Disability Futures

VICE: Hot Tracks has been going strong for 13 years now. What do you think is its enduring appeal? What about it appealed to you and James?
Andrew Bedinger: Other than the fact that people just laugh like crazy when they watch it, Nick and JB are an incredibly interesting pairing. They’re like an old married couple when they do the show, playing off each other. It’s something that could be kind of complicated and difficult, but the atmosphere of the show is so fun and light. When we came across “Dragon Force” we knew we had to make a documentary.

Does your doctor need some ‘special needs’ sensitivity training? Cause mine does.

Communication comes in different forms. In fact, these kids from a film camp for people who are deaf use American Sign Language (and some dance moves) to bring us their fun version of the hit song "Happy." I'm glad they shared this because now I'm going to be happy for the rest of the day.

Neurotypical is an unprecedented exploration of autism from the point of view of autistic people themselves. Four-year-old Violet, teenaged Nicholas and adult Paula occupy different positions on the autism spectrum, but they are all at pivotal moments in their lives. How they and the people around them work out their perceptual and behavioral differences becomes a remarkable reflection of the "neurotypical" world — the world of the non-autistic — revealing inventive adaptations on each side and an emerging critique of both what it means to be normal and what it means to be human.

A new show focusing on the experiences of five young adults with intellectual disabilities is coming to television.

The documentary-style series “The Specials” follows real-life housemates Sam, Hilly, Lucy, Lewis and Megan over the course of four years beginning when they were between the ages of 19 and 23.

Friends since childhood, the group is seen as they go through the ups and downs of dating, job hunting and everyday life together in their home in Brighton, England.

“The motto of the Disability Visibility Project is really simple,” says founder and Project Coordinator Alice Wong. “‘Recording disability history, one story at a time'”

In celebration of next year’s 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Wong created the Disability Visibility Project, a year-long community partnership with StoryCorps that encourages people with disabilities to contribute their stories to StoryCorps’ growing collection of American oral histories at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Federal investigators have faulted two Virginia schools for pinning down and isolating disabled students improperly, saying the schools used the practices routinely as a "one-size fits all" response to disruptive behavior despite evidence they didn't work.

"It says our default response to misbehavior can't be restraint and seclusion," said Angela Ciolfi, a lawyer with the Virginia Legal Aid Justice Center, which worked on the complaint that prompted the investigation.

ProPublica reported in June that students nationwide were restrained or secluded more than 267,000 times in the 2012 school year. Our analysis of federal data revealed that despite a near-consensus that the risky practices should be used rarely, some schools rely on them regularly — even daily — to control children.

Hundreds of students have been injured — some seriously — as a result.

13 of 30 patients in a minimally conscious state—defined by occasional moments of low-level awareness—showed measurable gains in their responses to questions and sensory stimuli. Some had only recently been injured, but others had been minimally conscious for months.

The improvements lasted just a few minutes, but researchers are encouraged—the tDCS apparatus is inexpensive, easy to use, safe and lacking in side effects. Laureys is planning new studies to see if the stimulation can be configured to spur a more lasting recovery. Even if the effects remain temporary, the ability to trigger a brief period of awareness could be invaluable, perhaps allowing patients to communicate in a meaningful way with their loved ones.

Now, within the disability movement, there are hierarchies that have to be addressed. Urban, educated men with physical disabilities and blind men are the ones on top and everybody else falls underneath. Some of the grantmaking that we're doing addresses the need to diversify the movement, the need to bring in new voices, the need to hear from the grassroots, the need to hear from the very marginalized sectors. We give grants to raise the voices of women and youth with the disabilities. And to start to break down membership guidelines for umbrella organizations at the national level which don't allow Albinos or little people to be members of organizations, because they don't recognize them as people with disabilities, and because they don't want to share the small power they have, frankly.

For example, in Peru, we've funded groups of people with psychosocial disabilities and people with intellectual disabilities. Both have worked very hard to see that their rights are recognized in national laws and in national disability movements. Before the 2011 elections in Peru, the electoral commission removed over 23,000 people with psychosocial disabilities and intellectual disabilities from the voter registry. There was an amazing campaign, led in part by a young woman with intellectual disabilities who went to vote and found that she couldn't. She challenged this at the legal level. She also came to New York and spoke at the United Nations, very poignantly, stating: "I am a person too, I have political views, I have the right to vote." She, and many Peruvians behind her, including in the larger disability movement, were able eventually to reverse the removal.

uthorities can't tap an Upper Peninsula woman's disability payments to pay off the crime of her minor son.
 
The Michigan appeals court says Diana Alexandroni's benefits are protected under federal law.  In 2007, a Gogebic County judge made her responsible for $28,000 in restitution related to an arson committed by her son.