Stuff Your Use of the Phrase "Special Needs"

     I don't like it. Not a bit. What is so "special" about the "needs" of disabled people? Of communities of disabled people? Yes, I have a traumatic brain injury. Yes, that means I have brain damage. But my needs are the same needs that everyone else has.

     It all relates to F.-S.P.I.E.S.

Financial
Social
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual

     Financial-- We all need money or something to exchange for goods and services.

     Social-- We all need acquaintances, friendly folks, and friends. [Even if it is one friend].

     Physical-- We all need clothing, shelter, nutrition. We all need to navigate our environment. And we all need exercise.

     Intellectual-- We all need intellectual stimulation.

     Emotional-- We all need connection.

     Spiritual-- We all need awe or beauty.

     All of you temporarily abled people can take the phrase "special needs" and stuff it along with the ideas that we ought to "Fight Against Autism," make clucking noises over the "stigma of mental illness," and declare all kinds of conditions to be "a brain disease."

     Screw that. Screw all of it. 

     We, the disabled, have the right to name ourselves as we see fit. You, the non-disabled, do not have the right to invent fancy little demeaning labels. Take your words and your puzzle pieces and your nonsense away. We reject your control over our lives. 

     ~ sapphoq healing complications from brain damage