9/16/26 - Catching up: threatened rights, pearl clutching, and sex
Good afternoon ...
I'm still clearing out a long queue of articles I set aside in August ...
The Promise We Made to Americans with Disabilities Is Under Attack
Barbara Merrill and Tony Coelho, Time - August 11, 2026
"Suggesting that people don’t have the right to community-based support while insisting families provide needed care for free risks undoing more than a quarter-century of civil rights progress made possible by Olmstead. Furthermore, dismantling the spectrum of community-based services is expected to have negative down-the-line ramifications. We anticipate that more families will languish on states’ waiting lists for longer, more providers will reduce services or go out of business altogether, more professionals will leave the workforce to fill caregiving gaps, and more people with disabilities will be left with no other choice but expensive, isolating institutions."
I have already shared several articles and "Take Action" alerts here about the Trump administration's attempt to undermine disabled Americans' legal right to live independently. What's notable is that this piece is an explainer in a mainstream magazine for a general audience. A wheelchair user kept out of a restaurant because it doesn't have a ramp is pretty easy for non-disabled people to understand. It's far more difficult for the average observer to sort through the complex links between caregiving – both paid and unpaid – institutionalization, community living, choice, autonomy, independence, and the economics of it all. The authors do a great job in this Time piece of explaining these issues and what they mean for disabled people's lives.
I don't want your shock
Lucy Webster, The View From Down Here - August 27, 2026
"I don’t want you to express surprise or confusion because in that moment, when I’m raw and hurting, your shock looks like disbelief. It makes me wonder if you think I’m exaggerating. It makes me wonder if you’ve really witnessed all the other times you’ve seen this happen, because it is never the first instance of whatever it is I have had to survive. And it makes me wonder how we can be living in such different worlds that you are shocked by something I saw coming, or that fits the pattern that has played out again and again, or that shows society to be exactly how I thought we knew it was."
This post vividly describes one of the widest, and most unfortunate gaps between what disabled people want others to understand and internalize about ableism, discrimination, and inaccessibility – and how non-disabled people tend to react when they find out about these things. We see ableism all the time and are want allies to fight it. They are astonished by it, and think it's so bad it can't possibly be real. They generally mean well. Their outrage is a credit to them. They're on the right side. But too often their reaction to ableism is just more salt in the wound for us.
Disabled People Have Sex. Let's Talk About It.
Sarah Levis, Power In Every Body - August 15, 2026
"The more resources there are to help us counter this idea — and to help disabled people have safe, fulfilling sexual lives — the better."
When I see discussions like this, I sometimes wonder, is disability and sex still the unknown or taboo topic it was when I was coming of age in the 1980s and '90s? Or, is it one of those disability and ableism issues where things have changed – where discussion is still needed, but may need to be revised to fit a different era, a different set of generations in disability life and culture? Based on these notes from a Live Chat on the subject, there has been progress, but it's been uneven – liberating for some disabled people, still yet to happen for others. I think that overall, people are a lot less likely to be surprised that disabled people have sexual lives and interests. At the same time, understanding and empowerment still seem to lag in some key areas, and there's a lot more territory to explore.
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