Disability Rights Watch

Tag: DEIA

  • Week 21 Update

    1. Department of Energy leads new attack on Section 504 Over the past several weeks, the Department of Energy has been working to weaken Section 504, a statute that protects disabled people’s right to enter and be accommodated in any spaces that receive federal funding, including government buildings, public schools, hospitals that accept Medicaid, and more.

    The change seeks to allow various entities to decide whether or not they want to include accessibility and accommodations for disabled people based on whether they are “efficient.”
    The language is vague about the breadth of spaces that would be affected or what precedent it would set for 504/ADA enforcement.
    Public comment is open until June 16. Templates are available at the link above.

    2. Hospitals Warn Medicaid Cuts Will Devastate Rural Facilities Republicans continue to work on a budget bill that seeks to cut $785 billion from Medicaid programs across the next decade.
    Rural doctors and hospitals, especially in GOP-leaning populations in the middle of the country, will be disproportionally affected, as those populations tend to rely more heavily on Medicaid programs.

    This, alongside recent private equity takeovers of hospitals to flip them for profit, is creating healthcare deserts, where people may face extremely long wait times and/or travel for hours to reach emergency care.

    3. RFK Jr. Dismisses Entire Sitting Panel of CDC Vaccine Panel
    RFK Jr. dismissed the entirety of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which previously had 17 members.

    Later in the week he announced 8 people to serve as their replacements. At least two have been very vocal against COVID mitigation measures, like masking, as well as vaccines.
    It is another of RFK’s many attacks on vaccine science since taking power at HHS, coinciding with the large sums of money he receives from antivax lobbyists.

    Healthcare providers and advocates are concerned that changes to vaccine recommendations will affect access, especially since health insurance companies use the panels to make decisions on what they will pay for.

    4. Antivax and Ableist Approaches to Autism Allow Conspiracy Cures to Gain Traction, Poison Children. The platforming of vaccine and autism-focused misinformation, and the removal of some misinformation safeguards by Google/YouTube, has led to an uptick in dangerous health conspiracies and grifts.

    One such group is the “bleach community” who attempts to “cure” autistic children by forcing them to ingest bleach.

    Poisoning children with bleach doesn’t make them less autistic. However, it can cause seizures, internal chemical burns, vomiting blood, and death. Platforming and both sides-ing nonscience has consequences.

    5. ASHA Moves to End DEI and Cultural Competency Certification Standards ASHA announced this week that they seek to strike language like “cultural humility; diversity, equity and inclusion; culturally and linguistically diverse; cultural responsiveness; equity in care”

    They claim funding concerns due to federal mandates, but they are privately funded by member dues

    ASHA is already a contentious organization. For SLPs and Audiologists, forgoing a supposedly “voluntary” membership can affect licensure in some states. Patients have been harmed by a long history of ableism, including shutting out D/HH and signing professionals, and indecision on dXs like CAPD leaving patients without care (due to no billable insurance codes)

    6. Good News: SCOTUS Ruling Makes ADA Complaints Easier in School Settings The unanimous ruling in AJT vs. Osseo Area Schools reifies the ADA is enforceable in public schools, and that students and families do not have to prove “bad faith” or “gross negligence” in order to file a complaint.

    Instead, schools will be held to the same legal standard as in other ADA-related cases: “deliberate indifference.” This is a big win for disability rights advocacy, especially in a time when legal oversight for IDEA, the law governing special education, is nearly eradicated by DoEd layoffs.

    DOJ oversight will be critical for enforcement of this new ruling, concerning as that department has already sought to weaken ADA guidance in recent weeks.

    7. Good News: Florida will Teach Disability History in K-12 Schools A new law in Florida mandates that the first two weeks in October will include curriculum on disability awareness and history.

    How the law will be implemented and the curriculum developed are still in their early stages.

    Some FL advocates have expressed concerns about the vague language of the law, as well as the way it siloes studies of specific disabilities into different grade levels; however, most generally agree it is a good first step in a state that is often hostile toward diversifying curricula.

    8. Hickson vs. St David’s Healthcare Partnership threatens ADA/504 in healthcare settings     Michael Hickson, a 46-year-old disabled Black man died in Texas in June 2020 after contracting Covid and being denied ventilator care and other ICU services. At the time, Texas and 24 other states had policies about rationing care that explicitly discriminated against disabled people. This is one of the things Final Rule updates seek to rectify.

    The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a conservative court. If they rule in favor of the hospital, it would set a precedent that guts disabled people’s ability to file medical facility-related discrimination claims under the ADA or Section 504.

    Action Items:
    Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

    Call your Senator and tell them to vote NO on this dangerous budget. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you–Medicaid, gender-affirming care, SNAP, IDEA, etc.–and mention them by name.

    Leave a comment with the Dept. Of Energy speaking against their proposed changes to 504 enforcement. Templates available here.

    If your state is involved, ask your Attorney General to withdraw from Texas v. Kennedy. If able, donate to organizations like DREDF, ACLU, and NAD who are fighting various legal challenges, and ADAPT who routinely put their bodies on the line in activist work.

    Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Week 19 Updates

    1. The Dept of Education’s proposed 2026 budget released. The proposed DoEd budget was released this week, confirming a shift from IDEA formula grants (calculated by state need, with specific requirements to be used for special ed.) to block grant format. States would no longer be required to use the money for special ed.

      Proposed program cuts for 2026: Preschool grants, State Personnel Development, Technical Assistance teams, SpEd. Personnel Preparation Program, Parent Information Centers, Educational Technology Media and Materials program, Client Assistant State Grants, several training and Supported Employment state grant programs, the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights, Adult Education State grants. These are only the special ed programs cut. Many more have also been defunded.

      Bright spots: Funding for the Special Olympics, as well as the American Printing House for the Blind, NTID, Gallaudet University, Helen Keller National Center for DeafBlind, and Independent Living Services for Older Blind Individuals has been slated at the same rate for 2026. This is good news, and a departure from stated plans in Project 2025, which proposed defunding these programs.

      The budget also proposes slight increases in funding to both the overall special education and Vocational Rehabilitation budgets. However, these increases will not be enough to offset the programs in and outside of special ed. departments that have been defunded.

      The full DoED 2026 budget proposal is available here.
    2. HHS Budget Proposal Released: The proposed HHS budget continues ahead with plans for deep cuts across the department, especially in the NIH, CDC and Administration for Children Families and Communities. HHS department cuts sought total over $32 billion.

      Specific to the disability community, the ACL’s University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Chronic Disease Self-Management Education, Limb Loss and Paralysis Resource Centers, Voting Access for People with Disabilities, and the White House Conference on Aging are all proposed cuts.

      Bright spots: The new proposal walks back some of the proposed Administration for Community Living (ACL) eliminations. These programs remain funded in the current proposal: Councils on Developmental Disabilities, Protection and Advocacy systems, the Long-term care ombudsman program, National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitative Research (NIDILRR), Lifespan Respite Care Program, and State Health Insurance Program (SHIP), among others.

      Instead of splitting the ACL’s programs across three different agencies as originally be proposed, the programs will move to the Administration for Children, Families and Communities. (This is good news, but remember deep budget cuts to the ACFC are also proposed)

      The Dept of Health and Human Services proposed 2026 budget is available in full here.
    3. MAHA Commission Report Cites Sources that Don’t exist: Last week, the commission released a report declaring a childhood “chronic disease crisis” in the US, identifying poor diet, chemicals, chronic stress, lack of physical activity, and “overmedicalization” as driving causes. The report also questioned vaccine safety.

      In the days since, it’s become clear that many of the sources cited do not exist.

      In addition to making the Commission’s work untrustworthy due to lack of peer-reviewed evidence, fake sources are hallmark of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, who “hallucinate” sources by putting words and names together that sound true, but aren’t real.
    4. CDC Defies RFK, Keeping covid vaccinations on childhood schedule: Last week, The FDA announced a plan to limit access to COVID boosters, restricting them to people over 65 or with underlying health conditions only. RFK also asked specifically that covid vaccines be left off the childhood vaccine schedule. Considering RFK Jr’s profitable ties to antivax organizations, many see this as the first step in limiting overall access to vaccines.

      This week, the CDC went against RFK’s statement, releasing its vaccine schedule including recommendations for covid vaccination for all children.
    5. Deaf schools under threat as state budgets compensate for DoEd cuts: Bracing for a federal budget that eliminates nearly $300 billion in education funding, some states are taking advantage of their expected freedom under the block grant system and cutting deaf school budgets.

      The New Jersey School for the Deaf (MKSD) saw their residential program completely removed from the governor’s proposed 2026 budget.

      Indiana School for the Deaf and California School for the Deaf–Fremont are also experiencing budgetary issues. Indiana seeks to reallocate money previously for ISD toward general public education, while CSD Fremont struggles to maintain appropriate funding for cost-of-living in a gentrified Silicon Valley area.
    6. NAD Sues White House to return ASL interpreters to press briefings: In keeping with eugenic rhetoric, various GOP influencers have shown particular hostility toward ASL interpreters in recent months, ever since Charlie Kirk and Chris Rufo attacked their existence at emergency briefings for the LA Fires, with Rufo calling them “wild human gesticulators”.

      Upon taking office, the Trump administration quickly removed the WH accessibility page and all ASL content, and fired the WH ASL interpreter, as part of other “anti-DEIA” initiatives.

      The NAD is now suing for the return of an interpreter to WH press briefings. The organization filed and won a similar suit during Trump 1.0, in order to access the emergency covid-related briefings.
    7. Musk out, Project 2025 Writer up: Elon Musk made an exit from the White House this week after a tanking Tesla stock, reports of heavy illegal drug use, and economic models showing that tens of thousands of people, most of them children, have been killed by his pet project–the illegal closure of USAID. Most of the deaths have resulted from malnutrition and lack of oral-rehydration medication for patients with diarrhea, two program areas hit quickest by the loss of funds.

      Russel Vought, a self-proclaimed “Christian Nationalist” and head writer for Project 2025, is poised to take over Musk’s work. It’s likely that he’ll be less flashy, and more effective, than Elon in the position.
    8. Hickson v. St. David’s Healthcare Partnership poses new threat to ADA/504: Michael Hickson, a 46-year-old disabled Black man died in Texas in June 2020 after contracting Covid and being denied ventilator care and other ICU services. At the time, Texas and 24 other states had policies about rationing care that explicitly discriminated against disabled people. This is one of the things Final Rule updates seek to rectify.

      The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a conservative court. If they rule in favor of the hospital, it would set a precedent that guts disabled people’s ability to file medical facility-related discrimination claims under the ADA or Section 504.

      Action items:
      Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

      Call your Senator and tell them to vote NO on this dangerous budget. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you–Medicaid, gender-affirming care, SNAP, IDEA, etc.–and mention them by name.

      Call your state representative and tell them to include deaf schools in their budgets. You can text NJ Governor Phil Murphy at 732-605-5455

      If your state is involved, ask your Attorney General to withdraw from Texas v. Kennedy. If able, donate to organizations like DREDF, ACLU, and NAD who are fighting various legal challenges.

      Contact medical providers requesting they do not share yours or your child’s autism diagnosis or records with the government registry. Letter template available here.

      Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Week 15 Update

    Week 15 Update

    1. White House releases harrowing budget requests. On Friday, the White House released their budget request to Congress. The 46 pg document seeks massive cuts for almost all social and educational programs domestically and internationally, cuts totaling $163 billion.

    Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are two of the handful of that see increased spending in order to better fund police militarization and the deportation of immigrants and kidnapping of US citizens by ICE.

    This week’s post will examine some key budget asks affecting the disability community. This is not a complete list, but a link to the full document is available here. Items 1-4 on this post are pulled directly from that spreadsheet. It’s important to note that these are *nonbinding requests* from the President. It will be up to Congress to write and pass specific legislation. Call them.

    2. WH Budget Requests: Dept. of Education
    $60 million increase in funding for charter schools

    $4.5 billion in cuts for K-12 education / Title I programming for underfunded schools

    $49 million in cuts for DoED’s Office of Civil Rights

    A vague category of “Special Education” is listed to “remain at 2025 levels. it mentions IDEA by name, but it’s unclear to what extent programs and sub-departments will be included. The explanation also appears to employ Project 2025’s block grant distribution, meaning it’s suggested the money be used for special ed, but with limited oversight.

    Many other DoED programs receive explicit cuts. There is no mention of special institutions, like Gallaudet, NTID, Printing House for the Blind, etc. in the document.

    3. WH Budget Request, HHS
    $500 million increase to “MAHA” a slush fund for RFK Jr’s antivax and “overreliance on medication” initiatives

    $4 billion in cuts to LIHEAP the program that provides heat and AC assistance for low-income families.

    $1.9 billion in cuts for services for refugee and unaccompanied minors

    $315 million cuts to Preschool Development Grants

    $1.7 billion cuts to HRSA, $3. 5 billion cuts to the CDC
    $17.9 billion cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

    $1 billion cuts to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

    $180 million in cuts to STI and teen pregnancy prevention programs

    $674 billion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare Service

    4. WH Budget Request, HUD:
    $26 billion cut from rental assistance state block grants, money sent to states to support rental housing for the elderly, disabled, and those aging out of foster care.

    $479 million in cuts from Native American and Hawaiian housing block grants

    $532 million cut from Homeless Assistance Program

    $296 million cut from Surplus Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes Funding

    Additional cuts to other self-sufficiency, fair housing, and community grant programs

    5. WH Budget Requests, our liberation is intertwined: Deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks System, the Department of the Interior (including significant reductions in funding for Native American reservation-based social services and education), aid-based programming within the DHS, FEMA and other disaster-relief funding, Department of Labor job skills programs, funding for libraries, HBCUs, PBS and NPR, programs to combat misinformation, and more have all been explicitly named and targeted for cuts at the President’s request.
    These cuts will hurt everyone, and particularly those living at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.

    7. Gallaudet suspends enrollment of several majors as budget cuts loom. A list from Provost Rashid said admissions to the following programs will be suspended:
    Secondary Education programs, including the BA and MA in Secondary Education in Biology, Chemistry, English, General Sciences, Mathematics, and Social Studies, Undergraduate Teacher Preparation, Programs in Early Childhood and Elementary Education

    The announcement comes as deaf studies and education programs shutter at universities across the country.

    GU leadership continues to be nontransparent about the future of the university without its DoED Liaison, who previously disbursed funding and advocated on behalf of deaf education. The University has gone so far as to say that the liaison has been reinstated, which is untrue.

    The only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world faces an uncertain future without mention in Trump’s budget request (yes, that would be illegal).

    8. Texas v Beccera lawsuit continues
    Despite recent “clarifications” from HHS about the how mention of gender dysphoria in Final Rule’s preamble is not legally binding, involved parties have not revoked their original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).

    504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, and would have major implications in conjunction with rescinding of ADA guidance, the uncertain future of DoEd, and a separate suit going before SCOTUS next week.

    A stay has been issued, and parties are now required to update every other month, with the next due June 21st.

    9. RFK makes wild vaccine claims on air as HHS floats dangerous clinical trials.
    Speaking live on News Nation Wednesday, RFK Jr. repeatedly claimed the MMR vaccine contains “aborted fetus debris.”

    IT SUPER DOESN’T! The MMR vaccine, like most vaccines, was cultured within (sterile) fetal cells, one of two lines from the 1960s. It does not contain fetal cells or human DNA because the virus kills the cell. The vaccine virus is also purified before it is made into a replicable vaccine.

    HHS also said they want to conduct placebo trials on existing vaccines, raising ethical concerns with public health experts. Not giving available effective and thoroughly-tested vaccines to trial participants and infecting them with, and allowing them to die from preventable disease is cruel, and in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.

    10. HHS releases harmful anti-trans report, highlights willingness to distribute misinformation. On Thursday, HHS released a “report” seeking to disparage gender-affirming care for trans youth, care that is already known to be safe and effective as backed by decades of peer-reviewed research.

    The report’s authors are anonymous, and it is not peer-reviewed. No trans people are consulted in the report, though anti-trans extremists are cited.

    Every human deserves access to healthcare. The disability community stands with trans youth.

    Multiple studies also estimate that 27-50% of trans people are disabled, too. (1, 2, 3)

    The report also demonstrates a willingness to publish blatant disinformation to support the administration’s various eugenic vendettas. This won’t be the last.

    Take Action:

    What to do: Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

    Call your Representative and tell them not to accept the White House’s requested budget cuts. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you personally and mention them by name when you call.

    Call your Senator and tell them to take meaningful action against illegal deportations and ideological-based arrests.

    Contact the Gallaudet Board of Trustees and urge transparency in communication with the community, and action to protect the university.

    If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.

    Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Week 14 Update

    Week 14 Update

    1. HHS announces plan to build a registry of autistic people. This week, the HHS announced plans to use private health data, from medical records down to wearable smart tech, to create a government registry of autistic people. The announcement sparked privacy concerns and comparisons to the 1939 registry for disabled children as part of T4, a program for the mass murder of 300K+ disabled people across occupied Europe.

      Several state-level autism databases already exist for research and resource purposes, as do other condition-specific registries; however, participation in those is voluntary.
      Limited reporting Friday stated that due to public outcry, the NIH is walking back registry plans and investing in other unspecified research, but nothing official from RFK yet (as of late Friday, 4/25).

      Update: as of 4/26, reports of an emailed statement from an unnamed HHS official are here. The email states that there will be no “registry” and instead researchers will draw from limited data sets.
    2. Actual autism-related research defunded. In last week’s diatribe against autistic people, RFK Jr. had vowed to find the cause of autism by September. NIH later moved back the timeline. However, other grants for longstanding autism research have been cut, including:

      National Science Foundation grants featuring the words “accessibility” and “inclusion,” like one for the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, which included work by autistic scholars.

      The federal government’s Autism Research Program (ARP) omitted from 2025 appropriations.

      Other NIH grants and programs continue to be delayed and cut as remaining employees parse through unfinished projects after many workers have been laid off.
    3. RFK Jr. expands eugenic hit list, says disabilities are, “bankrupting our nation.” RFK’s quote: “Neurological disorders–ADD, ADHD, speech delay, language delay, tics, Tourette’s syndrome, narcolepsy, ASD ….All these are injuries I never heard of when I was a kid… There was $0 spent in this country treating chronic disease when my uncle was President. Today it’s $1.8 T annually. It’s bankrupting our nation….juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, were just unknown when I was a kid.”

      RFK also said the diagnosis uptick endangers the nation because fewer qualify for military service.

      Most conditions listed were discovered at the turn of the 20th century or before. However, disabled people were often institutionalized or lobotomized, decreasing their visibility, (especially in rich people circles like RFK’s).

      Disabled people “draining society” is a eugenic talking point, and The word “injury” to describe disability and autism is also an antivax dog whistle.

      His press conference was supposed to be about banning synthetic food dyes, which he did not do.
    4. DOGE already has access to sensitive HHS data. While autistic people and allies rightfully sounded the alarm on the invasion of privacy that a national autism registry could bring, DOGE already has access to at least 19 of HHS’s systems, some of which contain sensitive information, and typically require specific specialized training before use.

      Some of the systems are: Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS, CALM), CMS’s Integrated Data Repository Cloud (contains patient info), several grant processing and personnel management systems, the Unaccompanied Alien Children portal, and accounting and payment systems across HHS, NIH, and CDC.
    5. Supreme Court to hear case that could gut ADA/504 protections. Next week, SCOTUS will hear arguments related to the case A.J.T. vs. Osseo Area Schools. The case examines whether a disabled person must prove a party acted, “in bad faith or gross misjudgment” to claim their rights were violated.

      The case, about accommodations for a disabled student, was originally narrow in scope and focused in K-12 ed, but the most recent brief makes clear the intent will be to apply the interpretation to the ADA and Rehabilitation Act more broadly.

      Having to prove malicious intent in order to access basic accommodations will further gut the ADA/504 in an already hostile DOJ oversight. Does this building not have a ramp? Well, as long as they aren’t doing it to be mean! *shrug*…..
    6. Executive Order, “Reinstating Common Sense Discipline in Schools” From the order: “The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful ‘equity’ ideology.”

      The White House seeks to roll back trauma-informed and anti-racist educational practices currently in place to address disparities in the biased application of disciplinary policy (e.g. children of color getting punished more frequently and harshly for the same behavior as white children.)

      The removal of equitable discipline practices will be dangerous for children of color, disabled children, and especially those at the intersection of those identities.
    7. Deaf and Disability Studies programs shutter while Gallaudet begins layoffs.
      Across the country, deaf education TOD programs, and deaf/ disability cultural programs are being shut down. The deaf ed programs have likely lost funding due to cuts at the Dept of Ed’s Office of Special Education, while cultural “area” studies have been targeted by a variety of Trump’s anti-DEIA orders.

      Deaf Education programs cut: University of Minnesota–Duluth, Utah State University. Deaf ed at Columbia University Teacher’s College has also been defunded through the Trump takeover there.

      Deaf Studies: University of Maryland–College Park, University of Montevallo, University of Nebraska, Ithaca College.

      Disability Studies: University of Toledo

      ASL Interpreting Programs: Columbia College–Chicago, University of Texas–Houston

      Gallaudet also announced layoffs on the executive team and comms office, while others took pay cuts. Gallaudet Pres. Cordano continues to downplay growing concerns about the future of the university without its DoED liaison.
    8. Texas v. Becerra lawsuit continues. Despite recent “clarifications” from HHS about the how mention of gender dysphoria in Final Rule’s preamble is not legally binding, involved parties have not revoked their original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).
    9. 504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, and would have major implications in conjunction with rescinding of ADA guidance, the uncertain future of DoEd, and a separate suit going before SCOTUS next week.
    10. A stay has been issued, and parties are now required to update every other month, with the next due June 21st.
    11. The FBI arrests a sitting judge, Attorney General Bondi threatens more. The FBI arrested WI judge Hannah Dugan on charges of obstruction. They say Dugan allowed an immigrant to use a side door typically only for the jury, in order to avoid detainment by ICE.

      US Attorney General Pam Bondi promised that Dugan’s arrest is just the beginning. “We are sending a very strong message today: If you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are, if you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

      The judge was not giving anyone a gun. The immigrant in question had been at the courthouse due to a misdemeanor.

      The arrest is a marked turn in the disintegration of Constitutional rule, ushering in an era of ideological-based arrests.
    12. Do not comply in advance (good news). Judges issued a series of blows to Trump’s anti-DEIA agenda within the K-12 sector, with two judges blocking, and one postponing the implementation of various anti-equity policies within public school settings, calling them too vague, and unconstitutional.

      The number of school districts and states standing up to the administration on this issue continues to grow, and under forceful pushback, the administration typically folds (see: Harvard). The federal government has never had control over individual states’ or districts’ curriculum choices.
    13. Action: Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

      Call your Representative and continue to make noise about the HHS’s eugenic rhetoric and practices.

      Call your Senator and tell them to take meaningful action against illegal deportations and ideological-based arrests.

      Contact your school board and state’s education officials, and tell them not to comply with baseless anti-DEI directives. Tell your universities you value deaf and disability studies programs!

      If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.

      Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able, donate or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Breaking: Department of Justice Begins Rollback of ADA

    Breaking: Department of Justice Begins Rollback of ADA

    Yesterday the Department of Justice began removing guidance related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the law that protects disabled people’s rights to access and accommodations in public.

    While the law itself remains on the books, the definition of legal “access” is developed by guidance from the US Access Board. The Board, comprised of at least half disabled people, is supposed to meet annually, but their meeting was cancelled in January. Now the law is being hollowed out by the DOJ.

    The DOJ is using a January Executive Order aimed at “lowering the cost of living” as the justification for the rollback.

    That accommodating disabled people is too expensive is age-old rhetoric favored by eugenicists and Nazis, and has been used to justify segregation, institutionalization, neglect, forced sterilization, and murder of disabled people here and abroad.

    So far, 11 guidance documents have been removed, with protections ranging from self-service gas stations, customer communication, hotel accessibility, general public-facing businesses, and several pandemic-era additions. (Links are to archived content; pages have since been removed.)

    This is an ongoing story.

  • Resources: Tracking Changes at the U.S. Department of Education and State Levels

    Resources: Tracking Changes at the U.S. Department of Education and State Levels

    The US Department of Education is an essential source of funding and oversight for all US students, but particularly for those with disabilities.

    If you want more information about the functions of DoED and recent attacks, visit our explainer here. For a flyer with a QR code linking back to that information, go here.

    Or, keep up to date on all the changes at DoED (inclusive of, but not limited to those affecting disabled people) at this spreadsheet, courtesy the volunteer Save Public Education. They’re currently in the process of building the website departmentofedtracker.com, but for now, the spreadsheet remains up-to-date!

    Click on the image to view the Google Doc

    ID: Screenshot of Google Sheets titled “US Dept of Education Updates.”

    Resource: State-Level Proposals and Policies Affecting Education

    States legislatures are capitalizing on ableist and anti-education sentiments in the White House to make their own attacks on local systems.

    Use Fighting for my Voice’s Policy Change Tracker to read the text of state bills, explainers, and suggestions for action items.

  • Week 2: What Happened?

    Week 2: What Happened?

    ID: A CDI signs the below information in ASL with slides in the background presenting that information in text.

    1.  Some ASL interpreters and accommodations divisions were fired in Anti-DEIA sweeps. The White House Press Office interpreter is gone. Providers housed in DEIA divisions were laid off, despite the violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Since it’s illegal, departments are being told to reverse course on this, with some complying and some not. Trump’s previous administration was sued over failure to provide interpreters at press conferences and lost, but has again removed the interpreter from briefings.
    2. Some resources regarding disabled children’s rights have been deleted from the Dept of Ed’s website. FAQs about Section 504 and other resources went missing during Musk’s DOGE external server takeover, which also seems responsible for a spate of press releases and Facebook posts not in keeping with DoEd’s materials. Due to inconsistencies, verify information with multiple sources when possible.
    3.  Funding freeze of federal payment system creates chaos. A judge blocked the freeze but some programs are still being targeted. Contact elected officials to ensure a new head of OMB recognizes that appropriation powers belong to Congress, not the President. Many essential health, medical and research programs remain frozen from previous orders. Investigations into potential “DEIA” programs continue.
    4.  Current Programs “Under Review” for potential defunding under anti-DEIA orders.

      Deaf and hard of hearing-specific programs:
      Training Interpreters for Individuals who are Deaf and Deaf-Blind (DoED), Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders (HHS), National Deaf Services (DOJ)

      Special Education-related programs Research in Special Ed, Special Ed Technology, Media, and Materials for Individuals with Disabilities, Special Ed Grants for Infants and Families, Special Ed Grants to States, Special Ed Parent Info Centers, Special Ed Preschool Grants, Special Ed Studies and Evaluations; Special Ed Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve Services and Results for Children w/ Disabilities; Special Ed Technical Assistance on State Data Collection; Special Ed Personnel Development to Improve Services for Children with Disabilities; Special Olympics Education Programs; State Personnel Development (DoED)
      A searchable spreadsheet of all programs and grants under review is available from Politico here.
    5. RFK Jr.’s Nomination Hearing for HHS Secretary begins. RFK supports a variety of racist, ableist and scientifically inaccurate conspiracy theories. His stances on vaccination put the immunocompromised, and everyone, at risk. He has proposed sending folks to “wellness camps” in lieu of taking ADHD medication, boosts hateful rhetoric about autistic people, and holds many other eugenicist beliefs.
    6.  Donald Trump blames DC plane crash on disabled FAA workers and DEIA. In a press conference, Trump quickly capitalized on the tragedy to deride the FAAs DEI hiring initiatives, specifically listing off various disabilities, then insinuating that disabled and/or BIPOC people aren’t smart enough to do Air Traffic Control. Trump’s first administration had originally been behind the 2019 program to hire disabled people at the FAA. Thursday, he issued an official memorandum ordering the removal of DEI from the aviation sector.

      There is no evidence for the President’s claims re: this or any crash. Physical requirements for ATC employees are stringent, and the FAA has long been understaffed. Before the crash, Trump had gutted a key aviation safety committee, and Elon forced the FAA chief to quit over a personal vendetta for having been fined at SpaceX.
    7. Executive Order: “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 schooling” This order threatens to defund schools for a variety of perceived “violations” including respecting trans and nonbinary students, and teaching about racism and honest US history, which it labels “discriminatory equity ideology.” This is defined as “an ideology that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit and capability.”

      The Dept. of Ed has never dictated curriculum or content; this is left to states and districts. Defunding schools hurts all students, especially the marginalized, and preventing teachers from discussing discrimination only perpetuates it. The emphasis on “merit” and “capability” given recent-disability rhetoric is also concerning here.
    8. Executive Order: “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families” This order directs a variety of federal agencies to prioritize ways to expand “school choice” and voucher programs at the federal level.

      Sending money meant for public schools to private and religious ones is of concern for disabled students, because private schools are not required to accommodate, or even accept, disabled students, leaving them stranded at underfunded schools and/or with limited support and no recourse.

    What to Do:

    1. Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.
    2. Write/call your congress people and demand that they continue fighting for their duty to make appropriations. Advocate for programs you value. It is taxpayer money, not an executive decision.
    3. Write your senator to vote NO on confirming RFK Jr.
    4. Contact your state legislature and school board and ask that they not comply in advance with voucher expansion or directives for indoctrination. An EO cannot control state funds or educational content areas–states and districts decide their curriculums. 
    5. #ProtectADA on social media for community sharing, news, letter templates, and more

    Tools and Resources:

    Find my House Representative

    Contact my Senator

    Use the 5 Calls App for easy phone call contact and scripts

    Text, fax, or email using Resist.bot