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Peter Torres Fremlin

But no money to live?

Care, relationships and campaigning against cuts. Plus curated news from 35 countries.
A photo of a young white person who wears a facemask holding a sign above their head that reads "Money to kill but no money to live". The sign shows both a hand-drawn rocket and a blue wheelchair symbol. In the background, other protestors hold banners and signs of their own.
But no money to live? Protests in the United Kingdom against government plans to cut disability benefits as military spending is increased. London, June 30, 2025. Photo by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images.

Dear Debriefers,

This edition has massive cuts to social security, disabled campaigning forcing government U-turns, and the sad loss of Patty Berne, co-founder of Sins Invalid.

We see some of the awful circumstances in Palestine as well as looking back to how disabled women forced themselves onto the international women rights' agenda in 1995.

And there's a theme of care and relationships running through these pieces, from incentives to marry a disabled person to growing up with a disabled sibling.

All this and more in a world tour of curated news.

Explore the full guide with 107 hand-picked links: curated across 35 countries or 37 subjects. This edition picks up from the update in May.

And, for readers of Bahasa Indonesia, we have Sahabat Baik Saya, a translation of Ida Putri's piece on falling in love with her wheelchair, Pinky. (Thanks to Ida and Brita Utami.)

About this edition

Disability Debrief can cover world news thanks to generous support from readers. In the words of Kamil Goungor, a disabled activist and travel blogger based in Greece:

“If you can, I fully encourage you to support Disability Debrief, as Peter Torres Fremlin and his colleagues are doing amazing and super valuable work.”

With thanks also to Dom, Lainey, Lea and Youmna for new contributions.

Peter Torres Fremlin is editor of Disability Debrief and is from the UK.

Forced to u-turn

In the UK, the disability community has been protesting government proposals to cut disability benefits. Facing the risk of rejection by its own members of parliament, the government was forced to make last minute changes to limit the scale of the cuts.

The concessions protect personal independent payment, a benefit for disabled people unrelated to income. But there were still dramatic cuts for future recipients of universal credit, a benefit for those with low incomes or who cannot work.

Yet the fact there was any change at all shows the strength of campaigning. In the words of journalist Frances Ryan:

“Tonight’s huge climbdown is testament to the countless disabled people who have tirelessly fought these cuts. Yes, [Universal Credit] was a loss and there’s more to do on [Personal Independence Payment], but let’s not underplay this: a government with a vast majority has been forced to u-turn. Because of the disabled community.”

Dismantling social security

But the scale of cuts in the UK are tiny compared to those planned by the Trump administration in the United States.

Almost a trillion dollars to be cut from healthcare. The Senate has passed a budget reconciliation bill which includes $930 billion of cuts to Medicaid, which provides essential healthcare to those with low incomes.

It is estimated that 17 million people will lose health insurance over the next decade. In the words of Michelle Uzeta of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund: “Without these services and programs, people will die.”

Wheelchair users protesting the bill at the Capitol were handcuffed with zipties. And Haben Girma shares how protests are accessible for her.

These cuts are just one measure in wide-ranging changes to disability law and policy in the US. Hezzy Smith of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability describes the cuts, policy changes and retreat on rights.

The situation is also summarised by satire site Squeaky Wheel: “Trump Admin Torn Between Dismantling the ‘Social’ or the ‘Security’ as Top Priority”.

Stories and evidence

Among the campaigns against these cuts, is Disability Writes, which is gathering stories to illustrate the importance of services and supports.

When the Trump administration made its devastating cuts to international assistance, it also took the entire archive of US development aid offline. Disability in Foreign Assistance has been made as a response to collect policies, tools and reports.

Freedom in their mind and heart

Also the United States, Patricia (Patty) Berne passed away in May. She was co-founder of Sins Invalid and an architect of their disability justice principles that have profoundly shaped global narratives on disability.

Sins Invalid shared a beautiful tribute:

“Patty dedicated their life to making revolutionary art, organizing across multiple movements, and uniting us to build power. From Haitian and Palestinian solidarity, to movements to end sexual violence, abolish white supremacy, win climate justice, transform the medical industrial complex, and of course dismantle ableism, Patty always had freedom in their mind and heart. Patty’s vision helped seed an entire ecosystem of Disability Justice—an approach to movement-building that rejects disposability and insists on interdependence, dignity, and creativity as necessary conditions for freedom for everybody.”

Forgotten by the world

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues to worsen with starvation and gunfire from Israel.

Aljazeera profiles two disabled sisters “forgotten by the world” and surviving in cramped tent shelters. Meanwhile in “another layer of cruelty”, Israeli forces bomb a prosthetics limbs hospital in north Gaza. It was one of the very few in the Gaza strip that could provide rehabilitation and prosthetics services.

In the West Bank, Israeli authorities have declared they will demolish Al-Jaleel Rehabilitation Centre.

And in Israel, a “Purple war room” was set up as an emergency center to aid disabled Israelis during Iran's retaliatory missile strikes. One Iranian missile hit a rehabilitation centre for children.

30 years after Beijing

UN Women have a new policy paper marking 30 years of Beijing Platform for Action, on an “intersectional approach to gender and disability inclusion”. It remembers the conference on women in Beijing 1995, which led to a landmark global declaration on women rights. Disabled women forcibly insisted they be included:

“Women with disabilities gained international media attention through a spontaneous demonstration, (forbidden by the organizers) when confronted with inaccessible venues. Women demounted from their wheelchairs and crawled on the ground, with images circulating across the globe bringing attention to their accessibility needs. This brave act triggered a groundswell of support from the mainstream women’s movement, providing an opening for more collaboration.”

A distinct disability

In India, Ishan Chakraborty has written a wide-ranging personal essay asking “Am I Man Enough?”.

Chakraborty is a “a 33-year-old cis gay man with deafblindness” and traces masculinity through his experiences in school to the inaccessibility of queer dating apps. (This is from Insights, a new newsletter from Rising Flame. Given their track record in brilliant disability media, it's definitely one to follow.)

Meanwhile, the United Nations has recognised 27th June as International Day of Deafblindness, “a distinct disability requiring specialized support and inclusion”.

The other person gets this sad look

A moving essay from Inge Volleberg describes her relationship with her sister Esther, who has Down Syndrome. They had a “normal relationship, but people treated us differently”:

“In general, interactions went like this: I want to tell a funny story about my sister. Ah, they will not understand what is funny about it if they don't know about her disability. I quickly note her disability as a sidenote, so that I can tell the funny story. Now the mood shifts, the other person gets this sad look. They tell me: Aww, condolences? I am in no mood for my funny story anymore.”

Volleberg also shares the definition of “glass children”, which I didn't know. Via the Arc, Monroe:

‘Glass children are siblings of a person with a disability. The word glass means people tend to see right through them and focus only on the person with the disability. “Glass” is also used because the children appear strong, but in reality are not. These children have needs that are not being met.’

State-sponsored dowry

In India, as many as 19 states offer incentives for persons with disabilities to get married. In Kerala, for example, an incentive of 30,000 rupees ($350) is given to physically disabled women when they get married, or to physically-disabled parents for their daughter's marriage.

An article by Shampa Sengupta explores these incentives. Some think that they can spark a “fresh mindset for the family members” and generate confidence felt by women about their life decisions. Others critique it as another harmful form of dowry:

“We often hear urban disability activists saying these schemes should be stopped as they equate monetary support with ‘state-sponsored dowry’. However, the perspectives of rural and grassroots people with disability differ significantly on this issue.”

Long-term care availability

“Care policy should address the needs of all those impacted.” A new policy brief from Center for Inclusive Policy sets out a helpful overview on disability inclusion in the care agenda (with accompanying animation). It tries to make a gap between those talking about “disability” and those talking about “care”:

“There is an evident overlap between [disability and care] agendas. Yet, the care and disability sectors have historically largely worked in siloes, missing the opportunity to collaborate and strengthen each other. Nonetheless, more recent efforts strive for inclusion, recognizing that care policy should address the needs of all those impacted, not only those providing care. At the same time, the disability sector must consider the rights and needs of women and girls, the primary providers of care and support to people with disabilities”.

Defying expectations of stigmatization. A view on disability and care has been used by Blair Nolan and others in understanding archaeological remains from late medieval Lund, Sweden. Seeing from someone's skeleton the injuries they sustained, they are able to understand something about the disability experience of one individual:

“It is apparent that [this individual's] experience of disability post-trauma was affected by their social status, evident through the acute treatment process, long-term care availability post-trauma, and their treatment in death with a prominent burial plot within the cemetery.”

Not an easy thing to raise a child with disability

In Tanzania, there is debate over whether guardians should get loans meant for the benefit of disabled people.

Local government has to allocate 2% of its domestic revenue for interest-free loans for disabled people. Regulations have since then clarified that this cannot be received by parents or guardians on behalf of the disabled person.

The article hears from Msanjila, who is raising her disabled niece:

“It’s not an easy thing to raise a child with a disability when you do not run any income-generating activity.”

Landing the jump

In the US, an incredible adaptive skatepark, made by blind stakeboarder Dan Mancina.

Alongside other adaptations, it makes regular skatepark features longer and wider to be easier to use for people with vision impairments or people in wheelchairs. See blind skater Anthony S. Ferraro testing out its features (amazing video but with no visual description).

And in case you missed the jump, catch-up with previous Debriefs:

  • Going off script, Celestine Fraser's moving through shame to find pride in disabled and queer identity.
  • We wanted to change the world, Alberto Vásquez Encalada on the risks professionalisation poses to the disability movement.
  • Lots of proteins, Debrief mailbag on questions of activism, priests using wheelchairs and more.
  • Busy fixing yesterday brilliant insights from the global community on friendship, parenting and the tightrope of disability community.

Rolling out,

Peter

Outro

Further reading. All the links from these curated editions go into the Debrief library, which now has over 6,300 links from over 160 countries. See below for contents from this month's update.

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Recent News

This update has 107 curated links from 35 countries and regions, organized across 34 subjects.

You can explore it organized by subject or by country.

Subjects

Countries

Acknowledgements

Photograph by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images. Thanks to Celestine Fraser for help with its selection.

And many thanks to everyone who shares links, news and reports – and the readers and organisations whose support makes this work possible.

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