May 7, 2024
The Disability and Abortion Access Survey will collect the experiences of the disability community’s access to abortion services, including things that are working and the ways services could be improved.
January 12, 2024
Tell Attorney General Bonta by February 5, 2024, that remote participation is a reasonable accommodation – AND that people with disabilities who need to participate remotely should not be subjected to burdensome requirements.
March 5, 2023
There's a larger-than-life photo of Judy Heumann in the rotunda of the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, California, where DREDF's office is located. We have rolled or walked past her image thousands of times, but the photo never just blends into the background—like Judy, it always draws our attention.
January 12, 2023
The State Bar of California has proposed a rule change that, if implemented, will make it even harder to obtain testing accommodations and be a step backward for disability access and inclusion.
October 14, 2022
DREDF is outraged by the ableist criticisms directed at Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman in the wake of his recent NBC interview. During the interview, which aired on Tuesday's "NBC Nightly News" and Wednesday's "Today" show, Fetterman used closed captions to answer questions in real time. Rather than focus on Fetterman's ideas and ideologies on topics like access to health coverage and prescription drug pricing, coverage of the interview has almost exclusively zeroed in on Fetterman's use of closed captioning, claiming that his use of such technology indicates "brain damage" and an unfitness for office. This offensive coverage has infuriated disability rights advocates. [...]
February 15, 2022
The Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program provides approximately $25,000 to survivors who were sterilized at a California state hospital, home, or mental institution between 1909–1979; and survivors who were sterilized without consent while under the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after 1979. [...]
September 7, 2021
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and Law Office of Michelle Uzeta represent Oscar-nominated director and sound designer James LeBrecht regarding the inaccessibility of the stage constructed for use at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 19, 2021. [...]
March 26, 2021
The horrific, tragic killing of 8 people – including 6 Asian and Asian American women by a white man in Atlanta Tuesday, March 16 – shines an uncomfortable, necessary spotlight on anti-Asian racism and violence in the United States. Both the shooting and its aftermath – in which a first responder attributed the shootings to "a bad day" rather than white supremacy, or the shooter placing the blame on his victims – shows the lengths to which many will go in an attempt to avoid facing difficult but necessary truths. [...]
August 29, 2019
The phrase "cruel and unusual punishment" is usually used in conversations about criminal sentencing. But this week, the Trump Administration made its usage appropriate in federal immigration policy by sending deportation letters to immigrant families who are living in the U.S. under the medical deferred action program.
August 8, 2019
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, Congress intended to provide equal and comprehensive access to health insurance coverage to all Americans, including Americans with disabilities. Many people with disabilities and their families remember being denied or terminated from health coverage, being unable to afford health insurance, and facing specialized annual and lifetime benefit limits. Before the ACA, if a disabled person found health insurance, it would often leave out coverage of any pre-existing condition and fail to offer important benefits such as mental health coverage, durable medical equipment, or maternity care. The ACA banned many of these enrollment practices and coverage limitations.