Caregiving
How Proposed Changes to Public Charge Will Make It Hard to Immigrate with a Disability
Immigration is already an expensive, difficult process for anyone—but it might soon become even harder for immigrants with disabilities. In October 2018, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule change to existing laws surrounding immigration known as public charge.…
One Way to Make Voting More Accessible to the Disability Community? Vote-by-Mail.
This post is part of a partnership between #CripTheVote and Rooted in Rights. If I start with the beginning of my voting story in the early ‘90s, it is one of compassion and support, when two nice volunteers from either…
Home Health Aides Help Me Live My Life. We Need to Pay Them Better.
When I decided to begin living on my own after my mother’s stroke, I knew I would receive an increase in the number of weekly attendant hours assigned to me. Since I required assistance with several activities of daily living,…
Doctors Need to Believe People Who Are Disabled and Undiagnosed
When you’re disabled, people expect your story to follow a predictable trajectory: you experience a symptom (or a litany of symptoms), you see doctors and specialists, tests are run, and at some point, you receive a diagnosis. Though it might…
Electronic Visit Verification: a Threat to Independence for Disabled People
Dennis Borel of the Texas Coalition of People with Disabilities sums up Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) in one crisp comment: “What am I, a felon? Put an ankle bracelet on me.” If you’re not familiar with EVV, it involves the…
If You’re Writing About Disability, You Need to Read These Guidelines
Sometimes I imagine what the media’s typical coverage of disability might say if it was written about me—covering the two proms I went to with my girlfriend in high school, celebrating my ability to graduate from college after almost failing …
Affordable Housing for Disabled People Should Be a Right, Not a Luxury
At the end of last month, I woke up to the swooshing sound of an envelope being stealthily slipped under my door. When I got out of bed to inspect it, the greeting did not even include my name, but…
15 Autistic Activists You Should Follow This Autism Acceptance Month
It was around late 2012 or early 2013 when I first stumbled across the #ActuallyAutistic community online. Before I found the community, my ideas about what it means to be autistic came from my personal experience or from limited and …