Greetings from Trump’s America, where being a deafblind child is now “woke”

 

Headline:  New York Times, 12/15/2025 (highlight added)

Sonia A Rao reports:

They were first-time parents, and they felt overwhelmed, thrown into an unfamiliar world they hadn’t expected. “I was out there looking for anything and everything that could help us,” said Mr. Garner, now 34. 

He discovered the Wisconsin Deafblind Project, a state program for the families of children with combined vision and hearing loss. It made a tremendous difference as they learned to parent Annie, the Garners said. 

They met other families experiencing the same thing. A mentor taught them sign language. Annie got sensory toys and Braille books. And she even made a best friend with a similar condition.

Then in September, the Trump administration canceled the five-year, $918,000 grant for the program, which supports about 170 children in Wisconsin like Annie. It also ended a $10.5 million grant used to recruit and retain special education teachers in the state. [emphasis added]