During secondary school, anyone with 100% attendance to school was given a reward at the end of the year. In University, if you had five absences within a 16-week semester, you would be failed on a course. Two failed courses and you were expelled. Creative courses I have applied for recently require almost 100% attendance.… More Why Attendance Policies are Bullshit
Accessibility. This is something that I mention in so many of my blog posts because, as a disabled person, it is one of the things that has a huge impact on my life – but I have never dedicated a blog post to writing about it! So, today that changes! What does accessibility mean? When… More Why being accessible matters, and 6 accessibility tips!
After years of knowing that a wheelchair would be helpful but being too scared to use one, exactly one year ago I bought my first manual wheelchair. So, on my wheelchair anniversary this year, I want to challenge one of the most common things that people are told when they start thinking about mobility aids,… More Using a mobility aid is not giving up
TW: suicide, death, euthanasia Recently I found out that in the Netherlands (and actually some other countries) you can get euthanasia if you have ME. My illness. Since finding this out it has been something I have thought about a lot. There is something kind of strange about finding out that living with my illness… More Euthanasia, suicide and ME/CFS
A couple of months ago I went to a demonstration for the first time since the pandemic started. This demo (by transzorgnu) was organised as the start of a movement to fight against the state of transgender healthcare in the Netherlands. Throughout the many speeches and social media content surrounding the demonstration, I was constantly struck… More Healthcare, ableism and transphobia
Sometimes non-disabled people will ask me, ‘what do you do all day?’ If I don’t work, surely I have to do something. And I always find this question difficult to answer because saying “not much” is not true, even though, often, I haven’t ‘achieved’ anything specific. Some days, all I do is lie in bed… More Crip Time, my timey-wimey disabled existence
I’ve been putting off writing this blog post for the best part of a year now, because I want to do it right. But two pieces of news that came out of the UK last week made me finally stop procrastinating and write. So, today I am going to tackle something that I have only… More Corona virus, the disabled and eugenics
In the Netherlands, there seems to be this idea that self-isolating and following precautions and corona regulations is an individual choice. This isn’t such a surprise, when you look at the Netherlands and see how hyper-individualised everything is, but when it comes to responding to a pandemic, it is not such a successful perspective. And… More Ignoring corona risk: privilege or empowering choice?
I became sick in January 2015, or potentially earlier if I look back over my health records from the years before that. I did not receive an official diagnosis until September 2018. That is almost four years later. This is by no means unusual – in fact, some would consider it a very quick diagnosis… More A diagnosis is an important part of dealing with disability
Did you know that July is Disability Pride month? To be honest with you, I didn’t know for a long time. In fact, I only discovered it last year, and really only engaged with it this year. But what is Disability Pride? And what is there to be proud about when you are disabled? These… More Disability Pride: an introduction