Thinking today about a post I saw some time ago about how wearing glasses shouldn’t be considered a disability because it’s “socially acceptable” and also about how I haven’t been able to update my prescription for 2 years because I just cannot afford an optometrist visit or new frames.
I understand the impulse to say bad vision doesn’t count because glasses are such a normal part of our society we don’t even think of them as a disability tool anymore, bur the fact is if something happens to my glasses, I am Fucked. I can’t drive. I can barely do everyday tasks. Working is going to be impossible. Even if I scrounge the money to get new frames, I have to wait WEEKS for them to arrive. And what happens to me in that time frame? Nothing good, I can tell you that. I literally need this tool to function on a daily basis, because my vision is bad enough to seriously disrupt my life without them.
If anything, glasses are a great example of what society could be if we took MORE disability seriously. If we had actual tools so readily available and normalized you saw them everywhere. But that doesn’t make me not disabled, because the minute I lose access to that tool, I can’t function.
