It is not an exaggeration to say that 2025 was a very challenging year for Michigan’s disability community. 

The year began with a federal funding freeze, with much-needed money being withheld from nonprofit organizations of all kinds without any warning or explanation. This left many of us in the disability advocacy space scrambling for funding and sick with worry over what would happen to the people and families who depend on services provided by agencies like Michigan’s Centers for Independent Living (CILs) to live independently with dignity and agency.

The answer to those questions likely depends on your definition of “care.”

Does care mean feeding an infant? Does it mean helping someone with a disability get dressed? Does it mean holding someone when they’re scared? Does it mean checking in with a coworker to see how they’re feeling? Does it mean holding the door for a stranger? Does it mean quitting your job to tend to your elderly father?

When was the last time you cared for another person? When was the last time someone cared for you?

The answer to those questions likely depends on your definition of “care.”

Does care mean feeding an infant? Does it mean helping someone with a disability get dressed? Does it mean holding someone when they’re scared? Does it mean checking in with a coworker to see how they’re feeling? Does it mean holding the door for a stranger? Does it mean quitting your job to tend to your elderly father?

October is known to many as “Spooky Season.” A time for macabre decor, scary movies, and lots of candy (before, during, and after Halloween, of course). But October is also Health Literacy Month, a time to focus on an aspect of healthcare that is too often overlooked and can, in fact, feel pretty scary: communication. 

Michigan's statewide network of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are community-based, non-profit organizations that help Michiganders with disabilities live full, independent lives. Operated by and for people with disabilities, CILs provide essential, life-changing services that not only help people avoid institutionalization, but also enable them to secure employment, pursue education, and contribute to Michigan's economy.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is currently on a "Returning Education to the States Tour," traveling state to state to promote the dismantling of the Department of Education.

Each July our community observes Disability Pride Month. It’s a time to celebrate our experiences and show the world how people with disabilities move through and experience that world in a variety of different ways and that we live rich and rewarding lives that have value.

On June 12, the Supreme Court made it easier for students with disabilities to sue school districts that don’t offer them the “free, appropriate public education” they are entitled to under federal law. This “includes adhering to every detail of a student’s individualized education plan, or IEP—even when it means hiring staff, building a specialized classroom setting, or sending a student to an external provider,” Education Week explains.

But here’s the thing. Resolutions don’t have to be grand gestures. They don’t have to be about overhauling your life. In fact, sweeping resolutions tend to fail because it takes more than a change in the calendar to make something happen. It takes thoughtful consideration, realistic expectations, and planning.

It is too easy for those whose lives are not touched by disability to largely forget that people with disabilities exist. Everyone has something they take for granted and for many people those things are what they consider mundane: driving a car, climbing the stairs as they head into the office, going to a therapy appointment, returning at the end of the day to a comfortable home that meets their needs and doesn’t exceed their budget. 

But here’s the thing. Resolutions don’t have to be grand gestures. They don’t have to be about overhauling your life. In fact, sweeping resolutions tend to fail because it takes more than a change in the calendar to make something happen. It takes thoughtful consideration, realistic expectations, and planning.