2/5/26 - Snow, ICE, and crumbling leadership

Good afternoon!

Sorry. I couldn't resist the extremely little play on words.

Note that I'm placing subscribe and donation buttons up top this week – hoping a few more readers will be able to provide some financial support to this newsletter.

Snowstorms Are Hell for Wheelchair Users—But They Don’t Have to Be

Julia Métraux, Mother Jones - February 3, 2026

"Disabled people are uniquely impacted by climate events, including that system of snowstorms, which impacted more than half the United States. The failure of even some of the best-resourced cities to adequately clear snow so that disabled people with mobility devices can safely get around is both an infrastructure failure and a policy choice, leaving those people stuck in one area and stripping them of their autonomy."

I always appreciate it when the inaccessibility of snow and ice gets serious attention. So I was very pleased to see this Mother Jones piece by Julia Métraux, who does so much to explain things like winter weather accessibility to a readership that's probably not that familiar with disability issues.

One of the first disability advocacy issues I engaged with when I worked at a Center for Independent Living was trying to get the city I live in to take on sidewalk snow and ice removal as a municipal job, instead of leaving the job to individual businesses and homeowners. Since this is a very small city, it was probably always going to be a long-shot, maybe entirely unrealistic. It's pretty costly to run a fleet of sidewalk snow shovels. and pay people proper wages to drive them. But what still frustrates me is that city officials and citizens keep using a moral argument. Homeowners and businesses should clear their sidewalks, and should be fined if they don't. That's one approach. And it has the appeal of marking out heroes and villains. But it doesn't get the job done. which is what disabled people actually need.

Disabled man dies after his caretaker father was detained by ICE in Dallas

Craig Hoyle, Independent UK - January 30, 2026

"'I blame ICE,' his sister-in-law Shahd Arnaout told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Wednesday. 'Maybe they did not kill Wael with a bullet, but they killed him when they took his father away' ... Wael’s dad, Maher Tarabishi, had been his primary caregiver his whole life, looking after his son at home, where they had top-grade facilities. However, Wael’s condition rapidly deteriorated after Maher Tarabishi was taken into custody, and in a video posted from the hospital shortly before his death, he said he was struggling without his father."

Again I ask at question ... Along with every other kind of bigotry, are ICE agents allowing ableist ideas to influence how they handle some of their captives? Does saying, "I'm disabled and need specific accommodations," or "My son is disabled and depends on me for his daily care," make it more likely for ICE to be a little more humane? Or, does it actually amp up their cruelty? I don't know. But I don't find it hard to believe that in their apparent current mindset, ICE agents might actually be taking extra pleasure in treating detainees with disabilities worse than others, just for having the audacity to speak of their disabilities and ask for a bit of compassion.

Keep an eye out for tomorrow's Friday Video Share in the newsletter for more on this theme.

When We Used to Lead: The Dismantling of Our Legacy on Disability

Sarah Minkara, Curious Constructs - February 4, 2026

"For decades, the United States led the world in advancing disability rights and community-based living. That leadership was born of painful, hard-won lessons about institutionalization and its devastating human cost. Our national story became one of advocacy, law, dignity, choice, and self-determination; a desire to build systems that made independent and community living possible ... That legacy is now at risk."

As an American, I have always felt conflicted about the idea that the United States is the world leader in disability rights. In some ways, I think there's a good argument that unlike many other narratives of American superiority, our leadership on disability rights has mostly been genuine. But obviously, as the building blocks of disability rights in the US are being chipped away and pushed about, and our engagement abroad has become chaotic, it's certainly getting harder to claim that America is the gold standard on disability rights. And even if none of this was happening, I suspect it would still be wise to look around the world for new models from other countries that could be teaching valuable lessons to American disability communities for a change. Maybe it's time to ask what they might be doing better than us, not just like us.

Disability Thinking Weekday is a Monday-Friday newsletter with links and commentary on disability-related articles and other content. You can help promote Disability Thinking Weekday by forwarding it by email or posting on your social media. You can also comment by sending me an email at: apulrang@icloud.com. Collected comments are shared on the first of each month. A free subscription sends a newsletter to your email each weekday. Benefits of paid subscription include:

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