Accessibility and Design

Overview

International News

Building Code Checklist for Universal Accessibility:

“provides a systematic approach to review building code provisions, with a focus on universal accessibility in the built environment and ensure consideration for persons with different abilities and of all ages” (Jun, GFDRR / World Bank)

United States

Stirring Through Challenges in the Kitchen: Strategies for People with Disabilities. (Mar, NextAvenue)

Housing

New Zealand

Partially blind man gets Kāinga Ora home after two years in emergency housing. (Apr, 1 News)

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Assistive Technology

Australia

Calls for industry regulation for prosthetic eye-makers after complaints to health commission. (Apr, ABC News)

Bulgaria

Bulgaria launches new disability support programme, providing high-tech assistive devices. “NGOs are calling for broader access and long-term sustainability.” (May, Euractiv)

United Kingdom

AI-powered bionic limbs come at too high a cost for many. (Apr, Financial Times)

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Civil Society and Community

Georgia

Disability Community Addresses International Human Rights Defenders About Deteriorating Rights. People with disabilities have been “disproportionately affected by government repression” in the current protests. (Apr, Civil Georgia)

Nigeria

Nigerian church makes deaf people feel welcome (Short documentary video, without access features, Apr, DW)

South Korea

Seoul bishop meets disability advocates who had been protesting against institutionalisation. (May, Catholic Sabah)

Disability activists' subway-riding protest disrupts morning commute. Further protests by Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD). (Apr, The Korea Herald)

United States

Leading Autism Organizations Release Joint Statement on Upholding Scientific Integrity and Supporting the Autism Community. (Apr, ASAN)

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Climate Crisis and Environment

International News

Investing in Disability-Inclusive Climate Justice: A guide for funders. “This first-of-its-kind guide explores why people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis—and why they’re too often excluded from climate solutions and funding.” (May, Impatience Earth)

UK International Climate Finance (ICF) gender equality, disability and social inclusion guidance. (May, UK Government)

Unequal climate justice for people with disabilities. Insights and evidence from communities and civil society organisations. (Apr, IDDC)

Bangladesh

The Ones We Leave to Drown. Essay on climate disaster: “Disability is not a sidebar in the climate crisis. It is the front line.” (Apr, Honi Soit)

Jordan

Breaking barriers through green employment. “The inspiring journeys of Samah, Tahani, and Najwa demonstrate how green employment can provide individuals with the tools to improve their lives and contribute to society.” (Mar, ILO)

Uganda

Field Lessons. “Steven Bukaya, a 57-year-old livestock farmer in Uganda, is navigating the dual pressures of disability and climate change”:

“When you’re a person with a disability and you rear animals, your home becomes a school to other people.” (Apr, Disability Justice Project)

United States

Climate Change Is Ushering in an “Age of Disability”:

‘If, as Taylor writes, “the future is disabled,” that disabled future is already here; but, to paraphrase William Gibson, it’s just not evenly distributed—owing largely to environmental racism.’ (Apr, Art in America)

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Communication and Language

Sign Languages

Bangladesh

Signs of emotion: “A first ever sign bank to express mental health-related words has been launched to support deaf people in Bangladesh”. (Mar, Monash University)

India

How Visual Vernacular is Reshaping the Deaf Art Space in India “Vibrantly combining gestures and mime, Visual Vernacular is an inclusive art that helps the Deaf and hearing communities to connect and communicate without words.” (Apr, Reframing Disability)

Jordan

“Mother tongue” or “broken Arabic”: Competing discourses about Jordanian Sign Language (LIU) in Amman:

‘I argue that these contradictory discourses can be productively read as forms of rhetoric: for instance, calling LIU the “mother tongue” of deaf Jordanians, rooted in its materiality, is a way for the start-up staff to convince audiences to support their cause, while describing LIU as “broken Arabic,” while incorrect, is useful insofar as it asks students of sign language not to sign in conformity to Arabic grammar.’ (May, Linguistic Anthropology)

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Conflict and Peace

Ethiopia

War in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has left many disabled veterans without care. (Apr, AP News)

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Culture, Entertainment and Media

Overview

Belarus

No Holds Barred For A Disabled Belarusian Comedian In Exile. Feature on Sasha Hushcha, now in Lithuania. (Short video feature, Apr, Radio Free Europe)

India

How Visual Vernacular is Reshaping the Deaf Art Space in India “Vibrantly combining gestures and mime, Visual Vernacular is an inclusive art that helps the Deaf and hearing communities to connect and communicate without words.” (Apr, Reframing Disability)

Nigeria

Young Nigerian Artist with Autism Breaks World Record Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke “broken the Guinness World Record for the largest individual painting on canvas—an awe-inspiring masterpiece spanning 12,303 square metres.” (Apr, Inclusive News Network)

United Kingdom

The World According to Crippen: Cartoons at the cutting edge of disability, over the past 50 years. (Disability Arts Online)

TV and Film

International News

Love horror, hate ableism: Modern horror’s obsession with disability:

“In a slasher battle, you bet I’m going with a powerchair user. It’s a heavy efficient vehicle, people always pack them to the brim with everything one’s heart could desire, and I bet they’d also know where all the good bathrooms are (secure hiding spots).” (Apr, The D*List)

United States

‘Deaf President Now!’ amplifies the birth of a rights movement: Documentary looks back on the campaign to appoint the first deaf president of Gallaudet University. (May, The Washington Post)

Media

United States

Winners of Schneider and Corcoran Excellence in Disability Reporting awards. (Apr, ASU Cronkite School)

Reporting on Marginalized Disabled Communities guidance for journalists:

“As journalists you have immense power and a strategic role to play in dismantling ableist systems, ideologies, and practices. Whether it be by challenging ableist stereotypes of disabled people, covering a story using an intersectional analysis that includes ableism, or reporting on disabled communities’ successes with dignity and respect, we need you in this fight.” (Mar, Transgender Law Center)

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Data and Research

Overview

International News

Disability Data Hub: “The Disability Data Hub is an open data initiative of the World Bank Group to provide access to disability-disaggregated development data.” (Apr, World Bank)

Global Disability Inclusion Report. An important global overview of available data on progress and challenges of implementing disability rights. (Apr, Global Disability Summit)

United States

Improved State-Level Disability Data Are Necessary For Advancing Health Equity (Mar, HealthAffairs)

Research

International News

Review of 'The Bloomsbury Guide to Philosophy of Disability’:

‘This edited volume offers a unified rebuttal to the presumption within traditional philosophy that disability belongs solely to the niche of applied bioethics and is “an objective human defect … that ought to be prevented, corrected, eliminated, or cured”.’ (Jan, H-Disability)

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Digital Accessibility and Technology

Artificial Intelligence

International News

The Open‑Source AI Accessibility Checker Holding LLMs Accountable:

“This open‑source framework is designed to evaluate how well coding‑focused large language models (LLMs) produce accessible HTML code.” (May, VKTR)

Hyper-sexualized AI Down syndrome content in a disturbing social media trend, being used to promote OnlyFans accounts:

“In videos that are going viral on those platforms, typical facial features associated with Down syndrome are being superimposed over the faces of scantily clad women engaged in sexually suggestive behavior with artificial intelligence.” (May, New York Post)

Australia

A scrambled breakfast. An essay on how artificial intelligence opens up visual access but closes down social change. (May, Disability Debrief)

Online Accessibility

International News

Hyper-sexualized AI Down syndrome content in a disturbing social media trend, being used to promote OnlyFans accounts:

“In videos that are going viral on those platforms, typical facial features associated with Down syndrome are being superimposed over the faces of scantily clad women engaged in sexually suggestive behavior with artificial intelligence.” (May, New York Post)

Accessibility overlays are good for business (just not yours): “overlays are successful because people are scared of accessibility work”. (Apr, Frank Elavsky)

Social Media

International News

ADHD is big on TikTok. You can find community, but also misleading advice:

“Fewer than half of the claims in the top videos accurately match the scientific criteria that form an ADHD diagnosis. Many oversimplified or overstated the symptoms of ADHD and weren't backed up by reliable sources.” (Mar, NPR)

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Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Response

Bangladesh

The Ones We Leave to Drown. Essay on climate disaster: “Disability is not a sidebar in the climate crisis. It is the front line.” (Apr, Honi Soit)

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Economics and Social Protection

Social Protection

United Kingdom

Survivors of torture face 'gruelling' process to get disability benefits – and it could get even worse. (Apr, Big Issue)

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Education and Childhood

Overview

International News

Including Families as Essential Partners in Inclusive Education:

‘IDP advocates for increased “family-school partnership” in inclusive schools around the world, aligning with researchers who suggest using the term “family” instead of parent to recognize the diversity of roles that might support a child in the home and “school” instead of teacher to recognize that individual teacher practice can be a reflection of the whole school ecosystem in which that teacher is functioning.’ (Apr, Inclusive Development Partners)

Global coalition launched to drive disability-inclusive education. (Apr, IDA)

Network analysis of functional disabilities and their association with mental well-being in children and adolescents: multi-country study across low- and middle-income countries:

“The core domains of disability with the strongest connections to poor mental well-being were difficulties in accepting change, making friends, behavioural control (controlling own behaviour) and remembering/concentrating. These associations remained largely consistent across different genders and developmental stages. However, there were notable gender differences and age-related shifts in the relationships between specific disabilities and mental well-being. In particular, signs of anxiety in males and depression in females were most associated with functional disability overall, while signs of depression had the closest links to disability in adolescents.” (Apr, The British Journal of Psychiatry)

Effectiveness of interventions for improving educational outcomes for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. (Mar, Campbell Systematic Reviews)

Neglect of Children with Disabilities: A Scoping Review. (Mar, Children)

Australia

Parents of Deafblind boy question inclusion policies for kids with complex disability. (Apr, ABC News)

Three-in-four disabled students bullied or excluded. “Exclusion and bullying of students with disability is on the rise in Australia’s schools, with three in four impacted in 2024, a new survey has revealed.” (Apr, EducationHQ)

Ethiopia

Case study on a multidimensional approach to assisting children with disabilities in humanitarian context in Ethiopia. (Feb, UNICEF)

Jordan

Education that excludes no-one: Jordan swaps debt to integrate children with disabilities into schools. (In Arabic, Apr, AlJazeera)

United States

Not One Generation Removed: “Three families share what it took to win the right for special ed students to learn with nondisabled kids — and what’s at risk under Trump & RFK Jr.” (Apr, The 74)

Deaf students had a path to science careers – until their federal grants ended. (Apr, NPR)

Higher Education

Nigeria

Accessibility Report of Facilities for Persons with Disabilities in Nigerian Tertiary Education Institutions. (Apr, Center for Disability and Inclusion Africa)

United States

Disability discrimination persists despite growing awareness and advocacy. A feature exploring inclusion of disabled people at Stony Brook University. (May, The Statesman)

UCLA Lawsuit: Disabled Students Sue Over Widespread Campus Accessibility Failures, Discrimination. (Apr, DREDF)

They Took Sledgehammers to Sidewalks – Here’s Why. History of activism from 1960s and 1970s at the University of California:

“How were we going to make ourselves free?” (Apr, PBS)

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Employment, Business and Work

International News

Why there can be no disability justice without labour justice. “Despite links between the disability and labour movements dating back to the 19th century, longstanding inequalities and a significant wage gap for people with disabilities remain.” (May, Sightsavers)

Disability-Inclusive Supply Chains: A Guide for Business:

“First, businesses are advised to identify and analyse risks of disability-based discrimination within their operations and supply chains. From there, they can develop inclusive business policies and integrate respective practices into their own operations and encourage suppliers to take similar measures. Concrete measures to reduce and eliminate disability-based discrimination and improve accessibility by businesses and their business partners should follow, enabling persons with disabilities to participate fully. Progress is then monitored by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and communicated to stakeholders. Finally, businesses are encouraged to establish accessible grievance mechanisms, allowing affected individuals to report cases of discrimination and to have these situations remediated.” (Apr, ILO GBDN)

Japan

Japanese companies struggle to meet quotas for disabled workers:

“Japan last year extended a two-decade streak of rising employment for disabled people. But businesses have struggled to meet legal quotas due to demographics as well as a work culture with entrenched patterns of corporate behaviour and a tendency for box-ticking.” (Apr, Financial Times)

Jordan

Breaking barriers through green employment. “The inspiring journeys of Samah, Tahani, and Najwa demonstrate how green employment can provide individuals with the tools to improve their lives and contribute to society.” (Mar, ILO)

Nigeria

Digital skills for people who are blind. “A software engineer in Nigeria is teaching digital skills to people who are blind or have low vision.” (Short video feature, Apr, DW)

United States

Disabled workers have faced prejudice. Now they face DOGE firings. (May, AP News)

A Decade of Learning: reflections on “Building a Dynamic Workforce through Neurodiversity”. (Apr, Microsoft)

Only 4.4 Percent of workers in legal occupations identify as disabled. “Disabled workers are most concentrated in the legal support field, such as in administrative and clerical roles.” (Feb, NDLPA)

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Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities

International News

Bringing Gender to the Agenda at the Global Disability Summit! (May, Women Enabled International)

India

Love, Loneliness, and the Disabled Man. Abishek Anicca on the complex interplay between disability and masculinity:

“The disabled man, online and offline, is always in a conundrum. On one hand, they want to belong, and in this quest, they try to put themselves out in the world. They do things that make them ‘normal’. They dance, cook, and navigate public space—telling the world that they are capable of living with certain degrees of independence. That they are passionate and emotional beings, fully-formed individuals who deserve to be acknowledged for their personhood. On the other hand, they are always under threat from the able-bodied gaze. People can get away with abusing and humiliating them in front of others. They are empowered, but they continue to remain helpless. Always longing to belong, and yet never belonging.” (Apr, Reframing Disability)

Moldova

Invisible Victims to the Law and Society: Women with Disabilities in Moldova, a report. (Apr, AEFL Moldova)

New Zealand

The policing of trans bodies should be a red flag for all of us:

“As disabled people we are painfully familiar with our bodies and ways of being over-scrutinised, over-medicalised, unimagined and excluded. We too defy definition.” (May, The D*List)

United Kingdom

On Trains, Disability, & "Biological Sex". “Disabled women know far too well what it is to fall outside society’s definition of womanhood”:

“Every definition of “biological sex” I’ve seen leaves out plenty of cisgender women as well as trans ones. This is especially true for disabled women, who know far too well what it is to fall outside society’s definition of womanhood: biological, social, or otherwise. Disabled men, too. Disabled bodies defy and disprove biological markers of sex (and plenty of other normate societal delusions) every day.” (Apr, Anna Landre)

Trans and Disability Justice: “When we start to question who deserves access to bodily autonomy and who doesn’t, it becomes a deathly game.”:

“The gender roles we are currently working with are constructed around the idea of a white, cis, non-Disabled person – they don’t serve Disabled people, just as they don’t serve Trans people. In fact, our experiences as Disabled people can help to shine a light on the failures of a biologically gendered worldview.” (Jan, Disability Rights UK)

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Health

International News

Draft of WHO Pandemic Agreement “a major step forward for disability-inclusive global health”. (Apr, IDA)

Cancer screening inequities and people with intellectual disabilities —what should we do to close the gaps? (Mar, The Lancet Public Health)

Proposed updated description of cerebral palsy based on emerging research and input from people with cerebral palsy themselves. (Jan, DMCN)

Bolivia

Deaf Indigenous Women’s Health Experiences a pilot study:

“These women said they had high level of frustration with hospitals. No interpreters were provided during their interactions in health care settings and they had no clear understanding of their health care needs. They cannot communicate freely with their health care providers. They often depend on hearing female family members such as their mother, grandmother, sister, or aunt during medical appointments to facilitate communication with health care providers, which violates their right to privacy. Because of these communication barrier issues, these women often feel frustrated or resigned to having poor access to health care and lower health care knowledge.”

Ghana

Participant perceptions of disability training for health workers: a qualitative study in Ghana:

“First, there are several barriers to implementing training, including the insufficiency of existing training, lack of formality, costs and sustainable funding, evaluation, and poor sign language implementation. Potential improvements suggested included: incentives, strong collaboration and coordination, and better curricula integration.” (Mar, BMC Medical Education)

United States

With disability rights under attack, history offers hope and a possible playbook. (May, NPR)

Here’s How to Fight Back Against the GOP Proposal to Gut Medicaid. Polling on messaging. (May, Data for Progress)

Uproar as disability rights protesters in wheelchairs dragged out of House Medicaid meeting: ‘You’re going to kill me!’ (May, Independent)

Republicans Will Use Paperwork to Kick Americans Off Health Care

“Precisely because they’re overlooked, administrative burdens are an excellent political tool to accomplish unpopular policy goals. Consequently, Republicans are proposing to increase burdens to ensure large coverage loss among the eligible.” (May, New York Times)

Congress voted to kick millions off Medicaid.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office, 10.3 million people will lose Medicaid coverage by 2034, some due to work requirements and others due to paperwork and eligibility checks.” (May, Cr*pple Media)

Living With Chronic Pain Can Ruin a Person’s Life. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known About Managing It, an essay from Alice Wong. (Apr, Teen Vogue)

Improved State-Level Disability Data Are Necessary For Advancing Health Equity (Mar, HealthAffairs)

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History and Memorial

United States

Recounting the struggle to care for people with disabilities in the U.S. Interview with Alex Green:

“But the simple fact is that disability [is] at odds with our ideas about the American dream, about the idea that you work hard and then you succeed, and you get your rewards, because many of us cannot work in the conventional ways that nondisabled people can, and faced with a group of people who don’t fit with the vision of that myth, non-disabled Americans have ruthlessly taken every opportunity over the last century and beyond to try to push disabled people back out of sight, because we don’t fit with common notions of efficiency or cosmetic beauty or other things we value most in society today.” (May, Harvard Law School)

‘Never go back!’ Hundreds united on Staten Island for 50-year celebration of Willowbrook State School closure decree. (May, amNewYork)

They Took Sledgehammers to Sidewalks – Here’s Why. History of activism from 1960s and 1970s at the University of California:

“How were we going to make ourselves free?” (Apr, PBS)

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Humanitarian, Migrants and Refugees

Overview

Ethiopia

Case study on a multidimensional approach to assisting children with disabilities in humanitarian context in Ethiopia. (Feb, UNICEF)

Nigeria

Displaced People with Disabilities Face Severe Struggles in Borno Camps. (Apr, HumAngle)

Sudan

Inclusive Humanitarian Action Policy Brief Situation of persons with disabilities in Sudan. (Apr, Humanity & Inclusion)

Migration

United States

Trump cuts legal program for immigrants with mental illness or cognitive disabilities. (May, NBC News)

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Independent Living and Deinstitutionalization

Overview

International News

Inclusion in Care a strategy for a rights-based care agenda. (May, Center for Inclusive Policy)

Poland

'We want to live, not just survive': The fight for the Personal Assistance Act in Poland continues. (May, EDF)

United States

Private equity ‘gobbling’ up care facilities for people with disabilities. “Rising PE ownership of care facilities has led to abuse, neglect and even deaths, new report finds” (Mar, STAT)

Conditions in Institutions

Ireland

'I don't want to be here forever': The hidden struggle of middle-aged adults living in nursing homes:

“More than 1,200 people under the age of 65 in Ireland are living in nursing homes designed for much older people, leaving them frustrated and calling for alternatives.” (Apr, The Journal)

Peru

New Peru Legislation Threatens Disability Rights:

‘On April 2, 2025, Peru’s Congress added article 29.2 to the law, which states: “The State promotes the creation of specialized care centers and temporary and permanent shelters for persons with disabilities.” The amendment ignores the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Peru is a party to.’ (Apr, Human Rights Watch)

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International Cooperation

Overview

International News

IDA General Assembly elects new OPD-led leadership. (May, IDA)

Bridging the Disability Rights Funding Gap. “Organizations of persons with disabilities are severely underfunded. The Disability Rights Fund tells how philanthropy can be truly inclusive.” (Apr, Robert Bosch Stiftung)

Flourish or fragment – how controlling the money matters for disability justice:

“As a disability activist, let me be clear, when funders retain control, they are forcing us to justify our strategies to people who may have no direct experience of our realities. Instead of trusting our lived experience and expertise, we’re made to fit into predefined boxes. Not only does this create a power imbalance, it also creates an upside-down reality, where funders, not people living with disabilities, decide what counts as progress.” (Mar, Alliance)

Jordan

Education that excludes no-one: Jordan swaps debt to integrate children with disabilities into schools. (In Arabic, Apr, AlJazeera)

Global Disability Summit

International News

Bringing Gender to the Agenda at the Global Disability Summit! (May, Women Enabled International)

GDS Portal: Overview of the 800 Commitments made in 2025. (Apr, Global Disability Summit)

Global coalition launched to drive disability-inclusive education. (Apr, IDA)

Global Disability Inclusion Report. An important global overview of available data on progress and challenges of implementing disability rights. (Apr, Global Disability Summit)

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Justice Systems and Legal Capacity

United States

ASAN Calls For End to Police Violence After Cops Kill Autistic Latino Teen Victor Perez. (Apr, ASAN)

Only 4.4 Percent of workers in legal occupations identify as disabled. “Disabled workers are most concentrated in the legal support field, such as in administrative and clerical roles.” (Feb, NDLPA)

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Lived Experience and Opinion

International News

Go give them their flowers. An essay on grief and memorial in disability community:

“As I think about love and loss, it makes me think about building community, and the need to recognise people sooner rather than later. To be disabled is to have your plans disrupted. We have to make time and space to give people their flowers when they’re alive.” (May, Disability Debrief)

Africa

Young African storytellers shine in creative We Can Work competition. (Apr, LFTW)

New Zealand

Do I have ADHD? Writer and theatre maker Jo Randerson on getting a diagnosis in their 40s:

“My life has felt like I’m an archaeologist digging myself up, piece by piece, and slowly stacking my bones together into a skeleton that I recognise.” (Apr, The Spinoff)

Nigeria

Olakulehin Dami – A Lifelong Journey of Finding Purpose in Disability. (May, BONews Service)

United Kingdom

When I was ill, some friends disappeared.

“If we did speak, I noticed they would never mention my health or the vast changes that had happened to my life. I understood their reticence; I barely knew what to say myself and I was the one actually living it. But at the same time, these conversations always felt faintly ludicrous, as if there were a five tonne elephant in the room and I was expected to join in the pretence it wasn’t standing on my foot.” (May, iPaper)

Who Wants Normal? Review of The Disabled Girls’ Guide to Life by Frances Ryan, a:

“hybrid memoir-polemic-advice-manual, the book examines more personal topics such as body image, dating and relationships, specifically as these relate to disabled women.” (Apr, Guardian)

United States

Living With Chronic Pain Can Ruin a Person’s Life. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known About Managing It, an essay from Alice Wong. (Apr, Teen Vogue)

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Mental Health

International News

Network analysis of functional disabilities and their association with mental well-being in children and adolescents: multi-country study across low- and middle-income countries:

“The core domains of disability with the strongest connections to poor mental well-being were difficulties in accepting change, making friends, behavioural control (controlling own behaviour) and remembering/concentrating. These associations remained largely consistent across different genders and developmental stages. However, there were notable gender differences and age-related shifts in the relationships between specific disabilities and mental well-being. In particular, signs of anxiety in males and depression in females were most associated with functional disability overall, while signs of depression had the closest links to disability in adolescents.” (Apr, The British Journal of Psychiatry)

Bangladesh

Signs of emotion: “A first ever sign bank to express mental health-related words has been launched to support deaf people in Bangladesh”. (Mar, Monash University)

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Mobility, Travel, Transport and Tourism

New Zealand

Disabled passengers allege ‘continued pattern’ of mistreatment. “From ‘general rudeness and condescension’ to leaving a sexual harassment victim stranded and another wheelchair user concussed, a litany of complaints has led to Wellington’s public transport provider promising to revamp its staff training.” (Apr, The Spinoff)

Uruguay

Despite a Presidential decree people with disabilities do not have access to free tickets on suburban and interdepartmental buses. (In Spanish, Apr, El Observador)

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Policy and Rights

Overview

International News

IDA updates its compilation of CRPD Committee’s Concluding Observations, and highlights recommendations from the last session. (Apr, IDA)

We are with you – but are you with us? Making the case that people with disfigurements are disabled people and should be protected by disability rights:

“This idea is still sometimes met with surprise – and occasionally reluctance. Usually, this is because people associate the words ‘disability’ and ‘impairment’ with a difference of function (such as movement, speech or hearing) rather than a difference of appearance. Disfigurements do sometimes impact function; a cleft lip and palate, for example, can make it harder to speak, eat and breathe as well affecting appearance. But some disfigurements impact what someone looks like without affecting how their body works. This could be the case for someone with many visible but benign skin tumours caused by neurofibromatosis type 1. We believe that, by recognising the disabling power of different social barriers – including attitudes about facial differences – we are stronger together, while still leaving room to acknowledge the many diverse experiences within the disability rights movement.” (Mar, Face Equality International)

Europe

Boules and then fries: a lively review of disability in Belgium and Luxembourg. (Apr, Sous Les Roues)

Kenya

Kenya has a bold new disability law: now to make it work:

“The new law expands the definition of disability to encompass a broader range of impairments. This ensures more individuals are recognised and protected under the law. The law also mandates accessibility across sectors such as education, employment, healthcare and public services, requiring reasonable accommodations and prohibiting discrimination.” (May, The Conversation)

Enactment of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2025: A Landmark Victory for Human Rights in Kenya. (May, KNCHR)

Peru

New Peru Legislation Threatens Disability Rights:

‘On April 2, 2025, Peru’s Congress added article 29.2 to the law, which states: “The State promotes the creation of specialized care centers and temporary and permanent shelters for persons with disabilities.” The amendment ignores the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Peru is a party to.’ (Apr, Human Rights Watch)

Assisted Dying and Euthanasia

Canada

Pro-life voices laud UN report saying Canada’s euthanasia law discriminates toward disabled. (Apr, BC Catholic)

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Politics and Elections

Australia

Who is Ali France, the Labor candidate who has unseated Peter Dutton in Dickson? (May, the Guardian)

Ali France's election isn't just a boon for Labor — it's big for the disability community too. "My first best friend is my prosthetic leg and my second is my wheelchair," she told ABC News. (May, ABC News)

Three big disability issues the next government needs to address. (Apr, ABC News)

It's time for every Australian to vote... “Except people with a disability”: an open letter asking to protect the rights of Australians with a disability to vote. (Apr, ALHR)

Barbados

Outgoing MP hailed for disability advocacy:

“Prime Minister Mia Mottley has led parliamentary tributes to Edmund Hinkson, the outgoing St James North MP, praising his three-decade legacy as a “quiet giant” whose advocacy for disability rights and legislative reforms reshaped protections for vulnerable communities across Barbados.” (Apr, Barbados Today)

United States

DOGE & Disability Rights: Three Key Tech Policy Concerns. (May)

Here’s How to Fight Back Against the GOP Proposal to Gut Medicaid. Polling on messaging. (May, Data for Progress)

Republicans Will Use Paperwork to Kick Americans Off Health Care

“Precisely because they’re overlooked, administrative burdens are an excellent political tool to accomplish unpopular policy goals. Consequently, Republicans are proposing to increase burdens to ensure large coverage loss among the eligible.” (May, New York Times)

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Relationships, Sex and Reproductive Rights

United States

With Her New Book, ‘Unfit Parent,’ Jessica Slice Upends Assumptions About Disability and Motherhood. (Apr, Vogue)

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Violence and Harassment

Europe

Ending violence, ensuring inclusion: strengthening protections against gender-and disability-based violence. Research in Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovakia:

“Violence is common in institutional settings, although they are often normalised, concealed and unreported, due to inadequate staff training, staff shortages, lack of appropriate complaint procedures and overcrowding.” (Feb, Validity Foundation )

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