4/22/25 - More on autism, accessible furniture, and a question of discrimination
None of these products seem especially innovative. And that's fine. In fact, it's sort of encouraging.
Starting today with one more bit about autism ...
GRIEVANCE-BASED PARENT ORGANIZATIONS ARE AUTISM’S MAGA MOVEMENT
Shannon Des Roches Rosa, Thinking Person's Guide To Autism - November 16, 2022 (updated April 2025)
"My son’s disabilities require full-time support, which means he and I live the very lives grievance parents tend to portray as horror shows. Please know that I would never deny how challenging things can be for families like ours. Accessing the supports my autistic son needs can be brutally difficult, especially as he and his peers transition into adulthood. But unlike grievance parents, I believe my son deserves respect and understanding—not grievance parents’ relentless exploitation of their children as burdens."
This explainer was originally posted in 2022, but has been updated a bit to reference Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.'s remarks last week on autism. The piece provides some important background information that may help explain some of RFK Jr.'s views and where they come from – especially his portrayal of autism as a tragic disease, and autistic people as almost entirely helpless and hopeless. "Grievance Parents" aren't the only motivation. There's still the somewhat separate obsessions with health problems being caused by environmental factors, with the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. But the tragic view of autism is clearly still a strong force on its own, now with the power and access to bend autism research and services in troubling directions.
IKEA Launches New Line of Accessible Home Products That Don't Sacrifice Style for Function
Jenny Hughes, The Spruce - April 2, 2025
Recommended by paid subscriber Tom Defayette
"The six IKEA products in the collection are primarily for use in the bathroom, though they can be used elsewhere in the home as well. They were designed to blend functionality with beauty, with their aesthetic roots in the classic IKEA Scandinavian style."
None of these products seem especially innovative. And that's fine. In fact, it's sort of encouraging. At this point, sound, sturdy accessibility doesn't require much innovation. We know what disabled people need, and how to do it. And in the bathroom, strong, steadying grab bars do a lot. And as we can see from these products, they are simple and blend in well. I'm just a little bummed that I recently bought a shower chair for myself that's much uglier than IKEA's, and cost more than what they are charging for their nice-looking one.
Can We Ask a Disabled Woman to Leave Our Pickleball Group?
Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times - April 18, 2025
"Let’s suppose that, as you suspect, this woman really isn’t going to improve. I agree that it’s not ideal for her to be the object of unspoken resentment and disdain. If she chooses to leave, though, someone else will become the worst player. Will that person then be pressured to leave, too? It sounds as if your group isn’t engaged in an “open play” session — you’ve formed an unofficial competitive club with an implicit skill requirement."
Kwame Anthony Appiah, who writes the New York Times column "The Ethicist," hasn't always been the greatest ethical questions about disability. Here he addresses a question about what a pickleball group should do about a member who's skill is a lot worse than the other players, possibly because of a disability. I would give Appiah's response a B-. I think he's quite right to question how "open" the group actually claims to be, when it's actually very competitive. And that's potentially misleading to the player with a disability. But he seems to miss another dimension – the disabled player's own judgment and agency. Presumably, she has the option of moving to a different group herself, if being out of synch with the other players in this group actually makes her uncomfortable or frustrated. Maybe she wants the challenge, and doesn't mind being the "worst" player. Maybe she's already just a game or two away from calling it quits anyway, after giving it a good try. There's an assumption I think behind a lot of these, "Is a disabled person really qualified for this?" situations. It's the idea that we all really want to impose ourselves on jobs and social groups that we know we can't handle. That's usually not true. Why would we want to take on a challenge we pretty much know we can't do? Anyone can lack self-awareness of course. Some disabled people lack it too. But it seems like people think that disabled people are all remarkably unrealistic and lacking in self-awareness – that we all need someone to be brave and explain to us that we don't belong. Whatever else this assumption may be, it's certainly an example of ableist thinking.
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