DREAM Weekly: Disability and Higher Education in the News, February 5-11, 2017
From DREAM: Disability Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring Sponsored by the National Center for College Students with Disabilities and the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD) ------------------------------- Weekly Email Update on Issues Related to Disability and Higher Education Weeks of February 5-11, 2017 ------------------------------- Disability and higher education in the news (in no particular order): * McGill student and Canadian Paralympic swimmer Sarah Mehain talks about her experience as a Paralympian as well as her views on invisible disability, media representation and sports activism: https://goo.gl/oIjVLa * Students with disabilities have been excluded from repeated initiatives in the interest of diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Michigan. In spite of significant time and energy spent on the creation of a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment, the inclusion of students with disabilities has been ignored by almost all University plans outside of Union renovations: https://goo.gl/NzCG0K * At the University of Virginia, a professor facilitates discussion between 20 undergraduate psychology students and 10 non-speaking autistics who call themselves the Tribe. Using assistive technology, the youth share their thoughts about being autistic with a speaking disability with students just starting to examine some ableist misconceptions of disability: https://goo.gl/mCglix * Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole made a gift to the University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL). Dole, a disabled veteran who played an integral role in the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), wanted to support the center as part of his long-standing advocacy for Americans with disabilities: https://goo.gl/eKp4oM * The University of London failed to host a lecture by influential gender theorist Judith Butler in an accessible venue. Ph.D. student Naomi Jacobs, who uses a wheelchair, rallied disabled and non-disabled scholars to protest online. Professor Butler met with Jacobs and other disabled scholars separately during her short visit to London. A few highlights of their conversation reveal how non-disabled scholars can act to support accessibility in academe. Jacobs plans to blog more about their conversation with Professor Butler in a later post: https://goo.gl/EzLa7L * A disabled student at North Dakota university has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The North Dakota Board of Pharmacy ruled that the student with cerebral palsy can complete a pharmacy program with accommodations. However, the North Dakota State University pharmacy program developed new physical standards for admission and denied the student entrance to the program: https://goo.gl/u9581l * The long-awaited update to section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 creates new accessibility standards for web content, increasing the pressure on colleges and universities to ensure that their information and communication technology services are accessible to students with disabilities, both online and in person: https://goo.gl/AOJxtw * Issues around accessibility and reading at universities creates pressure for students, faculty and disability support services alike. Fewer than 5% of books published in the United States are available to individuals with print disabilities. Publishers that invest in accessible content can enjoy a variety of ancillary benefits, including new markets, better discoverability, and streamlined production workflow: https://goo.gl/X2NQuW * Based on a survey of universities about mental health services, this STAT article reports that colleges across the country are unable to keep up with the significant increase in demand for mental health care for students. Students are often stuck on waiting lists for weeks, unable to get help: https://goo.gl/LA4D8J. The author of this STAT article, Megan Theilking, was recently interviewed about the findings on NPR’s “Here and Now:” https://goo.gl/qLFneB * A student at McGill university with psychosocial disability explores issues at the intersection of mental illness, ableism, and organizing through her own experience and interviews with and news about other young social justice activistst: https://goo.gl/FDQO32 * In her latest column for the Chronicle Vitae, Katie Rose Guest Pryal writes about the resentment and ableism often expressed towards disabled faculty because of disability accommodations, perhaps better termed accessibility: https://goo.gl/uMR7WM * From Scotland: While universities in the UK have been working to improve the experiences of disabled students to ensure they can participate as fully as non-disabled students, disabled academics find working life in universities challenging. Academics and staff in UK universities have been neglected in much of higher education’s policy making and research: https://goo.gl/oETcXS * Panel discussion of mental health issues between professors and students at the University of Virginia shows support for university students at risk for mental illness due to the continued pressure they experience: https://goo.gl/c1TkMd Of possible interest to college students with disabilities: * The disabled community is eager to join fellow citizens in protest actions but many events are omitting disability from their “diversity statements” and fail to make provision for disabled people who might want to participate. Rooted in Rights provides a checklist for inclusive organizing: https://goo.gl/5QdULK * In this guest post on Meriah Nichol’s Moxie blog, Corbett Joan OToole borrows a war-time concept to coin the “Home Fires Resistance” made up of people like herself who serve best by tending to those who are able to resist in more public spaces. “Home Fires activism is just as real and just as important as street activism:” https://goo.gl/gIxY6P * Study finds students' negative diversity experiences, though less common than positive ones, hinder cognitive development and student learning: https://goo.gl/6wUb5A * For her series on influential Black disabled women in history for Black History Month, Vilissa Thompson shares the story of Johnnie Lacy, who helped found the Berkeley Center for Independent Living and directed the Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL) in Hayward, California for more than a decade. Johnnie developed polio when she was completing her nursing practicum at San Francisco General Hospital in the 50s. She became paralyzed and, after a few years of rehab, enrolled at San Francisco Community College where she experienced intense discrimination. Read the article not just for an amazing story about an amazing disability activist, but also for Thompson’s reflections on being Black, female, and disabled and enduring erasure for any one or combination of these identities: https://goo.gl/23m93a * Leroy Moore, a Black man with a developmental disability, explains why he is so disappointed by most depictions of the 13th Amendment in history, like the Academy-nominated film for Best Documentary 13th: https://goo.gl/25trfI * Alice Wong, creator of the Disability Visibility Project, posted a clip of an interview in which Steve Lee, who grew up disabled in China, recalls the ableism, colonialism, and racism he experienced and his response through public art: https://goo.gl/Vd7jyZ * In this PBS NewsHour piece, the discrimination, disparity, and isolation that autistic people of color experience is explored through the story of an African-American mother and her now adult son. Debra Vines raised her black, autistic son in the 90s and now works to support other families in her community through her support agency, The Answer: https://goo.gl/E3s0pO * Sara Hendren, assistant professor at the Olin College of Engineering, is perhaps best known for her Accessible Icon Project in which she worked to get localities to replace the old disabled access street sign with a new design showing the stick person actively leaning forward in their wheelchair. In this interview, she talks about how her design work and teaching pushes against dominant disability narratives to find ways technology and “good human-centered design,” science and humanities, disabled and non-disabled, and a good dose of play can work together to create “assistive” technology and rethink the cyborg self: https://goo.gl/aukAwj * A pediatrician explores how patients who are autistic and LGBTQ are not well served by doctors who are unaware of both of these identities. He interviews several people who are both autistic and LGBTQ about their unique challenges both outside the doctor’s office and within it: https://goo.gl/RJbSO2 * In an investigation by the South African government, 94 psychiatric patients under state care were found to have died of negligence during a transfer of 1300 from a private hospital to 27 charitable organizations in an effort to save money: https://goo.gl/PgAuF8 * The nTIDE January 2017 Jobs Report shows a continued increase in the employment rate for people with disabilities to 27.1 percent. The nondisabled employment rate has also increased to 72.4 percent: https://goo.gl/hW9NW9 * Illinois State University released its annual Grapevine report on 2016-17 state tax support of higher education. More than ¾ of states showed an increase in higher education funding with 10 states--mostly those with oil and gas industry--a decrease: https://goo.gl/DaluQt * Carly Findlay briefly reviews an episode of Undressed featuring a disabled/non-disabled relationship. While a good example of a respectful and successful date, Findlay notes that the disabled contestants are conventionally good-looking and shares dating stories and insights from people with disabilities not represented by media: https://goo.gl/vfyO7j * An interview with Michelle Smith, an aspiring voice actress who is blind and autistic, about the empowerment she finds within a sex-positive community. A new documentary, Best and Most Beautiful Things, chronicles her self-discovery: https://goo.gl/DCJkSf * Ona Gritz tells her story of failing and finding her love and disability in the latest piece in the NYT Opinion Disability series: https://goo.gl/HjSWvv * A blog post on the “inspiration objectification” of disabled people that includes many, many insights on the topic from people with disabilities, beginning with Stella Young who coined the term “inspiration porn.” Findlay intentionally avoids that popular term and writes in a non-confrontational manner to inform non-disabled teachers, parents, and others about the concept: https://goo.gl/NpkEZ6 * Research study indicates the term “special needs” is an ineffective euphemism that is viewed negatively and connotes segregation and recommends use of the non-euphemized term fdisability: https://goo.gl/RCAoGR * This piece about the increasing awareness of disability in the fashion industry opens and closes with words from Karin Hitselberger, who wrote a viral critique on her Claiming Crip blog of Kylie Jenner’s ableist use of a wheelchair in a fashion photo: https://goo.gl/xQUqGI * “How To Be Disabled, According to Stock Photography” is a hilarious commentary on the horrid, ableist stock photos of disabled people--and sometimes just their anthropomorphic wheelchairs: https://goo.gl/i0nNfE * A look at some great academic satire accounts on social media--like Dr Academic Batgirl, Lego Academics, and Shit Academics Say--and how their creators have used these accounts for more politically-minded protests against Donald Trump and his administration in recent days: https://goo.gl/IhtZ6o * President Trump plans to get rid of the Johnson Amendment, which bans nonprofit organizations, including colleges and universities, from political activity and candidate endorsements or face loss of tax-exempt status. This Inside Higher Ed article touches on some possible implications for higher education institutions: https://goo.gl/h5Ke8g * This week the House voted to repeal an Obama-era regulation prohibiting disabled social security recipients who are judged incapable of handling their financial affairs from owning a gun. Some disability rights organizations opposed the regulation as arbitrary and baseless: https://goo.gl/gmSe6l * In this essay, Ari Ne’eman explains several reasons why he and other disability rights activists are in the strange position of siding with Republicans and the NRA on the gun control issue of denying gun rights to people with mental disabilities: https://goo.gl/32ho4Y * The federal civilian hiring freeze initiated by President Trump will likely make worse the backlog of SSDI cases, which currently take more than a year on average to be decided: https://goo.gl/sFz1VU * President Trump signed an executive order to reduce federal regulation and costs, which could seriously jeopardize the Department of Justice plan to issue regulations for making accessible web content on state and local websites in 2018, which would include websites of public colleges and universities: https://goo.gl/xkU648 * The House Administration Committee voted to eliminate the bi-partisan Election Assistance Commission, which has helped states run accessible, fair, and accurate elections since 2002. Articles focus on the irony of ending the only commission charged to protect voting machines against hacking at the same time President Trump plans a massive investigation into nonexistent voter fraud in his presidential election. However, the concerns of civil rights organizations go well beyond hacking. For example, EAC provides technical assistance and support to states for accessible polling: https://goo.gl/4mdnDz * A brief article reviewing the ethics of discussing the mental health of public figures, such as President Trump, by psychologists and psychiatrists: https://goo.gl/4DnRcl. This article looks at the issue of public psychiatric diagnosis of Trump in more depth, interviewing mental health professionals who strongly argue on both sides of the issue: https://goo.gl/5Ajcnf. What both of these articles lack is a disabled perspective, so we add the following older article on why not to diagnose Trump: https://goo.gl/slZAN9 * This week we saw the confirmation of several Trump nominees to Cabinet positions. In the following selection of articles, the impact of these choices for people with disabilities and/or for academe is addressed:
* This week also saw continued coverage of the Congressional Republican plan to repeal and/or replace the Affordable Care Act and enact Medicaid Block Grants. The following articles discuss the impact of this plan on disabled people. (Don’t forget that ASAN has an Affordable Care Act Toolkit for Self-Advocates online to help us better understand and participate in these conversations about ACA: https://goo.gl/CjnNzo)
* This week, the restraining order against the Immigration Ban Executive Order was upheld all the way to a federal appeals court, which was influenced by the concerns of state universities for their international students, visiting scholars, and faculty--an essential part of the mission of “global engagement” in teaching and research. Following are some of the week’s developments on the ban issue related to higher education:
------------------------------- This week’s issue of the DREAM weekly e-mail is available at the DREAM website, with archived back issues available, as well (http://www.dreamcollegedisability.org). For more information about DREAM or AHEAD contact Richard Allegra ([email protected]). To subscribe or unsubscribe, please go to http://ahead-listserve.org/mailman/listinfo/dream_ahead-listserve.org. Richard Allegra can also handle requests to subscribe or unsubscribe. By the way, please don't presume DREAM, the National Center for College Students with Disabilities, or AHEAD agree with everything in these links we send out - we're just passing along the information so you can form your own opinions. Thanks. ***** Comments are closed.
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