Social Friction - Blog Posts

It's the last weekend of data collection for my thesis survey on disability, so if you're 18 or older and identify as disabled or partially-disabled (even if you live outside the U.S.) I'd love to hear from you! The survey is about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people, and takes about 15 minutes to complete. It's also completely anonymous.

As an incentive for participation, there's an optional raffle that you can participate in for the chance to win an Amazon gift card (yep, even if you live outside the U.S.).

"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)

Big thanks to everyone who has already completed the survey, and if you fall into that group, you don't need to take it again.

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This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board.

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@fishdavidson in Disabled Hardcore Life community

I'm running a survey for my graduate thesis at Delta State University about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disable

This is an archive link of a previous post I made on January 23, 2025, so I can grab the link for citation and inclusion in thesis appendices. If the link doesn't display the text or you aren't a member of the community in which it was posted, this is what it said:

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I'm running a survey for my graduate thesis at Delta State University about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people. The survey probably takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, and I'm looking for respondents from individuals 18 or older who identify as disabled or partially-disabled. If you've already completed the survey, you don't need to do it again. As an incentive for participation, there's an optional raffle that you can participate in for the chance to win an Amazon gift card. Both the survey and the raffle are open to individuals outside the US!

"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)

Thank you everyone who has participated in the survey so far, and special thanks to the people who helped identify places where the survey could be improved!

This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board.

every time anyone talks about liberation for the intellectually disabled in any real material way (i.e. creating plain-language educational resources accessible to adults reading on a first-grade level, detangling literacy from basic requirements to participate in society, destigmatizing inability to benefit from pedagogy, criticizing the construct of financial literacy as a necessary skill, etc etc etc), some chud comes along calling it "anti-intellectualism" and blabbing about how you're a morally inferior person if you only read middle-grade novels for fun, i'm so tired and we are never making it out

Fuck this one hits home.

I'm working on my graduate thesis at Delta State University (fear the Fighting Okra!) and I'm looking adults with disabilities to take part in an online survey. The survey will probably take 15-20 minutes to complete and it's about how social friction is perceived in interactions between disabled and able-bodied people. So if you're 18 or older and self-identify as disabled or partially-disabled, I would love to hear from you on the survey:

"Let Me Get That For You": Analyzing Frictional Situations in a Disability Context (via Google Forms)

This research survey has received approval (IRB number 2025-037) from Delta State's Institutional Review Board. It will be live and accepting responses for the next 4-6 weeks depending on the number of responses received. But there's also something for you!

The survey itself is anonymous, though you can optionally enter a drawing for an Amazon gift card at the end of the survey. I can't buy a gift card for every response (as much as I would like to be able to do that) but I can give away a token of appreciation to a randomly selected portion of you. Email addresses are collected only for those who wish to participate in the raffle; any collected emails are deleted after each weekly drawing and only used to contact whoever won that week.

If you have any questions about the project, feel free to send me a message on tumblr!

How to approach a wheelchair user in your way

-> A visual guide

[ID: a graphic with simple figures. on the left is a column of 3 identical images of a wheelchair user sitting in front of a pedestrian. on the right are examples of do's and don'ts. the first don't is a person attempting to step over the wheelchair user. the second don't shows a person attempting to push the wheelchair user. the final image is a do with a person saying "excuse me" to the wheelchair user]

❌ stepping over wheelchair users

❌ pushing wheelchair users

✅ asking politely for the wheelchair user to move

Cosplayers, please don’t forget about those of us with disabilities at cons. Don’t push that walker or wheelchair out the way in artist’s alley because the owner of it isn’t touching it. Don’t give people funny looks for standing without their aids while they’re looking at things. Don’t get angry at the wheelchair user who has no choice but to go past your photographer because you’re taking up the entire space. Don’t kick out other cosplayers mobility aids. Keep space around you for disabled people, because we exist in your community and we just want to have fun like you do.

A disabled woman fell on the bus I'm on and I'm literally the only one who listened to her and didn't try and pull her up when she said she wanted to sit for a second, or crowd her saying what she should do next.

Can we actually listen to disabled people maybe? This is exhausting.

this is gonna be a really cool frame to apply to anyone with any mental illness stiffer than light social anxiety. can't wait to be berated for having an autistic meltdown and not taking personal responsibility for how much of a fucking bummer it is for everyone around me lmfao