Forum: Disability is not a pity story. It’s a civil rights issue.
Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 16, 2026
The media needs a drastic course correction in how it covers people with disabilities.
Too often, we are portrayed as objects of pity or placed on pedestals for doing ordinary things: working, parenting, getting married, showing up. These stories may be well intentioned, but they are deeply harmful. They distract from the real story — that disability is still treated as a side issue rather than a civil rights issue.
I am a father of two daughters. I am a husband. I financially support my family. None of that is heroic. It is simply my life. But when disability is involved, the media too often frames these everyday realities as acts of courage rather than evidence that people with disabilities belong fully in community life.
The late disability activist Stella Young challenged this framing years ago when she rejected being labeled an “inspiration.” Her message was clear: these narratives are not about disabled people at all. They exist to make nondisabled audiences feel comfortable while ignoring systemic injustice.
That failure is not neutral. It makes the media complicit in the slow erosion of disability civil rights.
Nearly one in four working‑age disabled Americans lives in poverty, compared to fewer than one in ten people without disabilities. This disparity is not about work ethic; it is about exclusion — inaccessible workplaces, housing, transportation, and public services.
More than 25 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that unnecessary institutionalization is discrimination. Yet thousands of disabled people remain segregated or at constant risk of institutionalization because community‑based services are poorly funded or unavailable.
Despite this, media outlets routinely dismiss disability rights as “too complex” for readers or viewers to understand. In an era dominated by flashy soundbites, journalism has chosen simplicity over substance. That choice has consequences.
Today, Texas v. Kennedy threatens Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act — a cornerstone civil rights law that protects disabled people from discrimination in healthcare, housing, and public services. Weakening its enforcement would make it easier for states to push people into institutions and deny essential care.
These are not feel‑good stories. They are constitutional ones. Disability is not a niche topic, and disabled people are not symbols or metaphors. We are citizens whose rights are worth the media’s full attention.
Shawn Murinko is an attorney who lives in Olympia, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, and a disability rights advocate — and most importantly, a husband and father of two daughters.
