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2/4/25 - Ableism unleashed, screening out, and ... reinventing the wheel?

Andrew Pulrang

• 3 min read
Yellow wheelchair symbol stenciled onto the pavement of a parking spa
Tuesday

Disability advocates fear backlash, discrimination after Trump’s FAA comments

Brianna Tucker and Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post - February 2, 2025

"“The President is deliberately spreading falsehoods to demonize the quarter of American adults who live with disabilities rather than directing federal resources at ensuring such a devastating tragedy never happens again,” Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities, said in the statement. The American Council of the Blind, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, United Spinal Association, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and other disability rights organizations also signed the letter in solidarity."

The reaction time was a little bit slower than I hoped for, but not too bad. And if waiting a day or two to respond formally to ableist comments or actions from the Trump administration means more disability organizations can sign on, then taking the time to respond stronger may make sense. But I do think that some kind of more "rapid response" to these things should be a priority for disability activists and organizations.

Disabled workers are getting screened out of digital hiring

Rachel Curry, CNBC - January 30, 2025

"Specifically, big questions are emerging about the equity of digitized hiring assessments and the impact they have on disabled people. A recent report, Screened Out: The Impact of Digitized Hiring Assessments on Disabled Workers, from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), found that 'most of the digitized assessments were discriminatory and perpetuated biases.'"

Well, that's another fear unlocked – disabled people being systematically screened out of jobs not because of intentional bias, but due to barriers and biases built into online hiring tools through carelessness. And if bias can be built in carelessly, you can be it can also be included intentionally, and hidden so nobody has to take the blame for discriminating against disabled applicants. But I wonder – is it also possible to create hiring automation tools that are not only accessible, as described in this article, but actually prevent disability discrimination?

Republican State Sen. Dan McConchie to Resign, Launch National Disability Nonprofit

Amanda Vinicky, WTTW - January 27, 2025

"McConchie said his plan for the Accessibility Policy Institute is to research best practices, policies and laws in other states, to create model legislation that other states can look to adopt. The organization can serve as a resource for advocates interested in this work ... 'This is something that people should be able to come up with an idea, and get that word out to other states,' McConchie said. 'There is no help or support out there.'"

For what it's worth, this new nonprofit does seem to have a valuable focus – to help U.S. state laws work more cooperatively with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, so the ADA's type of protections are more easily enforced. But whenever some disabled person, or disabled person's relative, starts a new disability organization, I always worry about whether they are again trying to reinvent the wheel. People say there's "no help or support out there" for disability-related problems. But often that just isn't so. Sometimes it's just that the help that is available is poorly designed, not built to the scale or geography of the problem, or is poorly funded. I'd like to think that a State Legislator would be savvy enough to do the homework first before starting something brand new. But you can never be sure.

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