A Zaney Life

05/29/2026

78% of blind and low vision people have trouble accessing their own medical records online.

I have navigated patient portals so accessible I called my friends to tell them about it. And I have tried to schedule an appointment on a portal calendar so inaccessible I simply gave up and found a different provider.

The gap between those two experiences should not exist. The tools are there. Accessible design exists. Screen reader compatibility exists.

Nearly 8 out of 10 of us are still waiting for it to be the norm.

Source: American Foundation for the Blindb

05/28/2026

05/21/2026

The fraud that has been discovered is not related to "autism," it is related to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which is a "conversion therapy."

It is not, in fact, a therapy.

Autistic people have spoken out against ABA, and many have shared traumatic experiences they've had.

We need safe, ethical, and high quality care for autistic children.

The problem isn't autism services, the problem is ABA, which is a monopoly on services with very little choice or oversight.

05/18/2026

**The Autistic Urge to Know Why**
It starts early.
“Why?”
And not the playful kind.
The real kind.
Why does this rule exist?
Why do we do it that way?
Why is that considered normal?
Why can’t you just explain the logic?
For a lot of autistic minds, “because I said so” isn’t an answer.
It’s unfinished data.
And unfinished data feels uncomfortable.
The Need for Coherence
Some brains are satisfied with surface explanations.
Autistic brains often aren’t.
They look for patterns.
Systems.
Consistency.
If something doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t just feel confusing.
It feels wrong.
So you ask questions.
Not to challenge authority.
Not to be difficult.
Not to argue.
But to understand.
Because once you understand the logic, you can follow it.
Without it, you’re navigating in the dark.
Why This Gets Misread
From the outside, constant “why” can look like:
Defiance.
Overthinking.
Nitpicking.
Being argumentative.
But internally, it’s about alignment.
You don’t want blind compliance.
You want reasoning.
You want cause and effect.
You want to know how the comet moves across the sky — not just that it does.
The Double Edge
That drive to understand can be powerful.
It makes you analytical.
Curious.
Deeply knowledgeable.
You don’t just memorize information.
You map it.
But it can also be exhausting.
Because not everything in life is logical.
People contradict themselves.
Rules are inconsistent.
Social expectations shift without warning.
And when something doesn’t fit the pattern, your brain keeps circling it.
Trying to resolve it.
Trying to make it make sense.
The Dinosaur Looking at the Sky
There’s something poetic about that image.
Standing there, looking up, trying to understand something massive and incomprehensible.
That’s what it can feel like.
Not satisfied with “that’s just how it is.”
Always needing the deeper layer.
The underlying structure.
The “why.”
And here’s the truth:
That urge isn’t a flaw.
It’s a cognitive style.
It’s a brain that values understanding over assumption.
If you’ve ever been told you ask too many questions…
You’re not too much.
You’re wired to seek coherence.
And in a world that often runs on vague social rules and half-explanations, that can feel lonely.
But it’s also powerful.
Because the people who ask “why” are often the ones who eventually reshape the answer.

05/16/2026

The truth is, we have to become seasoned advocates by the time our children are five.
So when the message is that we “take up to much space” in system of care advisory meetings, we already know what that means.
It means ableism is afoot.
Our children fuel our desire to make this world a softer, kinder and more loving and accepting place.
And no, we will not be silenced.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYOD548B7xM/?igsh=d3p4bWxkYTduenhh

05/13/2026