Disability News Library

A folded newspaper next to a cup of coffee on a worn tablWelcome to Project Freedom’s Disability News Library.  Our co-founder Norman Smith curated these articles from various media outlets across the country to provide a greater perspective on news, trends, and issues affecting people with disabilities.  Some of these articles will be behind paywalls, and we apologize to those who cannot access them. Our goal is to inform and educate while respecting the copyrights of publications and writers.

 


  • Being “Polite” Does Not Ensure Access - DREDF The Blog, dredf.org, August 18, 2023 On October 4, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Acheson Hotels LLC v. Laufer, a case that will decide whether testers – disabled people who investigate compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – can sue businesses for discrimination when… ... Read more ...
  • We Can’t Afford to *Not* Make Our Cities More Accessible for People With Disabilities - Steve Wright, StrongTowns.org, July 25, 2023 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns 33 on July 26. For a third of a century, this landmark civil rights legislation has made it possible for people with disabilities to access public spaces and participate in their communities, in ways they couldn't in the… ... Read more ...
  • Thousands of NJ families frustrated by long wait for disability services - LILO H. STAINTON, HEALTH CARE WRITER | AUGUST 21, 2023 | NJ Spotlight News After more than eight harrowing months as a patient at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 22-year-old Alex Guedes is scheduled to return home to Atlantic County in September. The house has ramps, lifts and other accommodations… ... Read more ...
  • People with Disabilities Need SMUP Designation. What is SMUP? - The National Council on Disability (NCD), a presidentially-appointed council, has written that the foundation of a person’s ability to live, learn, work, and earn, is to have and maintain good health that encompasses mental, physical, and overall well-being.  But there are great disparities in the health care system for people… ... Read more ...
  • “Work Until You Die” Is Not a Retirement Plan - By Rebecca Cokley, The Nation, March 10, 2023 The disability community is reeling this week over the passing of Judith Heumann. Judy, a polio survivor, spent most of her 75 years advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, in school, in employment, in foreign policy, in the United States and globally.… ... Read more ...
  • Nation’s Disability Services At Breaking Point, Report Finds - by Michelle Diament. DisabilityScoop.com, March 2, 2023 After warning for years of an impending collapse in the disability services system, advocates say that the crisis is here with a new report painting a dire picture of the situation across the country. Programs are closing, people with developmental disabilities are being turned away… ... Read more ...
  • Employment Of People With Disabilities Hits Record High - by Shaun Heasley, DisabilityScoop.com, March 3, 2023 he employment rate for Americans with disabilities has reached an all-time high, federal officials say. Among people with disabilities nationally, 21.3% had a job in 2022. That’s up from 19.1% the previous year and represents the highest rate on record since the government… ... Read more ...
  • Disabled Voters Struggle for Help With Ballots Amid Confusion - Five months after a federal court reaffirmed that voters with disabilities are entitled to receive help with their ballots, not all local Wisconsin election officials are clear about the rules on helping residents to vote.  By Mitchell Schmidt, The Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 21, 2023  (TNS) — It's been more… ... Read more ...
  • What I’ve learned being reliant on a caregiver - Opinion by Alice Wong, via CNN.com, February 22, 2023 Editor’s Note: Alice Wong is the founder of the Disability Visibility Project and author of “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life.” She tweets @SFdirewolf. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. CNN — Last June I spent a month in the… ... Read more ...
  • Social Security Proposes Change To SSI Benefits - by Michelle Diament, DisabilityScoop.com, February 21, 2023 The Social Security Administration is looking to make a big change to the way that it determines monthly payments for people with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income benefits. Currently, SSI beneficiaries can see their payments docked — often by one-third — if someone… ... Read more ...
  • Would cameras make group homes for disabled people safer? Debate rages over privacy - By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, January 29, 2023 Since 2018, Children’s Aid and Family Services has used video cameras to keep a close eye on the residents inside the 18 group homes it runs for people with developmental disabilities in north Jersey. The Paramus-based nonprofit spent about… ... Read more ...
  • States Struggle To Curb Fake Emotional Support Animals - By Elaine S. Povich, Stateline | January 24, 2023 Numerous websites promise to qualify any pet as an emotional support animal that the sites claim can go nearly anywhere — inside restaurants and stores, into “no pets” apartments and throughout college dorms. The easily obtained certificates are making it tough… ... Read more ...
  • How California’s emergency plans fail disabled communities - by Astra Lincon, High Country News/hcnn.org, January 23, 2023 Kelley Coleman was vacationing in Santa Barbara, California, when the evacuation order came. It was New Year’s week, and Kelley’s two sons, third and fifth graders in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood, were enjoying the last of their school holidays. Aaron,… ... Read more ...
  • NJ riders with disabilities lament Access Link’s delays, lost drivers. NJ Transit promises change - By Karen Yi, Gothamist.org,  January 19, 2023 NJ Transit has six months to start improving its Access Link public ride service foar people with disabilities, after the U.S. attorney's office found a pattern of late trips and excessively long rides. Gothamist found a similar trend in a review of more than… ... Read more ...
  • California’s power outages are a life-and-death issue - A perspective on the impacts of storms for people with disabilities by Alice Wong High Country News/hcn.org, January 19, 2023 The terms atmospheric river and bomb cyclone were not in my vocabulary until recently. During the first two weeks of 2023, however, the San Francisco Bay Area was deluged with a series of storms.… ... Read more ...
  • ‘Until it affects you’: Wheelchair users still battle to make NJ more accessible - by Olivia Liu,  Asbury Park Press, January 3, 2023 Stanley Soden of Long Branch was heading down Lowden Court to pick up groceries for himself and two neighbors in his apartment building. Despite the sidewalks that line Monmouth Medical Center on his right, Soden, who uses a motorized wheelchair, was… ... Read more ...
  • ‘Right to Repair’ Bill Aims to Empower Colorado Power Wheelchair Users - New Mobility,  October 28, 2022 As a manual wheelchair user himself, Colorado state Rep. David Ortiz knows how critical timely repairs can be when your wheelchair isn’t working. Something as simple as a missing bolt can be the difference between independence and bed rest, yet those simple solutions can take… ... Read more ...
  • Doctors Open Up About Turning Away Patients With Disabilities - by Michelle Diament | DisabilityScoop.com, October 24, 2022 Physicians are using excuses to intentionally dissuade people with disabilities from their practices, researchers say in a new study exposing just how pervasive discrimination against this population is in health care. In focus groups, doctors described making strategic choices to turn away… ... Read more ...