9/21/26 - It sounds good, but ...

Good afternoon!

Today's theme might be a little weird and hard to decode. Please bear with me. And if my thinking here turns out to be incomprehensible, feel free to let me know!

UK disabled people could swap Pip cash for "in kind" support in benefit overhaul

Patrick Butler, The Guardian - September 10, 2026

"There may be resistance among campaigners to introducing non-cash elements within Pip awards. However, recent polling of Pip recipients by the Good Growth Foundation thinktank found half supported the principle of swapping part of their cash payment for services such as skills and training, home adaptations or therapy."

DMA Shared Spaces

Disability Media Alliance

"Mission: DMA’s mission is to create a well-resourced global infrastructure for disabled nonfiction media makers, so they can spend their time telling stories rather than creating space for themselves to exist ... Vision: DMA envisions a world where disabled nonfiction media makers have the resources to tell all kinds of stories, with strong support from regional disabled-led organizations across the world that fund and amplify their work."

New housing development opens in Broomfield for people with disabilities, but demand far exceeds available units

Claire Cleveland, The Colorado Sun - September 7, 2026

"The Grove is among a handful of affordable housing developments dedicated to offering units with services for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Those services include things like meal preparation, money management assistance and social activities. Some people need additional support, like a live-in caregiver who can help with everyday tasks like personal hygiene, cleaning and getting to the store or appointments ... Each development has different offerings. Nearby, the Trailhead Community in Littleton is up and running, and another development, CedarRoot Village in Wheat Ridge, is expected to open in late 2027."

What do these articles have in common?

All three are examples of disabled people, and often our allies, groping for things we think we need, and coming across new efforts and organizations that sound good, but also ring some alarm bells. Such as:

• In the UK, a seemingly more flexible form of support than a simple monthly payment. Would it be a good deal, a freeing up, an expansion of useful support? Or, will it turn out to be simply a way to sell disabled people new benefit cuts by offering other services that may or may not be actually useful?
• A new website-centered attempt at building a community of disabled creatives and activists. It seems like a new website or social media group crops up every other day promising some kind of true community or unity for disabled people. Most of them offer some of what they promise – at least partially, for a while. Many go nowhere. And quite a few either intentionally or not hide their origins, or make them hard to find and decipher, so you can't tell who or what is behind them. Should we give them all a chance so we don't miss the one or two that turn out to be really great? Or, is it better to wait and see what actually thrives and survives – and what their priors, biases, and preoccupations really are?
• The family caregiver's craving for some kind of safe, clean, cheery, controlled, and guilt-free "solution" for relatives with significant disabilities – almost always in the form of custom-built and centrally run "homes" or "communities" that are direct descendants of 1950's state institutions, but that of course will look, sound, and smell much nicer. How do we know which are just dressed-up institutions, and which are genuinely empowering communities that foster real independence and individual choice?

What's the point?

It's healthy to keep an open mind about new ideas and models in disability culture – even when they may not actually be new. At the same time, we should always explore new initiatives critically, to see if they really will do what we hope they will and what they claim. And we should never stop questioning what we ourselves even think we want – in case someday we actually get it.

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