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Welcome to the Weekly Reading Roundup! Stay informed with our latest selection of accessibility news highlights, curated for you!
LOCAL NEWS
DC NEWS NOW: Former attorney continues advocating for people with disabilities in DC
An 11-year former staff attorney veteran continues working to help people with disabilities in D.C.
Shawn Ullman has served as the Chief Executive Officer for the nonprofit, Quality Trust, since March 1, 2022. She was a staff attorney for 11 years with the Disability Rights DC at University Legal Services, a protection and advocacy program for people with disabilities in the District of Columbia.
Now, Ullman continues advocating for people with disabilities, as the leader of Quality Trust.
WSLS: Virginia Tech opens outdoor elevators for campus accessibility
Virginia Tech has been making changes all over campus and one part they are focused on is making the campus accessible for everyone.
Ahead of the school year, crews finished up work on two elevator towers to help students navigate campus.
With the recent changes to Blacksburg Transit and the university’s focus on making the entire campus accessible, these elevators solve the issue for those who have mobility issues.
“This investment is our commitment to making Virginia Tech accessible to all,” said Mark Owczarski, spokesperson for Virginia Tech. “Here where we are at, at our two new outdoor elevators, is representative and symbolic of our commitment to make our entire campus accessible to everyone.”
USA NEWS
TEXAS STANDARD: Morgan’s Hotel to offer unprecedented accessibility in San Antonio
Morgan’s Wonderland is a one-of-a-kind amusement park in San Antonio. Open since 2010, the park is full of rides, playgrounds and splash pads that are all designed to accommodate people with disabilities. More than 3 million people have visited the park, and the company has expanded to offer summer camps, accessible sports leagues and soon, a state-of-the-art hotel.
Morgan’s Hotel is set to open near the park in 2026 and plans to offer lodging that will meet the needs of all of its visitors. Gordon Hartman, the founder of Morgan’s Wonderland, spoke to the Texas Standard about the new project.
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICES: Judge orders NYC to make all new taxis wheelchair-accessible
A federal judge has ordered the Taxi and Limousine Commission to make all new taxis wheelchair-accessible until New York City meets the 50% threshold it agreed to in a 2013 settlement agreement.
The ruling, issued by Judge George Daniels this week in Manhattan federal court, comes after a consortium of disability advocates sued the TLC earlier this year for failing to meet the settlement’s terms: making 50% of the city’s 13,587 yellow cabs wheelchair accessible by 2020.
According to Dan Hendey, senior education manager for the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society, the designers of the first American playgrounds mostly did not consider that children with disabilities might want to use them.
“Population wasn’t always taken into account … but as our profession has grown, we’ve realized that there’s sometimes just simple things we can to do increase accessibility,” he said. That can include wider pathways that fit wheelchairs, parking lots for those who need to drive to the playground, communication boards, sensory play panels, or fencing that makes neurodivergent children feel contained and safe.
The Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society recently launched a park finder tool through its PA Good For You initiative, which people can use to locate parks with accessible features. It is available at goodforpa.com/park-finder.
GLOBAL NEWS
CONDE NAST TRAVELER: Paris Prioritized Accessibility Ahead of the Paralympics—but Has It Delivered?
In an attempt to keep both its Olympic and legal promises, Paris fast-tracked accessibility measures. In three years, the Mayor’s office has made city-wide improvements that would have otherwise taken 20 years—Parisian trams and buses are now wheelchair accessible, with vocal and visual stop announcements, and pedestrian crossings have vocal guides and tactile guiding strips.
Retrofitting accessibility features to the metro is more complicated and expensive due to the city’s historical infrastructure. Currently, only the latest line (Métro Line 14) is fully accessible. While many metro lines have vocal and visual stop announcements, “there are still no caption screens on most of the metro or trains to provide announcements or information about changes,” regrets Agnes Fédrizzi, a deaf physiotherapist who lives in the Parisian suburbs.
CBS NEWS: How the Paralympic Village has been transformed with accessibility in mind
Just four days before the start of the Paralympic Games, the athletes village was buzzing with activity on Saturday as athletes from 168 delegations were settling into their temporary home, preparing for their upcoming competitions.
The village, nestled in the northern suburbs of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, closed its doors on Aug. 13 after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, giving organizers a week to make necessary adjustments for the upcoming Paralympics.
Laurent Michaud, head of the Paralympic Village, discussed the rapid yet meticulous transformation. The village had been built with inclusivity in mind from the start, but this final week was crucial for fine-tuning details to ensure that every aspect was perfectly suited to the para-athletes' needs.
SEATTLE TIMES: French fan support at Paralympics gives athletes hope for future of disability sport
It’s the end of the second set of a women’s sitting volleyball match between the United States and France, and the French fans are letting loose.
They wave their tricolor flags in the flashing lights. Songs and cheers erupt from the packed stands at North Paris Arena.
And yet, the French have just lost this set, 25-1.
Win or lose, the French fans are turning out and supporting the more than 4,000 Paralympians competing in Paris, especially their own team.
These Paralympics sold more than 2.3 million tickets as of Monday, the latest count, according to Paris 2024 organizers. That puts it at No. 2 all time in terms of ticket sales for a Paralympic Games, behind only London’s 2.7 million in 2012, a moment generally regarded as a big victory in the disability sport community as it fights for visibility.
CULTURE NEWS
An unexpected highlight of the Democratic National Convention on Night Three was an outburst of pride from the son of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
“That’s my dad!” 17-year-old Gus Walz could be seen exclaiming Wednesday night. He stood, tears streaming down his face, and pointed to his father, the governor of Minnesota, who accepted the party nomination for vice president.
Gus wept through much of the 16-minute speech, and took the stage with his family afterward, wrapping his dad in a tight bear hug, burying his face in his shoulder.
The high school senior’s joy quickly went viral. He was still trending Thursday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. And his newfound fame is focusing attention on the challenges of people with learning disabilities. His parents recently revealed to People magazine that Gus has ADHD, an anxiety disorder and something called a non-verbal learning disorder. Searches on Google have spiked for the disorder and for the teen’s name.
THE VERGE: Microsoft’s new Xbox Adaptive Joystick puts accessibility at the center
Microsoft is launching a new $29.99 Xbox Adaptive Joystick early next year that’s designed for players with limited mobility. It’s a wired companion for existing Xbox controllers and includes four buttons, an Xbox thumbstick, and two additional buttons for bumper and trigger controls.
The Xbox Adaptive Joystick allows you to operate a controller without having to use both hands, making it ideal for any players who might have difficulty using the thumbsticks on existing controllers. All the buttons are fully customizable, and there are a variety of 3D printable thumbstick toppers to customize the sizes, heights, and width of thumbsticks.
PHYS.ORG: There's more to accessibility than availability of recreational spaces, says study
Urban planners and developers have predetermined markers of accessibility for recreational spaces, such as parks and playgrounds that might include ramps or the ability to travel to the space using public transportation
But whether these spaces are actually used by and functional for the communities they are meant to serve depends on perceived accessibility, a concept that Josephine Godwyll explores in a recent study published in the World Leisure Journal.
Accessibility looks at the opportunities for people to interact with a particular space, while perceived accessibility looks at people's considerations and perceptions of whether and how they will be able to use those opportunities.
Sophie Morgan is on a mission to change the way disability is reported on in the U.S. — and she’s starting with the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
The English TV host, 39, came to Los Angeles after the pandemic for another job opportunity and connected with Keely Cat-Wells — a disability rights advocate who founded (and has since sold) the disability-focused talent agency C Talent — to see what opportunities existed for her as a host and broadcaster in America.
Although Morgan had transitioned from working exclusively on disability-focused programming to mainstream programming in the U.K., (she worked on ITV’s hit talk show Loose Women) — she couldn’t find many promising broadcasting opportunities in the U.S.
Alongside Cat-Wells, she set out to create opportunities for herself and other disabled talent.
