Reality & Rhetoric in the Disability Wold: Dissonance

Hi there! Today I'm examining the disconnect between the day to day reality experienced by people with disabilities and the public perception of the rights of people with disabilities which are codified in enabling legislations that are considered rhetoric in that they are ideals or final benchmarks to aspire towards. The ideals of equal access are codified in national enabling legislation such as the Americans with disabilities Act (employment, architectural barriers, transportation and recreation), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(early intervention from birth to 5 years and free appropriate public education through the elementary and secondary grade levels in public and private schools), Fair Housing Act(nondiscriminatory rent practices), Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (colleges and universities that receive federal funding for their programs and its international counterpart the United Nattions Convention on the Dignity and Rights of People with Disabilities(all-encompassing universal declaration mandate mandating equality and comprehensive access atall levels In the community.

The reality remains that all these laws are by and large honored in the breach: rarely followed in the the spirit in which it was intended by the disabled community. For example, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is twice the national average, public transportation options for travelers with disabilities are increasingly limited in NYC with less than 10% of the existing taxi fleet accessible to wheelchairs and scooters (a situation disability activists are fighting to rectify the disparity) with the complication that the Metropolitan Transit Authority recently eliminated about 15% of its fixed bus and subway routes forcing its riders to use paratransit vans(notoriously unreliable and highly inflexible, unable to modify reservations made the day before and manufacture of both power and manual standards used for mobility needs ar not held to stringent quality control standards as to the same degree as before with the consequence that frequent breakdowns occur on a regular basis. Loaners often are of inferior quality.

All these fact suggest that there isa systemic devaluing of people with disabilities that hark back to the eugenic era of the 19th century. I will explore it's roots in my next post.

To be continued...