Nicole G Cowie

Mark Lyndersay

#DisabledSnark celebrates the sassiest comebacks to abled people’s insensitive questions

People with disabilities don't owe you an explanation.

 

Samira Sadeque

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 15, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 2:48 pm CDT

People on Twitter are sharing their snarkiest comebacks to the inappropriate and ignorant questions abled people have asked them about their disabilities—and they’re hilarious.  

“I cannot count the number of times I literally fell off my chair laughing at the responses to the hashtag,” Nicole G. Cowie, a mental health and disability rights activist from Trinidad and Tobago, told the Daily Dot via email. 

Cowie said she started the hashtag on Saturday after another activist friend, @Tinu, was talking about how strangers often lead with questions like “What’s your disability?” instead of a simple hello.

“I wanted to address the notion that disabled people are not supposed to clapback when you interact with them in a disrespectful way,” Cowie said. “I want to affirm the idea of choice and agency in how a disabled person chooses to respond to an ableist interaction. You don’t have to feel obligated to be the ‘crip ambassador’ and educate people about your disability all the time.”

https://twitter.com/belovedbless/status/1116969213569261568

https://twitter.com/katesang/status/1117820705306025984

https://twitter.com/mk_basile/status/1117726339136495616

https://twitter.com/lukasthoughs/status/1117691522042851329

https://twitter.com/ProEiszeitDeaf/status/1117654208260509698

https://twitter.com/SaraBTweet23/status/1117141084923158528

Cowie says she is happy about the responses because they harkened back to situations she herself has been in where she couldn’t think of the right answer in the moment. And while the responses are humorous—and the hashtag a celebration of sass—they don’t take away from the lessons people are sharing about the insensitivities of abled people.

https://twitter.com/katesang/status/1117820358420307969

https://twitter.com/fieryxspirit/status/1117783919217266691

“Disabled people should be fully human in their interactions with ableist people,” Cowie said. “#DisabledSnark is just one more tool to empower how you choose to respond to ableist interactions.”

READ MORE:

Share this article
*First Published: Apr 15, 2019, 2:24 pm CDT