A Justice Department Memo Challenges Long-Standing Disability Rights Protections

A Justice Department memo challenges long-standing disability rights protections, including the interpretation of the ADA and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, which supports community-based living over institutionalization.

Maria Town of the American Association of People with Disabilities warns that if states follow the memo, people with disabilities could lose access to home and community-based services and be pushed into institutions, with serious health and life-threatening consequences.

The Trump administration is also proposing to move special education oversight away from the Department of Education to HHS, which disability advocates say would weaken the education model for students with disabilities.

Town argues these changes could effectively re-medicalize and resegregate students with disabilities, undermining the least restrictive environment and free appropriate public education standards.

Overall, advocates say the combined policy shifts could roll disability rights back by decades and erase hard-won progress for both children and adults with disabilities.

The Justice Department memo challenges long-standing disability rights protections on PBS News