My brother was disabled. Defunding disability programs will cost lives.

Yahoo

13-05-2025

I grew up sitting across the dinner table from my developmentally disabled brother Jack. Left to the advice of specialists, Jack would have been sent to an institution for the 'benefit' of him and of my family. But my parents did not heed that advice, instead focusing on making sure Jack was included in community life.
Jack was the neighborhood paper boy, earning a wage well before most kids his age. The neighborhood kids included him in their baseball games, and he won medals for baseball in Special Olympics. Jack did not date, but he sure would have liked to had he been given education on healthy, safe relationships.
He was most happy when he worked in the kitchen at a hotel along with his fellow crewmates and their employment coach. He was so proud to get a paycheck ― one that reflected a real wage, not the few dollars he got each week back when he was at a sheltered workshop.
For most of his life, Jack was labeled with intellectual disabilities by the systems that were set up to serve him. It wasn't until he was in his 50's that we learned that he was also autistic. Jack never learned to tie his shoes, read, live on his own or appropriately use the telephone. He would have been considered 'severe.'
Letters: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrong about autism destroying families. Each has value.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s recently comments asserting that autistic people (later clarifying he meant 'severe autism') cannot hold jobs, date, toilet independently, or even play baseball. In his words 'autism destroys families.' Secretary Kennedy, from a proud sibling, you are wrong!
What may have gone unnoticed in the press over Kennedy's comments is a leaked version of a proposed budget for the federal Department of Health and Human Services which would eliminate direct funding for many programs for people with disabilities, including those in Wisconsin run by my organization, Disability Rights Wisconsin, and our partner organizations in this work, the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Waisman Center.
Congress created these programs in every state and territory to advocate for the health, safety, and well-being of people with developmental disabilities, and to ensure people with disabilities in every state would be given the opportunity to live full lives in the community.
Disability Rights Wisconsin specifically exists and is funded to defend the rights of residents with disabilities who want to live and work in their communities or need protection from abuse and neglect. Whether the leaked budget as it is written becomes reality or not, it sends a disquieting signal regarding the administration's priorities.
It is not hyperbolic to say that the cost of cuts like these would be paid in lives. Without our three organizations, the most vulnerable in our state will be silenced. And yes, fewer autistic people may be able to hold a job, pay taxes, date, or play baseball.
Opinion: I'm the father of son with Down syndrome. Using the 'R' word is never acceptable.
Who do we want to be as a country: one that believes Americans with disabilities are less than and should be hidden away, as my brother would have been; or one that recognizes individuals like Jack and the 26% of Americans who have a disability deserve to live in our communities, free from abuse and neglect? Secretary Kennedy, I await your answer.
Jill Jacklitz is executive director of Disability Rights Wisconsin. Jack was an avid sports fan. Jack and Jill grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kennedy's remark that 'autism destroys families' flat wrong | Opinion