Stories, essays, opinions, analyses and more from across the different disability communities and from their friends, families, and allies.
The Americans with Disabilities Act at 30 and reflections on “Being Heumann”
Three things before we get started today…. First, a quick heads up, this episode is going to be a longer than usual. I typically target around 10 minutes for our core weekly episodes, this one may get close to 30 minutes… Second, we’ve added a video version of the podcast on YouTube. Our YouTube channel…
Healthcare Rationing or Murder by Triage
Healthcare rationing or Murder by Triage. One certainly sounds more polite and policy-like than the other… but, really, which is one is the Disability Community confronting as our society struggles with COVID-19? What lessons should we learn and what actions should we take? See episode notes. I’m your host, Steven Davis and welcome to the…
The Formidable Fifth
You’ll often here that the US Disability Community includes 1 in 5 Americans. That’s more than 66 million people and doesn’t include friends, families, and allies. The National Rifle Association’s membership in 2018 as was 5.5 million individuals… So, I’ve got a question for you – who would you bet gets more of their legislation…
Running a Civic Bake Sale
A Chicken in every pot, 0:02A thermometer for every family. 0:04The power of democratic change in your community is almost as easy as running a bake sale. I’m your host Steven Davis and welcome to the first episode of disability democracy radio. This weekly podcast is about practical actions we can take that you can…
Palo Alto’s 504 Plan Puzzle
Palo Alto Unified School District’s 504 Plan demographics are substantially different than California’s or the rest of the US states with around 7% of our students having a 504 plan (see attachments) vs. the national average of 2.7%, California at 4% and the highest state average New Hampshire at 6.2% (tab 2 of “Enrollment-Overall”) Thank…
Segregated Special Education in Palo Alto – a long way to go
“when students are included, they have more access to the general curriculumand effective instruction, they achieve at higher rates of academicperformance, and they acquire better social and behavioral outcomes.” According to the latest report under IDEA for Palo Alto, 7.75% of students spend less than 40% oftheir day in general education (reports from 2021). Compared…
Inside Disability Poverty-by-Design
The complexities of state-enforced poverty and lack of access to care for rare and complex medical conditions I can’t give more specific personal details than what I provide in this document. If I were to do so that would put me at risk of losing benefits and of being forced to repay previously received benefits…
Deconstructing Ableism: Rethinking Cost and Priority in Accessibility
In a world where every decision is often based on financial considerations, it’s crucial to examine how these tendencies influence our attitudes toward accessibility and accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
Urgent Opportunity to Protect Living Organ Donors
On March 15, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), will close comments on their controversial new proposal to change the way deceased donor organs are allocated to patients on the transplant waiting list. This proposal has a fundamental flaw, which will violate the trust of all prior living organ donors, while threatening to make…
A call to end Institutional Bias in Attendant Pay Rates
End the institutional bias in Attendant pay rates. I’m presenting a case for equity in Personal Care Attendants’ pay rates by sending this email*, The low pay of Consumer Directed (CD) in-home Personal Care Attendants has caused my husband not to return to work and is one of the factors of why I resigned from…