What makes someone care worthy? Fighting care-need-based ableism

Akemi Nishida

Chapter 15 in Disability in a Turbulent Era, 2026, pp 178-190 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In this chapter, I use care need analysis to study how people experienced care during the turbulent time of the COVID lockdown. During the lockdown, more people learned about mutual aid and realized the importance of care. I developed the analysis to point out that everyone needs care differently, and many disabled people experience discrimination because they are considered to need “too much” care. It also helps us understand that what gets called “turbulent” is deeply political. When privileged people need an overwhelming amount of care, governments are more likely to declare a crisis and release public resources to support them. At the same time, the care needs of marginalized communities are often ignored. I use the documentary film Fire through Dry Grass to explain the analysis further. Created by disabled brown and Black poets living in a public nursing home during the COVID lockdown, it shows how people with different care needs experienced safety in varying ways and traces how these poets organized the Nursing Home Lives Matter protests. Whether engaging in care studies or activism, it is crucial to learn from the protests and to center the leadership of people who are more impacted by care-based oppressions.

Keywords: Care need differences; Institutionalization; Art-activism; Mutual aids; COVID lockdown (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035347247
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