Andrew Leland

ProPublica: "Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push" by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards. "Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. 'How low can you go?' one advocate asked. 'How can you do this to children?'" Photo of the Department of Education building by J. David Ake/Getty Images

From ProPublica: “Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push.” Read more at https://f.mtr.cool/ohhwjocfjy

I had the same reaction. Any theories of why this went through?

On/Off Getting deeper into plain text

I wrote a post that opens a tiny window onto the terminally nerdy shit I've been distracting myself with lately
vilejelly.substack.com/p/onoff

Josh has shaped my thinking on blind identity, accessibility, technology, whiskey variety, and on and on: tremendously honored and just straight-up chuffed to be asking him questions about his brilliant new book in NYC next week. It's hybrid virtual and in-person so you better be there:

The Country of the Blind — Multnomah County Library The Country of the Blind — Leland, Andrew, — A witty, winning, and revelatory personal narrative of the author's transition from sightedness to blindness - and his quest to learn all he can about blin...

You might enjoy The Country of the Blind by @quailty.bsky.social if you're looking for "good nonfiction to kick off the summer: multcolib.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S1... #AskALibrarian

If your organization has been affected by DOGE cuts or RFK Jr.’s cuts to the Administration for Community living, message my Signal at emgarcia.85

Insults on the Early Internet “In any other medium, these words would be, literally, unspeakable.”

Stumbled across this ~30-year-old TNY piece about online discourse and it's at once shockingly quaint and entirely prescient www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...

After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. #ChefsForGaza (1/5)

We are devastated to say that our comrade, teacher and friend Joshua Clover passed away last night. He is irreplaceable; We will miss him forever.

“Another recalled taking a planeload of children and their escorts on a domestic transfer from the southern border to an airport in New York. He tried to slip snacks to the kids. “Even the chaperones were like, ‘Don’t give them any food,’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Where is your humanity?’”

A familiar place Five years of Covid, forced back to work, and curated news from 39 countries

This world tour of disability news includes work from @thesicktimes.bsky.social @quailty.bsky.social @francesryan.bsky.social @disrightsuk.bsky.social @womenenabled.bsky.social @validityfoundation.bsky.social @ianhamiltonbbc.bsky.social and many more.

www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/fami...

Hopefully this won’t be the only chance I get to cover these issues and I’ll have a chance to report this out further down the line, will definitely drop you a line when I do. Thanks for reading and responding

Thanks for this feedback.this piece got rushed and I wish I’d gotten a chance to interview more voices as you suggest, including republicans as well.

How MAGA Scrambled Disability Politics And: a feel-bad take on a feel-good blindness doc; reading and listening recommendations; (not much) more!

I have two new stories up: first is on disability politics under Trump 2.0, second is me feeling bad about a new feel-good documentary about blindness . Both linked on my "Substack" here! open.substack.com/pub/vilejell...

Is deletion the new cancellation

A park bench meant for probably three people, but the seat of the middle third is absent and the retained backrest has an accessibility symbol on it (the white on blue wheelchair user icon).

Debra Ruh shares an example of weaponizing performative accessibility against other communities. In this case a bench clearly meant to block homeless people versus help anyone (including wheelchair users).
www.linkedin.com/posts/debrar...

#a11y #accessibility

In a brutal time, what a gift to see intrepid people start something new:

It’s an active crime scene!

(everything’s gone bonkers, sometimes you need to laugh or you’ll cry)

All this talk of DeepSeek's innovation arising from the limitations its engineers worked under recalls the long history of disabled geniuses making breakthroughs under their own sort of constraints. Nice to see another puncture-hole in the myth of the supremacy of the nondisabled, the hyperresourced

I haven't paid money to the NYT for a few years (even though I miss the Cooking stuff especially!) because I have too much uh... self respect ... but I nonetheless sometimes open the homepage and do a depressing exercise where I control search "trans" and yesterday there was literally nothing.

Leading Disability Organizations: President Trump’s Blame of Deadly Plane Crash on Disabled Federal Workers Is Baseless, Irresponsible - AAPD For Immediate Release: January 30, 2025 Contact: Jess Davidson, jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-465-5528 WASHINGTON D.C. – In remarks today at the White House, President Trump cast potential blame for the tra...

Lotsa reporting on Trump's scapegoating of DEI for the DC plane crash; less news on his blaming people with intellectual disabilities. The DEIA program offers employment to talented and stigmatized disabled workers in government-- a stigma Trump is reinforcing.

www.aapd.com/disability-o...

NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research.

Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions

Death in Twin Peaks | The Organist Twin Peaks was never just a TV show: it was an obsession and an apparition. In its 2017 incarnation, the real-life deaths of several cast members hang spectrally over the proceedings.

One of the ways that I've been processing the loss of David Lynch is by reading words about his work. One of my favorite pieces was written by Howard Hampton and produced for the radio by The Organist, a program that I loved dearly (shoutout @quailty.bsky.social).

www.kcrw.com/culture/show...

marquee at IFC: DAVID LYNCH, RIP 1946-2025, THE BEST TO EVER DO IT

This is super helpful (as is the syllabus care note)—thank you!

this is awesome, thank you for posting it. a question I've been gnawing: how do you handle masking in class? Do you mask always every class? Do you require students to mask? If you don't, has a student ever requested that others mask? Ventilation, open windows in freezing CT?

Disability At Home Visit the post for more.

Need to figure out how to make your home more accessible? How to rig up something to do it safely? Are your parents aging into needing these kinds of hacks & tips? I maintain a website that is a repository of ideas from disabled ppl & caregivers I talked to across the US
www.disabilityathome.org

thought about trying out @zed.dev on macos and wow is it really 100 percent inaccessible with voiceover? I'm used to apps where some features are hard to nav with a screen reader; been a while since i've found one that can tell you that a window is open and... nothing else????????

W0Www I would read 10k words about how you did this.

I’m sure there are more folks out there who I haven’t connected with yet in disability anthropology or who use ethnographic approaches to critical disability studies. Send me a note if you’d like to be added! ❤️

#disability #anthropology #ethnography
#CriticalDisabilityStudies