Author: Grace W. Dow

CW: Institutionalization It started with rooms most people never saw. In 2023, Brittany Hayes’s son, then five years old, had been in a crib for hours every day since birth. Brittany Hayes said the video chats she had with her son were difficult. She comforted him as much as she could over a screen in… Continue reading The Children Who Grew Up Waiting for Help

Air travel is usually routine. People show up and do what the airline tells them to do. Travelers think they will get to where they’re going without any issues. For passengers who are disabled, a routine flight can become a problem. This is what happened to Chris O’Brien, a disability activist removed from a flight… Continue reading The Quiet Fear Disabled Travelers Carry

CW: Poverty Some letters can make you feel like your world turned upside down. Erica Carter received a letter like this in 2023. At the time, she was the finance manager for the Omaha Nation Public Schools District and helped finance various projects such as parks and gardens. Unfortunately, her income made her ineligible to… Continue reading When Independence Has a Price Tag

CW: Death People with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are dying early at unprecedented rates. Researchers from King’s College London analyzed nearly 1,000 adult deaths from all over the UK, during 2021-2023. They found that adults with severe and profound intellectual disabilities died on average at the age of 58, adults with mild intellectual disabilities… Continue reading Living Longer, and Dying Younger

CW: Institutionalization, Racism, & Ableism It wasn’t that long ago that disabled Americans were kept in overcrowded institutions like the Willowbrook State School, where conditions were so grave that Robert F. Kennedy once described them as “a situation that borders on a snake pit.” In 1972, the public had a firsthand look at just how… Continue reading A Nation That Still Treats Disabled Lives as Negotiable

For almost forty years, cities that accept HUD funding have been required, by law, to ensure their new affordable housing units are accessible to disabled people. In theory, this means disabled people have the right to safe and independent living. However, the enforcement of this law often doesn’t happen locally.  A 2020 report from Apartment… Continue reading Why Accessible Housing Still Feels Out of Reach 

Yesterday, I saw a post on social media by Andrew Gurza, who also has cerebral palsy. He mentioned that he wants to put that he’s a bestselling author on his social media page. He was worried “that it would look like too much.” Reading that post made me think about how I feel like I… Continue reading The Weight of Thinking I’m Too Much

Across the co‌untry, disability advocates are concerned. Programs that help disabled people are falling apart. Earlier this year, Kansas ended the Money Follows the Person program. This is one example of a bigger trend nationally. States are either cutting programs or postponing efforts to support home and community-based living. Often they say this is because… Continue reading The Slow Unraveling of Independence

CW: Ableism Public businesses are supposed to be accessible to everyone. That includes restaurants, shopping malls, parks, movie theaters, schools and sports venues. Places that are open to the public are generally viewed as spaces open to everyone. But for disabled people, public places are not always what they seem. Title III of the Americans… Continue reading When Public Doesn’t Include You

It starts small. One day a letter arrives in the mail. Sometimes, a message pops up on an online portal. This is how Americans lose Medicaid. There is no fanfare, no moment of pause and consideration. It is a notice that could strip a person of their ability to get health care, to access life-saving… Continue reading The Notice That Changes Everything