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Welcome to the Reading Roundup! Stay informed with our latest selection of accessibility news highlights, curated for you!
LOCAL NEWS
STAT: Q&A: How this federal court ruling helps nursing home residents with disabilities
Over the last 30 years, one of the biggest shifts in health policy for Americans with disabilities has been an emphasis on helping people live and receive care in their communities, rather than in institutional settings, such as psychiatric hospitals and intermediate care facilities.
A New Year’s Eve ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is expected to accelerate this shift and usher nursing home residents under the community care umbrella. Fifteen years after AARP Foundation lawyers and others filed the initial lawsuit, the court has ruled that the district unlawfully segregated people with disabilities by refusing to move them from Medicaid-funded nursing homes.
The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled over whether federal employment protections for people with disabilities extend to retirees, an issue that has divided the lower courts.
But attorneys for both the disabled firefighter at the center of the case and for the Department of Justice told the justices they could avoid that bigger question and just rule that the Americans with Disabilities Act’s anti-discrimination protections apply in this firefighter’s case.
USA NEWS
MSN: Disabled Los Angeles fire victim escaped flames in wheelchair
A couple who escaped the deadly flames of the fast-moving, wind-driven Eaton Fire in Southern California are hoping their survival story will bring attention to the needs of those with disabilities during natural disasters.
Galen Buckwalter, who is paralyzed from the waist down, told Nexstar’s KTLA that he watched as the glow of the wildfire raced down the San Gabriel Mountains toward their home in the foothill community of Sierra Madre.
THE PLAIN DEALER: ‘I’m free’: New communication method finally gives people with autism a voice
For more than two decades, Talia Zimmerman wasn’t able to communicate using more than a single word or two.
Then, 18 months ago, the floodgates opened.
Among the things she was finally able to tell her parents: Her favorite color is red. Da Vinci’s most famous painting is the Mona Lisa. And she’s grateful that she’s finally able to be understood.
DISABILITY SCOOP: New Project Showcases ‘Disability-Forward’ Housing
Housing aimed at people with disabilities is often tucked away on the outskirts of cities, nondescript group homes far from shops or transit stations.
In San Francisco, however, a new 112-unit building catering to a diverse cross-section of residents with disabilities is opening at 240 Van Ness, smack in the middle of the city’s Civic Center neighborhood. City Hall is a block to the north. Davies Symphony Hall is across the street. Next door to the south is the Bowes Center, which houses Conservatory of Music dorms and performances spaces. It’s two blocks from the Van Ness Muni station and overlooks the bus rapid transit line.
Shoehorning the building into a tight T-shaped parcel on one of the city’s busiest streets “means a lot of tight pressure is put on every square inch of every square foot,” said Pauline Souza of WRNS Studio, which designed the building with Santos Prescott and Associates.
GLOBAL NEWS
FORBES: Intersectionality Is More Than A Buzzword
Amid global shifts in DEI priorities and growing skepticism around corporate diversity initiatives, there's a risk of losing sight of what really matters. There’s a danger that vital concepts like "intersectionality" will be dismissed as just another buzzword in an increasingly politicized diversity landscape.
But this isn’t about buzzwords - it's about real people navigating multiple layers of barriers in their professional lives - like a Deaf Muslim woman navigating both prayer accommodations and sign language interpretation at work, or a transgender person with chronic illness facing both medical and gender bias in healthcare benefits and workplace support systems. Understanding and accommodating these overlapping identities isn't just theoretical - it's about recognizing and supporting people in all their beautiful complexity and difference. And that’s vital for business success.
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
A24's A Different Man star Sebastian Stan won a Golden Globe Sunday night for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
In a heartfelt speech, the actor acknowledged the rarity of substantial roles and equal access opportunities for disabled people onscreen. "Our ignorance and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end. We have to normalize it and continue to expose ourselves and our children to it. [We should] encourage acceptance." Stan said.
THE WRAP: After 'CODA,' How Is Hollywood Faring on Disability Representation?
If one were to ask the average media viewer about disability at the Academy Awards, they'd probably refer to Marlee Matlin winning the Oscar for Best Actress for the 1986 feature "Children of a Lesser God" and the 2021 feature "CODA" winning Best Picture. But to the disabled community, these two wins illustrate the highs and lows of the con- tinued struggle for representation on-screen.“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.”
Though one in four people have a disability in the United States, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that number is not reflected in entertainment. According to a 2024 study from USC Annenberg, 2.2% of all characters in the films of 2023 had a disability, a 0.3% increase from the previous year. And according to GLAAD's 2022 "Where Are We on TV" report, only 2.8% of all series regulars were characters with disabilities. So, this raises the question: In the three years since "CODA" debuted, has Hollywood capitalized on its success? In some ways, yes, but there's still much more progress to be made.
