12/30/25 - The fakery panic
So long 2025 ...
It's the last newsletter of the year! Stay tuned for a December wrap-up, and an index of sorts for all of 2025's newsletters.
See you next year!
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Analysis: The Atlantic’s ‘Accommodation Nation’ is an Ableist Abomination
John Loeppky, Disabled Journalists Association - December 16, 2025
"One thing most can probably agree on, and an important point this article makes, is that disability-support program staff are faltering under the weight of the sheer number of students receiving support. But, even if true, why is that the student’s fault? There is no proof in this piece that disabled students who would meet the definition of “traditionally disabled” are losing out because more students are getting extra time on exams."
Accommodation Nation
Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic - December 2, 2025
"Accommodations in higher education were supposed to help disabled Americans enjoy the same opportunities as everyone else. No one should be kept from taking a class, for example, because they are physically unable to enter the building where it’s taught. Over the past decade and a half, however, the share of students at selective universities who qualify for accommodations—often, extra time on tests—has grown at a breathtaking pace. At the University of Chicago, the number has more than tripled over the past eight years; at UC Berkeley, it has nearly quintupled over the past 15 years."
They Get Wheeled on Flights and Miraculously Walk Off. Praise ‘Jetway Jesus.’
Natasha Dangoor, Wall Street Journal - December 18, 2025
"When Carlos Gomez’s recent flight from Guadalajara was delayed, he asked a gate attendant why. It wasn’t weather or crew shortages. There were 25 wheelchair passengers holding up boarding ... There were no such delays when Gomez’s flight landed. Most of the same passengers stood up without assistance and bounded off toward the baggage claim ... Social media has credited a divine intervention for this sudden return to mobility. An enigmatic “Jetway Jesus” is curing these passengers by the time they land, and the remarkable recovery acts have been dubbed “miracle flights.”"
Yeah, this is infuriating, from every angle.
I am prepared to believe that there are some people who knowingly fake disabilities to get ahead in line to board planes, or to obtain what they believe will be extra advantages on academic tests. Those who do are clearly doing wrong, and in many cases could be fairly deemed contemptible.
But I also know that there is a huge middle ground of genuine ambiguity about certain disabilities. And there is a massive amount of ignorance about this on the part of the general public. Lots of people really don't know – or don't fully process and understand – that many, if not most wheelchair users walk sometimes, for short distances, and in certain situations. We use wheelchairs strategically, in the best sense, to ration out our limited capabilities and get through where our legs, lungs, or hearts really can't carry us to our destinations.
I also know from experience that ramping up suspicions about people's disabilities, and making it harder to get accommodations has a cost. Despite articles like these by supposedly thoughtful journalists, (as opposed to mere social media trolls), I still believe that this "issue" of disability accommodation fakery is mostly an overblown moral panic. And it's a moral panic that is already making it harder than just a few years ago for disabled people to live freely and fairly.
Incidentally, I was reminded about this topic during a moment in the new "Knives Out" film, Wake Up Dead Man. The character Simone, who uses a wheelchair because of a chronic physical condition, briefly stands up to fetch something from a nearby table. Another woman in the room, Martha, screams out, "It's a miracle!" And Simone says, deadpan and weary, "I can walk Martha. It just hurts." A lot of us can relate. Far too many just don't get it.
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