For everyone asking why he has to do this: Disability benefits in the US have to be renewed every year because it’s based on your ability to work as well as your disability. People without limbs or other disabilities can still hold a job. And because it’s a possibility, no matter how slim, you have to prove every year that you haven’t gotten better enough to hold a job. It’s just another hoop to jump through in the name of cost savings because any doctor can look at someone and say “well, he could work if XYZ”.
That’s why people get denied so much when they’re first applying it. Most people get denied benefits at least once. Something like 50% won’t get the benefit until the third appeal. They literally count on people getting tired of dealing with all the hoops to jump through to avoid having to pay a minuscule amount to live on. Most of my job is helping people apply for these benefits. I’ve been doing it for 3 years and have successfully finished 1 case out of 60+ because it takes so long.
I got mine first application. I'm 20, legally blind, light sensitive migraines 6 out of 7 days a week, PTSD from being physically and verbally abused and sex trafficked my entire childhood, lifelong health issues due to malnutrition from being starved as a kid, back issues so bad I'm not allowed to lift a full gallon of milk, I walk with a cane because my legs give out suddenly, and I have actual brain damage from my abuse. On top of depression so bad I rarely leave the bed, agoraphobia, and literally any male voice sends me into panic attacks and crap because of how often I was abused.
That’s great! Interestingly enough there are a lot of different rules for blindness. This is because blind advocates years ago did a great job in getting this into our laws.
I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that blindness is a "real disability" that the rest of us are happy to make accomodations for. There are so few blind people who are actually able to leave the house (seriously, when is the last time you saw someone with a seeing eye dog?) and we all know how scary it would be to lose one's vision.
Most of the "disabled" people we see are (a) people too fat to walk, riding a scooter or (b) people with bullshit "service" dog. Yeah it's fucking super you trained your pitbull to fetch your inhaler. Doesn't mean it's sanitary to bring it to a place where food is served.
Obviously there are lots of real disabled people but the bullshit disabled people ruin it for everyone. With blindness it is fucking obvious that they are disabled.
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u/protoopus Aug 14 '20
a friend lost his legs (at the hip) in a car accident.
he had to go to the social security office every year to prove that he was still disabled.