Disability News - January 17, 2026
Editor's Note: The disability community is increasingly preferring to use identity-first language (disabled person) in place of person-first language (person with a disability). This is because many in the community view disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, still prefer person-first language. Both should be considered valid. Articles shared in this newsletter may contain one or the other (or both) depending on the author's preference, and if they themselves have a disability.
ICE and Disability 2026 posted at Disability Rights Watch on January 16, 2026
"Authoritarianism is a disability rights issue. Immigration is a disability rights issue. And , as we’ve seen throughout the escalations over the past year, disabled people are particularly vulnerable to abuse by extrajudicial secret police and unregulated detention camps. "
FDA deletes warning on bogus autism therapies touted by RFK Jr.‘s allies by Beth Mole on January 13, 2026 at Are Technica
"For years, the Food and Drug Administration provided an informational webpage for parents warning them of the dangers of bogus autism treatments, some promoted by anti-vaccine activists and “wellness” companies. The page cited specifics scams and the “significant health risks” they pose. But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has numerous ties to the wellness industry—that FDA information webpage is now gone. It was quietly deleted at the end of last year, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to Ars Technica."
The Education Department is opening fewer sexual violence investigations as Trump dismantles it by Collin Binkley on January 16, 2026 at AP
"The department’s Office for Civil Rights was gutted in Trump’s mass layoffs last year, leaving half as many lawyers to investigate complaints of discrimination based on race, sex or disability in schools. Those who remain face a backlog of more than 25,000 cases."
Trump’s USDA Is Hiding the Data on Food Stamp Cuts by Julia Métraux on January 16, 2026 at Mother Jones
“Millions of adults ages of 55 to 64 may now be locked out of the program if they’re not able to work—and in a one-two punch of attacks on federal services, the USDA has terminated its annual food insecurity survey, making it impossible to know just how devastating an impact Trump’s backdoor SNAP cuts will have on aging adults who are unable to get exemptions from their state.”
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