Online Disability Hate

⚠️ Content Warning: This post discusses ableism, online abuse, and includes references to ableist slurs such as “cripple.” It may be distressing to some readers. Please take care.

Press play to watch/listen to “I Reported Online Disability Hate. The Police Said They Couldn’t Help.”

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Published: August 2025
By: Rachael | Wheelie MS Advocate

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Every Time I Open TikTok, Someone Tries to Break Me.

They call me a faker. A benefit cheat. A scrounger. A “cripple.”
They mock the way I move. They zoom in on my wheelchair.
They stitch my videos to “expose” me, not for anything I’ve done wrong, but for daring to exist as a disabled person in public.

It’s not once in a while. It’s every single week.

And recently, it crossed a line, again.

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This Time, They Used a Slur. Publicly. Repeatedly.

A user on X (Twitter) mocked me for being disabled, called me a “cripple,” accused me of grifting the system, and implied that people like me, wheelchair users, motability car users who dare to speak, are all liars and fakers.

It was shared widely. Others joined in.

I did what we’re told to do: I reported it as a hate crime. I gathered my evidence. I followed the process.

I hoped someone would take it seriously.

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The Police Said: “They’re Not in the UK. We Can’t Help.”

That was it. No further support. No safeguarding check-in.
Just an apology and a shrug, because the person spewing the abuse appeared to be abroad.

So the message was clear: if someone targets me with hate online from outside the UK, it doesn’t count.

But it does count. It happens constantly. And it cuts deeper every time.

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TikTok Abuse Is Like a Dripping Tap. Except Every Drop Burns.

It’s easy for people to say, “Just ignore it,” or “Don’t let it get to you.”

But what they don’t see is the cumulative effect of hundreds of strangers dissecting your body, questioning your identity, laughing at your pain.

They don’t see the hours spent moderating comments, blocking users, and checking replies before you dare to look.

They don’t feel the sting of seeing your disability turned into entertainment, again.

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Why Does No One Protect Us?

Why are disabled people left to manage this violence alone?

If someone screamed these things at me in a supermarket, the law would protect me. But online, on TikTok, X, or anywhere else, it’s apparently too complicated, too far away, too digital to matter.

The system tells me to report. So I do. But when I need it to respond, it doesn’t.

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The Emotional Toll No One Talks About

This isn’t just about “mean comments.” This is about fear. About exhaustion. About slowly being chipped away at until you’re too tired to post, too scared to speak, too drained to advocate.

This is about logging into an app, knowing that no matter what you say, or how gently you say it, someone will find a reason to dehumanise you.

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Sometimes, the Cruellest Comments Come From People Like Us

It would be easier, in some twisted way, if all the hate came from trolls with anime avatars and burner accounts.

But it doesn’t.

Some of it comes from our own.
From other disabled people.
From people who’ve lived through the benefits system.
From people who should know better, and probably do, deep down.

They accuse me of lying. Of not being “disabled enough.”
Being able to work, therefore, is not a reason to deserve support.
As if being a disabled person who can work means I should be punished for trying.

What they don’t see is the compromise, the exhaustion, the planning behind every video, every post, every minute of content. They don’t see the days I can’t film, the hours I crash, the energy that runs out before the work is done.

I work because I can, in a limited, adaptive, precarious way.
But I still deserve protection. I still deserve care.
And I still deserve respect.

This internalised ableism, this cruelty dressed up as critique. It hurts just as much, sometimes more. Because it’s not just about ignorance. It’s about betrayal

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Please Stop Calling Me Strong

I don’t want to be strong all the time.
I shouldn’t have to be.

When people call me “strong” for surviving this, for putting up with abuse, for navigating systems that fail me, for carrying on anyway, it doesn’t always feel like a compliment.

Sometimes, it feels like gaslighting.

Like you’re admiring my ability to suffer quietly.
Like you’re saying, “This is just who you are, someone who copes.”

But I don’t want to cope. I want to live.
I want to create without being attacked.
I want to exist online without needing armour.
I want softness. Safety. Rest.

Calling me strong won’t undo the harm. It won’t stop the abuse. It just shifts the expectation back onto me to keep enduring it without complaint.

What I need isn’t praise for my resilience.
What I need is change. I don’t want to be strong all the time. I don’t want to educate people who only show up to harm me. I just want to exist, safely, in the same spaces as everyone else.

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We Need More Than Advice. We Need Action.

Online ableism is real. It’s constant. And it’s killing people’s confidence, joy, and well-being, slowly but surely.

We don’t need more “tips for coping.” We need systems that actually protect disabled people, online and off.

We need hate crime laws that reflect the way abuse actually happens, through screens, across borders, in comment sections, and under usernames.

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Conclusion: I’m Still Here. But I’m So, So Tired.

If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced the same, I see you.

If you’re a disabled creator who’s been harassed out of your space, I believe you.

And if you’re in power, or in policing, or in tech, we need you to do better.

Because right now, the message to disabled people is loud and clear:
“You’re on your own.”

And that’s not good enough. Use the #HateCrime wherever you see it.

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🎧🎶Listen and Watch

🔊Podcast on Spotify: Wheelie MS Advocate

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Related articles:

• The Truth behind – Better Off on Benefits |
• Motability |
• Disability Hate Crime |
• Access to Work|

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Want to share your story or ask a question? Drop it in the comments or check out TikTok. Let’s talk.

Rach xx

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