bartfargo

“Can’t have benches; people sleep on those, because we also can’t have affordable housing.”

cthulhu-with-a-fez

lakevida

i feel a sense of loss when i see polls with closed results that i disagree with as if my single vote could have swayed things by 27% if i'd gotten it in soon enough

livebloggingmydescentintomadness

reasonsforhope

Study Shows That Reaching Out to Old Friends Is More Appreciated Than We Might Think

Yes, send that "How's it going?" text!

My Modern Met

“It’s easy to lose touch with friends, especially when you live far apart. And sometimes the longer you’ve gone without speaking to someone, the harder it feels to pick up where you left off. However, a new study suggests that reaching out to pals—especially ones that you have not talked to in a while—is even more appreciated than initially thought.

“People are fundamentally social beings and enjoy connecting with others. Yet, despite the importance and enjoyment of social connection, do people accurately understand how much other people value being reached out to by someone in their social circle?” the study asks. To answer this question, the authors gathered 5,900 participants and put them through a series of experiments.

In one scenario, half of the participants were asked to remember the last time they contacted a friend they had fallen out of touch with, then estimate on a seven-point scale how appreciative the person was (with one being the lowest score, and seven being the highest). Then, the other half of the participants were prompted to recall a time when someone had reached out to them and assign a number to how grateful they were. When these two groups were compared, the researchers found that people greatly underestimated the value of reaching out to someone.

“Across a series of preregistered experiments, we document a robust underestimation of how much other people appreciate being reached out to,” the authors continue. “We find evidence compatible with an account wherein one reason this underestimation of appreciation occurs is because responders (vs. initiators) are more focused on their feelings of surprise at being reached out to. A focus on feelings of surprise in turn predicts greater appreciation.”

In another experiment, participants were told to send a note and small gift to a friend they had not interacted with for a long period of time. They were then asked to estimate on a numerical scale how thankful the person would be because of the contact. Additionally, the receivers of the gifts were asked to rank their feelings upon accepting the gift on the same seven-number scale. Once again, the gift-givers greatly underestimated how much their gesture meant to the other person.

The study concluded that reaching out to people—particularly those that you’ve lost contact with—is almost always appreciated. It can seem challenging to maintain healthy social interactions, especially due to an increased amount of people working from home and a lack of opportunities. But clearly, the evidence suggests that a little extra effort is worth it.

“For those treading back into the social milieu with caution and trepidation,” the study adds, “feeling woefully out of practice and unsure, our work provides robust evidence and an encouraging green light to go ahead and surprise someone by reaching out.””

-via My Modern Met, 7/31/22

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