Communication Breakdown

Rights, Retirement, and ADA Disability, Due Diligence, and the 62+ Myth

At 58 and legally blind, I am not in that transitional period between being in the workforce and getting ready to retire. I retired in 2016 due to my disability. That means that unless you retired before I did, we are in the same life stage. It’s just that you’re older. I don’t have to go back to work just because you were still working at my age. I also don’t have to be around people under age 62 just because I am 58. No one gets to decide who I am or where I belong except me and the federal government.

At 58, I am a senior, and because I am also disabled, the government classifies me as elderly in disability determinations. I’m just not yet at the standard “elderly” designation age of 60 or early retirement age of 62. And I fail to see why those two and four little years should even matter. We are all older than you think. But, I digress.

I moved into low-income (62+) senior housing when I was 52. I can’t help it that property management companies neglect to state this. Even the sign at the entrance only sports the Fair Housing and Disability icons. But the reason I was allowed to move in and am allowed to live in low-income (62+) senior housing to this day is to ensure that I (a low-income individual with a disability) have access to the same supportive and accessible environments as any other senior would.

That is my right under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act. It is also exactly why there are tenants in these complexes who are even younger. That’s not an oversight. That’s the point of the policy.

You’re not mad at us for “ruining your retirement.” You’re mad at yourselves for your lack of due diligence. If only you’d planned for retirement correctly, or at least a little sooner. You would be living in Del Webb or The Villages, squabbling with a neighbor about a garden flag instead of violating her ADA rights simply because she’s under 62. No. Wait. I take that back. Some retirees’ spouses are younger there, too.

Seriously though, my Led Zeppelin II album isn’t bothering you—I can’t even hear it over your television set half the time. It’s not about the music. It’s about who’s playing it.