Winter Jo   ❄️

for fucks sake

why isnt there like... a class on known disabilities in school

literally, i just learned about Visual Snow, something that i feel like i should've known is A Thing for ages and ages, not all disabilities are visible, why the fuck are we not increasing awareness of them???

knowledge of these things *allows* people to understand and/or anticipate them, it also decreases the whole "you're just making this up" since whatever you learn in school often is more trusted than whatever people learn "random people" to trust for

seriously, some people live with this shit, and nobody knows about it

literally 1 or 2 classes, just listing the various types, or the various categories, or the ways people *can* have disabilities, would be immensely helpful

arghhhh

Mar 13, 2024 at 11:43amWeb
Show threadWinter Jo   ❄️Mar 13, 2024

i remember having *one class* about the effects of smoking and drinking back in middle school, on what it does to your brain, and that has shaped me ever since to never smoke and only ever take small amounts of alcohol, i remember all kinds of small bits i learned in high school, about random things, which shaped my view of the world

why the fuck is this not a thing that is included?????????

Show threadSteph 😈💜🏳️‍⚧️Mar 13, 2024

@ShadowJonathan to be fair, visual snow syndrome hasn't been described for all that long. It was first described in 2015: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_snow_syndrome#Timeline

But ya, there is definitely a gap in education here.

Visual snow syndrome - Wikipedia

Show threadlucretiaMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan some people live with this shit and don't even realise that *they* have it because it's never been described properly.

I thought everyone just had all this shit in their field of vision and this was normal.
Show threadWinter Jo   ❄️Mar 13, 2024
@lucretia ? what'd you have?
Show threadlucretiaMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan as far as I can tell, Visual Snow. I heard it described by someone on fedi a while back, and then I looked it up, I just assumed all this visual noise was how everybody's vision functioned.
It's not really impairing in any way for me, it's more inconvenient than anything. I know it's often associated with migraines which luckily I haven't had to deal with for many years now.
Show threadWinter Jo   ❄️Mar 13, 2024
@lucretia ahhh okie :3
Show threadcatraxx Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan Fuck i just realized i have this. I didn't even know this is not how everyone sees the world. I always thought it was just like ... dust or something ...
Show threadVi Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan I’ve had to teach so many people about visual snow, I even did a talk at my work about it and the accessibility issues it causes for websites, so few people know about it 
Show thread Anne C.A. BaanenMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan hmm now i wonder if there's also a name/concept for the thing i have when there's a lot of close together parallel lines, like a wall covered in lines 1cm apart, and they start doing weird things to my vision like they're z-fighting
Show threadvxoMar 13, 2024
@Vierkantor @ShadowJonathan I don't know if there is but that happens to me when I get a really bad migraine headache, usually accompanied by a wave of vertigo and nausea
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseApr 1, 2024
@ShadowJonathan @vxo @Vierkantor same, even tho not as much the vertigo and nausea. It’s for me either an indicator that I’m getting a migraine, or that I’m pretty sleep deprived.
Show threadcoolbean (account has been reverted to before we moved back to this instance)Mar 13, 2024
@Vierkantor @ShadowJonathan probably unrelated but what my brain immediately jumps to when i hear patterns of dense parallel lines is moiré patterns
Show threaderin // EileenMar 13, 2024

@ShadowJonathan oh, til, thanks.

one more “the normal amount is zero” thing to add to the list.

Show threadabtmtr.link: FURRY REVOLUTIONMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan what is visual snow
Show threadRobin Syl 🌸 Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan ffs I have visual snow and have gone to doctors, opticians, etc about it and none of them know about it? I only found it myself on wikipedia
Show threadPhoenix Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan so much this. And the culture around such. For instance, My “parents” were the type who would complain anytime someone parked in be disability parking spot without basically being obvious they couldn’t walk. Hell they’d get pissy if they saw them getting themselves out of a wheelchair.
And the intense ableism around other disabilities too. Holy crap. I credit them with me not realizing I’m autistic for so long and for masking so hard.

All that to say, I agree. The public culture needs to change and education is an important but largely missing aspect
Show threadcafkafkMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan and and and can we also have a class where they say trans people exist could have saveed me alot of years tbh
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseApr 1, 2024
@ShadowJonathan @cafkafk yes please… and asexual and aromantic people too, and actually any queer identity, especially the less well known ones.
Show threadjulek Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan as far as visual things go, even astigmatism is so overlooked... i personally can't use many dark mode interfaces because they get too blurry and see lens flares on stuff like car lights even with glasses and i always feel so ashamed when yet another person is like "eww white mode" ​​ and we could also get into how eye problems are one of the most common disabilities and yet glasses and other medical equipment like good quality magnifiers cost so much... but that's a different conversation

i have other physical disabilities too, which affects my mobility and constitution. i used to be a promising athlete as a kid but when i hit my teens, my health got worse and worse and i got through all the typical accusations, even from doctors - that i'm attention seeking, making it up, that it's growing pains, that it's my fault because i don't exercise/go outside/take care of myself well enough (i stopped doing these things because of my illness progressing), that it's psychosomatic and once i get antidepressants and therapy it'll go away, that i don't actually need mobility aids and am faking etc. only after 10 years of this i got an actual diagnosis of anything, and that's only of my muscle pain

making life not suck for disabled people or at least suck way less would be so easy if more people actually knew things and cared about them ​​
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseApr 1, 2024
@weneda @ShadowJonathan I used to be one of the “ew light mode” people years ago, now I use it myself because it helps me feel more awake in the mornings, and helps me mentally separate work/studying from free time because I turn on dark mode when I’m finished getting stuff done for the day.
Show threadSatan - PaulMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan yup
But school isn't for educational purposes, so lol. Fuck schools and teachers.
Show threadLuna Dragofelis ΘΔ moved to @[email protected]Mar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan I had a foot defect and would get pain after walking a longer distance. Teachers just assumed I lied and was just too "lazy" to walk.

Turns out there *was* a foot defect, and it urgently needed surgery by the time it was diagnosed.
Show threadValdusMar 13, 2024

@ShadowJonathan I got lucky and found out my vision was weird in 2012, and learned it was visual snow in 2016, but I get what you mean. One issue is that there are simply so many rare diseases, the something like 20% of people have one, but they're probably the only person you'll meet who has that particular issue.

It would definitely be good to have standard practices to raise awareness of more common disabilities so people can at least know they exist, but we also just need way more cultural acceptance that lots of people just have weird issues they have to deal with.

Show threadalmibeMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan It seems very similar to why we need sex education to give people the words to explain abuse. People can't ask for help if they don't know something is wrong or don't know how to communicate the problem.
Show threadFay 🏳️‍🌈Mar 13, 2024

@ShadowJonathan yeah...

I have a severe sleep disorder. doctors kept telling me it doesn't exist, despite overwhelming scientific support. finally got a diagnosis after 15y... only for my university to deny me my legally required accommodations because they never heard of it and just... refused.

Show threadCloverMar 13, 2024
@ShadowJonathan yeah, even milder things like astigmatism (at least mine is fairly mild, and is also diagonal so letters aren’t too hard to distinguish like in horizontal astigmatism), I only learned about me having it a few years ago after watching a YouTube video describing it, I thought everyone had cool lens flare on all the lights at night
Show threadOctavia Con Amore  Succubard's LibraryMar 13, 2024
@Clover @ShadowJonathan wait, diagonal vs horizontal is different!? I guess I need to delve further into astigmatism 
Show threadCloverMar 13, 2024
@OctaviaConAmore @ShadowJonathan yeah, the eyeball is either squished horizontally or vertically, or both, when it’s both it becomes diagonal and if it’s more vertical squish than horizontal you get it like mine which like, mostly vertical but tilted like 30 degrees
Show threadOctavia Con Amore  Succubard's LibraryMar 13, 2024

@ShadowJonathan Exactly! For visuals, I have astigmatism, which I didn't know even existed until 4 or 5 years ago, but more importantly, neurological stuff like ADHD or depression. Untreated, they're hellish to live with, and half the trauma related to them were from how a society that couldn't recognised them for what they were treated me  (i.e. like the symptoms were a moral failing on my part  )

Having them be part of the standard carriculum would do wonders for everyone 

Show threadChris Mar 14, 2024
@ShadowJonathan when I was a kid I was shown a documentary about an autistic boy. I got entirely the wrong impression from it and it took me about 30 years after that to realise that it applied to me. To be fair, though, when it comes to retroactively diagnosing my ancestors I mainly went via visible/observable comorbidities.
Show threadKaiiakMar 14, 2024

@ShadowJonathan

Doesn't seem like a full class thing but yeah I'd love to see a unit of disabilities and how to treat people with said disabilities in a more general course, like a sorta "social ed"

Show threadPau AmmaMar 15, 2024
@ShadowJonathan The reason why there isn't is likely the same reason why it so often falls on PWDs to educate the TAB: ableist privilege.
Show threadeena meena meMar 15, 2024
@ShadowJonathan in this context, i would like to bring up this https://chaos.social/@afelia/112084342668484828 but especially, https://eldritch.cafe/@Teskariel/112084575842511429
Marina Weisband (@[email protected])

Ich erinnere daran, dass es völlig normal ist, dass manche Menschen an einigen Tagen einen Rollstuhl brauchen und an anderen nicht. Ein Mensch kann mit Rollstuhl in den Supermarkt und aufstehen, um was aus dem Regal zu holen. Nichts daran ist "vorspielen" oder sowas.

chaos.social