Back & Busy

It's been a while since I've blogged, I fell really ill in July and I wasn't able to work or do almost anything when I finally got better I just got extremely busy with commissions, vacation planning, starting my new job, and my birthday! Hopefully, I will be back to blog again, I've missed sharing design stuff and just letting off steam through writing. I'll go over everything that's happened in the last two months for this blog then back to normal post next Thursday.

Mid August I went on holiday to Arizona for my friend's wedding! I was only there for a week, it went by quite slowly and every day was super fun, from swimming to amazing food. Sadly first day there BiritshAirways broke my wheelchair, pulled the battery off, and lost my footplate. The Airport in Arizona was so good with me though, they had a replacement for me to use for the week and had it sorted for me by the next morning and paid for my wheelchair to get fixed. Other than that the rest of the holiday was wonderful! My boyfriend, mum and I had such a nice time, the wedding was so beautiful! Congratulations again Cat and Dalton, I'll have to visit you guys again soon!

On the 1st of September, I started my first job! I am a content creator at SENDCode. This is my first official job and I've been loving it. I'm so glad it is with a company I trust and that cares for me and others so deeply, every day is super fun and a new challenge in the office! You'll see blogs about all the fun struggles I have on new projects again, so stay tuned! But it really is a dream workplace with my favourite people.

I plan to be updating my website with my new branding, you'll see my website change over the next few weeks. I want to push myself more as a freelancer and as a creator, my website will be the best place for updates on me and my work. My commissions have been going great, I've been doing things like birthday cards, emotes for Twitch and Discord, and fan art. I have also added more options to my commission sheet:

Lastly, I'm setting up my Discord server and Twitch, I plan to start live streaming again. I have quite an unhealthy habit of bringing work home and not having time to relax, because I started my new job and no one at work wants me to be stressed I need a hobby to get me out of 'work mode'. So what's a more stress-free relaxing hobby than playing horror games in front of a ton of strangers on the internet? So sometime soon on Fridays, come watch me get spooked! I don't have a set date but I will post when I do! First I still need to set up my Discord which will be linked right on my website (if you've noticed there is a Discord button but it doesn't work, I know). I really can't wait to start and share my love for horror games with everyone!

Follow me at twitch.tv/bladedabunny.

I also turned 22 on the 13th! It was a great day, despite me accidentally volunteering to work when I wasn't meant to...but it ended up great because work went out for drinks with me and it was really fun! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday and a big thank you to Mum, Dad, Ezra, Caroline, and Kirsty for my gifts, I really love them all! Also, the card from work that everyone signed, meant the world to me!

Thanks for coming back to read my blog! I hope to see you all again next Thursday, hope to have fun designs, advertising, and disability stuff to share!

Ableism and Stereotyping

Ableism Ableism means prioritising the needs of non-disabled people. Prejudice and discrimination are aimed at disabled people, often with a patronising desire to “cure” their disability and make them “normal”. In an ableist society, it's assumed that the “normal” way to live is as a non-disabled person. It is ableist to believe that non-disabled people are more valuable to society than disabled people.

Ableism can include, but is not limited to:

• Using ableist language/slurs

• Believing people with disabilities have less value and worth

• Assuming they want to be “healed” or can “overcome” a disability

• Suggesting they’re “inspirational” for handling everyday activities and routine tasks

• Assuming they lead an unhappy, limited life and/or can't do things for themselves

I've faced Ableism many times...

I've been told my physical condition is all in my head (while she patted me on the head). This was in high school, I was 15, and I didn't know what my disability was, I had just moved to the country and started a new school only months before. The worst part of this was the woman who did this to me was my support worker in school. She was a 50-something-year-old woman who was being paid to help me, instead, she made me feel like I was faking my physical condition, that I was lazy, she made me hate myself at 15 because I didn’t have the confidence to walk again.

Also, in this school, I went to, a girl who had cancer was told that she won’t get anywhere in life because she failed all of her classes because she was in the hospital for most of school. Now she’s a fantastic guitar player, singer, and songwriter, proving that school is very wrong!

A group of girls said that it's selfish and unfair for me to date someone 'normal', aka not disabled. I wasn’t really into boy talk and stuff in high school, I had a boyfriend that I had been with for 2 years at the time, he was not in a wheelchair. When these girls found out about me dating they got a little defensive as they were not in relationships and were jealous that the disabled kid was. They decided, as a group, to talk to me and explain how I shouldn’t be dating people ‘not like me’ as it wasn’t fair on them.

On a few occasions, people have said I'd be unfit to be a mother because I'm in a wheelchair. Usually, people who are mothers themselves, just having a small chat they’d drop that in. I already know I won’t be a perfect mother but if it came to be I’d do my very best. It’s none of those people's business about my abilities of being a parent, they don’t know my situation. But to tell a teenager who couldn’t wait to start their life that they’d be unfit to be a parent because of their disability is a sick thing to do.

These are only a few of so many comments that have been made about my disability, but these are the ones that stick out most to me, these aren't things you'd say to anyone if they were not disabled.

In other cases, people have said things that have offended me but they didn't mean any harm, they just weren't educated, which is the issue, people should be educated on at an earlier age. Most of my experience with Ableism was when I was a teenager.

Stereotyping

A stereotype is a generalised belief about a particular category of people. They are characteristics that society instinctively attributes to groups of people to classify them according to age, weight, occupation, skin colour, gender, etc.

Disabled stereotypes can include, but are not limited to:

• All wheelchair users are paralysed

• A blind person cannot be independent

• An amputee cannot drive

• Disabled people are incapable of working

• A disabled person can’t have children

• People can’t date because of their disability

Gen Hubbard, a content creator, wheelchair user, wife, and mum has some great videos on the topic, here’s her video on how these stereotypes need to stop. I suggest Gen for education from being in a wheelchair to learning about disabilities. She is a fantastic voice for the disabled community while keeping her content educational, fun, and entertaining.

Disabled stereotypes are formed due to poor education on the topics. Thinking that if you use the word disabled you are completely unable to communicate or work. Stereotypes related to disabilities usually include physical, mental health, and educational difficulties in one, therefore people believe if you suffer from one then you have all three. In some cases that statement is true, but in many it’s not. No disabilities are the same and people's bodies handle these conditions differently. There are disabilities that leave some people living lives without knowing they have and some end up physically disabled, despite having the same disability.

For many communities stereotyping is hard and scary. We feel we can’t live our lives normally without being judged or discriminated against. I am someone who is very social and loves going out with friends. I'm not a stereotype of a person in a wheelchair or someone with autism, I am more than that. As I’ve said before, everyone is different, we handle our disabilities differently, you can’t group us all together and think we’re the same or that we’d even get along.

At the end of the day, we are just people trying to get by in life like everyone else. No one should have to go through life feeling the world doesn’t care about them. Please take the time to educate yourself and others to make the disabled people around you feel heard, supported, and loved.

More links to helpful and educational articles:

Ableism 101

Destigmatising Disability

Stereotypes About People With Disabilities

Every Tuesday for the rest of the month you'll find a Disability Pride Month post here! Come back next Tuesday to learn more about a disabled topic.

Disability Pride Month

Happy Disability Pride Month!

An important time for raising awareness to make the world more accessible and supportive to make living life easier for people like me! Show your support and listen to disabled voices this month and every other month! I will be one of those voices. Go read more about Disability Pride Month here.

For the rest of this month, I will be posting on Tuesdays, as well as Thursdays, except disability related blog posts on Tuesdays, from topics such as Ableism to disability representation!

Meta launched Threads, a rival to Twitter. It uses your same account and detail from Instagram so you can stay connected with the same followers across all Meta platforms. It has a beautiful UI, from a fun @ logo that also acts as the loading bar, to when you create a thread (by replying to someone) you may get a fun loop to connect the profile pictures! Weirdly hashtags are not a feature that can be used yet on Threads, likely will appear later because Meta platforms usually rely heavily on hashtags. I’m excited to see where Threads go and what Twitter might do next to keep their users from moving.

When you make a Threads account you get a temporary badge shown on your Instagram page, when you click it you can go to that person's Threads account. It’s interesting that it says temporary, meaning it will disappear at some point. It is possible they want Threads to replace Instagram too? But Threads is listed as an Instagram app, so they are linked at the moment. Note you can import your profile information (name, bio, and link) but none of your posts will transfer over.

I am still doing Art Fight, which is fun, at the moment the other team is winning but we still have the rest of the month to catch up!

Last week I mentioned Ryan Ganders' The Find project, well I managed to find all three coins! I am obsessed with the designs on them and the detail. My favourite is 'Pause' because it's literally a clock with all the numbers fallen! How creative is that? This was so fun and it gave me the opportunity to explore and connect with Manchester so much more.

This week may have not been as active as my usual weeks but expect more fun and educational blogs in the coming weeks! I'm very excited to raise awareness about Disabilities this year and I'm thankful to have a platform to do that now!