Throughout the disability community, one recurring issue often goes unnoticed: society’s tendency to group individuals with physical disabilities together with senior citizens. While both populations may experience limitations, their lived experiences are fundamentally different.

Aging naturally brings decline, while physical disabilities—especially lifelong ones—shape a person’s entire identity from childhood into adulthood. The challenges are not comparable. Yet society routinely merges these groups, assuming shared needs and similar struggles.

This oversimplification leads to inadequate housing, inaccessible support systems, and living environments where people with vastly different needs are expected to function as one unified community. For physically disabled adults who are independent but low income, this can be especially isolating.

Having lived in a low-income building with elderly residents and individuals with mental or cognitive disabilities, I have experienced the consequences of this miscategorization firsthand. I have learned that society must recognize the distinctions between:

• lifelong physical disabilities
• disabilities acquired through aging
• and non-physical disabilities

These differences influence independence, identity, and daily life. Ultimately, we need housing and community systems that reflect our realities—not systems that combine different groups simply because it is convenient.