U.S. Social Security & Disability Prejudice, Part I: My Story
U.S. Social Security & Disability Prejudice, Part I
My Story
When I filed for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in 2009, at the age of 23, I was determined that being “on disability” would not be my future. I was already utilizing public assistance such as food stamps and county medical coverage, but I insisted that these were only temporary.
Filing for SSDI, in which a favorable outcome is a United States government determination of permanent disability, felt like I was conceding defeat. My sense of defeat stemmed in part from the feeling that applying for SSDI marked the end of hope for a fix or cure for my chronic pain and illness.
As the medical model of disability promotes, I believed that the only way I could be restored to being a full person was through a medical cure and return to work. But, even more so, my feelings of defeat were a result of my judgments about what it means to be “on disability.”
I believed that to file for SSDI was to admit failure and join the ranks of those who would rather sit at home and collect a government check than do the hard work of improving their circumstances.
Reprehensible though they are, prejudices like those I held about people who receive public assistance are shaped by negative biases about people with disabilities and poor people in the U.S. and globally.
Today, there are sixty-one million disabled adults in the U.S. (“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” 2020), over 9.6 million of whom utilize SSDI (“Social Security Administration,” 2021a) and over 4.6 million of whom receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) (“Social Security Administration,” 2021b).
Yet these programs continue to utilize outdated determination processes and promote prejudiced restrictions on people like me who receive SSDI, SSI, or both.
By not including the social and environmental aspects of disability that are constructed, disability benefit rules increase stigma. As a result, prejudices and stereotypes targeting disabled people on the whole affect countless disabled people regardless of whether or not they receive public assistance.
To learn more, read U.S. Social Security & Disability Prejudice, Part II: The Medical Model of Disability.
Check out my posts about the history of Social Security:
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Sources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, September 16). Disability impacts all of us infographic. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html
Social Security Administration. Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis. (2021). Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/chartbooks/fast_facts/2021/fast_facts21.html#page15
Social Security Administration. Social Security Administration Research, Statistics, and Policy Analysis. (2021). Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/chartbooks/fast_facts/2021/fast_facts21.html#page24
