Talk

Start new thread

Flip

Back to thread

Original poster

Ablesim on mumsnet

2 replies

Readyfreddo · 31/05/2024 07:23

Hi. I’m really interested in whether mumsnet has an interest in and strategy for combatting the collective ableism on this site, particularly (but by no means exclusively) directed and children with and parents of kids with disabilities and additional needs.

As a parenting site I’m sure you’re aware of the massive challenges associated with raising a child with disabilities, and I’m curious whether you’d let threads about any other minority, protected group run as unchecked as you do where the discussion is around children with disabilities.

There’s a thread currently running about an autistic 3 year old queue jumping. I’d encourage the site team to read it for many examples of how problematic these discussions very often are. (In summary - the view seems to be that the three year old is probably faking it and if he isn’t why on earth is he out of the house without proper paperwork)

Go to post

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 03/06/2024 11:16

Morning, all.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts on here. There are many different points being made so while we can't respond here to each one individually, please be assured we have been reading carefully and will continue to do so.

To address the OP's main questions, our talk guidelines don't address the specifics of ablesim and disablism but do state that we won't tolerate hate speech of any kind, and we would obviously put disablism and ableism in that bracket. We do regularly delete posts like this and we always take a careful look at posters who post this sort of thing and will take further steps if it's clear they set out to be abusive or inflammatory.

While we strive to apply our rules consistently, we are somewhat limited by the nature of online interactions. We hear that you would like there to be 'something more' than deletions and bannings where these posts occur (and we understand why) but unfortunately, we cannot pre-screen users for their beliefs or intentions before they join Mumsnet, so we are limited to doing what we can in moderating posts and individuals.

We do also sometimes post on a thread where we think it will be useful to point out that posts like this aren't tolerated, but we take your point that perhaps that's something we could do more of, too, so we'll have a discussion about that.

Of course, there may be times when posts are reported as ableist but we don't agree that that is the necessarily the case. We try to let discussion run wherever possible and have to accept that things aren't always completely clear cut; sometimes a post that one person finds offensive isn't breaking talk guidelines. But we will always try to explain those decisions if a reporter wants to get in touch and discuss it.

This might also be a useful moment to highlight that we have been dealing with a persistent troll recently who specifically targets discussions about autism. Despite our best efforts to ban this individual each time they appear, their repeated presence may contribute to a perception of an increase in ableist posts. As with any post like this, we'd encourage people to report, even if they are unsure. We'll delete anything we agree breaks our guidelines and it's usually possible for us to spot this particular troll and others like them once they're brought to our attention.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 05/06/2024 10:26

Hi again @Readyfreddo ,

This is a good point. There are a number of us here who have a child with a disability or neurodiversity, as well as several of us with disabilities ourselves, as you'd expect in any group of people. So these issues are certainly something many of us deal with every day and have a good understanding of. But yes, we do of course want to take on board the views of Mumsnetters themselves, which is where we hope threads like this can help, in being able to read a wide range of opinions on various aspects of a topic like this.

On which note, @OneForTheRoadThen , we're afraid that while we do read everything, due to the volume of posts every day, we can't promise to reply to every single individual post in Site Stuff; it would just be unmanageable. As a free-to-use site, we just can't afford the number of staff it would take to keep that up, sadly. If you want to alert us to one of your posts in particular that you feel needs a personal response you can always hit the report button.

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread

Back to thread

Flip