disability discrimination on this site is unacceptable

the_doc735 · March 8, 2019

disability discrimination on this site is totally unacceptable!

why do you allow this?

Last evening I was subjected to an horrific barrage of comments from forum members when I once again explained my unfortunate memory incapacitation because members where becoming intolerant & impatient of my ‘method’ of questioning and answering in threads. They interpreted my behaviour as demanding and hostile which of course could not be further from the truth! I am a kind & gentle spiritual person who donates to charity even though I have to survive on disability welfare benefits, and sign many many petitions every week!

I spent an entire evening apologising and saying sorry to people who were making all kinds of unfounded accusations against me! These people were never reprimanded for their insults and aggressive tone, as far as I am aware? I have been forced to explain my unfortunate condition once again and apologise and say sorry to everyone on a thread. I frequently have to repeat this procedure because every time I do this it is deleted by the thread organiser! In this case "austinpop".

I have been banned from communication in that thread and warned that I could be banned from the whole site by "the computer audiophile" purely because they are ignorant and intolerant of any kind of disability, esp. mental disability.

In my case I was the victim of a bicycle collision with a motor vehicle at the age of 16. Now four decades later this is affecting my long term memory and I tend to forget things rather easily even after passing exams! This is highly distressing in itself, but when my comments and questions are deleted by disability ignorant people and threatened with being banned from a community forum in this way makes me feel like some kind of freak outcast! Or as one member commented: "the weird boy". Other comments include: dense, thick, twit, brainless, moron, fool, dunce etc.

This has happened several times now on this forum over a couple of years or so, and it makes me feel totally unwelcome in this community!

It makes me feel disgusted after spending an entire evening apologising for something I hadn’t even done and explaining my circumstances to various members, and answering every critical comment with polite responses; …just for the thread owner to come along and ‘wipe’ it all with a few clicks of a mouse in a few seconds, and then ban me from the thread to boot! Presumably with “the computer audiophile’s” approval and consent? …who also threatened to ban me from the entire site!

On the face of it, this appears to be a very bad and appalling case of discrimination against disability.

What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that relate to different areas of public life.

In 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) was signed into law and became effective on January 1, 2009. The ADAAA made a number of significant changes to the definition of “disability.” The changes in the definition of disability in the ADAAA apply to all titles of the ADA, including Title I (employment practices of private employers with 15 or more employees, state and local governments, employment agencies, labor unions, agents of the employer and joint management labor committees); Title II (programs and activities of state and local government entities); and Title III (private entities that are considered places of public accommodation).

Teresa · March 8, 2019

@the_doc735 I feel your pain. 🤔 Perhaps, if you put a statement in your signature such as I have, see below, posters might be more understanding.

I have dementia with almost no short-term memory. I save all my posts in a text file I call Forums. I have several such files, the one I am using now I titled "Forums 2018-" when it gets too large I will put an ending year and start another. This is very handy for me as I can search the files and discover what I said or replied to and what the poster I replied to said. Otherwise I wouldn't have a clue.

My life has changed greatly since getting dementia but I'm not ready to roll over and die. Sorry to here you were a victim of a bicycle collision with a motor vehicle at the age of 16. My dementia was cased by over a dozen head injuries, many requiring stitches. I've been hit by a car as a pedestrian. I've been in an automobile accident as a passenger. Most of the other accidents were due to falling down and busting open my head, I'm a klutz, no matter how careful I try to be. I'm doing better, for one thing I no longer run anywhere. Anyway it started with brain nerve damage and later progressed to dementia.

Anyway, just put a note in your signature and people may understand and treat you better, otherwise how would they know.