Disabilities

Kate Teague, a registered nurse at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, in Palo Alto, Calif., holds a premature baby's hand.

In Caring For Sickest Babies, Doctors Now Tap Parents For Tough Calls

3:43pm November 16, 2015

by Jenny Gold

Doctors were once unquestioned authorities on how aggressively to treat the sickest and most premature babies. Then parents started pushing back for more say. The responsibility can be excruciating.

Queue Listen Now

Miller examines Donald Lacross, 48, who has had multiple sclerosis for almost 20 years. Miller has been his home care physician for three years.

Doctor Treats Homebound Patients, Often Unseen Even By Neighbors

8:11am November 08, 2015

by Misha Friedman

"You can evaluate the person as a whole," says Dr. Roberta Miller, who has been a home care physician for more than 20 years. The traditional house call may be the future of medicine.

Dale Garrett of Columbia, Mo., a 96-year-old World War II veteran, experiences a trip to a war memorial through virtual reality.

Health & Safety

Affordable Virtual Reality Opens New Worlds For People With Disabilities

7:16pm October 22, 2015

by Lindsey Hoshaw

For $10 anyone can buy a cardboard headset, download a free iPhone app, slide in a phone and explore virtual worlds from a wheelchair, bed or couch.

Emeka Nnaka, who uses a wheelchair, drives his new accessible van to meet a friend in Tulsa, Okla. The van allows the 27-year-old greater independence, making it easier to get to school and work and to have a social life. Six years ago, Nnaka, then a semi

Why Disability And Poverty Still Go Hand In Hand 25 Years After Landmark Law

10:29am July 26, 2015

by Pam Fessler

Disabled Americans are twice as likely to be poor as those without disabilities. They continue to face many financial and physical barriers, despite the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Queue Listen Now

Parsons School of Design graduate Lucy Jones created Seated Design, a collection of clothing for people who use wheelchairs. The clothes include extra fabric at the elbows for greater mobility.

Arts

From Canes To Closures, Designing With Style For People With Disabilities

1:51pm July 25, 2015

by Jacki Lyden

Almost 60 million Americans have a permanent disability, but the fashion industry hasn't tapped into that market. Activists and designers are trying to change that, a signature and a stitch at a time.

Queue Listen Now

Netflix's original series Daredevil, which stars a blind superhero, was originally hard for blind audience members to understand. The series was released without audio description that would make it accessible to the visually impaired. TV broadcasters are

After Fan Pressure, Netflix Makes 'Daredevil' Accessible To The Blind

12:20am April 27, 2015

by NPR Staff

The series stars a blind superhero — but at first, it lacked audio descriptions for the visually impaired. Netflix has added that option, but the issue raises larger questions of online accessibility.

Queue Listen Now

Credit: NPR; Source: National Longitudinal Transition Study

Young Adults With Autism More Likely To Be Unemployed, Isolated

8:12am April 22, 2015

by Maanvi Singh

More than half of young people with autism have neither a job nor educational plans in the first two years after high school, a study finds.

Most employees at Production Unlimited say they're happy at this sheltered workshop in Watertown, N.Y. But disability advocates say they'd get paid minimum wage, enjoy socializing with nondisabled people and no longer be segregated if they get jobs in com

National

Advocates Fight To Keep Sheltered Workshops For Workers With Disabilities

11:14pm April 14, 2015

by David Sommerstein

Such workshops are being closed across the U.S., more than 15 years after the Supreme Court said separate work settings constitute discrimination. But advocates say clients have nowhere else to go.

Queue Listen Now

A Blind Woman Gains New Freedom, Click By Click By Click

5:20pm January 26, 2015

by Lulu Miller

Blind since birth, Julee-anne Bell learned to get by better on her own with echolocation, a method explored in this week's Invisibilia. But along the way, she found that independence came with costs.

Queue Listen Now

Scientists are getting a clearer idea of how genetic mutations cause autism.

Scientists Implicate More Than 100 Genes In Causing Autism

6:51pm October 30, 2014

by Nancy Shute

Spontaneous gene mutations, not ones inherited from parents, increase a child's risk of autism, scientists say. By comparing genes within families they've identified more than 100 suspects.