For a lot of Disabled people, posting-as-praxis is what we can do.
I don't have a lot of respect for people who want to denigrate this specific part of community participation.
When I was mostly bedbound and in pain 24/7, it was disabled folks online who bought me stuff from my wishlist that helped me stay alive
And so many folks sent a note saying things I'd written had helped *them* stay alive, suffer less, or finally access a formal diagnosis
Interdependence
And also those notes from people really helped me keep going when I was honestly worried about if I could survive
It helped to know that I could still help people (and they could help me), even from the isolation of no mouth words in the bed in the dark
Also I was so lucky in that I had gotten a formal diagnosis for my immune disorder right before I got so sick
So I could actually access treatment (without navigating medical gatekeeping while sick)
And I wouldn't have gotten any of that care without help from other online disabled activists
yeah!! the disabled community online saved my life too
and others had told me my posts helped them and that was nice too!
i also did a lot of sharing info from bed and now benefit from others doing that hehe. awareness campaigns help and that’s just posting what’s happening. amplifying messages
I started following you on Twitter back when I was a relatively healthy undiagnosed autistic climate activist because you did a thread about disability and climate. (I low-key think now I had peri-onset ME for decades and didn't know it, but I perceived myself as healthy and abled.)
Anyway, though you I had found and followed a bunch of other disabled and chronically ill activists for reasons of solidarity and that was the ONLY reason I had any idea what was happening to me after I got the big sick in February 2020.
Nobody can know what it's going to be them.
