2/25/26 - Chill, sorry, and Bad Bunny

Greeting

It's kind of a hodgepodge today ...

Advocates call for more accessible cool spaces for people with heat regulation impairments

Amelia Walters, ABC News - February 18, 2026

"Ms Tippl believes it is time for a website or phone application to be created, similar to the federal government's public toilet map app,which shows public spaces that provide cool and accessible facilities ... The idea is something Dr O'Connor believes would be achievable and beneficial to all Australians ... 'It is certainly feasible, and it certainly could be done … maybe the state services could get behind it,' he said."

While I have been borderline obsessed with getting through an unusually cold Northern Hemisphere winter with my disabilities, it's important to remember the flip side of the disability/temperature dilemma – extreme heat. And it's nice to read about it in an article that offers at least a partial solution that seems pretty achievable.

Delta Apologizes to Ms. Wheelchair 2026 After She Says Airline Damaged Her Mobility Device in 'Devastating' Incident

Natalia Senanayake, People - February 19, 2026

"'These are not luxuries. For ably different people, they are essential to our lives. They are the difference between independence or being stuck at home,' Sturdivant says. 'So when a wheelchair breaks on an airline such as Delta, it creates a ripple effect that can delay our independence for weeks or even months.'"

I'm not sure how most people think about airlines breaking disabled passengers' wheelchairs, when they think of it at all. Do they see it mainly a reason to be outraged at airline incompetence – in the same bucket as, say, annoying flight delays or rude gate agents? Or, do they understand, at least in theory, that breaking a wheelchair is more than an inconvenience, it's personally devastating, physically dangerous, emotionally traumatic, and financially disastrous? A story like this in a mainstream magazine like People, told by a disabled person who is very effective at self-advocacy and explaining disability issues, hopefully helps more people view this issue in all three dimensions.

What Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show Revealed About Deaf Inclusion

Keely Cat-Wells, Forbes.com - February 16, 2026

"Many non-Spanish-speaking viewers felt excluded. Social media filled with frustration, Why weren’t there translations? Why weren’t captions included? Why were millions of viewers left without context?. The instinct to demand access is understandable. What is more revealing is how quickly exclusion became intolerable once it affected the majority ... For Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, watching entertainment and moments without full access is not unusual. Missing captions, incomplete captions, delayed captions, context that never quite lands, access treated as optional or secondary. What felt like a glaring oversight to some viewers last week is, for others, a baseline experience. And this is not just a media story, it is a workplace story."

This angle on Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance never occurred to me until reading this Forbes piece by Keely Cat-Wells. It's an apt connection though. And we shouldn't waste opportunities like this to help non-disabled people translate unfamiliar experiences of inaccessibility into more purposeful understanding of the barriers and neglect disabled people face every day.

Disability Thinking Weekday is a Monday-Friday newsletter with links and commentary on disability-related articles and other content. You can help promote Disability Thinking Weekday by forwarding it by email or posting on your social media. You can also comment by sending me an email at: apulrang@icloud.com. Collected comments are shared on the first of each month. A free subscription sends a newsletter to your email each weekday. Benefits of paid subscription include:

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