It’s FIFA time/ Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
This week’s roundup includes the Department of Education moving special education to the Department of Health Human Services and the Department of Justice, coverage of a new Justice Department memo and what it means for Disabled Americans after 27 years of legal protections against institutionalization, and a piece that looks at how the FIFA World Cup has shown a lack of inclusion for Disabled fans.
Department of Education moving special education and civil rights responsibilities
Arthur Jones II , ABC News
This story goes into detail about the Trump administration dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and splitting oversight of special education between the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, who has spread a variety of baseless health theories about a variety of disabilities, including autism, agrees with this transition. This comes despite opposition from advocates and families with Disabled children. Advocates are concerned that this move will actively harm Disabled students and their education.
From the Story:
“Our kids need access to free and appropriate public education. They don’t need to be medicalized, like, there is a reason why this has been done this way for the past 50 years.” — Keri Rodrigues, National Parents Union President
New Justice Department memo questions decades of protections for people with disabilities
Ali Robin & Ali Schmitz, PBS News Hour
This story is about a new memo shared by the Department of Justice. The memo says states are not required to provide disabled people integration into society within their communities in the same way as before. This comes despite the Olmstead v L.C decision, a 1999 case that has allowed Disabled people to be better integrated into society with the proper accommodations instead of being segregated by default. DJA’s RL Nave wrote about the case earlier this week. This piece includes an interview focused on the dangers of this memo for the Disabled community with the President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, Maria Town.
From the Story:
“We are worried that we will see the progress that’s been made on disability rights and on the quality of life of disabled people, whether they’re young or old, erode very, very quickly, and that hard-fought progress will be lost. — Maria Town, American Association People With Disabilities’ CEO & President.
Woman struggles to find accessible World Cup tickets for her terminally ill husband
Shaurya Kshatri, Koralee Nickarz, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
This story is about the barriers to accessing FIFA World Cup tickets for Disabled fans. Stadiums usually have certain amounts of accessible seating set aside, but those interviewed for the story said that FIFA’s approach to accessible ticket buying has been inconsistent and that Disabled fans’ needs are not being met in multiple ways
Similar to other large-scale sporting events, there are many barriers for Disabled fans such as the cost, availability of tickets due to resellers buying and selling them for profit, and seats not being made available for care attendants. The care attendant issue comes up repeatedly in this piece.
From the Story:
“It has been extremely unclear how accessible tickets are made available to the people who need them.” — Jocelyn Maffin , associate director for service delivery at Spinal Cord Injury British Columbia
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