CW: Xenophobia, Homophobia, Ableism, Racism, & Institutionalization
Today, our neighborhoods come alive with barbecues, laughter, and fireworks. We settle into the familiar routines of our 4th of July celebrations, celebrating the beauty of America. But for disabled people, independence is not always a reality. It isn’t something that was written on a scroll centuries ago. It is something fought for, protected, and reclaimed every day.
To understand independence and freedom, we must look beyond parades and patriotic fanfare. For disabled people, freedom means having dignity of choice — the ability to enter a building via a ramp. It’s living in your community with your family, thanks to Medicaid’s home and community-based services. It’s experiencing the joy of sharing your ideas, passions, and love through assistive technology.
These daily successes symbolize freedom — to leave, to choose, to belong, and to be heard. True freedom and independence aren’t about doing everything alone; they’re about living in a world designed to support and respect people.
There’s a myth in our culture that independence means doing everything on your own, but in reality, that’s not realistic. We are interdependent. Interdependence means a community coming together to ensure everybody is supported and valued.
Disabled people with multiple marginalized identities, such as Black and brown disabled people, LGBTQ+ disabled people, immigrants, and those in poverty, encounter significant barriers. These barriers compound and intensify, affecting their daily lives.
Their struggle for freedom is painfully real. It’s seen in doctors’ offices, where a Black disabled patient may have their pain dismissed, or their symptoms minimized because of both ableism and racism. It appears in schools, where a disabled student who doesn’t speak English might be denied appropriate support because of language barriers or assumptions about their family.
In the workplace, disabled employees who request reasonable accommodations have faced retaliation, including termination, despite protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC has brought numerous enforcement actions against employers alleging they denied accommodations and fired workers after accommodation requests. Restrictive rules and discriminatory housing practices further exacerbate the issue, limiting access to essential services and stability for people living in poverty and making community living a challenge.
Communities at the intersection of racism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and class oppression have long been at the forefront of justice movements.
Their activism highlights that independence is not a single-issue struggle. Instead, it is a demand for systemic change. Every system, institution, and law must acknowledge people’s humanity.
When their rights are threatened, the harm is severe, and our response must be just as strong. To truly have liberty and justice for all, we must address every layer of oppression, not just the ones society is most comfortable acknowledging.
Generations of activists have paved the way for the independence disabled people enjoy today. They refused to accept a world that excluded them. People occupied buildings and demanded recognition; they showed great courage.
This fight is far from over. Advocates, family members, and community allies continue to work toward a world where disabled people are welcomed, valued, and free. It’s about more than accommodations — it’s a collective effort with many voices uniting. And it’s this collective effort that continues to open doors.
Right now, that same freedom and independence are under threat. For many disabled Americans, Medicaid provides the home and community-based services necessary to live daily life. These include help with everyday activities, equipment, assistive technology, and therapies that allow people to stay in their own homes, rather than in institutions.
However, an opinion issued by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel has caused significant concern among disability advocates. In that opinion, the OLC argued that federal agencies may not have the authority to require states to provide home‑ and community‑based services that prevent unnecessary institutionalization.
This opinion could weaken enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision. This is not a policy issue for those living in the community. Freedom and dignity are essential for everyone.
We cannot undo decades of progress. Nor can we return to being a country where disabled people are shut away in institutions, like the Willowbrook State School, where conditions were so grave that Robert F. Kennedy once described it as “a situation that borders on a snake pit.”
The American Dream is a dream. Today, as barbecues are hosted, parades are held, and fireworks fill the night, remember that “liberty and justice for all” is not just a long-forgotten promise. It is something America was built on.
Sources:
Andrews, Kenya, et al. “Intersectionality and Testimonial Injustice in Medical Records.” Proceedings of the 5th Clinical Natural Language Processing Workshop, Association for Computational Linguistics, 2023, pp. 358–72. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2023.clinicalnlp-1.39.
Dorsey Holliman, Brooke, et al. “Disability Doesn’t Discriminate: Health Inequities at the Intersection of Race and Disability.” Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, vol. 4, 2023, article 1075775. https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2023.1075775.
Liu, Elaine. “Willowbrook State School: Institutional Abuse, Medical Ethics and the Rise of Disability Rights in the United States.” Critical Debates in Humanities, Science and Global Justice, vol. 5, no. 2, 2025, pp. 85–102, https://criticaldebateshsgj.scholasticahq.com/article/141852-willowbrook-state-school-institutional-abuse-medical-ethics-and-the-rise-of-disability-rights-in-the-united-states.
Lynch, Sarah N. “States Aren’t Required to Provide Community-Based Care for People with Disabilities, New DOJ Opinion Claims.” CBS News, 18 June 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-disability-opinion-community-care/.
Mark S., et al. v. State of California, et al. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, 13 Sept. 2021, https://dredf.org/mark-s-et-al-v-state-of-california-et-al/.
“Willowbrook State School Records.” College of Staten Island Library, City University of New York, https://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/archives/WillowbrookRG.html.