Disability News, Benefits, and Health Resources
Seventy million American adults live with a disability. Another 1.3 billion people worldwide share that experience, roughly 16 percent of the global population. Disabled World (DW) reports on the policies, research, benefits, and assistive technology that shape their lives. Coverage centers on the United States: Social Security and SSI payments, Medicare and Medicaid rules, accessibility law, and medical research relevant to American readers. International stories appear where they intersect with American policy or practice. Publishing since 2004 under the banner Towards Tomorrow. Learn more about us.
Did You Know:
- 1 - Autism diagnoses have risen dramatically: about 1 in 31 eight-year-old children (3.2 percent) were identified with autism in 2022 CDC surveillance data, up from 1 in 36 in 2020 and just 1 in 150 when the CDC first began tracking it among children born in the early 1990s.
- 2 - Disability rises sharply with age: about 8.7 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 report a disability, climbing to 43.9 percent among adults aged 65 and older.
- 3 - Childhood disability tracks closely with family income - 18 percent of U.S. children in families below the poverty level report a disability, compared with 11 percent of children in families at or above 200 percent of the poverty line. View more Disability Statistics.
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Recent Disability News and Information
Bigger Human Bodies Evolved Late, Study of Fossils Finds
New PNAS research on 386 fossils shows human body size jumped later within the genus Homo rather than growing steadily across the whole family tree. Published: 23 Jun 2026.
IPC Urges Government Collaboration on Disability Inclusion
IPC Deputy CEO Kristina Molloy urges governments at UNESCO's CIGEPS meeting to accelerate disability inclusion through the Paris 2024 Call to Action. Published: 22 Jun 2026.
Education Department Shifts Civil Rights and Special Ed
The Education Department is moving civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department and special education oversight to Health and Human Services. Published: 22 Jun 2026.
Rainbow Wheelchair Symbol: What It Really Stands For
Understanding the rainbow-colored wheelchair symbol - what it means for disability pride, LGBTQ+ identity, and why it differs from the official access sign. Published: 19 Jun 2026.
Popular Pages
Disability Loans and Grants: Financial assistance programs available for low-income families, seniors, and disabled students.
Famous People with Disabilities: Lists of well-known people with various disabilities and conditions who contributed to society.
Awareness Ribbon Colors: Guide to awareness ribbon colors for health, medical conditions, disability, and other causes.
Adult Height to Weight Chart: Ideal weight-to-height ratio for adult females and males.
Child to Teen Height to Weight Ratio Charts: Average height-to-weight ratios for children and teens organized by age.
Newly Updated Pages
Asgard Archaea May Reveal How Complex Life Began: Ancient stromatolites from Shark Bay have yielded the first visual evidence of an Asgard archaeon physically interacting with a bacterium via nanotubes.
Reasons Not to Let Schools Bill Your Insurance: Why parents should decline written consent for a school district to bill private insurance for special education related services and evaluations.
U.S. Not Equipped to Support Female Veterans: A DAV report finds women leaving military service face serious gaps in health care, housing, employment, disability claims, and sexual assault prevention.