It’s almost 2018. A lot of people, both in the disability community and in the special needs parents community have been shocked at our change in fortunes. People have had to march to D.C., not to get the Disability Integration Act passed, not to ban restraints or seclusions, not to ban subminimum wages, but to protect what we have gained. We have an Education Secretary who thinks that whether or not schools have to educate the disabled should be left up to the states (even though last time the choice was theirs, all of the states declined). Republicans won’t fund CHIP unless Democrats agree to sacrifice a different group of disabled people. Medicaid is under constant attack as is the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Yet it didn’t have to be this way. Forty years ago, no politician would dare attack the disabled. Anyone who did risked needing a new job. Both parties took us into account. Even Ronald “government is the problem” Reagan gave us some of what we wanted when he signed the Katie Beckett Waiver, allowing disabled kids to receive services at home instead of having to spend their childhoods in nursing homes for the dying. What changed?