Connecticut bill to expand disability services is ready for Gov. Lamont’s signature, there’s good news out of Florida for people in need of supports and services, Dutch doctors are too willing to euthanize people with disabilities, and more news for the week ending June 10, 2023.
Rockland BOCES students weld new kayak rack in Nyack There’s a new addition near the Nyack waterfront — thanks to some local teens. (westchester.news12.org)
New York City Sues Queens Library Architects Over Lack of Accessibility Architects designed a public library in Queens that has been lauded as one of the most stunning public buildings produced in New York in a century. But it is also reportedly rife with obstacles for people with disabilities. (nytimes.com)
Connecticut: CT Senate clears expansion of autism, disability services Last week the bill passed the Assembly, and now it’s going to the governor to sign. (CTmirror.org)
Chicago: Chicago Public Schools violating state law on use of restraint, timeout in school, state says Chicago Public Schools has put students — especially those with disabilities — at risk by not training staff on the proper use of physical restraint and timeout as required under state law, an investigation has found. (Chalkbeat.com)
Florida: Kids with disabilities housed in Broward nursing homes could return to their families Children with complex disabilities who for years have been housed in nursing homes in South Florida could be able to return to live with their families as a result of a civil rights lawsuit. (wirn.org)
Florida: Center for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities opens in Jacksonville It’s always news when Florida offers much-needed services to those in the state with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (jdnews.com)
Washington: Strikeout for disability suit over T-Mobile Park sight lines A judge wrote, for the second time, that Seattle baseball fans who use wheelchairs have comparable views of the field as other seats offer. (courthousenews.com)
Sen. Blumenthal introduces bill to screen newborns for cytomegalovirus, which can cause deafness and seizures According to the CDC, one in five babies is born with cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a virus that can cause deafness, seizures and developmental delays. (cbsnews.com)
Are Dutch doctors too willing to euthanise people with autism and intellectual disability? Will legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide lead to unnecessary deaths because of an able-ist bias against intellectual disability and autism? These researchers say “yes.” (bioedge.org)
The 74million.org has a startling investigative piece that found some parents of students with disabilities in the New York City school system who speak up on behalf of their children “are being charged with allegations of child abuse or neglect.”
“City educators have made more than 3,500 calls alleging suspected abuse or neglect of children with disabilities over the past two school years, according to data obtained by The 74 through public records requests. … Yet caseworkers found evidence of parental wrongdoing in only 16% of cases.”
Read the whole article here.
Looking for a good picture book? A Day With No Words by Tiffany Hammond, an autistic mother of two autistic sons, and illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, “normalizes communication methods outside of verbal speech and provides representation of neurodiversity and autism in a way that affirms and celebrates,” according to Simon & Shuster, the book’s publisher.
Article | ‘A Day With No Words’ can be full of meaningful communication. Read more or listen at this link (https://t.co/FtLU9tTkoT). pic.twitter.com/ZzMGjqabwG
— ECNV (@ECNVorg) May 9, 2023
A #1 New York Times bestseller, it’s written from the first-person perspective of a boy with autism who is not verbal. We learn about his day, including the assistive device he uses to communicate. The American Library Association Booklist starred review notes that using first-person is “a clever choice in that it gives readers a direct look into his mind and reinforces the book’s crucial statement that nonverbal people have as many words and as much intelligence as anyone else.”
There’s a short profile of Hammond in The New York Times, and a terrific Q&A in Ebony.
Looking for a good picture book? A Day With No Words by Tiffany Hammond, an autistic mother of two autistic sons, and illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, “normalizes communication methods outside of verbal speech and provides representation of neurodiversity and autism in a way that affirms and celebrates,” according to Simon & Shuster, the book’s publisher.
Article | ‘A Day With No Words’ can be full of meaningful communication. Read more or listen at this link (https://t.co/FtLU9tTkoT). pic.twitter.com/ZzMGjqabwG
— ECNV (@ECNVorg) May 9, 2023
A #1 New York Times bestseller, it’s written from the first-person perspective of a boy with autism who is not verbal. We learn about his day, including the assistive device he uses to communicate. The American Library Association Booklist starred review notes that using first-person is “a clever choice in that it gives readers a direct look into his mind and reinforces the book’s crucial statement that nonverbal people have as many words and as much intelligence as anyone else.”
There’s a short profile of Hammond in The New York Times, and a terrific Q&A in Ebony.
A bill has been introduced in Congress that would direct the U.S. Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA) to designate people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) as a “Medically Underserved Population.”
Called the Healthcare Extension and Accessibility for Developmentally Disabled and Underserved Population (HEADs UP) Act of 2023, it was introduced by Representatives Seth Moulton (D-MA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Joseph Morelle (D-NY).
The change in designation would give people with I/DD access to new primary care and specialist services, incentivize new research, and authorize more favorable reimbursement rates for providers.
Additionally, the Autism Society’s Capitol Connection reports that Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced three bills to address the high incidence of violence involving law enforcement and people with disabilities: The Human-Services Emergency Logistics Program (HELP) Act, the Safe Interactions Act (SIA), and the Data on Interactions and Accountability for Law Enforcement with Individuals with Disabilities (DIALED) Act.
The Human-Services Emergency Logistics Program (HELP) Act “would divert non-criminal calls from 9-1-1 systems to state and regional 2-1-1 and 9-8-8 systems while providing resources and funding to improve those systems.”
The Safe Interactions Act would “provide grants to non-profit disability organizations to develop training programs that support safe interactions between law enforcement officers and people with Autism and other disabilities.”
The Data on Interactions and Accountability for Law Enforcement with Individuals with Disabilities (DIALED) Act would “improve transparency by developing data collection to get an accurate representation of how people with disabilities are affected by interactions with law enforcement, including use-of-force and fatal interactions.”
A Google search for restaurants in New York designed for people with special needs came up with the usual tips about how to go out to eat “stress-free,” a few places that hire people with disabilities, and places that welcome people with disabilities. But I couldn’t find any restaurants that specifically cater to people with developmental disabilities, meaning make a pointed effort to be inclusive.
Note: Chuck E. Cheese has a Sensory Sensitive Sundays program, but it doesn’t seem as if any of the restaurants in the state north of New York City participate. (See the directory here.) You might also want to check out Autism Eats, which I found online. It holds dinner parties in private rooms of restaurants or function facilities for those with sensory sensitivity.
(If you know of any in New York, please contact me here and let me know!)
So, while it’s geographically far away, I was excited to see this article in the excellent Canadian blog Bloom about a Korean fried chicken restaurant in Toronto, Sarang Kitchen. It not only employs neurodiverse staff who are on the spectrum or have learning disabilities but is designed to be sensory-friendly. For example, “customers who feel anxious in the main restaurant can go sit on a bean bag chair with a weighted blanket in a separate sensory room.”
Read all about it on the Bloom blog, and learn about the family behind the inclusive restaurant.
The National Core Indicators (NCI) program has released the NCI Intellectual and Developmental Disability In-Person Survey (IPS) National Report for the year 2021-2022.
The comprehensive report is based on data collected by 27 states, including New York, from 13,559 adults receiving long-term services and supports from their state Developmental Disabilities (DD) service systems.
The Human Services Research Institute sent out a release that summarizes some of the findings, including:
A breakdown by state of the study’s “chapters” — which include Choice and Decision-Making, Health, Rights and Respect, Self Direction — can be found here.
For example, in Employment, the average of surveyed individuals in New York with paid community jobs was 11%, with the largest percentage (25%) of those jobs being in food prep and food service. (The study gets pretty detailed so, for example, you can also find things such as what percentage of those surveyed has community employment as a goal in their service plan.)
The NCI-IDD program is a collaborative effort between state DD systems, Human Services Research Institute (HSRI), the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS), and people with disabilities and their families.
Let’s start big. This week, more than 350 top artificial intelligence (AI) executives, researchers and engineers signed a statement about runaway AI, warning that: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Learn more about that here, including why the experts believe, or say they believe, that there are ways to keep this from happening.
RELATED: Could Controversial ChatGPT Tool Help Those With Disabilities?
But there’s other news, too, because AI — that is, “machine intelligence,” which is what happens when machines are fed information by humans (for now, at least!) to perform tasks that once required humans — is ubiquitous and its uses are growing.
For Some Autistic People, ChatGPT Is a Lifeline This recent article from Wired.com looks at how some autistic people are using ChatGPT as a part of their daily routine, whether it’s to “chat about their interests when other people grow bored, or to work up social scripts to help them navigate conflict.”
It also warns that it doesn’t work for everyone (the story of course only spoke with a handful of autistic people), and that there’s the potential for biased info, fabricated answers, privacy concerns and more.
How ChatGPT Could Help or Hurt Students With Disabilities The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at whether A.I. might be a useful tool for students with a range of disabilities. These students, it writes, “have long faced challenges in the classroom, starting with the difficulty of securing accommodations that can help them learn better, such as receiving note-taking assistance or extra time to take tests, or being allowed to type instead of writing by hand.” The article takes a look at some of the alleged pros and cons.
In May, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Educational Technology published Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, a guide that considers how AI might be used as an educational tool.* It asks questions it hopes one day to answer, such as:
*I first learned about the guide on Exceptionalchildren.org.
New Jersey’s disability ombudsman reports the state doesn’t meet the needs of people with disabilities (but hey, New Jersey has a disability ombudsman!), Ted Lasso points to the need for disability representation on TV, and more news for the week ending June 3, 2023.
NJ makes strides but state still failing in care of people with disabilities, report says The state’s disability ombudsman released a report Tuesday that highlighted more losses than wins in the way New Jersey cares for people with disabilities. (northjersey.com)
What ‘Ted Lasso’ did for mental health, Hollywood should do for disability A recent study of content from one streaming service found that disability remained the biggest representational hole, and fewer films included disabled characters in 2021 than in 2018. (Philadelphiainquirer.com)
Companies Grossly Underestimating How Many Disabled Employees They Have, Study Shows A report published earlier this month by Boston Consulting Group emphasizes the view that “in a post-pandemic world, companies are drastically underestimating how many of their employees have disabilities.” (Forbes.com)
House passes expansion of autism, disability services A bipartisan bill in Connecticut to expand resources and support services for residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities won unanimous passage. (ctmirror.org)
Feds Say Jefferson Parish Deputies May Have Violated Law in Death of Autistic Teen The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana may have violated the civil rights of a 16-year-old autistic boy when deputies pinned him to the pavement, handcuffed and shackled, as officers sat on his back for more than nine minutes. (Propublica.org)
Adult-sized changing tables in Ohio rest areas ‘huge win’ for people with disabilities After years of advocating by one Ohio organization for accessible restrooms, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will install adult-sized changing tables in rest areas beginning next year. (wdtn.com)
Students with disabilities often left out of popular ‘dual-language’ programs Boston Public Schools enrollment data obtained by The Hechinger Report through a public records request shows students with disabilities — who make up 22 percent of the student population — are starkly underrepresented in the district’s seven dual-language programs. (Hechingerreport.org)
What parents of children who are LGBTQ+ or have a disability should know about Wisconsin voucher schools Private schools in Wisconsin that accept taxpayer-funded vouchers have different rules from public schools related to exemptions for religious entities and serving students with special needs. (PBSwisconsin.org)
AHRC NY presents the Michael Goldfarb Memorial Symposium A Call to Action: The Broader Implications of Recent U.S. Supreme Court Rulings for Disability Rights and Protections.
The day consists of panels moderated by Jasmine E. Harris, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Harris is a law and inequality legal scholar with expertise in disability law, antidiscrimination law, and evidence.
AHRC NY writes that many of the hard-won civil, human, and disability rights that have been the basis of social policy in 20th-century American society and have been taken for granted for decades now, were garnered through the intervention of the judiciary. And it is by judicial intervention that some of these rights, once considered to be “settled law,” are now being rolled back.
Recent decisions “reflect a more hostile interpretation regarding Congressional grants of rights to private parties to hold states accountable to them in health, democratic governance, and public safety. The Court has or will take up key cases about fundamental rights to privacy, due process, and equal protections that are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Future rulings could threaten personal rights in the areas of marriage, freedom from compulsory sterilization, intimacy, medical care, the right to sue for damages, and housing, amongst others. The implications for people with disabilities are significant and require sustained attention.”
The panel will explore these implications and discuss areas of action necessary now to counteract recent rollbacks on disability rights and consider how to approach upcoming cases before the Court and their implications on the ground for people with disabilities.
Michael Goldfarb was AHRC New York City’s executive director from 1975-2011.
Details
When: July 11, 2021
Where: CUNY Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium, 365 5th Ave., NYC
Time: 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Register to attend and learn more about the panel and panelists here.
Photo: Kstudio via Freepik