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Disability Identity Is Challenging Who Gets To Define Inclusion

Accessibility in the News — 9/25/2026.

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“As the alluring song of September begins to whisper in my ear, my passionate spirit yearns for the splendor of its promise.” — Peggy Toney Horton

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Feature Stories

Is Meta Using Disabled People to Promote Its Glasses?

September 17, 2026 | Source: Mother Jones

In July, Meta published a press release saying that it would issue $2 million worth of grants to 30 organizations that would test ways its AI glasses could “help people work safer, learn faster, and live more independently.” The grantees include organizations that would develop workshops to help Blind people utilize the devices and assist people with intellectual disabilities prepare to enter the workforce. “We want to ensure the future is for everyone—giving every person the tools to reach their full potential,” Meta wrote in the release…

How Fashion Helps Disabled People Own Their Identity

September 21, 2026 | Source: TZR

For the past several years, fashion’s biggest buzzwords have been “inclusivity” and “authenticity,” but one of the most marginalized groups continues to be excluded from the conversation. Disabled people account for nearly 14% of the United States population, and study after study continues to show that most people will become disabled in their lifetime. I lost my left eye at the age of 5, finding myself within the disability community. I found much of my personal style because of it, embracing “fun eyes,” or custom colorful medical-grade prosthetics, oftentimes matching them to my outfits…

National News (U.S.)

Voting is a key part of Democracy. So, how do you make sure it’s accessible to everyone?

September 18, 2026 | Source: KSMU

With Missourians between two critical elections, the August 4th primary and the November 3rd general election. It’s important for counties to make sure that everyone who is registered to vote can cast a ballot. “Empower abilities is a nonprofit center for independent living. And our mission is to remove barriers and empower independent living for all people with disabilities,” said Shelby Butler, director of advocacy and public policy for Empower Abilities. “We serve eight counties in the Southwest Missouri area…

Call for ‘honest conversations’ on accessibility

September 19, 2026 | Source: Jersey Evening Post

Employers and government bodies have been urged to start an “honest conversation” about inclusivity – which could help Islanders with disabilities, ADHD and more. Skills Jersey’s head of skills Stuart Penn – who was born with one fully-formed limb and has worked as a military training consultant and motivational training facilitator – spoke at an event marking National Inclusion Week and organised by Maison des Landes yesterday. Organisations, he said, should follow the UK’s framework of national inclusion which “reflect on remaining workplace barriers, build trust through honest dialogue, take practical action to create measurable progress, and embed inclusion into everyday workplace culture”…

Tactile exhibit in central Iowa makes deep space images accessible to all

September 20, 2026 | Source: KMAland

A new exhibit at the Iowa Department for the Blind aims to open the night sky and the spectacle of distant stars, galaxies and colorful nebulas to blind, low-vision, and sighted visitors alike. Denise Bean, youth services librarian at the agency’s Des Moines office, says this traveling exhibit features gorgeous photographs from the James Webb Space Telescope and renderings of those images in three-foot-wide tactile displays. “You reach down and you touch and you explore with your fingers,” Bean says. “It’s not smooth, it’s not flat, it’s not one-dimensional. It’s actually surfaces that are raised, lowered, textured, and when you touch it, it’s like no other sensation.”…

MBTA Green Line Platform Upgrades Will Require Second Round of Construction for New Trains

September 22, 2026 | Source: Boston’s ROCK 92.9 and Planetizen

The MBTA Green Line’s platform upgrades, designed to match the new Type 10 cars, may not fully accommodate existing reconfigurations. Despite years of accessibility work, the Green Line remains a major hurdle for the MBTA, as many stations were built before ADA regulations and 23 of 70 stations remain inaccessible. According to The Boston Globe, “Eventually, Green Line riders will have to live through an additional bout of construction and shutdowns as the T reworks the platforms to make their height compatible with the so-called Type 10 cars.”…

New Jersey church puts late member’s large bequest to work, upgrading for accessibility

September 22, 2026 | Source: Episcopal News Service

Natalie Whiting was an active member of her congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, New Jersey, for most of her 79 years. In loving her church, Whiting wasn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism. The historic building was woefully inadequate to accommodate people with disabilities and older people who had difficulty climbing its stairs. Whiting, in life, pressed for the church to upgrade the facility for accessibility, but church leaders deemed the costs prohibitive. Whiting died in January 2025 from cancer and is now posthumously addressing the church’s accessibility issues…

Give people with disabilities a chance to work

September 22, 2026 | Source: Concord Monitor

There is a lot of discussion these days about New Hampshire’s workforce shortage. Employers across our state struggle to find dependable people willing to work. At the same time, there is a group of Granite Staters who very much want to work but too often struggle to find an employer willing to give them a chance: people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I see this firsthand at Next Step Living in downtown Concord. Next Step Living is home to 11 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are building independent lives in the community…

Block Trump’s Push to Lock up Disabled People

September 21, 2026 | Source: The Progressive Magazine

During the same summer in which Americans marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, disabled Americans have faced a renewed threat to their freedom: an effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to reopen the door to forced institutionalization. On June 18, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum opinion concluding that neither Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act nor Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires states to integrate individuals with disabilities into community settings…

Jack Fact — Future Market Insights estimated the global patient self-service kiosk market at about $1.4 billion in 2025 and projected it would reach $6.3 billion by 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 16.6%. Research Nester published a similar forecast, placing the 2025 market above $1.45 billion and projecting $6.29 billion in revenue by 2035.

Hit The Road Jack —The Best U.S. Vacation Towns for Accessible Travel and Guidebooks for Accessible Travel and Accessible Salem: Rolling through history, cobblestones and witch trial stories

International News

Critics say mayor’s disability plan ‘lacks ambition’

September 17, 2026 | Source: London, England

The mayor of London’s first strategy for deaf and disabled Londoners has been criticised for lacking ambition, with one London Assembly member warning it risks “papering over London’s accessibility failures”. The action plan includes measures to improve access to housing, transport, jobs, benefits and public services for the capital’s 1.2 million deaf and disabled residents. But Hina Bokhari, leader of the London Assembly Liberal Democrats, said the plans lacked “the scale of ambition, transformation and investment needed to even make a dent in the barriers”…

Most human rights complaints in N.W.T. based on disability, commission says

September 18, 2026 | Source: CBC- Canada

The N.W.T. Human Rights Commission says a majority of discrimination complaints in the territory are based on disability — and it’s again urging the government to pass accessibility legislation. During a public committee briefing at the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, commission chair Charles Dent told MLAs that nine other Canadian jurisdictions already have accessibility laws, and the N.W.T. should follow suit. The commission says the N.W.T. mainly relies on National Building Code standards of accessibility, while the Department of Infrastructure has “no mandate to set standards for private or municipal infrastructure.”…

The second coming of charity in disability discourse

September 19, 2026 | Source: Supreme Court Observer- India

In Season 2 of Maamla Legal Hai the protagonist, Justice V.D. Tyagi, wishes to take some ‘bold’ steps towards judicial reform. When his court staff remind him that the system will not allow him to go too far, he makes a ‘balanced’ decision to make the Patparganj court disabled-friendly. The makers of Maamla Legal Hai offer a sharp commentary on the Indian judiciary’s treatment of disability as a low-intensity, non-controversial human rights issue. The Supreme Court’s disability rights jurisprudence evolved considerably during Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s tenure as a judge and Chief Justice…

Visually impaired IRS officer Puranasundhari recalls accessibility barriers, setbacks behind UPSC success

September 19, 2026 | Source: The Weekend Leader- India

Securing All India Rank 286 in the Civil Services Examination was the culmination of years of perseverance for visually impaired Indian Revenue Service officer Puranasundhari M., who overcame repeated setbacks and serious accessibility barriers during her preparation. Speaking in an interview with The Weekend Leader at a recent TWL–VIT awards function in Chennai, Puranasundhari said she cleared the examination on her fourth attempt after failing to clear the preliminary examination in her first attempt and reaching the interview stage in her second and third attempts…

Accessible Cambridge baseball diamond reopens after multi-million-dollar transformation

September 19, 2026 | Source: CTV News- Canada

A Cambridge baseball diamond has reopened after a multi-million-dollar transformation aimed at making the facility accessible to athletes of all abilities. The KIN1 diamond at Riverside Park officially reopened Saturday, giving players in the city’s growing Buddy League an accessible field designed around their needs.The celebration included exhibition games, family-friendly activities, a ribbon cutting and the unveiling of a new donor wall, recognizing those who contributed to the facility. For Buddy League athlete Kristen Saroli, the reopening means having a place to play alongside her friends…

Zain, KSCD partner to advance Kuwaiti Sign Language accessibility, inclusion

September 20, 2026 | Source: Kuwait Times- Kuwait

Zain Kuwait has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kuwait Sports Club for the Deaf (KSCD), marking International Day of Sign Languages and the International Week of Deaf People. The collaboration opens a new chapter in Zain’s journey to advance accessibility, inclusion, and meaningful engagement with the disabled community in Kuwait. The MoU was signed at Zain’s headquarters in Shuwaikh by Chief Corporate Affairs and Relations Officer Waleed Al-Khashti and KSCD Chairman Khaled Al-Mutairi…

SeMA becomes first Korean art institution to win international award for accessibility program

September 20, 2026 | Source: Korea JoongAng Daily- South Korea

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) won the 2026 Outstanding Museum Practice Award (OMPA) on Friday, becoming the first Korean art institution to win the prestigious award presented by the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM). The CIMAM awarded the OMPA to a branch of SeMA, the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, for an accessibility program “Parallel Views: Art in Conversation” hosted by the museum. “Parallel Views” is a nonregular program provided by SeMA where museumgoers with visual disabilities are paired with those who are nonimpaired and view an exhibition together…

Most government agency websites found inaccessible to people with disabilities

September 21, 2026 | Source: 24kg- Kyrgyzstan

Ombudsperson of Kyrgyzstan Jamilya Jamanbaeva called on government agencies to make their websites and online services accessible to people with disabilities, the Ombudsman’s Institute reported. The institution, together with the Plus Public Foundation and with support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), reviewed 18 official websites of government agencies. The monitoring was conducted in June and July 2026. The assessment showed that none of the websites met all accessibility requirements…

JudoBraille programme opens door for visually impaired martial arts training

September 21, 2026 | Source: sportanddev-Slovenia

Judo has long opened its tatami (soft mats) to blind and visually impaired athletes. But true inclusion means more than being able to train or compete. It means being able to learn, progress, and belong, with access to the same knowledge and opportunities as every other judoka. There are things in judo that most of us never have to think about. You enter the dojo. You watch your coach demonstrate a technique. You look at an illustration. You read the requirements for your next belt examination…

Disability discrimination disputes are on the rise, says Acas chair

September 22, 2026 | Source: HR Magazine- UK

Employers are “struggling to understand” what reasonable adjustments they must provide in the workplace, the chair of dispute resolution service Acas told the Financial Times on Sunday (20 September). Acas’ Maggie Jones said that disability-related cases had driven a 26% increase in demand for the organisation’s individual dispute resolution service over the past year, as employers tried to meet the needs of neurodiverse staff and those with mental or physical health conditions. Speaking to the Financial Times, Jones said: “Employers are struggling to understand what reasonable adjustments they really have to make. They understand the concept of [their legal obligation, but they don’t understand the practicality.”…

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Accessible Website and Application Development— We rely heavily on accessibility best practices and using HTML5 and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) standards to build WCAG-compliant and human-tested accessible environments. Our teams are proficient in open source technologies such as WordPress, Drupal and Moodle, as well as custom frameworks in .NET, PHP, AngularJS, and other frameworks. Our Learning and Development team can also help you create accessible custom training.
Accessible Document Services— Whether you’re dealing with a few or a warehouse of Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, or other files, there are several ways Microassist can enable your team to offer documents and materials that meet stringent accessibility standards.
Accessibility Remediation— Our accessibility remediation services help you fix existing materials so that they conform to WCAG, Section 504 and 508, Department of Education OCR, and ADA Title II/III requirements. We remediate websites, applications, documents, and elearning, recommending re-creation when that is more efficient and economical. Especially for website and applications, to find out what is in need of remediation, we’ll start with an Accessibility Audit.
Accessibility Training— With several courses available for developers, testers, and content creators, your team can become equipped to consistently and expertly produce accessible digital products and online environments.
VPAT^®Evaluation Services— Primarily used by government purchasers and government vendors during the procurement and sale of ICT products and services under Section 508, a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template^® (VPAT) attests to the accessibility of a given product or service. Contact us to make sure the VPAT you write or review is accurate and meaningful.