OT? Help for the disabled

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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By Paula Span, The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2025

…

The survey looked at nearly 3,000 Americans aged 50 and older and found that only a minority — fewer than 18 percent of participants over 65 — saw themselves as having a disability.

Yet their responses to the six questions that the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey uses to track disability rates told a different story.

The A.C.S. asks whether respondents have difficulty seeing or hearing, limitations in walking or climbing stairs, difficulty concentrating or remembering, trouble dressing or bathing, difficulty working, or problems leaving the home.

In the university’s survey, about a third of those aged 65 to 74 reported difficulty with one or more of those functions. Among those over 75, the figure was more than 44 percent.

Moreover, when asked about several additional health conditions that would require accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, including respiratory problems or speech disorders, the proportion climbed even higher. Half the 65-to-74 group reported disabilities, as did about two-thirds of those over 75….

Government programs and private organizations like the National Disability Rights Network, the Americans with Disabilities Act National Network and the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities help connect people with services and supports in their communities…. [end quote]

Considering the very large percentage of people who actually have a disability (though they refuse to call themselves “disabled”) this might be considered a Macroeconomic issue.

People want to be independent. Nobody wants to admit to being weak. In fact, I was the one who applied for SSDI for my double-amputee diabetic friend even though he had been disabled for years. (He didn’t consider himself disabled because he was able to use his motorized wheelchair and adapted SUV to go to rodeos to ogle the cowgirls.)

It’s worth a shift of perspective if help is available.

Wendy

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In NE the senior centers often have programs to exchange equipment.

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The word “disabled” is a bureaucratically derived replacement for direct words such as “crippled,” “blind,” and etc.; all absurdly striving to “not label” people while nevertheless labeling and categorizing them. Most of the highly successful physically limited oldsters and “differently abled” persons I have known often adamantly screamed

I am crippled [in this or that way], but I sure as hell am ABLE,

…and I have adamantly agreed with them. Legless is a condition, and able is an attitude. Plain talk about conditions and attitudes is crucial to the “shift in perspective” necessary to get very useful help, useful to both the person and the society as a whole.

We have many many stunning examples on this board.

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@flyerboys how right you are!

When my diabetic friend, Dave, still had one leg a fire broke out in his bathroom’s exhaust fan. (He lived alone in the home he owned.) Instead of getting the heck out he hopped onto the washing machine, opened the grating in the ceiling and put out the fire himself.

After his second amputation he was delivered to the local rehab facility. Enraged, he wheeled himself out. It took a nurse friend and me together to convince him that he would lose his medical insurance if he left against medical orders. He had to stay until we could convince a doctor to release him to his home.

Dave lived at home until he died of diabetes. The sheriff called me because Dave listed me as his contact. (I had spent a tremendous amount of time helping Dave. I literally had power of life and death over Dave because I had his medical Power of Attorney – and Dave had heart and lung problems in addition to diabetes.) DH and I kept Dave’s dogs in our home every time he was hospitalized, once for 78 days. Our only remaining living dog is Dave’s last dog who we wouldn’t abandon after Dave’s death.)

Dave was a brilliant, flamboyant lawyer, actor and author who gave meaning to the words “independent” and “stubborn.” In fact, @intercst reminds me of Dave.

Wendy

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It is an unfortunately reality that sometimes we do need to categorize people. Sometimes by an arbitrary line (e.g. below FPL is “poor”). Sometimes “disabled” so they can quality for benefits of some sort (parking spaces, payments, etc). The bureaucracy needs to know so they can handle your situation appropriately (and, hopefully, as you deserve).

And there are some people who refuse to be lumped into a category, even when they really do need it.

(anecdote)On Veteran’s Day we went to a local steakhouse. There was a wait (lots of veterans). An old guy (at least Vietnam aged) got out of the passenger side of a pickup (presumably to put his name on the list while the driver circled around waiting for a parking space to open). He promptly fell down. He tried to get up using his cane, and fell down again. By this time three of us were walking towards him, and he tried -and failed- to get up a third time. The two guys ahead of me each took an arm and helped him up. One of them said something like “you may want to trade that cane in for a walker, sir”. He replied “I don’t need a walker!”, as if that was a reflection on him as a person. (/anecdote)

It’s OK if he’s disabled (he clearly was). Admit it, and utilize the tools available to you to make your quality of life better. Certainly better than falling down on the asphalt three times. As you say, “plain talk” and “attitudes” are crucial.

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Well, yeah. I’ve had glasses since high school and hearing aids for 15 years. So, yes, “disabled” but nothing that involves the ADA.

DB2

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When Mom and Dad turned 84 and 85, respectively, their CT doctor slipped them a handicapped parking space. The plan was to move to Boston but nevertheless they were given parking spaces up front. My BIL the endocrinologist kidded with Mom that he wanted to get his hands on their handicap parking sign. LOL Parking in Boston is hellish. Mom brings it in her purse everywhere as we give her rides.

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I participate in a few fitness challenges/events. They all seem to have “disabled” categories now and the term that seems to have been settled on is “adaptive”. Ranges from paraplegic to blind and everything in between. Definitely puts a new perspective on things when a below knee amputee is keeping pace with you.

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I like that one.

A favorite aunt told me to be aware that when someone said “I am crippled” or “a crip”, that that meant used to being undervalued, underestimated, and either hopelessly despondent or very proud and competitive and so extremely perilous to ignore….

She was right, and set me up for some great friendships and partnerships. One of the most skilled and adventurous ski partners I had was missing a leg….

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