DREAM Weekly Email: October 9-15, 2016

​DREAM Weekly Email, Disability and Higher Education in the News: October 9-15, 2016
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)
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Disability and higher education in the news (in no particular order):

* With UC Berkeley cutting services to students with disabilities, one student uses the campus newspaper to call out the university for being worthy of “epic shame”: http://www.dailycal.org/2016/10/07/campus-worthy-epic-shame-ending-disabilities-program/
 
* Samantha Medeiros blogs about her life as a mom and a nursing student with epilepsy at Rhode Island College, and  now she’s won an award for her work: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20161011/fall-river-womans-blog-helps-shine-light-on-epilepsy
 
* In The New York Times, Casey Schwartz describes taking ADHD stimulant medication off label to get through college, his eventual addiction to the pills, and the long journey trying to get off them: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/magazine/generation-adderall-addiction.html
 
* One college administrator says even new student orientation is too late to start talking about mental health, urging conversations to begin as soon as students are accepted into college: http://www.chronicle.com/article/It-s-Never-Too-Soon-to-Talk/238021
 
* Noting that some campus faculty had to wait three years for their accommodations, the Central Michigan University’s student newspaper printed an editorial calling for ADA compliance to become a higher priority: http://www.cm-life.com/article/2016/10/editorial-ada-compliance-on-campus
 
* Did you miss the Gallaudet University Presidential Inauguration?  Here’s a video with the highlights (video has captions but no audio description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS85DOrbJw0
 
* Learn about the struggles of Armenian women with disabilities who want to attend universities: http://www.tol.org/client/article/26377-double-discrimination.html
 
* Students at the University of Missouri are petitioning for a disability studies certificate program: http://kbia.org/post/mu-students-petition-disability-studies-program#stream/0
 
* RIT/NTID received a $443,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to train STEM faculty in better ways to teach deaf, hard-of-hearing and deafblind college students: http://www.ntid.rit.edu/news/ritntid-awarded-443000-national-science-foundation-grant-educational-training
 
* Four things every college student needs to know about mental health – from USA Today: http://college.usatoday.com/2016/10/06/4-things-every-college-student-must-know-about-mental-health-on-campus/
 
* Autistic students can join a new fee-based Postsecondary Autism Support Services program at The University of Tennessee Knoxville, with a curriculum to teach social, communication, time management, and organization skills: http://tntoday.utk.edu/2016/10/06/klass-center-launch-postsecondary-autism-support-services-program/
 
* Mississippi State University is welcoming students with intellectual and developmental disabilities into its ACCESS program: http://djournal.com/news/msu-access-program-provides-college-experience-students-intellectual-disabilities/
 
* St. Catherine University received $6 million in grants to increase the number and diversity of interpreters, and to establish an Experiential Learning Model Demonstration Center: https://www.stkate.edu/news-and-events/news/catie-center-receives-6-million-to-lead-new-asl-interpreting-education-initiatives
 
* Self-advocates from The Arc Baltimore spoke to a class at Towson University and students learned about disability from a first-hand perspective: https://www.thearcbaltimore.org/thearc-visits-tu/
 

And a few related items of possible interest to college students:

* Check out the People of Color & Mental Illness Photo Project online (photos do not have any text descriptions or alt tags): http://diorvargas.com/poc-mental-illness/
 
* Rivers Solomon writes about having diabetes, and her struggles with dieting and feeling blamed for having diabetes: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/opinion/diabetes-diet-and-shame.html
 
* Good news on the employment front for the sixth consecutive month, with employment and economic indicators improving for people with disabilities in the U.S.: https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/10/07/878022/10165520/en/nTIDE-Jobs-Report-Jobs-numbers-rise-again-in-6-month-trend-for-Americans-with-disabilities.html
 
* This Halloween, think twice before you visit a “haunted asylum,” considering the people who actually lived there: http://nursingclio.org/2015/10/29/ghosts-are-scary-disabled-people-are-not-the-troubling-rise-of-the-haunted-asylum/
 
* Actress Samantha Renke notes that even if you have a physical disability, you can also have a mental health condition, as well, frequently disappointing those who want us to be inspirational: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/samantha-renke/you-cant-be-depressed-you_b_12428294.html
 
* Why not try to hide a disability?  Here are four reasons disability visibility can matter and make a difference: http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/09/disability-visibility-matters/
 
* Former NFL player David Vobora created a gym specifically to train and rehabilitate disabled veterans (video has captions but no audio description): https://business.facebook.com/Upworthy/videos/1401403739900480/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE
 
* What is “high-functioning” anxiety?  Here’s what it looks like, what it sounds like, and what it feels like (video has some captions but no audio description): https://themighty.com/2016/06/living-with-high-functioning-and-hidden-anxiety/
 
* Getting health care as an LGBTQ person can be a “degrading” or life-threatening experience (please note article contains a discussion of suicide): https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-many-lgbtq-people-even-a-routine-doctor-visit-can-be-a-degrading-experience/2016/10/02/092cd3bc-872a-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html
 
* At the Cybathlon, the world’s first “bionic Olympics,”  you’ll see bionics, robotics, exoskeletons and more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37605984
 
* According to staffers, presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly called Marlee Matlin “retarded” when the Deaf actress appeared on The Apprentice: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/13/donald-trump-called-deaf-apprentice-marlee-matlin-retarded.html
 
* Rapper, disability rights activist, and star of the film “Darius Goes West” has passed away from Duchene muscular dystrophy at age 27 (video is not captioned or audio described): http://abcnews.go.com/Health/disability-rights-activist-darius-weems-loses-battle-duchenne/story?id=42708683
 
* Hundreds of nondisabled people in Austin, Texas, are spending their day in a wheelchair to raise disability awareness and experience life as a wheelchair user (https://themighty.com/2016/10/archers-challenge-has-able-bodied-people-use-wheelchairs-for-a-day/), despite backlash from the disability community, since research has consistently shown that simulations don’t work (for a little reading about this, see http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02674649266780261 and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Burns/publication/255552846_Meta-Analysis_of_Disability_Simulation_Research/links/53fdce6a0cf2364ccc0910fe.pdf)
 
* Deaf actress Amanda Marie McDonough explains why she sometimes decides not to speak, noting that being a deaf person who speaks and signs is more complicated than you’d expect (video is captioned but has no audio description): https://www.facebook.com/aimediaAUS/videos/10154130022304220/
 
* Marca Bristo, President and CEO of Access Living, is one of 17 people appointed by the Obama Foundation to advise the new Obama Presidential Center on diversity and inclusion: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obamalibrary/ct-obama-library-panel-met-20161011-story.html
 
* Ella Mae Lentz, Chair of the Deafhood Foundation, offers support for Black Lives Matter and explains its significance and the importance of intersectional work (video is not captioned or voiced for the sign-impaired; contents may be triggering): https://vimeo.com/186210395

* A new Marvel show, Legion, will explore the life of Professor X’s son, and its creators promise to tackle the topic of mental illness: https://www.inverse.com/article/21976-x-men-legion-artsy-but-also-important-for-mental-health
 
* Dubai plans to make the city fully accessible to wheelchair users: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/government/dubai-survey-is-first-step-to-make-city-accessible-to-disabled
 
* Buzzfeed asked people with disabilities what they want to see in comics: https://www.buzzfeed.com/willvarner/disability-in-comics?utm_term=.ptL28W5Yp#.pqEwaMmJn
 
* Haben Girma is a Deaf-Blind Harvard law grad, but she doesn’t want to be your inspiration (video is captioned but not audio described; a full transcript is also available in a link under the video): http://www.oxygen.com/blogs/deaf-blind-harvard-law-grad-slays-every-expectation-but-dont-call-her-an-inspiration
 
 
 
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 Wendy Harbour ([email protected]).

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please go to http://ahead-listserve.org/mailman/listinfo/dream_ahead-listserve.org.  Wendy Harbour can also handle requests to subscribe or unsubscribe. 
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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.