The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant effects on employment and workplaces. While the pandemic has been recognized as a universal experience, the disability community has been uniquely impacted by the pandemic in a variety of ways, including employment. Despite this unique positioning, little is known about how the pandemic influenced disability inclusion efforts in employment during this time. The purpose of this study was to explore how disability was considered within workplace pandemic responses from the perspectives of employees with and without disabilities involved in organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies. The research team conducted 21 semi-structured interviews and analyzed interview data using a framework analysis approach. Findings from semi-structured interviews highlight changes that occurred in the workplace due to the pandemic, how public health policies intersected with disability policies, impacts on workplace accommodations, and outlooks for future disability inclusion within workplace settings. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the experiences of employees with disabilities and offers insights into the relationship between disability experience and access in relation to the changing social, environmental, and cultural contexts of the pandemic. Furthermore, this study confirms the importance of centering disability perspectives in organizational strategies and public policies to address barriers, reduce disparities, and ultimately sustain and promote the inclusion of people with disabilities at work.

Public transportation is fundamental for people with disabilities to access meaningful opportunities. However, their access to public transit is still limited, partly due to the policies establishing the accessibility requirements of public transportation services. We conducted a policy scan analysis of the local, provincial/state, and federal public transportation policies in Canada and the United States. With this scan, we analyzed the policies’ aims, the definition of disabilities, and the content of those policies. The policy analysis revealed that the definition of disability was inconsistent across jurisdictions, creating a discrepancy between those who have access to accessible transport and those who do not. The analysis also showed that policies in the United States and Canada mainly focused on the built environment, the adaptations of vehicles, and the provision of services. In contrast, only a few policies covered social accessibility, such as interaction with the staff, which underscores a significant policy gap and suggests the need for more training requirements in the policies. Funding to transport agencies for people with disabilities was also a missing piece highlighted in this comparative analysis, particularly in Canada. Policymakers need to develop funding mechanisms to ensure a better implementation of accessibility in services and infrastructure.

In the interest of providing inclusive education for students with disabilities within higher education and vocational formation, it is imperative that we examine how disability is understood by the actors involved. This research examines the definition of disability as it moves from an inclusive policy in México into practice at the macro, meso, and micro levels of implementation. Two key policy documents, one from the United Nations and one from México, were examined for how they define disability. Interviews, in which participants were asked to define disability, were conducted with government workers in key entities, program directors, and students with disabilities. The definitions from both documents and the interviews were categorized by specific constructs used in disability research including the social model, the medical model, the adaptability approach, and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. A salient finding is that the construct of disability used within policies does not permeate to the actors involved in practice. To develop a clear understanding of this construct and in the interest of cohesion across implementation, a conversation between all actors would be beneficial.

Since the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, U.S. state IDEA programs have been required to report annually on a set of performance indicators. Indicator 8 of the Part B State Performance Plan is the “percent of parents who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.” The purpose of this study was to investigate whether changes over time in national and state-level performance on Indicator 8 provide evidence in support of the effectiveness of the accountability requirement related to parent involvement. Data were extracted from states’ Annual Performance Reports and other publicly available documents. Findings indicated that national performance on Indicator 8 increased from 63% in 2006 to 76% in 2018. Within-state change in performance from 2014 to 2019 ranged from –13.47% to +42.50%, with several states indicating dramatic year-to-year changes in their reported performance. The findings raise important questions about the extent to which the indicator in its current form can support the dual purpose of holding states accountable for their facilitation of parents’ involvement and supporting improvement efforts. Implications for both federal policy and state-level action are discussed.

Public transport plays a fundamental role in providing access to urban opportunities. People with mobility restrictions face greater obstacles than other members of society. This article seeks to explore the obstacles faced by wheelchair users in Montevideo, Uruguay. To do so, we designed a set of trips to actual destinations for five types of activities to compare time costs between wheelchair users and people without mobility restrictions. We estimated time costs for sidewalk segments, waiting time, onboard bus travel time, and coupling time (i.e., idle time due to the lack of bus provision closer to the activity starting times) and found that, relative to people without mobility restrictions, each of these transit components poses high costs for wheelchair users. From a policymaking perspective, our findings point out the importance of expanding universal design in public transport. They also call attention to other factors that explain travel time such as sidewalks segments and the temporal organization of urban activities that may turn into schedule mismatches.

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are likely to encounter people with disabilities (PWD) during calls for service. These interactions sometimes escalate situations involving PWD and may result in arrest or death due to a lack of disability awareness among LEOs. The purpose of this study was to explore the current perspectives of LEOs regarding PWD and to identify the current training needs of LEOs regarding disability awareness and interactions with PWD. This study utilized two focus groups consisting of participants representing seven law enforcement agencies across a large, Western state. Results indicate that the perceptions and needs of the LEOs regarding PWD are shaped by four themes: (a) personal connections, (b) job experience, (c) training opportunities, and (d) training needs. Implications for policy and practice to enhance the rigor of disability awareness training for LEOs are described.

Qualified employees with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The demanding nature of the teaching profession presents a particularly challenging context for accommodations; therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine litigation on accommodating teachers with disabilities. Authors searched Lexis+ to identify case law on accommodations claims by teachers with disabilities. Results indicated plaintiffs were primarily female. Depression represented the most common disability, followed by respiratory issues and post-traumatic stress disorders. Accommodation claims were adjudicated under the broad categories of failure to meet the essential functions of the position, failure to engage in the interactive process, and undue hardship. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

In the last decade, and especially after the 2013 Virginia court case of Ross and Ross v. Hatch, there has been a dramatic increase in knowledge, use, and legal recognition of supported decision-making (SDM) in the United States. SDM is a methodology in which people work with trusted friends, family members, and professionals who help them understand their situations and choices so they may make their own decisions and direct their lives. After the Hatch case, in which a young woman with Down syndrome defeated a petition for permanent guardianship by demonstrating that she uses SDM, this methodology has increasingly been considered and used as an alternative to guardianship to enable people to retain their legal rights and make life choices to the maximum extent possible. This article reviews the guardianship laws of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Using criteria we developed, in light of the findings and values expressed in Hatch, we assessed the extent to which those laws recognize or encourage the use of SDM as an alternative to guardianship and as a means to enhance self-determination for people in guardianship. We then offer recommendations for future SDM research, policy, education, and advocacy efforts.

Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are nonresidential, nonprofit agencies that provide independent living services to people with disabilities across the nation. The services CILs provide are invaluable to people with disabilities living independently in the community. Accessing CIL services can be challenging for people with disabilities, particularly for individuals in rural areas. A geographic analysis called a transportation network analysis is one method for assessing access to CIL services. We draw on the distribution of CILs across the country and in two rural states (Montana and Arkansas) to assess levels of geographic access using travel distance along national and local road networks. Incorporating data from the American Community Survey allowed us to estimate the number of people with disabilities living within certain distance thresholds from CILs. We saw increased access in urban areas where there is a higher concentration of CILs, suggesting that people with disabilities in rural areas have limited access to CIL services. We explore how partnering with Area Agencies on Aging has the potential to expand access to services for people with disabilities in rural areas, highlighting the utility of geographic analysis in social service provision.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 substantially expanded the availability of health insurance coverage, particularly for adults with disabilities. One notable change was the option for states to offer Medicaid coverage to adults with household incomes that were below 138% of the federal poverty line; most but not all states expanded Medicaid to this population. This article investigates whether states that expanded Medicaid coverage through the ACA in 2014—the first year that expansion was possible under the ACA, and the year that most states opted to expand—experienced differential changes in the employment rate of adults with disabilities relative to states that did not expand Medicaid. Using nationally representative data from the American Community Survey, we do not find evidence that the postexpansion employment trend in Medicaid expansion states was significantly different from that trend in states that did not expand Medicaid.