Has anyone here ever gotten off of SSDI through Ticket to Work? I have been trying for a while.

I have SSDI due to mental illness.

Do you regret it? Were or are you scared? Is your life better?

this is mostly intended as a vent post, but it's also a bit aimless and might contain questions anyone is more than welcome to answer.

i am 35 years old. i entered the American workforce at the age of 17 with my first job at an outdoor restaurant stand. over the next 18 years i will struggle to hold down a job for over a year. i am unable to function in the capitalist society i find myself trapped in.

every single job i have had since entering my 20s has gone horribly wrong. i'd find myself leaving my work area to have crying fits in the bathroom, anxiety attacks and depressive episodes would follow me all day, and i'd experience physical sensations as if my skin was crawling off my body telling me to remove myself from my environment and relax because i'm overwhelmed and stressed. jobs have tried to work with me by offering me unpaid time off to take care of my mental health, but when i inevitably come back the progress i made slowly fades away. i have had hospital stays and medication adjustments to no avail. i simply cannot reconcile my existence against the way our world operates.

capitalism and the profit-seekers of the world have made human life not worth living, imo. the point of life is to make it our own and these parasites have robbed the rest of us the ability to navigate consciousness freely. instead of organizing together as a community and assisting each other as needed, we enslave each other to a 9-hour, five day work week and compensate with barely fucking anything of value. then we all go into a ton of debt and never find peace, all while our corporate overlords usher in a technocratic fascist future to the benefit of fucking nobody other than themselves.

the depression, anxiety, panic, and fear i have felt for 18 years all stems from having my independence as a human being taken away and controlled. turns out, i can't fucking deal. and it feels like i am mocked for it by people who i would even consider friends. "it seems like you merely don't want to work, leander" is something i've heard before. trust me, i'd love to not have to worry about money and how i'm going to eat or afford to live. i promise if i could work i would just fucking do it.

i have been fired several times for taking too many days off, calling in, calling out, tardiness, etc.. just because getting out of bed is such a hurdle to overcome i simply cannot do it sometimes. i try, i always do, i promise i try my hardest to be what everyone wants me to be, but i can't do it reliably so can i get some fucking help, please?

i just want to not worry about being alive. give me federal money, i'll admit i'm a loser and a leech and a mooch and live my disabled ass away from good ol' exceptional America and her citizens. i'll live in the woods and only come out to go shopping. do we have a deal?

[3 different thumbnails given to you randomly. All have words in yellow text. One says “explaining ableist language” another has “intro to ableist language” and one says “what is ableist language?”. They are all next to the disabled pride flag and on a digital art wooden background with a grey table in the bottom left corner]

How to Train Friends and Family on a Screen Reader

November 26, 2024 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST

Learning access technology can appear daunting to a newly blind person. Finding quality access technology training can also be difficult for several factors. This is where technology savvy friends and family can help someone start learning how to use a screen reader. Join the National Federation of the Blind on Tuesday, November 26, from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. eastern to learn how you can teach a friend or family member how to get started with a screen reader. We will cover:

• How a screen reader works
• How screen readers present content
• Common keyboard shortcuts to start with
• Further training resources to learn how to use multiple screen readers

Shared by @[email protected]

Nike’s new Elite EasyOn backpack was designed with innovative features making it accessible for as many athletes as possible, including those with low dexterity or motor skills.

Originally developed for athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the backpack is now available to everyone through the company’s online store for $150.

Hey folks, there is an up and coming Discord alternative. It is called "Revolt" https://revolt.chat/. It is completely separate from Discord, and is being run by a small team of devs and mods (I am not part of the platform dev or mod team). I am just a user and server owner and want to spread the word.

The app itself is very good, although changes are implemented slowly because the folks working on it are volunteer and work on it as a labor of love in their spare time. It does have voice chat like Discord, but can be a bit wonky. The voice server is supposed to be replaced soon with something more robust. At this time, screen share is not available.

However, if you are looking for a Discord alterative (if even just to have as a backup to Discord), this is the right place.

Should you be interested in joining my Disability server on Revolt, please feel free to do so: https://rvlt.gg/9xNVbPdK

Hope to see you there!

A non-comprehensive guide to some of the styles available.

Whichever you go for, they're all generally around £4000/$5000 . YMMV.

Depending upon your location, a dealer may bring one to your home for you to trial them. You're spending a lot of money so do not be afraid to ask.

Searching YouTube for these brand names should come up with a lot of examples.

Single Rear Wheel:

Smart Drive and Smoov are small motors with a single wheel that attach to the back of your manual chair. You control propulsion with a speed dial near your lap, and you steer the chair using your hands on the wheel push rims as normal. You can also push to contribute towards propulsion if you like. The extent to which they contribute towards overall speed is variable dependent upon your needs, but they can propel the chair entirely on their own, meaning all you have to do is steer.

Pro:

• They are both easy to attach/remove.
• comparatively light
• you have full control of steering

Con:

• sometimes have difficulty with steps/curbs as they're just clipped to an axle bar
• can feel less ergonomic/immediately responsive than devices attached to the wheels themselves.

Dual Wheel motors:

E-motion and WheelDrive style power assists are two motors, one on each wheel, which are connected to each other via Bluetooth. They each respond to how hard your hands push their respective wheel. This means you can set them to double your input, or treble your input, etc. They also have cruise control so they can propel the chair entirely on their own.

Pro:

• responsive, feel ergonomic. The force is kinda/ish coming from your hands rather than from a motor behind your bum

Con:

• rely upon Bluetooth, YMMV
• double the weight of single motor devices as there's one on each wheel, so if they fail for some reason, your chair is now very heavy
• you have to be careful how you push as every push is amplified and affects each wheel independently. Something to be aware of when you aren't pushing with each hand evenly, e.g, on slanted pavement/sidewalk, when you're turning/dodging, etc

Tricycle style devices:

These attach to the front of your chair with handle bars and a front wheel with a motor.

Pro:

• Great for longer distances
• some prefer handlebar steering

Con:

• less manoeuvrable. Your turning circle becomes very large.

Powerchair style:

There are also systems like the e-fix which turn your manual chair into a form of powerchair with a joystick to steer.

Pro:

• some prefer this undemanding mode of steering

Con:

• They add a lot of weight
• There's no middle ground, it's on or it's off, it's doing all the work or none of the work

Hope this helps

Please feel free to add first-hand experiences or any thoughts to this post, or let me know if I should edit anything

Does anyone know if there is a way to voice control Kindle (other than reading on tablet or computer)? Need to accommodate significant arm, trunk, and leg weakness. I know there is a voice-to-text bluetooth, but I am hoping to find the opposite! Thanks!

Interesting read on how media portrayal of people with disabilities shapes perception of them as "deserving" of accommodations under ADA, or not.

Accessibility to public spaces and everyday items and activities is a privilege many able-bodied people take for granted. For people who live with disabilities, everyday life is made harder not only due to their disability but the lack of inclusion and accessibility for them.

For an artist, not having the same physical abilities as most others can be rather limiting. Certain disabilities can place physical limitations on the time an artist can spend on their craft as well as on the methods they use to create their art.

More than that, people with disabilities sometimes find that they have difficulty getting into venues where art is made or presented.

For months, the City of Buffalo has been dealing with stolen parking meters, and some of the meters taken are impacting one community in Western New York.

Driving the news: Following a year-long investigation into the state's "troubled" long-term care system, the Disability Law Center (DLC) released an 11-page report this week rebuking state licensing divisions and agencies for failing to protect people with disabilities at long-term care facilities.

A powerlifter who won four gold medals at the Special Olympics has received a hero's welcome on his return home.