Reply #87: Right! [View All]

You and I think alike on this issue... I suspect you've either worked in the field or had some personal experience with the real world of disabilities. You're right, employers generally prefer to steer clear of anything they don't understand. They see it as a big hassle. Furthermore, the neocons have so demonized government employees (and the ADA) that those tasked with the job of helping break down some of these barriers face an almost impossible task. At the end of the day most people with severe disabilities who are able to do some work end up in dead-end, low paying jobs with no benefits and no future. That's a fact. The few exceptions are held up as shining examples, and that's a double edged sword, IMO. On one hand it's good for the public to see that some people with disabilities are able to do great things. But it also poses problems:

-- The public tends to lump everyone together. "If he can work, why can't she?" So the ones who can work are used as a club to beat on the ones who can't.
-- There are people in the rehab community who proclaim that anyone can work - no matter what. Besides being complete bullshit, it's the type of thinking that could eventually lead to the elimination of all SSDI/SSI.
-- It fosters the mentality that a person's worth is equivalent to their economic output - and that is dangerous thinking.

Anyway, I appreciate your posts, Megahurtz. I don't have a disability and I have retired from the work, but I did have the pleasure of knowing thousands of people with disabilities and their families. We all should remain vigilant and defend them at every opportunity because, ultimately, how we treat our most vulnerable defines us as a society. Furthermore, we all live in bodies that are incredibly fragile and each of us is only one accident or illness away from being in the same boat.