(In) Accessibility: Commentary on Disability Rights

Image Owned by Netflix Disclaimer:  This post reflects my personal beliefs and opinions, and by no means reflects the show's intentions or others' opinions. There are major spoilers ahead, so if you have not watched the second episode of season four of Queer Eye, watch that first, then come back to this post. Queer Eye is a Netflix Original television show that premiered in 2018.  It is a reboot of an original of the same name that premiered in 2003.  The original followed five LGBT men (Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley, and Jai Rodriguez).  The reboot follows Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Antoni Porowski, and Jonathan Van Ness (fondly referred to as the Fab Five).  Each person has their own expertise and purpose on the show (fashion, culture, interior decoration, food and drink, and hair and skincare, respectively) as they provide physical and mental makeovers to men and women, from different backgrounds and sexual orientations.  The reb

Image Owned by Goodwill You may or may not have heard about the recent uproar that Goodwill has been facing.  If you haven't, then this is the post to read.  Goodwill is a non-profit organization through which people can donate clothing, accessories, housewares, etc. Once you donate such items, they will either be resold to customers or recycled.  The profits then go to benefit certain groups of people, including people with disabilities.  The money is supposed to fund job training and other programs to benefit this particular group (goodwill.org). In order to best explain the controversy, I must first explain a bit about subminimum wage in the United States. Recently, Goodwill came under fire for paying their employees with disabilities something called subminimum wage.  Subminimum wage is any wage provided by employers that is less than the federal minimum wage ($7.25).  According to the Department of Labor's website, this is perfectly legal, stating that "Sect

Image Courtesy of JAMA Forum As a disabled voter, one of the issues that I have always cared about is disability rights.   For several election cycles, this issue was not very present.  This year, however, it seems to be an ever increasing big ticket item.  This post is going to be a comprehensive guide on every candidate in the race as of the beginning of July, and their viewpoints on Disability Rights.  My hope for this post is to inform those who also consider disability rights close to their hearts, who may not be aware that some 2020 candidates have plans in place to improve this rights issue. Because it is the shortest list of only two candidates, I am going to start with the Republican party. Donald Trump :  Donald Trump is the current president of the United States.  He is running for re-election in 2020.  A lot can be said about his presidency, however, this post will only focus on how he currently feels about disability rights issues.  According to www.issues2000.

I do not own this image!  Credit goes to Emory University It is no secret that I have a disability.  You may have noticed, I write a blog about having a disability.  However, what you may not know is that the disability that I have is called Spina Bifida.  Don't worry, I am not going to bore you with all of the crazy, complicated medical terminologies that come along with that.  No, instead, I am going to link a website, so that you may read about the disability in-depth if you so choose: Information about Spina Bifida Before delving into the content of this post, however, allow me to provide some basic information about Spina Bifida.  This by no means will be in detail, which again, you can find at the link above.  This disability occurs when parts of the spinal cord are protruding from the back.  It can also cause a condition called hydrocephalus, which literally translates to fluid on the brain.  Both of these are fixed with surgeries in the first few months of life.  M