Meet Aliya Rahman, Disabled U.S. Citizen Assaulted, Jailed & Traumatized by ICE in Minneapolis; Democracy Now, February 9, 2026

 Democracy Now; Meet Aliya Rahman, Disabled U.S. Citizen Assaulted, Jailed & Traumatized by ICE in Minneapolis

"We speak with Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen who was violently dragged from her car by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month and detained at the Whipple Federal Building, which has become the epicenter of the government’s immigration crackdown in the city. Rahman says she repeatedly told agents she was disabled and had a brain injury, but they ignored her pleas for medical attention or other accommodation. “I was taken out of that place unconscious,” says Rahman, who describes lasting injuries and trauma from her detention. Rahman was not charged with any crime. “What I saw in that detention center was truly horrific.”

We also speak with attorney Alexa Van Brunt, director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, who says victims of ICE violence like Rahman can sue the federal government for violating their rights, “but they cannot sue the officers in their individual capacity.”"

Trump Cuts Threaten Agency Running Meals on Wheels; The New York Times, April 24, 2025

Reed Abelson, The New York Times; Trump Cuts Threaten Agency Running Meals on Wheels

[Kip Currier: A dear nonagenarian friend of my family's, whom I'll shorthand by her first initial M, utilized Meals on Wheels for about a decade after her husband passed away. She lived on her own in a modest home in a peaceful forested area of Northwestern Pennsylvania. In addition to receiving healthy meals for the week, the volunteer who brought the meals once a week visited and chatted a bit with M. So, the program also provided a social interaction benefit. 

M passed away in early 2024. But during that decade on her own after she became a widow, Meals on Wheels helped M to be able to live independently. Just as the program has done for hundreds of thousands of other seniors.

How terribly short-sighted and unkind it is for this current administration to threaten such a valuable and compassionate program as Meals on Wheels: a volunteer brigade that has been helping older Americans to live with dignity in their Golden Years since 1954.

Call your state and federal representatives and tell them you want Meals on Wheels to continue:

Directory of U.S. House Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives

Directory of U.S. Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm ]

[Excerpt]

"Every Monday, Maurine Gentis, a retired teacher, waits for a delivery from Meals on Wheels South Texas.

“The meals help stretch my budget,” Ms. Gentis, 77, said. Living alone and in a wheelchair, she appreciates having someone look in on her regularly. The same group, a nonprofit, delivers books from the library and dry food for her cat.

But Ms. Gentis is anxious about what lies ahead. The small government agency responsible for overseeing programs like Meals on Wheels is being dismantled as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Roughly half its staff has been let go in recent layoffs and all of its 10 regional offices are closed, according to several employees who lost their jobs.

“I’m just kind of worried that the whole thing might go down the drain, too,” Ms. Gentis said.

In President Trump’s quest to end what he termed “illegal and immoral discrimination programs,” one of his executive orders promoted cracking down on federal efforts to improve accessibility and representation for those with disabilities, with agencies flagging words like “accessible” and “disability” as potentially problematic. Certain research studies are no longer being funded, and many government health employees specializing in disability issues have been fired.

The downsizing of the agency, the Administration for Community Living, is part of far-reaching cuts planned at the H.H.S. under the Trump administration’s proposed budget."

Federal officials caution employers on using AI in hiring; FCW, May 12, 2022

Natalie Alms, FCW; Federal officials caution employers on using AI in hiring

"The growing use of artificial intelligence and other software tools for hiring, performance monitoring and pay determination in the workplace is compounding discriminiation against people with disabilities, federal civil rights officials say.

Artificial intelligence can be deployed to target job ads to certain potential applicants, hold online job interviews, assess the skills of job applicants and even decide if an applicant meets job requirements. But the technology can discriminate against applicants and employees with disabilities.

On Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice put employers on alert that they're responsible for not using AI tools in ways that discriminate and inform employees of their rights, agency officials told reporters."

For Many With Disabilities, 'Let It Go' Is An Anthem Of Acceptance; NPR, January 22, 2019

Joseph Shapiro, NPR; For Many With Disabilities, 'Let It Go' Is An Anthem Of Acceptance

"Since its arrival in 2013, many groups have found significance in the song on a personal level. Stories abound of gay, lesbian and transgender people, people in prison, people with eating disorders and chemical addictions and plenty of others on the margins, all identifying with the tale of a queen in hiding, who learns to shed her shame and accepts the things that make her different...

And that's the power of "Let It Go": It's an anthem for people taking pride in who they are, the way they are. Kristen Anderson-Lopez says she still hears from people who identify with the song's message.

"I think anyone who's carrying a secret shame," she says, "that gets so heavy that they really can't carry it anymore, is identifying with this idea of just shedding that and starting anew. Letting it out, letting it all explode and trying to find your way forward.""

A Wheelchair on Broadway Isn’t Exploitation. It’s Progress.; New York Times, March 24, 2017

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times; 

A Wheelchair on Broadway Isn’t Exploitation. It’s Progress.

"Sometimes, what seems a cheesy gimmick or instance of exploitation is really just the front edge of needed change. Some theatergoers were probably outraged the first time a black Juliet was cast against a white Romeo. Did that change how some of Shakespeare’s lines registered and imbue the play with new meanings? Sure. Is race-blind casting now widely accepted and the theatergoing experience richer for it? Yes."

New York City and Nonprofit Clash Over Accessibility of Roosevelt Memorial; New York Times, 5/9/16

David W. Dunlap, New York Times; New York City and Nonprofit Clash Over Accessibility of Roosevelt Memorial:

"Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park opened on Roosevelt Island four years ago, City Hall has been arguing with the nonprofit group that built and runs the park over whether it is fully accessible to disabled people.

The little-known dispute has now reached an impasse, with the de Blasio administration declaring categorically that the park is not accessible and needs to be fixed.

President Roosevelt himself would have been unable to use a 12-by-60-foot sunken terrace at the southernmost end of the memorial. He was paralyzed from the waist down and depended on a wheelchair for mobility.

“There is a particularly tragic irony in a park commemorating the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt — one of this country’s great historical figures with a disability, and a role model to so many — that is not completely accessible to those with disabilities,” said Natalie Grybauskas, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat."

Celebrating those who asked, "What if we could create a more inclusive world for everyone?"; Google, 7/26/15

Google; Celebrating those who asked, "What if we could create a more inclusive world for everyone?" :

"For decades people with disabilities fought and protested for equal access in the United States. Twenty-five years ago that effort culminated in the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark civil rights law that has improved the lives of millions of Americans and has served as a model for the Disability Rights movement around the globe."