Providing Access

It is odd to think that they are still doing polls like this. Every once in a while, I try to think of a better way. Opting in and multiple options (call, text, email)?

They way they do it is absolutely not representative, and that is the only part of the numbers that scare me less.

🎶 Woah, we're halfway there. Wo-ah, we're living on a prayer 😵‍💫
www.disability-rights-watch.com/2025/07/20/w...

A repost of the Forbes Accessibility 100 Instagram graphic.

I’ve waited a few days to post this after really grappling with what to say. I understand that saying this possibly won’t afford me/us with an opportunity like this again - one that comes with significant exposure and as a result of that, I’ve been told, the potential for more recognition that could lead to more funding, awards, etc etc. Still, I feel in my gut that it needs to be said. First, I am so very honored and grateful for the recognition of making it on the very first Forbes Accessibility 100 list. Truly. This is not a list you pay to be on, so the fact that the work that our phenomenal team of disabled folks is doing day in and day out is being recognized like this is really wonderful and not something I ever imagined when I conceived of New Disabled South.

But this list is also not representative of our field by any stretch of the imagination. And a disabled person who is entrenched in this field, or even a nondisabled person with any significant background or knowledge of the community, would likely not put together the list as it is here. Yes, many on here would be highlighted in that case, but many wouldn’t, and so many people who don’t show up on here would. I look at this list and I think about the dozens of people who belong here. And not in a “if it was a 500 list we’d all be a part of it” way. I mean, dozens of people who should have made this and didn’t. Black women, queer people, folks with I/DD, all who are LEADING the charge to make our media, politics, culture, products, companies, sports, law, and more accessible. All who, time and time again, do not get the recognition they deserve but who continue this work anyway.

And then I see enormous corporations like Walmart, Google, and Meta, and problematic organizations like the Special Olympics, and it reminds me that we have so very much work yet to do. I’d love to see a future where corporations - who have decades of documented disability discrimination lawsuits, who bend the knee to abandon DEI, who allow the unchecked spread of ableism, racism, anti-Blackness, anti-Arab hate, Islamophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, and more on their platforms, who fund genocides and weapons of war, and who ultimately give themselves carte blanche when they receive honors like this - aren’t recognized. I’d love to see a future where organizations who are led by nondisabled people and who perpetuate harmful narratives about disabled folks do not get recognized. I’d love to see a future where disabled people are the ones commissioned by companies like Forbes to put lists like this together. Or maybe no lists at all? So this is not at all to sound ungrateful, and I know that there are so many people who would love to switch places to be on this list. So I don’t take the recognition for granted by any means. But I guess I’m saying that we can do so much better. And if we want to see things change for real and move toward actual liberation for our people, we HAVE to.

My reflections on me and @newdisabledsouth.org being named to the Forbes Accessibility 100 list. This took me a few days to write, and even though it may come with consequences, I think it’s important.

Thanks for reading y’all.

Happy Disability Pride Month! I encourage you to celebrate by learning about why Black folks & others may not claim disability pride, but still belong in disability community. Check out my free, open access book #BlackDisabiltyPolitics from @dukepress.bsky.social!

library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

[Black and white picture of Johnny Cash flipping off the camera.]

In a world of Donald Trumps, be a Johnny Cash!

That last bit...wow.

Nice!

That is so awesome. What an amazing decision!

Me: Doesn't everyone feel like this?!

Woo hoo!

This was my thought!

I have known several adults with low vision (who were legally blind, but dis not identify with that wording) who felt felt their disability a lot more.

I don't think thinking of it as "completely" disabled is very helpful.

In my experience, I don't really think that is an accurate comparison. I have known many Blind adults that had so many effective startigies they really only saw themselves as disabled by society. In contrast,

Agreed.

I also think some people don't have confidence because they don't want to be the ones with fake humility.

www.disability-rights-watch.com/2025/05/17/w...

For real. In my experience, if I am not clear on something, others usually are confused, too. So I ask (unless I am in a space/around a person that I don't care about understanding).

Busy week: Grifts, eugenics, attacks on disabled vets, and broaching the fourth stage of genocide

Also:

Autism
Disability

If you needed confirmation that white supremacy is integral to the American project, it's this--people of color, women, queer people and disabled folks had *some* rights for a hot minute, and and the patriarchy has decided it's better to fully cancel America than to do equality.

Turns out I was more patriotic than I thought because, man, I feel so damn sad watching it go.

Has anyone seen good resources about alternatives to Amazon? Obviously shopping small and local is the go-to, but I'd like to compile something useful for disabled/rural folks that may rely more on online shopping...

👩‍⚕️CDC and Disability Rights 🦼
Before we talk more about disability, we need to address the history of eugenics, ableism and racism that haunts US public health work.

I knew a Holocaust survivor who talked about the importance of notetaking under authoritarianism, to track what normal was and how it shifted. Here's that 🧵 with respect to disability, itself a canary in the fascist coal mine: www.disability-rights-watch.com/2025/02/09/w...

I have experience with creating plain text documents.

I have been shouting from the rooftops about this 504 case sine October 2024. I am steadfast in support of the Trans community and believe that there is legal precedent for the HHS rule change.

A good resource on this is Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract by Marta Russell.

The Nazis created gas chambers first to exterminate disabled folks.

Those of us who know history have seen this before.

The Nazis were able to target disabled folks early in events. Because of eugenics, the regular people of Germany already had ableist ideas of disability and people thought we were disposible. It was an easy way to attack a group, and then they used those, now normalized, systems on other groups.

I think this is a systematic attack, and they are starting with the parts people will complain less about or not notice (disability).

I know history and know this has been done before.