The World of Disabilities
As I was writing this month’s column, so many events were taking place that I was hard pressed to know which topic to cover. The one topic that was hard for me to ignore was the Terri Schiavo case. The implications of that case may be far reaching for much of the homeless community because Terri Schiavo was not terminally ill; she was disabled. It can be argued that she was in a vegetative state, but the law defined her as disabled. A large part of the homeless community is also defined as disabled; therefore, any court ruling that can decide to take steps to terminate the life of a disabled person could easily impact any other disabled person in the future. Some people might say that is stretching things, but the discussions that took place up to the moment of her death were pretty emotional, especially the arguments that many mothers might see the case as an excuse to leave their babies in the hospital to die. Suddenly I was hearing talk that sounded like Brave New World, and I was getting most unnerved.
The problem of dealing with the disabled is always a topic that arouses a lot of sensitivity in the public and with the government. It is a topic to which I relate as well, as I am included in the disabled population as well. Were it not for disabling conditions, I would probably have long since been out of the homeless world and returned to normal life. Finding a way to cope with disabilities requires considerable help, and that help is not always so accessible, and not always are the providers sensitive to the needs of the disabled, especially if a disabling condition is a psychiatric condition. War veterans, for example, often hear that they need to “snap out of it” when Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms impair their functioning, as if it were really so simple to do.
For the disabled, homelessness is a very likely thing to happen, as the difficulty in finding employment is far greater. Even with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a very comprehensive law designed to prevent discrimination against the disabled, employers frequently discriminate, and as I have discovered, filing a complaint guarantees the disabled person very little protection. Complaints take forever to process, and unless the disabled complainant can afford counsel, the chances are the complaint will be thrown out of court, as pro se litigants are rarely respected in court. Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensures a complainant that he/she can have the court appoint an attorney for representation, that happens only if the court hears the case, and again, the person who enters without an attorney stands little chance of that happening.
For the disabled who cannot work, receiving disability income from the Social Security Administration can be an incredibly long, protracted battle. The Social Security Administration almost always denies initial claims and forces persons filing to appeal, so the appeals process can be quite lengthy and most often requires the services of attorneys. Many attorneys will work on a pro bono (pay after settlement) basis, but the process can still go on for months and even years. In the meantime, the disabled applicant must survive on a shoestring budget. In the District of Columbia, the Department of Human Services does give interim disability assistance to persons waiting to receive disability income from the Social Security Administration, but the amount is still quite low, not an amount from which anyone could expect to live. Even with the addition of food stamps, the amount is insufficient.
For anybody who thinks erroneously that the disabled have an easy life, I can assure you there is nothing glamorous or attractive about being disabled. Too often I have heard the Victorians of the Bush era say that all benefits to the disabled should be cut and that the disabled should be left to starve, very much as Terri Schiavo was allowed to die of starvation. It is easy to hit at the weak part of the population that is least able to defend itself, and no doubt the elderly would be next. However, that would not go without a revolution. I still remember a delightful Belgian film that I saw when I lived in Israel about a retirement home in Brussels in which the residents, fed up with the abuse from the staff, revolted and took over, putting up signs that read “Les Vieux au Pouvoir” (“The Elderly to Power”). If the elderly and disabled are threatened too much, a similar scenario could well take place; many of the disabled and elderly are people who have served this country faithfully and are not about to be marginalized because of an arbitrary decision.
Even though the Bush Administration decided to express outrage after Terri Schiavo’s death, that did not bring her back to life, nor did it undo the damage that had already been done. A lot of people are not sleeping as easily now as they did before because of that story. I seriously doubt that many people will be able to put it aside and move on so easily.
Copyright ©2005
The problem of dealing with the disabled is always a topic that arouses a lot of sensitivity in the public and with the government. It is a topic to which I relate as well, as I am included in the disabled population as well. Were it not for disabling conditions, I would probably have long since been out of the homeless world and returned to normal life. Finding a way to cope with disabilities requires considerable help, and that help is not always so accessible, and not always are the providers sensitive to the needs of the disabled, especially if a disabling condition is a psychiatric condition. War veterans, for example, often hear that they need to “snap out of it” when Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms impair their functioning, as if it were really so simple to do.
For the disabled, homelessness is a very likely thing to happen, as the difficulty in finding employment is far greater. Even with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a very comprehensive law designed to prevent discrimination against the disabled, employers frequently discriminate, and as I have discovered, filing a complaint guarantees the disabled person very little protection. Complaints take forever to process, and unless the disabled complainant can afford counsel, the chances are the complaint will be thrown out of court, as pro se litigants are rarely respected in court. Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensures a complainant that he/she can have the court appoint an attorney for representation, that happens only if the court hears the case, and again, the person who enters without an attorney stands little chance of that happening.
For the disabled who cannot work, receiving disability income from the Social Security Administration can be an incredibly long, protracted battle. The Social Security Administration almost always denies initial claims and forces persons filing to appeal, so the appeals process can be quite lengthy and most often requires the services of attorneys. Many attorneys will work on a pro bono (pay after settlement) basis, but the process can still go on for months and even years. In the meantime, the disabled applicant must survive on a shoestring budget. In the District of Columbia, the Department of Human Services does give interim disability assistance to persons waiting to receive disability income from the Social Security Administration, but the amount is still quite low, not an amount from which anyone could expect to live. Even with the addition of food stamps, the amount is insufficient.
For anybody who thinks erroneously that the disabled have an easy life, I can assure you there is nothing glamorous or attractive about being disabled. Too often I have heard the Victorians of the Bush era say that all benefits to the disabled should be cut and that the disabled should be left to starve, very much as Terri Schiavo was allowed to die of starvation. It is easy to hit at the weak part of the population that is least able to defend itself, and no doubt the elderly would be next. However, that would not go without a revolution. I still remember a delightful Belgian film that I saw when I lived in Israel about a retirement home in Brussels in which the residents, fed up with the abuse from the staff, revolted and took over, putting up signs that read “Les Vieux au Pouvoir” (“The Elderly to Power”). If the elderly and disabled are threatened too much, a similar scenario could well take place; many of the disabled and elderly are people who have served this country faithfully and are not about to be marginalized because of an arbitrary decision.
Even though the Bush Administration decided to express outrage after Terri Schiavo’s death, that did not bring her back to life, nor did it undo the damage that had already been done. A lot of people are not sleeping as easily now as they did before because of that story. I seriously doubt that many people will be able to put it aside and move on so easily.
Copyright ©2005
posted by MasterWriter at 11:26 a.m.
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