Travel-Limiting Disabilities in the United States: Why Accessibility Matters?

This study evaluates the distribution of travel-limiting disabilities across genders and geographic locations in the United States. This study aims to describe and compare the socioeconomic and demographic variables of the people with and without travel-limiting disabilities across geographic locations and gender. The study further evaluates the trip purpose and impact of Covid-19 fourth wave pandemic on the use of public transit and travel to physical workplace for the people with and without travel-limiting disabilities across gender and geographic locations. The study uses the 2022 weighted National Household Travel Survey dataset and employs descriptive statistics. Results reaffirm the findings from previous literature that there are more people with travel-limiting disabilities in urban areas and among women. Over 50 percent of people aged 65 and above have a form of travel-limiting disabilities. The most trip for people with travel-limiting disabilities is made for shopping and medical purposes. Across all categories, rural areas, urban areas, male and female for the people without travel-limiting disabilities, COVID-19 fourth wave did not change the pattern of trips made to physical workplace as pre-COVID-19 era. This pattern is also observable for the people with travel-limiting disabilities in rural and urban areas. Females with travel-limiting disabilities reported making less trips to physical workplaces while male reported doing the same as before COVID-19 era. The study concludes that the quantification of travel-limiting disabilities across geographic location and gender is vital in disability study and could drive policy implementation for improved accessibility for the vulnerable population.

On the Posthumanism Approach to Disability and Its Implications for the Protection of Disability Rights

Posthumanism overturns the humanistic construction of rational subjects with sound body and mind, refreshes people’s cognition of human beings, and brings an opportunity for the reinterpretation of disability. From the perspective of post-humanism, disability is a universal human experience and is created in the interactive relationship between humans and the environment. At the same time, it is constantly changing, presented in newly-shaped forms. The interpretation of the universality, relationality, and mobility of disability constitutes the posthumanism approach to disability, which is of great enlightening significance for advancing disability studies and formulating disability policies.

DCDC2 gene polymorphisms are associated with developmental dyslexia in Chinese Uyghur children

Developmental dyslexia is a complex reading and writing disorder with strong genetic components. In previous genetic studies about dyslexia, a number of candidate genes have been identified. These include DCDC2, which has repeatedly been associated with developmental dyslexia in various European and American populations. However, data regarding this relationship are varied according to population. The Uyghur people of China represent a Eurasian population with an interesting genetic profile. Thus, this group may provide useful information about the association between DCDC2 gene polymorphisms and dyslexia. In the current study, we examined genetic data from 392 Uyghur children aged 8–12 years old from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Participants included 196 children with dyslexia and 196 grade-, age-, and gender-matched controls. DNA was isolated from oral mucosal cell samples and fourteen single nucleotide polymorphisms（rs6456593, rs1419228, rs34647318, rs9467075, rs793862, rs9295619, rs807701, rs807724, rs2274305, rs7765678, rs4599626, rs6922023, rs3765502, and rs1087266） in DCDC2 were screened via the SNPscan method. We compared SNP frequencies in five models（Codominant, Dominant, Recessive, Heterozygote advantage, and Allele） between the two groups by means of the chi-squared test. A single-locus analysis indicated that, with regard to the allele frequency of these polymorphisms, three SNPs（rs807724, rs2274305, and rs4599626） were associated with dyslexia. rs9467075 and rs2274305 displayed significant associations with developmental dyslexia under the dominant model. rs6456593 and rs6922023 were significantly associated with developmental dyslexia under the dominant model and in the heterozygous genotype. Additionally, we discovered that the T-G-C-T of the four-marker haplotype（rs9295619-rs807701-rs807724-rs2274305） and the T-A of the two-marker haplotype（rs3765502-1087266） were significantly different between cases and controls. Thus, we conclude that DCDC2 gene polymorphisms are associated with developmental dyslexia in Chinese Uyghur children.

Eco-ableism and access circularity in natural building

The climate crisis disproportionately impacts disabled people. Yet climate-related advocacy, planning, and policymaking often neglect to thoughtfully include disabled people. Responding to this gap, disabled and neurodivergent environmental activists coined the term eco-ableism to describe discrimination and silencing toward disabled and neurodivergent people (i.e., ableism) arising in environmental spaces (i.e., eco-ableism). Relatedly, building operations and construction practices contribute a significant percentage of global, energy-related CO_(2) emissions annually, which calls into question the relationships between the impending climate crisis, disability justice, and architecture. Climate-specific, natural building materials and methods present a potential pathway toward a more sustainable built future: low-carbon, locally sourced, minimally processed, and nontoxic materials. Despite a critical overlap, there is little published research on material access in the production phase and human access in the occupation phase of natural buildings. Applying eco-ableism and material circularity in an architectural framework, this research aims to investigate the gaps and possibilities of access, natural material applications, and resulting US natural buildings informed by scholarship in critical disability studies and semi-structured interviews with natural building professionals.