disabled people have talked already about how inappropriate it is to touch or grab their mobility aids. but less often i think do people know how to act if they were asked to hold, retrieve, or touch someone's aid (such as crutches or canes as these are the aids i have used and am familiar with)
being friends, family, or partners with a disabled person doesn't grant permission to touch their aids at any time. furthermore having permission to touch an aid - to hold it, pick it up, or retrieve it etc - doesn't give permission to touch or play with them as you please. while keeping in mind that different people's boundaries will vary, here are some things not to do with someone mobility aid:
don't fiddle, stim, or play with it
don't wave it or swing them around
don't hold it by the handle the owner uses to utilize it
do not use the device
do not "test it out"
do not lean your weight on it
[in the case of crutches] do not use them to hop or otherwise take your feet off the ground for fun
try not to drop them or make them unclean
do not adjust any settings
do not use them as a weapon or play-weapon
do not walk immediately behind the air user/out of sight
try not to flip them upside down
what you should do instead:
return the aid immediately when asked. no delays because you were not done with them
hold the aid(s) upright, out of the way from other people by the main body
ask before touching or negotiate times when it is okay to grab without asking (such as if they have been dropped or are falling)
give the aid user increased space and distance to use them safely
try to make sure you aren't forcing an aid user to walk on a sloped path (such as on the pavement/sidewalk)
most importantly, don't take someone's boundaries around their mobility device personally, regardless of how close you two are. disabled people deserve autonomy over the things that support and supplement their body functions just as much as their own body.
Autonomy without accountability is useless. You're free. Free for what? Free to do what? We need to specify. You're not free to fly like a bird and fall like a stone. You're not (always) free to travel without a visa.
Direction is important with freedom.
If you want autonomy you have to be accountable for something. The reverse is also true: If someone holds you accountable for something, they should give you autonomy.
U.S. Just Threatened To Restrict Aid To Ghana For Passing Anti-LGBTQ Bill!
Context: This explains how the U.S has no real intention of the liberation of queer communities but likes to pretend it does by playing the white savior.
It's really hard to understand what is and isn't bodily autonomy when it comes to social pressures. Do people want to alter their bodies or are they being pressured into it... but really, there is no such thing as an authentic individual self that can make these decisions free of pressure. We are social pressure, it's part of us just like our bodies
You are allowed to be flawed. You are allowed to be vulnerable. You are allowed to be a complex individual with many layers beneath the surface. You are allowed to have opinions that don't agree with the status quo. You are allowed to live & take up space however you need to. You are allowed to speak your mind. You are allowed to keep your peace of mind protected. You are allowed to cultivate a definition of life you can agree with.
reading a paper on quality of life among 45-to-70-year-olds with Down syndrome:
“Individuals expressed a desire to be allowed to go to bed when they wanted to.”
Another library institution is school libraries, which if not more crucial to a community to a local library are at least equal. School libraries, as with education, can be a great building block and equalizer of the community and the current racial, economic, social, and other divides in our communities by bringing people together and expanding their horizons.
The city of Chicago has a lot of diversity with a portion of it having to do with it’s large immigrant communities. Separate from their history, the people of Chicago and from around the world come to see the renowned museums mixed with avid sports fans, corporations and religious organizations. But for a community with so much action and so many people working hard and creating, there are apparently few school libraries. While people can pretend the age of smartphones, video games, and ereaders are partially to blame and make this change okay, from 2013 to 2017 the school libraries decreased by 65% (from 454 to 157)(1). This drop has been noted by students, some who didn’t even know school libraries were a thing and it’s a bigger deal than even they may understand. Similar to local libraries that can be centers of community, education, exploration, personal and community growth while promoting opportunities; school libraries do all that earlier on while also introducing children to reading. By introducing students to libraries earlier in their school years and as a part of education where they can choose their path, learning about different people’s stories and encouraging them to see reading as an expansion of their lives and can be a guide to their futures. Even something as simple as a library cart can make a world of difference, but I hope Chicago continues to work to bring back their school libraries for now and for all of our futures.
(1) https://www.saveschoollibrarians.org/chicagoschoollibrarians