Disability

Installation photography of Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2023.

Video Artists Set the American Experience to Music

The Smithsonian American Art Museum brings its latest time-based media art to the widest possible audience, including the deaf and hearing impaired

Seventy-eight years after the end of World War II, hospital trains are an oft-forgotten chapter in U.S. military history.

What Happened on the Trains That Brought Wounded World War II Soldiers Home?

The logistics of moving patients across the U.S. by rail were staggeringly complex

Braille signage will be added to rows and individual seats, as well as lavatories.

United Will Be the First U.S. Airline to Add Braille to Its Plane Interiors

The carrier announced that it will update its entire mainline fleet over the next three years

Inaccessible airplane lavatories are just one of the many challenges travelers with disabilities face while flying.

Airlines Will Be Required to Make Bathrooms More Accessible

Single-aisle planes will face new rules from the U.S. Department of Transportation—but they won’t go into effect for more than a decade

The convertible seat folds down to make room for a wheelchair to be secured in place.

Could This Convertible Seat Improve Air Travel for Wheelchair Users?

If adopted, a new prototype would allow passengers to remain in their own wheelchairs on flights

Dogs sunbathing at the Acropolis

Pets Will Soon Be Welcome at More Than 120 Archaeological Sites in Greece

The new policies won't apply at certain high-traffic destinations like the Acropolis

The Seatrac on a beach on the Greek island of Samos

Greece Is Making Hundreds of Beaches More Accessible

Remote-controlled, wheelchair-friendly ramps will allow vacationers with mobility challenges to enjoy the sea

Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith, in 1916

How Edith Wilson Kept Herself—and Her Husband—in the White House

A new book about the first lady reveals how she and the ailing President Woodrow Wilson silenced their critics

Judy Heumann was a leading voice in the fight for groundbreaking disability legislation.

What Made Judy Heumann, Mother of the Disability Rights Movement, an American Hero

The tireless activist, who died this weekend at 75, spent decades advocating for Americans with disabilities

Neal V. Loving in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1954

In 1946, a Black Pilot Returned to the Cockpit After a Double Amputation

Neal V. Loving, whose memoir will soon be released by Smithsonian Books, built his own planes, ran a flight school and conducted research for the Air Force

The eugenics movement formed the basis for policies in Nazi Germany and discrimination against Black people based on sickle cell disease in the United States.

Genetics Society Issues Apology for Ties to Eugenics and Racism

In a new report, the American Society of Human Genetics details its failures to address false and unjust uses of the field

Historian John Rice Irwin, linguist Carl Croneberg and historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

Three Pioneering Scholars Who Died This Year

They believed that the stories of marginalized communities were worth chronicling

Great Britain's John McFall (left) won a bronze medal at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

The First Astronaut With a Disability Is a Paralympic Bronze Medalist

The European Space Agency selected John McFall, along with 16 others, as part of its latest class of astronaut candidates

About one in five students has a language-based learning disability. 

Scientists Identify Genes Linked to Dyslexia

In the largest study of its kind, researchers pinpointed 42 genetic variations tied to the language-based learning disability

Pages from Plastic Surgery of the Face by Harold Gillies

Inside a Trailblazing Surgeon's Quest to Reconstruct WWI Soldiers' Disfigured Faces

A new book profiles Harold Gillies, whose efforts to restore wounded warriors' visages laid the groundwork for modern plastic surgery

(Top) Leila Strickland, Michelle Egger, Toby Kiers, Colin Averill, J. Richard Gott (Middle) Leslie Jones-Dove, Devshi Mehrotra, Prisha Shroff, Iké Udé (Bottom) Tim Farrelly, Omar Salem, David Deneher, Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, Doris Sung

Sixteen Innovators to Watch in 2022

These trailblazers are dreaming up a future with cell-cultured breastmilk, energy-saving windows and more

Sarah Biffin, Sarah Biffin, watercolor

Miniature by Sarah Biffin, 19th-Century Artist Born With No Arms or Legs, Exceeds Estimates at Auction

The painter forged a remarkable career as a disabled woman artist in 19th-century London

Candy-size molecular models, about the diameter of Nerds candy, can help students with blindness to learn chemistry.

Gummy Candy-Like Models Can Help Students With Blindness Study Chemistry

Tiny shapes made from gelatin and resin may empower children to learn science

In a lab experiment, a blind 58-year-old male volunteer was able to identify the position of two cups after receiving a new type of gene therapy.

New Gene Therapy Partially Restores Sight to Blind Man

Researchers inserted genes that code for light-sensitive proteins in algae into the man’s retina, and now he reports limited but much improved vision

Restoration work on the western facade of the Parthenon in 2015

Why Proposed Renovations to Greece's Acropolis Are So Controversial

Scholars voiced concern about planned aesthetic changes and a lack of adequate accessibility measures for people with disabilities

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