About:
This site is for aggregating breaking news and information about the state of disability rights and advocacy work in the United States, particularly the anti-DEIA attacks under the current administration, in an online space separate from the control of social media moguls.
Disability impacts people of every race, sex, gender, age, class, national origin, citizenship status, religion, political affiliation, and geographic location. Due to its intersectional nature, BIPOC disabled and other multiply-marginalized folks are disproportionately impacted by any attacks on accessibility, and disability justice is intertwined in all liberation movements.
- Week 19 Updates
- Week 18 Updates
House passes budget bill containing deep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, Dept. of Ed. 215 Republican Representatives voted for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” advancing plans to cut Medicaid/care, SNAP, HUD and education funding in order to up DHS spending and extend tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. - Template for requesting doctors do not share medical informationHello! We aren’t lawyers, just regular people sharing regular-person advice. This template was originally posted on the Legally Autistic FB page, and shared with us via E. Thunderwood on Instagram. Thanks to them for their hard work on this matter. It’s unclear, given the breadth of the current administrations’ defiance of laws, as well as… Read more: Template for requesting doctors do not share medical information
- Week 17 Updates
Budget Reconciliation attempts back-door closure of DoED. The GOP proposes to dismantle key programs and change the way IDEA and other special education programming is funded, using “no strings attached” block grants to states, which will be suggested, but not required, for special education use. This is dangerous, as we are already seeing districts pull money from special institutions in light of budget cuts elsewhere. - Week 16 Update
IDEA funding and enforcement threatened by block grants. In keeping with Project 2025, the White House’s budget requests called for a shift of how funding for special education is disbursed. Currently, DoEd provided formula grants calculated by a variety of data points and given to states with the requirement that they be used for special education. - 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… Read more: Week 15 Update - Week 14 Update
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. - Week 13 Updates
White House asks Congress to Eliminate Head Start Funding. The current budget draft eliminates funding for Head Start, which provides early education, meals, and health screenings for pre-k kids. The elimination of Head Start was a stated goal of Project 2025. - Week 12 Update
House passes budget framework, paving the way for deep social cuts. The House passed the budget framework that paves the way for Trump’s desired budget, including trillions in tax cuts for rich people, increased defense spending, increased spending autonomy for the President, weakening social security, and an estimated $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. - Week 11 Update
Take Action: Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage. Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept of Education and HHS regarding illegal layoffs. Contact your school board and state’s education officials, and tell them not to comply with McMahon’s baseless anti-DEI directive. If your state is… Read more: Week 11 Update - Week 10 Update
Action:Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage. Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept of Education, the ADA, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and other HHS programs. Make sure your vaccines are up to date, especially if you may have received an inactive virus version… Read more: Week 10 Update - NEW: Former Gallaudet Employee Speaks Out Against “Deceitful, Fanciful Thinking” in University’s Response to DoEd Layoffs
The following post provides information specific to Gallaudet University, the world’s only liberal arts university exclusively for D/HH students, in the wake of the Department of Ed’s layoffs last week. For a general overview of that news, click here. For more information and action items specific to Gallaudet University, click here. For an ASL version… Read more: NEW: Former Gallaudet Employee Speaks Out Against “Deceitful, Fanciful Thinking” in University’s Response to DoEd Layoffs - Week 9 Updates
Action items: Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage. Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept of Education and the ADA. Call the Senate Finance Committee members and tell them to vote NO on Dr. Oz Protest U of T’s hosting of the upcoming racist and… Read more: Week 9 Updates - Breaking: Dept of Labor Dismantles PEAT, Key Digital Accessibility Resource
Per internal sources providing info on condition of anonymity: The Department of Labor has removed PEAT, a major digital accessibility resource, previously housed at PEATWorks.org. PEAT was used by thousands in technology to make sure their designs were accessible for disabled people. It was also one of the few resources on accessible AI. PEAT has… Read more: Breaking: Dept of Labor Dismantles PEAT, Key Digital Accessibility Resource - 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… Read more: Breaking: Department of Justice Begins Rollback of ADA - Action Item: Protect Deaf and Special Education!
1300 Department of Education employees were laid off last week, some of them illegally, including workers in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), who provide a variety of special education funding and programs, oversee IDEA, and fund and support special institutions like Gallaudet, NTID, the American Printing House for the Blind, Helen… Read more: Action Item: Protect Deaf and Special Education! - Week 8 Update
Action Items:Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage. - New: Internal DoEd Document Show Full Reorganization After Tuesday’s Illegal Layoffs
- Call Scripts for 13 March Regarding Budget Resolution and Illegal DoED Layoffs
Script for Calling Your Senator (*Time Sensitive*–they must vote by Friday, 314) Find your Senator’s phone number here Hello Senator [last name], My Name is [full name] and I’m a constituent calling from zip code [your zip code] to ask you to vote NO on the budget bill until there are firm guardrails in place… Read more: Call Scripts for 13 March Regarding Budget Resolution and Illegal DoED Layoffs - Breaking: Nearly Half the Department of Education Laid Off Tuesday, Including from Legally Mandated Positions
On Tuesday, 11 March, the Department of Education fired over 1,300 workers, nearly half of the department. Afterward, Linda McMahon told reports that legally-mandated employees, and programs protecting disabled students’ rights were not affected; however, that was a lie. In the same interview, she also revealed she did not know what IDEA stands for. Federal… Read more: Breaking: Nearly Half the Department of Education Laid Off Tuesday, Including from Legally Mandated Positions
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Who are you?
We’re a group of disabled people and allies seeking to provide timely and accurate disability-rights related information, which is often underreported in the mainstream media.
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Unless an author or signer is otherwise noted, you can just call us the Disability Rights Watch collective. We’ll also always link to secondary sources when available.
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Verified federal employees working in various agencies, whose identities we will protect, obviously.
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