disabilityhealth:

thejusticethatissocial:

[Image description – a series of tweets by @EbThen that say:

I should’ve gone to bed before the Stephen Hawking news broke.

Seeing a headline describing him as having “overcome” a “debilitating disease” to “publish books on the mysteries of the universe” is making me grumpy.

Stephen Hawking was an exceptionally privileged white English man who had access to the necessary supports to successfully navigate a world that puts little importance on making itself accessible. 

I mean, he did pretty amazing stuff but it wasn’t amazing because he had ALS and used a wheelchair and AAC. Those are just things.

The amazing stuff Stephen Hawking did was amazing because he thought and said amazing things.

Stop being amazed that a few Disabled people do awesome world-changing stuff. Start wondering why more of us don’t.

It’s not because a wheelchair and AAC somehow get in the way of doing theoretical physics. It’s because a lot of us deal with ridiculously huge access barriers.

Also stop only valuing Disabled people who do awesome world-changing stuff. We don’t need to be supercrips to be worthwhile.

Disabled people are allowed to be normal schlubs and not be treated like that means we’re failures.

When you write a headline that implies ALS, a wheelchair and machine-facilitated speech are natural and expected barriers to being a successful scientist, you’re telling on yourself.

Those circumstances aren’t inevitable barriers to doing all sorts of science.

What’s frustrating is that we’re talking about a Disabled person who had so much opportunity and access to excellent supports and tools and people still talk about that like it’s tragedy.

And I’m thinking how many folks I know could benefit from those things.

Ableism is so fuck exhausting]

Hawking said as much and fought to keep the NHS fully funded in England and he spoke out against Trump trying to dismantle Obamacare.

He was keenly aware that his situation was a best-case scenario. The way the media makes him seem so tragic is frustrating, especially since he was anything but a tragic figure, by his own admission.

But that’s the thing, most abled people tend not to listen to our opinions about ourselves when they can live comfortably within their own false perceptions.