Smart Kids With Disabilities is recognizing students nationwide who have achieved great success despite or because of their learning challenges — and there’s still time to enter, but don’t dally. The deadline to apply is Jan. 31, 2023.
Called the Fred J. Epstein Youth Achievement Award, it “celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of young people with LD and ADHD who have done amazing things, making a lasting impact on their schools and communities.”
The $1,000 prize will be given to a student 19 or younger who “has demonstrated initiative, talent and determination resulting in a notable accomplishment in any field—including art, music, science, math, athletics or community service. Honorable Mentions will also be awarded.”
The application details what’s needed to enter. Good luck!
Discrimination complaints logged in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights skyrocketed in 2021, The New York Times reported earlier in the month. The number reflects in part the challenges presented by COVID, and a “divisive civil rights climate.”
Figures provided by the department, the article said, showed that “nearly 19,000 complaints were filed to the office in the last fiscal year — between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022 — more than double the previous year and breaking the record of 16,000 filed in fiscal year 2016.” The majority of complaints, it noted, “allege discrimination against students with disabilities.”
Disability Scoop, which also reported on the findings, writes that “just in the last year, the Office for Civil Rights has reached four agreements regarding the use of restraint and seclusion and resolved concerns about failing to meet the needs of students with disabilities during the pandemic with two large school districts.”
As seen on Facebook: The Staten Island Development of Disabilities Council: SD Committee has an upcoming Zoom panel on Feb. 13 that might be of interest.
Being held at 10 a.m., it will discuss what it calls “the million dollar question! What are my options to support my child when I am gone?”
The panelists are Edward V. Wilcenski, Esq and Michael S. Cognetti, MS Ed., MBA presenting on Passing The Baton: Planning the Transition of Oversight and Advocacy to Siblings and Other Caregivers.
Register here.
This was reported at the beginning of the month but definitely is worth a post here: An international study has found that the effects of placing children with special needs in grades K-12 into inclusive educational settings are…inconsistent.
The review, from the Campbell Collaboration, an international social science research network based in Norway, notes that its findings are similar to the results of previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which include studies published before 2000. “It is very unlikely that inclusion in general increases or decreases learning and psychosocial adjustment in children with special needs,” it says.
The findings point to the need for an individual assessment of the specific child’s educational and psychosocial needs rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to placement in special education, the review notes.
According to the most recent data from 2020-21 school year, writes the Hechinger Report, “two-thirds of the 7 million students with disabilities who receive special education services [in the U.S.] spent 80% or more of their time in traditional classrooms. Separation is less common today; only one out of every eight students with disabilities was taught separately in a special-needs only environment most of the time.”
Hechinger spoke with Nina Dalgaard, lead author of the Campbell Collaboration study, who noted what seems to be an obvious point: “How a school goes about including students with disabilities mattered.” For instance, students with disabilities who are in classes that have co-teachers, one of whom is trained in special education, fare better, she said.
It’s harder than ever for people with I/DD to find employment, which is why it’s always good to read stories about cafes, coffee shops and bakeries hiring people with disabilities. (Why does it always seem to be cafes, coffee shops and bakeries? Probably because they’re highly visible, making it easy for news sites and news shows to stumble on them.)
Recent articles include this one from Houston’s KHOU about a new coffee shop in the city’s Rice Village shopping district. Bitty & Beau’s, according to its website, has 23 locations across 12 states — the closest to Westchester seems to be a location in Bethlehem, Pa. — with over 400 employees. The shop was started by Amy and Ben Wright, parents/advocates who have four children; one was born with autism and two were born with Down syndrome.
Earlier this month, The Guardian had a wonderful story about a café in Melbourne, Australia, All Things Equal, that employs people with disabilities. All Things Equal also has an ice cream truck, so yeah, it rules.
Let’s talk Westchester. There are cafes and bakeries in the area that employ people with disabilities, but there don’t seem to be very many. They include Coffee for Good in Greenwich and By the Way Bakery in Hastings-on-Hudson. Hoping to open this year is Sleepy Coffee, Too, in Sleepy Hollow.
Do you know of others? Let me know, I’d love to do a local update.
A new study out of Rutgers University has some interesting findings on children who were identified as having autism spectrum disorder with and without intellectual disabilities by age 8. The children all lived within the New Jersey-New York metropolitan region.
There are a handful of articles posted online about the study, including at NBCnews.com (headline: Autism rates have tripled. Is it now more common or are we just better at diagnosis?); Disability Scoop (Study: Even With Fivefold Increase, Autism Likely Undercounted); and Spectrum (Racial, economic disparities skew New Jersey data on autism, intellectual disability).
Some key takeaways:
The goal of the study, published by the journal Pediatrics, is to help “classify ASD children with and without intellectual disability (ID) to aid etiological research, provide services, and inform evidence-based educational and health planning.”
If you missed this guest opinion piece in The New York Times, My Daughter Expects to Work; Will She Make Only $3.35 an Hour? I recommend taking a moment to read it.
writer and professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, writes beautifully about fair pay and more effectively supporting people with disabilities in the mainstream workforce.
“If my daughter, who has Down syndrome, can imagine herself working in a job that allows her to participate in her community and gain independence,” she writes, “then why can’t employers do the same?”
I’m loving this wonderful-sounding comedy festival that features performers with disabilities. Though it takes place on the West coast, I thought it was worth highlighting. Called, sensibly enough, The Disabled List Comedy Festival, it’s being held Jan. 27-28 at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum. It features mostly local acts, and all of the performers have “both visible disabilities like using a wheelchair and invisible ones like autism,” according to this article in The Seattle Times.
Co-founder of the festival Dan Hurwitz, who with another local comedian started a collective of artists with disabilities called The Disabled List, told the paper that he hopes the festival “can encourage people to be more intentional about making their shows accessible. By not being intentional, we exclude so many people from participation in the arts and enjoyment of the arts.”
Westchester County Airport has launched the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Program to support passengers with hidden disabilities and accessibility needs.
How it works: People who wear a sunflower lanyard “discreetly” inform others that they have a disability. The Program “is designed to support all passengers who use Westchester County Airport, and ensure they have a positive travel experience,” according to Westchestergov.com.
During the last presidential election, my twentysomething family member with developmental disabilities was excited to get to the voting booth.
“You want to choose the right people to lead,” she said. “You don’t want someone who’s rude to people with disabilities, that’s just not right.”
She wanted her voice to count, which is a fundamental civil right (well, more about that later) as well as a moral one, as conveyed in the disability rights movement’s “Nothing About Us Without Us” rallying cry.
That expression shows “people are claiming their lives, they deserve to be part of the conversation,” says Jonathan Goldwasser, senior supervisor and facilitator of the Hudson Valley self-advocacy group at YAI, an organization serving people with I/DD. “One key way that can be practiced is voting, which lets [people with disabilities] participate as citizens in the decisions made by their local communities and at the state and federal levels. It’s a small piece in that it happens [infrequently] but a major way for them to raise their voice.”
There are over 34 million eligible voters with disabilities nationwide, according to Disability Rights New York, making the disability community “a substantial voting bloc with the capacity to impact elections and policy.” It’s critical that the community participate in the electoral process, especially as politicians tend to focus on an issue only if it can turn into a vote.
“Politicians’ No. 1 concern is if they’re going to win the election,” says Scott Karolidis, YAI’s director of government relations. “We had an assemblymember come in to discuss various issues and she kept asking, a little rudely, ‘Do these people vote?’ She was very concerned for herself. It helps if they understand that if they do the right thing, whether increasing funding for staff wages or passing laws that support civil rights, people with disabilities, their friends and families are more likely to vote for them.”
Often, it’s up to family caregivers and service providers to help ensure that these votes happen. Here’s how.
This general election (meaning the candidates are the ones who will get into office) is a chance for a person with a developmental disability to take a “practice” run before the 2024 presidential election even if they’ve voted before. The ballot will include a New York Supreme Court Justice and, in the lower Hudson Valley, a Westchester County Court Judge and Yonkers City Mayor. (See “Who’s on the Ballot” below for your local and NYS races.)
REGISTRATION DEADLINES
The right to vote extends to every U.S. citizen — until it doesn’t. While the Constitution protects the fundamental right to vote, it also gives states the authority to set voting qualifications for both federal and state elections.
In New York, people with I/DD can vote unless specifically adjudged incompetent to vote in a guardianship proceeding. A 17-A guardianship appointment of a conservator, for instance, does not automatically include a finding of incompetence to vote. If you’re not sure of the status, check the paperwork.
I hope to update this with more specifics. But the important takeaway: Only a judge can make the decision that someone is not competent to vote. Election officials and poll workers cannot stop someone from voting because of a disability.
If questions such as how to register and where to vote feel overwhelming, breathe easy. Several organizations have created easy-to-use guides to help you through the process.
Keep in mind that early in-person voting and mail-in voting (via an absentee ballot) can help make the process less stressful for some.
Creating a Plan to Vote
The Self-Advocacy Association of New York State (SANYS), an organization founded, and led, by people with developmental disabilities for people with developmental disabilities, has a brightly designed, easy-to-read online packet that details what to do prior to stepping into the booth. It includes registration information and links, a description of voting options, with links, and a checklist (geared toward service providers in group homes, but helpful for all) that ensures an individual knows not only what method they want to vote, but how they’re getting to the polling station.
The NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) offers assistance with voter registration. Anyone who would like information or assistance in registering may contact OPWDD’s National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) statewide coordinator at michael.orzel@opwdd.ny.gov or call (518) 474-2757.
OPWDD also has a helpful Frequently Asked Questions page full of information.
I’ve checked out a few sites and found Vote411.or the easiest to navigate. You’ll learn who’s on the ballot, where they stand on the issues and more.
It might be useful to know what kind of voting machine will be at the polling place. The NYS Board of Elections provides some of that information here.
Voters with disabilities have the federal right to vote privately and independently by marking a paper ballot or using a Ballot Marking Device (BMD). They’re equipped with features to allow the voter to adjust for size and contrast the ballot image, and allow the use of a “Sip-N-Puff” or paddle device by voters with limited hand dexterity.
Every polling site is required to have a BMD in working order. Poll staff are trained and must be prepared to assist all voters requesting to use the BMD, regardless of their disability.
Note: This is the latest stat I could find, but as of 2016, just 17% of polling locations nationwide were fully accessible, according to the National Disability Rights Network. Reach out to your County Board of Election if you have questions.
Can a person with I/DD have someone with them to help them vote? A resounding “yes.”
I mentioned this briefly above: Check out 13 Things Voters with Disabilities Need to Know. It clearly explains one’s rights and has helpful information such as where to call with accessibility complaints
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has a handy Your Federal Voting Rights wallet-size card that can be printed out and taken to the voting site. It’s a great resource to have on hand should there be a problem and a way to ensure that poll workers know the law, too.
Vote!