Disabled and neurodivergent people don’t have “special” needs. We have the same human needs everyone has — rest, safety, communication, belonging, autonomy — and we need them met in ways that actually work for our bodyminds.
“Special needs” is a label that makes ordinary support sound optional, burdensome, or charitable. It turns access into a favor. Stimpunks rejects that framing. Access is infrastructure. Support is normal. Dignity is not extra.
What We Mean
- Support is not special. It’s what humans do for each other.
- Access is not a perk. It’s a baseline condition for participation.
- Needs aren’t moral. You don’t “earn” them by behaving well.
- Accommodation is not cheating. It’s design catching up to reality.
- Dignity is not optional. People shouldn’t have to suffer to be taken seriously.
Why “Special Needs” Does Harm
“Special needs” sounds polite, but it often functions like a downgrade. It implies:
- Optional — as if meeting needs is a kindness, not a responsibility.
- Extra — as if access is an add-on instead of the foundation.
- Suspicious — as if needing support means you’re trying to get away with something.
- Individual — as if the problem lives in a person, not in a system built for a narrow “normal.”
It also invites gatekeeping: paperwork, proof, compliance tests, and humiliation rituals — all to receive ordinary human care.
Needs aren’t “special.” The systems that refuse to meet them are.
Human Needs Show Up Differently
Same needs. Different wiring. Different environments. Different supports.
Communication
- Time to process.
- Written-first options.
- AAC without stigma.
- “Anything but the phone.”
Sensory Safety
- Lower volume, lower glare.
- Predictable spaces.
- Quiet exits and decompression.
- Permission to stim.
Autonomy & Dignity
- Real choices (not fake choices).
- Consent, not coercion.
- Flexible pacing (crip time).
- Support without punishment.
What We’re Asking For
We’re asking for the accommodations for natural human variation to be mutual — built into schools, workplaces, clinics, events, and online spaces.
- Design for real life. Edge cases are stress cases. Build for them.
- Remove gatekeeping. Don’t make people prove suffering to get support.
- Normalize access tools. Captions, quiet rooms, written agendas, flexible participation.
- Presume competence. Communication ≠ intelligence.
- Make help easy to take. Reduce paperwork, shame, and surveillance.
If You’re Building a Space
If you’re running a classroom, event, workplace, or community space, “human needs” looks like infrastructure:
- Offer multiple ways to participate (talk, type, listen, step out).
- Make rest and breaks normal.
- Provide quiet and low-sensory options.
- Use written communication and predictable structure.
- Respect refusal as information, not defiance.
Read Next
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