I have been asked to present a talk about accessibility for the upcoming USC Future of Computing symposium, which is is framed as a vision of the next 25 years. I am struggling mightily with this task, at this moment in time.

The talk I started with

On the one hand, I see the future of the field in the wonderful work that is being led by the current generation of amazing accessibility researchers, many of them disabled and activist in addition to being scientists. The WordCloud below highlights some of the prominent topics found in their recent (2023 and 2024) publications, which include “intersectionality”, “gai”, “representation”, “fabrication”, “diy”, “justice”, and “community” among others.

I had a paragraph here that named all of the amazing folks whose work I drew from in creating that word cloud. And then I thought better of it because I have read about the attacks that academics now face for something as benign as improving student learning by starting with those most marginalized. Even without names, though, I can talk about the trend toward justice-centered, intersectional work that is increasingly changing who is represented in our research. I can emphasize the importance of DIY and self determination and highlight the expertise and advances driven by the lived experience of researchers who advance technology they themselves use. And I can praise the passion and advocacy that so many folks bring to their work, whatever disability communities they work with. This community is helping to redefine what accessibility research means, who it serves, and how it serves us while also advancing our ability to utilize the newest technologies, from generative AI to robotics to consumer-grade fabrication. The future they are inventing will not only benefit people with disabilities, it will create a more compassionate, flexible, and accommodating world for all of us.

The talk I need to give

How can I talk only about the glowing future above, when I am watching the dismantling of the rights our community has fought so hard for, at least in the United States? I feel obliged to talk about the future we face if this dismantling succeeds. Because we know what that world looks like — we have only to look to the past.

• If educational supports are rolled back, we will see the entrenched problems disabled students already face become policy, rather than something to fix. A multitude of forces make it hard for colleges and universities to effectively meet accommodation requests (ASSETS 2023), even without adding further barriers to access. Not only is there an active court case seeking to roll back many federally protected educational rights  (Texas v. Becerra), funding cancelations are already happening, as evidenced in the screenshot above (found on bsky, and reported in the Fredricksburg Advance).
• Eugenics was once policy in the US, and it could easily become so again. It is already the case that concerns about stigma may hinder disabled people from requesting accommodations at all.¹ Eugenics has never gone away, at best it has only been pushed down. For example, at the worst of COVID, people with intellectual disabilities faced the risk of being denied lifesaing treatment (something the HHS spoke out against, at the time, but would it do the same today?).
• If prejudice against people with disabilities rises, they will be less likely to find employment. President Trump blamed people with disabilities for the recent tragic Potomoc air collision, and is targeting programs that support disability hiring. People with disabilities face serious prejudice on the job market — simply disclosing disability can severely reduce employer interest.²
• More people will become more severely disabled, and disabled people will be directly harmed, if new federal policies are implemented. We’ve already seen the Long COVID advisory council terminated; massive medicaid cuts; disappearing documents at OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the possibility of OSHA rollbacks. All of these can potentially lead to increased prevalence and severity of disability. I am by no means saying that being disabled is *bad* — I love myself just as I am, and am proud of my identity. But being disabled when facing prejudice, eugenics, lack of access, and higher costs for services can certainly be hard and these hard-fought rights and protections are important.
• The rollback of federal protections will empower other groups to push back further. We’re already seeing this — just months after the department of transportation finally told airlines they had to stop breaking the wheelchairs of their passengers, five major airlines have joined a lawsuit to overturn that ruling.

These risks don’t just come from one place. Some are driven by states, some by the federal government, all are fed by individual prejudice, ignorance, and the pressure to prioritize progress over access. However, there is one thing that policy, prejudice, and pressure cannot control, and that is whether or not we stand strong as one united community fighting these changes. By making Texas v. Becerra about trans rights, the state attorneys general are trying to force people to choose who counts as disabled, and fight only for some disabled people. By bombarding us with horrors from the terrified immigrants deported to Panama to the forceful and multifaceted state by state and federal attacks on trans rights, government seeks not only to divide but also to overwhelm us.

But these attacks cannot stop us from fighting, and many many people are already doing so. The disability community is lucky to have many organizations with civil rights expertise like the American Association of Persons with Disabilities, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, New Disabled South already active and informed and informing us about actions against things like Texas v. Becerra. Action also looks like organizing meetings among your community, making all of your classes as accessible as possible to all students even if they have no accommodations, going to bat for a disabled student within your university, or simply letting someone know you are there for them. In the words of my friend, colleague and role model:

1. M. Kent. Disability and elearning: Opportunities and barriers. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(1), 2015. ↩︎
2. This stigma plays out both when generative AI is used to screen resumes and with human employers (Ameri, M., Schur, L., Adya, M., Bentley, F. S., McKay, P., & Kruse, D. (2018). The disability employment puzzle: A field experiment on employer hiring behavior. ILR Review, 71(2), 329-364). ↩︎