The Voiceless Minority

The picture above is of Michelle Zeman. She is wearing glasses and a green blouse.  As you may or may not have heard by now, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently shared some statements about people with autism in an April 14 press conference. The rhetoric that he is spreading is causing an uproar within the autism community.   If you're new here, RFK has made some… bold (for lack of a nicer word)... statements about autism. : They will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted." Do his comments represent me? Not. However,…is this a reality for some people with autism? Absolutely. That being said, it does not mean that they should be treated like they are less than a neurotypical person.   Another statement that he made was that autism is a preventable disease." It doesn't take...

  Above is a picture of an empty plane cabin with gray seats.  I have written a lot about travel for this blog. I have written about cruises and concerts, but I have never written about travel. That is because, until recently, air travel has not been accessible to someone like me. I’m not saying that someone can’t transfer from a wheelchair into a seat on the plane; it would be complicated for me to do so in my current state. When I was younger, people could lift me and transfer me to a seat; however, as I've gotten older, this is no longer possible without the help of multiple people and a lift. Unfortunately, on a plane, the aisle seats are not wide enough for a lift, and even if they were, the lift would not be able to be stored underneath the plane with the rest of the baggage since most lifts are complex to disassemble. However, a new possibility has emerged that may make air travel fully accessible to all after all. A company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, C...

On April 6, 2025, the U.S. Autism Show occurred in Honolulu, Hawaii. Speakers Michelle Zeman (L) and Martin Slyngstad (R) are standing with Daniel Zimmerman (M) to show off the Proclamation that Slyngstad and Zimmerman received in honor of April being Autism Acceptance Month in Honolulu A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I would travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, to speak at the first U.S. Autism Show. Now that the event has wrapped, I wanted to reflect on the experience and share what that was like.   I was honored to be one of only eight presenters at this event. Standing at the podium and sharing my story was profoundly personal and empowering. It was a chance to speak openly about my journey – through diagnosis, therapy, professional growth, and advocacy – and connect with others through shared experiences.   If you couldn't attend the talk, I shared my journey through several key areas of my life. I started by talking about my experiences before receiving a diagnosis—what life...

  The picture above shows a little boy being examined by a doctor. The boy is pale and wears a striped shirt, blue shorts, and socks. The clinician is shown talking to the little boy.  In a world where artificial intelligence is more prevalent now than ever, it is crucial to understand the technology and its possible impact on the disability community. Most of us are familiar with applications such as Chat GPT. Chat GPT allows a user to provide a prompt and then has artificial intelligence write a document based on the prompt for those unfamiliar. Numerous other applications are similar to Chat GPT, and AI is slowly taking over the world. Soon, we will live in the Matrix, but not all AI will necessarily be bad. In an article published by Disability Scoop last August, which I will link below, a new and exciting use for AI was discussed. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have developed an app that has the potential to diagnose Autism early in childhood. The model...

Image description: Voting stations against a wall. On March 25th, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections." This EO proposes many changes to how our elections work, including voter eligibility, maintaining voter registration lists, vote-by-mail processes, which voting machines can be used, and who is responsible for managing elections. American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is highly concerned that if any aspects of this EO go into effect, voters with disabilities and other marginalized communities will be disproportionately harmed. Already, disabled voters face increased challenges in accessing their right to vote because of policies and practices that make voting difficult. The policies in the Executive Order are voter suppression tactics – policies that make it harder for many Americans to vote. This order comes at a time when Congress is actively considering similar voter sup...

D Above is a picture of a brown pen poised over a blank piece of paper, held by a hand.  Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, and other executives at Meta Platforms, Inc. My name is Jason Hahr. I am a 38-year-old disabled male who lives in Ocala, Florida. I have been active on Facebook since the early 2000s, yes, I am old. I’m writing to you today because, while I enjoy Facebook, there is one aspect of the platform that I think needs to be updated—and I’m not talking about the technology. Your platform is very intuitive and easy to use, even for someone as physically limited as me.  I have Cerebral Palsy, and I use a power wheelchair along with other assistive devices to function daily. Because of the nature of my disability, I use personal care services to perform everyday tasks that others can do for themselves, such as toileting, showering, eating, and running errands, to name a few. Because I require personal care assistance, I am not legally allowed to get married to my girlfriend, who a...

   I hope you are having a satisfying Saturday. Although we have made great strides, significant work remains to be done. Yesterday, I posted a blog about Patrice: The Movie . If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet, be sure to click the link at the bottom of this post. On the surface, one may think the movie is just about one disabled couple’s journey to get married, but it is about much more than that. While telling the story of Patrice and Gary, it also highlights the transportation crisis that disabled people face. For most people who have a disability, the inability to access affordable and reliable transportation is a barrier they have to overcome daily. I am lucky to have a support system that can provide me with my vehicle. While I do have to keep up with regular maintenance, I am very lucky because I didn’t have to buy it myself. I am eternally grateful to my parents for their generosity, but I also know what it is like to rely on the paratransit system becau...

Above is an image of a logo from a movie titled Patrice: The Movie. It is yellow and in large print.  Happy, fabulous Friday. Before I get into today’s post, I want to thank everyone for their support and amplification of my articles and the entire Voiceless Minority community recently. Your support and encouragement inspires me and all the other writers who have helped amplify the voice of the voiceless. Several years ago, I wrote a blog, which I will link at the end of this article. It is entitled I Can Write, But It Is Time for You to React. I am happy to report you have taken up that call to action in more ways than I could have imagined, and I am eternally grateful for your support. Okay, enough with inflating your head as you are reading this. Now, down to the fun stuff. Last September, Patrice: The Movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Shortly after, in October, it premiered on HULU. I will link an article written by Amy Kuperinsky for Disability Scoop that outlin...

Above is an image of President Trump signing a bill into law. He is wearing a black suit with a red necktie and is surrounded by people on either side. His pen is poised over legislation, which is on a wooden desk.  What a worrisome Wednesday it is for the disability community. Steps are being taken to erase the work of great disability champions such as Judy Heumann and Ed Roberts, to name a few. As a relative of mine put it a couple of days ago, laws are made, then they are repealed, so advocates must never stop fighting. Although my relative and I sometimes disagree politically, I could not agree more with her words. Indeed, it looks like it is happening yet again. This past January, Donald Trump became the 47 th President of the United States after a four-year hiatus between his first and second term. While I am registered as a Republican, and I agree with most of his platform, I question what he's doing regarding the voiceless minority. Before his election, he stated that h...

Above is a black and white photo of the 504 sit-in from 1977.  Okay, so maybe I’m late to the party. Still, I was recently made aware of a disturbing lawsuit taking place that will effectively erase the strides we have made as disabled people in America over the last several decades. The lawsuit that is slowly gaining traction, Texas vs. Becerra, is an attempt by 17 states to overturn the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protections for people with disabilities, explicitly aiming to overturn the 504 provision. I will list the 17 states that I believe are harming not only the disability community in America but America as a whole. However, before I do so, I will highlight that my home state of Florida is one of the offenders. The lawsuit is an attempt to not make America great again by using a slogan from our newly elected President. Still, in my opinion, instead, it is an attempt to return to the dark ages of disability in America. Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana...