WBFO Disabilities Beat
The WBFO Disabilities Beat aims to promote equity and acceptance by elevating marginalized voices, holding corporations and government accountable, and combatting misinformation and stigmatization through education about the disability community.
Reports from the Disabilities Beat provide Western New York residents with essential information about the challenges facing people with disabilities and content that promotes understanding. In-depth, original, long-form reporting addresses issues relevant to people living with disabilities, their families, caregivers, community leaders, and decision-makers. Coverage also contextualizes important regional and national news to consider the unique and often-overlooked implications of economic, education, policy and environmental impacts on the disability community. Reporting will also tie disability rights to discussions about the economy (e.g., wage gaps for employees with disabilities), civic participation (e.g., accessibility of ballot machines), mobility (e.g., paratransit availability), and more.
Every Wednesday, hear 7-8 minute Disabilities Beat reports on WBFO during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Reports from the Disabilities Beat provide Western New York residents with essential information about the challenges facing people with disabilities and content that promotes understanding. In-depth, original, long-form reporting addresses issues relevant to people living with disabilities, their families, caregivers, community leaders, and decision-makers. Coverage also contextualizes important regional and national news to consider the unique and often-overlooked implications of economic, education, policy and environmental impacts on the disability community. Reporting will also tie disability rights to discussions about the economy (e.g., wage gaps for employees with disabilities), civic participation (e.g., accessibility of ballot machines), mobility (e.g., paratransit availability), and more.
Every Wednesday, hear 7-8 minute Disabilities Beat reports on WBFO during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Latest from the WBFO Disabilities Beat
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WBFO’s Freelance Reporter Mason Ald speaks with Autistic Self Advocacy Network Director Zoe Gross on the employment barriers for neurodivergent adults.
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This week on the Disabilities Beat, we feature a local organization supporting people with spina bifida throughout their lifespan - including with resources the healthcare system does not always provide.
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WBFO, with our partners at Public Health Watch and Inside Climate News, released an investigation showing that the Goodyear chemical plant in Niagara Falls has been releasing a dangerous carcinogen into the air at a rate higher than what the state now considers safe to breathe. On this week’s Disabilities Beat, WBFO's Emyle Watkins shares a recent conversation they had with their report co-author, Jim Morris, about the story published today.
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Regulators cited the Goodyear chemical plant for releasing high amounts of a bladder carcinogen last year but say they are still investigating.
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Last week, news broke that Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown might resign early to take a new job. But what happens next? And what does this mean for the disability community?
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Colleges continue to expand support services for students, but still, many students aren’t aware they can receive accommodations to begin with. This week, WBFO’s Disabilities Beat Freelance Reporter Mason Ald explores what students rights are in higher education.
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Organizers of LGBTQ+ Pride festivals in Buffalo and Toronto have worked with disabled people to make events more accessible, but barriers still exist.
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Organizers of LGBTQ+ Pride festivals in Buffalo and Toronto have worked with disabled people to make events more accessible, but barriers still exist.
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This week, we continue our series “Voices of Disability Pride” with local musician and pastor, Reverend Chris Wylie, aka DJ Pastor Rock. While you may have heard him on our air recently talking about music, in this episode we share part of a recent conversation Wylie had with WBFO's Emyle Watkins about the barriers they faced going into ministry as a disabled pastor.
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This year’s Disability Pride Festival, held at the end of July, featured several disabled musicians, artists, poets, and performance groups from our area. Among them was MahataMmoho Collective, a dance group that began a grant-funded project at this year’s festival, and will share the results of the project at next year’s festival. WBFO’s Emyle Watkins sat down with founder Megan Rakeepile before their performance at the festival to hear about how dance can help our community rethink care and equity.
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Gwen Squire discusses with WBFO’s Emyle Watkins how a willingness to try, even if that means failing, has been central to her own journey of self-advocacy. Squire tells her story of going from growing up in a time and an institution where people with disabilities weren’t expected to do much with their lives, to present-day, where she is helping people see their potential and have the personal autonomy to decide what their lives can be.
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This year Buffalo's Disability Pride Festival grew in size significantly, adding a children's area, more tents, new vendors and activities, and a long line up of artists. WBFO’s Freelance Disabilities Beat Reporter Mason Ald visited the festival and took a closer look into the expectations the disability community has for the future of the festival.
Additional WBFO Disabilities Reporting
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The closing of a prominent Buffalo pain doctor's clinic several years ago raised questions. But forgotten in the mix was what happened to his chronic pain patients, that came to him with a legitimate concern? The aftermath of Dr. Eugene Gosy's clinic closure has highlighted the challenges Americans face in getting chronic pain treatment while our country confronts the opioid epidemic.
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Governor Kathy Hochul’s Executive Budget included $1 million for Special Olympics New York. WBFO’s Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins first reported in December that the organization was asking the state for at least $1.5 million in the next budget to prevent program cuts. Watkins spoke with their CEO after the budget was released to get her reaction.
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On Tuesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul shared her vision for New York in her State of the State address, which often previews what may be included in her budget proposal. WBFO’s Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins spoke with the head of a local disability services agency to get her reaction.
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Ahead of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of the State address, one disability organization is asking the state to make a change that could rescue important programs for people with disabilities.
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Delaware North committed to a $100,000 donation to support unified sports programs in local schools.
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If you’ve ever been to a fundraiser at a restaurant, you know it’s a chance to have a great time with friends and support a cause. But for a local woman with a disability, a trip to Tully’s Good Times in Cheektowaga for a Special Olympics fundraiser, ended up being a bad time, as she was left to eat her meal off of a chair.
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One hundred years after a league we all know, the National Football League, was founded, another league launched with the hope of expanding access to football. WBFO’s Emyle Watkins shares how this new sport held a national tournament in New York State for the first time ever this October.
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Five months after WBFO published an investigation into at-its-face violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Buffalo quietly welcomed its first full-time ADA coordinator. WBFO’s Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins sat down with her to learn more about her background and goals for the city.
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This back-to-school season, Walmart announced sensory hours. WBFO asked parents and neurodivergent adults if these sensory hours were helpful to their experiences.
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Summer - it is a time of year widely romanticized in books, movies and TV. Grand adventures, grand gestures, falling in love…. But how much feels really authentic, like something you could have gone through? This summer, a local author has a new book that brings a fresh and relatable take on the great summer romance novel. WBFO’s Emyle Watkins has more.