News - August 23, 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.
How Trump’s Deportation Machine Deprives Deaf People of Their Humanity by Julia Métraux on August 19, 2026 at Mother Jones
"Deaf immigrants also risk having poor-quality interpreters for sign languages other than American Sign Language during the deportation process, as the United States doesn’t recognize any certification process specifically for other sign languages. Interpreters are essentially taken at their word that they can interpret well in non-ASL forms of sign language."
Fired Federal Employees Are Bringing Climate Change Info Back to the People Sasha Abramsky on August 22, 2026 at Truthout
"A year after Climate.gov’s demise, Lindsey and several of her erstwhile colleagues resurrected the vast majority of its materials. Left out of the mix were only a few data sets, the information from which they are still trying to access, that were removed early in the DOGE purges because they ostensibly violated anti-DEI mandates or because they referred to the Gulf of Mexico despite Trump’s executive order renaming it the Gulf of America. The new, privately run site is Climate.us and it contains a wealth of sophisticated data sets and graphics on the world’s climate. "
Kansas Trans Guys Are Using Women’s Bathrooms, as Legally Required, as a Form of Protest by Quispe López on August 20, 2026 at Them
"The group was created by a transgender man named Charles Osman immediately after the law went into effect. Per KCUR, the local NPR affiliate for Kansas City, the compliance crew began going into public women’s restrooms, in a form of protest known as malicious compliance, which involves following a law to its exact phrasing rather than the way it might have been intended, which in this case is likely discouraging trans people from using public restrooms altogether. So far, they have done so in a public library, swimming pool, and water parks across the state, making the point that the law causes discomfort for everyone involved."
Federal Judges Split on Whether The Supreme Court Legalized Racism by Madiba K. Dennie on August 19, 2026 at Balls and Strikes
"The Supreme Court greenlit Trump’s racism against Haitian immigrants. Now federal district judges are wondering if they have to condone racism, too."
'What are we going to do?' The mom of a trans teen grapples with Trump's Medicaid move by Selena Simmons-Duffin on August 16, 2026 at NPR
" "The rule is significant, says Katie Keith, director of the Center for Health Policy and the Law at Georgetown. "I'm not aware of any other times that the federal government has prohibited federal funds in this way for a specific patient population with a particular diagnosis," she says. She calls it "unprecedented" and "untested." "
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