From the Global Disability Summit in Berlin to the United Nations Conference of State Parties, GDRI has spent the past six months deepening global partnerships and advocating for deaf inclusion at the highest levels. With the relaunch of their flagship initiative as Deaf Voices Counted and an upcoming expansion into the Dominican Republic, GDRI continues to center deaf-led, community-driven research worldwide.
A October 2025 study in the Journal of Diabetes Research found that no current diabetes devices - including continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps - adequately meet the accessibility needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing users, who also face exclusion from clinical trials and insurance denials based on hearing-related requirements. Researchers call for universal design, inclusion of DHH people in device development, ASL-based instructions, and accessible alarm alternatives to address what the study frames as a structural inequity, not merely a technical oversight.
A September 2025 report by Open Data Watch argues that collecting intersectional disability data - which captures the compounding barriers faced by people with multiple forms of discrimination - is essential to building truly inclusive policies. The report also stresses that meaningful progress requires communities of persons with disabilities to own their data across the entire data value chain, backed by sustained funding and technical capacity-building.
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