Reflection on Disability Housing

Reading about the fear that people with disabilities, especially those with physical disabilities, have regarding being institutionalized goes beyond housing insecurity. This fear is rooted in the loss of independence and agency to a persons own care and quality of life. In both Good Kings, Bad Kings and The Disability Gulog the treatment of those institutionalized are likened to punishment or similar treatment to that of prisoners in jail, one the ways being the loss of mobility. In connection with the loss of care agency, people with disabilities also face the fear of losing their mobility due to inaccessible and/or controlled transportation in institutions and beyond. This came to mind for me because I experience that fear of losing that aspect of independednce because of my visual impairment, depending on others to move feels like a punishment for having Kerataconus. Under an ableist system where your mobility is your indepedence, the more you have to rely on other people the less agency you have. It feels as if  your autonomy is being chipped away little by little until you're deemed unfit to care for yourself.