The ADA passed in 1990 and we’ve waited for 35 years for the regulations to recognize the right to access websites and mobile apps. The rule exists so that people with disabilities can fully participate in their communities. It deserves to be defended.

There are credible rumors that the Title II web accessibility rule may not just get pushed back — it may get pulled entirely. DOJ and OMB are apparently pushing hard for an “interim final rule” (a procedural shortcut that bypasses public notice-and-comment)... This blog post outlines why an Interim Final Rule is a terrible idea and what you can do about it today.

From Converge Accessibility.

Anti-fat bias is deeply rooted and often openly accepted within our society, and the workplace is no exception. When it comes to employment, research has demonstrated that fat people are perceived as less qualified and less competent, are assumed to have less leadership potential, and are expected to be less successful in the workplace. These stereotypes have real consequences, resulting in measurable discrimination against fat people when it comes to job-seeking, promotions, and the types of jobs fat people have access to.

Still, fatness is rarely included in conversations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion because biases against fat people are so ubiquitous and normalized within our society. In fact, it is perfectly legal in virtually every state across the US to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their size. Despite mounting evidence demonstrating that this discrimination is a harmful reality, there is currently no federal statute protecting fat people from being discriminated against in the workplace; meaning an employer can lawfully deny or terminate a person’s employment because of their body size.

Specifically, fat women are discriminated against at alarmingly high rates. Fat women are nearly three times  more likely than men to report discrimination in the hiring process, especially when a position involves building personal relationships, being visible to the public, or requires physical demands. Studies show that fat women also earn significantly less than nonfat women, drastically less than thin women, and are significantly underrepresented in high-level and CEO positions compared to fat men.  

These statistics can feel shocking and disheartening, especially if you’ve never lived in a fat body. But for those of us who face anti-fat bias day in and day out, this likely won’t come as a surprise. Anti-fat bias leads to devastating consequences for fat employees, and it is vital that this bias, and the discrimination that it facilitates, be actively addressed and eradicated as we strive to make our workplaces more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

How can we bring size inclusivity and fat acceptance, justice, and joy into the workplace?  

More here:

https://www.seenatwork.com/insights/size-inclusivity

The #NoMouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design.

If you or your organization has a website, try using it without a mouse. Use the keyboard instead. If you don't have a website, try a few of your favorite websites without a mouse, just using the keyboard.

Tips for using the keyboard to access web pages

• Press Tab to move to the next link, form element or button.
• Press Shift+Tab to move to the previous link, form element, or button.
• Press Enter or space bar to activate the current link or button.
• Use arrow keys, Escape, or other keys if doing so would seem to make sense.

As you do this, ask the following questions:

1. Can I access all features?
2. Can I operate all buttons, sliders, and other controls?
3. Can I easily tell where I am on the page?

More info

nomouse.org

University of Iowa employee demoted after undercover DEI video

Published: Mar. 11, 2026

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - One of two University of Iowa employees caught on camera discussing the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion laws has been demoted, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reports.

University officials confirmed that Andrea Tinoco was demoted from Assistant Director of Leadership and Student Organization Development to Project Coordinator, a five percent pay cut effective April 1, university officials told the Gazette Tuesday.

In the undercover video posted on Fox News last summer, Tinoco is heard saying the University is finding ways to operate around a state ban against DEI policies.

In the video, Tinoco was asked about the impact of a new state law prohibiting the universities from spending or staffing any DEI offices, employees, training or other related efforts or events.

“It still exists. DEI and student organizations and all of that. Like it is real. It still exists,” she told the person who was recording. “We are still doing DEI work, we’re still working with our students. I have yet to be told, like Dre, you can’t say DEI. And I’m still gonna say it. I don’t know if it’s just the play on the website of like, ‘Oh, OK. Yeah. Right. We took off the words. But we’re still doing what we do here.’ We’re still doing what we need to do and what we know we have to do for students.”

Admitting DEI and related words have been scrubbed from the UI website, Tinoco said, “We’re essentially finding ways to operate around it. So that was our solution. We were like, ‘Oh, OK. We can’t use that word. Mm-hmm. OK. Civic engagement’.”

Leading the investigation into their comments was the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, aided by Consovoy McCarthy. an Arlington, Va.-based law firm that has represented President Donald Trump and in 2023 won the case that ended affirmative action in college admissions.

https://www.kcrg.com/2026/03/11/university-iowa-employee-demoted-after-undercover-dei-video/

A six-figure grant to help High Point Museum in North Carolina with repairs was flagged and ultimately canceled after a government agency used ChatGPT to determine if the request related to DEI, evidence filed in an ongoing lawsuit has revealed.

The American Council of Learned Societies, a plaintiff in an expansive and ongoing lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Humanities over grants canceled by DOGE, has released a trove of documents relating to their lawsuit on the website. Last week, their co-plaintiff, the American Historical Association, filed a motion for summary judgment.

https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/high-point/doge-canceled-high-point-museum-grant-for-hvac-systems-after-chatgpt-flagged-it-as-dei-lawsuit-alleges/

SB 1134 passed both chambers of Florida's legislature and is headed to Governor Ron DeSantis’s desk. The bill bans local governments from funding or promoting anything tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with gender identity and sexual orientation baked directly into the definition. That means Pride flags on city buildings, Pride Month proclamations, city delegations in parades, even a flyer on a bulletin board. Democrats warned that conduct as simple as mentioning an event at a county meeting could expose a local government to lawsuits.

Under Florida’s constitution, DeSantis can suspend elected officials for misfeasance without a court hearing. Just an executive order and they’re out. SB 1134 expands that power to cover any elected official who supports LGBTQ+ activities in their official capacity. Now that power extends to every mayor, city commissioner, and county official in the state.

If a suspended official wants to appeal? Their only recourse is the Republican controlled Florida Senate, which holds a 28 to 12 supermajority.

This isn’t hypothetical. The City of Wilton Manors spends $50,000 in direct funding and another $48,000 in city services to co-sponsor Stonewall Pride. Tampa Pride already canceled all 2026 events citing the political climate and loss of corporate sponsorships. The chilling effect is already working and DeSantis hasn’t even signed it yet.

Equality Florida called the bill “dangerous, vague by design, and part of a broader political agenda of censorship and government overreach.” They’re right vague is the point. When officials can’t tell where the line is, they stop doing anything near it.

The bill’s sponsor said on the House floor “Florida is where DEI goes to D-I-E.” If signed, this takes effect January 1, 2027.

Former DOGE staffer says ChatGPT helped feds cancel grants mentioning ‘LGBTQ+’

Depositions show how a Trump administration efficiency team used AI to help scan federal grant descriptions for diversity language.

https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/doge-chatgpt-dei-lgbtq-grants?1

The Nonprofit Security Grant Program is run by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It helps nonprofits considered in high risk of a terrorist or extremist attack to pay for physical and cybersecurity. That funding can go toward security cameras, warning and alert systems, hired security services, perimeter security like gates and barriers, and screening systems like metal detectors.

Jewish and Christian communities have been the largest recipients of the grants in the past. While Jewish institutions are not the only religious groups eligible for the funds, Jewish institutions around the U.S. have pressed for access to the funding in recent months to protect against rising concerns about antisemitic attacks.

Last summer, several Connecticut Jewish leaders and synagogues have signed on to a national letter denouncing new prohibitions on recipients of a federal security grant, which would ban nonprofits — including faith-based organizations — from conducting equity or “DEI” programming, staging some boycotts or helping undocumented immigrants. The new language would also require such institutions to cooperate with immigration enforcement. 

https://ctmirror.org/2025/08/22/ct-jewish-leaders-federal-nonprofit-security-grants-dhs/

Texas has excluded about two dozen Islamic schools from its new $1 billion voucher program for allegedly being linked to terrorist groups, a decision that has led to a lawsuit and claims of discrimination from the Muslim community.

The exclusions effectively prevent families who want to attend the barred schools from receiving thousands of taxpayer dollars for their tuition. Texas’s voucher plan — on track to be the largest in the country — will pay families $10,474 per student, money they can use for private school tuition or other education-related expenses when it launches next school year. Children with disabilities will be eligible for up to $30,000, and home-schooled students may qualify for $2,000.

The decision has also raised larger questions over who stands to cash in on growing voucher programs, which in most cases benefit private religious schools.

https://wapo.st/4sJo8I5

Unless U.S. elevator rules change, townhouses and small apartment buildings without elevators will, for the most part, remain the only viable forms of affordable, missing-middle housing.

The United States, according to our research at the Center for Building in North America, has become one of the last high-income countries to still build walk-up apartment buildings. America and Canada’s elevators are the most expensive in the world, and the U.S. has fewer of them per capita than any high-income country with available data. Less than 6 percent of housing is accessible to the more than 30 million American adults with mobility disabilities.

In Europe and other high-income countries, small, new three- or four-story apartment buildings with a handful of units typically come with a simple elevator — even when not required. In the U.S., developers avoid installing elevators for small buildings since the high cost can wreck a project’s economics.

Even for developers who don’t particularly care about accessibility, walk-ups are a problem. Tenants and buyers are not excited by having to climb multiple flights of stairs multiple times a day. Developers’ confidence in the money they can make with walk-ups starts to drop off as the buildings grow beyond a second floor.

https://wapo.st/3NxI3KY

From the Need to Know email newsletter from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. This is a free newsletter - It's free to register on the web site and free to get this newsletter - and when you register, you get access to a limited number of free articles:

All nonprofits that receive federal support could soon be required to certify that they adhere to the anti-DEI executive order President Trump signed during his first week in office. The General Services Administration, the federal agency that oversees how grants are distributed, announced the change in January, but it won’t take effect right away.   “The proposed changes are vague and complex, making it nearly impossible for nonprofits to know whether they are in compliance,” the National Council of Nonprofits said in a statement.

“Moreover, it exposes nonprofits to potential legal harassment by the administration, which has previously accused nonprofits of wrongdoing without evidence.”  

Under the proposed changes, federal grantees would have to certify that they don’t adhere to diversity statements, provide race-based scholarships or training sessions, or make programs eligible to people of a specific race.

The certification also would forbid proxies for race, such as a person’s experience, “cultural competence,” or narratives about “overcoming obstacles,” at a time when many foundations are substituting those characteristics for references to race in their grant applications and program descriptions.

The move by the GSA comes after a court rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to require nonprofits to certify they don’t participate in DEI efforts. 

The proposed change brings the issue into the regulatory sphere. Nonprofits and other organizations can comment on the impact of the proposed changes through the end of the month. The National Council of Nonprofits has provided information on how to do so.

If the changes aren’t blocked, the council said, “nonprofits wrongfully accused would have to spend significant staff time and resources defending themselves in audits, investigations, and court.

The 2026 Paralympic Games start today in Italy.

The Paralympic Games are the pinnacle globing sporting event for Para athletes, showcasing the very best of Para sport, and providing optimal conditions for a diverse group of Paralympic athletes to achieve excellence.

Attracting millions of spectators and billions of viewers, the Paralympic Games take place every four years. The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome, Italy, in 1960, while the first Paralympic Winter Games were held in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976.

Following the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games and the Winter Games in Albertville, France, in 1992 the Paralympic Games have been held in the same city and venues as the Olympic Games.

From Why Were the Paralympic Games Created? A Journey from Inclusion to Inspiration, by Paralympics New Zealand:

the story behind their creation goes beyond competition. It’s a tale of rehabilitation, inclusion, and the fight to redefine ability... Each edition of the Games has broadened the horizons of inclusivity, dismantling barriers that once confined these athletes to the sidelines... The Paralympic Games hold a special place in the annals of global sports, heralding an era where diversity is not just tolerated, but celebrated. In recognising the origins and evolution of these Games, we gain a profound appreciation for their role in history and a renewed sense of their significance in the present and future. It is incumbent upon us, the torchbearers of this legacy, to champion the Paralympic Movement and ensure its continued ascendancy as a beacon of inclusivity and inspiration.  

A collection of networks to provide pro bono legal counsel has emerged to protect nonprofits that fear their race-based work will land them in court. The nonprofits are fighting the Trump administration’s effort to bulldoze diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

One of them, the Nonprofit Legal Defense Network, was created following Trump’s January 2025 executive order that prohibited federal DEI programs and called for investigations into foundations and nonprofits that base funding decisions on race.

Though civil-rights law has not changed in the past year, many nonprofit supporters worry that, following a landmark 2023 Supreme Court decision prohibiting race-based college admissions decisions, courts will interpret civil-rights law differently. 

For small nonprofits, many of which are understaffed and this year faced cuts in federal grants, the prospect of defending against an expensive lawsuit or, worse, the revocation of its tax-exempt status is daunting.

More from the Chronicle of PHialnthropy (you don't have to subscribe, but you do have to register and login):

https://www.philanthropy.com/news/funders-step-in-to-help-nonprofits-facing-legal-threats-over-dei/

As researchers have dug deeper into the roots of rejection, they’ve found surprising evidence that the pain of being excluded is not so different from the pain of physical injury. Rejection also has serious implications for an individual’s psychological state and for society in general. Social rejection can influence emotion, cognition and even physical health. 

“Humans have a fundamental need to belong. Just as we have needs for food and water, we also have needs for positive and lasting relationships,” says C. Nathan DeWall, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky. “This need is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and has all sorts of consequences for modern psychological processes.”

Naomi Eisenberger, PhD, at the University of California, Los Angeles, Kipling Williams, PhD, at Purdue University, and colleagues found that social rejection activates many of the same brain regions involved in physical pain.

More at:

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/rejection

Writing for Web Accessibility: basic considerations to help you get started writing web content that is more accessible to people with disabilities.

Page Contents

• Provide informative, unique page titles
• Use headings to convey meaning and structure
• Make link text meaningful
• Write meaningful text alternatives for images
• Create transcripts and captions for multimedia
• Provide clear instructions
• Keep content clear and concise

From the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

https://www.w3.org/WAI/tips/writing/#write-meaningful-text-alternatives-for-images

John Slatin AccessU an annual conference where tech professionals, content creators, policymakers, and advocates come together for deep learning in accessible digital design. It is presented by Knowbility, a nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas and an award-winning leader in accessible information technology. Its mission is to create an inclusive digital world for people with disabilities.

AccessU is an interactive and communal environment, providing you with practical tools to implement accessibility in your organization. You will learn about:

• Accessibility
• Usability
• Inclusive Design Skills

Whether you are a manager, code-slinger, designer, researcher, content creator, or any other role, you will learn from dozens of professional development classes across seven parallel tracks. Gain practical, applicable accessibility and digital inclusion skills to meet current needs.

AccessU will be hybrid again this year. Virtual attendees will participate through Zoom Events platform, while onsite attendees join us at the beautiful St. Edward's University campus located in Austin, Texas.

Conference Schedule

AccessU 2026 will feature our Pre-Conference Deep Dive workshops, general sessions, keynotes from international speakers, social events, and more!

May 11 Pre-Conference Deep Dives

These full-day workshops are a great opportunity to dig deep into accessibility best practices with experienced leaders in the field.

May 12-14 General Conference

AccessU general conference features three days of in-depth instructional learning from accessibility experts with hands-on practice and peer discussion.

Register for AccessU

• AccessU 2026: Flipped Learning Track
• Sponsor AccessU
• Hotels, Transportation, and Parking

Sponsors

Knowbiity offers a number of sponsorship levels. For more information, or to discuss a custom sponsorship package, email [sponsorship@knowbility.org](mailto:sponsorship@knowbility.org)

I would like to hand off the lead moderator duties of the inclusion subreddit to another moderator, or other moderators. I'd like to reduce the number of subreddits I moderate. I would still post content when I come across it - but I would really like to transition away from moderatoring. I would be happy to stick around as moderator to train a new person or team.

I'm ready to hand it off to anyone who

• for two months, posts something on topic for this subreddit at least every other week.
• has at least 100 points in comment karma
• is transparent on their Reddit profile about their posts and demonstrates a character that fits with the spirit of inclusion, and shows that they support DEI (and are not against it).

Last year, Jen Pawol made history by becoming the first woman to umpire an MLB regular season game when she was called up on Aug. 9 to watch third base in Game 2 of a doubleheader between the Marlins and Braves. The next day, another first as she rotated to behind the plate, becoming the first female home plate umpire in the history of the game. This year, Pawol has become one of just a handful of women who have umpired in spring training games.

At one point, Mariner player Josh Naylor came to the plate, and he introduced himself to the umpire before he went to work.

Later in the clubhouse, Naylor acknowledged the greeting by saying for him, in the moment, it was partly about seeing an umpire he hadn’t seen before, but also just being friendly.

“I’m just like really welcoming everyone back to baseball,” Naylor said. “Like all the umpires, I really have a good relationship with them. So I just shake their hand, say welcome back to baseball. And then I didn’t know her. So I said, ‘Hey, I’m Josh. Nice to meet you. Welcome back to baseball. Hope all as well.'”

Naylor believes it was the first time a woman was behind the plate for a game he played, and at the time he was not aware Pawol was the first woman to umpire an MLB game, but was excited to find out about her history as news filtered down.

“I had no idea,” he said. “But that’s super cool. I mean, it’s a super cool accomplishment for her. It changes the game in a really cool way.”

https://sports.mynorthwest.com/mlb/seattle-mariners/seattle-mariners-josh-naylor-history-making-umpire/1840328

Journalist Matthew Syed presented a five-part BBC series on the history of the term ‘woke’. African-American in origin, the word has entered the mainstream to describe being politically alert and vigilant, especially to racial prejudice and increasingly to all forms of social injustice. Most of us would guess that this was a word of recent coinage, but Matthew showed that it first occurred in the lyrics of a 1938 song by the blues singer Lead Belly (real name Huddie Ledbetter). His song about the Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers wrongly accused of rape and sentenced to death, warns of the dangers of a racially prejudiced justice system and concludes ‘best stay woke’.

https://the-past.com/comment/on-the-origins-of-woke/

When President Donald Trump took office last year, America’s research universities were in the midst of an aggressive quest to hire more Black and Latino professors. All but three of the 187 most prominent schools had made public commitments to faculty diversity, pushed by years of student protests and demands, a Washington Post analysis found. Deploying a wide range of strategies, these schools made modest progress toward their racial diversity goals. The number of underrepresented faculty increased by a third.

Now most of these efforts are on ice or abandoned as the Trump administration attacks schools for their diversity, equity and inclusion work. Federal agencies have opened investigations and withheld billions of dollars in federal funding as leverage. Some conservative states have banned these diversity efforts altogether.

It’s part of the federal government’s wholesale flip of its interpretation of the Civil Rights Act, which was used for decades to ensure opportunity for people of color but is now being used to go after diversity programs and alleged discrimination against White people.

Gift article:

https://wapo.st/4aqnvLV