Vanessa Smith

@Mubblez_ My son heard stories of kids being too afraid to report unsafe conditions because the charity would retaliate by getting their job seeker payments suspended. It’s an exploitative unsafe and unregulated system

@AlboMP I’ve just watched my son suffer through a year of grinding poverty being exploited by work for the dole schemes that discriminated against him for trying to find work. They didn’t want to lose their unpaid slave so they scheduled his hours when they knew he had job interviews.

Time lapses I take are mostly of clouds and sky, which means they may have flashing effects in them and be unsuitable for some people. youtu.be/RrlU_DGNG_M

@urbanmel Yeah that’s a whole other aspect - when we could be learning and kinda just can’t. Which is why I don’t want to be mean about it at all, it’s just layers of life and learning like most things. There are people who probably hate the way I share things too 😂

@normal_ness Yes, I get it wrong a lot of the time simply because I’m being asked to describe something that I don’t have full cognitive access to. Thanks again for the words “Asynchronous Communications”. They have helped a ton in my comms with my GP.

I’ve seen related discussions elsewhere today so I’m just gonna reshare this post: Can a person be wrong when talking about their disability? normalness.com/2026/04/26/can…

@nerdypioneer Yeah it’s hard to find the line on this one but I wanted to start with where my thoughts are at now. Mostly from the pov that becoming disabled doesn’t mean biases don’t exist.

@normal_ness Ooooh interesting topic!

The NDIS Bill that landed this week is in reality little to do with fraud or sustainability and s more to do with a harsh bid for a return to 1970s conditions for disabled people, combined with the cruelest of austerity measures. I do not even know where to start with this Bill. Some of the changes set up the exact conditions for "Robodebt 2.0" by allowing computers to automatically raise massive debts against participants - such as for a lost three-year-old receipt - without any human oversight - the exact reason that aged care has taken their fight against automated decision making to the Ombudsman. Because these new debts are not listed as 'reviewable decisions' in the NDIS Act, participants have no fair or simple legal right to appeal if the computer makes a mistake. Even victims of the original social security #Robodebt had the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), which is how that unlawful scheme was eventually exposed. By combining automated debts with a lack of appeal rights, the government is directly ignoring Recommendation 17.1 of the Robodebt Royal Commission, which explicitly stated: "Where automated decision-making is implemented: there should be a clear path for those affected by decisions to seek review." We have only really just started pulling this Bill apart. But all indications so far are that it is the final nail in the coffin of the NDIS and a catastrophic failure of social policy in this country. #auspol @RonniSalt @jommy_tee #NDIS #KeepThePromise #ProtectOurNDIS #DefendOurNDIS

Family fortunes long covid edition:

The less energy you have, the stricter your quality control for what deserves your energy should be.

Sleep hygiene can be just as “damaging as graded exercise” for patients with #MECFS Dr Nigel Speight describes a girl with severe sleep reversal. She walked into hospital and was carried out a month later needing to be tube fed.

@fedupguineapig I’ve had them blocked for so long I couldn’t tell you 😂

People with #ME need medical care at home wherever possible to avoid the risk of flare up or relapse caused by attending GP's surgeries, clinics, or hospitals. For people with #severeME leaving home may be impossible under any circumstances. #MEAwarenessWeek

Question 🙋‍♀️ Can ketotifen worsen symptoms at first and is it worth pushing through? My dose was super low. Also felt depressed & insomnia. Someone on Reddit has gone from bedbound to basically 0 PEM on it so I’m debating it again. Desperate times lol TIA #MECFS #LongCovid #MCAS

Two years on & #SevereME patient Anna is still trapped in life-threatening #domesticabuse thecanary.co/global/world-a… @h_sharland @TheCanaryUK #MEAwarenessDay #MEAwarenessWeek Community could get me to safety. Have a room? Land? Granny flat? Anything? Know someone who does? Help.

@gomichild People who start any response with "just" ("just get a job", "just move" etc.) are desperately clinging to the illusion that they are in total control of their lives and thru sheer force of will can avoid disability, poverty, or misfortune

The way some of you are carrying on it's like we should throw him into a sacrificial volcano. For being in a situation he couldn't help being in. This is the reality for many. Show some fucking compassion. Demand an increase UP to the damn poverty line.

When two become one. We have Liberal and Liberal now.

@bmj_latest @WHO 5) Key point of confusion: many @WHO types think that airborne means highly contagious They think of measles which is both But pulmonary tuberculosis is only airborne, much much less contagious than measles Hantavirus likely airborne, but has trouble w/ human-to-human trans.

Finally, some decent coverage, not just people who repeat and republish what the government says: abilitypathways.au/blog/ability-n…

Then there's the inconvenient fact that his government is deliberately planning to create more unemployed people