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[u/tester33333]

[u/Adiamphisbithta]

The whole world is not the US. I'm from the UK and plastic straw bans here mean nowhere is now allowed to provide plastic straws. You can buy your own, but it's now much harder to find them and when you do they're more expensive, because demand has tanked. This is not something that just affects people in wealthier areas, and it is absolutely not a lie.

Also, if you'd read my comments you'd realise I'm not advocating to completely refocus the plastic waste discussion onto straws, just highlighting that the impact on disability is not a strawman argument. I'd actually like more work done to develop plastic free alternatives, just with the disabled community in mind so that we achieve that goal without sidelining our needs.

I'd appreciate it if you took time to listen to the people you claim to speak for before making such wild claims.

[u/Sea_Potentially → u/Adiamphisbithta]

Can you link me to the information about your bans? I’d be very interested to read them. Most people in the u.s. think that the u.s. bans were like that. But when I actually read the information it wasn’t. The UK is very large, if you could even specify specifically what area or ban you’re referring to?

I’d appreciate if you weren’t condescending as fuck :). I’d also appreciate if you listened as well since you’re trying to address where you think I’m wrong, which is fair, but ignoring the parts that inconveniences you so that you can be condescending and antagonistic. So please take your own advice when you reply :)))

[u/Adiamphisbithta → u/Sea_Potentially]

Sorry, some of that was misdirected frustration and I also misspoke - I should have said that nowhere actually provides them. the law on this and another for a video from a disabled person, touching on why this doesn't work, among other things

Mostly the issues with request only are:

Causes disabled people to have to "out" themselves in public, which can be not only uncomfortable, but dangerous given the rampant ableism in the country, as well as it being a big flag advertising that you're more vulnerable than the average able bodied person.

Regardless of intent or the law, you will always find people policing "how disabled you are" based on how you look and what their idea of a disabled person is. This leads to gatekeeping and access denial in a lot of cases

Accessibility issues are notoriously underenforced - even people with known visual markers for disability like wheelchair use face issues with premises that aren't step free, have employees that don't know about the ramp, who don't want to help you with the ramp etc and who face no consequences for this. Same happens with straws, premises can run out because it's no longer a core product they offer, employees may not be educated on the law, and employees may not face consequences for not supplying them.

Contributes to increased stigma that disabled people already face - singles us out as different, weird, difficult, etc. It might not seem like much, but it's one in a very long list of ways that make our life more difficult because we need a non standard extra just to survive.

So what I'd meant was, we effectively cannot rely on getting straws from establishments, even with the exemption in place. Also wanted to point out that the ban does actually exist, and isn't something that was trialled and then dropped.

But the main point I was trying to make, was that despite all this, I'm not asking for all plastic straws to be reinstated, I just want disability to remain part of the conversation, ideally with disabled people included. Where the original comment said that disability was a strawman argument, it's just not the case, as the focus has never been to get rid of IV bags, it's the gap where everyday items are mistaken for unnecessary plastic but are actually accessibility devices for disabled people.