Disability Issues

2 posts

The War on Social Security Disability Benefits

Roosevelt_in_a_wheelchairRecycling a section of the media strategy that always stops the U.S. from having any of the good stuff, now journalists are trying to scare Americans into believing that the real source of our fiscal crises is the disabled. And once again the recent reports about federal disability benefits creating a culture of underachievement in poor communities and the poor cheating the social security system to receive the cash benefits eliminated by the Welfare Reform Act in 1996 (any of this sound familiar?), are coming from some of the most supposedly liberal media outlets. Continue reading

Today in WTF: Deaf Boy Asked to Change his Sign Name

Your name is part of who you are and how people identify you as different from another person. Hunter Spanjer, a deaf pre-school boy from the corn belt, has a registered sign for his name. His name in Signing Exact English sign involves him crossing his index and middle fingers and shaking his hands up and down. Problem is that the Grand Island, Nebraska school district thinks it looks like a gun and therefore violates their ‘weapons policy’. The school district has asked that Hunter change his name sign. (Note to Grand Island School district: bringing your hands to school is not the same as bringing a weapon). Continue reading