International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2026

A meta-ethnographic review of 42 qualitative studies on the assessment experiences of students with disabilities in higher education. 40 out of 42 studies reported experiences of exclusion, indicating that assessment is a major barrier to inclusion for students with disabilities. 22 studies reported that assessment accommodations provided access to examinations, while 5 studies found that assessment promoted the full participation of students with disabilities as accepted members of academia. The article proposes that the discourse around inclusion in assessment needs to shift from just considering accessibility to also considering how assessment regulates the full participation of diverse students.

The study found that while autistic adults accurately recognized vocal smiles, they did not exhibit the same motor resonance (facial muscle activity) as neurotypical adults in response to emotional prosody.

This paper proposes a framework based on Universal Design principles to improve accessibility and equity in science and engineering interviews for people with disabilities and underrepresented groups, emphasizing systemic cultural change.

This study found that coaches need to demonstrate high-level skills to effectively support children with diverse abilities. These skills include: the ability to be creative and strategic with skill differentiation, adapting to the immediate needs of each child, supporting children’s autonomy, and providing progressive feedback that balances positive reinforcement with challenges. This is an important first step towards ensuring quality participation of children with disabilities in sport.

This study found that Integrative basketball training improves sport specific skills in athletes with intellectual disability. It adds new evidence related to the positive impact that integrated sport training could have on motor skill learning in people with intellectual disability.

The study examines the impact of an agro-healing program on the psychological and social well-being of families with children with developmental disabilities (CWDD). The results indicated positive effects, including reduced stress among participating mothers, improved social skills of CWDD, and enhanced family resilience.

This article describes the design, development, and evaluation of a virtual assistant named 'Taylor' that was created to support disabled students in sharing information about their disabilities and learning about available support and adjustments at a distance-learning university.

This study examined whether retrieval practice helps word learning in children with Down syndrome (DS) and in typically developing (TD) peers matched on receptive vocabulary. For word forms, recall was better after retrieval (RIR) than restudy in both DS and TD groups, with the advantage lasting to 1 week. For meanings, DS children showed a retrieval benefit (RIR > RS) at both time points, whereas TD children showed little difference. Recognition did not differ by condition in either group. Retrieval practice with feedback enhances novel word learning in DS and supports a general learning theory of effortful retrieval. Incorporating retrieval opportunities in DS education could be beneficial.

This article focuses on whether handwriting and typing contribute differentially to lexical acquisition within the alphabetic system, providing distinct sensorimotor experiences for words through different motor actions and consequent attentional and time constraints in producing letters. We examined a sample of middle school students with reading and spelling disabilities alongside age-matched peers with typical development.

This article examines the relationship between intelligence and creativity, focusing on divergent and convergent thinking in a sample of children, including those with high potential.

This article investigates the social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills profile of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) and examines the impact of SEB skills on their academic achievement and life satisfaction.

This study investigates the therapeutic potential of nervonic acid (NA) in alleviating stroke-induced brain damage and post-stroke depression behaviors in rats, revealing that NA can improve neurological recovery, reduce infarct volume, and enhance depressive-like behaviors by modulating gut microbiota and metabolite activity. The findings suggest that NA could be a promising treatment option for stroke and associated post-stroke depression.

This meta-analysis found that shared text reading significantly improves the listening comprehension skills of students with intellectual disability, with an average increase of 185.77% in their ability to answer comprehension questions. Two evidence-based instructional strategies were identified: using a system of least-to-most prompts to help students answer questions, and teaching the meaning of wh-words. Explicit strategy instruction was potentially evidence-based.

This article presents a qualitative systematic review on the experiences of students with physical disabilities in inclusive education settings.

This research contributes to the development of advanced fall detection systems, demonstrating their potential to improve the quality of life for the elderly, and individuals with disabilities, alleviate healthcare burdens, and provide reliable solutions for fall detection and classification.

This study reports the first use of BCMA-CD19 bispecific CAR-T cell therapy in a patient with refractory chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), demonstrating significant clinical improvement and sustained remission without relapse after treatment, highlighting the potential of this novel approach for managing difficult-to-treat CIDP cases.

This study identifies TLR5 as a marker for brain border-associated macrophages (BAMs) in neonatal mice and demonstrates that TLR5 expression on these macrophages enhances their ability to defend against bacterial meningitis by activating immune responses and recruiting innate immune cells. The findings highlight the role of TLR5 in neonatal brain immunity and suggest potential therapeutic strategies for preventing bacterial meningitis in infants.

Microglia are immune cells of the central nervous system, playing a vital role in brain development, homeostasis, and disease. When these cells become dysfunctional, they can contribute to various psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. To enhance our understanding of microglial function, researchers are increasingly employing human cell-based models. This approach significantly improves our investigations into these complex conditions and aids in ongoing drug development efforts.

This chapter explores how rehabilitation and socially assistive robotics improve therapy for neurological conditions and older adults, addressing growing needs from aging populations and pandemic-driven isolation. By advancing innovative healthcare technologies and fostering collaboration, these solutions support SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) through better rehabilitation outcomes and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) by driving technological progress in clinical care.

This chapter examines the role of the Special Olympics Movement in promoting social integration, physical rehabilitation, and quality of life for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities and ASD. By fostering inclusive sports and health-saving programs through interdisciplinary collaboration, these initiatives advance SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by improving physical and mental health and supporting social adaptation for vulnerable populations.

This chapter emphasizes the need for a systemic clinical decision model in intellectual disability services, integrating judgment standards, ethics, and social justice to improve assessment and intervention accuracy. By promoting equitable, responsive, and high-quality psychological care, these practices advance SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) through better mental health outcomes for a vulnerable population.

This chapter explores how big data analytics and advanced methodologies like multiomics and AI are transforming brain cancer research, enabling early diagnosis, personalized treatment, and targeted prevention. By improving health outcomes through precision oncology (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being) and addressing global disparities in cancer care via collaborative initiatives and equitable access (SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities), these data-driven approaches reshape the future of brain cancer treatment worldwide.

This chapter explores how rehabilitation and socially assistive robotics improve therapy for neurological conditions and older adults, addressing growing needs from aging populations and pandemic-driven isolation. By advancing innovative healthcare technologies and fostering collaboration, these solutions support SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) through better rehabilitation outcomes and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) by driving technological progress in clinical care.

This content aligns with Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing and Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities by discussing the importance of promoting desired lifestyles among adults with severe autism and intellectual disabilities, and how the operations of many adult service agencies fail to promote individually desired lifestyles.

This commentary draws attention to The National Medical Commission (NMC) in India for its revised curriculum of medical education where they have reintroduced ‘lesbianism’ and ‘sodomy’ as sexual offenses, compromising queer affirmative and inclusive access to medical care.

Ableism is a type of discriminatory bias, like racism and sexism, that one standard human norm exists and any ways of being human that don’t meet this standard are considered inferior. This paper interrogates the impact of ableism on providing optimal paediatric care for children with disabilities and how the pervasiveness of ableist discrimination impacts on children's health and well-being (SDG3) and heightens inequalities (SDG10).

This qualitative study investigates how pre-service special education teachers develop Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) self-efficacy, revealing generally low confidence levels influenced by direct and observed experiences with CRT and personal interactions with diversity.

This study investigates vocabulary development and lexical integration in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who use augmentative or alternative communication (AAC).

This study explores how students’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness at school relate to their wellbeing, focusing on girls, students with special educational needs (SEN), and low socioeconomic status (SES) students

This article analyses over 1,200 legal and policy documents from 193 countries to assess global efforts toward educational equity, focusing on barriers related to income, disability, gender, and discrimination. It reveals significant gaps, including tuition fees before secondary school, lack of protections against sexual harassment and disability discrimination, and limited provisions for inclusive education.

This study examined the effectiveness of video modeling combined with small group instruction to teach leisure skills using waste materials to three individuals with multiple disabilities.

Notations are fundamental in mathematics and related fields, but their design has overlooked the diverse needs of different users. Recent insights into neurodiversity highlight how certain design choices can either hinder or facilitate comprehension for neurodiverse students.

The study examines health insurance coverage and its association with healthcare use and financial protection among people with disabilities in Indonesia.

This study identifies key factors that define good mental health for people with intellectual disabilities, highlighting the importance of a supportive environment, communication, and social contacts over productivity. The findings provide a basis for developing accessible mental health promotion campaigns and programs that involve individuals with intellectual disabilities, their caregivers, and professionals to enhance health equity and inclusion.

This study explores factors affecting university faculty's self-efficacy in supporting autistic students, revealing low confidence due to limited training and support.

This study examined U.S. employers' knowledge and attitudes toward people who stutter, finding that most had limited understanding and were uncertain about common stereotypes.

This article presents the development and evaluation of a low-cost electromechanical handbike prototype that can be easily attached to conventional manual wheelchairs. The aim is to bring about 'broader accessibility and improved quality of life for wheelchair users in resource-limited settings'.

This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of RAACS in analyzing video-recorded interactions between parents and their infants (aged four to 12 months) suspected of having neurodevelopmental disorders, and to modify and reassess the tool if necessary.

This article presents a case study of a ‘model’ inclusive primary school in Papua New Guinea, examining the pedagogical practices of selected teachers through lesson observations and interviews. It evaluates how these practices support students with disabilities and additional learning needs (DALN) and assesses the effectiveness of the new national inclusive education policy and its implementation guide.

Individuals with disabilities typically have lower levels of wellbeing compared to those without disabilities. Tools designed to evaluate wellbeing and its key aspects—emotional, psychological, and social—may not be as accessible or suitable for people who have complex communication needs (CCN).

This article investigates how Italian and Spanish university graduates with invisible disabilities choose to disclose their conditions. It aims to examine to whom, when, what, how, and why they decide to share their disability within the university setting.

This study developed a predictive model for intellectual disability (ID) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) using clinical features such as CP subtypes, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Classification System (MRICS), and comorbid epilepsy. The model highlights the significant association between motor impairment severity and ID risk, emphasizing the importance of early identification and intervention for high-risk children.

This study explores the development and refinement of a technology-enhanced embodied learning environment at Camp Expression, a reverse-inclusion camp for children with moderate-to-severe communication disabilities.

This study identified a higher burden of adverse health outcomes (acute respiratory infection, diarrhea, and fever) and poor anthropometric deficits (stunting, wasting, and underweight) among under5 children with disability in south Asia.

This article introduces the series that Trends in Ecology & Evolution has run throughout 2025. In this series, we have interviewed ecologists and evolutionary biologists with disabilities and have asked them how we can make the field more inclusive