The Voiceless Minority

  My name is Gizelle Koontz, and I am a woman in my fifties currently residing in Belleview, Florida, a small town outside of Ocala. I was born in Canada and moved to Florida as a child. I graduated high school in Florida and eventually became an American citizen. I have worked in healthcare for a few decades, mainly as a Phlebotomist and Laboratory Technician. However, I have also worked as a Medical Assistant and have had employment outside of the medical field, such as working for the post office as a mail carrier. I am currently studying medical billing and coding and working in home healthcare, which is how I met my current client (and friend) Jason, for whom I am honored to write this article. Many of Jason’s blogs discuss the physical side of disability; however, this piece will discuss a hidden disability. I am an individual who has struggled with depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember. When I first started experiencing depression, I was a teenager. Needless t...

                                              Above is a photo of Marissa Bode from Getty Images Anyone who follows this blog or knows me knows I love theater and film. I even went so far as to get a degree in drama at college. While I love “straight plays,” which are plays without musical numbers, I am obsessed with musicals. I love all the standard ones such as “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” and “Les Mis.” However, I only knew part of the story because I listened to the soundtrack.  That changed this past November when Wicked, the motion picture, hit theaters. I went to see the movie with my girlfriend, Samantha LeBron, who is not as big a musical fan as I am. Because I didn’t know the story well, I was unaware that a character was in a wheelchair. Universe, please forgive me for being late to the party. The movie was great, and the character in a wheelchair was portrayed extr...

  Today, we welcome a new guest writer to The Voiceless Minority community. Thank you for joining the fight, Sally. Sally  Ouimet  Waters , MA CCC-SLP, received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Florida. She completed her Clinical Fellowship at the Malcom Randall VA Hospital in Gainesville and has over ten years of clinical experience in the Ocala area, specializing in adult dysphagia and neurogenic cognitive-communication disorders.  Sally  utilizes current evidenced-based practice to inform her treatment programs for individuals who have experienced CVA, Traumatic Brain Injury, Voice Disorders, Parkinson’s Disease, and ALS to improve communication and swallow function according to the patient’s objectives.  She specializes in the evaluation and treatment of individuals who have experienced Head and Neck Cancer, including those with tracheostomy, laryngectomy, and post-radiation dysphagia. She advocates for the oncology team t...

  We are one week away from Donald Trump retaking the presidency once again after an overwhelming victory last November. Disability advocates and allies have some concerns regarding a Donald Trump presidency. This article will build on an article published by Disability Scoop late last year. By the end of it, you, the reader, will be more aware of crucial programs like Medicaid and how they affect persons with disabilities. Along with a Trump presidency, the Republicans will maintain a slim majority in both chambers of Congress. This will enable them to reshape public policy and, indeed, policies that affect people with disabilities for years to come. Nothing is known for sure, but it is rumored that the Trump administration aims to cut funding to vital programs such as Medicaid and others. I can understand wanting to provide tax cuts and tax reforms that were promised during his campaign; however, even though I am a supporter of President Trump, in this case, I think he is treat...

  The emphasis on science and technology is more critical than ever before. The earlier children are exposed to science and technology, the more likely they are to develop a love for it later in life. However, in my experience, if you are a student with a disability, there is a lot less emphasis placed on these subjects. Late last year, the state of Pennsylvania joined an ongoing effort to bring students with and without disabilities together in a new way. Thanks to Andrew Fee, the vice president of strategic partnerships for Pennsylvania Special Olympics, students in Western PA not only got the chance to build cool robots but also worked together to create a robot with a student with a disability. According to an article published last September by Disability Scoop, which I will link at the bottom of this post, several counties in western Pennsylvania participated in a robotics program developed by Unified Robotics. The program partnered students in science and technology clas...

America is supposedly the land of opportunity. We toute ourselves as being the greatest country in the modern world, and for the most part, I am a proud American, and I tend to agree with this statement; however, did you know that even though we are just beginning 2025, it is still legal to pay people with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Let me say that again: it is still legal in the greatest country in the world to pay a group of our citizens less than $7.25 an hour. How is this possible? The rest of this article attempts to answer that question and shed light on the problem of "sub-minimum wage." People with disabilities have been a part of American society from the beginning. However, in this author's opinion, we only began to be seen as human in the late twentieth century. In 1938, there was a provision written into the Fair Labor Standards Act that allowed employers who employed people with disabilities to pay them, and I'm not ...