A New Tool Helps Disabled People Track--and Shape--Laws That Impact Them

In 2010, Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act into law, requiring that federal government documents use clear, straightforward language. Plain-language documents serve a dual purpose: they can make information more accessible to people with disabilities that affect cognition and memory, but also address the fact that legislation is already complicated for most people to read--a case in point of how accessibility practices benefit even those without a particular disability. New Disabled South, a disability justice nonprofit founded in 2022, is trying to make more information available to disabled people on legislation that affects them, launching its Plain Language Policy Dashboard in November to cover 14 Southern states. As of now, the bills it explains fall into six categories: accessibility, civil rights, criminalization, poverty and care, democracy, and education. Dom Kelly, New Disabled South's CEO, told me that he hopes the dashboard--which uses AI to translate texts into plain language, which is then checked for accuracy--can also help "combat myths and disinformation" that spread on social media, like whether a mental health–related bill could actually lead to more institutionalization.