HeyJaredDisability Rights Now: Inside the Fight for Accessibility, Inclusion, and Independent Living
Disability Rights Now brings you frontline conversations with the advocates, leaders, and changemakers shaping the future of disability rights.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 25, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 21, 2026
Latest episodes
The Return of the Ugly Laws: 600,000 People Waiting for Medicaid Services | Disability and Power (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) are being taken apart slowly enough that most people will not notice until the services are gone, says Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living Theo Braddy. He and Matt Shedd walk through what that erosion looks like day to day: bowel routines that go undone, mornings spent stuck in bed, pressure sores that turn into hospital stays, housing lost during those stays, and more than 600,000 people sitting on state waiting list
Section 504 Is Under Attack. Here's What People With Disabilities Lose | Disability and Power (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living, Theo Braddy explains what Section 504 actually requires and why a Department of Justice letter telling states "do what you want" is more dangerous than an outright repeal. He and Matt Shedd trace the practical fallout: sign language interpreters and adjustable exam tables at the doctor's office, accommodations on campus, accessible housing, and Medicaid work requirements that would make a C4 quadriplegic re-prove a lifelong disabi
"You're So Inspiring" Is Not a Compliment | NCIL's Theo Braddy on Ableism and Disability (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Director of the National Council on Independent Living, Theo Braddy explains why being called "inspiring" for ordinary things does real damage. He and Matt Shedd work through the consequences on both sides, specifically how non-disabled people build a worldview out of low expectations, and how disabled people can internalize it. Theo illustrates this with hard examples running from Jerry Lewis telethons to Special Olympics to campus buddy programs. Theo also draws the line he will accept: be ins
How Federal Budget Cuts Force People with Disabilities into Nursing Homes | Disability & Power (opens the original)
Read excerpt
In this episode, NCIL Executive Director Theo Braddy joins Matt Shedd to trace a quiet but accelerating shift back toward institutionalization, and lay out who's affected, why it's happening now, and what people can do about it.THE OVERVIEW 0:00 – Welcome Theo Braddy & audiobook update 0:30 – The attendant care crisis and the "big ugly bill" 1:10 – We can't fix what we refuse to defineMISCONCEPTIONS 3:40 – Block grants leave HCBS up to the states 5:50 – Who pays when people are institutionalized
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Not enough subject data for this period yet.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.