Graded Exercise Therapy for ME/CFS – A Personal Experience I’m standing in the middle of a sports shop for the first time in years, trying on running trainers. Because I am nothing if not predictable when it comes to shoe taste and fashion, I reach across and pick up a pair of black and rainbow… More My Doctor’s ME/CFS “Solution” and What Happened Part 2
“After you told us about your health, we fear that this course would be too much for your body. For that reason, we are unable to give you a spot on the course at this moment”. This is a quote from a longer email I received last week. It was seemingly rejecting me from a… More Disabled People are the Experts on Our Bodies
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?