si-dump:

Too Short To Ride is so important for disabled people like holy shit

Seeing Peridot’s frustration when she can’t join in with Steven and Amethyst, knowing that she should be having fun but not being able to really resonated with me because that’s exactly what it’s like trying to keep up with non-disabled friends

And she was angry and bitter about Funland being inaccessible in the same way that we get angry when our environment is inaccessible

Then when she tells Steven and Amethyst about her disability they immediately tell her that she can do the thing, even though she knows she can’t. They mean well and try to teach her to shapeshift but she can’t do it and ends up feeling worse

This happens to disabled people all the time – we’re constantly told that we can do things, we just need to try harder and be positive. But there are some things we just can’t do and this attitude just hurts is more

Then we see how much internalised ableism Peridot has. She thinks she’s worse than the other gems and feels insecure because of her disability which is something most disabled people struggle with

At fiirst Amethyst is very accepting and reminds Peridot that her limitations don’t define her and they love her for who she is, not who she could be (if she weren’t disabled)

But then she does what a lot of non-disabled people do (and this is the most important part of the episode for me). She tells Peridot that she doesn’t need assistive technology, she shouldn’t rely on her tablet and then snatches it from her

Disabled people are constantly told that they don’t need medication, mobility aids, assistive technologies etc, and abled people will often withhold access to those things or even take them away without our consent

Amethyst says Peridot doesn’t need her tablet, and Peridot responds with “You don’t know that!” and honestly I can’t put into words how important that is.

Everyone, disabled or not, needs to pay attention to that line because you don’t know what anyone else is able or unable to do, and you don’t know what accommodations and assistance they need

When Amethyst tries to destroy the tablet, Peridot finds out that she has a different power (metal kinesis?) which serves as a reminder that even if you can’t do what everyone else does, you can still do something

Tl;dr

Peridot is disabled

It is an accurate representation of disabled people’s experiences

And it addresses casual ableism from well-meaning friends