Building Economic Futures for Americans with Disabilities
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Promoting an Asset Building Strategy for People with Disabilities - Phoebe Ball, JD
Phoebe Ball represents what today’s disability advocate looks like: a highly educated, economically savvy, disabled mother that takes an active role in her community. Born with Spina Bifida, Phoebe recognized early on that her key to having an empowered voice to produce real change required both a formal and informal education. Receiving her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law supplied her with not only the knowledge of the system and the law, but also the credentials to achieve credibility. Yet, her own experience as a person with a disability struggling to survive on government benefits spurred her passion to permanently divorce disability from poverty- not only for herself but also for all people with disabilities.
As a Program Associate for the Law, Health Policy and Disability Center at the University of Iowa, Phoebe became involved in the groundbreaking work of helping people with disabilities build assets through the Asset Accumulation and Tax Policy Project. Co-authoring several articles and presenting speeches to government officials and financial institutions, Ball is an emerging leader on the intersection between building assets and disability benefits.
For Phoebe, asset development for people with disabilities goes beyond the academic realm. As someone who grew up with a disability and was initiated into the benefits bureaucracy when she turned eighteen and needed benefits to live on her own, she understands the fear that plagues disabled people’s attempts to escape the cycle of poverty. The work world is uncertain with few guarantees; whereas the safety of the dependable benefits check assures basic survival. “Disability benefits ensure that we are the ‘deserving poor’, yet it is a trap that prevents people with disabilities and society from realizing that we deserve more than a poverty-level existence.”
Phoebe never settled for a life at the bottom. She believes that it is time for others with disabilities to start expecting more from themselves and the system created to help them. Phoebe insists that income alone is not the solution to poverty. One of the most negative aspects of a life on benefits is the mindset it perpetuates. Asset limits force people to live moment to moment and not plan for their future. Financial literacy and building assets gives people the confidence to believe that they can take risks and make the transition off public assistance. Ultimately, Ball believes that economic empowerment is the essential missing element for people with disabilities to achieve equality. “Work incentives, asset development strategies like individual development accounts, and Medicaid programs that give people with disabilities more control over money that is spent to purchase needed services are hopeful signs that disability policy is shifting towards greater independence for people with disabilities.” However, she cautions, “promoting economic development and real equality for people with disabilities will require further changes in the way society thinks about disability and in the way people with disabilities imagine their future.”
In addition to her work at LHPDC, Phoebe serves as board chair for the Evert Conner Rights and Resources Center for Independent Living in Iowa City and is the proud mother of a six-month old daughter- Sophia.