National Disabilities Employment Month

My stacks of resources related to services for people with disabilities is staggering.  It’s risky in a way to pick just a few to recognize National Disabilities Employment Month, but I don’t want to let the month pass without naming a select few resources, most of which will lead and link to other resources. .  The topic deserves much more, but a little is better than nothing.

For starts there is the national Campaign for Disability Employment.  The public may have seen the “I Can” public service announcement on the silver screen and on local TV channels and radio stations.  The “I Can” PSA features seven people with disabilities sharing what they can do on the job when given the opportunity.  “I Can” has aired nearly 20,000 times on national television and cable stations and more than 20,000 times on national radio stations.

Closer to home, the identified portal to state services for people with disabilities is the Minnesota State Council on Disability, a good starting point for employers and employees concerned about the employment of people with disabilities.  This is a great start, but there’s much more happening on countless local fronts.  I’d like to just name a few of those I particularly appreciate, not as a  person with disability but as one very concerned about a inclusion and about how much we all have to learn.

 

• For nearly 30 years Closing the Gap, a conference originally organized by a couple from Henderson, Minnesota, has drawn hundreds of individuals with disabilities, families, teachers and service providers to Bloomington, Minnesota for a most extraordinary mix of displays, concerns and ideas.  Assistive technology originally referred primarily to physical tools of every conceivable description to better the lives of people with a range of disabilities.  I know this because for many years I attended the exhibits if not the entire conference.  It cheered me to see the ways in which the conference expanded from physical to intellectual access as a priority.  Though I just missed this year’s conference October 10-11 I have October 12-14, 2011 on my calendar for the 30^th gathering.

 

• One of my favorite regular reads is Access Press, an excellent statewide newspaper in which Tim Benjamin continues the work of the late Charlie Smith.  For twenty years now Access Press, housed in a humble office on University Avenue in the Midway, Access Press has served the vast community of people with disabilities and those who serve that community.  Access Press continues to grow with the launch this fall of an e-letter and a group of blogs by and for people with disabilities.  It’s an amazing, quiet but effective journal that provides unique and essential information in a timely manner.  Access Press also offers an up-to-date Directory of Organizations with scores of organizations by categories ranging from Advocacy to Visual Impairment.  . (btw:The Annual Charlie Smith awards banquet sponsored by Access Press is November at the Airport Marriott.)

 

• The University of Minnesota provides extensive information about on-campus disabilities services.  I learned a good deal about the diversity and range of services by poking around at the greatest of all learning smorgasbords, the Minnesota State Fair. (I even took the Accessibility Scavenger Hunt through which I learned that there are exactly four wheelchair rental booths on the State Fairgrounds).  One broad-based locus for services to the U of M community is the Disabled Student Cultural Center in Coffman Union.  The links on the DSCC website take the curious to all sorts of unknown resources.  For example, my librarian heart leapt up (!) when I learned that LUMINA to U is a document delivery service for students with mobility and print disabilities to assure access to library materials.  A great map from DSCC indicates essential services for students with disabilities ranging from paratransit service to disabilities parking and accessible restrooms to the “most accessible football stadium in the Big Ten.”

• CCP Works! (aka Cooperating Community Programs) “uses an individual-centered approach, community resources and service components to meet the unique needs and goals of the individual.”  For thirty years CCP Works! Has served the community with a evolving array of services.  New to CCP Works is an Independent Living Services program serving people with disabilities in Ramsey and Washington Counties.  Employment services and opportunities are an important feature of CCP Works!

 

The list goes on – cities and towns, colleges, school systems, corporations, health care facilities, places of worship, football stadiums and virtually every other responsible institution has a program or service in place.  And yet…. Just yesterday the Minnesota Council on Foundations’ Philanthropy Potluck Blog presents some sobering facts.   A recent Harris Interactive survey commissioned by the Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disability offers a reality check.  To wit:

 

Twenty years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Americans with disabilities still lag behind on key indicators”

• Of all working age people with disabilities, only 21 percent say that they are employed,.
• People with disabilities are still much more likely to be living in poverty.
• People with disabilities are less likely than those without disabilities to socialize with friends, relatives or neighbors
• The second-largest gap between people with and without disabilities is regarding Internet access.  Eighty-five percent of adults without disabilities access the Internet, whereas only 54 percent of adults with disabilities report the same.

Disappointing as these observations are, I appreciate MCF’s bringing the survey to the fore during National Disabilities Employment month.  We need to know.

Shout out to ADA at 20!

We first endure,  then pity,  then embrace.

Alexander Pope 1688-1744.

Alexander Pope’s words come to mind as we anticipate the 20^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Change is an interesting concept to contemplate.  Sometimes the impact is instant and fleeting.  At other times change seeps in, embeds itself, is adapted and adopted, eventually appreciated

How and when did we embrace the idea of disability rights?  How and when did we fashion the infrastructure that supports inclusion — the power of advocacy groups, structural amenities including accessible sports facilities (!), adaptive technologies that facilitate inclusion and that enhance our general awareness of the needs and the contributions of those who are challenged.

It’s worth taking a look at the legislative actions that preceded the 1990 passage of the ADA.  The Disabilities Rights Movement was one of a number of initiatives that grew out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1965 dealt with race, religion. sex and national origin there is no mention of discrimination against people with disabilities.  Disability rights did not enter the legal canon until 1973 when Section 504 of the Rehabilitation of 1973 became law.  Still, the idea was gathering strength.

Barriers along the march towards equal treatment for people with disabilities would have halted most mortals.  For example, the 1973 legislation prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability towards otherwise qualified people by recipients of federal financial assistance.  The law still did not protect people with disabilities from discrimination by employers, by public accommodations in the private sector, by publicly funded programs and by those providing federal financial assistance.  Again, the idea was catching on.

The 1970’s and beyond saw critical change affecting people with disabilities..  On the one hand, they enjoyed greater access to physical facilities and a chance to prove themselves.  The community at large had a chance to know disabled people as co-workers, neighbors, family and friends.  At the same time, information technology seized the opportunity to enhance intellectual access. The Kurzweil Reader, now relegated to antique status, offered breakthrough intellectual access in the 1970’s.  Meanwhile, the rapidly expanding population of older Americans welcomed every adaptive technology that kept them in the moving in the mainstream.

Given this slow and steady struggle,  the 20^th anniversary of passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act calls for a celebration that includes a pause to reflect and renew the promise. This is also a time to publicly acknowledge that, though legislation neither solves all the problems nor addresses all the issues, it rallies the recalcitrant and puts society, including those immediately affect,  on watch.

The 20^th anniversary of the law underscores that, though ADA lays down the law, real people take it from there –  people who express their needs, propose solutions,  seek the funding,  create adaptive solutions, capitalize on the latest technology, expand employment options, acknowledge accomplishments, monitor compliance, make change happen in their lives and in their work.

Towns and cities throughout the state and the nation are gearing up with special events, proclamations, and advocacy initiatives.   Minnesotans of all abilities will gather at the state’s hallmark event:

Monday, July 26, 2010

10:00- 2:00 p.m.

Nicollet Island Pavilion

Minneapolis

Free and open

Speakers and entertainers include former US Senator Dave Durenberger, comedian Josh Blue, ASL storyteller Nic Zapko, ADA authority Peter Berg, local and national politicians – and more.  There will also be a host of exhibitors and vendors, including purveyors of “summer time food.”  Accommodations include ASL interpreters CART services, PCA assistance and audio descriptors.

Notes:

For information about the ADA celebration contact the chair of the planning committee: cindyt@mcil-mn.org or 651 603 2015.

ADA has a fact-filled website that explains more than you even want to know about the law, its requirements and implementation.  One staple is a 31-page page booklet, ADA Questions and Answers, offers an overview of the ADA’s requirements for ensuring equal opportunity for persons with disabilities. The primer is available in Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Tagalog and Vietnamese editions available from the ADA Information Line.