disability rights

20 Stories

Advocate Led Efforts to Ensure Disability Rights

Judy Heumann, chronicled in 'Crip Camp,' had to sue to be able to teach school

(Newser) - Judy Heumann, whose advocacy for the rights of disabled people resulted in the passage of landmark federal legislation, died Saturday. She was 75 and died in Washington, DC, the BBC reports. Heumann, who was robbed of the ability to walk by polio when she was 2, was the first wheelchair...

Debate Organizers Thrown by Candidate's Wheelchair

Paul Hinds, running for reelection on Denver's City Council, says he had to crawl onto debate stage

(Newser) - A debate this week in Denver for a City Council seat is making headlines not for the debate itself, but for what one candidate calls his "humiliating" experience as he tried to participate. The Denver Post reports that the event was held Monday at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, a...

After Paralysis During Game, He's Credited With Naming ADA

Kent Waldrep, strong advocate for people with disabilities, dies at 67

(Newser) - Back in 1974, Kent Waldrep got tackled while running the ball for Texas Christian University and ended up paralyzed from the chest down for life, per AL.com . He died last month at age 67, and his obituaries are focused not so much on what happened during that game against...

Deaf Man Jailed for 4 Months After Traffic Stop Sues Cops

One of the officers named in the suit was fired after using a Taser on a 75-year-old

(Newser) - A deaf man spent four months in jail after a traffic stop. He’s suing the officers who arrested him. Brady Mistic was arrested in September 2019 in Idaho Springs, Colorado, the Colorado Sun reports. The officers who pulled him over say he rolled through a stop sign. Mistic says...

Health Officials Slam 'Irresponsible' Workarounds on Mask Rules

Doctors, religious and community leaders, school officials, others helping parents circumvent masking

(Newser) - An Oregon school superintendent is telling parents they can get their children out of wearing masks by citing federal disability law. A pastor at a California megachurch is offering religious exemptions for anyone morally conflicted over vaccine requirements. And Louisiana's attorney general has posted sample letters on his office'...

Harris Says She Didn't Catch 'Incredibly Offensive' Comment

Candidate apologizes for laughing and agreeing with questioner

(Newser) - When a questioner at a town hall asked Kamala Harris what she would do in the next year to curb "the mentally retarded action" of President Trump, she laughed with the crowd. "Well said, well said," she told him, the Washington Post reports. Now the Democratic senator...

Walmart Reverses 'Major-League Botch'

Company will find new roles for disabled greeters

(Newser) - Walmart endured more than a week's worth of bad publicity before announcing publicly that it was making "every effort" to find a role for disabled workers who had been threatened with job loss as the retailer gets rid of greeters at 1,000 stores. Amid a fierce backlash,...

Teen's Plan to Die Runs Into Opposition

Disability groups are asking child services to intervene in Jerika Bolen's plan

(Newser) - Jerika Bolen made it very clear earlier this year that she was going to attend her prom , spend a final summer with her mom, and then end her life . But instead of a "magical" ending for the Wisconsin 14-year-old, who has an incredibly painful incurable illness, she and her...

SD Needlessly Dumps Thousands Into Nursing Homes: DOJ

Feds may sue the state

(Newser) - The Justice Department may be gearing up to sue the state of South Dakota after a report released Monday found thousands of people with disabilities that could potentially be managed at home are being relegated to nursing homes or other long-term-care facilities instead, the New York Times reports. This most...

Disabled Couple Sue for Right to Live Together

Federal civil rights lawsuit is first of its kind in US

(Newser) - She fell for his knock-knock jokes. He fell for her beauty. Paul Forziano and Hava Samuels, who finish each other's sentences, met in a performing arts program and talked about marriage for three years before getting hitched last month. But they also both have developmental disabilities, so they are...

Deaf, Blind Sue to Make Online Shopping Accessible

Advocates for the deaf, blind have won several recent victories

(Newser) - A Target store needs to be accessible by people with disabilities, so why not the Target website? That's the aim of advocates who are increasingly arguing in lawsuits that websites must also comply with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. That theory has been dismissed by a few courts...

Senate GOP Blocks Disabled Rights Treaty

Bob Dole makes appeal; Kerry calls vote saddest day in years

(Newser) - Bob Dole watched from a wheelchair on the Senate floor yesterday as his Republican former colleagues rejected a United Nations disability rights treaty modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act he championed in 1990, the Kansas City Star reports. GOP opponents of the treaty claimed it would surrender American sovereignty...

Disabled Gamers: Industry Ignoring Us

Accessibility features are often lacking

(Newser) - Chuck Bittner has limited use of his arms because of quadriplegia, and yet he's an accomplished gamer. Or at least he is on the relatively few titles with accessibility features that allow controls to be reconfigured for players like him, reports Wired . On Brink, for example, he can tweak...

Abercrombie Loses Lawsuit Over Clerk's Prosthetic Arm

(Newser) - The London woman banished to the Abercrombie & Fitch stockroom because of her prosthetic arm has been awarded more $13,000 by an employment tribunal, the BBC reports. Riam Dean wore a cardigan to cover the joint between her prosthesis and her body, but the sweater clashed with the retailer’...

Disabled Bite Back Over Animal Guides

Some suspect animal owners of abusing of special privileges

(Newser) - Miniature horses trek through supermarkets and monkeys queue up at restaurant buffets these days—all to guide the blind, the disabled, and the anxiety-ridden, Rebecca Skloot writes in the New York Times Magazine. But the increasing prevalence of wild and farm service animals among the civilized is reigniting the debate...

Court Caps Man at More Than 400 Lawsuits

Californian sued under Americans With Disabilities Act

(Newser) - After filing more than 400 lawsuits under the Amercians With Disabilities Act, Jarek Molski will be be allowed to file no more, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 2004, a federal judge accused him of extorting California businesses, barring him from future litigation, and yesterday the Supreme Court declined to...

Korea Backs Monopoly for Blind Masseurs

Profession will remain reserved for the blind in South Korea

(Newser) - A South Korean court has upheld a law allowing only blind people to work as masseurs, the AP reports. The profession has been reserved for the blind for almost a century, but a legal battle had raged for years over the constitutionality of the rule. The perceived threat to their...

Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'?
 Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'? 
OPINION
Sep 21, 2008 2:26 PM CDT

Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'?

(Newser) - Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder is just the latest example of how the word "retard" has become a pop-culture phenom, but the movie also has served as a catalyst for disability advocates who claim that the word is offensive and must go, writes Lynn Harris in Salon. Are they right?...

S. Korea's Blind Masseurs Protest Threat to Livelihood

Government opens profession to sighted

(Newser) - Blind masseurs in South Korea are protesting what they see as the end of a way of life—and their livelihood, CNN reports. Police arrested 26 yesterday who gathered on a bridge and threatened to jump because the government is for the first time allowing sighted people to become licensed...

How Thunder 's Joke Hurts the Disabled
How Thunder's Joke Hurts
the Disabled
OPINION
Aug 16, 2008 7:09 PM CDT

How Thunder's Joke Hurts the Disabled

'Retard' a painful word for mother of daughter with Downs

(Newser) - Patricia E. Bauer suffers every time her Downs syndrome daughter hears the word "retard." When Bauer saw ads for Tropic Thunder, which jokes about retardation, they echoed every insult that her blond, blue-eyed daughter had endured for 24 years. After weeks of debate, Bauer remains stunned by ads...

20 Stories