Poverty
Very Unfair: The Nightmare of Institutionalization
Like so much in this dystopia, care is about money. And disability is most certainly expensive. The durable medical equipment, medication, personal care, transportation, home modifications—the shopping list goes on. And everything tagged “accessible” is marked way up. Until I …
Getting to The Roots: Why Does Subminimum Wage Persist?
In 2018, the National Council on Disabilities reported that people with disabilities in the U.S. have decreased chances of finding work. In addition, the report found that disabled workers often work for subminimum wage, low wages, and under substandard employment …
How Rule Changes for CalFresh Will Positively Impact Disabled Californians
During the decade or so before I landed my current job, I lived in Los Angeles while receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This is to say that I lived in a county where the average rent for a studio apartment…
Social Justice Activists Can’t Always Fight for Everything, and That’s Okay
Whenever I have strength to walk around my neighborhood, I often find myself reflecting on how I got to where I’m at now. In comparison to a few years ago, my life is drastically better than I expected it to …
Here’s Why Student Loan Debt is a Disability Rights Issue
When Cara Liebowitz graduated from the City University of New York School of Professional Studies in 2016 with her MA in Disability Studies, she was already on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) so she found it surprisingly easy to have her …
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.…
Homelessness is a Disability Justice Issue
A few months after I left college, I found myself working for a short time at a men’s homeless shelter in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. I was a peer advocate, providing meals and conversation during late afternoon and …
In Appalachia, Disability Stigma Has Dangerous Effects
My mother-in-law tried to get Travis (not his real name) on disability. But it was complicated. Not just the process of navigating the bureaucracy around the application—another part of her problem was that being “on disability” in East Tennessee is…