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We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Hi, I'm Zila!

zila

Joined ages ago, never got around to posting. I'm 29, have multiple physical and psychiatric disabilities (such as narcolepsy, phobic anxiety disorder and autism), and these days have a lot more support and accommodations to meet my needs, but it's still tough being a disabled woman in an ableist society with an underfunded healthcare system. I'm hoping to find solidarity and friendship in the community here.

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Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @zila

How are you doing today? Are you managing okay in the heat?

Thank you for making your first post here, it's great to see you active on the community! Thank you also for telling us a bit about yourself and your experiences.

it's still tough being a disabled woman in an ableist society with an underfunded healthcare system

This is something we hear quite a lot from people. What would you say the main challenges you face as a disabled woman in an ableist society are?

I hope that you manage to find solidarity and friendship here. You're welcome to take a look around the community, and get stuck in at your own pace. Here are a few good places to start:

categories page - to see the kinds of topics we discuss
recent discussions - to see what our members are talking about right now
coffee lounge - the home of our casual conversation and games
disability rights and campaigning

If you need any support, please just let us know!

SueHeath

Hi @zila i am glad you've decided to join us, have you been looking around the site yet, you can join in with any of the chats/threads/debates or games.

zila

Thanks for the warm welcome, @Tori_Scope I live in a basement flat, so although it's chilly in the winter it's nice and cool in the summer! Handy for me, as I'm heat intolerant and can't really handle temperatures above 21ºC or so.

The disability-related challenges I face are partly because of my disabilities themselves, but also largely because of lack of understanding from others. This ranges from ignorant comments (a stranger on a bus once pinched my arm and told me I might not need a cane if I lost some weight and prayed to Jesus) to outright discrimination; for instance, I once had a boss who yelled at me for having an epileptic seizure and told me using a mobility aid made me seem unprofessional and untrustworthy. I was also forced to withdraw from university in 2014 because the institution's policies for medical leave created an incredibly hostile environment.

As for issues of underfunding, I've been told it's not worth the money to figure out the cause of some of my health issues because there's "probably no treatment" for them. Others have been diagnosed, and treatment does exist, but it's not available from my local services. I've also been on a waiting list to see for a gastroenterologist for over a year, trying to identify the cause of the chronic nausea I suddenly developed in 2019, which my doctors initially didn't want to investigate at all because it didn't seem like a big enough deal to them.

This post got very long and sad, so to end it on a lighter note, here's my cat! He's an indoor cat, but enjoys venturing outdoors on a harness and lead. We've been enjoying the sunshine out in the garden lately.

Alex_Alumni

What a lovely cat @zila I'm sure he loves your company

I'd just like to add my hello and a warm welcome to the community, it's great to have you join. I'm Alex, and I'm a part-time wheelchair user, with cerebral palsy (CP). Thanks for taking the time to be so open and honest about the ableism and discrimination you've experienced.

I am glad to hear that you have support around you, and that you're able to live more independently, and I know that a lot of members on the forum can relate to the feeling of living in an ableist society, you are not alone here.

Sometimes we can almost become accustomed to these types of attitudes as it happens daily, but it's really not how society should be. I hope you find the community here a supportive and friendly place to spend time.

Let us know if we can help with anything and hope you are staying cool today!

Alex