The Ides of March may have been ominous to Julius Caesar, but for people with disabilities, today marks another important step in achieving inclusion into mainstream society. Several changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) take effect today that are intended to improve opportunities for people with disabilities to goods and services in the [...]
Students at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan received a history lesson about the progress people with disabilities have made in America from a leading scholar in the field; providing context for a future where these people are empowered to make more decisions for themselves. Dr. Michael Wehmeyer has done as much as any academic [...]
Most news coverage of the U.S. Department of Labor’s February employment report focused on what the good news of adding around 227,000 jobs will mean for President Obama’s re-election campaign. A deeper look at the numbers, however, indicated bad news for people with disabilities and those who advocate for improving their employment prospects. As Shaun [...]
Missouri advocates for people with disabilities hope their state is the next one to make the transition from institutional housing to community-based support and services. In a guest commentary published last week by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Doug Riggs asked readers to contact their state legislators and express their support for bills currently under review [...]
An essay posted to the Nordic Network on Disability Research blog yesterday provides a glimpse into the future for Americans with disabilities should trends continue toward community-based care and inclusion. The author of the essay is Magnus Tideman, a professor of disability research at the University of Halmstead in Sweden. About 10 years ago, his [...]
Winter was just getting started the last time we looked at health and fitness programs for people with disabilities. The season has been relatively mild by New England standards, and people are sure to be catching spring fever as temperatures top 60 degrees over the next couple of days. So, with the opportunity to get [...]
The leading official from the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) has elaborated on the U.S. Labor Department’s proposed rule that would require companies seeking federal contracts to have 7% of their workforce comprised of people with disabilities, answering concerns voiced by critics of the measure during the public comment period. In a wide-ranging, two-part [...]
The U.S. Department of Labor closed the comment period on its proposed new rule to spur the hiring people with disabilities on February 21. Officials apparently have plenty of feedback to sift through as they mull over their final decision, and not much of it is positive. According to an article by Melanie Trottman in [...]
We start the week picking up on where we left off last Friday, looking at how Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is being observed in cities and town across the United States. Much like the people they are supporting, each community’s activities have their own unique flavor. So far, the best visuals can be found in [...]
On February 26, 1987, President Ronald Reagan designated March as the National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. The language of the official Proclamation indicates that, even in this time, before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Americans were changing their perceptions about people with disabilities. It lauded efforts by the federal government and the private sector [...]