iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🧵 p9 and p.s. if anyone comes at you implying that this is advice on how to 'work the system' - remind them that the rate of disability fraud, by the government's most recent measuring in Feb 2025, is 0.2%.

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🧵 p8 Please see my other pinned post on PIP tips. Pace yourself. Do it in stages. Get help to do it. And do something life affirming along the way. You matter, we matter, our lives are important. We are so much bigger than their bureaucracy.

🧵 p7 The timeframe is v important to mention if your condition causes cumulative consequences, like increased dizziness, pain spikes, post-exertional malaise etc, as it helps to illustrate the additional impact and the recovery you must do afterwards. CRUCIAL for 'invisible' disabilities.

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🧵 p6 So for example: "I can't prepare a meal every day on the cooker because [the debilitating exhaustion and brain fog] caused by my [ME/CFS] makes me [fumble the knife and cut myself, and burn food on the cooker.] I am able to safely cook a meal [once per week]."

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🧵 p5 What. Why. How. When. They are less likely to recognise your disability if you don't explain each of these four elements.

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🧵p4 You can use this template for each question: "I can't do/need help to do (activity) due to the [specific symptoms/impairment] caused by my [condition, diagnosis, injury etc] which makes me [consequence]. This happens [timeframe]

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🧵p3 The questions asked on the PIP form are not totally clear, and your answers need to give more info than the questions are asking for. Your answers need to explain what, why, how and when. For every question.

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🧵p2 Text across six purple paint-sploshed slides reads as follows: PIP* tip #2: a simple format for answering difficult questions *Personal Independence Payment - a UK disability benefit that's not tied to work or income

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Dr Kay Inckle @kayinckle.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

My sore, exhausted, ill folk - another tip to help with PIP. To quote Sorcha who I wrote with recently: we belong in the future. Pls also see pinned post for more. 🧵...

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Reposted by Mish Green

Great piece on #Trans and #Disability justice from @disrightsuk.bsky.social "When we start to question who deserves access to bodily autonomy and who doesn’t, it becomes a deathly game. A game Disabled people never win." www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/trans-a...

disabilityrightsuk.org

Trans and Disability Justice: How Are Our Struggles Linked?

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Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

that's such a good tip. We've got such an increased burden when it comes to documenting an illness that's not only invisible (if you don't know what to look for) but also still not fully even believed by a shocking number of medics.

Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

SKEAR ZINES CALL OUT! We wanna make zine first aid kits that explore care for planet, community, self. One will be 'traditional' folded paper, one will be in a matchbox, and one a postcard. More detail at link, closing date is 13th June. #zines #skearzines #firstaid #newwriting shorturl.at/NSKhQ

shorturl.at

Call Out! 2025

Skear Zines is a collective of three artist writers who are interested in collaboration, making a difference, curiosity and love. All of our zines are limited edition and handmade from post consume…

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The hilarious audacity of Hadley Freeman refering to 'the trans witch-hunt' as if she's not one of the witch hunters.

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Just keep all your letters, print the medical records bit from Patient Access if you use it (it's a summary of your NHS record basically) and don't try to do too much of it all at once. It's designed to crush us, but we know how to pace.

This gem from Katelyn Burns has honestly set me up for the week. Every time an anti-trans bigot calls herself a feminist, Simone de Beauvoir turns in her grave.

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You are so welcome - I'm so glad it's useful. 💚

pt 4 🧵 It's clear to me that privileged white women have repurposed the old 'white women as damsels in distress' batsignal that was leveraged so violently against Black men in the past (and present) and it will be Black trans women who bear the worst harm from this.

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pt3 🧵 *I made this sign for the 1st of many demos to come following the UK Supreme Court ruling that women are defined by the appearance of their external genitalia at birth; so, vagina = woman, which puts this ideology in line with misogynists - an irony that seems lost on the gender criticals.

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p2 🧵...part of the billions of intricately expressive forms of life that that make this place the gorgeous ecology that it is. Don't ever let them convince you otherwise. Our place is everywhere.

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Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

My trans siblings, we are and always have been part of nature, part of the vast biodiversity of our home planet... pt 1 🧵 #natureistrans #transrightsarehumanrights #lgbwiththet #lgbtqia #standupfightback #supremecourtuk #uksupremecourt #lgbtqia

a cardboard sign has handwritten all caps letters in yellow orange and green, reading 'NATURE IS TRANS'. Hazel twigs are sewn to the sides of the sign, their branches reaching up and out. The sign leans against a cream cupboard door.

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Yes, this was coined by Sorcha who called these collected words 'The Cripothecary' - and that gives me a lot of comfort, esp when spending more/most time in the house. Eid Mubarak to you and your access intimates for tomo, and a collective goodbye to threadbare 'productivity' culture.

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Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

THURS 12 noon GMT online: Disabled artists from Jav, Bali, Cardiff and Liverpool talk about mark making in the places that disempower us & the value of mural and street art as hyper-local radical activism. FINAL CALL 4 TIX shorturl.at/c3twl #disabilityarts #streetart #cripcreative #dadafest

Six people of different genders and skin tones surround a multicoloured illustrative mural on a wall. Two of them wear hats, one wears a human, one wears a head bandana and two wea glasses. They're all smiling. Black text reads: DDIF 40 / Online Event / Street dreams: Urban Struggle Disability Pride - 27th March - 12pm - 1.30pm / Online Zoom

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Reposted by Mish Green

Crips Against Cuts♿️🌻 @crips-against-cuts.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

A map of upcoming DPAC actions on Wednesday 26th March!

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Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

I respond best to dares rather than requests/suggestions, so here's one for you - PIP, disabled art brilliance, and a little dare to warm your creative hands against. #newsletter #OhNo #CreativeDare #DisabilityArt #DisabilityJustice #PIP #DisbeliefDisregard mishgreen.substack.com/p/creative-d...

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Mish Green @mishgreen.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Last call for tix! Thursday night, we dig into Manctopia using short stories as shovels and see what's under the suddenly reflective surface... With @fatroland.bsky.social @bronteschiltz.bsky.social and me! #shortstories #homelessness #manchesterlit #placewriting

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Reposted by Mish Green

DaDa @dadafest.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

#DDFI40 @mishgreen.bsky.social Imagining Better Futures (IBF) The planet is burning & we cannot ignore it - productivity does not = value - 'Bed liberated' = your rest is prioritised #disability #NEISvoid #ChronicIllness

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I guess we'll find out if your optimism is right when the green paper comes out on Tues. In the meantime, those of us who'll be forced out of work or home or worse if PIP is gutted are listening to what Wes Streeting etc are spending their media time on, and we're bracing for impact.

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Some tips for anyone scared shitless by the UK government's recent comments on disability support and PIP - a practical thread #chronicillness #disabilityjustice #pip #disabilitybenefits #mentalillness #invisibleillness #longcovid #mecfs #millionsmissing

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(And if you're a non-disabled person reading this and getting worked up at my words, pls take that energy and direct it at the banks that still haven't paid back the enormous taxpayer loans that we gave to bail them out after their years-long high stakes gambling spree, thx)

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You deserve help and support. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. More info with links on how to appeal a decision here: www.gov.uk/.../personal... 🧵...

Use the Turn2us PIP Helper to learn how to manage each stage of your PIP (personal independence payment) application process.

Please appeal if you can, with help from Citizens Advice Bureaux at or the excellent Turn2Us PIP Helper at pip.turn2us.org.uk Ask friends and family to help if you can, even as proofreaders or admin assistants to help organise your documents. 🧵...

pip.turn2us.org.uk

Turn2us PIP Helper

It is really common to have your first application rejected. This is strategic: they have to meet a quota for rejections and so will do so regardless of your evidence in the hopes you won’t appeal. 🧵...

• If you don’t use specific aids but have come up with your own workarounds, mention those. Things like clinging to the walls for support around the house, crawling up stairs on all fours, using a series of steps and grab rails to get in/out of bath or shower. 🧵...

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• kitchen devices like electric can opener, spill-proof cups, specialist utensils, plastic ‘crockery’ due to weight of regular plates etc • digital tools like speech to text/text to speech software 🧵...

3. AIDS AND APPLIANCES INCLUDE: • mobility devices incl walking sticks of any kind, crutches, wheelchairs • pain treatment devices like TENS machines & heat pads • earplugs, ear defenders, dark glasses, magnifying glasses • stomas, incontinence pads, needing to wear period pants every day etc 🧵...

Remember: cognitive & communicative activity also uses energy and should be mentioned if you get impaired/flared up after doing it. i.e. I can design a project spreadsheet for work but when I am flared up with post-exertional malaise I can’t read and understand the spreadsheet that I designed. 🧵...

As a general rule: if you need to recover (rest, sleep, do pain relieving activity etc) for longer than it took to do the activity, you should mention it in your application, as this is not what non-disabled people have to do. 🧵...

Consider the cumulative effects of activities i.e. you may be able to dip into your adrenaline in order to prepare a meal twice per day for three days, but then the consequences are that your symptoms flare up and leave you unable to cook again for a week. 🧵...

2. FLUCTUATING AND CUMULATIVE CONDITIONS: • consider over 12 month period • if your impairment affects the activity, at some stage in the day, on more than 50% of days in the year • consider the consequences of activites that a non-disabled person wouldn’t have to deal with 🧵...

We need multiple meals every day, and so by this criteria you are not able to repeat the activity as often as is required. 🧵...

e.g. you can safely plan and cook a meal, but only once every four days due to post-exertional malaise, pain, spasms etc making it dangerous or impossible, so the rest of the time you eat fruit, toast and cereal. Fruit, toast and cereal are not considered a meal. 🧵...