Disabled Doctor

PhD. Clinician-Scientist. Gamer. Chicken-herder. CCI ADHD EDS TBI TN 🏳️‍🌈

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

What would happen if we stopped praising people for pushing through and started praising people for taking care of themselves and being mindful of the limits?

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

No get me started on how much time they’re wasting with the travel, not to mention needless carbon emissions 🫠

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

Do people who often have to fly for work just to have meetings in another location that could easily be done virtually ever think about how much more money they would be making if a large chunk of their salary didn’t go to the costs of travel? 🤔

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@shuntedmdphd When I was dealing with high intracranial pressure post CSF leak repair I had severe gastroparesis and autonomic dysfunction. Tracks based on my experiences and my professional knowledge of brain stem impact. I’m sorry you are dealing with it though

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

One great thing about wearing a mask everywhere is that nobody ever tells you to “smile more”

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@BreRVA Thank you :)

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

Sometimes I feel like I’m crap at my job because of brain fog, memory issues, the fact that I can’t always have my camera on or often feel “off” due to flares or get distracted due to ADHD. Seeing other clinicians and scientists on social media putting out so much content and I can barely support my head at times.

It just brings on imposter syndrome (and internalized ableism). But then patients stick with me. I watch them improve and start to feel better, even if it’s just via better accommodation and pacing and acceptance.

They seek me out BECAUSE I’m disabled, and accept that I’m not perfect while I model being open about being disabled, being human, all while still fighting the urge to try to present as “perfect” and non-disabled myself at times. It’s actually really beautiful this tiny sliver of disability community and acceptance I’ve cultivated in the world, it’s just not something that can be easily captured on TikTok or in an instagram reel or wherever else

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@elle_carnitine Ugh. I used to love chess. Used to teach it, actually. Then lost my ability to play due to disability so I feel you. I’m so sorry

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

Once I was on a public bus and a man near me started staring at me and masturbating. I publicly yelled about what he was doing and shamed him for it and then told the bus driver but he scurried off while I told the driver. The bus driver was upset I didn’t yell louder (I was at the back) so they couldn’t lock them in the bus and call police.

THAT’s how you handle sexual assault on public transit, @united. Shame on you for making this woman sit next to a man who sexually assaulted her and then putting it on her to report it. A crime happened on your plane and you need to take responsibility in protecting your passengers.

[Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts]

United employees forced a 25 year old woman to return to her seat next to a man who was masturbating because the flight was full. After landing, the airline told the woman it was her responsibility to contact police and gave her a $100 travel credit.
https://t.co/7BCpa3hX10

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@BreRVA @mhornig @DrEricDing Thanks for the heads up!

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

For the first time in my life I just had the thought “I’m pretty damn impressive” and what’s amazing about it is that I’m openly disabled, queer, aggressively accommodating myself, dealing with serious physical and cognitive issues, working part time, and nowhere close to where I was before functioning or status-wise. I never once felt “impressive” back then, working in fancy hospitals and coveted roles, even doing research for NASA or running studies at Northwestern. I’ve never once felt “impressive” before now at any point. And I’m crying because I think I, for the first time in my life, have truly accepted myself for who I am, not for my accomplishments. And I’m sure as hell I would not be here if not for the endless love and boundless wisdom of the disability community right here on twitter. I doubt there is another community in the world where you will you be told that you are loved and valuable exactly as you are, regardless of what you can or cannot do. It’s absolutely beautiful and I am so honored to be a part of it. Only wish is that I got here sooner

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@GennadySimanovs @brownecfm What an ableist garbage comment…

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@liamsLCjourney Is this a joke? This is sarcasm, right?
Or have you never been to a well organized online conference?

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

“Patients with relevant scientific or medical knowledge were offered access at a substantially reduced rate, including access to almost 100 scientific sessions.”

lol! This guy has the gall to say the conference was somehow accessible because disabled people he deemed worthy had “access” at a reduced fee.

You mean they had to somehow prove themselves to you and then also have enough money to pay for the conference fee, pay for flying there, pay for the hotel, pay for any care they needed to make it work, take time off of work or ask loved ones to to care for them to go, pay for baby sitters or pet sitters or whatever else they needed at home, and THEN get their asses to the conference and tolerate having to navigate it and engage with others for multiple hours every day??

The fact that this person thinks this is what access looks like is legitimately concerning. This is PEAK academic ableism and just wild that he is publicly admitting that this is how things were handled while still trying to claim it was accessible.

In-person conferences are NOT accessible. They are not necessary. They are actively exclusionary and do not effectively progress the field because they create an echo chamber of privileged academics. I can provide numerous citations on this subject. Please stop arguing this is what access looks like, or even quality science. It’s not

[Michael Chapman @miketweetchap]

There are valid arguments here about accessibility, cost, carbon impact and the value of patient involvement in research. But those arguments shouldn’t be used to misrepresent what this particular conference actually offered.

It was not simply “physically and financially inaccessible” to patients unable to attend in person. Patients with relevant scientific or medical knowledge were offered access at a substantially reduced rate, including access to almost 100 scientific sessions. This has been explained several times.

Please email me your grievances and I’ll look into it. We do listen.

[email protected]

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

There is no quality unbiased, anti-ableist or otherwise equity focused research supporting what you are saying here…
Please send me just ONE quality study showing that with current virtual conference technology in-person is somehow better?

Also, please recognize your own bias in putting value into in-person because you, I’m guessing, profited from this whole thing in some way. Either financially or via name notoriety (any publicity is good publicity, eh?)

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@peagreen_M Yeah that’s really gross ableist bullshit

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

There is RESEARCH on the subject of in-person scientific conferences being exclusionary, inaccessible, less productive, and bad for the environment. That’s not even factoring in disease transmission. You ignored science AND accessibility and are now defensive that people are calling you out for it and somehow acting as if it is a badge of honor or something that it was clearly too much for you as well. Internalized ableism is a bitch, isn’t it?

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@HillcrestCardCo Me and this book are one. lol. Seriously been saying those same things for years. Great find. Thanks for sharing!

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

All of these people defending that in-person conference on infectious disease consequences that was both financially and physically inaccessible to MANY people are completely ignoring the fact that the research has been clear on the environmental and exclusionary impacts of in-person conferences for YEARS.

The research is also clear that the ONLY benefit in-person conferences hold over virtual is networking. And networking occurs primarily via perceived worth and value, determinations people tend to make (consciously or not) based on appearance and dress, meaning disabled people, people with visual or neurological differences, people with less money, queer people, etc. are often devalued and ignored,

Networking also doesn’t serve to improve a field. If anything, it further creates silos of people who are similar to one another finding and supporting one another and effectively making an echo chamber where diversified and novel ideas are less likely. Which is unfortunate because research is also clear that increasing the accessibility of conferences and improving the diversity of a field by extension and including the most vulnerable and patient groups in the entirety of the research process are demonstrated to be beneficial to science and scientific development. To improve the quality and utility of research produced on medical conditions. And these “scientists” chose to ignore that science so that they could get away from their families and take a little vacation and schmooze one another? True leaders in the field! 🫠

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

You’re so welcome! Conferences often are a violent, exploitative, and exclusionary machine. Making them in-person amplifies this ten fold. And the privileged people in power cannot seem to see past their own privilege far enough to recognize the negative impacts. They just gotta get their annual work vacation in! 🫠

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

@doctorasadkhan @samtothecam @miketweetchap All I’m hearing here is “Keep your criticism hidden! It’s not fair to expect public accountability”

[Disabled Doctor @DisabledDoctor]

I’m not following all of this conference stuff and don’t know what happened exactly but can someone please tell me why a conference about the consequences of an infectious disease (which I think this is, right??) needed to be in-person??

It’s like disability access, disability justice, disease transmission, and concern for environmental impact were all thrown out of the fucking the window. And for what? A bunch of self-congratulatory non-disabled white people to gather in a room and applaud one another without any patients around to hold them accountable?

Big ol’ yikes 😬

[Michael Chapman @miketweetchap]

A personal note after the 2026 Amsterdam ISLC-PAIS Conference.

Since the conference, my inbox and DMs have been overflowing. The vast majority of messages have been incredibly supportive, for which I am very grateful. There have also been difficult questions and criticism, and occasionally some less pleasant messages.

I see a lot of anger now about a few comments made by researchers that can certainly be described as unfortunate. But I also want to put that in perspective. In the months leading up to the conference, we were confronted with an enormous amount of harsh language on X, emails and accusations, some of them simply untrue. I don’t say that to excuse anyone’s words or to start comparing who behaved worse. I say it because I think the last few days have demonstrated how quickly positions harden online, while an actual conversation can suddenly reveal that the intentions on both sides are very different from what we assumed.

X is particularly unforgiving in that respect. Complex issues become a few sentences, emotion takes over, and people read meanings into words that were never intended by the person writing them.

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