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.
