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People with disabilities share the moving ways their partners show love for them

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Uploaded: 2018-05-31T14:53:00+00:00
Description: These glasses can help people with disabilities use technology without their hands

Actions speak louder than words sometimes.

Rachel Thompson

on June 25, 2018

People with disabilities share the moving ways their partners show love for them

Credit: shutterstock / mashable composite

Actions speak louder than words — particularly when those actions show just how much you care about a person.

People with disabilities have been sharing their partners' actions that show them just how much they're loved — actions that are "different from the way abled people show love."

Get the tissues at the ready, you're in for some very moving Twitter #content.

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The conversation was started by Imani Barbarin, a disabilities activist and creator of the #DisTheOscars hashtag, which calls attention to the lack of disability representation in the Academy Awards.

Barbarin asked people with disabilities to share "some of the physical ways your partner makes you feel loved that are different from the way abled people show love."

Twitter user @Shqueeebee wrote that when she was "first in the hospital" she wasn't able to hold a pen to write her name on her medical consent forms. "I'm Greek and my armpit hair grew longer than I ever wanted so my sweet guy offered to shave them for me because I couldn't," wrote @Shqueeebee.https://twitter.com/shqueeebee

Twitter user @Jkcanaan, who uses a wheelchair, wrote that their partner pushes their chair "no matter how hot it is outside."

"He always makes sure to give me the right number of pain pills for my headaches," they wrote, adding that he also pops their joints back into place for them.

Disabilities activist @4WheelWorkOut — creator of #disabledwomanism — tweeted that her partner touchers her "scars and stubs." "I used to flinch bc scars and stubs. But that's one way I knew he loved me," she wrote.

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@KimmieChan1995 wrote that her partner helps her sit up and gets her heat packs if she's in pain, he helps her bathe and carries her when she can't walk.

Carolyn Fornoff wrote that her "amazing partner" is her "literal crutch." "He always holds my hand so that I don't lose balance and encourages me to slow down," she wrote.

@Sanleigh, who has ADHD and Endometriosis, says they get "a pass on household chores and grocery trips" when their condition flares up. "Sometimes it sneaks up while we're out, we both walk slow and sit down along the way," they wrote.

@Bakpaksgotjets wrote that her partner doesn't initiate intimacy because "he knows how painful [endometriosis] has made sex" for her.

"He waits (and often waits some more) for me to feel like maybe it won't hurt too much or at all, and then let him know," she wrote.

@DenisePersisted wrote that she is "immunocompromised and constantly fighting infection."

"Out of safety to each other, there is no typical intimacy," she writes. "Instead my husband makes for us the most amazing food—it has truly become our love language."

@CoastalWilliams, who has a chronic illness, says they love playing Pokémon Go. "When I have a bad fibro flare, walking is ridiculously painful," they wrote. "He'll bundle me up in the car with a soft hoodie and lots of beverages and take me for a very slow drive around the neighbourhood PokéStops."

@UntoNuggan wrote that their partner doesn't argue when they need to be holder "because of heat intolerance."

Their partner "puts on more clothes" or gets them a fan so they can get cool.

Pass the tissues, folks.

Topics Social Good

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.