Disability news, January 2026, by subject

Latest international disability inclusion news across 38 subjects

Library > January 2026

This page is organized by subject, you can also see links organized by country.

This update has 89 curated links from 26 countries and regions, organized across 38 subjects.

For discussion and reaction, see “People mutually helping each other”.

Accessibility and Design
Ageing
Assistive Technology
Black Lives Matter and Racial justice
COVID-19
Civil Society and Community
Climate Crisis and Environment
Communication and Language
Culture, Entertainment and Media
Data and Research
Digital Accessibility and Technology
Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response
Economics and Social Protection
Education and Childhood
Employment, Business and Work
Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities
Health
History and Memorial
Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees
Independent Living and Deinstitutionalization
International Cooperation
Justice Systems and Legal Capacity
Lived Experience and Opinion
Mental Health
Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism
Policy and Rights
Politics and Elections
Relationships, Sex and Reproductive Rights
Sport and Paralympics

Accessibility and Design

Japan

Disability Publics: an open access book on making accessibility in modern Japan. (2025, Oxford University Press)

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Ageing

International News

What to Expect from the Nascent Negotiations of an International Human Rights Treaty for Older Persons. (2025, Bill of Health)

United States

Wheelchair? Hearing Aids? Yes. ‘Disabled’? No Way. “Many older Americans shun an identity that could bring helpful accommodations, improve care and provide community.” (2025, New York Times)

Experiences of disability after 50: Poll looks at self-identity and help with health care visits:

“Now, a new poll finds that — even if they have conditions covered by the ADA — many older adults may not think of themselves as disabled or identify as a person with disability. It also finds that most with these conditions do not ask for assistance or accommodations when they get health care.” (2025, University of Michigan)

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Assistive Technology

United States

‘Everyone said it was impossible’: disabled hikers find freedom through off-road wheelchairs. (2025, the Guardian)

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Black Lives Matter and Racial justice

United States

When a Call for Help Becomes Lethal: The Case of Sonya Massey and the Criminalization of Disability. (2025, Center for Racial and Disability Justice)

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COVID-19

Response

United Kingdom

UK Covid-19 Inquiry Report Details Damning Failure to Protect Disabled People as “Too Little, Too Late”. (2025, Disability Rights UK)

Disability inclusion in Zambia’s government COVID-19 policies: a framework analysis: “These findings underscore persistent structural barriers to equity for people with disabilities during public health crises”. (2025, International Journal for Equity in Health)

Living with COVID-19

United States

You know someone with Long COVID. They need you to ask about it genuinely. (2025, The Sick Times)

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Civil Society and Community

Nigeria

'We started small, but we are loud': How AWWDI is Empowering Women with Disabilities to Lead Change. (2025, Inklusion leben)

United Kingdom

“I Just Didn’t Fit into the Way That They Did Church”: Barriers to Access and Participation for Disabled People in UK Churches. (2025, International Journal of Disability and Social Justice)

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Climate Crisis and Environment

International News

One in Five Is Not Enough: The gains on Disability Inclusion have not gone far enough:

“for over 80% of ODA activities in the crucial areas of climate, DRR and gender, either persons with disabilities were not included, or there is no data.” (2025, CBM Global)

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Communication and Language

Sign Languages

International News

Lost without translation: Children of a Lesser God and sign language filmmaking under non-signing control:

“This has created a chronic language barrier whereby the vast majority of sign language screen content is written, framed and edited by nonsigners, giving rise to tropes and techniques that perpetuate myths about deaf experience and obscure the semantic meaning of sign language dialogue.” (2025, Transnational Screens)

United States

ASL dictionary a monolingual edition. (2025, ASL Dictionary)

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Culture, Entertainment and Media

Overview

International News

The Paraplaylist musicians that have turned their impairment into a signature sound. (In French, 2025, Couper L'herbe Sous les Roues)

Lost without translation: Children of a Lesser God and sign language filmmaking under non-signing control:

“This has created a chronic language barrier whereby the vast majority of sign language screen content is written, framed and edited by nonsigners, giving rise to tropes and techniques that perpetuate myths about deaf experience and obscure the semantic meaning of sign language dialogue.” (2025, Transnational Screens)

Australia

New national arts network launches with opportunities for artists with disability. (2025, Australian Arts Review)

United Kingdom

Design and Disability. Where accessibility meets art. Review of the exhibit at the V&A South Kensington in London. (2025)

Imagine an accessible nightclub. Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people are designing their dream nightlife. (2025, Body Babble)

TV and Film

International News

10 Films That Do Disability Humor Right (And a Lesson We Can Learn from Each of Them). (2025, ReelAbilities Film Festival)

Clothing and Fashion

International News

Co-designing adaptive fashion with the Disabled community. Value generation through better practices:

“Despite growing awareness, Disabled people have historically been overlooked by the fashion industry, where assumptions about disability and an inherent ableism also persist. Moreover, the Disabled community distrusts and is frustrated with the industry due to persistent issues that remain unaddressed. Disabled customers struggle to access products in physical stores and online. Product offerings are very limited and advertising practices are often poor. Disabled people are often valued by the industry only as customers, with inaccessible education systems and employment opportunities further limiting their potential as designers, experts, creatives, or colleagues. This means with missed opportunities for value creation and market capture, it fails to develop trust and creates a power dynamic that is often extractive.” (2025, Tilting the Lens)

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Data and Research

Overview

Europe

Inclusion Indicators 2025: how 33 European countries perform on rights and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. (2025, Inclusion Europe)

Research

International News

Celebrating 15 years of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability (ICED) at LSHTM. Tom Shakespeare shares his unanswered questions:

“I would love to find out more about how people live with pain; I have a hunch that many families affected by disability spend money on medical interventions which do not work; I want to find out whether individuals with disabilities are isolated or connected. Both words and numbers might help us answer those questions. There is much more that needs to be done in the next 15 years.” (2025, ICED)

Why Is There So Much Research About Us Without Us? Focussing on neurodivergence. (2025, Independent Social Research Foundation)

India

Neoliberal Affirmations, Local Distinctions: Disability Policies and Praxes in India:

“Through analysis of post-independence socioeconomic policies, [this article] illustrates how India’s distinct integration of disability reflects complex intersections of local traditions, colonial legacies, and market reforms.” (2025, International Journal of Disability and Social Justice)

Uganda

Youth and Mentor Experiences of a Disability Inclusive Youth Research Training and Mentorship Programme in Uganda. (2025, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research)

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Digital Accessibility and Technology

Overview

International News

Android accessibility updates include dark theme’s expanded option, Gemini in TalkBack and more. (2025, Google)

As technology has evolved, so has the need for accessibility. “More than 70% of the U.S. population now stands to benefit from accessible technology, regardless of disability status.” (2025, Microsoft)

I'm not Remarkable accessibility awareness video. (2025, Apple)

The PS5 and Series X era promised inclusion, but the reality is more complicated:

“Despite a great deal of forward progress in the accessibility movement, the industry continues to disappoint and hurt the disability community in a variety of ways.” (2025, Polygon)

Australia

I’m 15 years old and have a disability. Social media has been a lifeline – why is the government kicking me off? (2025, the Guardian)

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Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response

International News

Towards an international Convention on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (PPED) that protects the rights of persons with disabilities. (2025, IDA)

Australia

Disability leadership and the future of inclusive disaster risk reduction. (2025, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction)

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Overview

International News

Estimating the magnitude and scope of disability-related direct costs: a systematised review. (2025, The European Journal of Health Economics)

Argentina

In Milei’s Argentina, austerity economics manifests as a mental health crisis. “Drastic cuts to mental health budget and benefits are worsening Argentina’s already fragile emotional well-being”. (2025, Open Democracy)

Indonesia

Inclusive Social Protection for persons with disabilities in Indonesia: a rapid review of evidence. (2025, Center for Inclusive Policy)

Kenya

He hoped a national ID would open doors. “For 62 years, Ben Mukur Taboi waited for a document every Kenyan is supposed to get at 18. But a lifetime of crawling had erased his fingerprints, and the system had no way to account for him.” (2025, Minority Africa)

United Kingdom

Disability benefit cuts cause rise in poverty and mental health issues, not employment rates, shows research. (2025, Benefits and Work)

Vietnam

Building an inclusive future: Social protection as a catalyst for disability empowerment in Viet Nam:

“The country has made significant progress in covering persons with severe and extremely severe disabilities with social protection. Coverage of disability social assistance allowances has more than tripled over the last 15 years, and 1.7 million people now receive such allowances (1.7 per cent of the population), alongside fully subsidised health insurance”. (2025, ILO)

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Education and Childhood

Overview

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso Improving Education of Children with Disabilities. Over 19,000 children with disabilities were enrolled into school under the project. (2025, World Bank Group)

France

Children with disabilities are increasingly being educated alongside other students in mainstream settings:

“among young people aged 6 to 15 accompanied by an establishment or a medical-social service for disabled children, 92% are in school (+2 points compared to 2010) and two-thirds (64%) are in mainstream settings, compared to 47% at the end of 2010”. (In French, 2025, ici)

Switzerland

From Segregation to Inclusion: Special Needs Education and the Transformation of the Swiss Welfare State. (2025, Nordic Journal of Educational History)

United States

Weakening the IDEA Threatens Millions of Disabled Americans Like Me. (2025, The 74)

This Disability Education Law Just Turned 50. Disability Advocates Want More. (2025, Mother Jones)

Higher Education

United Kingdom

Why is it so difficult to make reasonable adjustments when assessing disabled post graduate researchers?

“Cultural beliefs – including that PGR study is “supposed to be difficult”, that overcoming the struggle is part of the achievement of obtaining a doctorate, and that adjustments devalue the doctorate – all contribute to unhelpful attitudes towards disabled PGRs and institutions meeting their legal obligations.” (2025, Wonkhe)

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Employment, Business and Work

International News

Building Inner Confidence: an online course “to develop the inner confidence of every disabled employee so that we all feel able to share aspects of our story and to request the adjustments or accommodations we need to thrive.” (2025, Purple Space)

New Zealand

New digital platform “to help New Zealand businesses address workforce shortages by supporting greater participation of disabled people in sectors facing acute skills gaps, particularly manufacturing, engineering and logistics.” (2025, ITBrief) See also on the Post.

Sweden

“Needed and Valuable Instead of Just Being Employed”: Vocational Training, Work and Social Usefulness Regarding People with Intellectual Disability in Sweden, 1945–1989. (2025, Nordic Journal of Educational History)

United Kingdom

The employment of disabled people 2025: a statistical overview:

“There were 5.5 million disabled people in employment in the UK in Q2 2025 and the disability employment rate was 52.8%, compared to 82.5% for non-disabled people. The increasing number of disabled people in employment (between 2013 and 2025) was driven by four main components of change: disability prevalence (60%); disability employment gap (20%); non-disabled employment rate (15%); and increases in the working-age population (5%).” (2025, Department for Work and Pensions)

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Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities

Europe

How does gender inequality affect people with disabilities? (2025, Euronews)

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Health

International News

The Double Bind of Disability. A book on How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority:

“Rebecca Monteleone shows how medical technologies contribute to a cruel double bind, forcing disabled people to be accountable for adapting to a world built by and for nondisabled people while dismissing their lived experiences in favor of medical expertise. Far more complex than simple progress, these technologies are more oppressive than liberating when they place the burden of care on individuals and perpetuate societal ableism that demands that bodies look, move, and function in certain ways.” (2025, University of Minnesota Press)

Uganda

Access to eye health services among older people with disabilities in Karamoja, Uganda: a qualitative exploration of successful care seeking. (2025, International Journal for Equity in Health)

United Kingdom

Introducing “Energy Limiting Conditions”: The Emergence and Evolution of a New Impairment Concept:

‘The term “energy impairment” is a substitution for the term “fatigue” that disrupts many of the impairment typologies used in UK social administration.’ (2025, International Journal of Disability and Social Justice )

Diagnosed but not believed: Autistic women and the medical gaze. (2025, Elsa Williams)

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History and Memorial

International News

Executive Board Records of FIMITIC Now Open for Research. “FIMITIC was founded in 1953 as an international federation of organizations founded by and advocating for persons with physical disability.” (2025, Archivum)

Japan

Disability Publics: an open access book on making accessibility in modern Japan. (2025, Oxford University Press)

Sweden

Switzerland

From Segregation to Inclusion: Special Needs Education and the Transformation of the Swiss Welfare State. (2025, Nordic Journal of Educational History)

United Kingdom

My 80 years of change Phil Friend, talks openly about his life and experiences at 80 years old:

“My education took place in residential boarding schools for disabled children. These were well-meaning places, but nobody would mistake them for the fast track to university. I never sat an exam. Physical education was nonexistent. We did basket weaving and macramé instead. (Two skills I’ve rarely been asked to demonstrate since). Expectations were low, and the outside world felt a long way off.” (2025, Activity Alliance)

Who Owns Our History? Archiving the Disabled People’s Movement:

“Using Manchester’s Disabled People’s Archive as a case study, it demonstrates how democratic governance structures and comprehensive accessibility strategies can ensure archives serve disabled communities rather than simply describing them.” (2025, International Journal of Disability and Social Justice)

United States

How Rosa Parks played a role in influencing the disability rights movement. “Decades after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, these activists in Chicago turned to Parks’ playbook to broaden disability access.” (2025, The 19th)

He Died at a School for Disabled People. Decades Later, His Brother Sought Answers. (2025, New York Times)

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Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees

“Themes included: 1) unmet health and disability needs, 2) economic and housing barriers, 3) significant administrative burden and complex organizational processes, 4) inadequate case management/social work support for community living, 5) insufficient informational support and peer guides to complete transitions, and 6) discrimination based on race and disability status (racism/ableism).” (2025, Brandeis)

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“The junta has attacked, tortured and executed persons with disabilities, imprisoned disability rights advocates, and impeded access to medical supplies and assistive devices. Persons with disabilities have become even more isolated and impoverished.” (2025, OHCHR)

“The reasonable accommodations doctrine does not traditionally extend to third parties’ behaviors or choices. I argue that such a narrow vision of reasonable accommodations stems from improperly imposing a traditional privity paradigm, where the first party is the disabled individual, and the second party is the employer or owner of a private or public entity covered by the ADA. This approach disregards how third parties’ actions and choices can significantly affect access for others.” (2025, Michigan Law Review)

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“In 12 EU countries, women with disabilities can be sterilized without their consent. Sara Rocha, who has autism, is fighting to ban the practice in Portugal and networking with people across Europe to raise awareness.” (2025, DW)

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