People on Twitter are sharing their snarkiest comebacks to the inappropriate and ignorant questions abled people have asked them about their disabilities—and they’re hilarious.
Sighted Person: “So, what can you see?”
— The Blinkmeister 🏺✝️🚀👩🏼🦯 (@AuroraNebulosa) April 15, 2019
Me: “Got a few days…?”#LowVisionProblems #DisabledSnark
#DisabledSnark
— senior recital era (he/him) (@seanandoah) April 15, 2019
Me: I’m autistic
Local: no you’re not
Me: oh shit I shoulda told my psychiatrist who diagnosed me 18 years ago https://t.co/2uNbW9kQ6I
“I cannot count the number of times I literally fell off my chair laughing at the responses to the hashtag,” Nicole G. Cowie, a mental health and disability rights activist from Trinidad and Tobago, told the Daily Dot via email.
Cowie said she started the hashtag on Saturday after another activist friend, @Tinu, was talking about how strangers often lead with questions like “What’s your disability?” instead of a simple hello.
“I wanted to address the notion that disabled people are not supposed to clapback when you interact with them in a disrespectful way,” Cowie said. “I want to affirm the idea of choice and agency in how a disabled person chooses to respond to an ableist interaction. You don’t have to feel obligated to be the ‘crip ambassador’ and educate people about your disability all the time.”
🚨 Disabled people, what is the snarkiest thing you have ever said to an ablelist person? Hastag it #DisabledSnark and RT. We could all use good comebacks!🚨 https://t.co/ibvJS2Xf1c
— Nicole G. Cowie (@belovedbless) April 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/katesang/status/1117820705306025984
Idiot: how msny fingers am I holding up? Legally blind me: Oh, for crying out loud. If you can’t count your own fingers, why are you out here alone? #DisabledSnark
— Leah Christensen (@danishcanadian) April 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/chronicparent30/status/1117378554491228161
All the time. I usually answer with the obvious
— Rev. Dr. 4WheelWorkout (@4WheelWorkOut) April 13, 2019
“What happened to you?”
“I’m in a wheelchair.”
“Yeah but why?”
“Because I don’t have legs”
“What happened to your legs?”
“They’re gone”
I don’t get why people think that deaf and mute people can’t own mobile phones
— Truth (@melanicious1) April 15, 2019
I be like:how else do you think I order my latte?#DisabledSnark
https://twitter.com/mk_basile/status/1117726339136495616
https://twitter.com/lukasthoughs/status/1117691522042851329
Sighted Person: “So, what can you see?”
— The Blinkmeister 🏺✝️🚀👩🏼🦯 (@AuroraNebulosa) April 15, 2019
Me: “Got a few days…?”#LowVisionProblems #DisabledSnark
https://twitter.com/J2theDW/status/1117649254145638400
https://twitter.com/ProEiszeitDeaf/status/1117654208260509698
https://twitter.com/SaraBTweet23/status/1117141084923158528
I don’t want my disability to appear to be a consequence so I tell the child “nothing wrong with me. Please share that with whomever is telling children disabled are wrong.” I like your gentle approach. #DisabledSnark
— Leah Christensen (@danishcanadian) April 15, 2019
Honestly, one of the hardest things about becoming visibly disabled has been the need to be ‘polite’ all the time. I am not a polite person, I am loud & love a swear. But every day I have to placate people who have grabbed me because they think they are helping. #DisabledSnark
— Dr Amy Kavanagh (@BlondeHistorian) April 14, 2019
A man I did not know once cold-approached me to ask if he could “pray for me”. I looked around for a second, leaned in very close, and said in my best conspiratorial whisper, “Why? Do you know something I don’t??” #DisabledSnark https://t.co/hHPXKTexhK
— EJ Mason (@codeability) April 13, 2019
Cowie says she is happy about the responses because they harkened back to situations she herself has been in where she couldn’t think of the right answer in the moment. And while the responses are humorous—and the hashtag a celebration of sass—they don’t take away from the lessons people are sharing about the insensitivities of abled people.
https://twitter.com/katesang/status/1117820358420307969
An acquaintance at work marveled at how much weight I’d lost & so quickly.
— Ellen W (@EllenBookstore) April 15, 2019
She said “How did you do it?”
I said “I got Crohns–a painful, incurable, degenerative disease.”
She asked excitedly “How can I get that??”#DisabledSnark #HealthyPeopleSayTheDarndestThings
Them: *pointing to my wheelchair* “I wish I had one of them!”
— Mary 🏳️🌈 (she/her) (@maryfashik) April 15, 2019
Me: “You wish you couldn’t walk?”
Them: “I…”#DisabledSnark #AbledsAreWeird
“Disabled people should be fully human in their interactions with ableist people,” Cowie said. “#DisabledSnark is just one more tool to empower how you choose to respond to ableist interactions.”
READ MORE:
- How to talk about disability issues on the internet
- Apple wants emoji that represent people with disabilities
- On the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Trump’s words and actions don’t add up
