Are Federal Disability Rights At Risk?

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and speaking of health, now we turn to our health and climate segment of the week, which we do every Tuesday. We're on the health side today with a look at the state of disability rights in this country in the age of Donald Trump and RFK Junior and now Centers for Disease Control Director Erica Schwartz.

Late last month, a federal judge in Texas rolled back a decades old protection for people with disabilities.

The ruling orders the Department of Health and Human Services to remove every mention of community integration, and we'll say what that means, from its rules for Section 504, a landmark disability rights law. That's the idea that people with disabilities should get to live in their own communities instead of institutions as much as possible. It's not the only change. The CDC is planning to cut questions about disability from its annual health survey. Also, new Medicaid work requirements kick in this January, and all of this comes as the Trump administration overhauls the country's childhood vaccine recommendations. According to the CDC, more than a quarter of American adults have a disability of one kind or another. That's over 70 million Americans. So these are changes that could matter to a lot of us. Joining us now to share her reporting on these federal rollbacks of disability protections is Rose Broderick, Disability in Healthcare Reporting Fellow at STAT News. Rose, thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Rose Broderick (1:42)

Thanks so much for having me, Brian.

Brian Lehrer (1:44)

First, your title, Disability in Healthcare Reporting Fellow. What is disability in healthcare referred to as a B?

Rose Broderick (1:54)

Yeah, that's a great question.

I would say that people with disabilities have a much, much higher rates of chronic diseases, things like diabetes, obesity, have, can sometimes struggle to bathe, cook, shave, sort of the basic activities of daily living. And so at STAT, we wanted to have a B that was specifically looking at how people with disabilities fare in healthcare settings, because there are numerous systemic, you know, real difficulties for people with disabilities get the care that they need just on a daily basis, even from their primary care provider.

Brian Lehrer (2:41)

So in that context, what is Section 504? More people have probably heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act. How is Section 504 different?

Rose Broderick (2:51)

Yeah, so Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Big long law, but it was basically the ADA before the ADA, and it is the thing that requires there to be like disability protections if you have any sort of, you know, receive any federal funding. And there was a weird lawsuit that started it a couple years ago that has gone through some twists and turns.

A couple states, like 17 states in 2024, sued the Biden administration because they were like, hey, this specific part, this specific clause in that law, we think it's unconstitutional. And it was a clause that included or updated that law to include gender dysphoria as a protected class, disability class. And that issue kind of got pretty moot once the Trump administration came into office. They just basically did away with that specific clause. But the lawsuit continued, and states sort of reformed their thinking. And earlier this year, something odd happened, which is the federal government switched sides and sued, you know, jumped in on the lawsuit and was like, hey, we think that this thing we're going to target instead of now is this community integration protection that you talked about earlier.

Brian Lehrer (4:14)

So that's interesting. You're saying the lawsuit didn't start out being about community integration in any broad sense. Seventeen states sued the Biden administration after it and added gender dysphoria as a protected disability, excuse me, under Section 504

So what's the more expansive ruling about? What does community integration mean under the law in this context?

Rose Broderick (4:40)

It means that people with disabilities can live in homes and apartments. Like you or I, Brian, I think the thing that is worth keeping in mind here is that institutions for a long, long time were an awful place for disabled folks. If you had autism or Down syndrome or used a wheelchair or there would be, some of those folks were left in buildings for decades and were literally never allowed to leave. I would say the last half century of advocacy from the disability community has been about ensuring that would never happen again.

Now you have tons of people living in communities just like in a regular home. If you walk down the street, you probably wouldn't even notice it, know that there's like four or five people who have around the clock care from nurses and they get to participate in the community, walk around on the sidewalk like everyone else. But these actions from the federal government and this lawsuit are sort of a crack in the wall to change those protections.