disability rights

Education

Carolina Curious: How many private schools receiving Opportunity Scholarships serve students with disabilities?

5:00am February 28, 2025

Last year, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to significantly increase funding for private school vouchers, also known as Opportunity Scholarships. The state has spent nearly $383 million on these vouchers in this academic year alone.

Queue Listen Now

Lucy Greco (left), a web-accessibility specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, is blind. She reads most of her documents online, but employs Liza Schlosser-Olroyd as an aide to sort through her paper mail every other month, to make sure Greco hasn't missed a bill or other important correspondence.

Medical bills remain inaccessible for many visually impaired Americans

5:00am December 01, 2022

When health bills aren't legible — via large-print, Braille or other adaptive technology — blind patients can't know what they owe, and are too often sent to debt collections, an investigation finds.

Remote work opened some doors to workers with disabilities. But others remain shut

4:22pm October 21, 2022

by Mary Yang

Workplaces have generally become more accommodating for people with disabilities in the last five years, according to a new survey. But some disability rights activists say challenges persist.

Crime

Lawsuit: Blind Man, Guide Dog Forced From Hanes Mall

11:56am September 17, 2021

by Associated Press

Police officers violated civil rights law when they forced a blind man and his service dog to leave a mall and threatened to arrest him for trespassing if he didn't, according to a lawsuit filed by

Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge is bathed in purple light on Thursday as part of the WeThe15 campaign. Launched ahead of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the movement calls for an end to discrimination against people with disabilities.

More Than 125 Landmarks Around The World Will Be Bathed In Purple For A Night

4:19pm August 19, 2021

by Bill Chappell

Rome's Colosseum, the London Eye and the Empire State Building and other iconic buildings will be lit in purple on Thursday, to highlight visibility and equal treatment for people with disabilities.

President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990.

Across Federal Workforce, People With Disabilities See Need For More Representation

8:00am July 31, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

People with disabilities represent the largest minority group in the country, but say they remain vastly underrepresented when it comes to the ranks of the federal workforce.

Nearly 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, planes still lag behind many buses and trains. Regulations prohibit passengers from sitting in their own wheelchairs on commercial flights.

Wheelchairs On Planes: Why Can't Passengers Use Their Own Onboard?

7:06pm December 10, 2019

by Michael Schulson

Many buses and vans can safely accommodate and restrain a passenger's wheelchair, but airline passengers are required to transfer to the plane's standard seat. A grassroots group hopes to change that.

Disability activists from around the world attended a seminar in Oregon. From left, Joyce Peter of Vanuatu, Sidonie Nduwimana of Burundi,, Wendy Beatriz Caishpal Jaco of El Salvador, Gina Rose Balanlay of the Philippines (standing) and Raluca Oancea of Ro

For Disability Activists, 3 Weeks In Oregon Is A Game Changer

3:39pm August 13, 2019

by Aparna Vidyasagar

A person with a disability may be practically invisible in some countries — or the target of cruel comments. Global activists gathered in Oregon to learn how to change laws and attitudes.

"There seems to be this sense where disabled people are kind of seen as oddities and forced to go through this world to be singled out and othered," says Imani Barbarin. "There's really no common sense attached when able-bodied people approach disabled pe

National

#AbledsAreWeird: People With Disabilities Share Uncomfortable Encounters

6:27pm March 20, 2019

by Hafsa Quraishi

"There's really no common sense attached when able-bodied people approach disabled people," says activist Imani Barbarin, who started the hashtag.

In a memo to store managers, Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran said the company is looking for other roles for greeters with disabilities who are due to lose their jobs.

National

Walmart Chief Responds To Furor Over Treatment Of Greeters With Disabilities

6:19pm March 01, 2019

by Alina Selyukh

Store managers are told to make "every effort" to offer new job options as the greeter position goes away. Workers and their families tell NPR about chaos and anxiety of being in limbo.