It's dark in my imagination...

There are 760,000 Australians on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the system that - if they feel like it and your personalised plan says you get to have it - provides funding for everything from personal hygiene care to support workers to therapies to assistive technology. It's already very hard for disabled people to get on the NDIS, regardless of your disability. It's near impossible to access most support and equipment without being on the NDIS. And the government has announced that they want that number to drop to 600,000 in four years. 160,000 of us cut off the Scheme - and countless more denied access. This will cause deaths. People will die and people will suffer because there is no safety net. The NDIS is the only option for most of us. Even private health insurance doesn't cover most of these things. Nobody will swoop in to save us.

The bill wants to give the (non disabled!) NDIS minister basically unlimited power to cut our funding. They're already planning what they'd do with that power. What rights they'll strip from us. What dignity and freedom they'll remove to make their budget look better.

The bill wants to force people to try every treatment out there before they're allowed to be on the NDIS. Including if the treatment is literally impossible to access. There’s a lot of us living in regional areas or out bush who can't just pop to the capital cities for specialists. This will especially hurt disabled First Nations people in regional and remote communities, who already experience limited access to healthcare. Oh, and it includes chemical restraint, too. The government has directly refused to exclude chemical restraint from the required process, calling it "trialling medication".

If you're australian and worried, the ABC did a good breakdown of the proposed changes.

I know australia stuff doesn't really pop up on the radar on this site, but I want everyone to know what's going on. What we're fighting for here. Your australian disabled friends might be NDIS participants fearing for their life, rights, and freedom. They might not be a participant and afraid these changes mean they never will have access. We deserve better. The government built a system with no backup plan, and now they want hundreds of thousands of disabled people to pay the price for their bad planning.

HR 7661 is not dead. But thanks to your ongoing efforts, it is definitely losing steam. Your advocacy matters! The clear evidence is that the bill’s sponsors are shifting from promoting HR 7661 to instead promoting a new bill, HR 2617. HR 2617, the so-called “Say No to Indoctrination Act,” was introduced earlier this month by Representative Burgess Owens of Utah—one of the co-sponsors of HR 7661. This bill would forbid educators from teaching “concepts related to gender ideology,” with the aims of “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the Federal Government.” As we have seen time and again, any whiff of gender essentialism in education inevitably leads to book bans. What we’re asking you to do now: Call your House Representative and tell them you oppose both HR 7661 and HR 2617. If your Representative is a Democrat on the House Education & Workforce Committee, specifically ask that they show up at the June 10th hearing ready to defend our students’ and educators’ access to books with a full spectrum of gender identities. And yes, it’s not a coincidence that this vote is scheduled to take place during National Pride Month. Conservatives apparently enjoy using that month in particular to speak out against LGBTQ+ people and issues.

HR 7661 was “reported amended” by the Committee on Education and Workforce and placed on the Union Calendar on Thursday, July 2nd—right before a ten day break. Being placed on the “Union Calendar” means a bill has been favorably recommended out of a House committee and is now catalogued, making it officially eligible for full floor consideration.

Just because a measure is listed on a congressional calendar does not guarantee that it will be considered on the House floor on a certain date—or at all. But the timing of this move—right before the 4th of July holiday, with a short two working weeks before the August recess to potentially hear it and vote on it—is highly suspicious. It may be an indication that HR 7661’s advocates are hoping to slip it in under the radar.

We can’t let that happen.

1) Call your representative and tell them to vote NO on HR 7661

2) Talk to your rep in person if they’re home and keeping office hours

3) Share our Vote No on HR 7661 social media images

4) Print, post, and share our one-sheet that explains HR 7661

5) Share our HR 7661 Sponsor Candidate Scorecards on social media

This is the story of Mira, a dying kitten I rescued. I have started a GoFundMe to help pay for her medical bills as I am in a rough place financially. Her full story is posted on the GoFundMe.

Any support is appreciated, either through donations or shares 💖

Thank you for taking the time to read my little comic~ have a lovely day! ✨

It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:

How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.

Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."

How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills

How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud

Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides

Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance

Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!

There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.