Disability Stories You May Have Missed

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Last Updated: April 30, 2026

Tags: Featured Special Project, Government, News You Might Have Missed
A child drawing at a wooden table. Drawings and pens are seen all over the table.

What a child can accomplish when they’re not being limited/Raw pixel via Pixabay

This week, we have a court case involving a Disabled man having his death sentence overturned, educators using abusive tactics to discipline Disabled children, Disabled veterans arrested at Capitol during an anti-war protest and the Trump administration’s decision to extend accessibility deadlines for up to two years drawing national attention.

CLARENCE JORDAN’S DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED; INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY CITED

Claire Taggart, the Vanguard

This story is about Clarence Jordan, a Texas man who now no longer faces the death penalty. He was sentenced in 1977 for shooting at a man during a burglary and spent four decades on death row. He saw a judge in 2000, 2004 and 2017 but did not have proper legal representation to argue his case. 

According to his court documents he has a developmental disability. Ben Wolff who is now his representative, thanks to a chance encounter while visiting another client, decided to take his case and helped him to have his death sentence vacated. He will be resentenced to life and will be eligible for parole.

Schools are supposed to limit using restraint and seclusion to discipline kids – but parents I spoke with say the practice is wildly misused

Charles Bell, The Conversation

This story focuses on how some Disabled children are spending over 100 hours locked in a room alone while in public schools. The article highlights how some schools  in North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts and other areas are inappropriately segregating and disciplining Disabled children with the use of isolation and restraints. 

Why are these students facing this kind of treatment? You might think these choices are being made because of behavioral factors like being violent. Instead, the writer found that these schools appear to be using these techniques to punish students for small indiscretions, like singing or eating snow. In response, parents are exploring lawsuits despite the fact that the United States has no nationwide law focused on seclusion and restraints, though state laws do exist in 41 jurisdictions.

How have the school districts been reacting after being taken to court? According to the article, they’ve been using state systems—like Child Protective Services (CPS) –- to intimate parents and children. 

From the story:  “There is a saying in the…community: ‘It isn’t if CPS gets called on you, it’s when.’ And it’s all because the school is using them as a tool to either push people out of the school or to intimidate them into behaving correctly.” — “John,” a parent of a Disabled child currently suing over the policies

Disabled Veterans Arrested at Capitol During Anti-Iran War Protest

Alicia Civita, The Latin Times

This story focuses on what happened when Disabled veterans protested on Capitol Hill on April 20 against the decision of President Trump to instigate a war in Iran. The veterans are part of an anti-war organization called About Face, the protest called Veterans Against Fascism. 

Disabled veterans showing up and showcasing their adaptive equipment symbolizes a way to showcase the impact of war on soldiers and civilians. A similar event occurred in March when an ex-marine broke an arm after being arrested at a Senate protest. 

Trump administration delays rule aimed at improving disability access in schools

By: Jonaki Mehta , NPR

As we reported last week, and is now hitting national headlines, The Department of Justice has extended the implementation of federal web accessibility deadlines for one to two years.  Advocates are frustrated about this because they’ve been waiting for full accessibility for more than three decades since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new federal accessibility mandates federally regulated spaces, like schools to offer blind resources and information for the public. This entails transcript for radio clips, captioning for videos, making pdfs and webpages friendly for screen readers and assistive technology for blind people to interpret visual content into audible speech. This would bring the rules inline with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a longstanding set of recommendations when it comes to web accessibility. 

Mehta’s reporting focuses on this delay and its impact on schools along with the frustrated response from advocates. 

From the Story: “We are outraged…Yet again, the blind have been told to wait to live on terms of equality.” – Corbb O’Connor, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota

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