Disability Futures

The U.S. Department Of Education plans to offer school districts guidance on restraint and seclusion before the next school year begins, officials said Thursday, even as Congressional efforts on the issue continue to appear stalled.

Alexa Posny, the Education Department’s top special education official, told a federal autism advisory committee Thursday morning that her agency will issue guidance to schools this fall around the same time it releases the first ever national data on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

The guidance, Posny said, will be an effort to advise schools on how to handle an issue which is currently loosely regulated through a patchwork of inconsistent state and local rules.

“There are no federal regulations that exist, so it makes it very hard for us at the Department of Education to go out and say you can and can’t do this,” Posny told the safety subcommittee of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. “We have no role in enforcement at this point.” (Read all of Disability Scoop’s coverage of restraint and seclusion >>)

Using restraint and seclusion is an addictive behavior.

Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value

thanks and a hat tip to Sarah O.

The Epilepsy Society has launched a mobile app for the Android Market following the charity's hugely successful iPhone app in 2010. The app, available free of charge, contains essential first aid tips, including a step by step guide to the recovery position, basic information about epilepsy and a link to an interactive seizure diary.

We need an app that detects auras.

Syracuse University continues to be a national leader in higher education as it will open the doors to a Disability Cultural Center in the fall of 2011. This groundbreaking center will be the only one of its kind across the nation that is operated by permanent staff members.

The Disability Cultural Center will function as an umbrella organization under which social, cultural and educational programming related to disability and disability culture will take place.

Good Ol' SU!

Cornelia Pokrzywa, a member of Save Our Symphony and active commenter on the groups’ Facebook pages, told NPQ that the rise of social media has completely changed the way an organization like the DSO interacts with its employees and its stakeholders, including its audience and donors.

The bitter, six-month strike cancelled 75 percent of the orchestra’s season, and “left deep institutional scars while symbolizing a turbulent era of change and economic uncertainty among American orchestras,” according to the Detroit Free Press. It’s hard not to believe that some of those scars cut deeper because of the widespread use of Facebook as a platform for the debate. The lightening fast, and sometimes anonymous, postings at times seemed to fuel the fire rather than clarify a position.

Detroit Symphony labor dispute raises issues about social networking

Wounded warriors, veterans, their families and caregivers can now get a little smarter about their benefits and resources close to home thanks to the National Resource Directory .  The directory is now fully mobile, and can be used with ease on your smartphones via the new mobile version launched this week.

Key features of the National Resource Directory mobile version also include the ability to search the Directory by subject, state or territory; immediate access to news and helplines; and the capability to interact with the Directory through social media.

Teh national Resource Directory is a colloboration between the U.S. Departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs. 

The directory holds over 13,000 resources

A Lot of resources. I haven't tried the search capability.

In 1946, David’s family moved to Yellow Springs , Ohio . Following graduation from Bryan High School in 1960, David attended Swarthmore College. In 1961 he transferred to Antioch College in Yellow Springs , Ohio. The next year he survived a spinal cord injury and lived 46 more years as a spirited quadriplegic and disability rights activist.

After graduating from Antioch in 1965, David attended Washington University in St. Louis , Missouri , where he received his Ph.D in Economics. He joined the faculty of San Jose State , in 1970 as part of a group of economists devoted to teaching economics relevant to the less affluent majority of the world. He was part of a group of radical economists “dismissed” from SJ State in 1974 and went on to become a “Freeway Flyer,” serving on faculties at Foothill, Indian Valley and Sonoma State.

David was a founding member of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE). His life reflected the ways in which people with disabilities broke barriers and paved new avenues for social justice. He traveled extensively with the Disabled International Support Effort (DISE) to Nicaragua , El Salvador and Cuba , conducting workshops and delivering medical supplies. For several years, he served as coordinator for student affairs at the Computer Technologies Program in Berkeley, California.

David was also an interviewer/editor for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Oral History Project on the disability rights movement. Along with serving on the board of the Oakland Men’s Project, he was appointed to the Mayor’s Commission on Disabled Persons in Oakland , California . In the 1990s, he was a member of Quadzilla, a Bay Area rugby team for people with disabilities.

The other day I was working on my talk for the Rhode Island Occupational Therapy Association, a friend and a colleague of mine said that if we don’t achieve adequate accomidations and access at the University level how do we expect to get adequate access to jobs. One of the things that she said to me was that the queer community has done a great job connecting people that wouldnt consider themselves directly involved with LGBT issues, into the movement. And this is what needs to happen if the disability movement is going to be successful.

Like the game so many of us have played on those long car trips, we identified “20 Questions” that have often been raised about the law’s status, provisions, benefits and impacts. These questions and answers are presented in no particular order of importance, as the definition of “importance” is in the eyes of the beholder.

While the law is steadily being implemented, several of its key provisions will not become effective until 2014. But we hope our responses will assist readers to better appreciate the structure and benefits of the new law and what lies ahead. At the conclusion of the questions and answers presentation, we provide the reader with an easy-to-read table that highlights the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act and the timeline for their implementation.

Focused on concerns of people with disabilities. Lots of useful info.

Making Michigan’s towns and economies more robust through transportation policy reform and smart investments in roads and bridges is the ambition behind Transportation For Michigan (Trans4M). The new coalition was announced today during a statewide telephone press conference.

 “This coalition is dedicated to establishing public policies that enable more frequent, reliable and affordable transportation options and smart, effective prioritization of upkeep for our existing roads and bridges,” said Dan Gilmartin, executive director of the Michigan Municipal League.  “To be competitive, Michigan must recognize the vital role that these services play in our economy and our quality of life.”

Our community needs to be at this table. Are we?