Disability News September 6, 2025
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.
Kennedy draws bipartisan pushback at Senate hearing over moves to limit vaccines by Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Aria Bendix on September 4, 2025 at NBC News
"A rare display of bipartisan consensus was seen Thursday at a remarkably contentious Senate hearing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr."
Massachusetts announces vaccine access plans, governor slams Trump administration and RFK Jr. by Samantha Chaney on September 4, 2025 at CBS News
"Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced the state will be taking measures to ensure vaccines remain accessible to everyone, criticizing the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s cuts to public health across the country."
Disability Criminalization: A Primer by Samantha Santoro and Jamelia Morgan in a LinkedIn Post (Slides give a summary of a longer Law Review document)
"New for American Criminal Law Review, CRDJ fellow Samantha Santoro and Faculty Director Jamelia Morgan show how people with disabilities are disproportionately policed, prosecuted, and incarcerated for conduct linked to disability. From crisis response to hospitals and public spaces to prisons and jails, disability is too often framed as disorder, danger, or deviance. The result is escalation, violence, and structural exclusion. This article introduces the concept of disability criminalization to legal scholarship and argues that Critical Disability Studies provides a crucial framework to challenge it. "
House Dems Blast Labor Department for Abandoning Disabled Workers by Julia Métraux on September 3, 2025 at Mother Jones
"On Wednesday, a group of six Democratic members of Congress, led by Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), raised concerns that the federal government is “failing to protect federal contractor workers with disabilities” in a letter sent to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer."
Ed Department Plans To Scale Back IDEA Data Collection by Michelle Diament on September 4, 2025 at Disability Scoop
"The Trump administration is laying out plans to stop collecting certain information from states about students with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education wants to end data collection on what’s known as “significant disproportionality,” the agency said in a recent notice."
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