Accessibility and Design

Overview

Russia

Access Vernaculars a book by Cassandra Hartblay on disability and Accessible Design in Contemporary Russia. (2025, Cornell University Press)

South Korea

Kiosks nationwide must now meet accessibility standards. (Jan, The Korea Times)

Housing

New Zealand

People with disabilities relying on emergency housing, “because of a lack of accessible, affordable rental properties.” (Feb, New Zealand Doctor)

United States

An Accessible Housing Model Built to Be Scaled. “The Kelsey, a nonprofit focused on affordable, disability-focused housing, opened a building in San Jose, Calif. two years ago. Now, it’s taking its model national.” (Feb, New York Times)

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Ageing

International News

How Can a New International Treaty Address Older Persons’ Decision-Making Rights? (Feb, Just Security)

Why Now for a Global Treaty on Older Persons’ Rights —and a Path Forward:

“There are some issues of particular relevance to the rights and wellbeing of older persons—such as access to long-term care, caregiving responsibilities that often arise in later life, and the ability to both continue working and receive a pension—that existing conventions do not address. Meanwhile, evidence that older persons’ rights and needs are going unmet is found across low- and high-income settings alike.” (Feb, Opinio Juris)

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Civil Society and Community

Asia

Crip Genealogies and Disability Citizenship in the Sinophone World: A Transnational Cultural Epistemology. (2025, Including Disability)

China

First accessible pub in China fosters community of people with disabilities and the able-bodied. (Jan, The Straits Times)

India

Disabled people hold protest in Tamil Nadu demanding hike in disability assistance. (Feb, Times of India)

Ireland

Around 400 people attend disability rights protest in Dublin. “They have called for the immediate introduction of a emergency disability payment of €400.” (Feb, RTÉ)

Malaysia

Content Forum Unveils Malaysia’s First National Guidelines for Disability Inclusive Language. (2025, Content Forum)

United States

Winning Mad Liberation with a New Strategy: Solidarity. (Feb, Mad in America)

Defining and Understanding the Blind Community. (2025, Including Disability)

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Climate Crisis and Environment

International News

Historic Recognition for Disability Inclusion in Global Climate Negotiations. (IDDC)

Advancing disability inclusive climate action: A resource guide for global practitioners. (2025, CBM Global)

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Communication and Language

Sign Languages

United Kingdom

The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 – and the history of sign as a legal language. (Mar, The Conversation)

Leicester Cathedral reveals sign language wedding held in 1576:

“First he embraced her with his armes, and took her by the hande, putt a ring upon her finger and layde his hande upon her harte, and held his hands towards heaven; and to show his continuance to dwell with her to his lyves ende he did it by closing of his eyes with his hands and digging out of the earthe with his foote, and pulling as though he would ring a bell with divers other signs approved.” (Feb, BBC)

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Conflict and Peace

Overview

Iran

US-Israel war on Iran is creating a steady growing number of amputees:

“Some weld wheelchairs from scrap metal, as the black market price for titanium is simply unaffordable for the working class.” (2025, The New Arab)

Israel

Israel’s neglect of disability rights in missile defense:

“A recent Access Israel survey found that 40% of people with disabilities in Israel do not have accessible shelter options.” (Mar, The Jerusalem Post)

Lebanon

Mass Displacement and Civilian Toll Mount Amid Escalation:

“Others lose access to mobility aids, medication, rehabilitation, and support networks. Without targeted support, they risk being left behind, invisible and unprotected. Beyond immediate casualties and injuries, the destruction of infrastructure disrupts access to healthcare, electricity, water, and education, deepening vulnerabilities for those already at risk.” (Mar, Humanity & Inclusion)

Emergency cash support for children and persons with disabilities affected by the conflict. “One-off assistance will reach around 6,000 families enrolled in Lebanon’s National Disability Allowance”. (Mar, ILO)

Lebanon’s Displacement Crisis Leaves Disabled People Vulnerable. (Mar, Enmaeya)

Sudan

People with Disabilities Targeted in North Darfur:

‘The Rapid Support Forces singled out people because of their disabilities, accused people with physical disabilities of being injured combatants, and mocked others as “insane,” and told them they were not “complete,” survivors and witnesses said.’ (Feb, Human Rights Watch)

RSF targeted the disabled in el-Fasher, HRW alleges. (Feb, DW)

United Arab Emirates

Funeral takes place for Palestinian woman killed by falling missile in Abu Dhabi:

“Ms Mushtaha, a 33-year-old Palestinian, worked at Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination, where she taught people how to make cheese and other dairy-related products.” (Mar, The National)

Israel-Palestine Conflict

Palestine

Gaza’s spinal cord injuries risk children's permanent disability. At the physical rehabilitation ward of the Palestinian Red Crescent field hospital. (Jan, Shafaq)

Disability Associated with Injury from Politically Related Violence Among Adult
Palestinians in the West Bank: Social, Economic, and Psychological Impacts. (Jan, Shatha Abu Srour)

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Culture, Entertainment and Media

Overview

Italy

Italy gets creative as it works to make art accessible for blind people. (Feb, AP)

United States

Disability History Museum Set To Open. “The Museum of Disability History will open its doors Tuesday in Albertson, N.Y., just outside of New York City, with exhibits showcasing the history of the disability rights movement from its inception through today.” (Feb, Disability Scoop)

Accessibility Should Be at the Center of Museum Education. “Art history departments often fail to embed disability studies into their curricula when engaging with art, politics, and identity.” (Jan, Hyperallergic)

TV and Film

United Kingdom

We Might Regret This review. Brilliant disabled-led comedy continues to skewer its targets. (Feb, the Guardian)

Media

United Kingdom

Creating news for (and with) people with learning disabilities:

“Making news easier to understand is not a dilution of journalistic standards; it is an extension of them. It requires reporters to understand stories more deeply, explain them more clearly, and consider more carefully who their work is for.” (Feb, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism)

United States

We're Launching Voices of Disabled People. “Owning our narrative is a powerful act of resistance against anything holding us back.” (Mar, Huffpost)

Why We Capitalize ‘Disabled’:

“It is a political choice, absolutely, as are most things in journalism and I think that because DJA is a disability-justice organization, we capitalize it because we value being Disabled as an identity. Just like I value being Black and capitalize Black, just like the Associated Press does.” (Mar, Disabled Journalists Association)

Six Underreported Disability Stories We Hope Get More Coverage in 2026. (Jan, Disabled Journalists Association)

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Data and Research

International News

Employment vs. Unemployment: What Are We Really Measuring? (Mar, Center for Inclusive Policy)

Guidelines to Make Surveys on Individuals and Households More Accessible. (Jan, UN)

Measuring disability employment gaps. How to get robust comparisons across countries and over time. (2025, OECD)

Japan

The Washington Group Short Set of Functioning as a Global Disability Data Collection Tool: A Discussion on Its Comparability With a Local Disability Index From Japan. (Jan, Cureus)

United States

Ghosts in the machine: Congressional watchdog finds significant gaps in federal health care and disability data. (Feb, Prism)

27.1 percent of people with a work-limiting difficulty participated in the labor force in July 2024, “compared with 74.7 percent of people with no work-limiting health conditions or difficulties.” (Feb, US Bureau of Labour Statistics)

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Digital Accessibility and Technology

Overview

United States

Accessible design is digital infrastructure.

“Ignoring accessibility represents regression, a return to earlier assumptions that access is a privilege granted to some, rather than a right owed to all. The signals from this shift are already visible.” (Feb, Anna E. Cook)

Artificial Intelligence

International News

The AI Model Accessibility Checker. “If AI keeps writing code as poorly as the developers it learned from, nothing changes. But if it prioritizes accessibility, the web gets its first real chance to improve.” (Mar, GAAD Foundation Benchmarks)

AI to Support Neurodivergent Learners in Vocational Education and Training. A report exploring opportunities and risks. (Feb, OECD)

Austria

Speech with an AI avatar in the Austrian Parliament. (2025, Future Zone)

China

AI creates jobs for people with disabilities amid China's tech drive. (Feb, Xinhua)

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Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response

International News

Disability-Inclusive Crisis Response. A collection of case studies, from floods in Spain, earthquake in Turkey, or Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel: “Outside danger moved faster than accessibility ever has.” (Feb, Zero Project)

United States

Winter Storm Checklist for Disabled People. “This checklist highlights disability-specific actions to take before storms hit, including planning for power loss, heat, communication, and accessible evacuation.” (Jan, The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies)

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Economics and Social Protection

Social Protection

Russia

Russia Cuts Its Disability Count As War Against Ukraine Wounds Hundreds of Thousands. (Jan, Radio Free Europe)

Singapore

More places in sheltered workshops and independent living pilot started for people with disabilities. (Mar, The Straits Times)

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Education and Childhood

Overview

International News

AI to Support Neurodivergent Learners in Vocational Education and Training. A report exploring opportunities and risks. (Feb, OECD)

China

Ensuring Compulsory Education Rights for Children with Disabilities in China:

“It has been found that the realization of education rights for children with disabilities in China has significantly improved over the past two decades, as reflected in increasing enrollment rates and improved educational conditions.” (2025, Including Disability)

Latin America and the Caribbean

New UNESCO regional report reveals persistent gaps in inclusive education for students with disabilities in Latin America:

“one in five students with disabilities attends special-education schools; that fewer than half of regular education schools enrol this group of students; and that more than one third leave school before completing upper secondary education.” (2025, UNESCO)

Mozambique

Learning is for Everyone Paving the pathway for disability-inclusive education in Mozambique:

“While the country has made legislative and strategic commitments to inclusion, two in three children with disabilities remain out of school, with the education system facing challenges such as inaccessible infrastructure, inadequate teacher preparedness, gaps in data and monitoring systems, and a lack of intersectoral collaboration with health, protection and other relevant sectors.” (Jan, UNICEF)

New Zealand

Proposed closure of Westbridge Residential School following safety, performance concerns. (Feb, RNZ News)

Two new specialist schools to open for children with high needs, disabilities. (Jan, RNZ News)

Tanzania

Roots of belonging: Lost in a culture that believes something is wrong with us:

“I live with mental health challenges and I too have lived through some of these harsh cultural practices. Nobody in my school knows I share this reality with my students.” (Feb, Disability Debrief)

United Kingdom

One in six autistic pupils in UK have not attended school at all since September. (Feb, the Guardian)

United States

Guam marks 50 years of disability education law amidst school accessibility challenges. (Jan, Pacific Daily News)

Perspectives of Disability and Inclusion in Pre-Kindergarten Children. (2025, Including Disability)

Higher Education

Dominica

Students with disabilities succeed in universities despite difficulties and lack of data. (In Spanish, Jan, Listin Diario)

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Employment, Business and Work

International News

Measuring disability employment gaps. How to get robust comparisons across countries and over time. (2025, OECD)

China

AI creates jobs for people with disabilities amid China's tech drive. (Feb, Xinhua)

My Experience as a Woman with a Disability in Full-Time Employment in Shanghai. (2025, Including Disability)

India

Man chops off part of foot to claim MBBS seat under disability quota. (Jan, Times of India)

Kenya

Kenya’s disability and labour movements are uniting to fight for decent work:

“With Sightsavers’ support, UDPK and COTU have been organising smallholder sorghum farmers and informal women vendors with disabilities into worker hubs in Nairobi, Homabay, Migori and Kisumu Counties.” (Jan, Global Labour Column)

United Kingdom

Decline in remote jobs risks shutting disabled people out of work, study finds. (Feb, the Guardian)

United States

27.1 percent of people with a work-limiting difficulty participated in the labor force in July 2024, “compared with 74.7 percent of people with no work-limiting health conditions or difficulties.” (Feb, US Bureau of Labour Statistics)

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Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities

International News

ILGA World, ILGA Oceania and Oceania Pride condemn UN vote erasing LGBTQ persons with disabilities. (2025, ILGA)

My Body, (but not) My Choice: The research findings address how the violation of the right to legal capacity impacts how women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities access sexual and reproductive healthcare, SRHR information, and make free decisions about marriage and having children. (2025, Women Enabled)

Cameroon

Women with disabilities face rising sexual abuse in Cameroon. (Short video, Feb, DW)

United States

Disability groups are standing united for trans rights:

“Forty years ago, disability advocates abandoned the LGBTQ+ community in exchange for legal protections. Decades later, they are fighting a Trump administration rule to roll-back more safeguards for trans people.” (Jan, The 19th)

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Health

International News

A Framework for Incorporating a Disability Lens Women’s Reproductive Health Research and Practice for Healthy Life Trajectories. (2025, Women's Reproductive Health)

Enhancing healthcare access for persons with disabilities: lessons from partnerships between organisations of persons with disabilities and international non-governmental organisations. (2025, International Health)

Mozambique

Prevalence and factors associated with stigma among adults diagnosed with severe vision impairment in rural Mozambique. (2025, International Health)

Uganda

Association of disability and 12-year all-cause and cause-specific mortality: analyses from the Wellbeing of Older People cohort study in Uganda:

“Severe disability was strongly associated with elevated mortality risk among older Ugandans, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to improve health equity.” (Jan, BMJ Global Health)

United States

Ghosts in the machine: Congressional watchdog finds significant gaps in federal health care and disability data. (Feb, Prism)

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History and Memorial

International News

Progress from the Margins: a book by Paul van Trigt on Human Rights and Disability Internationalism Since the 1960s. (Jan, Columbia University Press)

Cuba

Inclusion and Revolution: Fidel Castro and the work of the National Association of the Blind of Cuba. (In Spanish, Jan, 5 de Septiembre)

United Kingdom

The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 – and the history of sign as a legal language. (Mar, The Conversation)

Leicester Cathedral reveals sign language wedding held in 1576:

“First he embraced her with his armes, and took her by the hande, putt a ring upon her finger and layde his hande upon her harte, and held his hands towards heaven; and to show his continuance to dwell with her to his lyves ende he did it by closing of his eyes with his hands and digging out of the earthe with his foote, and pulling as though he would ring a bell with divers other signs approved.” (Feb, BBC)

United States

Ronald Sutcliffe Deaf advocate in Iowa and DC, dies at 90. (Feb, Des Moines Register)

Disability History Museum Set To Open. “The Museum of Disability History will open its doors Tuesday in Albertson, N.Y., just outside of New York City, with exhibits showcasing the history of the disability rights movement from its inception through today.” (Feb, Disability Scoop)

Before Special Ed, There Was the School-to-Asylum Pipeline. “50 years ago, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ended the routine institutionalization of kids with disabilities. Advocates fear a return to that dark time.” (2025, The 74)

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Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees

Overview

Sudan

Sudan’s disabled displaced face starvation and neglect as aid fails. (Feb, Sudan Tribune)

Migration

International News

Technical report on fair recruitment of migrant workers with disabilities:

“To achieve meaningful inclusion of migrant workers with disabilities, governments and recruiters will need to address complex practical questions. These include how to approach medical testing in line with human rights principles; who bears the cost of reasonable accommodations; whether inclusive recruitment quotas should apply for international migrants; and how to design accessible complaint mechanisms.” (Jan, ILO)

Introducing the Global Network of Refugees with Disabilities. (2025, IDA)

Europe

Europe must close the rights gap for migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities. (Feb, EDF)

South East Asia

Disability and Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Vulnerabilities and Victim-Survivors’ Experiences. (Feb, Journal of Human Trafficking)

United States

Immigrant Justice Is Disability Justice Is Worker Justice:

‘There were many reasons my parents decided to stay in the United States, but one of the major factors was that my parents realized that my brother and I, as children with disabilities, would have educational and medical opportunities here that we would be denied in Mexico. From one day to another, we “became” undocumented, and this came at a huge price for all our family involved.’ (Mar, Disability Culture Lab)

ICE Locked Up a Deaf Kid Without His Hearing Aids—And Wouldn’t Let Him Have Them Back. (Mar, Mother Jones)

A ‘Direct Threat’ to Democracy: A Deaf Asylum Seeker Spent Five Months In ICE Custody Without A Sign Language Interpreter, Raising Concerns About Disability Rights In Detention. (Mar, Disability Justice Project)

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya Refugee Dumped by Border Patrol, Dies in Cold. (Feb, Mother Jones)

ICE’s Mistreatment of People with Disabilities. Advocates document a ‘pattern of neglect’ toward the most vulnerable. (Feb, Progressive.org)

Immigrant Rights are Disability Rights: ICE & Law Enforcement Violence Must End. (Feb, DREDF)

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Independent Living and Deinstitutionalization

Overview

International News

Equality and Quality in Disability-Inclusive Human Support Provision (EQUIP): Foundational Papers and Checklist. (Jan, OHCHR)

Disability Care and Support Systems: Country Assessment Tool. (2025, OHCHR)

Colombia

Unsatisfied Care Needs of Adults with Disabilities in Bogota, Colombia:

“This paper finds that 66.3% of adults with disabilities had unsatisfied care needs, either because they need more care than they receive or because they do not receive care even though they require it. Additionally, 34.0% of adults with disabilities in the study provided care to other household members.”

Kenya

Invisible but essential: Domestic workers at the heart of persons with disabilities care in Kenya:

“Across thousands of Kenyan households, domestic workers form the backbone of care for persons with disabilities. They cook, bathe, transport, medicate, comfort, and support persons with disabilities who need care and support, which often enables families to remain economically active and persons with disabilities to live with dignity. However, this critical role remains invisible, undervalued, and inadequately protected.” (Feb, ILO)

Palestine

Ekhlas Al-Azzah Teaches Arabic: “Volunteers travel from across the globe to care for Ekhlas Al-Azzah in one of the smallest Palestinian refugee camps in the world. In exchange, she teaches them Arabic and about life in the West Bank.” (Feb, Cairo Scene)

Conditions in Institutions

Europe

Places of Care = Places of Safety? Violence against persons with disabilities in institutions. (Jan, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights)

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International Cooperation

International News

Partnering for Change: Building Disability Leadership through Advisory Fellowships. (Mar, CBM Global)

Spotlight or Substance? The Zero Project 2026 and what's missing from disability lists. (Mar, Disability Debrief)

Why disability inclusion in international cooperation is not a luxury—but a political necessity. (Jan, Bernd Schramm)

Europe

New report finds serious gaps in Disability-Inclusive EU Aid:

“In 2023, 63% of development aid activities funded by the European Commission were not disability-related in any meaningful way. This marks the first time since 2018 that progress has stalled after several years of gradual improvement. The picture is even more worrying when looking at spending: the share of disability-related development aid has now fallen for two consecutive years.” (2025, EDF)

Netherlands

Everyone counts: preventing the exclusion of people with disabilities in international cooperation. (2025, DCDD)

Zambia

ILO, Cuba strengthen ties to advance support for persons with disabilities in Zambia. (Mar, ILO)

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Justice Systems and Legal Capacity

International News

My Body, (but not) My Choice: The research findings address how the violation of the right to legal capacity impacts how women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities access sexual and reproductive healthcare, SRHR information, and make free decisions about marriage and having children. (2025, Women Enabled)

United States

Sitting judge and three others charged with scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from vulnerable and incapacitated wards. (Feb, Internal Revenue Service)

People With Disabilities Are More Likely Than Those Without to Have Court Experience. “Nearly half of adults with disabilities live in households in which someone has been involved in a court case, according to a recent national poll”. (Jan, Pew Foundation)

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Lived Experience and Opinion

United Kingdom

A Day in the Life of an Artist: Raw Materials. Reading and writing through a body in pain. (Jan, Disability Arts Online)

United States

The War on Trans Folks Is Disabling:

“I came out as nonbinary and transgender at 32 years old. I was so worried about survival as a chronically ill disabled person for much of my teens and twenties that I didn’t have the time, energy, or emotional bandwidth to think about a whole authentic self. It nearly killed me. As I made a transition from invisible to visible disability in a period of intense illness, therapy let me examine the cost of every closet I was in.” (Mar, Disability Culture Lab)

The Power of Giving Your Disabled Characters a Happily-Ever-After. Sabina Nordqvist on Writing a Romance Novel that Decenters the Abled Gaze. (Feb, Lithub)

Disability elders: An Interview with Bob Williams. "Either we resist and build a better America together. Or we settle for living in hell." (Feb, (Un)Hidden)

How Losing My Limbs Turned Me Into a Different Kind of Cook:

“Our learning curves are steepest when the skills we’ve leaned on all our lives have been swept out from under us. I’ve had to set my faith in my physical body aside, focusing on the skills I do have, and consigning to the future the skills I must relearn, like how to whisk a bowl of cream to milky soft peaks with prosthetic hands.” (Jan, New York Times)

Three Blind Cats and One Visually Impaired Human in the Family: Compassion, Communication, Caregiving, and Culture in a Household with Multiple Species Sharing the Same Disability:

“Grace and I navigated through the world in very similar ways: use memorized paths to walk, count steps, listen and smell intently to orient, and use hands/front paws to find something familiar when disoriented. When she encountered something new, Grace examined it thoroughly with her paws and her nose. The main difference between us was that she also scent marked the furniture to help her find it. Cats have those extremely useful whiskers and a much more pronounced sense of smell than humans, which seems to make them better prepared to live without sight.” (2025, Including Disability)

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Mental Health

Palestine

Exercise and freedom: inside a children’s mental health centre in Gaza. (Mar, the Guardian)

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Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism

Overview

Canada

Accessible cabs in Toronto are dwindling. One company says the city is failing to support drivers. (Jan, CBC)

Netherlands

More than half of Dutch bus stops inaccessible to disabled passengers:

“The analysis found that six out of ten bus stops lack sufficient aids for blind or visually impaired passengers. For people with mobility impairments who rely on wheelchairs or other devices, just under half of bus stops are inadequately equipped.” (Feb, NL Times)

United States

DeafSpace and the city: Theorizing transgression, identity, and the politics of belonging in urban planning. (Mar, Planning Theory)

Air Travel

Greece

Disability Rights Campaigner Dies After Falling From Side of Special Assistance Vehicle At Athens Airport After Barrier Swung Open. (Feb, Pyok)

United States

Deaf Frontier Airlines Passenger Removed From Flight for 'Not Listening'. (Mar, Newsweek)

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Policy and Rights

Overview

International News

World Report 2026. Annual review of human rights around the globe includes extensive information on disability. (Feb, Human Rights Watch)

Situational Analyses and Lessons from 51 Countries on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Of the 51 countries,

“49 countries assign CRPD responsibility to social welfare ministries that lack authority or resources. Only five of 36 national disability councils function effectively.” (2025, Global Disability Fund)

Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto: amplified barriers in diverse contexts. (2025, UN)

India

From Rights to Suspicion: How Maharashtra's Reverification Drive Undermines Disability Justice:

“The directive, though it is being framed as routine administration, exposes how disabled bodies are increasingly treated as objects of surveillance rather than bearers of rights.” (2025, The Wire)

Lebanon

National Strategy for the Rights and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Lebanon (2026–2030):

“Notably, several signs of change have begun to emerge in the disability sector over the past three years, despite the bleak national context. The Ministry of Social Affairs has started to seriously explore funding opportunities to improve and modernize the disability card system, reassess and classify disabilities in Lebanon, while parliamentary committees and organizations of persons with disabilities have begun preparing legal drafts to amend and update national legislation and adopt new laws consistent with the Convention. United Nations agencies have also become increasingly engaged in disability-related initiatives and have provided support to stakeholders working in the disability field, particularly organizations of persons with disabilities.” (Feb, NHRC)

United Kingdom

Reflections on the Disability Discrimination Act 30 years on. (2025, People's History Museum)

United States

Project Eugenics: The Rollback of Disability Rights. This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in the United States. It describes a “governing logic, built on three on three mutually reinforcing strategies”: dismantling, punishment and dehumanization. (Feb, New Disabled South)

The Precarity of Disability Rights Historically and in the Trump Administration.

“The current administration has largely rejected the value of disability rights, as well as a broader set of rights and programs that pursue active pathways to enable opportunities and participation by a range of groups. To undercut disability rights, they define disabled people as unworthy, emphasize and even manufacture conflicts to justify the denial of disability rights, dismantle the infrastructure required for disability rights, and reconfigure power relations across settings to disempower disabled people in claiming rights. Meanwhile, they assert instead the value of competition and negative rights, although the opportunity to compete and the “freedoms” of negative rights are not actually possible for people with disabilities without a communal commitment to access and support. They center a medical model in which cure is imposed on some, and left unaffordable for others, in which one’s ability to meet the standards of normalization and productivity determines inclusion and one’s failure to meet these standards justifies exclusion. Most of American history had been characterized by policies and practices that defined disability as a personal tragedy and left disabled people disempowered, and now this relational view has surged back into political prominence. The fragile infrastructure of disability rights is indeed easily subverted. As relational claims, rights quickly fall apart if these claims are no longer recognized as legitimate, if the rights holders are again constructed as unworthy, and if the infrastructure for participation and empowerment is decimated. In this context, even rights on paper do little to empower disabled people.” (Jan, Societies)

Assisted Dying and Euthanasia

International News

How different countries approach assisted dying. Dignity, autonomous choice, and the slippery slope:

“At the same time as parts of the disability movement protest against assisted dying, other disabled people have been at the forefront of demanding access to it. Indeed, the rapid expansion of assisted dying in Canada came about after a campaign by two disabled people to expand eligibility of those who could qualify for it.” (Mar, Disability Debrief)

Canada

Canada sidesteps UN scrutiny over assisted dying. “Calls by disability advocates and the UN to halt an expansion of medically assisted death have gone largely unacknowledged by the federal government”. (Feb, The Breach)

Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada. (2025, Canada.ca)

Europe

Free choice or forced choice? Position Paper on Assisted Dying:

“Based on the consultation findings and the current situation of disability rights across Europe, ENIL concludes that assisted dying cannot currently be considered a safe or rights-based option. The organisation stresses that decisions about end-of-life must be understood in the context of structural inequalities, including the lack of Independent Living support, discrimination, and underinvestment in social services.” (Mar, ENIL)

Netherlands

When Mentally Ill Teenagers Ask to Be Put to Death. A Dutch psychiatrist gave lethal injections to patients with mental suffering, some of them teenagers. (Mar, The Atlantic)

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Politics and Elections

International News

The need for inclusive elections has never been more important. (Jan, Sightsavers)

Equal participation of persons with disabilities in political life. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Heba Hagrass. (Jan, OHCHR)

Barbados

Disabled voters ‘dismayed’ by barriers at polls “Despite repeated promises, last week’s general election showed virtually no improvement in voting access for people with disabilities, the Barbados Council for the Disabled (BCD) said.” (Feb, Barbados Today)

France

Municipal elections 2026: Let's break free from indifference! (In French, Jan, Collectif Handicaps)

Nigeria

Nigeria’s 2027 election can set a model for disability inclusion. (Jan, The Conversation)

United States

Disability Under Donald Trump’s Second Term: So far. Trump in 2025. (Feb, Disabled Journalists Association)

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Relationships, Sex and Reproductive Rights

International News

Transforming Futures: Stories of disability inclusive and gender transformative change. (2025, Plan International)

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Sport and Paralympics

United States

Quiet Please! Goalball: The Paralympic Sport Made For The Blind That You’ve Never Heard Of. (Jan, Venice Oarsman)

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Violence and Harassment

Cameroon

Women with disabilities face rising sexual abuse in Cameroon. (Short video, Feb, DW)

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War in Ukraine

Ukraine

Four years of war: persons with disabilities in Ukraine:

“Amid ongoing attacks and unimaginable challenges, local disability rights activists continue to defend the rights of their communities while providing vital support to those most in need.” (Feb, EDF)

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