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Disability & Health Virtual Symposium

October 3 @ 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Free

More than thirty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, people with disabilities continue to face inequities in the health care system with respect to access and outcomes. Disparities in education, employment, housing, and transportation are also barriers to achieving health equity.

The October 2022 issue of Health Affairs provides a comprehensive, scholarly look at the relationship between disability and health. You are invited to join us for a virtual symposium at which panels of distinguished authors and experts will present their work and engage in discussions on a range of topics.

Confirmed speakers include:

-Ilhom Akobirshoev, Research Scientist, Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University

-Richard E. Besser, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

-Laurin Elizabeth Bixby, PhD Student, University of Pennsylvania

-Susan A. Chapman, Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF School of Nursing

Alina Engelman, Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, California State University, East Bay

-Rocco Friebel, Assistant Professor of Health Policy, The London School of Economics and Political Science

-Jean P. Hall, Director, Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies, University of Kansas

-Willi Horner-Johnson, Associate Professor, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health; Associate Professor, Institute on Development and Disability, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University

-Lisa Iezzoni, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Advisor

-Tyler G. James, Research Fellow, Department of Family Medicine, Center for Disability Health and Wellness and Michigan Mixed Methods Program, University of Michigan

-Colin Killick, Executive Director at Disability Policy Consortium

-Tara Lagu, Director, Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research, and Professor of Medicine (Hospital Medicine) and Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

-Linda Long-Bellil, Assistant Professor, E.K. Shriver Center and Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

-Lisa M. Meeks, Director, DocsWithDisabilities Initiative, and Assistant Professor, Department of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine, Center for Disability Health and Wellness, University of Michigan

Ari Ne’eman, PhD Candidate, Harvard Health Policy PhD Program, and Senior Research Associate, Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard University

-Willyanne DeCormier Plosky, Program Manager, Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University

-Javier Robles, Professor of Kinesiology and Health and Co-Chair, Rutgers University Disability Studies Committee, Rutgers University, Advisor

-Madeline Smith-Johnson, Doctoral Student and Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Sociology Rice University

-Julie D. Weeks, Chief, Measures Research and Evaluation Branch, Division of Analysis and Epidemiology, National Center for Health Statistics, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Health Affairs will provide ASL interpretation, as well as live captioning, for the event. If you have additional access or support requirements in order to participate fully, please contact events@healthaffairs.org to ensure that we can arrange any reasonable adjustments.

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Nearly a decade after the Flint water crisis health impacts became a national warning about government failure, many Flint residents say they are still living with the consequences. Sen. Elissa Slotkin told the U.S. Senate this month that families continue to report health problems and long-term disruption as court cases and settlements continue Sen. Elissa Slotkin took to the U.S. Senate floor last week to deliver a message Flint residents have been repeating for nearly a decade: the crisis may no longer dominate headlines, but the harm has not ended. “An American city was poisoned,” Slotkin said, describing families who reported discolored water, rashes, seizures, hair loss, and chronic health problems as officials insisted the tap water was safe. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when the city switched its water source to the Flint River without adding corrosion-control treatment, a safeguard that helps prevent lead from leaching out of aging pipes. Public health officials later warned that tens of thousands of residents were exposed to elevated lead levels, and President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in January 2016. Health officials say families concerned about lead exposure should follow clinical guidance on testing and follow-up care from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flint is a majority-Black city with high poverty rates, and the crisis quickly became a national symbol of how infrastructure failures and government neglect can compound longstanding racial and economic inequities. Lead exposure is especially dangerous for children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that lead can damage children’s brains and nervous systems and contribute to learning and behavioral problems—harms that can be irreversible. Research examining pediatric blood lead testing patterns in Flint underscores how the crisis altered health behavior and monitoring, even years after the worst contamination became public. The long road to accountability, including the courtroom While the physical infrastructure is improving, Flint’s search for accountability has played out in courtrooms for years. In a highly watched civil “bellwether” trial in 2022, jurors could not reach a verdict in a case involving engineering firms accused of failing to prevent or mitigate the crisis, leading a judge to declare a mistrial. Since then, major civil settlements have continued to reshape what “justice” looks like for many families—often less about a single guilty verdict than about whether compensation and long-promised services actually reach affected residents. In February 2025, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced a $53 million civil settlement with Veolia North America tied to allegations that the company’s work contributed to prolonging the crisis; the settlement was described as a way to provide closure after years of litigation. The settlement added to earlier agreements, including the state’s broader $626 million class-action settlement framework meant to compensate people harmed by lead exposure. A court-supervised claims process has approved tens of thousands of claims, but residents have faced long waits as payments move from approval to distribution. The criminal cases tied to the crisis, meanwhile, largely collapsed. A Michigan judge formally dismissed misdemeanor charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder in 2023 after appellate rulings ended the prosecutions, effectively closing that chapter of the legal response. For many Flint families, that outcome deepened the sense that high-level decision-makers escaped meaningful consequences. Health and education impacts also remain a pressing concern. A New York Times report in 2019 described Flint schools struggling with rising needs for individualized education plans and behavioral supports for children who were exposed to lead—needs that educators and parents say require sustained resources, not short-term attention. Separate academic work has linked the crisis to measurable setbacks in educational outcomes, adding to evidence that environmental disasters can shape children’s trajectories long after the immediate emergency fades. There has been visible progress on the city’s pipes. Michigan reported in 2025 that Flint had completed replacement of nearly 11,000 lead water service lines under a legal settlement that required free replacement offers to residents, a milestone that public health leaders framed as nationally significant. Pediatrician Mona Hanna—one of the early voices warning the public about the crisis—told The Washington Post that when water runs through lead pipes, it is “flowing through a straw that is a poison and has no safe level.” Still, Slotkin’s Senate speech captured what many residents say is the unresolved heart of the crisis: trust. She pointed to families who felt dismissed when they first complained, and she said Flint residents are still seeking justice—including through legal action involving federal regulators—while living with the long-term health, educational, and economic consequences of a disaster they did not cause. As Flint marks another year since the emergency declaration, the question for public health and policy leaders is not only how to prevent another Flint, but how to support a community living with the aftershocks—through healthcare access, developmental and educational services, and timely delivery of promised compensation—so that recovery is more than a milestone on paper. Also Read: A New Year, A Fresh Start for Health fyh.news
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Nearly a decade after the Flint water crisis health impacts became a national warning about government failure, many Flint residents say they are still living with the consequences. Sen. Elissa Slotkin told the U.S. Senate this month that families continue to report health problems and long-term disruption as court cases and settlements continue Sen. Elissa Slotkin took to the U.S. Senate floor last week to deliver a message Flint residents have been repeating for nearly a decade: the crisis may no longer dominate headlines, but the harm has not ended. “An American city was poisoned,” Slotkin said, describing families who reported discolored water, rashes, seizures, hair loss, and chronic health problems as officials insisted the tap water was safe. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when the city switched its water source to the Flint River without adding corrosion-control treatment, a safeguard that helps prevent lead from leaching out of aging pipes. Public health officials later warned that tens of thousands of residents were exposed to elevated lead levels, and President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in January 2016. Health officials say families concerned about lead exposure should follow clinical guidance on testing and follow-up care from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flint is a majority-Black city with high poverty rates, and the crisis quickly became a national symbol of how infrastructure failures and government neglect can compound longstanding racial and economic inequities. Lead exposure is especially dangerous for children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that lead can damage children’s brains and nervous systems and contribute to learning and behavioral problems—harms that can be irreversible. Research examining pediatric blood lead testing patterns in Flint underscores how the crisis altered health behavior and monitoring, even years after the worst contamination became public. The long road to accountability, including the courtroom While the physical infrastructure is improving, Flint’s search for accountability has played out in courtrooms for years. In a highly watched civil “bellwether” trial in 2022, jurors could not reach a verdict in a case involving engineering firms accused of failing to prevent or mitigate the crisis, leading a judge to declare a mistrial. Since then, major civil settlements have continued to reshape what “justice” looks like for many families—often less about a single guilty verdict than about whether compensation and long-promised services actually reach affected residents. In February 2025, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced a $53 million civil settlement with Veolia North America tied to allegations that the company’s work contributed to prolonging the crisis; the settlement was described as a way to provide closure after years of litigation. The settlement added to earlier agreements, including the state’s broader $626 million class-action settlement framework meant to compensate people harmed by lead exposure. A court-supervised claims process has approved tens of thousands of claims, but residents have faced long waits as payments move from approval to distribution. The criminal cases tied to the crisis, meanwhile, largely collapsed. A Michigan judge formally dismissed misdemeanor charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder in 2023 after appellate rulings ended the prosecutions, effectively closing that chapter of the legal response. For many Flint families, that outcome deepened the sense that high-level decision-makers escaped meaningful consequences. Health and education impacts also remain a pressing concern. A New York Times report in 2019 described Flint schools struggling with rising needs for individualized education plans and behavioral supports for children who were exposed to lead—needs that educators and parents say require sustained resources, not short-term attention. Separate academic work has linked the crisis to measurable setbacks in educational outcomes, adding to evidence that environmental disasters can shape children’s trajectories long after the immediate emergency fades. There has been visible progress on the city’s pipes. Michigan reported in 2025 that Flint had completed replacement of nearly 11,000 lead water service lines under a legal settlement that required free replacement offers to residents, a milestone that public health leaders framed as nationally significant. Pediatrician Mona Hanna—one of the early voices warning the public about the crisis—told The Washington Post that when water runs through lead pipes, it is “flowing through a straw that is a poison and has no safe level.” Still, Slotkin’s Senate speech captured what many residents say is the unresolved heart of the crisis: trust. She pointed to families who felt dismissed when they first complained, and she said Flint residents are still seeking justice—including through legal action involving federal regulators—while living with the long-term health, educational, and economic consequences of a disaster they did not cause. As Flint marks another year since the emergency declaration, the question for public health and policy leaders is not only how to prevent another Flint, but how to support a community living with the aftershocks—through healthcare access, developmental and educational services, and timely delivery of promised compensation—so that recovery is more than a milestone on paper. Also Read: A New Year, A Fresh Start for Health fyh.news
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Nearly a decade after the Flint water crisis health impacts became a national warning about government failure, many Flint residents say they are still living with the consequences. Sen. Elissa Slotkin told the U.S. Senate this month that families continue to report health problems and long-term disruption as court cases and settlements continue Sen. Elissa Slotkin took to the U.S. Senate floor last week to deliver a message Flint residents have been repeating for nearly a decade: the crisis may no longer dominate headlines, but the harm has not ended. “An American city was poisoned,” Slotkin said, describing families who reported discolored water, rashes, seizures, hair loss, and chronic health problems as officials insisted the tap water was safe. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when the city switched its water source to the Flint River without adding corrosion-control treatment, a safeguard that helps prevent lead from leaching out of aging pipes. Public health officials later warned that tens of thousands of residents were exposed to elevated lead levels, and President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in January 2016. Health officials say families concerned about lead exposure should follow clinical guidance on testing and follow-up care from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flint is a majority-Black city with high poverty rates, and the crisis quickly became a national symbol of how infrastructure failures and government neglect can compound longstanding racial and economic inequities. Lead exposure is especially dangerous for children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that lead can damage children’s brains and nervous systems and contribute to learning and behavioral problems—harms that can be irreversible. Research examining pediatric blood lead testing patterns in Flint underscores how the crisis altered health behavior and monitoring, even years after the worst contamination became public. The long road to accountability, including the courtroom While the physical infrastructure is improving, Flint’s search for accountability has played out in courtrooms for years. In a highly watched civil “bellwether” trial in 2022, jurors could not reach a verdict in a case involving engineering firms accused of failing to prevent or mitigate the crisis, leading a judge to declare a mistrial. Since then, major civil settlements have continued to reshape what “justice” looks like for many families—often less about a single guilty verdict than about whether compensation and long-promised services actually reach affected residents. In February 2025, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced a $53 million civil settlement with Veolia North America tied to allegations that the company’s work contributed to prolonging the crisis; the settlement was described as a way to provide closure after years of litigation. The settlement added to earlier agreements, including the state’s broader $626 million class-action settlement framework meant to compensate people harmed by lead exposure. A court-supervised claims process has approved tens of thousands of claims, but residents have faced long waits as payments move from approval to distribution. The criminal cases tied to the crisis, meanwhile, largely collapsed. A Michigan judge formally dismissed misdemeanor charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder in 2023 after appellate rulings ended the prosecutions, effectively closing that chapter of the legal response. For many Flint families, that outcome deepened the sense that high-level decision-makers escaped meaningful consequences. Health and education impacts also remain a pressing concern. A New York Times report in 2019 described Flint schools struggling with rising needs for individualized education plans and behavioral supports for children who were exposed to lead—needs that educators and parents say require sustained resources, not short-term attention. Separate academic work has linked the crisis to measurable setbacks in educational outcomes, adding to evidence that environmental disasters can shape children’s trajectories long after the immediate emergency fades. There has been visible progress on the city’s pipes. Michigan reported in 2025 that Flint had completed replacement of nearly 11,000 lead water service lines under a legal settlement that required free replacement offers to residents, a milestone that public health leaders framed as nationally significant. Pediatrician Mona Hanna—one of the early voices warning the public about the crisis—told The Washington Post that when water runs through lead pipes, it is “flowing through a straw that is a poison and has no safe level.” Still, Slotkin’s Senate speech captured what many residents say is the unresolved heart of the crisis: trust. She pointed to families who felt dismissed when they first complained, and she said Flint residents are still seeking justice—including through legal action involving federal regulators—while living with the long-term health, educational, and economic consequences of a disaster they did not cause. As Flint marks another year since the emergency declaration, the question for public health and policy leaders is not only how to prevent another Flint, but how to support a community living with the aftershocks—through healthcare access, developmental and educational services, and timely delivery of promised compensation—so that recovery is more than a milestone on paper. Also Read: A New Year, A Fresh Start for Health fyh.news
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