Feb. 23, 2025

Championing Change Devon Wieters' Fight for Disability Rights and Systemic Reform

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Discover how a passionate advocate is reshaping the narrative around disability rights in this compelling episode of the Living the Dream Podcast. Join us as we welcome Devon Wieters, a dynamic podcaster and writer who is breaking barriers and challenging systemic injustices faced by individuals with disabilities. Devon, who lives with cerebral palsy, shares her relentless fight against the stigma that often overshadows individuals like her. With a college degree in communications, she talks about her struggle to find employment due to the restrictive nature of Social Security and Medicaid, offering an unfiltered look at the emotional toll of societal misconceptions. Devon's advocacy doesn't stop at storytelling. She is actively championing significant legislative reforms like the SSI Restoration Act and the SSI Savings Act, aiming to overhaul outdated asset limits that hinder the financial independence of disabled individuals. Devon provides invaluable insights into Medicaid waivers, explaining how these crucial supports enable people with disabilities to live more fully in their communities by covering resources that traditional Medicaid doesn't. Her message is clear: systemic change is not only necessary but possible, and through awareness and advocacy, we can collectively uplift the disabled community. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about social justice and eager to learn more about disability rights.

Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball, if you believe you can achieve.

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Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire.

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Today, we're going to be talking about Social Security and Medicaid, as I am joined by writer and podcaster Devin Wieters.

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Devin is in college, she is disabled with CP, and she has a podcast that we're going to be talking to her about.

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She is advocating for the ssi restoration act and the ssi savings act, so we're going to be talking to her about everything that she's up to and how those two acts would help disabled people.

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So, devin, thank you so much for joining me today.

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Hi, thank you for having me.

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Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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So, as you said, my name's Devin, I'm 29.

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I have graduated from college, from Christopher Newport University, go Captains, with a degree in uh, communication, uh and um.

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I've really struggled to find a job out of college because of my disability and the, the way the Medicaid and social security is set up, which we'll talk about later um and so, and so I just podcast and advocate, for free, basically, and I love it.

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So I wish I was getting paid money to do this, but you know I love doing it.

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And yeah, I just do this for free.

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I wish I was making a little bit more money to do it, and I hope to be one day, but right now I'm doing this for free.

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I wish I was making a little bit more money to do it and I hope to be one day, but right now I'm doing this for free and I'm a super fan of the show Survivor and yeah, that's all you need to know.

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So so, pretty much all you need to know.

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Well, well, let's talk about.

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You know your disability, you say when we were in the green room you were talking about how it's harder to live with the stigma.

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It's harder to live with the stigma of your disability versus living with the actual disability.

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So explain to listeners what that means.

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So basically, it's very hard to emotionally I guess emotionally draining we'll say to emotionally, I guess emotionally draining, we'll say to explain to people that, yes, I am cognitively normal even though I'm in a wheelchair.

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Yes, I can talk, yes, I can do all this.

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Just because I'm in a wheelchair, you don't need to make, you know, crazy assumptions about me.

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And I think a lot of the stigma that, oh, people with disabilities like don't want to work, they can't work, has contributed to the way A lot of that is.

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Just, it was the stigma that people with disabilities can't contribute as much as able-bodied people.

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That contributes to the way the Social Security and Medicaid is set up.

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And let me just say off the top that I live in the best state in the union for Medicaid.

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So shout out, wynne Youngkin union for Medicaid, so shout out when you're in.

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And the social, the people that work at social security are awesome Most of them.

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It's just the walls for social security that aren't awesome.

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So okay.

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Well, let's talk about Medicaid waivers.

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Explain to listeners what Medicaid waivers are.

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So Medicaid waivers are something that people with who qualify, people with disabilities that qualify, based both Anyway, never mind People with disabilities that qualify, that's the easier way to explain can get in addition to the Medicaid insurance that we all know about.

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That helps them pay for a personal caregiver that they hire and pay them for the state.

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Some of them help you get different equipment that Medicaid doesn't normally cover.

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Some offer behavior supports.

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Different waivers offer different things depending on what waiver you're on, but basically they provide the essentials that people with disabilities need to live in their communities every day.

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Okay, well, you know you're very passionate about the SSI Restoration Act and SSI Savings Act, so tell us what those two acts are, what they would do and why you're so passionate about them in the majority of cases, like in 99% of cases.

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So basically, if you lose your Social Security, you also lose your Medicare and Medicaid.

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And right now the asset limit for Social Security is $2,000 for singles and $3,000 for couples, so not even double what it is for singles.

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Which inevitably means if you work at all, then you're liable to have your benefits cut and you can't possibly work full time, because then you're inevitably make too much to qualify for the waiver but not enough to pay for it out of pocket.

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So it leaves you in kind of a sticky situation.

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And so what?

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The SSI for couples and the SSI Restoration Act would eliminate the marriage penalty, which is where they count the spouse's income against you, whether or not you're legally married, even if you just live together.

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So that's the basics.

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When do you feel like these acts are going to be going through or going up to try to get past?

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Well, that's funny that you should ask, because there's a guy named Raul.

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He's a, I bet his first name, his first name is Raul and uh, uh, sorry, I have a mild speech impediment so I might not be pronouncing that all the way correctly, and I can't even pronounce his last name because it's just too hard.

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Uh, his Instagram.

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His Instagram is Dan, with Raul, if you want to look him up R-A-U-L.

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And this guy God bless him is one of the main authors of this bill and he keeps reintroducing it every year and it goes through the first committee, I guess, or whatever it is, and nothing ever gets done with it.

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So that is why I am on here trying to change that.

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Okay, well, you was telling me about Patrice.

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It's a movie on Hulu.

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You said you felt like everybody should watch it.

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Explain to us why and what the movie is about.

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You know kind of tease people with it.

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Make them watch it.

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Explain to us why and what the movie's about.

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You know kind of tease people with it.

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Make them go watch it, first of all, if you are looking for a laugh, if you like comedies, it's hilarious.

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So it's not going to be.

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Woe is me.

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I mean, there are some tough moments in there too, but it's mostly a comedy, so you will literally pee your pants laughing.

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And what it is is it's a documentary, a comedy documentary about.

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It's all real about A couple that wants to live together and get married and they both have disabilities, but they can't because of the way the waivers are set up.

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They both have disabilities, but they can't because of the way the waivers are set up.

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So it's basically about their struggle to live a normal life, basically, and their fight to get these laws passed.

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OK, well, you're also a survivor fan, so you know kind of tell us about that.

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So I have had a sometimes unhealthy obsession with survivors since I was about eight years old.

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Um, I just thought that it's that they do everything they can to make uh it a level playing field.

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They had, um, a guy with uh on season 43 of the show.

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I'm actually friends with the winner of that season, which still sounds crazy coming out of my mouth but on season 43 of that show they had an above-the-knee MPT and a guy with mild CP and they just did amazing.

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So you know, it's always been inclusive of people with disabilities way before it was cool and it started being talked about.

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So that's why I love Zoom.

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I love it so much.

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Another thing that you love is a book that Vice President JD Vance wrote.

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So you know kind of explain to us that book, you know what it's about and what caught your attention so much about it agree, but I personally think that JD Vance has the best sense of humor.

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Oh my gosh, he's.

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I personally think he's hilarious, um, but what I what I love about the book is he makes the same exact argument that I'm making about welfare.

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Um, because he grew up with his uh grandmother down in Appalachia and, um, that course, that's the area of the country that's very poor a lot of the times.

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And he makes the argument in the book that I'm making here that basically, the people that really need the welfare are penalized the most, because it leaves you with if you make any money at all or try to go to work, especially full-time.

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It leaves you with, uh, not making too much to qualify for the, for the waiver, but not enough to pay for it out of pocket.

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So I really resonated with that part of it, obviously, and I really resonated with how hard he had to fight, like the bureaucracy, and so that's why I tell everybody to read it.

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Okay, tell us about your podcast.

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So my podcast is called Real.

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With it, and basically anybody that I find fascinating I have on.

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So we've had spiritual readers, other people with disabilities, obviously, uh, business people, uh, anybody with a fascinating story, uh, especially those that have overcome obstacles.

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That's who I have on, so you can find it on all podcasting platforms and YouTube, or you can go to realwithitcom and find out more about it there.

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Uh, we, we release new episodes every other Monday.

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So, um, if you would like to help us out and subscribe, you can go to realwithitcom slash subscribe, so it'll be right there in your feed of podcast app of choice and you never miss an episode.

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So, if you want to find out more, go to realwithitcom.

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Or if you want to subscribe, go to realwithitcom slash subscribe.

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And, yeah, we'd love to have you listen.

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All right, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

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So, like I said, every other Monday we release a new episode of my podcast.

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So, and other than that, I'm just.

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If you go to wewithitcom slash reforms, you can learn more about our reforms advocacy and find out more about what needs to be changed.

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If you go to realwithitcom slash Patrice, it will take you to the Patrice the movie website and once you're there, you can click on Take Action and it will give you a form to fill out where you can write to your representatives to say you support the SSI Restoration Act and the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act.

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So I would encourage everybody to do that and I know everybody's on the one bill train right now, but we need both of them passed, ideally, in case one gets overturned in a court or something.

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We still have another one.

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So I would like to ideally see both of them passed so you can write to representatives about that.

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And be sure to follow me on my podcast and social media at we're with a pod and I'm on instagram and instagram at devin readers, facebook at devin e readers and on my personal twitter account I post about politics.

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So if you don't like that stuff, don't follow me on Twitter, but you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook and on all social media.

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At we With A Pod.

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All right, that was my next question, the contact info.

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So close us out with some final thoughts.

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Maybe, if that was something I forgot to talk about, that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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So one.

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Sorry if I was loud I just realized how loud I was but to definitely watch Patrice the movie again, go to wheelwithitcom and find out more about us, subscribe to the podcast, find out more about the reforms and, yeah, just educate yourself on these reforms and help us out in any way that you can Help us out in any way that you can.

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Hey, ladies and gentlemen, yeah, help out.

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You know, go speak up and you know, help Devin out with her passion.

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Follow rate, review, share this episode to as many people as possible.

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Jump on your favorite podcast app.

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Check out the show.

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Check out Devin's show as well.

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Make sure you follow, share both of them.

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Leave them a review.

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If you have any feedback or guests or suggestion topics for this show, curtisjackson1978 at attnet is the place to send them.

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Thank you for listening and supporting the show.

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This would not be possible without you and Devin.

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Thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining me.

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You are so welcome, and your listeners can also email me at hello at wheelwithitcom if they want to get in touch with me.

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For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit wwwdjcurveballcom.

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Until next time, stay focused on living the dream dream.