12/3/25 - Why, how, and why not

Good afternoon ...

I don't know if the title of today's newsletter makes much sense. Sometimes it's hard to come up with a neat phrase to sum up another day's disability-related articles. But the title resonates for me somehow, so let's go with it!

By the way, today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Does this observance carry a lot of meaning around the world? Because here in the US, at least this year, it doesn't seem to amount to a whole lot.

Why the Trump Administration Dropped Plan for Major Cut in Disability Benefits

Eli Hager, Disabled Journalists Association - November 24, 2025

"A few doors down from the Oval Office, Turkish and his colleagues turned a corner into Blair’s office. Sitting across from him was a second person, one the advocates hadn’t expected to encounter: Russell Vought, the powerful White House budget director. He looked displeased ... After several minutes of dialogue about the disability regulation, according to Turkish and another person present, Vought said, 'I know that this is being written about.' But, he added, the rule change 'isn’t going to be happening.' ... It was a startling announcement from an often uncompromising senior official in an administration with little history of changing its mind in response to journalistic scrutiny and pressure from advocates for the vulnerable. But that’s what Turkish and three other sources say has happened: The Trump administration has decided not to pursue the disability cuts that it has been working on all year — and in fact since at least 2019, when officials during Trump’s first term were close to finalizing a similar regulation."

This seems to be another answer to the question disability activists will probably never stop asking: does disability activism actually work? It's a question that can never be answered for good or for all cases. But the answer is still "yes" often enough to make all kinds of disability activism more than just an emotional gesture or empowering experience. Sometimes, it works. And it's not magic. Nor should the effectiveness of disability activism ever be taken for granted or inflated. Sometimes things work out for other reasons that have nothing to do with our tactics or protests. But one of the unique aspects of disability activism is how often some of our opponents are crucially uninformed about how what they want to do will affect disabled people. Once in a while, just getting the message through to the right people is enough.

The challenge of moving special education out of the Education Department

Mackenzie Wilkes, Politico - November 29, 2025

"Advocates fear the responsibility for overseeing special education programs could end up in the hands of an agency ill-equipped to serve vulnerable student populations. And just handing over federal cash to states could worsen the already uneven access to accommodations or services such as speech therapy designed to meet their needs ... Even Republicans who support President Donald Trump’s plans to 'return education to the states' want to make sure the government continues to meet its commitments to students with disabilities."

The "challenge" of preserving disabled children's educational rights while dismantling the Department of Education? Wording in the headline makes it sound like a good thing – like an invigorating quest rather than an ill-conceived retreat or disaster waiting to happen. It's good to see some Trump-supporting lawmakers raise a bit of an alarm over this specific issue. But the lack of a sense of urgency and imminent danger about it is concerning.

Math, yes. Lego club? There's no plan for disabled children to attend

Kathleen Moore, Albany Times-Union - November 30, 2025

"It is all too common. Families around the Capital Region say their schools do not proactively plan for students with disabilities to attend after-school clubs, dances and other nonacademic activities."

I have thought for a long time that helping disabled students participate fully in extracurricular activities would be a great idea for local disability nonprofits. Small, agile, locally-focused independent agencies run by disabled people are ideally suited to providing a combination of encouragement and problem-solving with students individually, and advocacy for schools to include and accommodate disabled students systematically, as already required by law. I always did reasonably well in high school. But the experience was one-dimensional and a bit hollow for me until I was able to get into extracurricular activities. This aspect of school should never be overlooked with disabled students.

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