Does Project 2025 put the Disability Act at Risk?
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Since the election result on Nov. 7, current news and social media have been flooded with topics about President-elect Donald Trump's winning his second term. On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump will be inaugurated into the White House. While Trump was in office for his first presidential term, many things were put at risk, and he lost popularity because of the policies and measures he and his administration enacted. So, the big question everyone should ask is: What will be at risk during this second term?
While many Americans may not be aware of this, one act that Trump’s policies will critically impact is the Disability Act of 1990. The Disability Act started as a fight in San Francisco, later spreading around the nation, calling for an explicit prohibition of discrimination based on disabilities. Countless people around the country are affected by disabilities such as cognition, mobility, hearing, and vision. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in four adults in America have some type of disability, which makes up 28.7 percent of all Americans.
Trump has been connected to a widely known political initiative called Project 2025, a conservative presidential transition project. The policy guide, “Mandate For Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a detailed blueprint of what Conservatives believe the next four years should look like, making many key points about policies that will be enacted or removed.
Project 2025 targets significant aspects of the Disability Act. Some include public education by stripping student support, making it harder for kids with learning and mobility disabilities to receive help. They also plan to attack the education vote and eliminate the rights of and protections for disabled students, which would limit the help teachers can give and provide fewer resources and support for attending disabled kids. They want to remove funds for special institutions, which would remove the best places for disabled students to receive an education over a mainstream, sizable public school. Reducing healthcare choices and medication and more also ruins the already complex medical system that disabled kids need for support. This blueprint will directly harm the disabled community by terminating fundamental civil liberties that people deserve. If these policies are enacted during the next four years, disabled people will be facing a significant setback in civil rights and accessibility. As NeaToday and many other news outlets say, “This is just the beginning.”
