DePoy featured in WalletHub piece about best, worst cities for people with disabilities
Elizabeth DePoy, a professor of social work and interdisciplinary disability studies at the University of Maine, was featured in the “Ask the Experts” section of the WalletHub study, “2019’s Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities.” “[Financial] challenges are diverse but for me are linked to discrimination, institutional practices, and paternalims, perhaps unintended by many. Examples include essentialism in assuming that disability is diagnostic and is linked to finances,” said DePoy. She said historically, many local policies and programs have proven effective in increasing inclusion and improving quality of life for people with disabilities, but “currently, population specific policies segregate and assume that this group even exists and that there are similarities among its members.”