Accessibility in the News — 2/27/2026.

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Feature Stories

Hilton faces ADA lawsuit over bed heights in accessible hotel rooms

February 25, 2026 | Source: Top Class Actions

A new class action lawsuit accuses Hilton of failing to provide accessible beds to wheelchair users at its hotels. Plaintiff Christopher Niles filed the class action complaint against Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Hilton Management and Hilton Management Services on Feb. 12 in Pennsylvania federal court, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The class action lawsuit alleges that Hilton fails to provide accessible and usable hotel beds in its “accessible” rooms and does not provide accurate information about the accessibility of those beds in advance of reservation…

Deaf travelers say airline announcements are a safety risk

February 25, 2026 | Source: USA Today

When you’re sitting in the airport, the deluge of announcements can be overwhelming. The boarding order for the flight to Orlando has no impact on your trip to Denver. But imagine how dangerous it could be if you didn’t have any announcements. For many Deaf travelers, that’s the reality of flying. Crucial announcements in the airport and on board airplanes are often only made verbally or in some other audio-based format, which means travelers with hearing loss may be missing out on important information like last-minute gate changes or crucial safety instructions in the event of an emergency…

NYC Parks Department agrees to make Van Cortlandt House Museum accessible in settlement

February 26, 2026 | Source: AMNY

The New York City Parks Department agreed to make the oldest standing building in the Bronx Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant in a settlement the federal government announced Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, launched a lawsuit last year alleging that the Van Cortlandt House Museum, a historic 1748 Bronx residence that hosted George Washington and was turned into a public museum, was not readily accessible to individuals with disabilities. The settlement requires the city-run museum to undertake a long-term capital project providing physical alterations to the basement and the first floor of the house in order to accommodate those with disabilities and to provide audio-visual depictions of the areas of the property that cannot be made accessible…

National News (U.S.)

Blood test holds promise for predicting when Alzheimer’s symptoms will start

February 19, 2026 | Source: Nature

A simple blood test might one day serve as a molecular ‘clock’ that predicts not only whether someone will develop Alzheimer’s disease — but when. The test, published in Nature Medicine on 19 February1, is based on an abnormal form of a protein called tau that circulates in the blood and begins to accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s well before symptoms such as memory loss appear. If validated in larger studies, the test could provide a way to intervene in the neurodegenerative disease at an earlier stage, when treatment is more likely to be effective…

An Accessible Housing Model Built to Be Scaled

February 20, 2026 | Source: The New York Times

On weekdays, Doug Micetich works as an “inclusion concierge” at the Kelsey Ayer Station, a six-story, multifamily development with 115 apartments located in downtown San Jose, Calif. Mr. Micetich, 51, regularly volleys advice and gets people on their way. But for many of the disabled residents living here, he also helps with critical issues related to benefits assistance, including connecting residents to in-home providers who can help with personal care and preparing meals. The Kelsey Ayer Station is the almost two-year-old first site for the Kelsey, a national nonprofit that builds and advocates for affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities…

Michigan fight over special ed services lingers, years after Covid shutdown

February 20, 2026 | Source: Bridge Michigan

Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic led Michigan to close its public schools, big questions remain unresolved: Does the state owe make-up services to special education students, many of whom were unable to take advantage of virtual learning? And who, if anyone, can force the state to provide them? Long-time special education advocate Marcie Lipsitt is among those waiting to hear. She filed a federal complaint against the Michigan Department of Education in 2021 over its guidance about compensatory services for students with disabilities…

City of Atlanta now mandating push-button doors at businesses for accessibility

February 20, 2026 | Source: Atlanta News First and Fox 5

The city of Atlanta is now mandating push-button doors for most businesses to improve accessibility. Atlanta City Council recently approved an amendment requiring most street-facing business entrances to have push-button doors. “It’s about time,” said Dr. Kim Gibson, disABILITY LINK executive director. “1990 was when the [Americans with Disabilities Act] was passed and it’s now 2026. Yay for doing it, but it’s way past due.” Gibson said she’s not surprised this is only now being required. As someone who is hard of hearing, she knows firsthand how inaccessible the world can be…

Making the world more accessible, one sign at a time

February 21, 2026 | Source: The Paper

All eyes are on the instructor as he moves his hands to shape the word “clock” in American Sign Language (ASL), tapping his pointer finger on the opposite wrist before drawing both hands up to his chest and holding his pointer fingers and thumbs several inches apart to imply a circle. Every student wears a look of concentration as they copy him, practicing the motion several times as Fletcher Woodel repeats the sign and the spoken word in his quiet, relaxed voice. Throughout the lesson, Woodel weaves in ASL fun facts and information about deaf culture…

Justice Department Finds the Special School District of St. Louis’s Seclusion and Restraint Practices Discriminate Against Students with Disabilities

February 23, 2026 | Source: U.S. DOJ

Today, the Justice Department (“the Department”) notified the Special School District of St. Louis, Missouri (“the District”) that it found the District’s seclusion and restraint practices violate Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. After a twenty-one month investigation, the Department concluded that the District discriminates against students with disabilities by routinely subjecting them to ineffective seclusion practices that are highly susceptible to abuse and restraints without justification, rather than providing the interventions and supports they need to receive the education they are guaranteed by federal law…

Workforce Innovation And Opportunity Act: Actions Needed to Ensure People with Disabilities Can Access DOL Job Programs

February 23, 2026 | Source: U.S. GAO

Over 500,000 people with disabilities were unemployed and actively looking for work each year from 2021-2024. Job seekers with disabilities may need accommodations—such as assistive technology—to access Department of Labor-funded employment and training programs at job centers. However, we found that job seekers may not be able to access needed services—such as sign language interpreters—in some areas. Also, while DOL monitors its programs and provides accessibility guidance to job centers, it doesn’t routinely analyze its monitoring results or evaluate the use of its guidance…

New White House design team aims for ‘delightful’ websites — changing design ethos in the process

February 23, 2026 | Source: Nextgov/FCW

Joe Gebbia wants to make the government’s websites better, more useful and more beautiful. They should be “delightful,” the billionaire Airbnb co-founder said recently on a podcast. Gebbia is the government’s first-ever chief design officer, a position created by President Donald Trump within the White House last summer. Previously an associate of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, Gebbia’s oft-repeated goal is to make the government on par with an Apple store. He’s aiming big: Gebbia’s team is working to reshape the government’s main web design standards and use artificial intelligence to roll them out across the government…

Employment experts agree: Telework is a protected right

February 24, 2026 | Source: The Hill

President Trump’s January 2025 memorandum delivered a blunt operational directive: End broad remote work in the federal government and restore full-time, in-person duty stations. Although many leaders treated it as a fast lane back to 2019 norms, employees who use telework as a disability accommodation read it as a civil rights test, because their workday depends on more than convenience. In the absence of detailed guidance, many agencies delayed and denied telework requests for those with disabilities, despite the widespread use of such accommodations previously. This resulted in labor conflicts and lawsuits…

Colorado Continues to Expand Its Accessibility Offerings

February 24, 2026 | Source: Government Technology

Colorado is expanding its use of sign language technology to help people who are hard of hearing, and will make the technology available to all state agencies and buildings. The state is nearing the end of a pilot project involving the Aira ASL (American Sign Language) app, which enables people to access a trained interpreter when interacting with Colorado Department of Labor and Employment officials, and at museums, historical sites and the state Capitol. The service is free for up to 30 minutes a session. That program “will soon be expanded to all state agencies and buildings, mirroring the availability of the Explorer service,” Karen Pellegrin, senior program manager of the state’s Technology Accessibility Program (TAP) in the Colorado Office of Information Technology (OIT), said via email…

U.S. Attorney’s Office Enters Into Settlement Agreement To Improve Accessibility At Historic Bronx House And Museum

February 24, 2026 | Source: U.S DOJ

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today the settlement of a civil rights lawsuit against the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”) and the Historic House Trust (“HHT”). The settlement resolves violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) at the Van Cortlandt House Museum in Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx, New York. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the Agreement entered by the court, and information from the Van Cortlandt House Museum: The Van Cortlandt House was built in 1748 as the residence of the Van Cortlandt family…

Newton nonprofit provides accessible instructions for 500 LEGO sets

February 24, 2026 | Source: Milford Daily News

Building LEGO sets has many educational, physical and mental health benefits. Among them are stress relief, cognitive development, teaching engineering skills, improving fine motor skills and fostering teamwork, collaboration and patience. But imagine being blind or visually impaired. Instructions that come with almost every LEGO set are no use to someone who can’t see. Enter Bricks for the Blind, which was founded in 2023 by Matthew Shifrin, 28, of Newton. The nonprofit makes it possible for blind people to build LEGO sets by providing text-based instructions…

Are States Ready for the Approaching Accessibility Deadline?

February 24, 2026 | Source: Government Technology

Updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require all states to ensure their digital products — from websites to apps — are accessible for people with disabilities; as the April deadline for compliance approaches, some states are ready, while others have further work to do. The Department of Justice issued a rule in April 2024 requiring content on government websites and mobile applications to be accessible and usable for people with disabilities. Smaller cities with populations under 50,000 have until April 2027 to comply, but more populous cities and all states have a deadline of April 24…

Ramadan, Disability, And Emergency Preparedness: How The Month Of Mercy Can Prepare Us Before Communal Calamity

February 24, 2026 | Source: Muslim Matters

As a person born with a muscular physical disability, who now uses a wheelchair, I naturally hoped that all of our masajid would be accessible. The access to elevators instead of needing to climb a flight of stairs. This need for accessibility grew even more after witnessing my parents age, because it was the norm for my father to carry me up while my mother carried the wheelchair, but now it was increasingly getting difficult for them. I unexpectedly got married, but out of shyness, I never wanted my husband to carry me publicly. The only way to climb a flight of stairs, in this scenario, was to have at least three men carry me when seated on the wheelchair, while having another person carry my other belongings…

TSA Berated For Asking Disabled Passenger A Banned Question

February 25, 2026 | Source: The Travel

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a long list of rules it imposes on travelers in the United States, from potential $30,000 fines for bad behavior to the most recently enforced ID rule that comes with a $45 fee for non-compliant Americans. Sometimes, though, the TSA breaks the rules that it is supposed to follow. A passenger posted a clip of a TSA employee at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport apparently asking a question that legally isn’t allowed. The law reportedly being trampled on pertains to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which is a pretty serious matter (something that also got Amtrak in hot water in January after a disabled passenger and her service dog were kicked off a train)…

Missourians with disabilities ask lawmakers not to cut funds for their services

February 25, 2026 | Source: KCTV

Thousands of Missourians with disabilities gathered at the state capitol on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to reject proposed budget cuts that could reduce pay for their care workers and put their support systems at risk. Gov. Mike Kehoe proposed an $80 million reduction to disability services as part of a broader effort to address a projected state budget shortfall exceeding $2 billion. The governor’s office said the cuts are part of more than $600 million in reductions to the general revenue core operating budget. The proposed reductions would lower self-directed support rates from $33.00 per hour for personal assistant and team conference services, and $36.76 per hour for medical exception services, to $26.04 per hour…

Deaf, hard-of-hearing community advocates for better accessibility

February 25, 2026 | Source: WOWK 13 News

Members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community joined lawmakers under the dome at the West Virginia State Capitol to advocate for better accessibility statewide. Multiple organizations passed out information and taught the basics of sign language, the largest communication basis for those in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Advocates say that while communication can be a barrier at times, it can also be a learning moment and a gateway for more opportunities. Nora Stevenson with the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind says the differences aren’t really that big…

Super-Agers’ Brains Have a Special Ability, New Study Suggests

February 25, 2026 | Source: The New York Times

Many people’s brains deteriorate as they age, becoming riddled with malfunctioning proteins that result in cell death and the loss of memory and cognition. But other people’s brains remain almost perfectly intact, their thinking as sharp at 80 as it was in their 50s. A paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature provides a new potential explanation for this discrepancy, and it taps into one of the hottest debates in neuroscience: whether human brains can grow new neurons in adulthood, a phenomenon called neurogenesis. The study found that so-called super-agers — people 80 and up who have the memory ability of someone 30 years younger — had roughly twice as many new neurons as older adults with normal memory for their age, and 2.5 times more than people with Alzheimer’s disease…

Is autism preventable in certain cases after all? Some scientists say yes.

February 26, 2026 | Source: The Washington Post

Obstetrician Jeanne Conry has long paid attention to the “1,300-day window”— the months before conception through a child’s second birthday. Studies show nutrition and lifestyle during this period can shape pregnancy outcomes and the long-term health of the babies. Conry began to wonder if such factors could also influence autism. She is now helping lead an educational push aimed at alerting women to their exposure to toxins, stress and infections during this narrow and consequential window — guided by the idea that what happens then may subtly shape eggs or sperm, and in turn, influence a child’s development long before pregnancy begins…

Tennessee lawmaker asks DOJ to investigate DCS over treatment of children with disabilities, placement issues

February 26, 2026 | Source: WSMV4

A Tennessee state lawmaker has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, citing what she calls systemic civil rights violations affecting children with disabilities in state custody. Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) filed the complaint to Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior DOJ officials, requesting the Civil Rights Division open an investigation into DCS. The DOJ has not responded. Behn alleges that children with disabilities in DCS custody are disproportionately placed in restrictive, non-family settings, denied services in integrated environments and subjected to repeated placement instability and prolonged time in state custody…

Jack Fact — According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, some 73 million adults in the United States live with at least one disability, the report points out. This includes 6 percent of people living with a hearing disability, 5 percent with a vision disability, and 14 percent with a cognitive disability.

Hit The Road Jack — How Accessible is Paris?and Valencia’s Accessibility Transformation: Tourism Boom for All Abilities and Accessibility gaps in South African aviation leave Deaf travellers feeling vulnerable and The Airlines and Airline Manufacturers Have Had 42 Years to Support Passengers with Disabilities – They Have Failed Miserably

International News

Accessible travel is in demand — now more than ever before

February 20, 2026 | Source: Condé Nast Traveller- UK

Accessible travel was once thought of as a specialist segment of the industry, often discussed in terms of compliance or infrastructure rather than commercial demand. Yet for many travellers, considerations around mobility, sensory needs, mental health, chronic illness or caring responsibilities are not occasional complications but part of everyday planning. They shape destination choice, transport decisions and even whether booking a trip feels feasible at all. A new YouGov study commissioned by Responsible Travel suggests that these considerations are far more widespread than the industry tends to assume…

Has landmark SC order on accessibility for disabled translated on ground? Compliance hearing bares gaps

February 20, 2026 | Source: The Print- India

Lack of robust enforcement mechanisms, and passing the buck of compliance onto the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities are major hurdles in effective implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2024 landmark ruling that declared right to accessibility as a fundamental right, the top court was informed during a compliance hearing. The 2024 order had directed the Centre to frame rules ensuring adequate infrastructure at public places for accessibility. However, nearly two years after the landmark Rajive Raturi v. Union of India ruling was delivered in November 2024 by a three-judge bench—upholding the fundamental right to accessibility as “crucial” and legally enforceable…

AODA shows no signs of improvement 1 year after deadline

February 22, 2026 | Source: Durham Region News- Canada

What’s changed more than a year after the Jan. 1, 2025, deadline came to make Ontario fully accessible for all? Not much if you ask the experts, watchdogs and those who live with a disability. David Lepofsky, who has been keeping his eye on accessibility issues and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) since its origins nearly 30 years ago, expresses frustration with the pace at which things get done. “The only change has been in the wrong direction,” Lepofsky said in a recent interview. “The government has announced absolutely no new actions on implementing and enforcing the AODA since it missed the deadline a year ago. In fact, it hasn’t even publicly acknowledged that it missed the deadline,” he said…

Wheelchair-bound student who studied online says schools aren’t ready to accommodate them

February 22, 2026 | Source: Moldova 1- Moldova

Poor accessibility continues to be a major challenge for people with disabilities. The lack of access to public buildings remains a persistent issue for those with special needs, who often depend on others. This reality is experienced daily by Stanislav Ceban, a young man with special needs from the village of Carahasani in the Ștefan Vodă district. Despite facing numerous challenges, he has managed to make a significant impact in his life. I’ve been in a wheelchair since birth. Being very sociable, I integrated well into school…

Accessibility assessments underway at more than 500 Saskatchewan government buildings

February 23, 2026 | Source: WestCentralOnline- Canada and Discover Estevan and Government of Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan government has launched in-person accessibility assessments at more than 500 provincially owned buildings as part of its plan to improve access to public services. The Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement is conducting the assessments, reviewing both the interior and exterior of each facility to identify barriers and opportunities for improvement. Each building will receive an audit report to help guide future planning, investments and upgrades. “These assessments are an important step in ensuring that our government facilities support and accommodate all residents,” SaskBuilds and Procurement Minister Sean Wilson said in a news release…

Accessibility In Courts: MP High Court Directs Audit Of Facilities For Women, Disabled, Chronically Ill And Senior Citizens

February 23, 2026 | Source: Live Law- India

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the Registrar General to file an audit report listing the amenities and facilities available to women, persons with disability, persons suffering from chronic disease and senior citizens in the High Court premises, District Court and Tehsil Court buildings, in a public interest litigation seeking adequate infrastructure and facilities. The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf directed; “Registrar General of the High Court shall also place on record an audit report with regard to various amenities and facilities made available to women, persons with disability, persons suffering from chronic disease and senior citizens in the High Court premises…

Major Streaming Services to Be Regulated More Like Broadcasters as U.K. Unveils Sweeping Change

February 24, 2026 | Source: The Hollywood Reporter and GOV.UK

The U.K. government said on Tuesday that streaming services with more than 500,000 U.K. users, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ITV’s ITVX and Channel 4’s services, will be covered by enhanced regulation by U.K. media regulator Ofcom “designed to protect audiences and improve accessibility.” The government unveiled “secondary legislation to implement the Media Act 2024, bringing the largest, most popular VOD services in the U.K. under enhanced regulation by Ofcom,” it said. “Platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, and the public service broadcaster VOD services like ITVX and Channel 4, will be required to follow similar Ofcom content rules to those currently in place for traditional broadcasters.”…

By law officers seize 11 accessible parking permits for being misused, expired

February 24, 2026 | Source: CTV News- Canada

Ottawa Bylaw Services is reminding drivers it’s a $500 fine for not having a valid accessible parking permit, after nearly a dozen permits were seized during a blitz. Officers visited several locations last week to check vehicles using accessible parking spots. In a post on social media, Bylaw Services said 11 accessible parking permits were seized by officers “for being misused, expired or fake.” “No valid permit? No excuse. The fine is $500,” Bylaw Services said. Ottawa Bylaw supervisor Dylan Proulx told CTV News Ottawa that of the 11 permits seized, seven were for misuse, three were expired, and one was fake…

How businesses and organizations may be communicating with persons with disabilities

February 25, 2026 | Source: Statistics Canada and StatsCAN Plus

We’re inundated by advertising and other promotions every day—on radio or TV, online, on social media, and sometimes even in our mailboxes. While advertising and information are widespread, they are not always accessible to persons with disabilities. Depending on their accessibility needs, persons with disabilities may face barriers when receiving messages or communicating with a business or organization. The Canadian Survey on Business Conditions recently asked businesses and organizations about their use of accessibility features that enable people with disabilities to interact with websites, documents, and services…

Europe must close the rights gap for migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities

February 26, 2026 | Source: International Refugee Assistance Project- Europe

Migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities continue to face systemic exclusion from protection, support, and integration systems across the European Union, despite the EU’s human rights obligations. In response, IRAP and EDF have jointly launched a new policy brief, “A Pact That Excludes: Closing the Protection Gap for Migrants and Asylum Seekers with Disabilities in the European Union,” showing that EU migration and asylum systems remain largely inaccessible and discriminatory for people with disabilities. This briefing analyses the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum from a disability perspective and urges EU institutions and Member States to take immediate action to make the Pact disability-inclusive…

Sudan militia targeting of civilians with disabilities can constitute war crimes, rights group says

February 26, 2026 | Source: Jurist News- Sudan

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted, abused, and killed people with disabilities during their October 26 takeover of the long-besieged city of El Fasher in North Darfur province. The RSF deliberately targeted people with disabilities, often accusing them of being members of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), HRW said, calling on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the African Union (AU) to intervene to prevent further atrocities against civilians. In a series of interviews with survivors, HRW documented how the RSF singled out people with disabilities…

‘Bitterness and sadness’: Calgary disability hub closes, leaves gap for community

February 26, 2026 | Source: CTV News- Canada

An advocacy hub that has served Calgary’s disabled community for nearly three decades is closing after the province ended its funding contract a year early. Supporters gathered Thursday for a farewell event for the Disability Action Hall, a peer-led space that has helped people with disabilities share information, advocate for policy changes and navigate what many describe as a complex and often overwhelming system of supports. Colleen Huston, co-ordinator of the hall, said the group has functioned as both a meeting place and an engine for change…

Disabled activists call on Clooney to abandon movie that is set to paint Alzheimer’s as ‘fate worse than death’

February 26, 2026 | Source: Disabled News Service- UK

Disabled activists in the UK have backed a US campaign that will call on actor and film-maker George Clooney to step away from a movie adaptation of a memoir that treats disability as a “fate worse than death”. In Love is based on US writer Amy Bloom’s In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, which describes how she accompanied her husband to end his life by assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland following his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Clooney will star alongside Annette Bening in the movie, which is currently in production. But the US grassroots organisation Not Dead Yet (NDY) is writing to Clooney to ask him to step away from the project, with support from other US disability rights campaign groups…

Dongdaemun-gu Expands Disability Welfare with AI and Smart Technologies

February 27, 2026 | Source: Asian Business Daily- South Korea

Seoul’s Dongdaemun-gu (District Mayor Lee Philhyoung) is expanding customized support by introducing artificial intelligence (AI) and smart technologies into disability welfare services, based on its vision of becoming an “AI Coexistence City.” The district is building an integrated support system that encompasses education, rehabilitation, and care, under a policy of not limiting technology to simple exhibitions but instead using it in practical ways to help people with disabilities regain independence and resume daily life. The Dongdaemun Vision-Specialized Welfare Center for the Disabled is operating one-on-one customized training programs for people with visual impairments on basic smartphone use and AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini)…

Mum with disability refused much needed parking permit: ‘The government to focus on needs, regardless of the disability’

February 27, 2026 | Source: Irish Examiner- Ireland

Amanda Nugent (47) has epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare genetic skin condition, commonly known as ‘butterfly skin’ due to its extreme fragility. Those with EB lack the essential structural proteins that bind the skin’s layers together, resulting in painful blisters, tears, or breaks in the skin. Nugent, who lives in Wexford, grew up unaware of the cause of the painful blisters that would appear on her hands and feet. The birth of her son Ruaidhrí in 2013 was the catalyst for finding out it was EB. “When Ruaidhrí was born, he had blisters all down his back, and on his bottom area,” she recalls…

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