The Contradiction Is the Method

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee voted Thursday, August 28, 2026, to adopt a new strategic plan calling on the government to restructure its priorities and nearly double its investment in autism. The 336-page plan (Disability Scoop, 2026) is the first comprehensive update in over three years (the 2023 plan ran about 250 pages). The draft was published July 20, 2026; the committee advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the federal government's approach to autism.

Same day, Missouri enacted legislation empowering the Attorney General to combat what the state calls "abusive" website accessibility lawsuits. The law took effect August 28, 2026.

One week earlier, the Kroger Co. settled an EEOC disability discrimination case for $75,000 (EEOC, 2026). A breast cancer survivor with permanent nerve damage to her lower extremities requested a stool or chair as a cashier accommodation and provided medical documentation. Kroger stopped scheduling her for shifts, ignored her phone calls, and she filed an internal complaint. The settlement was announced August 17, 2026.

And underneath all of it: the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R. 1), signed into law July 4, 2025, cutting federal Medicaid funding by 15% – $1 trillion over ten years. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO, An Overview of the Medicaid Program), beneficiaries whose care is most expensive – older adults and people with disabilities, who make up 23% of Medicaid beneficiaries but over half of the program's expenses – will bear the brunt of the cuts.

On January 1, 2026, the law sunset the enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) that had covered 90% of Medicaid expansion costs (MACPAC, Matching Rates). Starting July 2026, states face tighter federal matching rates, reduced funding for optional services, and new work reporting requirements for certain recipients.

I'm autistic. I read this and I see the shape of the thing.

The federal government calls for near-doubled autism investment on the same day a state restricts access to the courts for disability rights enforcement. A company settles a discrimination case for denying a seating accommodation – the kind of request autistic employees make constantly (sensory overload, executive function support, fatigue management from masking) – while federal Medicaid policy imposes work requirements on the population least able to navigate them.

IACC's strategic plan is titled "A New Federal Framework for Autism." The framework underneath it: Medicaid cut by a trillion dollars. Work requirements beginning in six months. The federal match that incentivized expansion – gone. Optional services – the therapy, the supports, the things that make employment possible in the first place – defunded.

Disabled people and older adults are 23% of Medicaid beneficiaries. We account for over half of the program's expenses because our care is expensive. The cuts target us by design, not accident.

This is not policy misalignment. It's not an oversight.

You cannot call for doubled autism investment while cutting the program autistic adults depend on to survive. You cannot impose work requirements on people you've systematically denied workplace accommodations. You cannot frame disability rights lawsuits as "abusive" and call it a framework.

The IACC plan is 336 pages (Disability Scoop, 2026). I'd bet most of it is research priorities – biomarkers, early intervention, genetic studies. The things that serve the institution's interest in understanding us. Not the things we've been saying we need: housing, employment without masking ourselves into burnout, healthcare that doesn't require we prove our disability is disabling enough.

Institutions do this. They study us. They draft plans. They hold hearings and extend comment periods and vote to adopt strategic frameworks. And while they're doing that, they cut the budget, restrict the courts, and impose requirements designed to make us fail.

The contradiction isn't the point. The contradiction is the method.

IACC voted to adopt the plan on August 28, 2026. The Medicaid cuts are already in effect. Work requirements start in six months. Missouri's accessibility-lawsuit restrictions took effect the same day as the vote.

If you want to know what the federal framework for autism actually is, don't read the 336-page plan (Disability Scoop, 2026). Watch what they fund and what they cut. Watch who can sue and who gets de-scheduled when they ask for a chair.

The plan says what we're worth studying. The budget says what we're worth keeping alive.