CONTENT BY CASSANDRA

The article is written by a disability advocate and author living with a C4 spinal cord injury, who draws from personal experience and community advocacy to push for accessibility and equity.

Before my spinal cord injury, I didn’t think much about getting from Point A to B. I drove a few clunkers in my day that I paid pennies for. If they didn’t start, I could jump in anyone's passenger seat. Now that I require a wheelchair accessible vehicle to accommodate my power wheelchair, getting to where...

Misconceptions about people with disabilities— and our ability to contribute meaningfully—have long limited employment opportunities. Ableist attitudes and exclusionary thinking among employers often result in the rejection of qualified applicants with disabilities. Legislation like Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act has sought to hold at least federal employers accountable for including people with disabilities in their workforce. But Section 503 is now under threat.

I was raised with the example of a hard-working, blue-collar father, and I went into the trades at 21. As I welded my way up the West Coast, young daughter in tow, I adopted this perspective that over-working oneself to death was an admirable way to go. My self-worth felt determined by how much I was contributing and participating. This applied to both my then-career in commercial iron and my anticipated career as a writer.

I never imagined the former would be cut so brutally short. I sustained