This post may make some people uncomfy, especially people who have never had to rely on public services to survive. I don’t care.
Government workers need to face much much harsher social and legal consequences for ableism. No exceptions.
I am including bus drivers, transit staff, clerks, caseworkers, and anyone else whose job is to interact with the public in an official capacity.
This is a pattern of behavior where disabled people are treated as inconveniences, liars, burdens, or problems instead of people accessing services they are legally entitled to.
When a bus driver blows past a disabled person because it is inconvenient to deploy a ramp, that is not rudeness. That is denying access to transportation.
When a driver yells at or even just speaks down to someone for taking too long to board, or for needing clarification, or for not moving or standing “correctly,” that is not impatience.
it is harassment backed by institutional power.
When disabled people are humiliated, stranded, made late for work, denied medical appointments, or put in unsafe, scary, or embarrassing situations because a government worker decided they were annoying or not worth the effort, the damage is real and cascading.
Here is a thing we need to acknowledge:
Disabled people cannot opt out of these systems!
You can quit a job with a shitty coworker. You can leave a bad store. You cannot choose to stop needing transportation, healthcare access, benefits offices, or public infrastructure.
These workers are not just random individuals in your life. They are gatekeepers to survival resources.
Which is why I do not give one single solitary shit about the argument that “they are just people too” as a shield against accountability.
No, they are not ‘just people’. They are people acting with the authority of the state.
If a random stranger is ableist to me, that sucks.
If a government worker is ableist to me, that can cost me my job, my housing, my health, or my safety.
Those are not comparable.
I think we need to stop treating ableism from ALL government workers as a minor customer service issue and start treating it as what it is;
A complete and total civil rights violation.
If a bus driver repeatedly refuses to accommodate or be kind to disabled riders-
(yes! including invisible disabilities! Bus drivers should be seen and not heard unless someone is causing a true violent outburst! and no I don’t mean a mentally ill person being a little verbally disruptive, I mean actual physical or verbal outright threats or racism etc)
-they should not just get a slap on the wrist or a “retraining.”
They should be suspended or fired, and if a re-occurring pattern of this behavior exists, there should be severe legal consequences that forbid them from working a government job or any job where they may be working with vulnerable disabled people again.
Because right now the burden is almost entirely on disabled people to document, report, appeal, relive the harm, and hope someone believes them.
And most of the time nothing happens anyway!
We are told to be patient. To be understanding. To remember that the system is underfunded and understaffed.
Meanwhile disabled people are expected to plan their lives around the assumption that they will be mistreated, doubted, or punished for existing in public.
That is structural ableism being enforced and reinforced by individuals who know there will be no real consequences.
If your job is a public facing government role and you cannot treat people, not even just disabled people, all people, because you cannot tell who is disabled, with baseline dignity and respect, you should not have your government job.
This is not radical. This is the bare minimum.
Accessibility is not a favor. It is not optional. It is not something you get to decide is “too much today.”
I am tired of watching disabled people like me absorb endless harm while everyone else rushes to protect the feelings and job security of the people doing the harm.
If the state empowers you, the state should also hold you accountable. Fullstop, end of story.
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