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Welcome to the Reading Roundup! Stay informed with our latest selection of accessibility news highlights, curated for you!
LOCAL NEWS
NBC NEWS: Maryland Cracker Barrel apologizes after turning away students with disabilities
A group of students with disabilities visited a Cracker Barrel in Waldorf, Maryland, and were refused service, according to school officials, leading to community outcry and a planned protest.
Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) superintendent Maria V. Navarro wrote in a statement Thursday that 11 students with disabilities and seven staff members visited the restaurant two days earlier. The field trip was part of a community-based instruction program meant to hone life skills, including interacting with others in public spaces like retail shops and restaurants.
Navarro wrote that, prior to the visit, staff notified the Cracker Barrel location of the group’s plans, including headcount and purpose of the visit. According to CCPS, they were told that no reservation was needed.
“Upon arrival, the students and staff were declined service and asked to no longer include the restaurant on its CBI list," Navarro wrote, adding that the group was able to place a carryout order.
DISABILITY SCOOP: On Capitol Hill, Key Disability Champions Set To Depart
Some of the most prominent voices in Congress for home and community-based services, Supplemental Security Income reform, competitive integrated employment and other disability issues are heading for the exits.
Multiple federal lawmakers who have prioritized issues important to this population will leave at the end of the year, some by choice and others who were voted out.
Notably, Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, both lost their bids for reelection last month.
When you're a kid, school seems inevitable, but for school-aged children with disabilities, that wasn't always a guarantee. For decades, many states legally refused to educate children with disabilities, often putting them in institutions where they rarely received education. Families rarely had other options or access to resources to provide for their children at home.
That changed in 1975 when Congress enacted the law known today as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA ensures that students ages 3 to 21 who have disabilities can have access to a free and appropriate public school education. The law covers a range of disabilities, the most common of which are learning disabilities and speech impairments.
Nationally, IDEA covers 7.5 million students, who make up 15.2% of the public school student population. The vast majority go to regular schools, with just 5% enrolled in specialized schools, private schools, or other types of programs, according to the Department of Education. Also, 2 in 3 students with disabilities spend 80% or more of their school day in general classes, a practice that would've been unthinkable pre-IDEA.
USA NEWS
NPR: How a staffing shortage can make special education jobs more dangerous
Fifteen years into rock climbing, Ian Gleason had an injury that nearly kept him from climbing again.
Complications from surgery left him paralyzed below his knee and partially above the knee on his left side. That was 12 years ago, and to watch him climb today you'd hardly notice he doesn't use his left leg to make his way up a wall. Earlier this year, at the encouragement of the youth climbing team he coaches, Gleason joined the US Paraclimbing team and has competed all over the world.
SLATE: The Sneaky Tactic That Makes Uber and Lyft Worse for Everyone
Last year, former U.S. Circuit Court Judge David Tatel, who is blind, was denied a Lyft ride to court when a driver refused to accept his guide dog.
It should not be necessary to state this, but: People who are blind deserve full access to trains, airplanes, and other transportation services—like Uber and Lyft—that are open to the general public. Our shared values of inclusion and human decency demand it, and federal, state, and local laws prohibit discrimination based on disability status.
But Uber and Lyft have a history of failing to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with guide dogs. On Tuesday, which was Blind Americans Equality Day, the National Federation of the Blind held a rally at the San Francisco headquarters of Uber and Lyft to highlight this persistent discrimination and to call for change, with participants accompanied by guide dogs demanding that companies “Respect Our Right to Ride.”
GLOBAL NEWS
THE KENYA TIMES: Stop Looking at Us as If We Are Beggars – CEO Born with Cerebral Palsy
In November, news articles cited a 2023-24 report by the National Council of Administration of Justice to hail Kenya’s progress in supporting persons with disabilities (PWDs), improving their access to justice and reducing their marginalisation in society. The report also sheds light on the work done by the criminal justice system, government agencies, and advocacy groups to minimise societal stigma suffered by PWDs. As the founder and CEO of AbleRise Africa Society, Josephine Mwende, a Nguvu Change Leader born with Cerebral Palsy and mother of a 7-year-old has consistently advocated for inclusivity and equality for PWDs.
On December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), she wants to once again remind Kenyan lawmakers that a lot more work needs to be done before all citizens can access their fundamental rights with equal ease.
She says, “The problem is that on this day we tend to amplify disability matters and then, everything goes back to normal. We still have counties without disability representation and persons with disability still struggle to access education, health and employment.”
Ten years ago, Jonny Huntington’s life was forever changed. While serving with the British army, the then 28-year-old suffered a life-altering stroke and bleeding on his brain, which left him almost entirely paralyzed.
Lying in a hospital bed with his life in ruins, the Devon local heard about polar explorer Ben Saunders over the radio. A pioneering endurance athlete, Saunders led the first return journey to the South Pole on foot via Shackleton and Scott’s route in 2014, and skied solo to the North Pole in 2004.
A decade later, Huntington himself would be at the South Pole, aiming to create history by becoming the first disabled athlete to ski there solo and unsupported.
“It was a slightly farcical situation,” Jonny tells me. “This young guy, completely unable to move, listening to certainly the greatest practising Polar Explorer of the age describing one of his treks to the North Pole, and all I was thinking at the time was, ‘It’s about 450 miles, that’s not actually very far’. Bearing in mind it was hard enough for me to even get to the bathroom.”
CULTURE NEWS
The number of students who need access to special education is higher than you might think.
More than 1 in 7 public school students between the ages of 3 and 21 received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, during the 2022-23 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
That's 15% of all public school students. In Ohio and Kentucky, those rates were a little higher, at 17%.
“Wicked” star Marissa Bode has spoken out against the negative comments and jokes about her character Nessarose’s disability, calling them “aggressive,” “very gross” and “harmful.”
In a five-minute video posted on TikTok on Friday, Bode - who uses a wheelchair on screen and in real life - shared her thoughts on the insensitive comments circulating online about Nessarose, the sister of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo).
"It is absolutely OK to not like a fictional character," Bode said. "I am going to be admitting my bias in the way that I have a lot of different feelings on Nessa than a lot of you do, and that's totally fine. I think Nessa is complex, but that's the beauty of art. ‘Wicked’ and these characters and the movie wouldn't be what it was if there weren't different opinions on the characters and who's truly wicked or not. And not liking Nessa herself is OK. Because she is fictional, that’s totally fine."
