Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge cleared Britney Spears to hire her own lawyer in the battle over her conservatorship. This decision follows pressure from several disability rights organizations. In an op-ed, representatives of Disability Rights California wrote, "Spears' experience is a common one for people with developmental disabilities or mental illness, whose fundamental life choices are restricted 'for their own good.'" DRC advocates for alternatives to guardianships — namely, supported decision making, which allows a person to retain their legal rights while receiving counsel from individuals they choose.
 
The Spears case has brought conversations on disability rights to the forefront of national media, but represents just one facet of the issues facing disabled communities. This week’s sources are experts and leaders in disability rights and advocacy.

Lydia X. Z. Brown is policy counsel for the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology and director of policy, advocacy and external affairs at the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network. They are a disability justice advocate, writer, attorney and strategist whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people. Brown is an expert on disability law and algorithmic discrimination — systematic decision-making that privileges one group over another.

You can listen to Lydia X. Z. Brown here. 

Alice Wong is a disabled activist, writer and consultant. She is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community created in 2014 that creates and shares stories focused on disability culture. She writes about media, politics, disability representation and activism, and is the editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people. Wong is working on a memoir, Year of the Tiger, that's set to be published in 2022. 

You can listen to Alice Wong here.

Other sources of interest this week
 
Amid COVID-19 concerns, the Tokyo Olympics will begin this week, with the opening ceremony set for Friday. The trials preceding this year’s games saw a record number of out LGBTQIA+ athletes qualify, as well as backlash against rules related to THC consumption. These are among the topics sparking conversations on diversity and inclusion at the event. 
 
Linda Greene is a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she researches and teaches sports law and constitutional law. She was the United States Olympic Committee Legislation Committee chair, its audit committee vice chair and co-author of its diversity and inclusion policies.
 
Sources of the Week on the news
 
Walter Kimbrough spoke to NPR about journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’ decision to accept a position at Howard University following a debate over tenure with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto joined MSNBC’s The 11th Hour to discuss the dozens of Texas Democrats who left their state, barring Republicans from voting on the state’s restrictive voting legislation. Tracy Hadden Loh spoke to The New York Times about the stability of downtown office districts. Dolores Albarracín spoke to The Associated Press about the conspiracy theories and disinformation that informed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 
 
Thanks to all who have been utilizing sources.npr.org!