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...

  The person above is on a stage with their arms spread wide, standing in front of a microphone, looking out over a large audience.  Anyone who knows me knows I love to crack a good joke. Sometimes they’re clean, and sometimes they’re filthy, depending on my mood. I recently learned of an inclusive comedy show that caters to people with disabilities. In particular, this comedy show catered to people with Autism. By catered, I don’t mean it infantilized them; it treated them like the weird but awesome people they can be. My good friend Michelle Zeman, who also writes for this blog, has a form of Autism that causes her to interact differently socially sometimes, but it does not detract from her awesomeness. I think more people with disabilities need to engage in the world of stand-up comedy. I have performed twice, and it is not only fun and free but can also be used as an educational opportunity for those who don’t have disabilities. The inclusive comedy show I mentioned above ...

  The picture above shows a group of people sitting around a table. One of the people in the picture has a disability; she is sitting in a wheelchair.  On Monday, we posted an article about a quicker process to diagnose Autism. Today, we continue our series on Autism. This time, we're dealing with an article discussing new autism research. Last October, Disability Scoop published an article discussing the interesting finding that Autism may run in families. Without citing the entire article, I will outline the basics. The primary conclusion of this study, discussed in the article, was that children who have older siblings with Autism are 20.2% more likely to develop Autism themselves by the age of three. If they have multiple siblings on the spectrum, their risk increases to 37%. The study that drew these conclusions examined over 1,600 children from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom for two and a half years, starting at 6 months and continuing up to three ...

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...

The picture above shows a disabled man in a grey suit shaking hands with a gentleman in a blue suit in an office.  Last September, a publication called Living with Disabilities out of the United Kingdom published an article about a charity that funded work opportunities for people with learning disabilities. I will link the article at the bottom of this post. After rereading the article this week, I decided to write this blog about employment and disability in the United States. Recently, my now fiancé had to give in her two weeks' notice to end her employment because if she had continued with the job, she would have been in danger of losing her aide care services. Her last day is the 22 nd of April. She has enjoyed the job, but it has created many challenges for her.  The current system within the United States is not designed well. It creates many barriers for people with disabilities in terms of employment. We are steered towards programs through Vocational Rehab, whi...

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...

  Above is a woman with medium-length brown hair, glasses, pale skin, and a green shirt. The background of the photo is black. Today, I am writing to you from my living room with some exciting news to share. On April 6, 2025, I am scheduled to present at the inaugural US Autism Show in Oahu, Hawaii. The conference is hosted by Spire Autism & Da Vinci NCR Services LLC . The event aims to celebrate and support the Autism community in the USA, with its primary audience being the Autism community and clinicians. Neurodivergent Board Certified Behavior Analysts, like myself, will speak.   What inspired me to get involved in the event was recording an episode of Safe Space, the ABA Podcast with Daniel Zimmerman of Da Vinci NCR Services, LLC, about assent-based programming (to listen to the episode, click here ). Before recording, he told me about how they would host the US Autism Show in 2024; however, it was moved to April 2025 because they wanted to coincide the event with Au...

            Black and white image of a sign that reads sign 504 now. The "O" is made up of a wheelchair.  In “America in Danger of Going Backwards: If We Forget Our History, We Are Doomed to Repeat It” by Jason Hahr and Samantha Lebron, the authors discuss the lawsuit involving 17 states that attempt to overturn Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In today’s article, we will discuss what Section 504 is and why it’s crucial to maintain this legislation.   For those unaware, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. The core provision of Section 504 states: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely because of their disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to di...

   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...