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Hi Lovelies! So thank you so much to everyone who left comments on my last video

My birthday vlog about my thumb

*sad silence*

*sad noise*

I was actually going to do a hair tutorial today but...

My thumb....

So, we're working with straight-ish hair instead

I'm just gonna talk about something completely different

It's sort of I suppose, a rant, maybe... Is it? Not sure

I'm just kind of... I have feelings

about something and we're going to talk about those feelings

Cause I want to know your feelings on the subject

Of feelings....

Is Ableism!

Oooh, scary buzzword of the internet

Now personally, for me, ableism

is not the same as something like racism

00:01:11,340 --> 00:01:13,440 or sexism

And this is just personally

Because I see those things as they can be very intentional

And ableism, most of the time

Is just someone being a bit dim

Or a lot dim

Every single person who asks for my phone number,

So they can have a chat

Racism an sexism, even when they're unintentional

Can show the darker thoughts and feelings

That you had that aren't great

Whereas ableism just shows

How stupid you can be

Much like when get invited to big events

That don't have a sign language interpreter

Or even their videos subtitled

I mean, you know...

No shade YouTube, but, shade

You may remember, way back in 2016

There was a bit of a quarrel because Whole Foods were selling

Prepackaged oranges, just oranges without the peel

in little plastic boxes and people on the internet got angry

This is way too much plastic...

This is terrible, how could you be doing such a thing

as if people were too stupid to peel their own oranges

They already come sealed, why do we need to unseal them and reseal them

Gah! So stupid right?

Oh my God yeah, wasteful and awful...

Rrrr!

For the majority of people they don't need prepackaged oranges

They don't, you know

Genuinely, peel your own oranges guys

That's silly

There is a small minority

I say small, is not really that small

We'll work with a minority, it's still a minority

of people who can't open oranges

For one reason or another, maybe they are old and have arthritis

Maybe they have a disability that limits their dexterity

Maybe they have a condition like autism and for them just the feel of the peel of oranges feels terrible

But the inside of an orange is yummy and lovely and healthy and they would like to eat that

and have some more of that in their diet. Basically there are a variety of reasons why prepackaged fruit

can be an incredibly great and helpful thing

I have a friend who has cerebral palsy, we were

out and about once, she wanted to get a healthy snack

and the easiest thing for her to get where those presliced apples

In a bag

I always looked at those and thought so stupid

Why can't someone just bite an apple?

And yeah I kinda thought that older people might have difficulty chewing into an apple

they might not have their own teeth, her condition, the way she had it just meant that she had difficultly doing that

but if it's in one slice is much easier to do

and she want's something healthy and good and that's great!

That's awesome!When you only other choice is something incredibly unhealthy

that she didn't want...

And of course I am not going to say

that having prepackaged things

Anyway, moral of that story was that

Whole Foods eventually said 'Oh, sorry about that'

Maybe we shouldn't... maybe some disabled people do actually need stuff and we shouldn't

just jump on the Rrrr! Environmental Wagon

Not that all environmental wagons need to be Rrrr!

but some of them are...

And this recently got brought up all over again

because Mark & Spencers got in trouble for selling pre-sliced

cauliflower steaks

Which if you don't know is just a think sliced

sliced bit of cauliflower...

Again the same arguments came up, lots of websites posting 'oh God isn't this disgusting?

'Oh my goodness so bad for the environment, how terrible

Why would anyone need this? Or want this?'

Ridiculous, people are so lazy...

Are they? Are they lazy?

Some people are lazy again, there is definitely some lady people in the world

But not everyone needs pre-packaged things because they are lazy

and I wanted to talk to you about it because I had this chat with some of my friends

Who do not have disabilities and were like

'Oh my God that is so awful, eugh people' and I was like...

Hi!

Actually no, actually as a disabled person I use many products that are already pre-sliced, pre...

I'm trying to think of the word... spiralised!

Spiralised!

Oh the world we live in!

Because you know, sometimes my hands don't work and I cant twist that way

Or even chop, I'm having a bit of trouble chopping right now in fact

Which Claud is finding hilarious

Because do I let that stop me? No!

I just attempt and fail

I sort of explained to my friends this situation

and how things can be incredibly helpful

and also how bad I feel

when somebody starts talking about how wasteful and terrible and ridiculous these things are

to even exist in shops... because it does, it makes me feel

Awful and petty

and like I am a drain on the environment for needing these things

for using these things

One thing that I should establish right upfront is, like I just said, last night Ic couldn't chop stuff

So my wife chopped it for me and that's amazing that I have her

I can rely on her and she will just step in whenever I need and do whatever it is I need

But not everyone has that, not everyone has someone who can step in

and help them out in a situation like that.

And also not everyone should be made to

One in five of the populations lives with a disability or impairment of some kind

Now amongst that group the rate of domestic violence are disproportionately high

for disabled men that rate is the same as non disabled women

For disabled women is much, much higher, they also experience domestic abuse or a longer period of time

more frequently and in a more harsher and severe way.

People with disabilities are most likely to be abused by their carer

By the very person who is meant to be stepping in and doing the help for them

So many of the comments under these articles about the throwaway culture and the so much packaging

and so much plastic, and isn't that awful...

So many comments on these said things like 'Oh well shouldn't their spouse be helping them?'

'Or their parents or their child'... yeah...

Yes but what if that is the person who is abusing them?

And even if not why should they be relying on someone else

Having independence, and I know I have said this before

Having independence even in a small way is so intrinsical to a person

If you keep chipping away all these things, like being able to half way make your meal

and then suddenly there's nothing you can do because now

Oh no longer pre-packaged food is a thing, we don't make ready meals anymore

Oh...

Then where are we going to end up?

So we shouldn't have to rely on other people to come in and help us out

Again no and have friends who have been in situations were their disabilities have led to them

being abused by their carer.

And a carer generally is someone they are in a relationship with

or someone they are related to.

Secondly, disability and accessibility are always going to leave a big carbon footprint

They are not biodegradable, your wheelchair is not going to over a number of years become one with nature again

Neither are your canes, or your crutches, or I mean...

I don't think my wrist splints... well they got metal in them

and fabric on them so I guess overtime, over thousands of years the fabric will probably fade away

But there will still be metal

There is also a production cost whether that is

The water that goes into running things

Electricity that makes the machines that make these things work

Oh and while we are on the topic of disability things costing money...

We have some companies that have worked out that they have a very captive closed market there

Yeah... I need to get the tires replaced on my wheelchair

Can I find tires that fit? Grr... No!

Cause you'd think normal bike tires would do the job, that you can get for...

£5 but no they don't because wheelchairs some of them are made to have special tires

That have to cost a lot of money and have to come from the company that makes those special

wheelchair wheels that go on your special wheelchair and cost

Thousands of pounds! Not the wheels, the wheelchair itself costs thousands of pounds

But the wheels have to be so special because they have to come from that company because only that company makes that particular type

and so you are trapped, you need those wheels, you have to buy them

You have to keep going back to that company over and over again

And they just keep making the money!

If some bigger other companies who make big tires decided to step in and

Hey maybe we'll make some tires that fit your wheelchair as well

Then perhaps the cost would be reduced... just saying

You might want to think about that

Various other bike companies, I might even mention that to them on twitter

Okay yeah it works out to about £80

it's about £80 per tier to get the tires changed on my wheelchair

When it comes to the world of pre-packaged food and chopped food like the M&S Cauliflower stake

The company it's not going to make it's money back only selling to disabled people

We are a pretty big minority, we are the largest minority

Instead the company needs to expand their sales base to other people, abled bodied people

So that they can recuperate the costs and that way they are helping out disabled people

and helping out really busy people who don't have time

to chop stuff.

The thing is when I read all these things about how terrible and awful for the environment it is that I exist

I feel genuinely really terrible

about myself.

Every time someone writes something about how 'isn't it disgusting that people get in the car and drive two streets why don't they just walk?'

I'm like, hah...

Yeah why I don't do that? Oh my God I mean I know I can't really do that but I should do that

I should totally do that

And I get spasms from it, and I'll be super tired and I won't be able to do anything for the rest of the day

Then maybe tomorrow I will be pretty bad as well, and also I am kind of a liability right now

I'm a bit tired so I'm more likely to fall over and I might just fell of the curb, and then I could

dislocate something or break something or paralise something cause boy does that happen all the time

I am a drain on the planet, Jesus...

mmm also I kind of need that because I am going there to go to my GP

Remember that time I waled to my GP in the rain and then I couldn't do anything for three days

Yeah so it hurts

And again I know, I know

It's generally not intentional at all

And I don't in any way think that my friends are intending to make me feel bad

They don't because I know that their intentions are good

the rest I don't know if they are trying to make me feel bad because I don't know their intentions

But the point is, even if something is not intentional it can still be really hurtful

It is difficult as a disabled person to not feel like you are a drain

on the society that you live in

A drain on your family, on your employers, on just the town that you live in

because you exist and you take up more space. That's a thing!

Disabled people do take up more space because we need stuff

There is so much stuff that you need when you are disabled, it's ridiculous

We are planning to go to Malaysia for 2 months and I need an extra bag just for my 'disability' stuff