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Concerning article regarding disability rights in USA

profdanger

NPR article on federal change to disability integration laws

So this article doesn’t strike me as necessarily an emergency, but I do feel as though it is a cause for alarm that things could potentially go backwards for people with disabilities here in America. It’s just the federal government changing a few words around in an old ruling about giving people with disabilities a chance for the most integration possible. However, that could easily snowball into further litigations upending the decades of work activists have done to secure rights for Americans with disabilities. As I’ve interpreted from this article, this could be a tipping point towards going back to sending most individuals with disabilities into facilities like institutions and nursing homes with the intention of hiding them from the world and limiting how much funds the government invests into them.

I imagine this probably will not impact the lives of most Autistics that need minimal support, but obviously it is important for anyone disabled to stand up for those with other disabilities (similarly to how it is important for non-hetero individuals to stand up for trans folk and visa versa). Besides, I personally have a stake in this regardless of having low support needs myself, since my current job depends on individuals with disabilities having a right to work in the community. I’d hate to see us return to having this population working primarily in closed-off workshops instead of being encouraged to utilize their skills with the community at large.

  • in reply to Jamesmac

    Yeah, I often take for granted the fact that I am white, straight enough, cisgender male, Christian-passing, have invisible disabilities, and not financially poor. I can’t imagine how terrified I’d be if I were an immigrant, or even a naturalized citizen with recent ancestry outside the States.

    We had I.C.E. suddenly have a huge presence in our area last month. It was bad enough they cancelled a huge Latina festival in one of our nearby cities. Imagine that: Even naturalized Hispanic-American civilians are too afraid to celebrate their culture and history out in the open.

  • Man, it's not looking great over there, for sure. Especially considering how everyone under the current administration who isn't white, straight, male and rich are just treated like they're nothing but problems for the lives and wellbeings of everyone else.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Nah, it’s just a meme. “Republican Jesus” is a popular meme format that parodies how ridiculous it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ AND a Republican with ideals that counter everything he stood for.

  • in reply to profdanger

    I don't understand you're country, I really don't. I'm sorry this is happening, but I've no clues as to what you might do about it, other than vote for anyone who's not Trump or one of his supporters. 

    I see your countrymen going on about the wonders of your constittion, the freedoms it promises etc, but nowhere do I see it excluding so many. It's very sad.

    The fact that it's people calling themselves Christians coming out with all this BS, I wonder what Jesus would say? I expect they'd try and argue with him and say he misinterpreted himself, before crusifying him all over again.

  • I do sometimes worry that things such as "reasonable adjustments" could be prone to watering down in the future. 

    It does not help that the Conservative Party and now the Labour Party has done nothing to help the disabled and their carers. They want people in work, but gutted SEND support for personalised help in higher education, they have forced the bedroom tax on disabled households and keep the carer's allowance ridiculously low and the work rules so tight meaning couples can't try to supplement their low income with part time work or risk falling foul of the £200 limit. 

  • in reply to B

    I’ve had at least 3 local businesses (two warehouses and a library) ask if my company still has a workshop. Unfortunately, we did have one until just recently and we still call the main room where we conduct day services “the workshop.” I don’t fault the companies, though. Some positive aspects of a workshop are that it can potentially be safer and/or more convenient for certain individuals and give them something constructive to do. However, I like to encourage these companies to still consider hiring my clients to work in their job site, since that is a much better situation for both the person with a disability AND the company itself.

    I still have yet to convince one of those particular companies of that though, lol

  • in reply to Alexa
    Alexa said:
    the white, straight, Christian-supremacist, wealthy males.

    Oh! Funny story that reminds me of:

    Recently news broke that Republicans were raging online against one of their own (Sarah Huckabee Sanders) because she released an advert where she decried wasteful spending on welfare. The catch was that the ad portrayed a young white male adult choosing to take welfare so that he can play video games all day as a way to portray misuse of those funds. These Republican voters decried it because it depicted a white male, which they said is a misrepresentation of that entire demographic.

    Can you IMAGINE if she portrayed it as a non-white person instead of a white guy, like these conservative voters would prefer?! Like, how horrific and racist would that be?

    There’s a reason why I’m totally fine with bashing white, Christian, American men in my personal writings; They’re not just easy targets, they literally have no issues to deal with beyond maybe getting a paper cut in their day-to-day lives.

  • I have feared for my trans and non-Christian friends in the US and, regretfully, I'm not surprised by this. Of course, I'm horrified as there seems no end to what this administration will do to harm others. All they want is rights for those who already have all the privilege - the white, straight, Christian-supremacist, wealthy males.

  • Every time I see Trump's name at the top of a news article I fear reading it.

    profdanger said:
    I’d hate to see us return to having this population working primarily in closed-off workshops instead of being encouraged to utilize their skills with the community at large.

    Me too.

    It's a scary world these days.