Disability is, for the most part, seen by mainstream society as a wartime issue. Many veterans come home from war zones with various disabilities, and everyone rightly pays attention. But as the Walter Reed scandal showed us, more attention needs to be paid to all people with disabilities and the services available to us.
Veterans with and without disabilities are national heroes and deserve the best services - everyone agrees on that. But what about others with disabilities? What about veterans whose disabilities are permanent, who need services that help with vocational training and personal attendant care, not to mention vital transportation options?
I can’t know how a disabled veteran feels about the system they wade through or the social inequalities they face, but I do know what people with disabilities face everyday. Society tends to view people with disabilities with fear; they fear the possibility of becoming disabled themselves. People with disabilities are viewed as somehow being ‘less thans." Perception itself is the root cause of the inequality between disabled and able-bodied individuals. It's why people with disabilities can't break the glass ceiling that separates us from mainstream society.
This chasm between opportunities needs to be addressed by those in power. Grassroots efforts have made some great gains over the last three decades, and some have turned into legislation – only to suffer or be gutted under the current administration. Our fight for civil rights is forever a process; a fight to make things better for future generations.
We are all interconnected, and that view needs to take hold for our country to move ahead. It's not front page news anymore, but the average American still fears the day that Social Security funds run out. It's a valid concern - right now, there’s more being paid out of the fund than is being paid into it. It’s paid in Social Security Income, Social Security Disability, and Supplemental Security Income. Now consider that 86% of disabled Americans are unemployed, and of that number, the majority are able and willing to become tax-paying citizens. Please note the "willing" - they want to be tax-paying citizens. Say even 50% of the nearly 40 million working age Americans were given the opportunity to transition out of our antiquated benefit system. In this scenario, 20 million more citizens would pay taxes, including paying into Social Security.
To achieve that goal, however, social services would need to be improved. The financial rules that make staying on benefits easier (and cheaper) than getting a job would have to be fixed. Health care would need to both be improved and guaranteed, regardless of income. "Regardless of income" is a key phrase, because many people with disabilities rack up thousands of dollars in medical expenses a month; far more than they could afford to pay out of pocket even on a very good salary. As it stands, a disabled person who gets a job and reaches a certain (very, very low - well below the poverty line) income threshold will lose a portion of benefits, lose health insurance (which includes personal attendant care), and would very likely pay more, in relation to income, for transportation to and from their workplace.
These improved services would cost more at the outset, but the millions of dollars paid in taxes would more than make up for it. Not only that, but more money would be paid to Social Security rather than out of Social Security. I’ve always wondered how economists miss this rather blatant point, but it goes back to how people with disabilities are viewed by society: as not capable. Only recently have we had opportunities for education and, even more recently, employment. While this has been the path many other movements have followed, the fact that disability is still seen as a health care issue rather than as a social and political minority group is a great disadvantage.
Restoring the Americans with Disabilities Act would bring us back to where we were in 1992, but we need leaders who will go beyond that. We need a leader to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a leader who views us as people and not conditions.
We need a leader that sees helping the people, all the people, of this country, helps the nation as a whole.