For those of you who don’t know, October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Disability is not a monolith but rather a culture and identity. It is the understanding that disabled people do not need to be “fixed,” nor do we have things to “overcome.” We exist in a world that was, quite literally, not built to not include us. And in these times of uncertainty and fear, when rights are being stripped away and people are being denied the help they desperately need, there is only one true way to be an ally: Venmo me $10. My handle is @SqueakyWheelJerome.
Disabled people still face many barriers. Some of us get paid less than $3.50 an hour. An estimated 10,000 of us every year have our mobility devices damaged or destroyed when trying to fly. The Department of Education laying off 50% of its employees leaves the nation’s 7.5 million special education students at risk of losing access to a proper education. But there is one way you can stem the tide of systemic failure: Venmo me $10. My handle is @SqueakyWheelJerome.
The National Institutes of Health has announced plans to use private data to create a list of all autistic Americans so they can be cured. The Veterans Affairs Department, following in the footsteps of many for-profit companies, is poised to roll back work-from-home accommodations by having its 115,000 disabled employees reprove their disabilities in order to continue receiving accommodations. And Congress just passed a law to strip $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, which provides medical insurance to 35% of people with disabilities. There’s only one thing you can do: Venmo me $10. My handle is @SqueakyWheelJerome.
We have spent hundreds of years fighting for inclusion, and we promise to be just as stubborn for the next century. Disability Employment Awareness Month encourages us to fight for the opportunity to work alongside our nondisabled peers. And that takes a lot of work. It’s emotionally taxing to continue to exist in a world that thinks you’re unemployable. But not this month. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and there’s only one way you can help us survive and thrive: Venmo me $10. My handle is @SqueakyWheelJerome.