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Today is the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act! Here’s some facts about what it’s like living as a disabled person with that law in place.
This is going to be very US-centric and even more NY-centric as that’s where the person writing this thread is based. I encourage you to look up this info wherever you live.
One in five people in the US has a disability. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know a single disabled person. We are everywhere and experience access issues in every situation.
Only about a quarter of NYC subway stations are wheelchair accessible. These stations very often suddenly close their elevators with no warning, leaving people who rely on them stranded. There is no way of knowing which ones work until you arrive much of the time.
The elevators that do work almost always smell like urine (which is not the fault of houseless people who biologically need to expel urine but a larger issue of both not allowing houseless people to access bathrooms and the MTA not cleaning stations properly).
The NYT reported that they found that only 3% of Manhattan apartments listed are wheelchair accessible, and that's only talking about wheelchair accessibility. There are a million other access needs. As if finding an apartment in NYC wasn’t already a fucking nightmare.
50% of people killed by police have a disability. Police brutality is a disability issue and black disabled people are at an even higher risk. That’s not even factoring in the medical racism rampant in the US. Black disabled lives matter too.
34% of disabled people in NY are unemployed, compared to the 3.9% unemployment the state has within the general population. That’s nearly 9x higher. I have personally seen a ton of job listings that say “must be able to lift 50lbs” when that’s not a task required for that job.
A big part of this is jobs refusing to accommodate us even though it’s the law. They just don’t hire us in the first place or use “at will” employment so they can terminate you without cause. At will employment is ableist.
People on disability income are not allowed to have more than $2,000 EVER. That is the maximum you are allowed to have at one time and the minute you go over that, you lose your benefits. Think about how little $2k is for a lifetime savings.
I myself have been rejected from disability 3 times despite having substantial medical records stating my diagnoses. If I did get approved, the amount I would be getting each month is $668. There isn’t a single place in this entire city were you can live on that amount.
It's 100% legal to pay disabled people below minimum wage. And I mean PENNIES an hour, all completely within their legal right. Looking at you @goodwillintl, although they’re far from the only company that does this under the guise of “helping disabled people become independent.”
The weirdest thing about ableism is that disability is the only group that everyone in the entire world can become at any moment. Every single person in the world could have a stroke & become paralyzed, be in a car accident & lose a leg, get COVID & have permanent lung damage.
And on a long enough timeline, if you happen to live long enough, everyone gets disabled. Have you ever met a 90 year old in absolute perfect health? Exactly. We all develop health problems if we live long enough. Just wait.
So when you hear people using the ADA to circumvent mask laws because they’re pieces of shit, tell them they can either take all of being disabled or none of it. Disabled people don’t get to choose when it’s convenient for us, we experience this discrimination 100% of the time.
So the ADA was a huge step for disability justice, but we are FAR from where we need to be. What are you doing to make your community more accessible? If the answer is nothing, do one thing today that helps a disabled person.
