Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro is the latest 2020 hopeful to reveal a campaign proposal centering the needs and rights of people with disabilities. Castro’s plan, which follows California Sen. Kamala Harris’ thorough plan released in August, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s version released in November, is deeply comprehensive, intersecting disability rights with fair housing, education, immigration, marriage, and more. The plan highlights the very real issue that people of color with disabilities, as well as low-income people with disabilities, are especially in dire need of structural changes.
The plan, titled “People First Disability Policy,” aims at fundamentally reinvigorating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted almost 30 years ago. The ADA bans discrimination based on disability in key areas, including transportation, education, and employment. However, as people with disabilities and advocates will tell you, the ADA leaves much to be desired. Enforcement of the ADA is another battle in itself.
Castro promises to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Given how many Democrats have called for this very action, that in itself isn’t too surprising. But Castro, as did Harris and Buttigieg in their respective plans, addresses an underdiscussed issue that plagues people with disabilities. He seeks to remove the provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that allows employers to pay people with disabilities below the federal minimum wage. Eliminating that provision would make sure that people with disabilities are paid the fair and improved wage that many are fighting for. Wage policies can’t be truly fair if they only benefit a certain kind of worker.
On a similar note, Castro wants to provide more funding for programs that help people with disabilities find jobs. The 2020 hopeful also wants to ensure that more government subcontracts go to businesses owned by people with disabilities.
Disability rights and equal access in schools are a huge issue. Castro’s plan provides $120 billion to support students with disabilities over the next 10 years, with an additional $150 billion explicitly for building (or rebuilding) schools so they are accessible. Disturbingly, in spite of the ADA, many schools are not ADA-compliant, for a number of reasons, most often a lack of funding. The result is that many students with disabilities are essentially segregated from their peers—or, especially in the case of people of color with disabilities, run the risk of being unfairly disciplined and removed from class entirely. Castro’s plan also aims to end corporal punishment and remove police officers from schools.
“Oftentimes, if people have challenges in one type of institution, like the school system, they all have challenges in another system — the criminal justice system, housing system,” Castro told the HuffPost in a phone interview. “So I’ve found that the best way to help people and the best way to improve their lives is address all of those systems in the way they’re connected.”
Given Castro’s experience as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, it’s not a surprise that housing is addressed in his plan. Castro wants to invest double what the U.S. currently does in public transportation. In addition, he wants to build a minimum of 3 million affordable housing units.
How do people with disabilities feel about Castro’s plan? What questions and concerns does the community have? While Twitter is certainly not representative of every person, and no community is a monolith, Castro did spend Thursday morning answering questions on social media.
Here are some of his answers to user questions, though the entire thread (as well as the frequently used hashtag #CripTheVote) is worth reading:
Make sure to check out our Making Progress interview with Castro as well.