Hey, that’s a photo of Andy Slater working with some Young Sound Seekers! Check out this article for @transom.bsky.social by Andrew Leland.

When an NPR station got its first blind reporter they called Andrew Leland for guidance. That moment led Andrew to write a manifesto on how blind audio journalists and their colleagues can work together, covering field recording, DAWs, editing, and belonging. transom.org/2026/why-and...

This weekend is your last chance to apply to this year's Investigative Reporting Internship and Fellowship! These highly selective programs train students and professional journalists to be investigative journalists. Apply by 11:59 p.m. ET on January 11: idabwellssociety.org/training/

I have an email newsletter vilejelly.substack.com/p/snail-shells

In Baffler no. 81, @quailty.bsky.social examines three works by deaf artists: a memoir from Rachel Kolb, Sara Novic’s novel of deaf-anarchist insurrection, and the film “Deaf President Now!”

I have an email newsletter open.substack.com/pub/vilejell...

This made me cry a little. Everything is terrible but I'm so glad to be in this moment with these contemporaries.

Baffler no. 81, “After Words,” is online now, with work from Brace Belden, Bruce Robbins, Noah McCormack, @quailty.bsky.social, Sophie Pinkham, @chrislehmann.bsky.social, Mina Tavakoli, Gabriel Winslow-Yost, and more. Click below to start reading. thebaffler.com/issues/no-81

In our new issue, @quailty.bsky.social considers contemporary deaf art and writing, which navigates the contradictions of deaf life in America as the second Trump administration threatens to dismantle the ADA. thebaffler.com/salvos/manual-labor-leland

“This is absolutely a violation of federal law.” For @motherjones.com, I reported about how reduction-in-forces in the Office of Special Education Programs will lead to disabled kids' needs not being met, as funding may not be distributed. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Template/script for contacting your Reps with respect to the DoEd cuts. I feel as disheartened about it as you, but the least we can do is take a moment to absolutely melt their servers exceptionalchildren.org/lac?vvsrc=/C...

The agency plays a critical role in supporting students with disabilities, guiding families, funding key programs, and ensuring that states meet their obligations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

From ProPublica: “Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push.” Read more at https://f.mtr.cool/ohhwjocfjy

I wrote a post that opens a tiny window onto the terminally nerdy shit I've been distracting myself with lately vilejelly.substack.com/p/onoff

Josh has shaped my thinking on blind identity, accessibility, technology, whiskey variety, and on and on: tremendously honored and just straight-up chuffed to be asking him questions about his brilliant new book in NYC next week. It's hybrid virtual and in-person so you better be there:

You might enjoy The Country of the Blind by @quailty.bsky.social if you're looking for "good nonfiction to kick off the summer: multcolib.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S1... #AskALibrarian

If your organization has been affected by DOGE cuts or RFK Jr.’s cuts to the Administration for Community living, message my Signal at emgarcia.85

Stumbled across this ~30-year-old TNY piece about online discourse and it's at once shockingly quaint and entirely prescient www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...

After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. #ChefsForGaza (1/5)

We are devastated to say that our comrade, teacher and friend Joshua Clover passed away last night. He is irreplaceable; We will miss him forever.

“Another recalled taking a planeload of children and their escorts on a domestic transfer from the southern border to an airport in New York. He tried to slip snacks to the kids. “Even the chaperones were like, ‘Don’t give them any food,’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Where is your humanity?’”

This world tour of disability news includes work from @thesicktimes.bsky.social @quailty.bsky.social @francesryan.bsky.social @disrightsuk.bsky.social @womenenabled.bsky.social @validityfoundation.bsky.social @ianhamiltonbbc.bsky.social and many more. www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/fami...

I have two new stories up: first is on disability politics under Trump 2.0, second is me feeling bad about a new feel-good documentary about blindness . Both linked on my "Substack" here! open.substack.com/pub/vilejell...

Is deletion the new cancellation

Debra Ruh shares an example of weaponizing performative accessibility against other communities. In this case a bench clearly meant to block homeless people versus help anyone (including wheelchair users). www.linkedin.com/posts/debrar... #a11y #accessibility

In a brutal time, what a gift to see intrepid people start something new:

It’s an active crime scene! (everything’s gone bonkers, sometimes you need to laugh or you’ll cry)

All this talk of DeepSeek's innovation arising from the limitations its engineers worked under recalls the long history of disabled geniuses making breakthroughs under their own sort of constraints. Nice to see another puncture-hole in the myth of the supremacy of the nondisabled, the hyperresourced

I haven't paid money to the NYT for a few years (even though I miss the Cooking stuff especially!) because I have too much uh... self respect ... but I nonetheless sometimes open the homepage and do a depressing exercise where I control search "trans" and yesterday there was literally nothing.

Lotsa reporting on Trump's scapegoating of DEI for the DC plane crash; less news on his blaming people with intellectual disabilities. The DEIA program offers employment to talented and stigmatized disabled workers in government-- a stigma Trump is reinforcing. www.aapd.com/disability-o...

NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research. Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions

One of the ways that I've been processing the loss of David Lynch is by reading words about his work. One of my favorite pieces was written by Howard Hampton and produced for the radio by The Organist, a program that I loved dearly (shoutout @quailty.bsky.social). www.kcrw.com/culture/show...

Need to figure out how to make your home more accessible? How to rig up something to do it safely? Are your parents aging into needing these kinds of hacks & tips? I maintain a website that is a repository of ideas from disabled ppl & caregivers I talked to across the US www.disabilityathome.org

thought about trying out @zed.dev on macos and wow is it really 100 percent inaccessible with voiceover? I'm used to apps where some features are hard to nav with a screen reader; been a while since i've found one that can tell you that a window is open and... nothing else????????

I’m sure there are more folks out there who I haven’t connected with yet in disability anthropology or who use ethnographic approaches to critical disability studies. Send me a note if you’d like to be added! ❤️ #disability #anthropology #ethnography #CriticalDisabilityStudies

Dear friends, please help us support the Palestinian writer and journalist Hedaya Shamoun and her family, who will be moving to Middletown this fall on a fellowship. Any amount helps. Thank you for your generosity. www.gofundme.com/f/support-he...

Bernie Sanders "The time has come to start treating the Long COVID crisis as the public health emergency that it is. That means educating medical professionals, doing a much better job at disease prevention, and doing everything we can do to find treatments and cures for Long COVID."

I have a piece in the Washington Post today about those for whom the “post-Covid world” is not so “post.” Thanks in advance to anyone who’s reading 🎉🌱 www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

It's @quailty.bsky.social's personal experience, also commentary on how we all regard disability and our relationship with it, whether we have a disability or not. It educated me about others' experience, but sometimes described mine, too. Incredibly human, fascinating. A must read for all #Booksky

is this a good website