(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 orient...

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, st...

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 right...

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 surge...

For those who may be reading this and know me personally, you may already know of the saga that has preoccupied my life for the past year with my new wheelchair.  If so, I am sorry in advance for rehashing a bunch of details that you already have heard from me.  This post will be directed more towards those who have been through something similar, who may need to know this information before applying for their own wheelchairs, or are just simply curious about the struggle that comes along with this country's healthcare system.  That being said, this post will only cover one small portion of the current problems with our healthcare system, as there are many more.  For some context, I have attached an image of my wheelchair. Before going into my story that will inevitably turn into a rant, let me preface this with some background into the process of obtaining a wheelchair.  Again this is only on my experience with the United States. In this country, most i...

Image By MakeUseOf It has been over a year since my last post.  College and track have pretty much taken over my life and I just never had the time to do much else. So much has happened since the last post.  I am half-way done with my undergraduate education at Penn State, which is somewhat terrifying to me.  I am finishing up my second track season for the school.  Last season ended on a really great note, with second places in the shot put and javelin, and the first place in the discus at Nationals! Earlier this school year, I had an AWESOME internship with the local branch of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.  I cannot put into words how much I loved it and hope to do something similar again.  The best part?  I met a lot of really amazing people who have become lifelong friends.  Through the internship, I was able to canvass and phonebank for local Democratic candidates.  Towards the Midterms of 2018, I was able to travel to a...

Image courtesy of travelweekly.com Traveling.  It is really fun, right?  I love traveling!  I have been to three other countries outside of the United States, as well as thirty-six states.  There are so many ways to travel now in the 21st century;  Car, train, plane, boat, you name it, you can travel by it.  However, with the joy of traveling and discovering a new place, come some annoyances.  While I could go on for hours about travel, I am solely going to discuss airline travel, as this is the most common way I travel, and the one with the most accessibility issues.  Also, if I covered all of them, this would be a really long post, and you would probably lose interest rather quickly.  Let me explain. Growing up, my dad has always worked in the airline industry in several capacities.  Thus, I fly A LOT.  However, traveling via air is one of the worst ways to explore the world when using a wheelchair.  Why you may a...