Disablism is in my view the organized and determined use of power to prevent people with disabilities from becoming full members of society…. Disablism is an organized and conscious affair. It differs from ableism which is simply a fear and misunderstanding about disability. The person who wants to pray for me on the public bus is an ableist.

On invisible disabilities: I’ve seen a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence that students with invisible disabilities receive a lot of disrespect and refusal for legally required accommodations in American universities and colleges. For example, being told by a professor to drop a class because they won’t offer extra time for a test or allow someone to tape record lectures. I imagine problems with workplace accommodation are similar in frequency, but less likely to be heard about unless they lead to major litigation.

If I can’t find a theoretical reason for using a term, I tend to go with the shorter word. :)

school was an extreme struggle for me and i was essentially expelled for how i dealt with it. meaning they sent me to a school for kids with drug and “behavioral” problems because i slept through class because it was too hard to deal with. the school they sent me to treated me terribly and made my anxiety much worse.

i was afraid to tell anyone at school about my anxiety problems because i felt embarrassed and thought they wouldn’t understand. i was given no help at all.

all of this has been extremely difficult to deal with and in many ways has ruined big chunks of my life.

i feel amazing knowing there are teachers out there who care reguardless of whether your disability is visible or not.