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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-28-26 Correspondence - Disability Rights Montana - Growth Rings - Progress Is Never Permanent. Neither is the Backlash.From:Disability Rights Montana - Growth Rings To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Progress Is Never Permanent. Neither Is the Backlash. Date:Tuesday, July 28, 2026 8:08:51 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Every paid subscription supports Disability Rights Montana’s work across Montana. Federal funding is nowhere near sufficient to meet the advocacy and culture change work that is needed. You can help fund the future you want to see! Progress Is Never Permanent. NeitherIs the Backlash. Disability Pride Month is ending, but the fight for belonging, community,and disability rights is far from over. READ IN APP July is Disability Pride Month. On July 26, the Americans with Disabilities Act turned 36. But July has also been a rough month for disability rights on the national stage. So as July comes to an end, I wanted to share some reflections for the work ahead. I don’t know about you, but my social media feeds were filled with stories of resilience, celebration, identity, and achievement. I love that. We need those stories. Until quite recently, disability was treated as something to hide, overcome, fix, or pity. And for many it still is. Pride pushes back against that narrative. It does JUL 28 not ignore the difficult realities of living with a disability, but it does tell people with disabilities there is a community of acceptance ready for them, and it tells dominant society that we will not stay in the boxes they built to contain us. But honestly, this Disability Pride Month feels different. Over the last several weeks, we’ve watched a series of developments that should concern everyone with a disability and everyone who loves someone with a disability. We’ve seen ongoing attacks on the right of people with disabilities to live in the community and receive the supports they need there instead of some far off institution in places like Warm Springs or Boulder. We’ve seen a retreat from longstanding disability rights guidance. We’ve witnessed policy debates that treat disabled people’s lives as budget items, legal theories, or political talking points rather than human experiences. For many people in our community, there’s a growing sense of uncertainty. I understand that feeling. I have spent decades pushing for better disability services and laws. What I have learned is this: Progress is never permanent. But neither is the backlash against that progress. Every major disability rights victory that exists today was once considered unrealistic. The right to attend public school. The right to accessible transportation. The right to vote independently. The right to live in the community. The right to reasonable accommodations. None of those victories appeared because powerful people suddenly and spontaneously became enlightened and decided to do better. They happened because disabled people intentionally organized, told the truth, demanded better, and refused to disappear. The arc of the moral universe does not bend toward the justice disability of inclusion on its own. People bent it. People like you. People like me. So let’s be the people who keep bending it even further. I think one of the biggest mistakes advocates make is believing that disability rights are primarily legal problems. They’re not. We don’t have disability discrimination because we are a quart low on anti- discrimination laws - if only we just topped up our anti-discrimination reservoir, the engine of our society will run smoothly. That’s not it. What we have are culture problems. Disability laws and disability rights are just a band-aide for the cultural problem, but band-aides are not cures. Laws matter. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve devoted much of my professional life to enforcing them. But laws usually follow culture rather than lead it. Legislators aren’t usually looking to break new ground on complex social problems, they are trying to properly budget and plan to keep the wheels of government rolling down the road for another year or two. And where legislators pass laws intended to lead where society goes, it is because the political winds that pushed them into their current position dictate it, thus they are still following the lead of society. Finally, where laws are created as a remedy to a persistent social problem, they need constant tending as laws are not self-enforcing and rely upon active advocacy on a daily basis. The goal is to get to a point where society actions reflect society values. Not a nanny state scolding people who get things wrong, but a society in which people actually want to get it right regardless of who is watching. When a community sees disabled people as burdens, services are vulnerable because they are provided out of obligation. The Mistake We Keep Making When a community sees disabled people as patients, institutionalization becomes acceptable because service delivery becomes the focus not the people intended to benefit form services. When a community sees disabled people as objects of charity, exclusion becomes normal because the default is resisted only as long as pity holds people's short attention spans. But when a community sees disabled people as neighbors, coworkers, leaders, artists, parents, business owners, taxpayers, and friends— everything changes. Belonging becomes not only possible, belonging becomes the norm. That’s why I’ve become increasingly convinced that the next great frontier of disability advocacy is not simply winning policy arguments. It’s building disability culture. I don’t think Disability Pride is about pretending everything is okay. It’s not about smiling politely while our rights are threatened. It’s not about inspirational slogans. Pride, at its best, is our declaration of our value. It’s saying: We belong here. Our lives have meaning. Our perspectives matter. Our communities are stronger because we are in them. For years, disability advocates have spent enormous energy proving that disabled people deserve access. I think the next challenge is building on that and helping society understand that disabled people don’t just deserve access, we contribute something valuable. So, if that is true, and I believe it is 100%, then our society is harmed when it does not look to people with disabilities for the value we bring. What is society missing now? The disability community has developed expertise in What Disability Pride Really Means adaptation, resilience, interdependence, creativity, systems thinking, and community care. At a moment when loneliness is rising, trust is declining, and many people feel disconnected from one another, those lessons are more relevant than ever. Where do we go from here? My answer will disappoint anyone looking for a quick fix. The path forward is not a single lawsuit. It’s not a single election. It’s not a single legislative session. It’s certainly not a single savior advocate or organization. It isn’t even a combination of a hundred of each of those. The path forward is building a movement centered on belonging. That means: Telling better stories about disability. Elevating disabled leaders. Supporting disabled artists and creators. Creating opportunities for disabled people to connect with one another. Building coalitions beyond the usual suspects in the disability community. Developing new leaders. Protecting legal rights while also changing hearts and minds. Making disability visible in everyday life. In Montana, that’s part of why we’ve invested in projects like the Growth Rings newsletter and podcast, and initiative that promote storytelling, leadership development, and disability culture. Culture work is not warm and fuzzy. It isn’t the fluff surrounding hardnosed policy and legal advocacy. Culture work is what makes policy and legal change durable. A Strategy for the Future Reasons for Hope Despite everything happening right now, I remain optimistic. Not because the challenges are small, because they aren’t small, they are likely the biggest challenges we have faced in the last half century. I’m optimistic because I see disabled people becoming more connected, more informed, and more engaged than at any point in my career. I see young disabled leaders who refuse to accept invisibility. I see parents who have become advocates. I see self-advocates shaping public policy. I see artists creating new narratives. I see communities rallying when rights are threatened. I see people learning that disability is not a niche issue. I see regular, everyday people who don’t identify as advocates finally appreciate what disability rights, disability studies, and disability justice folks have been preaching for decades - Disability is a natural part of the human experience. And most importantly, I see a generation that increasingly understands something many established centers of pollical, economic, and social power have not yet figured out: Belonging is not a special accommodation. It is a human need. As Disability Pride Month comes to a close, I hope we continue to celebrate our accomplishments. I also hope we recommit ourselves to the work ahead. The future of disability rights will not be determined solely by judges, legislators, bureaucrats, or nonprofit leaders. It will be determined by whether we can build a society that genuinely believes disabled people belong. Not “someday.” One Final Thought Not by “somebody.” Not conditionally. Not when all the right pieces align. Not when all the people I voted for win. Not when convenient. Now. That is a future worth fighting for. And despite everything, I believe it is a future we can still build, must still build, and build today. Keep building belonging, keep showing up, David David Carlson, J.D. Executive Director Disability Rights Montana p.s. if you are interested in more onthis topic, check out this relatedarticle from last month: What If Belonging Was Infrastructure? DAVID CARLSON ·JUN 24 You’re currently a free subscriber to Life Beyond Compliance. Upgrading to paid subscriptions supports Disability Rights Montana’s work across Montana. Federal funding is no where near sufficient to meet the advocacy and culture change work that is needed. You can help fund the future you want to see! Upgrade to paid LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2026 Disability Rights Montana1022 Chestnut Street, Helena, MT 59601 What If Belonging Was Infrastructure? Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice released an internal memo rejecting decades of disability civil rights enforcement and the legal principles. Specifically, it attacked the same “integration mandate” that Montana’s AG Austin Knudsen is attacking in the lawsuit he is waging down in Lubbock, Texas. The legal principle of the integration mandate ha… Read full story Unsubscribe