Stop Neglecting Disability Rights in Your Activism

(Based on my Twitter threads from 10/18/22.)

Today showed further proof that even some of the most beloved leftists don’t care about disabled people or disability rights. We’re not even part of the conversation. We’re meant to assume you’re not including us in your takes. And you get mad when we remind you that we exist.

Don’t forget about us in the first place. Definitely don’t get defensive and lash out when we ask you to be more inclusive and consider us in your takes about services we depend on to survive. Victim blaming and calling us sensitive is not activism, though it is (sadly) leftist.

If disabled people are inconvenient to your stances on worker’s rights, maybe you need to rethink your activism and how not to throw one marginalized (and often overlapping) population under the bus to help another. Disabled people are also suffering physically and financially.

I think a lot of disability rights dismissal comes from the seemingly pervasive and ignorant perception that disabled people are valued, protected, and supported and we don’t need activism regardless of how clear we are about that being a liberal/Dem fantasy used to neglect us.

Leftists either fall into the fantasy of believing disabled people are supported (perhaps even getting amazing perks) or, like most, don’t think about us at all or see us as humans with needs. Leftists should be allies, should be supportive of us, but they continually aren’t.

It’s not even a little bit of a surprise when this happens, but I still seem to find a way to feel discouraged and disappointed every time. I kept hoping to see leftists shift on this as we put in the labor to educate them, but they just double down and get defensive instead.

Not only are we forgotten, but when we remind them that we exist, they make it clear that our survival needs make us enemies hurting the cause, not victims of the same system who deserve advocacy too.

And/or we’re actively targeted and singled out as enemies for things like needing straws. And told we should be willing sacrifices to their ableist attempts at activism.

It’s way easier to attack the vulnerable and oppressed than the actual enemy: the people with power, the capitalistic system. And it’s not effective activism to neglect and sacrifice us either. It won’t change anything except make our lives worse.

They don’t care how complex this issue is and how much shit we get for being forced to participate in harmful systems to survive. We’re all victims here. Advocate for all of us or no one. We exist and matter too. Stop making us the villains or saying we’re not relevant.

The reason I get so angry about this is that leftists have some of the most potential to be our allies (we have so few), and even they not only neglect us but actively harm and contribute to ableism and toxic attitudes about us. When we try to educate in good faith, they usually attack.

When almost everyone that’s part of a movement neglects something and/or acts harmfully around something (i.e., leftists and disability rights), I will consider that to be a defining feature of that group. Even if they claim to be inclusive. Even if some members are exceptions.

When even the leaders and figureheads of the group model bad behavior, are ableist and harmful, I especially don’t want to give the group my benefit of the doubt that the harm is the exception, not the rule. How badly we’re treated when we try to educate is further proof.

And yeah, I’m going to be especially hard on the people who claim to support things like diversity, equality, and civil rights but then intentionally exclude and hurt specific marginalized populations because they’re in denial, don’t want to care, don’t want to listen to us.

Leftists (and really all social justice activists — liberal, Democrats, etc.) either need to start hearing us and be much more inclusive of disability rights going forward or they shouldn’t claim to care about things like equal rights, worker’s rights, and fighting capitalism. Disabled people exist and we need allies who genuinely care about those things and want to fight with us.