Guest Post by Eman Khan (aka @SamosaManiac)

Content Warning: ableism, chronic illness and mental illness symptoms, images of pills.

[Featured image description: A collage with two images on top and two images on the bottom. All four images show a shadowed girl leaping. The four images have different backgrounds. The top left image background shows pill bottles lined up from foreground to background where the pill bottles blur as they go into the background. The top right image background is a bird’s eye view of pills piled in a circular shape. The bottom right image background are white pills lined up from left to right. The bottom left image background are pills scattered left to right with a blurred pill bottle in the back.]

 

Ayyyy readers, Eman Khan here. Some may know me as @SamosaManiac on Twitter. It’s an honor and privilege to write a guest entry for Ren’s blog. As I perused through her entries, I couldn’t believe Ren found me worthy enough to be included in one of the most raw, honest blogs I’ve ever stumbled across. She provides snapshots of her life that mirror mine, validating my day-to-day existence. Her posts on ableism do justice for many disabled people who often feel like they’re shouting into the void. I met Ren through Twitter. When I accepted her offer to write a guest entry, Ren gave me the floor to discuss any topic I’m passionate about. As I was direct messaging Ren, my mother sarcastically commented “you’re always chained to that phone, get out into the real world for once.” I reflected on that comment and wondered, how could I possibly be “chained” to my phone when interacting with my fellow disabled people around the world is so liberating?

In a society where disabled people are considered subhuman and overlooked, it’s easy to internalize all of this and feel lonely. Our needs are often thrown under the bus which is why accessibility is still a prominent issue. I am unable to navigate the world and socialize properly due to barriers. My education is constantly put on a hold.

Twitter saved my life. I stumbled across thousands of spoonies, disabled people who identify by the Spoon Theory, on Twitter and immediately found my niche. Twitter became an accessibility tool where I could talk to spoonies and learn about various issues such as racism, ableism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, anti-immigration bigotry, anti-Semitism, etc. without expending too much energy. Twitter bridges the gaps I experience in the real world. Tweeting and DM’ing my fellow spoonies fulfills the “social” experience I crave. Fellow spoonies retweet my tweets, and I find that as validation of my experiences— validation I rarely find in the physical world. One of the best days of my life was when I met a Twitter spoonie in person. Scrolling through informative Twitter threads has taught me more than any “formal” education ever has, especially when brain fog only allows me to process information in chunks. Twitter sometimes gave me the classroom experience I’m often deprived of in the physical world. I would research and tweet threads on topics I’m passionate about almost as if I was writing essays. I tested the waters with photography and flourished with the encouragement of my fellow spoonies. Joking about my disability is often frowned upon in my family, leaving me in utter frustration… if they can joke about their lives, why can’t I? Tweeting jokes, puns, and memes on Twitter quelled my frustration. Humor is a valid coping mechanism after all and serves to normalize our experiences so we don’t feel “other.” So how can I possibly be “chained” to the device that allows me to thrive in my true form?

An example of Eman’s photography ❤

[image description: Black and white image of a Promaster 2500PK film camera. The lense has pills superimposed onto it, making it seem like pills are sticking out of the lens]

Technology-shaming needs to end. Quite often I see people sharing posts to “get off the phone and out into the real world.” By sharing these posts, many are undermining the struggles disabled and/or mentally ill people face. “Getting out into the real world” can worsen pain, fatigue, and other symptoms in physically disabled people. People with mental illnesses can experience anxiety attacks from overstimulation and from attempting to interact with others. As a person with both physical and mental illnesses, a culmination of these symptoms from “getting out into the real world” worsens my overall health and becomes a major setback. Technology-shaming is essentially ableist, for it shames people who need this device to survive. Education, connecting with others (if one has the cognitive privilege), finding a passion, and feeling validated are rights that should be extended to all human beings. Personally, Twitter became the platform in which these were fulfilled in the most accessible fashion. If the physical world is unable to grant me these rights, then my mother has it all wrong… I’m “chained” by the real world and liberated by my phone.

My mother’s sharp tone interrupted my thoughts: “Hello? Get back to the real world.”

I chuckled and resumed direct messaging Ren. After all, Twitter is my world.

 

A few of Eman’s tweets below:

Enter a caption

[image description: Eman Khan’s tweet that says “A thread on what Sharia is, how colonization ruined its reputation, and how Sharia makes Islam accessible to a disabled Muslim (Meeee).” Below the tweet is the date and time in the following format: 03/05/17, 12:57 PM. Below the date and time shows 386 Retweets, 439 likes] Link: https://twitter.com/samosamaniac/status/838463502901784577

 

[image description: Eman Khan’s tweet reads: is my journey to the pharmacy a pill-grimage? There is a pill emoji next to the tweet along with the following hashtags: #spoonie #pun. The date and time below the tweet read: 03/10/17, 7:26 AM. Below the date and time says 25 retweets, 92 likes] Link: https://twitter.com/samosamaniac/status/840192239485755392

[image description: The tweet has the hashtags: #SpoonieProblems #spoonie #chroniclife. Followed by the text: “Quit talking about your illnesses on social media…” Me:. The image after the text “me” is a computer screen. A woman wearing a red shirt is coming out of the computer screen halfway with her arm out holding a giant red megaphone. Her mouth is open against the mouthpiece as if she’s shouting something.] Link: https://twitter.com/samosamaniac/status/802208288624484352

 

A word or two from Ren:

I’d like to thank Eman for taking the time to write such an eloquent and extremely relatable post. Who hasn’t been told by their parents, partner, teacher or friends that technology is the problem? Where as the real problem is their lack of understanding that technology and social media give us just an ounce of what we feel everyone else takes for granted?!

I’d also like to highlight how utterly fantastic Eman is when it comes to making content accessible to everyone. I shall endeavour to follow her example and include more content warnings and more image descriptions in the future. To complain about the world not being accessible to me, and then to make my content inaccessible to other people just makes me a big, ol’ hypocrite! Everyone head over and follow @SamosaManiac on Twitter! Thanks again, Eman ❤ x

Ren x