Sara, a woman with brown shoulder hair, sitting in a garden with a 37-week baby bump and a dress.
Being pregnant or being a mom while having disabilities, in a time of eugenics and in a country (Portugal) where forced sterilisation is still legal.. it's revolutionary. Our body is revolution. Let's #EndForcedSterilisation and fight for our sexual and reproductive rights 🌟
It's almost funny that the NHS Audiology department, whom I contacted due to my hearing aids and hearing loss, sent me an email about how they tried to contact me.. by phone. I'm partially deaf and struggle with calls. Even some emergency health services, there is no accessible option.
The dehumanisation and eugenic ideals against autistic people are palpable. He doesn't care about people with higher support needs and no offer of services and support is on the table. Only to erase us.
Besides being an advocate and running an autistic self-advocacy, my paid work is actually in the University of Cambridge in cardiovascular research. Sharing a bit of a project we've worked for quite some time: www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
As a queer disabled woman who identifies within the spectrum of assexuality, it does not surprise me that transphobic people easily start expanding their hate towards us and other LGBTQIA+ groups. If you don't protect trans lives and rights, they are coming for you next.
Just saw an occupational therapist using Autism Day to try to sell unproven therapies such as phototherapy and stem-cells therapy to "improve your children's abilities", even though there is no scientific evidence it works and we don't know long term health impact. This is predatory behaviour.
Today is Autism Acceptance Day. It's a day when a lot of non-autistic voices tend to drown our real needs and priorities. We need autistic voices to be prioritised and centred in policy, services and organisations. Please donate to autistic-led organisations today if you can.
ENIL co-chair Nadia Had at the Global Disability Summit: “Inclusion doesn’t mean investing in special schools, day-care centres, small group homes, sheltered workshops; all financing should be UNCRPD compliant”
"I decided I'd rather die than be in isolation because of the mood it left me in.
"I felt alone and trapped at school for such a long time that I felt as though it would be best, as no-one seemed to care anyway." www.bbc.com/news/educati...
Such a powerful show of empathy and support in Survivor when Eva, an autistic woman, started having a meltdown, and Joe, from the opposite team, helped her regulate. We need more of this type of representation on TV.
edition.cnn.com/2025/03/27/e...
Having a rare condition as a disabled woman is being unprepared for giving birth to my baby because doctors want us to make decisions, but I need a medical professional to tell me how to make me and my baby safe from complications I might have, but they just don't know. #hEDS #HSD
How are there no consequences for such severe systemic abuse? These people are just going to move on to another institution and continue to abuse disabled children who are institutionalised. No accountability when the victims have disabilities. We failed as a society. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
David Geier, a man accused of practicing medicine without a license, forging research data to try to prove a link between vaccines and autism, and who experimented with autistic children by giving them a castration drug Lupron is in charge of studying vaccines and autism. What is happening?
It's incredible to see someone as amazing and talented as Bella Ramsey being openly autistic and nonbinary in an industry so discriminatory against disability. Representation is so important and there's less and less excuses to not cast autistic actors. www.vogue.co.uk/article/bell...
In the UK and I was not yet even able to start my process to apply to PIP (disability benefits) since even the application is deeply inaccessible. The new @teamlabouruk.bsky.social cuts will make it even harder to pay for assistive devices to go to work in the first place and increase unemployment.
Parliament session on Forced sterilisation with Sara Rocha and three more women in the podium.
The criminalisation of forced sterilisation in Portugal, including minors, was for the 1st time ever discussed in the Portuguese Parliament. The Government fell and the bill will have to go through next mandate, but this was an amazing step for our rights. Thank you @bloconoparlamento.bsky.social.
Brand New Autism Research 2025.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
So, which interventions (psychological or social, not medications) improve quality of life for autistic young adults?
Er, after 100 years of research, it turns out we don't know.
👀
Not joking. Let's look/
Autistic children are being rejected by NHS mental health services, leaving families desperate for help.
📖 Read here: bit.ly/3RcEoAq
Emma Dalmayne, CEO of @aimautistic.bsky.social and ICARS Team member, shares her son Damien’s experience. 🧵👇
Auticorpos is a project we did in vozdoautista.pt which studied autistic people's experiences and barriers to access mental health services in Portugal and recommendations. See the results in eBook format, in English here: drive.google.com/file/d/1OfCu...
The only thing it makes sense to me is that Trump is attempting to push other countries to start a war against the US so he can declare martial law and stay President.
Being ADHD and pregnant means I have baby brain times 1000. Not being able to take my ADHD medication, no caffeine, being exhausted, not sleeping properly due to pain.. every work or task is an effort. Sometimes almost painful. We need more support for pregnancy and motherhood.
On #IWD, I want to share with you a report I wrote for @validityfoundation.bsky.social on their DIS-CONNECTED project examining violence against women with disabilities, access to justice and support services in the EU. Amazing project by Validity and partners! validity.ngo/2025/02/27/e...
On International Women's Day, I highlight the need for leadership of women with disabilities in all national and EU policies, strategies and legislation. We need to #EndForcedSterilisation and ensure sexual and reproductive rights. We need rights, not violence as "protection". Nothing without us!
Any law on sterilisation that allows legal guardians to make the decision for disabled people, will enforce forced sterilisation. Most cases I encountered, the legal guardian, either the family or institution, were involved. Criminalise forced sterilisation with only OUR consent!
6 months pregnant and my unborn kid has already been in 4 countries and numerous meetings trying to fight for the rights of people with disabilities. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if his first words would be "CRPD" 😂
We need more than CCTV. We need comprehensive external monitoring of spaces with institutionalisation and special education for people with disabilities. Visitors need to be trained on how to interview and identify violence and interview with non speaking people and children. And consequences!
As someone with Ehlers-Danlos/HSD and 2nd trimester pregnant, I'm currently in so much pain I even dreamt of pain and the other day I couldn't walk. But it's so underresearched I just hear "there is nothing we can do". Also, not eligible for a rollator. Just 14 weeks to go...
An MP with disabilities in Portugal was called an "aberration" by the far right MPs in Parliament. Fascism is rising and with it eugenics and discrimination. This should not only grant a discrimination criminal case but expulsion from a house that is there for elected people to fight for all of us.
Institutionalisation is in itself a form of violence. But the amount of reports of dehumanisation and abuse I keep seeing from psychiatric hospitalisation and residential institutions makes me wonder: why isn't there more and better monitoring of violence in them? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
It never ceases to amaze me how some people without disabilities congratulate us when they perceive us as less disabled and get defensive when we request accommodations. I will never become "less disabled" but with accessibility the world will become less disabling.
