Post by @ucaccessnow@sfba.social

2026-06-17 05:01 UTC

:boost_requested: 🧵 I started UC Access Now in 2019/2020. I had been physically disabled for 25 years by that point. And my own public university was hurting my health while disobeying federal & state disability law. I figured if I had to fight this hard to get the bare minimum (while also dealing with grad school that's hard even for abled ppl), I wanted it fixed for everyone & wanted to work with other disabled students, staff, and faculty to do so. I did not have a deep background in theorizing about disability. So I definitely learned even more about systemic ableism as a result of trying to fight how that manifests at University of California. An important thing to learn is that systemic ableism moves the frame to what the system wants & needs it to be. So as a disabled person, if they need you to be framed as "too weak to hire", that's it. If they need you to be "faking it", that's it. If they need you to be "too lazy", that's it. https://apnews.com/article/trump-civil-rights-special-education-3483478a51ea8001fcc70e8a77d08d9a #USpol #Ableism #Disability #UCAccessNow

Replies (1)

@ucaccessnow@sfba.social 2026-06-17 05:08

"Special" education was always a way of trying to ration accessibility, police disabled people, and to advance and perpetuate a eugenicist view of human beings. This fascist regime has been actively attacking the Department of Education so it's not like remaining in the DoE was going to result in fantastic accessible education. But by moving "special" education to Department of Health & Human Services, they've doubled down on medicalizing disability and making it official that education need not be accessible to all (and disabled people pay taxes too, so it's also saying that they can use our money but not have to serve us as members of the public). The masses, even people who are themselves disabled and their family members, have often repeated the name "special education" unironically. Strengthening this framing. Ableist framing like "special education" and "accommodations" should almost always be in quotes as they are propaganda terms. #USpol #Ableism #Disability #Fascism #Eugenics #Education

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