News
Peter Torres Fremlin

Delusions and draft-dodging

Conflicts, corruption and curated news from 46 countries

Dear Debriefers,

This edition is a tour of the latest international disability news.

It starts at home with how I was recognised for my work on the Debrief. From there I reflect on what Trump's win means for disabled people, and then see updates from some of the world's forgotten conflicts.

A lot of the rest is, one way or the other, about money: corruption in draft-dodging, delusions of grandeur from the head of a disability organisation, and the inequities of private equity.

Plus, the cost of getting angry in advocacy, kinky airport wheelchairs and Star Trek accessibility.

Welcome to new readers: Each week the Debrief is a little different: there's reporting, essays from guest writers, or, like today, curated news. The intro of each edition says what's inside, so you can see what to spend time with. Let me know how you find it!

Explore the full guide to recent news: 151 links links organised across 46 countries and 42 subjects. This edition picks up from the update in October.

The Debrief is supported on a pay-as-you-can basis. Thanks to Daniel, Fatima and Jane for new contributions.

Peter in the Power 100

Last week I was named as one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK. This was on the Disability Power 100, by Shaw Trust.

There are a lot of ups and downs in disability life and working on disability issues, so it's moving to be recognised. And for me especially moving that the recognition comes for my work on the Debrief.

This project brings together the perspectives I have and people I know from working internationally for over a decade on disability rights. And it's a way I can express many sides of myself, from creative to curatorial. Thanks to all of you for encouraging, supporting, sharing, questioning, and reading.

I'm thrilled that being on the list has already led to new readers finding the Debrief. But of course I also have questions about awards like these. For critiques and a picture of me speeding in my wheelchair, see my linkedin post.

Trump, and tending to each other

Perhaps the biggest news since my last update is the reelection of Trump to the US Presidency. Even from the other side of the Atlantic, it's hard not to feel dread.

Disabled people rely on government supports and services, from benefits, health care, or accessibility regulations. Trump, as well as his disgusting language and comments about disabled people, threatens to turn how government works upside down.

And on the international front, cooperation already seems stretched to breaking point. The US leaning into chaos risks further setbacks to achievements made on rights, and reversal of limited progress in addressing climate change.

A poetic response to the election result came from nonspeaking autistic writer Graciela Lotharius. In too much in jeopardy she writes that hope is harder “now that we live in fear”:

“I have to stand my ground
get working and find my strength
and change what I can around me
using my frustration to sew hope

hope is only four letters
but it lets me survive my sorrow”

And the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) responded post-election with a commitment to our community:

“The results of this election remind us that our progress remains vulnerable without vigilance, action, cross-movement and cross-disability solidarity, and community care and organizing. This is and will continue to be the fight of and for our lives. In times like these, we reflect on our history and our resolve. We are not alone, and we’ve fought before. We must tend to each other and our mission.”

Conflict, cruelty and creativity

Singing in Sudan. There is little news from the devastating civil war in Sudan, so it's good to see this reporting on the impact on people with disabilities. (In Arabic, but Google Translate is readable). Good to see not just the challenges but also the musical responses.

Sketching in Sanaa. Also with artistic responses, this feature on raising a an autistic daughter during the conflict in Yemen includes Emtenan's poignant drawings.

Therapy in Tigray. A feature on recovering and rehabilitation after two years of conflict in Ethiopia. Plus a photo-essay on the work of the Tigray Disabled Veterans Association in Mekele. (Without image descriptions, sorry).

Russia deporting disabled people from Ukraine. In a particularly disturbing aspect of the invasion, New Lines Magazine reports on 84 children and adults forcibly moved from Oleshky Specialized Boarding School. Earlier in the year the Independent reported on at least 500 people with disabilities kidnapped by Russia.

Draft-dodging, dictatorship and delusions

Corruption in disability certification. Also in Ukraine, a scandal forced the country's Prosector General to resign after dozens of prosecutors allegedly obtained false disability certificates, allowing them to avoid military service and get state benefits.

The extent of the corruption has seen a medical official caught with $450,000 in undeclared cash (she also had disability certificates issued for herself and her son). Around 64 state medical commissioners have been charged and 4,000 disability certificates canceled after an audit.

President Zelenskyy called for abolishment of the current system and full digitization of “all stages of the disability assessment process”, saying:

“The problem is not only that officials use their connections to obtain disability status. The problem is also that people with real disabilities, in particular those disabled in combat, are often unable to get proper status and fair payments.”

Bans in Belarus: Meanwhile in neighbouring Belarus, the situation of disability rights under a dictatorship are laid bare:

“Since the crackdown on civil society in 2020, more than 1,000 organisations have been shut down, including the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The dismantling of independent disability organisations has left a void, with Government-Organised Non-Governmental Organisations (GONGOs) taking their place and promoting the regime’s agenda, often at the expense of effective advocacy for disability rights.”

“Delusions of grandeur” In France, The President of the Association for Young People and Adults with Disabilities (APAJH) has had his extensive benefits exposed by the press. Even as the organisation is in an deficit of millions of euros it apparently pays for the President to fly to work every week as well as to the island of Mayotte four times in a year. (Mayotte is a part of France, in the Indian Ocean).

Transferring real power and resources

Seat at the sinking table. Disability organisations went to COP29, United Nations Climate Change Conference, demanding a seat at the table and accusing the UN of “stalling in the creation of an official constituency of persons with disabilities”. A useful policy brief shows how disability fits into the negotiations around climate change.

Piece of the Pie. After Debrief reporting on international organisations' unequal partnerships, ADD International has called for fairer funding for organisations of persons with disabilities:

“More and better funding for disability justice means transferring real power and resources to activists and organisations who know best what needs to be done and who can do it well.”

Left behind. The full version of the UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development 2024 has come out. It's an important collation of the available evidence on disability globally. It shows that “persons with disabilities are often left behind in the efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030”:

“The available evidence indicates that wide gaps persist between persons with and without disabilities, particularly on food security, health, and access to energy and ICT – with gaps above 10 percentage points – and on multidimensional poverty and employment – with gaps above 20 percentage points. For women, indigenous people and rural residents with disabilities, and for persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, the gaps appear to be even wider.”

A comprehensive list of how governments have been told off on disability rights. Updated compilation of the concluding observations to countries made by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Reliable revenue, but for who?

Reliable revenue. Speaking of money, back in the US, DREDF have produced an introduction to private equity and its impacts on services relied upon by disabled people. Case studies illustrate how:

“private equity is drawn to fragmented markets with small, independent providers and reliable revenue streams from federal funding. The private equity strategy involves the use of roll-up mergers to reduce competition and avoid regulatory scrutiny while focusing on delivering only the most profitable services, which can leave Disabled people without essential services.”

Their conclusion:

“Private equity poses a serious and urgent threat to people with disabilities, particularly those with multiple marginalized identities. People who rely on [home and community-based services], autism services, accessible transportation, fertility assistance, affordable housing, or power wheelchair/scooter repairs, and people who are incarcerated in prison, jail, or living in institutions such as a nursing home, residential treatment facility, or intermediate care facility, have likely been deeply impacted by private equity over the past decade. For this reason, it’s imperative that the disability community oppose this profiteering and exploitation, and resist private equity’s encroachment.”

Meanwhile, in Australia, the government gave more than $560 million (around $360 million USD) to a private childcare operator “for children with disabilities”, and without any public record of how the money was spent.

The right to tinker and the right to be tiresome

“Disability rights are technology rights”. Cory Doctorow argues that for “technological self-determination” we need not just accessibility features but the right to decide how we tinker and modify technology, something “especially important for users with disabilities”:

“The same tech companies that devote substantial effort to building in assistive features often devote even more effort to ensuring that their gadgets, code and systems can’t be modified by their users.”

“The victim is us.” I quoted from Malick Reinhard's excellent newsletter last week and he continues on excellent form with sensitive reporting on sexual assistance. Beyond that I particularly enjoyed this piece on “the right to be unpleasant”. Reinhard interviews Emmanuelle Chaudet-Julien, who talks about the pressure on disabled people to be nice:

“There is a fundamental need among people in the social sector to be recognized, to be the ‘good Samaritan’. In short, a lack of self-esteem. A savior syndrome. And to be a savior, you need a victim. And the ‘victim’ is us.” (Translated from French)

Our ability to assume good

In other news...

Our ability to assume good in other people. John Loeppky, who wrote for the Debrief about paradoxes in the Paralympics, has a piece on anger in responding to ableism and inaccessibility.

“Anger was an endless well when I was younger, but I now actually get an influx of symptoms—in my case, pain—when I sink too far into its depths. With social media being one of the primary ways disabled community members communicate—myself included—the sheer weight of depressing events on sites like Facebook and Twitter can add to the pile of anger people are connecting in their proverbial corner(s). When anger becomes the default, like an emotional version of a Newton’s cradle, the force at the other end of the line that loses momentum is our ability to assume good in other people. Most commonly, at least in my life, that means processing micro and macro aggressions.”

Braille beats. An insightful piece from Ria Andriani on the ways blind musicians learn and peform music.

“Aisle chair or a kinky chaise?” In true public service journalism, D*list ranked airport wheelchairs “From the Buttcheek Express to the classic Stock Image Wheelchair”

Before we close... in case you missed recent Debriefs:

Beam me up, Scotty

Beam me up, Scotty. Finding themselves with access barriers to conventional transport, disabled folk dressed up as Star Trek characters and attempted to teleport from Madrid.

Let me know the stars you find in your travels through disability news,

Peter

Roll on

Further reading. All the links from these curated editions go into the Debrief library, which organises 5,500+ links across over 160 countries. See below for contents from this month's update.

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Recent News

This update has 151 curated links from 46 countries and regions, organized across 42 subjects.

You can explore it organized by subject or by country.

Subjects

Countries

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the readers and organisations whose support makes this work possible, and to everyone who shares links, news and reports with me.

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