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# 10/28/25 - Shutdown, accessibility, and multiple sclerosis
- URL: https://disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io/10-28-25-shutdown-accessibility-and-multiple-sclerosis/
- Published: 2025-10-28T18:30:26.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-28T18:30:25.000Z
- Author: Andrew Pulrang

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## Good afternoon!

  
It's a classic Northeastern New York autumn day where I am – sunny, chilly but not cold, and the leaves are a peak color. Some days, it's possible to feel downright good about things, at least for a little while. I hope today's links are informative, and not depressing enough to spoil the mood ...

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Tuesday Links

## [**Update on the Government Shutdown**](https://mailchi.mp/aapd/govt-shutdown-update?e=abbe17eb8a&ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io)

American Association of People with Disabilities - October 27, 2025

> "On October 22, at least [**25 states announced**](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/23/states-snap-food-aid-benefits-government-shutdown-00619117?ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io) that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program **(SNAP) benefits will not be paid in November** if the shutdown continues. Many people with disabilities depend on SNAP for food, making this an urgent threat to our community.”

Sometimes we in the various corners and branches of disability culture have mixed feelings about acknowledging and highlighting the overlap between disability and poverty. We don't want to encourage people to *assume* that disabled people are all poor, or that disability necessarily leads to poverty. On the other hand, a higher percentage of disabled people than average *are* poor, in the United States and probably just about everywhere else in the world. And one of the implications of that is that it is reasonable to categorize budget cuts and shutdowns to general income and food assistance as "disability issues" too. Right now, a lot of disabled people in the US are facing a significant and horribly-timed drop-off, specifically in food and home heating assistance, as well as other services. The fact that a lot of non-disabled people will be suffering from the same cuts doesn't alter the fact that disabled people will be hit especially hard.

## [**Oregon earns ‘Accessibility Verified’ status from disability nonprofit**](https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/23/oregon-accessibility-verified-disabilities-tourism-recreation-wheelchair/?ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io)

Kristian Foden-Vencil, Oregon Public Broadcasting - October 25, 2025

> "The nonprofit [Wheel the World](https://wheeltheworld.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqO7lrzfQF28BBxV55RfRJ%5FYvbP2CUVaB4XtcJXTPit66gXkH3%5F&ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io) helps people with disabilities find accessible tourist spots. It just designated Oregon as its first “Accessibility Verified” state .. To make the designation, the nonprofit’s members visited 750 spots around Oregon, measuring things like the number of wheelchair ramps, the height of toilets and hotel beds, how many disabled parking spaces were available, and the ease of recreating outdoors.”

Reading through the article, this designation for the State of Oregon seems to be well-earned. That's important, because I'm often a bit skeptical of this type or recognition for being accessible or disability-friendly. Giving awards or certifications of accessibility to businesses and towns or regions is supposed to encourage them to make more accessibility changes. It is also, in theory, supposed to be useful to disabled people, who can find out *before* going there whether a place is likely to be accessible. It's a good idea in theory. But I worry about how often it fails or misleads in practice. Once a disability organization says, "They're good!" they are on the hook, at least by reputation, when the praised and endorsed entity inevitably falls short.

What kinds of incentives and initiatives do you think are best for increasing accessibility? Email your thoughts to: [apulrang@icloud.com](mailto:apulrang@icloud.com).

## [**On My Last Leg**](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/on-my-last-leg?ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io)

Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker - October 25, 2025

> "By the time I found myself stranded on a Brooklyn street, it seemed as if the ghost had reappeared to point out not my miserliness but my foolishness for ever having believed that I was O.K.”

*Jeez Louise* there's a lot to unpack in this article. At one point, Rosenfeld seems to wonder if her thinking about her resurgence of multiple sclerosis symptoms has become obsessive. My first reaction is to reply, "It sure is!" But then I wonder if there might be something healthy and admirable about thinking through this disability experience in such exhaustive detail. Maybe because I have lived all my life with my disabilities, with no real breaks or remissions in between, I haven't thought it through and emotionally *experienced* it as much as I could, or should. If nothing else, this account vividly describes what it's like to deal with the kind of disability that comes and goes – or that goes away, seemingly forever, only to return without fanfare to re-calibrate a previously settled life.

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Take Action

[![Don't Turn Back the Clock - Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities are Being Threatened!](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/51/9951e709-0bb8-4ee3-8557-6b5a3d3af05b/content/images/2025/10/Action-Alert-Panel.png)](https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/NDSCCenter/Campaigns/123043/Respond?ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io)

Don't Turn Back the Clock - Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities are Being Threatened!

[![Tell Congress to End the Government Shutdown - with the American Association of People with Disabilities](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/51/9951e709-0bb8-4ee3-8557-6b5a3d3af05b/content/images/2025/10/Action-Alert-Panel-2.png)](https://aapd.quorum.us/campaign/144441/?ref=disability-thinking-weekday.ghost.io)

Tell Congress to End the Government Shutdown - with the American Association of People with Disabilities

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#DisabledRage with the Disability Visibility Project

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