2/11/26 - Misery

How is everyone doing?

There's a theme in today's links ...

Have a comment ... something to add? Send me an email: apulrang@icloud.com

The Political World of Caregiving

Julia Métraux, Mother Jones - February 10, 2026

"I had this experience of being a caregiver for my partner, and while I was doing that, I was also being trained as a sociologist. I was in graduate school, and I was focused on the social and political aspects of illness and disability from an academic perspective. I had this deeply emotional, traumatizing, transformative experience as a human, and then at the same time, I was being trained to think about and understand the world in particular ways, through theories of disability, through disability studies, with an emphasis on the politics of disability."

Government’s top welfare official to step down

Patrick Butler, The Guardian - February 9, 2026

"The DWP has come under increasing scrutiny since a Guardian investigation revealed leadership shortcomings unfairly landed thousands of unpaid carers with hefty bills – and in some cases fraud convictions – for carer’s allowance overpayments ... The impact on carers caused public outrage and was likened to the Post Office scandal. Some carers reported suicidal thoughts after they were caught up in a system one described as like being 'at the whim of a faceless machine'."

As Cold Snap Continues, Blocked Curb Cuts are a Barrier for Disabled Community

Brennan LaBrie, W42ST.nyc - February 3, 2026

"Sommerstein is a motorized wheelchair user, and the snowstorm on January 22 left the sidewalks around her Hell’s Kitchen apartment unnavigable for her ... 'It’s not just that it’s not safe — it’s that you can’t do it,” she said of trying to traverse the neighborhood by wheelchair after a snowstorm. “Unfortunately, that’s the standard.'... Sommerstein watches heavy snowfall with a mix of wonder and dread. 'Sure it’s beautiful, but also I know I can’t leave my home for a week, and that’s a problem,' she said. Barricaded crosswalks can trap wheelchair users like her on their block, she said."

These three articles deal with three types of disability-related misery. All of them are mostly unnecessary. All are suffered mainly by people with disabilities and their families. And none of them are symptoms of actual disabilities themselves. They are products of various degrees of nonexistent, poorly designed, and carelessly-delivered support systems that should be possible to create and deliver properly. These failures and the misery they cause may be common. They may be genuinely hard to fix. But that doesn't mean they are inevitable. They aren't acts of God. And they aren't the natural result of disabled peoples' own impairments. Not every misery we suffer is our lot as disabled people – although far too many of us are taught that, either intentionally or implicitly. We can and should expect better, even when our disabilities themselves stay the same.

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