The Precarity of Disability Rights Historically and in the Trump Administration

The United States is experiencing an attack on disability rights unprecedented since the emergence of the modern Disability Rights Movement. This paper examines the various ways in which disability rights have been undercut in 2025. To do so, I provide a theoretical framework based in rights theory to reveal the precarity of disability rights and the strategy behind the actions taken by the Trump administration. I examine four key strategies to undercut disability rights: constructing disabled people as unworthy of the status of rights-bearer, constructing threats and conflicts across rights, dismantling the infrastructure of positive rights, and rejecting the value of disability rights across relational sites. Moreover, I argue that in part the effectiveness of contemporary attacks are deeply related to American history, because disability rights have always been contentious and left vulnerable to attack.