Accessibility and Design

International News

What is the real cost of accessibility? (Jun, Center for Inclusive Policy)

United States

Importance of Accessibility at Historic Sites. Historic sites of varying ages across the world have achieved accessibility. (Jun, Densho)

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Assistive Technology

Cambodia

How assistive technology is rebuilding livelihoods in rural Cambodia. (Jun, ATscale)

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Civil Society and Community

International News

Can Feminist Philanthropy Still Ignore the Leadership of Women with Disabilities? (May, Deza Nguembock)

India

Navigating a ‘Constitutional Borderland’:

“Trans and disability rights movements confront common challenges when it comes to the Indian state’s unequal treatment of marginalised bodies in its nationalist project, the judiciary’s liberal legalism, and the emphasis on a Swadeshi jurisprudence.” (Jun, The Leaflet)

South Sudan

Deaf community launches organization to fight for rights, inclusion. (Jun, Radio Tamazuj)

United States

Unscripted Revelation: The Spirit of Sign Language and the Threat of Deaf Christianity in the Nineteenth-Century United States. (Jun, Disability Studies Quarterly)

State Ramps and Church Stairs: The History of Disability in the Reformed Church in America:

“Ultimately, the RCA’s history with disability is the story of a church body lagging behind while the government built ramps. While the RCA likes to envision itself at the forefront of caring for the less fortunate, the evidence suggests that it is the government—and the relentless activism of disabled citizens—that has traditionally set the pace. The goal for the future, as Lotz suggests, is for the RCA to stop waiting for a law before it decides to smash its concrete steps and its barrierfilled minds. Until then, the RCA remains a shadow of secular progress, standing behind the Rights and Rights Denied landscape of the United States.” (May, ScholarWorks@GVSU)

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Climate Crisis and Environment

International News

Best Practices for Disability-Inclusive Climate Action 2026: Recommendations and examples from the Disability Climate Caucus. (Jun, EDF)

Three ways climate action can be more inclusive for 1.3 billion disabled people. (Jun, the Conversation)

Nepal

The Road to Til: Climate Change Reaches Nepal's Himalaya's. (Video documentary , Disability Justice Project)

Philippines

After the Storm. “Relocation sites are often inaccessible and far from their livelihoods and support networks.” (Feb, Human Rights Watch)

United Kingdom

This heatwave isn't just a weather event. It's a disability rights emergency:

“For many disabled people, heatwaves are a threat to life, dignity and safety. And the main reason for that is not their health condition, impairment or neurodivergence. It's a government failure to make buildings where disabled people live, work and receive medical care safe in a warming climate.” (Jun, Friends of the Earth)

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Communication and Language

Sign Languages

International News

Sign Language Linguistics: “The first textbook to bring together the linguistics of both BSL and ASL, this accessible book provides a uniquely international and comparative introduction to the structure and use of signed languages.” (Cambridge University Press)

Mexico

Perla Moctezuma, the deaf woman who paved the way for accessibility in Mexican television. (In Spanish, Jun, Yo También)

Nepal

‘Deaf People Are Finally Seen as Equal Citizens’ After Decades of Advocacy, Nepal’s Deaf Community Wins Historic Access to National News and Parliamentary Proceedings in Its Own Language. (Jun, Disability Justice Project)

United States

ASL Signbank “The ASL Signbank, an empirical-based resource-driven database, labels ASL use in transcripts time-aligned to ASL videos along with a set of annotation conventions to make the data machine-readable.” (Jun, Cambridge University Press)

Unscripted Revelation: The Spirit of Sign Language and the Threat of Deaf Christianity in the Nineteenth-Century United States. (Jun, Disability Studies Quarterly)

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Conflict and Peace

Israel-Palestine Conflict

Palestine

Disabled Palestinian Shot, Wounded by Israeli Settlers in West Bank, Officials Say. (Jun, Haaretz)

United States

I had to choose between my Zionism and my disability advocacy:

“I honestly don’t understand how a space for disability inclusion should have any stance on Zionism whatsoever.” (Jun, Times of Israel)

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Culture, Entertainment and Media

Overview

International News

Forging Ahead in Accessibility: Disabled Leadership and the Future of Museum Workforces. (Jun, Association of Science and Technology Centers)

TV and Film

Mexico

Perla Moctezuma, the deaf woman who paved the way for accessibility in Mexican television. (In Spanish, Jun, Yo También)

Media

United States

A 10th-anniversary Reflection for Accessibility in the News Subscribers:

“Progress is real, but fragile. The past decade brought stronger standards, more public awareness, better tools, major legal developments, and more organizations taking accessibility seriously. But rights can be delayed, narrowed, ignored, underfunded, or treated as optional unless people keep paying attention, continue being educated and informed, and become active and speak up.” (Jul, Micro Assist)

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Data and Research

International News

How Multidimensional Poverty Measures Overlook Accessibility for People with Disabilities. (Jun, Center for Inclusive Policy)

New Zealand

An overview of disability data in Aotearoa New Zealand:

“Based on the 2023 [Household Disability Survey], 17 percent of people living in New Zealand households were disabled. This is a total of 851,000 disabled people.” (Apr, Stats NZ)

Ukraine

War increases number of people with disabilities in Ukraine by 600,000, Ombudsman representative tells UN. (Jun, UKR Inform)

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Digital Accessibility and Technology

Overview

International News

The Design Brief That Never Mentioned Disabled People. “Twenty years of experience building things people can’t use isn’t twenty years of expertise.” (Mar, Chris Gibbons)

Artificial Intelligence

International News

Shakespeare v. Anthropic: 100+ Authors Sue AI Giant, including Tom Shakespeare, a sociologist writing about disability. (Jun, EIN Presswire)

Accessible digital textbooks for all. “A UNICEF-Government led initiative tapping the power of AI to provide accessible digital textbooks for learners of all abilities.” (Jun, UNESCO)

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Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response

Americas

Guide for the inclusion of people with disabilities in drills and simulations in Central America. (Jun, ASB América Latina)

Nigeria

Unwarned & Unprotected: Deaf Nigerians Excluded from Emergency Alerts (Jul, Disability Justice Project)

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Economics and Social Protection

Overview

Argentina

Disability and electricity dependence: a dispute between rights and the market:

“Disruptions to the electricity supply shut down oxygen concentrators. Feeding pumps stop working. Ventilators cease functioning. For people who depend on powered medical equipment, electricity is not just another convenience—it is the difference between life and death.” (May, OpenGlobalRights)

Social Protection

Australia

Brutal NDIS cuts will hurt the most vulnerable:

“The National Disability Insurance Scheme has grown too big, too fast. Reform is necessary to rein in growth. But the proposal currently before parliament would achieve budget bottom-line savings by hurting the most vulnerable people in the NDIS.” (Jun, Gratian Institute)

Dysfunctional disability policy:

“The harsh reality behind the spin, ‘Securing the NDIS for Future Generations’, is that 160,000 people with disabilities will be excluded from the NDIS by 2030. Individual allocations for social and community support will be cut by 50 per cent. In Budget parlance, that’s a lot of ’losers'.” (Jun, Pearls and Irritations)

Bangladesh

Disability allowance gets a bump in budget proposal: from 900 Tk to 1000 Tk, and 3.45 million beneficiaries to 3.8 million. (Jun, bdnews24.com)

Iran

Iranians deprived of state welfare payments, Tehran prioritizes war costs. (Jul, The Jerusalem Post)

Iran cuts living allowances for many people with disabilities. (Jul, Iran Insight)

Thailand

Disabled aid plan approved “raising the disability allowance to 1,000 baht per month and setting caregiver pay at up to 10,800 baht.” (Jun, Bangkok Post)

Ukraine

A woman with a disability was used in a scheme to allow a man liable for military service to leave the country, through a sham marriage. (Jun, UNN)

United Kingdom

Disabled people with lifelong conditions facing ‘unnecessary’ Pip reassessments:

‘A study by the anti-poverty charity Z2K has found that hundreds of thousands of disabled people are going through “unnecessary” personal independence payment (Pip) reviews, “wasting” public money and “significantly harming” the mental and physical health of claimants.’ (Jun, the Guardian)

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Education and Childhood

International News

Accessible digital textbooks for all. “A UNICEF-Government led initiative tapping the power of AI to provide accessible digital textbooks for learners of all abilities.” (Jun, UNESCO)

Guyana

Guyana to establish first specialised school for children with autism. (Jun, News Room)

Syria

Syrian Government Pledges Protection for Children with Disabilities. (Jun, Human Rights Watch)

United States

The Short- and Long-Term Impacts of Expanding Public Education for Disabled Students:

“Although this policy could have taken away resources from non-disabled students, in fact, education and employment also increased for non-disabled individuals. These effects align with evidence that the mandates increased spending per student by up to 15%. Families were also impacted: the mandates increased employment among mothers of disabled children and the probability that disabled individuals became household heads. Over the long term, the mandates paid for themselves by generating government revenues in excess of their cost.” (Apr, Arxiv)

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Employment, Business and Work

International News

New Frontiers of Disability Inclusion: a briefing paper on “Advancing Authentic Representation, Inclusive Technology, and Enterprise Accessibility.” (Jun, World Economic Forum)

Bangladesh

Process evaluation of a disability-inclusive employment programme: examining underlying mechanisms and contextual influences on the impact of STAR+. (Apr, Oxford Development Studies)

China

What’s behind the rise in firings linked to disability discrimination in Hong Kong? (May, The Star)

Germany

The legal fight to get equal pay for Germany's disabled workers. (Jun, BBC)

United Arab Emirates

Is Neurodiversity At Work Working? Three Red Flags:

“To the employers out there who are still wanting to do this well, and the neurodivergent employees who still feel stigmatised at work – the current impasse is helping neither of you. We cannot achieve neuroinclusion via a battle of wills.” (Jun, Forbes)

United Kingdom

The system-level organisational design framework: a neuro-cognitive trait interaction approach to workplace inclusion for autistic people:

“adjustment-led approaches, when unaccompanied by wider organisational change, may require autistic employees to navigate systems not designed for cognitive variation, while support remains inconsistently implemented and misaligned with processing and communication needs”. (Jun, Frontiers in Psychology)

United States

Workers with disabilities deserve better than subminimum wages. The large-scale job losses opponents have predicted for decades did not appear in any state we studied:

“Sheltered workshop employment fell by roughly 2,000 workers per state within two years, which is what the laws intended. But overall employment for workers with disabilities held steady. Employment rates, hours worked and competitive job placement all stayed at pre-policy levels in every state we examined, and the result held in the second and third years after each state’s policy change.” (Jun, Ripple)

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Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities

Ghana

“We demand rights and justice” How women-to-women mentoring has helped to increase disability representation in Ghana. (Sightsavers)

India

Navigating a ‘Constitutional Borderland’:

“Trans and disability rights movements confront common challenges when it comes to the Indian state’s unequal treatment of marginalised bodies in its nationalist project, the judiciary’s liberal legalism, and the emphasis on a Swadeshi jurisprudence.” (Jun, The Leaflet)

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Health

International News

Strengthening health-care pathways for people with Down syndrome. (May, The Lancet Health Longevity)

Ethiopia

Are primary healthcare facilities in Ethiopia complying with accessibility standards for disability-inclusion? an accessibility audit in Bahir Dar City. (May, BMC Health Services Research)

New Zealand

Disabled People’s | Tāngata Whaikaha Experiences of Health Services. (Jun, Health & Disability Commissioner)

Pakistan

Bringing legislation to life: Navigating intersectional barriers in implementing the Sindh Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act (2018) for the healthcare of children with disabilities. (Jun, Plos Global Public Health)

Uganda

Health-seeking behaviours and pathways among people with disabilities in Eastern Uganda: A qualitative analysis:

“Due to challenges in healthcare access, participants often resorted to self-medication, traditional remedies, or home-based care.” (May, NIHR Open Research)

United States

What It's Like To Pay A Healthcare Bill When You're Blind:

“Healthcare bills confuse me, especially the insurance contributions and how they affect what I owe. Many bill pay screens include little icon buttons that open a tooltip with more detail about a line item. Sometimes those buttons aren't labeled, so my screen reader skips right past them. Other times the tooltip opens but I can't find a way to close it and get back to the main page.” (Apr, UsableNet)

Caring for People with Disabilities Series. “This video series, developed by the American Medical Association and Colorado University Anschutz School of Medicine, supports physicians in delivering high-quality, respectful and effective medical care to people with disabilities.” (AMA)

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History and Memorial

United Kingdom

The National Disability Movement Archive & Collection. “NDMAC digitally and physically archives these crip fights for rights.” (May, NDMAC)

Disability: A history of resistance. A book by David Turner: “history of modern Britain that puts the experiences of disabled people to the fore for the first time.” (Penguin) See a review in the Guardian.

United States

Disability in the United States at 250. Reflecting on disability history and looking forward to the American dream:

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not fully accessible to disabled Americans not because of their disabilities, but because of systemic and social roadblocks to these rights.” (Jul, New America)

How Disability Shaped American Citizenship. A new book reveals the long relationship between race, disability, and nationhood in the revolutionary-era United States. (Jun, Mother Jones)

Importance of Accessibility at Historic Sites. Historic sites of varying ages across the world have achieved accessibility. (Jun, Densho)

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Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees

Migration

International News

Celebrating the Resilience of Refugees with Disabilities. (Jul, UNHCR)

Europe

EU Asylum Pact Threatens Rights of People with Disabilities. (Jun, Human Rights Watch)

Honduras

Returned migrants with disabilities join forces to demand attention and support. Many of them acquired their disabilities while trying to reach the United States. (In Spanish, Jun, Tiempo)

Kenya

IRAP Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Project. (Short video, Jun, IRAP)

United States

Lawsuit Accuses ICE and Private Prison Contractors of Abusing a Disabled Detainee. (Jul, Mother Jones)

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Independent Living and Deinstitutionalization

Overview

Mexico

Care Crisis in Mexico. “There is a myth deeply rooted in society and government, the false idea that women know how to take care of things simply because they are women.” (In Spanish, Jun, Yo También)

United States

From Inside The House: How Surveillance Tech Further Threatens Independent Living:

“Emerging technologies, whether AI-enabled or not, can facilitate independent living for people with disabilities. But, privacy is an integral part of autonomy and shifting power; if knowledge is power, then giving up knowledge about ourselves — particularly without our fully-informed consent — is inherently disempowering, which is at odds with the goals and foundational tenets of independent living.” (Jun, Disability Culture Lab)

Conditions in Institutions

United Kingdom

‘Mistreatment became normality’ at Muckamore Abbey hospital, inquiry finds. (Jun, the Guardian)

United States

A survey of US Christians and their attitudes to supporting orphanages, children's homes, and other residential care programs for children:

“Reported financial support for residential care has increased meaningfully since 2020, driven primarily by younger Christians, men, and Catholics, resulting in a projected $4.5 billion annually.” (Faith to Action)

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International Cooperation

Overview

International News

“Funding cuts turn inequalities into permanent exclusion”. Evidence from organisations of persons with disabilities on the human and organisational impacts of cuts to international aid:

“79% of OPDs have faced severe or very severe funding cuts that have affected their operational ability in the past 18 months”. (Jun, Handicap International)

Netherlands

Everyone Counts: Why Disability Inclusion Must Be Embedded in Dutch Development Policy. (Mar, DCDD)

Global Disability Summit

International News

One Year After the Amman-Berlin Declaration on Global Disability Inclusion – A Status Update: “the number of countries that officially expressed support for the ABD rose to 103 (49 of which are Official Development Assistance, ODA recipient countries)”. (Jun, Inklusion leben)

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Justice Systems and Legal Capacity

United Kingdom

Jurors, lawyers and social workers face ‘resilience test’ in inaccessible courts. (Jun, BBC)

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Lived Experience and Opinion

Australia

Love story: Accepting my body is my greatest achievement. (Jun, ABC News)

United Kingdom

After the Flare A comic about relapse and recovery. (Jul, Body Babble)

Crip Fury When you have to perform gratitude to survive, where does your anger go?

“There are versions of disabled anger that are more acceptable, more palatable. The fighter, the campaigner, the overcome-r. But the problem with that is that until the moment where your narrative arc ends in triumph, you are that bitter, disabled person. It’s only when you win, it’s only when you prove that you were right all along, that this creation is allowed to be seen to embody a positive anger.” (Jun, Jamie Hale)

Crip Grief How do we talk about our bodies? How do we not talk about our bodies?

“Finally, for this short list of griefs, it’s a collective grief. It is a sense of mourning for a world that could have been - mourning spaces I can’t enter, and destroyed community, and inequality, and the inaccessible world. Mourning the accessible world that never arrived. It’s a belief held in grief that things could be different in the world, and a grief that they are not.” (Jun, Jamie Hale)

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Mental Health

New Zealand

Decision finds “the rights of an at-risk disabled child were severely compromised when she was wrongly treated as an adult mental health patient.” (Jun, Health & Disability Commissioner)

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Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism

Overview

Argentina

People with disabilities will continue to travel free of charge on inter-jurisdiction bus journies, but the government will stop compensating the companies for it. (In Spanish, May, Infobae)

China

Global training academy aims to open up China to disabled travellers. (Jun, Travel Weekly)

Ukraine

How a driver who panicked his instructor helped to improve Ukraine’s driving accessibility laws. (May, UNDP)

Air Travel

Nigeria

Outrage as Deaf Rights advocate alleges discrimination after missing flight. “They told me I was faking my Deafness.” (Jun, Qualitative Magazine)

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Policy and Rights

International News

Will States Address Disability Invisibility in the Crimes Against Humanity Convention? (Jun, Just Security)

Germany

German Inclusion Law Tightens: Companies Face New Duty to Provide “Reasonable Accommodations”. (Jul, Ad Hoc News)

Kazakhstan

First time for Central Asia: Kazakhstan's Lyazzat Kaltayeva was elected to the UN Disability Rights Committee. (Jun, Dilmurad Yusupov)

Malawi

“I Just Want to Work Without Fear”: Discrimination and Violations of the Right to Work for Persons with Albinism in Malawi:

“Although reported attacks have declined in recent years, the legacy of violence continues to shape everyday life. Many people with albinism limit their movement, avoid isolated areas, and often forgo what few work opportunities are available to them due to fear. This insecurity restricts access to work and incomes, particularly in rural areas where work often requires travel or outdoor labor.” (Jun, Human Rights Watch)

Uzbekistan

"Disability is a Mirror for the Development of Societies". A Conversation with Dilmurad Yusupov:

‘Disability inclusion tests the genuineness of reform because it requires changing entrenched institutions, not just policies. It requires breaking the paternalistic logic of Soviet social protection which assumed that the state knows best, provides a minimal subsidy, and keeps “abnormal” people out of public life. If Uzbekistan’s reforms are real, we should see deinstitutionalisation people leaving boarding houses and living independently in communities. We should see more disabled people in parliament, on advisory committees, in leadership of public institutions. We should see the disability assessment system overhauled from a purely medical examination into a needs-assessment that actually enables meaningful participation. These things have not happened yet. The reforms are real, but they are still mostly skin-deep when it comes to disability.’ (Jun, Novastan)

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Politics and Elections

Europe

Interview with MEP Nicolae Ștefănuță: "We must defend ambitious social inclusion target". (May, EDF)

Finland

Finland’s democratic backsliding continues with cuts to disability rights:

“The government intends to cut 30% of the funding for organisations of persons with disabilities, and notably, to completely strip their power to advocate and advise persons with disabilities.” (Jun, EDF)

Nigeria

Democracy fails without inclusion of persons with disabilities according to The National Leader of Persons with Disabilities in the African Democratic Congress, Chike Okogwu. (Jun, Vanguard)

Paraguay

Accessible voting: guaranteeing the right to vote for senior citizens and people with disabilities. (In Spanish, Jun, La Nación)

United States

Mitch McConnell’s Disability Isn’t the Story. His Fitness for Office Is. (Jul, Disabled Journalists Association)

Polio Made Mitch McConnell MAHA’s Enemy. “The senator defended vaccines and angered Trump. If only he’d done that more.” (Jul, Mother Jones)

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Space Exploration

United Kingdom

From lift attendant to astronaut. It only took eighty years: “Space, by accident, turns out to be the most accessible workplace ever created.” (Jun, Phil Friend)

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Sport and Paralympics

Romania

Romania opens first mountain trail accessible to people with visual impairments. (Jun, Romania Insider)

United Kingdom

More than half of English parents struggle to find accessible holiday clubs for disabled children. (Jul, the Guardian)

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Violence and Harassment

Madagascar

Condemning the Brutal Killing of a Child with Albinism in Madagascar. (May, Africa Albinism Network, Albinos Madagascar and CBM Global Disability Inclusion)

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War in Ukraine

Ukraine

War increases number of people with disabilities in Ukraine by 600,000, Ombudsman representative tells UN. (Jun, UKR Inform)

Ukrainian Women Plead for News of Disabled Relatives Held by Russia: “Four years after Ukraine was invaded, many of the people who lived in institutional settings remain unaccounted for.” (Jun, New York Times)

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Water and Sanitation (WASH)

International News

Assessing reach and perceptions of hygiene behaviour change interventions for people with disabilities and older adults: Multi-country matched cross-sectional study. (Jul, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health)

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