In a challenging labor market, Black women with disabilities are choosing self-employment

American Counseling Association

Alexandria, Va. (Aug. 27, 2025) — While the employment landscape for Black women continues to shift in 2025, Black women with disabilities are actively pursuing self-employment as a viable career option, according to new research published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, a publication of the American Counseling Association.

The report, Breaking Barriers: The Economic Realities of Self-Employed Black Women With Disabilities,” is part of a special issue focusing on Black Americans with disabilities. The study captures a pivotal snapshot of Black women with disabilities in the labor market between August and September 2024.

The study explored the rates at which Black women with specific disabilities engaged in self-employment. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, researchers analyzed feedback from 91 Black women who identified as having physical or mental health disabilities.

Researchers found 43.9% of Black women with disabilities were self-employed. Of this group, 66.9% had more than one mental health condition, 27.3% reported visual impairments, 11.8% had mobility disabilities and 11.3% reported auditory impairments.

Findings also revealed that Black women with physical disabilities were more likely than Black women without physical disabilities to have a graduate degree (31% vs. 15.5%, respectively), and to earn $50,000 or more yearly (55.4% vs. 33.7%, respectively).

“Black women with disabilities can create their own paths to financial independence, and they can thrive and survive in the labor market with the right tools,” said the study’s lead author Gemarco Peterson, PhD, assistant professor of clinical rehabilitation counseling at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Peterson explained that if counselors understand that Black women with disabilities want to participate and thrive in the labor market, and view self-employment as a viable option, it leaves room for counselors to provide stronger career development support that honors clients’ intersecting identities.

Researchers stated that it is essential for counselors to understand the impact of vocation, particularly self-employment, on a client’s overall well-being. In addition, counselor education programs must continue to train counselors to recognize how society’s stereotypes and inaccurate narratives harm the psychological well-being of Black women with and without disabilities.

“Vocation is a key social determinant of health,” Peterson said. “The systemic barriers in today’s society extend to employment, impacting the mental and emotional well-being of the client. If we silo vocation and employment, we miss the bigger picture of the whole person.”

For more information, contact news@counseling.org or karen@addispr.com.

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About the American Counseling Association

Founded in 1952, the American Counseling Association (ACA) is a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization that is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession. ACA represents more than 60,000 members and is the world’s largest association exclusively representing professional counselors in various practice settings. Driven by the belief that all people can benefit from the power of counseling, ACA’s mission is to advance mental health and well-being through advocacy, community, inclusion and research. ACA works to promote the professional development of counselors, advocate for counselors, and ensure that ethical, culturally inclusive practices protect our members’ clients and all people who seek counseling services. Connect with ACA on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and YouTube.

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Journal

Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development

DOI

10.1002/jmcd.12327 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Breaking Barriers: The Economic Realities of Self-Employed Black Women With Disabilities

 

Local news services need to adapt or face extinction: report

Gaps are emerging in the provision of local news across Australia, but embracing community driven content could be key to improving the viability of local news

RMIT University

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Photographer newsgathering in regional Australia. Credit: Dr T.J. Thomson, RMIT University

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Credit: Dr T.J. Thomson, RMIT University

Gaps are emerging in the provision of local news across Australia, but embracing community driven content could be key to improving the viability of local news.

A new report from the University of Canberra (UC) and RMIT University – Engaged Journalism in the Heartland: Understanding Regional News Audiences – encompassing multiple studies, proposes recommendations to turn the situation around.

Researchers surveyed audiences, analysed more than 3,000 news stories and interviewed more than 200 people from regional communities across the country.

Report lead author and Director of UC’s News and Media Research Centre, Professor Sora Park, said local news organisations risk becoming irrelevant if they don’t adapt to their audiences’ shifting news habits.

“The Australian regional audience profile is shifting,” said Professor Park.

“Regional audiences want more hyperlocal news, human-interest stories and practical information like weather and local events.

“Local communities are finding ways to produce news themselves to fill information gaps relevant to their needs.

“If news organisations invest in local news topics and formats that resonate with audiences, they stand to better serve their communities.”

Audiences trust local news, but it needs to be relevant

Trust in local news remained higher than national or international media, especially when journalists had local knowledge and community ties.

“People trust local news because journalists have local knowledge and tell locally relevant stories,” said Professor Park.

“This is usually because the journalists live in, understand and care about the communities they’re reporting on.”

While topics such as sport and crime dominate headlines, Professor Park said telling more human-interest stories would help re-engage audiences.

“Locals can read about crime and sport on social media but turn to media outlets to learn about issues that matter to them and their community,” she said.

“Boosting coverage of culture and community issues instead of relying on crime and sport would improve diversity and representation in news coverage.”

Report co-author Dr T.J. Thomson from RMIT University said visual storytelling is under used, missing opportunities for deeper audience engagement.

“Visuals attract attention, spark emotional connections and help audiences make sense of news,” Dr Thomson said.

“Outlets should consider using more video, photo galleries, graphs and maps to help tell stories.

“When visuals are an afterthought, their full audience engagement potential isn’t realised.”

Previous research led by Dr Thomson found viewers generally consider images with other people in them, particularly images with faces, as more engaging than those without.

Community driven content could be key

Tapping into existing online communities and local content creators could help improve the relevance and value of news to the community.

Report co-author and senior lecturer at UC, Dr Jee Young Lee said broadening the authorship of local columns, running community reporting workshops and creating channels for tip-offs are ways to do this.

“In an increasingly visual environment and shrinking attention span, staying relevant is key,” she said.

“Outlets should explore ways and establish processes to involve their audience in the production and dissemination of news.”

Other recommendations proposed in the report included exploring potential photo sales as an additional revenue source; covering more events outside of the newsroom including forums, festivals and workshops; and streamlining ways in which audiences can share visuals.

The report probes the state of local news in the regions, exploring current offerings in the space, information deficits and how regional audiences navigate the current information environment. It combines findings from the UC N&MRC’s Heartbeat of Australia: Tracking, Understanding and Engaging News Audiences; and RMIT NTS’s Addressing the Crisis of Local Visual News in Regional and Remote Australia.

 From 28 August, a copy of the report can be accessed here: Engaged Journalism in the Heartland: Understanding Regional News Audiences. DOI: 10.60836/djte-h654

The research contributing to the report was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the ARC.

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Journal

Journalism Practice

DOI

10.1080/17512786.2025.2499882 

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Audience Perceptions of Engaging News Photos: A Picture-Sorting and Interview Study

 

Older species tend to have large ranges – unless they live on islands

A study in Nature Communications sheds light on how ecological, evolutionary, and geographical processes can simultaneously shape species’ vulnerability to extinction.

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig

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The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) has an almost world-wide distribution.

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Credit: Joseph Tobias

Every living species on Earth has a unique geographical range, with some being widespread and others being very narrow. Several factors shape a species’ range size – and one of them is the evolutionary age of a species. To investigate how evolutionary age is related to present-day range size, a research team led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University and Naturalis Biodiversity Center compared over 26,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, reef fishes, and palms.

More than 40,000 species are facing extinction worldwide. Species with narrow geographical ranges are known to face a higher risk of extinction compared to widespread species: They tend to have lower overall abundance and smaller local populations, making them vulnerable to environmental perturbations. Although range size is one of the strongest determinants of extinction risk, the causes underlying the wide variation in natural range sizes remain poorly understood.

An international team of researchers led by Dr Adriana Alzate, alumna of iDiv and Leipzig University, compared data on the evolutionary age and range sizes of over 26,000 species from seven major taxonomic groups: birds, reptiles, amphibians, reef fishes, palms, and terrestrial as well as marine mammals.

More time, larger range?

The researchers show that, on average, older species have larger ranges across all groups except for marine mammals – a finding which did not come as a big surprise, but had not been proven so far. “Older species are expected to have larger distributions because they have had more time, sometimes several millions of years, to expand their ranges since first appearing,” explains first author Adriana Alzate, Guest Researcher at Naturalis Biodiversity Center. “Over evolutionary timescales, these species have had more opportunities to reproduce, disperse, colonize and adapt to diverse environments, allowing them to occupy broader geographical areas.”

Good dispersers quickly attain large ranges

But it is not only a species’ age that influences its range size. Some species are good dispersers and can move easily across barriers or over great distances, such as birds with long, narrow wings with pointed tips, and palms with large fruits, that are dispersed by wide-ranging large-bodied vertebrates. These species may attain large ranges faster than less dispersive species. Therefore, good dispersers might have larger ranges than expected based on age only. By contrast, the study shows that the effect of species age is likely more pronounced on less dispersive species, such as amphibians.

Geographical context also plays a major role. On islands, the maximum range size that native species can attain is geographically constrained. The new research confirmed that island-restricted species have smaller range sizes than species that are not restricted to islands – but it also brought to light an unexpected relationship: On islands, range size differences between young and old species are greater than on the mainland. Dr Roberto Rozzi, Curator of Palaeontology at the Central Repository of Natural Science Collections of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and iDiv alumnus: “Island dynamics and ontogeny modulate the relationship between age and range size. Release from predators and competitors may have enabled early island colonizers, typically ecological generalists, to achieve broader ranges than expected based on age only.”

Environmental change puts narrow-ranged species at risk

The smaller a species’ range, the higher the risk for it to go extinct. Understanding the dynamics that shape a species’ range size is crucial for predicting its vulnerability to extinction and tailoring conservation efforts to local conditions and needs.  “This is even more important in the context of changing environmental conditions, because not all species may be able to keep up with these changes”, says senior author Dr Renske Onstein, junior group leader at iDiv and group leader “Biodiversity Hotspots” at Naturalis Biodiversity Center. “Possibly, older species have the genetic makeup to more readily adapt and therefore persist in their relatively large ranges. This needs further testing with genetic data, for example, providing exciting possibilities for future research”.

 

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG; FZT-118), among others. Alumna Dr Adriana Alzate was a postdoctoral researcher at iDiv’s synthesis centre sDiv, which helps bring together existing but disparate data, methods, theories, and tools in new and sometimes unexpected ways.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-62124-y 

Article Title

Evolutionary age correlates with range size across plants and animals

Article Publication Date

23-Aug-2025

 

Glow-in-the-dark succulents that recharge with sunlight

Cell Press

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Succulents glow in shades of red, green, blue, and more after being infused with afterglow phosphor particles that absorb and slowly release light.

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Credit: Liu et al., Matter

From mushrooms that cast a soft green glow to plankton that glimmers sparkling blue, glowing plants are nothing new for nature. Now, scientists are bringing that light to houseplants. 

Reporting in the Cell Press journal Matter on August 27, researchers crafted glow-in-the-dark succulents that recharge in sunlight. Injected with light-emitting compounds, the plants can shine in various colors and rival a small night light at their brightest. The simple, low-cost method may help lay the foundation for sustainable, plant-based lighting systems. 

“Picture the world of Avatar, where glowing plants light up an entire ecosystem,” says first author Shuting Liu of South China Agricultural University. “We wanted to make that vision possible using materials we already work with in the lab. Imagine glowing trees replacing streetlights.” 

Glowing greenery isn’t a new idea. Past studies have designed similar plants using genetic engineering. But the glow is often faint and is typically only available in green. The methods were also complex and costly. 

Instead of coaxing cells to glow through genetic modification, the team used afterglow phosphor particles—materials similar to those found in glow-in-the-dark toys. These compounds absorb light and release it slowly over time. 

For the particles to travel through leaf tissues, the researchers had to get the size just right: around 7 micrometers, roughly the width of a red blood cell.  

“Smaller, nano-sized particles move easily within the plant but are dimmer,” says Liu. “Larger particles glowed brighter but couldn’t travel far inside the plant.” 

The team then injected the particles into several plant species, including succulents and non-succulents like golden pothos and bok choy. But only the succulents produced a strong glow, thanks to the narrow, uniform, and evenly distributed channels within the leaf that helped to disperse the particles more effectively. After a couple of minutes of exposure to sunlight or indoor LED light, the modified plants glowed for up to two hours. 

“It was really unexpected,” says Liu, noting that she initially thought plants with airy tissue structures would perform better. “The particles diffused in just seconds, and the entire succulent leaf glowed.” 

By using different types of phosphors, the researchers created plants that shine in various colors, including green, red, and blue. They even built a glowing plant wall with 56 succulents, bright enough to illuminate nearby objects and read texts.  

“Each plant takes about 10 minutes to prepare and costs a little over 10 yuan (about $1.4), not including labor,” says Liu. 

The glowing succulents’ light fades over time, and the team are still studying the long-term safety of the materials for the plants. Still, the concept could offer a sustainable alternative for low-intensity lighting in pathways, gardens, or indoor decor. The team is also exploring how the method can light up plants beyond succulents. 

“I just find it incredible that an entirely human-made, micro-scale material can come together so seamlessly with the natural structure of a plant,” says Liu. “The way they integrate is almost magical. It creates a special kind of functionality.” 

### 

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Guangzhou Science & Technology Project, and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation. 

Matter, Liu et al., “Sunlight-powered multicolor and uniform luminescence in material-engineered living plants” https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(25)00413-8

Matter (@Matter_CP), published by Cell Press, is a new journal for multi-disciplinary, transformative materials sciences research. Papers explore scientific advancements across the spectrum of materials development—from fundamentals to application, from nano to macro. Visit: https://www.cell.com/matter. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.  

 Afterglow phosphor particles spread through a succulent leaf [VIDEO] | 

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Journal

Matter

DOI

10.1016/j.matt.2025.102370 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Sunlight-powered multicolor and uniform luminescence in material-engineered living plants

Article Publication Date

27-Aug-2025

 

Two big steps toward the evolution of bipedality

New study reveals how reshaping the pelvis helped human ancestors walk upright

Harvard University

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By Kermit Pattison / Harvard Staff Writer 

The pelvis is often called the keystone of upright locomotion. More than any other part of our lower body, it has been radically altered over millions of years to allow us to accomplish our bizarre habit of walking on two legs.

But just how evolution accomplished this extreme makeover has remained a mystery. Now a new study [LINK WILL GO LIVE WHEN EMBARGO LIFTS] led by Harvard scientists reveals two key genetic shifts that remodeled the pelvis and allowed our ancestors to become the upright bipeds who trekked all over the planet.

"What we've done here is demonstrate that in human evolution there was a complete mechanistic shift,” said Terence Capellini, Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and senior author of the new paper. “There's no parallel to that in other primates. The evolution of novelty—the transition from fins to limbs or the development of bat wings from fingers—often involve massive shifts in how developmental growth occurs. Here we see humans are doing the same thing, but for their pelves.”

Anatomists have long known that the human pelvis is unique among primates. In our closest relatives, the African apes—chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas—the upper hipbones, or ilia, are tall, narrow, and oriented flat front to back; from the side they look like thin blades. The geometry of the ape pelvis anchors large muscles for climbing.

In humans, the hipbones have rotated to the sides to form a bowl shape (in fact, the word “pelvis” derives from the Latin word for basin). Our flaring hipbones provide attachments for the muscles that allow us to maintain balance as we shift our weight from one leg to another during upright walking and running.

But just how the pelvis got that way has remained unknown—until now. In a paper published Wednesday [August 27] in Nature, the team of international scientists identified some of the key genetic and developmental shifts that radically resculpted the quadrupedal ape pelvis into a bipedal one.

“What we have tried to do is integrate different approaches to get a complete story about how the pelvis developed over time,” said Gayani Senevirathne, a postdoctoral fellow in Capellini’s lab and study lead author. “I think that is one of the strengths of this paper."

Senevirathne analyzed 128 samples of embryonic tissues from humans and nearly two dozen other primate species from museums in the United States and Europe. These collections included century-old specimens mounted on glass slides or preserved in jars. The researchers also studied human embryonic tissues collected by the Birth Defects Research Laboratory at the University of Washington. They took CT scans and analyzed histology (the microscopic structure of tissues) to reveal the anatomy of the pelvis during early stages of development.

"The work that Gayani did was a tour de force," said Capellini. "This was like five projects in one."

The researchers discovered that evolution reshaped the human pelvis in two major steps. First, it shifted a growth plate by 90 degrees to make the human ilium wide instead of tall. Later, another shift altered the timeline of embryonic bone formation.

Most bones of the lower body take shape through process that begins when cartilage cells form on growth plates aligned along the long axis of the growing bone. This cartilage later hardens into bone in a process called ossification.

In the early stages of development, the human iliac growth plate formed with growth aligned head-to-tail just as it did in other primates. But by day 53, the growth plates radically shifted perpendicular from the original axis—thus shortening and broadening the hipbone.

“Looking at the pelvis, that wasn't on my radar,” said Capellini. “I was expecting a step-wise progression for shortening it and then widening it. But the histology really revealed that it actually flipped 90 degrees—making it short and wide all at the same time."

Another major change involved the timeline of bone formation. Most bones form along a primary ossification center in the middle of the bone shaft. In humans, however, the ilia do something quite different. Ossification begins in the rear the sacrum and spreads radially. Yet this mineralization remains restricted to the peripheral layer and ossification of the interior is delayed by 16 weeks—allowing the bone to maintain its shape as it grows and fundamentally changing the geometry.

“Embryonically, at 10 weeks you have a pelvis,” said Capellini as he sketched on a whiteboard. “It looks like this—basin shaped.”

To identify the molecular forces that drove this shift, Senevirathne employed techniques such as single-cell multiomics and spatial transcriptomics. The team identified more than 300 genes at work, including three with outsized roles—SOX9 and PTH1R (controlling the growth plate shift), and RUNX2 (controlling the change in ossification).

The importance of these genes was underscored in diseases caused by their malfunction. For example, a mutation in SOX9 causes Campomelic Dysplasia, a disorder that results in hipbones that are abnormally narrow and lack lateral flaring. Similarly, mutations in PTH1R cause abnormally narrow hipbones and other skeletal diseases.

The authors suggest that these changes began with reorientation of growth plates around the time that our ancestors branched from the African apes, estimated to be between 5 million and 8 million years ago. They believe that the pelvis remained a hotspot of evolutionary change for millions of years. As brains grew bigger, the pelvis came under another selective pressure known as the “obstetrical dilemma”—the tradeoff between a narrow pelvis (advantageous for efficient locomotion) and a wide one (facilitating the birth of big-brained babies). They suggest that the delayed ossification probably occurred in the last 2 million years.

The oldest pelvis in the fossil record is the 4.4 million year-old Ardipithecus from Ethiopia—a hybrid of an upright walker and tree climber with a grasping toe) and it shows hints of humanlike features in the pelvis. The famous 3.2 million year old Lucy skeleton, also from Ethiopia, includes a pelvis that shows further development of bipedal traits such as flaring hip blades for bipedal muscles.

Capellini believes the new study should prompt scientists to rethink some basic assumptions about human evolution.

"All fossil hominids from that point on were growing the pelvis differently from any other primate that came before,” said Capellini. “Brain size increases that happen later should not be interpreted in a model of growth like chimpanzee and other primates. The model should be what happens in humans and hominins. The later growth of fetal head size occurred against the backdrop of a new way of new way of making the pelvis."

 

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-09399-9 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Human tissue samples

Article Title

The evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps

Article Publication Date

27-Aug-2025