This is a tweet I shared last year. If you were around me in 2023 you know I’ve been through mega fucking piles of fucking ableist wank bullshit. (And yes, that’s the nicest way I can put it.)

I’m starting a blog post on an “unacceptable” topic:

What if I don’t want to work anymore?

Let’s see where the writing takes me.

— Vanessa Smith (@normal_ness) July 23, 2023

Tweet reads:

I’m starting a blog post on an “unacceptable” topic: What if i don’t want to work anymore? Let’s see where the writing takes me.

But what if I don’t want to expose myself to ongoing trauma anymore? By and large, working is traumatic for disabled employes. There are so few employers who are actually non discriminatory. I fear what will happen if my current job doesn’t get more funding and I’m let loose back onto the job market at the end of 2024. I know I will be exposed to all the microaggressions again (and again). I will be expected to smile through it, to not make a fuss, and to be a compliant little disabled person. (FYI, I’m bad at that.)

People love to talk about what is REASONABLE.

So why is it considered reasonable to expect people with disability to constantly expose themselves to this?

Is constant abuse and harassment reasonable? Most… um, reasonable people, would say no.

So why are we expected to work, to expose ourselves to this?

What if I don’t want to anymore?

(This is one small example of the different things that you have to face when you have a disability or disabling health condition, and this is not meant to say example is the only and/or worst thing. It is me sharing an experience of mine and me wondering why I am expected to try to fit into a world that won’t try for me.)

Harassment:

With thanks to Twitter user aliciaandrz in this article for being the trigger of me looking deeper into “harass”. The following part of their article really resonated with me with regards to what I went through job hunting: