Washington, D.C
How disabled Washingtonians celebrate, educate and laugh
July is Incapacity Satisfaction Month, a time to have a good time and acknowledge incapacity. Nonetheless, the battle for accessibility and fairness is ongoing.
Why it issues: Based on the CDC, about 1 / 4 of adults within the U.S. have a incapacity, together with 115,400 D.C. residents.
We spoke to Washingtonians who shared how they have a good time their disabilities and, most significantly, what they want for fairness.
Kevin Schultz, a 35-year-old D.C. resident, is proud to speak about his listening to loss.
- He makes use of a cochlear implant in a single ear and doesn’t disguise when he has bother listening to somebody.
- He additionally encourages his pals to get their listening to checked.
On fairness: Schultz tells Axios that he makes certain accessibility options akin to closed captioning and written directions can be found wherever he goes.
- He remembers a time he boarded a Metro practice that was labeled with the incorrect vacation spot. Unable to listen to bulletins, he needed to ask a conductor for assist.
“There are all types of issues that we construct into society which are designed to create fairness for folks with disabilities, however they’re so not often cared for, tended to, and operated appropriately,” he tells Axios.
Lorry Dow, 70, lives in Arlington and has a traumatic mind damage. She tells Axios that it helps to teach the general public about invisible disabilities, too.
On having an invisible incapacity: “I’ve been arrested for showing drunk,” Dow says. When requesting lodging over the telephone for her incapacity, Dow has been transferred plenty of occasions to increasingly more individuals who can’t assist her.
- One time at a celebration, a person advised Dow that she didn’t look disabled. “That’s symbolic of how we consider folks with disabilities,” she says.
- “I attempt to educate folks,” she provides. “Nevertheless it drains my battery.”
Jenny Cavallero, 37, usually appears to be like for tactics to make sure disabled comedians can carry out in an accessible area. She is the interim supervisor on the D.C. Public Library’s Middle for Accessibility, and not too long ago organized a comedy present that includes disabled comedians on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
- “So many rooms the place folks come up and do stand-up comedy usually are not accessible bodily,” she says.
- Performers had a variety of disabilities, Cavallero provides. “It’s various. It doesn’t have an effect on folks the identical manner.”
On joking about incapacity: “Disabled persons are humorous … We don’t dwell unhappy lives. We dwell very full, wealthy lives,” she tells Axios. Even when making jokes about her personal expertise, Cavallero says she by no means punches down on herself or on incapacity. “I make enjoyable of the foolish issues I do. I don’t make enjoyable of who I’m on the core.”
On fairness: Based on Cavallero, true fairness goes past seen types of accessibility, akin to American Signal Language. It focuses on precisely what assets folks want inside the group.
- “The extra you promote accessible providers that you’ve, the extra folks really feel empowered to ask for the issues they want,” she says.
- Accessibility is a part of the plan, not an afterthought, she provides.
Fights broke out in the Navy Yard area of D.C. Saturday night, causing Metro to close part of the nearby station.
Video from a News4 viewer shows a large crowd of what appears to be dozens of young people at New Jersey Avenue and M Street SE. Multiple police cruisers responded to the block, and some people appeared to be running away.
A spokesperson for WMATA said a large group of teens were fighting, which caused them to close the New Jersey Avenue side of the Navy Yard-Ballpark station.
It’s still unclear what led up to the fight or if anyone was arrested.
Last month, D.C. police arrested six young people after fights broke out at the Wharf in Southwest.
Stay with News4 for updates to this developing story.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 17, 2025 /
17:30 pm
The Catholic Information Center (CIC) on Saturday held its third annual Eucharistic procession through Washington, D.C. in which more than 1,000 participants processed through the downtown area with the Blessed Sacrament.
Father Charles Trullols, the director of the CIC, told CNA the day was “perfect.”
The event kicked off with a Mass at CIC’s chapel. The group of attendees was so large that it could not fit inside the chapel itself, sending people to watch the Mass on a screen outside where they were eventually brought Holy Communion.
The procession began after Mass and was led by the crossbearer, candle-bearers, religious sisters, and young children who recently received their first Holy Communion and who laid rose petals ahead of the Eucharist.
Trullols carried the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance and held it high for the crowd to witness and follow. A choir, priests, and lay people followed behind through the downtown area.
As the group walked, attendees said prayers and sang hymns. Some bystanders joined in and others kneeled as the procession passed by.
Gerard McNair-Lewis, a development associate at CIC, noted that the event is held during May, “the month of Mary.”
“What better way to celebrate Mary than to honor her son’s Eucharistic presence?” he said.
The group processed down K Street. The Eucharist in the procession was “the closest tabernacle to the White House,” McNair-Lewis said. It’s “a great testament that religious things happen in our nation’s capital.”
Throughout the procession the group stopped at different locations to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and hear the gospel. At one stop, Monsignor Charles Pope spoke outside the veteran’s affairs office.
Pope praised veterans and the military, pointing out that “many put their lives on the line so that others can live in greater security and freedom.” He said these individuals “imitate Jesus who lays down His life so we can live eternally.”
Krista Anderson, an attendee from Virgina, told CNA that her husband Micheal Simpson was a staff sergeant for the United States Army who was killed in Afghanistan.
She felt the moment to honor veterans was a message from God.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Craig Carter flew into Washington for a work trip and “happened to see [the procession].”
A Protestant, Carter said God “wanted me to come to D.C. early just to pray.” He joined the procession, he said, because God “has been working on [his] heart.”
“Adoration has always been super special to me in my Catholic faith,” Lydia Vaccaro, a young attendee from Virgina, told CNA. “So it brought me here.”
“It’s a beautiful witness,” said attendee Hannah Hermann.
“I like being in front of processions like this, where you’re out and people see,” Hermann said. “I’ve heard conversion stories from people who witness a procession.”
“The procession was beautiful,” Trullols told CNA after the event concluded. “Every year it is getting better.”
“We know how to do it better and it’s growing – the quantity of people, the attention, and also the way we organize the liturgy and the music,” Trullols said.
Tessa Gervasini is an intern for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She recently graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication.
As part of the launch of World Pride in Washington, D.C. the American Civil Liberties Union and the Gender Liberation Movement is unveiling the Freedom To Be quilt on the National Mall on May 17, a 9,000 square-foot collection of over 250 quilt panels handmade by transgender people and their families from across the United States. Co-creators Abdool Corlette and Gillian Branstetter were working with a team of people to install the quilt panels on Thursday, May 16. (AP Video: Mike Pesoli)
As part of the launch of World Pride in Washington, D.C. the American Civil Liberties Union and the Gender Liberation Movement is unveiling the Freedom To Be quilt on the National Mall on May 17, a 9,000 square-foot collection of over 250 quilt panels handmade by transgender people and their families from across the United States. Co-creators Abdool Corlette and Gillian Branstetter were working with a team of people to install the quilt panels on Thursday, May 16. (AP Video: Mike Pesoli)
ND Dem-NPL reacts to Biden cancer diagnosis
Northeast Ohio Weather: Chilly and unsettled week ahead
Oklahoma State softball easily beaten by Arkansas in Fayetteville Regional
Patmon’s walk-off 3-run HR helps Oregon beat Stanford 10-7, win Eugene Regional
Penn State is working to get 4-star Dorian Barney back home in Pennsylvania
-
Austin, TX1 week agoBest Austin Salads – 15 Food Places For Good Greens!
-
World1 week agoNew German chancellor aims for stronger EU ties with France and Poland
-
Technology1 week agoThe best iPad to buy
-
News1 week agoJudge Orders Release of Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts Student Detained by ICE
-
Indiana1 week agoStar-filled roster for Team Indiana at Saturday’s Prep Ball Stars Midwest Challenge
-
Lifestyle1 week agoA Guide to Bravo’s New Shows, Including “Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition”
-
Business1 week agoA Decade-Long Search for a Battery That Can End the Gasoline Era
-
News1 week agoTrump cuts tariffs on U.K. cars, steel and aluminum but keeps 10% base duty