Disability Thinking Weekday: 12/16/24
Sub-minimum wage, RFK Jr., and falling down
Three disability links for Monday, December 16, 2024.
1. Some disabled workers are making pennies per hour. Will that change under Trump?
Sara Luterman, The 19th - December 13, 2024
“In Congress, Republicans like Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Sen. Steve Daines of Montana have been the biggest opponents of subminimum wage. For McMorris Rodgers, the issue is personal: Her son, Cole, has Down syndrome and she has spoken in interviews about the importance of including people with disabilities in society. Others, like Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, are vocal supporters of disabled subminimum wage because they see it as a way to ensure more people can still work, even if they can’t get jobs at market rates.”
This is a really informative article that gave me at least some new information and perspectives on one of the “oldest” U.S. disability issues — one that’s been on the informal disability rights agenda for decades. I was especially struck by the fact that the number of disabled people being paid sub-minimum wage has already fallen quite drastically — suggesting that phasing the practice out may have little real impact anyway. It’s also interesting to read more about how conservatives involved in disability issues are thinking about the incoming Trump Administration. I don’t agree with all of their assessments. But I can at least recognize some of their opinions and priorities as being more or less at home in a disability rights discussion. What they seem to want isn’t completely antithetical to what most progressive disability rights folks want. Whether and how they will turn out to fight for Medicaid, Medicare, and disability rights laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act of course remains to be seen.
2. RFK Jr. thinks people like me are just evidence of Big Pharma’s crimes
Eric Garcia, MSNBC - November 15, 2024
“By picking Kennedy, he is wrongly elevating someone who sees autism, and therefore autistic people, as problems to be solved. He doesn’t see us as having a disability that deserves to be accepted … If Kennedy becomes HHS secretary, he would likely cause incalculable harm.”
This piece is important because it outlines actual policies and practices that RFK Jr. would be in a position to make much worse for autistic people if he is confirmed to head the Department of Health and Human Services. He’s more than just a weird guy with fringe, discredited beliefs on health-related issues like autism and vaccines. He would be more than just an embarrassment and a symbolic insult to autistic Americans. He would be able to make things measurably worse for autistic people, including possibly reducing their influence in making policy on autism. There similar reasons for being concerned about RFK Jr.’s possible impact on the broader disabled population too, which I hope to explore with some further reading in the near future.
3. Today's DHR - Getting Personal About Falling Down
Sarah Levis, Disability History Roundup - November 20, 2024
“I’ve been getting a lot of little off-hand reminders lately (from the way people talk about the movies/songs/TV with which I grew up, from encounters with adults in my community who I knew as little kids, from social media, stuff like that) that at 47 I’m…getting old, lol. Maybe this shiner and eight stitches is a reminder that I need to be taking better care of myself as it happens.”
Oh gosh Sarah, I can relate. I haven’t fallen recently, though it feels like close calls are a bit more frequent for me now. I, too am getting old. And it is forcing me to reassess the parameters of my physical abilities and practices too. In theory, we disabled people should be good at this — especially those of us who have had disabilities a long time, or for all of our lives. Still, it’s disturbing to have to re-adapt, after so many years of getting by with the same routines that have worked reasonably well — until now.
Disability Thinking Weekday is moving!
As explained in the December 2 edition, this newsletter is moving from Substack to Ghost on January 1, 2025. I had asked for people to help me with the approximately $400 in moving expenses, by renewing their paid subscriptions early. Unfortunately, Substack doesn’t seem to allow this. So there are two options if you want to provide some extra support for the move:
1. Click the link to make a one-time donation through Ko-Fi, or,
2. Wait until the move in January, and start a new annual membership then.
Either way, annual paid memberships will still be set at a discounted price of $40 through December and January.