Zarpaulus

Writer of sci-fi and horror

Underemployed biologist and creator of the Para-Imperium setting. Currently writing the webcomic "Joanna: Ghost Hunter."


Osmose
@Osmose

A small example of accessibility benefitting everyone and not just folks targeted by accomodations is:

8ish years ago I decided my online handle was more my real name than my legal one (which has attachments to my family that I don't like) and started using it everywhere. I kinda expected people to think it was silly or be confused by it. And some were.

But it turns out a lot of people and systems were already coping with name changes related to trans people, and in a lot of cases (my two most recent jobs, several online services, some doctors and therapists) there already were accomodations I could use to register a "preferred name" that was different from my legal name.

It's hardly universally accommodated, and of course there are many reasons besides a gender transition that folks change their names already, but man was it a nice side effect.


DiscoDeerDiary
@DiscoDeerDiary

If you have a name that's not one of the easily-recognizable English language names it's so goddamn nice to be able to fill in the "preferred name" space with a phonetic spelling of your name and have everyone pronounce it correctly without pausing, without doing the weird voice, without giving a half-hearted apology that actually sounds more like they're chiding you for existing while foreign.


CERESUltra
@CERESUltra

Listen, I'm white, I grew up in a 95% anglophone environment, but the two biggest names I have gone by have been an endless source of frustration and condescension.

It's no secret I went by cadejo for almost 5 years, to the point even people I lived in the same city with did not know it was not my legal name. it became even more relevant when in the early days of my tradition I chose to keep the name. It still is how some people find me even to this day.

kuh-DAY-ho. It wasn't hard. But people butchered it, mangled it, and dragged it up and down the street behind their truck for five years. It doesn't even have any special characters in it or anything. The grudge, though, comes from a shitty former roommate who already was absolutely the worst to live with, prone to TERRIFYING bouts of anger over sports, but acted like he was incredibly progressive for an ostensibly cis dude.

When I told him that I was going to go by a different, very english name, he said, "Oh thank god, I was tired of having to explain it to people, this will make it so much easier."

The only reason I didn't flip the fuck out on him then was being afraid of him in turn getting violently angry with me. It was already a terrible living situation and it was in the beginning days of COVID, so I had nowhere else to go. His boyfriend was trans! He claimed to be leftist! But the second he runs into a non-english name, he suddenly has an issue with it despite having only had to use it less than six months? It was more telling than anything else about him.

Anyways, I eventually settled permanently into Andréa, and it still irritates me to no fucking end how many places I'm not allowed to use the é character. The whole reason it's in my name is to encourage people to say it right! It's not ANN-dree-uh, it's on-DRAY-ah. I am nervous to put it in my legal name, just because of the problems it could cause. Part of me has forced myself to make peace with it, but deep down there's a resentment that won't go away, because I am so fucking far from the only one.


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