10/11/2025
“I don’t know how to have this conversation, but I am going to try. To be honest, I struggle to verbalize how I feel about this. For a few months I’ve been trying to write this post, let’s see if I can make it happen today. I foresee a lot of people putting words in my mouth with what I’m about to say.
Disability is vast. Sometimes it’s physical, some times it’s mental. Sometimes it impacts you greatly, sometimes you can find coping skills to manage it. Sometimes it gets worse with age. No matter what the disability is, it’s stigmatized.
People forget, you aren’t just born with disabilities. All it takes is 1 stroke, 1 car accident, 1 assault…and you may find yourself disabled. Nobody is safe from becoming disabled, it’s part of life. The thing is, it seems to be is socially acceptable to ostracize the disabled.
America loves their veterans. What happens to vets when they become disabled? They are frequently ostracized. What percentage of homeless vets are disabled, physically or mentally? Over half of them.
We know neurodivergent individuals struggle with addiction. For those seeking treatment, around a 5th to a 3rd are recorded to show signs for adhd…and that’s just one diagnosis. Autistic people are significantly more likely to struggle with substance a use. Monotropism and addiction go hand in hand. But we don’t want to support the root cause of addiction, it’s more fun to demonize them.
Look just at the homeless community. Research suggests that autism prevalence is around 12.3% to 18.5% depending on the homeless population, compared to 1–2% in the general population. Society has failed these people, and then demonizes them for being homeless.
The thing is, everyone loves to pretend they accept those with disabilities. Except, it’s only when they mask their traits. Ask an autistic person what happens to their group when they get overstimulated and have a melt down. Ask what happens when they started to unmask. People tend to leave when the autism presents. A lot of autistic individuals do not have a strong support network, and if you don’t have one….it just takes 1 layoff, and you may find yourself homeless.
I’m sure you see it on my page. I spend hours every day advocating for marginalized communities, communities that I’m not part of. In response, I see members from these same communities step into my comments and use ableism as an insult. The “they are mentally disabled”, the resurge of “retarded”, being used, the “Tard” suffix is plentiful. The same communities I stand for, use my community as an insult. Every community weaponizes ableism, it’s even found with low support needs disabled folks.
It’s not just a social stigma. Remember a little over a decade ago, Goodwill was in hot water. It was released that they seek out high support need individuals to work in their warehouses. They would pay them worse than a server, only 1-2 dollars an hour. There are legal loopholes that allow you to pay disabled people less.
Then when the public called goodwill out, how did they respond? They said this was a good thing. Claimed that they are saving the families money, because they are just babysitting. By employing disabled people, it saves families money on caretakers. The company that sells donated items, makes billions annually, won’t even pay high support need folks server wages…and then acts like it’s charity.
What happens if 2 people on disability get married? Disability is taken away. Disabled people aren’t allowed to receive support, if they find love.
Even look at disability organization. Autism speaks for example. What is their message? It’s not understand, acceptance, inclusion…it’s about “curing” autism. Organization that represent us, do so by demonizing us.
A lot of us that need the most support, are currently on the street. The same people that you refuse to look at. The people that just couldn’t find support. The people society failed.
I look around at the various activist I know…nearly all of them are neurodivergent. We know that we are being left behind, but that doesn’t stop us from speaking up for others…
I just wish people spoke up for us as well.”
~Author unknown
