This Week's News in Higher Education and Disability: Week of September 25-October 1

Disability and higher education in the news (in no particular order):

* After three students filed complaints of sexual harassment, UC Berkeley professor Blake Wentworth filed counter-suits against two of his accusers and the University, claiming the campus discriminated against him because he has depression and bipolar disorder: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/UC-Berkeley-assistant-professor-claims-harassment-9415337.php
 
* The University of New Brunswick is offering faculty a new three-hour online course about teaching students with disabilities: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/unb-course-disability-learning-1.3734610
 
* Iran has released Canadian-Iranian Concordia University professor Homa Hoodfar on humanitarian grounds due to her myasthenia gravis, after holding her for months on accusations of espionage and feminist activities: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/concordia-professors-rejoice-at-release-of-homa-hoodfar-from-evin-prison-1.3088915
 
* The Daily Herald is running a new series on autism in higher education, starting with a feature on Utah Valley University’s “Passages” program for autistic students struggling with the transition to college: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/education/college/uvu/college-transitions-bring-unique-challenges-for-those-with-autism/article_85e23f47-ec3c-577f-ba3b-1820aa0c5b7d.html
 
* The Huffington Post featured a video about InclusiveU, a program at Syracuse University featuring inclusive academic options for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (video is open captioned but no audio description): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/inclusiveu-embraces-students-disabilities-syracuse-inclusion_us_57ea8717e4b024a52d2a9b92
 
* Davidson College student Olivia Liccione writes about Steve, her mobility scooter with a Captain America shield, and the need for more conversations around disability and disability culture on campus: http://davidsonian.com/disability-at-davidson/
 
* Universities need to be proactive about access and disability or they are not truly being inclusive, says an opinion piece in the Colorado State University student newspaper: https://collegian.com/2016/09/kennedy-accessibility-needs-to-be-a-priority-in-university-planning/
 
* Deaf bodies and signing bodies may seem disruptive or indiscreet in public spaces, but in this New York Times piece, Emory University doctoral student Rachel Kolb considers other ways to understand the experience: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/the-deaf-body-in-public-space.html?_r=0
 
* Syracuse University is implementing a free bike-sharing program on campus that will include accessible and adapted bike options for students with disabilities: http://news.syr.edu/free-bike-share-program-puts-students-behind-the-wheel-43930/
 
* Rates of HIV and AIDS are increasing dramatically in Chinese colleges and universities, with one province reporting a 43% increase in the past five years: http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/09/27/2743s941371.htm
 
* Congress appears poised to make several adjustments to the ABLE Act, which allows families of disabled young people to save money for college and disability-related expenses; changes include being able to roll over a 529 college savings plan into an ABLE account: https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2016/09/27/congress-eyes-changes-able-trusts/22806/

* High school and college abusers of ADHD medications are using the drugs like “academic steroids,” with comparisons to abuse of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics: http://www.statepress.com/article/2016/09/spopinion-performance-enhancing-drugs-in-the-academic-world
 
* Learn more about UC San Diego dean Carol Padden, a Deaf researcher who has studied the grammar and construction of signed languages: https://www.aaas.org/blog/member-spotlight/unraveling-grammar-sign-language
 
* Malaysian student Siti Safura has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and now she is pursuing her Ph.D. to help others with the same condition: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/09/26/studying-hard-to-rise-above-disability/
 
* Entrepreneurs with disabilities are getting a boost from a new Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Education for People with Disabilities (CEED) program at the University of Illinois-Chicago: https://news.uic.edu/east-meets-west-helping-entrepreneurs-who-have-disabilities-make-dreams-a-reality
 
* Special education students and English language-learners in Texas are being allowed to graduate without passing minimum requirements, and while some criticize the move toward eliminating exit requirements, others are relieved – including students who could have otherwise lost scholarships to college: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/law-change-leads-to-jump-in-texas-graduation-rate-/nsdmN/
 
And a few related items of possible interest to college students:
 
* Do you love the kids from Stranger Things on Netflix?  Then you might want to learn more about Gaten Matarazzo, who is using his fame to talk about his cleidocranial dysplasia: http://www.eonline.com/news/798110/gaten-matarazzo-of-stranger-things-opens-up-about-his-health-issues-to-raise-awareness
 
* ADAPT protesters are marching from Baltimore to DC, to bring attention to the disability vote in the upcoming election: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/09/24/group-marching-to-d-c-all-for-power-of-disability-vote/
 
* The #HowEyeSeeIt campaign is using fear of blindness and blindness simulations to raise money, and as a blind woman, Jessica Naert has a few concerns: https://themighty.com/2016/09/response-to-foundation-fighting-blindness-howeyeseeit-campaign/
 
* #NoMoreCraptions is a movement to caption everything on the Internet properly – learn more about it (and experience some craptions) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Ks0JTCvtA&feature=youtu.be
 
* Disabled Mestiza poet and activist Naomi Ortiz writes about self-care starting with reflection, attention to yourself, and truth:  http://bedaonline.com/self-care-starts-wsaw-2016/
 
* Science misled treatments of chronic fatigue syndrome, but the backlash and fight from people with the disease have now made a real difference, and led to troubling questions about how research is done around disease, diagnoses, and treatments: https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-pace-trial/
 
* Last week, the director of Respectability issued a statement about the importance of white disabled voters, marginalizing many people of color with disabilities; one blogger notes that while all of us do racist or ableist actions, power and privilege can affect the consequences (or lack of consequences): https://talesfromthecripblog.com/
 
* In honor of Deaf Awareness Week, people on Twitter used #HearingPrivilege to talk about some of their experiences: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hearing-privilege_us_57ebd4c5e4b024a52d2bb142
 
* A woman in San Diego called police to assist with her brother Alfred Olango, a mentally disabled man who was having a seizure and acting erratically; after they arrived, police shot him and he died on the scene (warning: video is graphic and content disturbing – video is captioned poorly with no audio description): http://usuncut.com/black-lives-matter/cops-shoot-disabled-man/
 
* Activists in the UK leveraged awareness of the Paralympics to call attention to government austerity programs cutting funding to disability programs, having a week of action called “Rights Not Games”: https://mediadiversified.org/2016/09/14/rights-not-games-a-week-of-disability-resistance/
 
* Some disabled people are getting annoyed with the way media and medicine portray exercise as a way to avoid the despair and horror of disability, when they could just say it’s a good way to stay healthy: http://globalcomment.com/stop-using-disabled-people-as-object-lessons-to-push-exercise/
 
* Kerry Thompson talks about her experiences as a DeafBlind woman and the marginalization of DeafBlind people in U.S. and global disability movements: http://www.disabilityrightsfund.org/2016/09/23/deafblindness-the-left-behinds-in-a-leave-no-one-behind-era/
 
* Theo Braddy asks disability activists to not only passively learn from the civil rights movement, but to also act on issues of race and disability: http://www.newmobility.com/2016/09/disability-rights-take-from-civil-rights/
 
* Name.com published a video about the importance of learning ASL to…er…”communicate” (i.e., trash talk) with co-workers, while encouraging Rocky Balboa-esque ASL training: https://www.facebook.com/namedotcom/videos/10154046261052807/?pnref=story
 
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