DREAM Weekly Email: November 1-7, 2020

DREAM Weekly Email, Disability and Higher Education in the News: November 1-7, 2020
 
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)
This week’s newsletter and archived newsletters are available at www.DREAMCollegeDisability.org
 
Top Five News Items This Week:

• Can you figure out Deaf Trump and Biden supporters by their ASL?
• Now at the eighth month of a hiring freeze, Georgetown students are taking the lead in pressuring the university to increase funding and staff for the Academic Resource Center that provides disability services.
• The UK’s equivalent of bar exams will be undergoing review after numerous disability access issues, problematic rules, and technical difficulties plagued the last round of testing.
• Faculty work in higher ed. has probably changed forever, including more responsibility for the health and wellness of students and themselves, even as faculty themselves are showing more signs of mental health issues, stress, and burnout.
• Medical students at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine created a new version of the Hippocratic oath for graduation that acknowledges COVID, race, self-care, the “differently-abled,” inclusion, and more.

 
General News:

• Students at six Minnesota community colleges can get a degree without ever buying a printed textbook, with more colleges using free online readings.
• Australian entrepreneurs with intellectual disabilities are mentoring peers who want to start a business, thanks to a new program by Macquarie University Business School.
• Incarcerated prisoners with autism and other developmental disabilities have barriers to services, information, legal help, and educational opportunities.
• A new student Disability Task Force has been set up at Princeton through the Undergraduate Student Government.
• The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT is shifting personnel to support its Antiracism and Social Justice Plan, while also building up its Randleman Program to support new interpreters of color and prepare them for postsecondary settings.
• There’s a new program for students with autism or intellectual disabilities at Misericordia University.
• Black markets for Adderall persist on campuses, but should the blame be on students or on higher education’s expectations?
• Disability services in college are more complicated than special education in high school, but ATTitude published some tips for students and families.
• The number of students with eating disorders is increasing rapidly, according to Minnesota State University Mankato dieticians.
• 34 Veteran Community Advocates are helping veterans at The Ohio State University transition to campus.  
• Deaf U is teaching others about Deaf culture, disability, and college life, but the show also has some controversy.
• Trying to be PC instead of saying “disability” isn’t helping, says a Gettysburg professor with LD.
• Freshman Seth Pressler was removed from the University of Southern Indiana, possibly because his Tourette syndrome resulted in him shouting profanities; now other students with disabilities are thinking about their accommodations and campus access, too.
• What happens when professors refuse to provide a disability accommodation?  Disability services directors share their thoughts.
• The University of Michigan is teaching medical students how to treat people with disabilities, and new research shows it’s working.
• Wu Xiao was not allowed to take graduate entrance exams in China because she is blind.
• Horror movies can perpetuate disability stigma on campus, says the student newspaper for UNC-Charlotte, and Emerson professor Magda Romanska explains the most frequent disability stereotypes and “disability drag” in Hollywood.
• College football players have a 30% greater risk of lifelong CTE every year they play, according to a new study from Boston University.
• Tips for getting into college with “learning differences.”
• What are some options for students with disabilities fulfilling challenging course requirements?  Elizabeth Hamblet shares ideas.
• A columnist at Boston University wants to honor alum Travis Roy, including a statue of him playing ice hockey or a statue of him later in life, using a wheelchair.

 
BIPOC and Diversity Issues:

• Being a Black, hard-of-hearing doctoral student was not easy, says Dr. K. Renee Horton, a quality engineer for NASA, who also struggled to get workplace accommodations.
• Towson student Samuel Smith wonders about transitioning and “asserting” a male gender, and if it affected the timing of his ADHD diagnosis.
• Stock images of college students are getting an update, including more BIPOC and students with disabilities.
• Professor Linda Villarosa at the City College of New York was inducted into the LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame; her work has focused on race, inequity, and health, and she trains journalists to cover HIV and AIDS issues.
• Chippy the Cheetah and his two dads learn about AIDS, HIV, LGBTQ+ issues, and getting involved in communities, in a new children’s book by Fullerton College professor Gary Graves.
• Disability activist Judy Heumann talks about her life and education, and says the disability rights movement needs to be more intersectional.

 
COVID-19 News:

• Though 56% of students say they are experiencing significant anxiety about COVID-19, the majority are not using mental health services.
• If a student tests positive for COVID, does the professor automatically know that?  It depends on the campus.
• There have now been at least 252,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 80 deaths at U.S. colleges and universities, according to The New York Times.
• COVID-19 has caused disproportionately high stress for people with disabilities, especially if they are already marginalized, according to new research led by Vanderbilt professor Anjali Forber-Pratt.
• Asthmatic Grace College Student Bethany Nesbitt died from COVID-19 in her dorm room.

 
Election 2020 and Politics:

• The Washington Post reported on difficulties with blind people voting, including Regina Root, a professor at William & Mary college.
• College students had a record turnout for early voting, despite barriers for disabled and nondisabled people.
• Newly-elected Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), the youngest member of Congress, has already experienced controversies, including disputes about an accident and his wheelchair keeping him out of the Naval Academy.

 
Student Stories

• Rachel D-Agui was surprised to realize that “Zoom University” is actually better for her as a Stanford student with ADHD.
• Maria Peterson has LD and she also has the title of President of the Gadsen State Community College Student Government Association.
• Israeli Amit Vigoda is a long way from home, but he’s going viral for his wheelchair basketball skills at Arlington University of Texas.
• CUNY disability studies student Nia Williams received the New York State Board of Regents’ 2020 Marge A. Tierney Memorial Scholarship
• Struggling with ADHD, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, and internalized fat shaming, Refika Turnier looks back at her upbringing, education, and relationships.
• Want to learn more about Deaf U stars?  Check out ScreenRant – including a feature on Cheyenna Clearbrook.
• Big Brother star Nicole Franzel has apologized for mocking autistic former winner Ian Terry; they both participated in the show when they were college students, and were together on Big Brothers 22: All-Stars.
• Irish student Maeve Doyle talks about being blind and starting her freshman year during a pandemic.
• Cocker spaniel Alvin is making many new friends while doing his hearing dog service duties for student Trinity Rogers.

 
Faculty Stories:

• A Stanford instructor has been charged with fraud, allegedly collecting disability payments while working at two law firms, three companies, and Stanford.  
• Disabled people only are invited to “A Kim Deal” party/film/performance art online with Clemson Professor Jillian Weise; the link to the party is https://drive.google.com/file/d/1agNY8TD49TVRbbznWHHlQrAybCNES_SS/view

 
Careers and Employment:

• The Center for Public Integrity reported the most common types of employment discrimination, and some things related to disability and the ADA may surprise you.
  
  

Legal:

• A nursing student who used medical marijuana sued Harrisburg Area Community College for not providing an accommodation to their anti-drug policy, but a Pennsylvania Court ruled in favor of the college.
• In a victory for students with disabilities, a state appeals court ruled that the University of California can no longer use SAT and ACT scores in admissions.
  
  

 
 
 
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DREAM and the NCCSD acknowledge, with respect, the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe -- the Indigenous people on whose ancestral lands DREAM and the NCCSD are based.