Reflections on 2025: A Year of Change and Challenge for the Disability Community
by Jennifer Watson
As 2025 draws to a close, the disability community reflects on a year of sweeping policy shifts that have reshaped how people with disabilities live, work, and access essential supports in New York State and across the nation. It has been a year that underscored both our progress and the fragility of the systems that sustain Independent Living..
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Trump Administration Undermines Fair Housing Act
By John McNulty
The Fair Housing Act (FHA), officially Sections VIII and IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, is a Great Society program that has ensured civil rights for all in housing since the 1960s. It outlawed discrimination in the sale or rental of a dwelling based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability; it also outlawed discrimination against families with children. Treating people differently in terms of maintenance of a dwelling or available services and amenities is also prohibited..
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Understanding Access and Compassion: A Call to Awareness
by Sue Hoyt
Have you ever noticed, while out in public, whether at a grocery store, restaurant, or shopping mall—a parent struggling with a small child who’s having a hard time? You might see the parents trying to manage their child’s behavior while feeling embarrassed, knowing others are watching. Maybe you’ve even been that parent yourself. I know I have..
Fall 2025
Assault on the Needy
by Jennifer Watson
The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) is being sold as a bold step forward, but when you peel back the rhetoric, what you find is devastating, particularly for people with disabilities, low-income families, and rural communities. Far from being beautiful, this law threatens to dismantle the very systems people rely on to survive, while shielding the wealthiest Americans from consequence..
Winter 2024-25
Sounding the Alarm
By Jennifer Watson
As we come to the end of 2024 with no concrete plan, I must continue to voice my profound concerns about New York State’s planned transition to a statewide Fiscal Intermediary (FI) for Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) Services. Slated for April 1, 2025, this transition threatens to upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and the stability of a system that empowers people with disabilities to lead independent lives..
Spring 2025
New York State’s Reckless CDPA Transition Endangers Lives
By Jennifer Watson and John McNulty
New York State continues to play politics with the lives of people with disabilities, this time through an abrupt and arbitrary transition to a single fiscal intermediary (FI) for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) program. This reckless move threatens to disrupt care for hundreds of thousands of individuals who rely on it..
Summer 2025
In Opposition to the Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Bill
By Jennifer Watson
STIC strongly opposes the legislation A.136/S.138, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide in New York State, and we are deeply chagrined that the Assembly and Senate have both passed the bill by narrow margins. While intended to offer compassionate options to individuals facing terminal illness, this legislation presents substantial and well-documented risks for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations and lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent misuse and harm..
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