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In this episode, Day Al-Mohamed, an accomplished disability policy expert, filmmaker, and advocate, joins hosts to explore the intersections of cultural identity, leadership development, and LGBTQ+ experiences. Day provides unique insights into how cultural backgrounds—from Bahrain to the Midwestern United States—influence personal growth and leadership styles. She emphasizes the importance of storytelling, visibility, and authenticity in leadership, advocating for creating inclusive spaces that enable individuals to thrive and influence meaningful societal change.
We chat with Nkechi Okoro Carroll, before sitting down with Day Al-Mohamed & Lachi to celebrate Renegades. Stay tuned to revisit our CROSS panel coverage, our interview with Invincible Fight Girl's Juston Gordon-Montgomery, and our The Penguin conversation. The post Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Renegades x Day Al-Mohamed & Lachi, Invincible Fight Girl x Juston G-Montgomery, CROSS, The Penguin appeared first on idobi.
We chat with Nkechi Okoro Carroll, before sitting down with Day Al-Mohamed & Lachi to celebrate Renegades. Stay tuned to revisit our CROSS panel coverage, our interview with Invincible Fight Girl's Juston Gordon-Montgomery, and our The Penguin conversation. The post Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Renegades x Day Al-Mohamed & Lachi, Invincible Fight Girl x Juston G-Montgomery, CROSS, The Penguin appeared first on idobi.
Award-winning recording artist and social entrepreneur Lachi joins Down to the Struts to talk about her love of music, and her vision for how disability culture can transform the music industry. Lachi also tells Qudsiya about her experience hosting the pilot episode of Day Al-Mohamed's PBS Masters Series, Renegades. If you want to learn more about Renegades, head back to episode 2 of this season. Finally, be sure to listen through to the end of this episode for a very special clip from Lachi's incredible song Lift Me Up, produced in 2023 to honor the life and legacy of lifelong Disability Rights Advocate and Down to the Struts alum, Judy Heumann. Visit our website for transcripts. -- Loving Down to the Struts? Support the team behind the podcast with a donation. Follow us on Instagram @DownToTheStruts. Let us know what you think in the Spotify Q+A, or leave a review on Apple podcasts. Subscribe to Qudsiya's newsletter, Getting Down To It.
What is disability culture? Qudsiya is joined in conversation by author, filmmaker, and policy expert Day Al-Mohamed. They talk about Day's approach to transforming social and cultural attitudes about disability. Day sees this as a central tool that goes hand-in-hand with advancing policies that ensure rights and legal protections for disabled people. Day wants people to see disability culture as cool -- and Qudsiya thinks that's a worthy objective too. Visit our website for transcripts. -- Loving Down to the Struts? Support the team behind the podcast with a donation. Follow us on Instagram @DownToTheStruts. Let us know what you think in the Spotify Q+A, or leave a review on Apple podcasts. Subscribe to Qudsiya's newsletter, Getting Down To It.
We're marking National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a conversation with James LeBrecht and Day Al-Mohamed—two founding members of FWD-Doc-- a global, intersectional community of disabled creators and allies working in media to build a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable entertainment industry that cultivates and champions disabled media-makers, and elevates stories by, for, and about people with disabilities. James LeBrecht is a film and theater sound designer and mixer, author, disability rights activist, and filmmaker who with Nicole Newnham produced and directed Crip Camp-the story of Camp Jened which ignited a community of people with disabilities to fight for their rights. Day Al-Mohamed is an author, filmmaker, disability policy strategist, and a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Invalid Corps, a documentary about disabled veterans' contributions during the Civil War, was her first documentary as a blind filmmaker. In this podcast, Jim and Day detail the mission of FWD-Doc and the issues that it is addressing: the lack of access and opportunity for people with disabilities in filmmaking, and the dearth of stories by and for people with disabilities. They discuss the many resources they offer on their website including their robust “Toolkit for Inclusion & Accessibility: Changing the Narrative of Disability in Documentary Film,” and their partnership with the International Documentary Association to establish the Nonfiction Access Initiative (NAI), a fund for nonfiction storytellers and media makers from the disability community. Al-Mohamed and LeBrecht also talk about their career trajectories, the difference between compliance and best practices, and the need for access to be recognized as essential to diversity.
We're marking National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a conversation with James LeBrecht and Day Al-Mohamed—two founding members of FWD-Doc-- a global, intersectional community of disabled creators and allies working in media to build a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable entertainment industry that cultivates and champions disabled media-makers, and elevates stories by, for, and about people with disabilities. James LeBrecht is a film and theater sound designer and mixer, author, disability rights activist, and filmmaker who with Nicole Newnham produced and directed Crip Camp-the story of Camp Jened which ignited a community of people with disabilities to fight for their rights. Day Al-Mohamed is an author, filmmaker, disability policy strategist, and a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Invalid Corps, a documentary about disabled veterans' contributions during the Civil War, was her first documentary as a blind filmmaker. In this podcast, Jim and Day detail the mission of FWD-Doc and the issues that it is addressing: the lack of access and opportunity for people with disabilities in filmmaking, and the dearth of stories by and for people with disabilities. They discuss the many resources they offer on their website including their robust “Toolkit for Inclusion & Accessibility: Changing the Narrative of Disability in Documentary Film,” and their partnership with the International Documentary Association to establish the Nonfiction Access Initiative (NAI), a fund for nonfiction storytellers and media makers from the disability community. Al-Mohamed and LeBrecht also talk about their career trajectories, the difference between compliance and best practices, and the need for access to be recognized as essential to diversity.
Learn how to start indie writing and publishing with Danielle-Ackley McPhail of eSpeck Books on this episode of And I Quote. We will also be taking your questions! Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with Mike McPhail and Greg Schauer to form eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com). Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today's Promise, The Halfling's Court, The Redcaps' Queen, Daire's Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, and the non-fiction writers' guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections. In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale. Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats. Follow Danielle-Ackley McPhail on Social Media: Website: www.sidhenadaire.com Newsletter: https://www.facebook.com/eSpecBooks/app/100265896690345 GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989939.Danielle_Ackley_McPhail Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-Ackley-McPhail/e/B002GZVZPQ/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DMcPhail Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ackleymcphail Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/especbooks/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dackleymcphail/ Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/danielle-ackley-mcphail YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzaURWImlDd-w9o_YMte0cVZKKviZTLbo Follow Ryan on Social Media: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/ryanandiquote Make Sure to LIKE, COMMENT, & SUBSCRIBE! Nerd Culture MERCH!!! www.nerdculture.threadless.com HWWS NC Merch - https://hwwswebtv.threadless.com/design Follow: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/itsnerdculture/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsnerdculture Twitter :https://twitter.com/itsNerdCulture Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsnerdculture
Here's a Stoop Story from Day Al-Mohamed about why being blind needn't stop someone from doing whatever they set out to do. You can hear her story and others, and get information about live events and the Stoop podcast, at Stoopstorytelling.com .See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Washington Post senior writer Frances Stead Sellers moderates a two-part series about disability rights in the United States, the shape of discrimination today and the critically important considerations around caregiving.
Angélique talks about the representation of disability in comics with José Alaniz, author of Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond, and Day Al-Mohamed, filmmaker, author, and disability policy strategist.
The Blasters & Blades Podcast Just a couple of nerdy Army veterans geeking out on things that go "abracadabra," "pew," "zoom," "boop-beep" and rhyme with Science Fiction & Fantasy. Co-Hosts: Doc Cisca (Uber Book Fan) (Army Medic) JR Handley (Author) (Grunt) Nick Garber (Comic Book Artist) (Super Grunt) We work for free, so if you wanna throw a few pennies our way there is a linked Buy Me A Coffee site where you can do so. Just mention the podcast in the comments when you donate, and I'll keep the sacred bean water boiling! Support the Show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AuthorJRHandley Our Website: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blastersandbladespodcast Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/SF_Fantasy_Show Follow Day Al-Mohamed on the interwebs! Day's Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Al-Mohamed/e/B00JTHHZQC Day's Website: http://dayalmohamed.com/wordpress/ Day's Twitter: https://twitter.com/DayAlMohamed Day's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DayAlMohamed Geek Girl Riots Podcast: https://idobi.com/show/geek-girl-riot/ #scifishenanigans #scifishenaniganspodcast #bbp #blastersandblades #blastersandbladespodcast #podcast #scifipodcast #fantasypodcast #scifi #fantasy #books #rpg #comics #fandom #literature #comedy #veteran #army #armyranger #ranger #warehouse13 #shortcircuitmovie #stargateuniverse #wheeloftime #lordoftherings #lotr #pern #elizabethmoon #darkover, #coastgaurd #coastgaurdauxillary #uscg #foil #foilfencing #epee #epeefencing #saber #saberfencing #fencing #olympicqualifier #sca #societyofcreativeanachronisms #dueling #toplessdueling #schlagerfencing #murdermystery #fantasymurdermystery #dieselpunk #minorityrepresentation #disabledauthor #blindauthor #guidedog #ciscadropsscience #pbs #falstaffpublishing #middleeastfantasy #nancydrew #cozymystery #fantasycozymystery #lgbt #mysterytropes #clue #hasboroclue #cluegame #cluethemovie #flowersintheattic #vcandrews #pirate #tentacles #archivist #moorishspain #moors #greatlibrary #greatlibraryofalexandria #thelabyrinthmovie #greeklabyrinthmyth #minotaur #hanzelandgretel #pandemicvegetablechopping #murderdogs #novella --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades/support
Hello our literary adventurers! Welcome back to another episode of the Colored Pages Book Club. This week, it is suits you, join the dynamic labyrinth traveling duo Marci and Ako as they explore the fantasy mystery novella "The Labyrinth's Archivist: A Broken Cities Novella by Day Al-Mohamed. That's right folks, we've got bureaucracy, mystery, lizard beings, and so much more in this CPBC Summer Short! Intro/Question: 00:12 - 11:55 Summary: 12:15 - 46:36 Discussion: 46:49 - 1:08:49 Thanks for the shout out Luke from Ink to Film. Check them out here All Episodes of Ink to Film — Ink to Film Podcast Ink to Film is creating Podcasts | Patreon And check out more the Perveen Mistry Series at Sujata Massey website here Sujata Massey - Author of the Perveen Mistry and Rei Shimura Series Wanna stay afloat on all our latest episodes? You can find the links to our Twitter (@TheColoredPages), Instagram (@TheseColoredPages), Website (thesecoloredpages.com), and Reading List here: linktr.ee/thecoloredpages .You can also reach us directly by emailing us at thesecoloredpages@gmail.com .Come say hi!!
The Blasters & Blades Podcast Just a couple of nerdy Army veterans geeking out on things that go "abracadabra," "pew," "zoom," "boop-beep" and rhyme with Science Fiction & Fantasy. Co-Hosts: Doc Cisca (Uber Book Fan) (Army Medic) JR Handley (Author) (Grunt) Nick Garber (Comic Book Artist) (Super Grunt) We work for free, so if you wanna throw a few pennies our way there is a linked Buy Me A Coffee site where you can do so. Just mention the podcast in the comments when you donate, and I'll keep the sacred bean water boiling! Support the Show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AuthorJRHandley Our Website: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/blastersandbladespodcast Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/SF_Fantasy_Show Follow Day Al-Mohamed on the interwebs! Day's Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Al-Mohamed/e/B00JTHHZQC Day's Website: http://dayalmohamed.com/wordpress/ Day's Twitter: https://twitter.com/DayAlMohamed Day's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DayAlMohamed Geek Girl Riots Podcast: https://idobi.com/show/geek-girl-riot/ #bbp #blastersandblades #blastersandbladespodcast #podcast #scifipodcast #fantasypodcast #scifi #fantasy #books #rpg #comics #fandom #literature #comedy #veteran #army #uscg #coastie --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades/support
In this episode, I speak with filmmaker Lindsey Dryden and filmmaker, novelist, and podcaster, Day Al-Mohamed. In our conversation, we chat about Day’s advocacy work in Washington, D.C., Lindsey’s work as a producer of the film Unrest, and the organization they co-founded with the Oscar-nominated director of Crip Camp, Jim Lebrecht and Alysa Nahmias, FWD-Doc. FWD-Doc is committed to empowering filmmakers with disabilities and part of that advocacy is being bold saying the words “disability” and “disabled.” With that said and the spirit of naming what is, is, this week’s song is Destiny Child’s “Say My Name.”
L–R: Keri Gray // Black Disabled Lives Matter (photo by Jen Deerwater) // Justice Shorter Geek Girl Riot host Day Al-Mohamed is joined by Keri Gray and Justice Shorter, two of the organizers of DC’s Black Disabled Lives Matter movement, for a conversation about disability, inclusion, and making the Black Lives Matter protests accessible for […]
L–R: Keri Gray // Black Disabled Lives Matter (photo by Jen Deerwater) // Justice Shorter Geek Girl Riot host Day Al-Mohamed is joined by Keri Gray and Justice Shorter, two of the organizers of DC’s Black Disabled Lives Matter movement, for a conversation about disability, inclusion, and making the Black Lives Matter protests accessible for […]
There's more! Authors Day Al-Mohamed and Danielle Ackley-McPhail give more insight on their Middle Eastern steampunk novel Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn in part two of our discussion. Don't miss it! www.DayAlMohamed.com www.DayAlMohamed.com/wordpress/tag/baba-ali-secrets/ www.eSPECBOOKS.com www.SidheNaDaire.com www.Storypunks.World
We're back with Season 3! I have a fun discussion to take your mind off the pandemic and onto all those virtual steampunk collaborations you could be doing. Authors Day Al-Mohamed and Danielle Ackley-McPhail join me for a two-part interview focusing on their steampunk novel Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn. www.DayAlMohamed.com www.dayalmohamed.com/wordpress/tag/baba-ali-secrets/ www.eSPECBOOKS.com www.SidheNaDaire.com www.Storypunks.World
Here's a Stoop Story from Day Al-Mohamed about her fencing triumph. You can hear her story and many others at stoopstorytelling.com, as well as the Stoop podcast.
Today we spotlight Day Al-Mohamed. We're focusing on her creative endeavors such as writing books, short stories, comic books and scripts. now she adds Film director and Producer to her list of credits. We discuss; writing, film production, the disabled Civil War soldiers known as the "Invalid Corps". Plus hear how she inspired yours truly. Subscribe! Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast Stitcher, Tune In Radio or wherever you get podcasts. Visit www.ReidMyMind.com @tsreid
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. I know everyone was watching the news about the Hacienda HealthCare facility in Phoenix, Arizona, where a 29-year-old patient had been raped several times, and the staff had no idea she was pregnant until she went into labor and gave birth to a healthy baby boy on December 29th. Originally the story posted that she was in a coma. That has been corrected by her parents who described her as intellectually disabled because of seizures in early childhood. While she doesn't speak, she has some mobility in her limbs, head and neck. She also responds to sound and can make facial gestures. What bothers me is that this isn’t some piece of meat on a table but that this was a vulnerable woman who was well aware of what was being done to her. Nathan Sutherland was the nurse who was supposed to be looking after her; and instead raped her. He was arrested in January after Phoenix police said his DNA was tied to the baby. Last month, his attorney said there was "minimum evidence" his client committed the crime. Really? The first of what will probably be many hearings, was yesterday. But let’s get real here. People with disabilities are sexually assaulted at nearly three times the rate of people without disabilities. A 2005 survey of people with disabilities indicated that 60 percent of respondents had been subjected to some form of unwanted sexual activity. Unfortunately, almost half never reported the assault. Approximately 80% of women and 30% of men with developmental disabilities have been sexually assaulted. The part that is really awful? Just 3% of them are ever reported. The vast majority of sexual assaults, 80 to 90%, are committed by someone the victim knows. And for many people with disabilities, comes from caregivers. The only reason Nathan Sutherland was caught, was because the woman gave birth. Notice, I didn’t say “got pregnant” because a very small, very jaded part of me wonders if some facilities don’t just “get such things taken care of” out of the light of day. The #MeToo movement has drawn much attention to sexual harassment and sexual abuse, I can only hope that as it garners more attention and visibility it continues to include disability. As of right now, even with the persistence and support of parents, family members and friends, victims with disabilities are not receiving justice. What is also disturbing, and is particularly important as related to disability, is that in many instances, the person who has a disability may rely on the perpetrator for care or support, making it even more difficult to come forward. Today, more and more women, including women with disabilities are coming forward to share their stories. We are not looking at just “ways to protect” but examining perpetrators and the structures and institutions that protect them and allow them to continue their behaviors. If you know of or suspect sexual assault or abuse please contact your local police station or 911. You do not need proof to file a report. If the person being abused is considered a vulnerable adult under your state laws, you may also be able to contact the local Department of Human Services or Department of Social Services. If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault or abuse, to speak with someone wo is trained to help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). If you are Deaf, you can access help via video phone 1.855.812.1001 (Monday to Friday 9 a.m.—5 p.m. PST) contact the Deaf Abused Women’s Network (DAWN) for legal, medical, system advocacy, and survivor support services. Video Phone: 202.559.5366. You can also chat online anonymously with a support specialist trained by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) at online.rainn.org. The support specialists who answer hotline chats are specially trained...
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. I know everyone was watching the news about the Hacienda HealthCare facility in Phoenix, Arizona, where a 29-year-old patient had been raped several times, and the staff had no idea she was […]
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is the Disability Report for March 2019. JUSTICE: March 1st is known within the disability community as the Disability Day of Mourning. It is the day when the disability community comes […]
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is the Disability Report for March 2019. JUSTICE: March 1st is known within the disability community as the Disability Day of Mourning. It is the day when the disability community comes together to remember the victims of filicide – people with disabilities who were murdered by their family members. Vigils are held on March 1st in cities around the world. Recognized since 2012, the vigils have been supported by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, the National Council on Independent Living, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund and other disability rights organizations. In March 2017, the Ruderman Foundation issued a report that provided more concrete numbers to the number of people with disabilities murdered by their caregivers. They documented more than 200 deaths from 2011 to 2015. And of course, that is only those that merited media attention. There currently is no way to capture all of these murders based on disability. And perhaps what is more disturbing is the public perception and media focus on the killer rather than on the victim. It is seen as a “mercy” or as “ending suffering” or an “overwhelmed caregiver” in fact blaming the victim for their own death. One person with disabilities is killed by a parent or caregiver each week and the Disability Day of Mourning is a recognition of those lives taken, and lives forgotten as worth less than those of able bodied. On Media Coverage of Murder of People with Disabilities by their Caregivers - https://issuu.com/rudermanfoundation/docs/murders_by_caregivers_wp_final_fina DEFINITIONS: Words matter. We know this. We’ve been told this over and over. James Skoufis of the 39th Senate District of the State of New York is taking that to heart. He is the sponsor of Senate Bill S4276. The bill makes technical corrections to references to the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, changing it to the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. It is not an office for the condition, but for people. Legislation for changes in statute the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities - https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s4276 HEALTHCARE: The Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation and Gulf Coast Community Foundation commissioned the University of South Florida to conduct a scan of mental health services in May 2018. The goal was to identify strengths and gaps in the system and prioritize ways to make the system work for youth and families. The study revealed the annual economic cost of untreated mental illness for children and young adults in Sarasota County is nearly $86.2 million. This is primarily from suicide, criminal justice, education, and worker productivity. Roughly 15 percent of Sarasota County’s residents are under 18 years old, or around 60,488. About one in five experiences a severe mental disorder during their life. Half of all chronic illness begins by the age of 14, and three-quarters by the age of 24. Florida ranks 50th in mental health services, according to the Florida Policy Institute. The state has the third-highest percentage of mentally ill persons who are also uninsured. In 2014, the state provided just $36.05 per person in support of mental health services, less than one-third of the U.S. average of $125.90. The study specifically highlighted a lack of inpatient care, residential treatment programs, independent living options for adults, case management, post-discharge services from crisis stabilization units, and youth psychiatric treatment. The study doesn’t solve the problem but it puts hard numbers and a price to what many disability and mental health advocates have known for years. Sarasota County Mental Health Scan - https://barancikfoundation.org/campaigns/mental-health-scan/
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to take a few minutes to talk about the recent college admissions scandal, reflect a bit on what happened, and what it means for students with disabilities. It is […]
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to take a few minutes to talk about the recent college admissions scandal, reflect a bit on what happened, and what it means for students with disabilities. It is impossible to look at the news in the last few weeks and not hear about the college admissions cheating scandal. Operation Varsity Blues was an FBI operation that resulted in 50 people being charged with bribery and mail fraud. They were part of a complex cheating scheme to get unqualified children of rich parents into elite colleges. One of the key elements that impacts the disability community is how, affluent parents paid to have their children diagnosed with learning disabilities so they could get special accommodations on the SAT and ACT college entrance exams. Those accommodations can include extra time on tests or allowing them to take their exam in a room alone with just a proctor to minimize distractions. This is not a new discovery. In 2010, a California audit of College Board test takers “showed a disproportionate number of white, affluent students receiving accommodations, igniting suspicions of exaggerated or nonexistent disabilities”. In 2006, ABC reported the practice of “diagnosis shopping?—?a cottage industry of doctors and medical professionals, all willing to give students the documentation they need to get the extra test time they want.” Why the sudden increase and interest in using a learning disability to get a “leg up”? It actually goes back to 2003 where the College Board had been sued. Previously they "flagged" the scores of students who took the SAT with extra time. I remember being pissed that my tests were “flagged”. I didn’t want a college application committee to know about and/or judge me by my disability until I chose to disclose it. The flagging intimated that my scores weren’t as “valid” as a non-disabled student’s score. So I was glad to see the practice done away with. After the "flag" was dropped, colleges would have no way of knowing that the test was taken under nonstandard conditions. Of course this now had the unintended side effect of not just reducing the stigma for disabled students but created an INCENTIVE for folks to game the system. You no longer would carry the “scarlet letter D” for disability on your scores. Let me quote from one of the affidavits that were filed in the case: "What happened is, all the wealthy families that figured out that if I get my kid tested and they get extended time, they can do better on the test. So most of these kids don't even have issues, but they're getting time." Accommodations, instead of being viewed as a “levelling of the playing field”, were viewed as something advantageous and these people were willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, to ensure their children could get them. And yet, for many families with youth with disabilities, it is a nightmare of providing testing results and proof of disability, and the constantly changing goalposts of what paperwork is needed for desperately needed accommodations. Diagnostic testing is not cheap, running anywhere from about $1,000 to $5,000. And the bureaucracy to getting accommodations approved can take months. Where students without disabilities might be able to take tests multiple times to improve their scores, a student with a disability, because of the paperwork, ongoing testing, proof of disability, checks and rechecks, if they’re lucky, and their timing is right, they just might get their accommodations approved in time to take the test ONCE. And beyond the cost of testing to prove one’s disability and the timing and planning needed to ensure it is in place, there has always been skepticism in academic fields about accommodations. There is a myth that students with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities are getting something “e...
INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. POST Recently I’ve been thinking about bulling. We’re all familiar with what bullying is right? Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior (usually among school aged children and youth) that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. It is verbal, it is social, it is physical, it is even digital now with so many young people spending hours on their phones, tablets, and computers. Michelle Carter was a teenager and when her 18-year-old boyfriend texted her and said he wanted to kill himself, she urged him on. Goaded him into it. He killed himself by filling his truck with carbon monoxide in a parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The courts just upheld her manslaughter conviction. The judge ordered her to serve 15 months in prison. But the case isn’t over yet. There are many arguing that she is being punished for “speech.” A CDC survey in Massachusetts in 2017 found that of nearly 1 million K-12 students, 15 percent reported being bullied in school or online, while 12 percent said they had contemplated suicide. Students with disabilities are bullied more than their non-disabled peers. In fact, recent studies show they are likely to have been bullied more than three times as much. If you do the maths that is a terrifying number, that is more than 1/3 of kids with disabilities who have contemplated suicide. Even if it doesn’t lead to suicide, bullying can lead to school avoidance and increased absenteeism, dropping grades, an inability to concentrate, anxiety, depression, a loss of interest in academic achievement, and behavioral outbursts in some youth. In 2014, the Administration sent out a Dear Colleague letter highlighting the impact of bullying on children with disabilities and specifically invoked the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which requires that each child who has a disability and qualifies for special education and related services must receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Basically, that bullying interferes with that access to a free and appropriate public education. The letter also highlighted Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 because the harassment denies a student with a disability an equal opportunity to education. And of course this isn’t just in person. More and more we are seeing young people bullied and harassed via social media, texts, and other electronic communications. A recent study showed that 30 percent of youth ages 10-20 reported experiencing some form of online harassment or victimization. In 2017, nine senators asked Secretary Betsy DeVos what resources the U.S. Department of Education was providing schools in order to counter "the recent increase in hateful and discriminatory speech and conduct." They also asked for the number of ongoing investigations by the department into student-on-student harrassment based on things like race, religion, and sexual orientation, as well as whether the federal task force on bullying prevention would continue. And if the Federal government isn’t going to act, some state governments are looking to address the bullying problem themselves. California schools will be required to implement procedures to prevent bullying and cyberbullying by the end of 2019. In addition to the new procedures, Assembly Bill 2291, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, requires school employees who regularly interact with students to have access to a bullying and cyberbullying training module developed by state officials. Two additional bills — Assembly Bill 2022 and Senate Bill 972 — approved towards the end of 2018 will improve access to mental health services by adding the National Suicide Prevention li...
INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. POST Recently I’ve been thinking about bulling. We’re all familiar with what bullying is right? Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior (usually among school aged children and youth) that involves a real […]
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is your Disability Report for the week of February 19, 2019. Housing/International On January 25th, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released a landmark decision in S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation. In this case, the housing authority wanted to take into account the S.A.’s Henson Trust. For those of you who may not know, Henson Trusts in Canada are like our ABLE Accounts. Ours are tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and their families. They’re still pretty new here as the ABLE Act only just passed in 2014. It’s based on the idea that millions of people with disabilities and their families depend on a wide variety of public benefits for income, health care and food and housing assistance. Eligibility for many of these public benefits require meeting a means or resource test that stops people from building any savings for accessible housing, transportation, assistive technology etc. So the Supreme Court of Canada agreed that Henson Trusts should NOT be considered an asset by the housing authority, allowing Canadian citizens to receive a housing subsidy for accessible housing without bankrupting themselves. http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/humanrights/litigation/media-advisory-25Jan2019 Employment In February, the Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire released the nTIDE Report focusing on disability employment. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report, employment for working-age people with disabilities decreased slightly from 29.9 percent in January 2018 to 29.8 percent in January 2019. For working-age people without disabilities, employment increased from 72.7 percent in January 2018 to 73.6 percent in January 2019. But what is perhaps a bit more disturbing is the labor force participation rate for working-age people. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the population that is working or actively looking for work. Employment rates show people who are working and/or not working. This shows those who are still trying to be employed and those who have given up and no longer in the workforce. For people with disabilities, it was 33 percent in January 2018 and remained at the same level (33 percent) in January 2019. So basically, 67% of people with disabilities are not even participating in the system. Only 33% are in the workforce at all. And that number hasn’t changed. Now lets compare it to working-age people without disabilities, their labor force participation rate increased from 76.1 percent in Jan. 2018 to 76.9 percent in January 2019. https://iod.unh.edu/article/2019/02/ntide-january-2019-jobs-report-job-numbers-hold-steady-americans-disabilities Culture February brings some great news by way of disability culture. New Jersey becomes second state to require schools to teach LGBT and disability-inclusive material. Children in the New Jersey school system will be exposed to "the political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities”. While the focus of the discussion has been primarily on LGBTQ history, having disability included is a big win. California already has such a law in place. Here’s hoping those textbooks get updated with some great suggestions (Beyond Helen Keller and Franklin Delano Roosevelt). I for one, would love to see some people of color with disabilities and their contributions highlighted. https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/us/new-jersey-lgbt-disability-curriculum-trnd/index.html Transportation What most wheelchair users with disability know is that only a quarter of NYC subway stations have elevators. They are also aware that many many of the elevators end up out of service with little to no warning and poor information as to when they will be repaired. In January, a young mother, Malaysia Goodson,
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is your Disability Report for the week of February 19, 2019. Housing/International On January 25th, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released a landmark decision in S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing […]
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is your Disability Report for the week of January 7, 2019. Healthcare The Missouri Legislative session starts on January 9. Legislation has been pre-filed for the upcoming session that would expand insurance coverage for developmentally disabled individuals. Therapy for most developmental disabilities can cost up to $100 an hour with individuals sometimes needing multiple sessions a week; sometimes for months or even years. Think about speech therapy or occupational therapy or physical therapy…these are just not one-and-done types of activities. And Insurance plans tend to cap coverage at 20 visits. To make up for that, some families are trying to pay out of pocket and that can total up to more than $15,000 a year. In 2010, Missouri lawmakers passed a law that provided insurance coverage for therapy for those on the Autism spectrum. The new bill expands that coverage to include those with any developmental disability so would cover conditions such as cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome. https://www.missourinet.com/2019/01/02/missouri-group-backs-legislation-to-cover-kids-developmental-disabilities/ Education Mental Health and Schools. Over and over we are told that mental health is as critical as physical health. Nowhere is this as critical as in our school systems. Federal funding in Title IV, Part A of the Every School Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed in 2015 includes a flexible block grant program known as Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (SSAEG). These grants would cover activities in three areas: Programs such as college and career counseling, STEM, arts, civics and International Baccalaureate/Advanced Placement. Mental health, drug and violence prevention, training on trauma-informed practices, and health and physical education. Supporting the effective use of technology that is backed by professional development, blended learning and ed tech devices Roland-Story students in Iowa will now have access to mental health services with Okerberg and Associates, which will provide the services to the district for a 22-week period. The school board also voted to request funds for at-risk and dropout prevention. Roland-Story is requesting $246,000 from the state to support this program. What is sad to me is that Roland-Story has requested these funds for over a decade. https://www.amestrib.com/news/20190101/roland-story-approves-agreement-for-mental-health-services Technology As a part of the CVAA (the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010) starting from January 1, 2019, any video and computer games in the US must ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities in regards to communications. Failure to comply will allow complaints to be made to the FCC and possible fines. The International Game Developers Association has just put out some information about how games are affected based on their development progress. In addition to making sure that games are accessible those with disabilities, the creation of the game must have these conditions in mind early in development and involve disabled people in the design or testing process. Should the game not meet the standards and fail to comply, if a customer complains to the Federal Communications Commission or FCC, then it is possible the developer may be fined. (Of course not all games can be made fully accessible, but the FCC’s job is to mediate and look into efforts to fix the issues). https://www.dualshockers.com/cvaa-2019-games-to-be-made-accessible-for-disabilities/ Housing Since the 1970s, in return for access to federal flood insurance, the Federal government requires that all buildings and homes being constructed (or renovated) near water, be built at least as high as 100-year flood levels. In the last few years we’ve been seeing more hurricanes ...
Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. This is your Disability Report for the week of January 7, 2019. Healthcare The Missouri Legislative session starts on January 9. Legislation has been pre-filed for the upcoming session that would expand […]
Today’s show is about Competitive Integrated Employment. What is it? What does the term mean? Where did it come from? And how does it all intersect with the new Workplace Choice and Flexibility for Individuals with Disabilities Act (HR 5658)? INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion around the Workplace Choice and Flexibility for Individuals with Disabilities Act and competitive integrated employment. Including a massive protest on the Hill by disability group ADAPT. What is competitive integrated employment? And why all the fuss? BACKGROUND This issue actually has a fairly long history and involves more than one law so bear with me as I try to give a bit of context. This is about disability employment and it goes all the way back to the early 1930s. During those years, as a way to encourage employment for as many people as possible, the National Industrial Recover Act (NIRA) created a system of certificates that allowed for productivity-based wages for people with disabilities. Basically, if a person with a disability couldn’t make widgets as fast as the non-disabled guy, the company was allowed to pay him less. Sounds like that makes sense, right? Especially, in a country trying to recover from the Great Depression. It gets as many people jobs as possible. This was made permanent in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It is Section 14(c) and formally allows employers to pay wages below the federal minimum to employees who have disabilities. That same year, the Wagner O’Day Act was passed requiring that all federal agencies purchase certain supplies and services from nonprofit agencies who employed people who are blind. Basically, the government HAD to buy the mops and brooms, made by blind people, in these non-profits. The program was expanded in 1971 to include people who have other significant disabilities and renamed the Javits-Wagner O’Day Act (JWOD). It was renamed again in 2006 as AbilityOne. So, let me give you a little idea about how big this industry is. Currently, there are more than 600 of these non-profits who produce products and services under the AbilityOne Program and the Federal government MUST buy these products from them. More than mops and brooms, it is now pencils and paper, military uniforms, and beyond physical products, there are contracts for services like cleaning and cafeteria and commissary work. In FY2015 alone, the Federal Government purchased more $3.2 billion of products and services. The laws about disability employment start to intersect with the general perception that many of the AbilityOne non-profits use Section 14(c) in segregated work centers aka sheltered workshops. To qualify to an AbilityOne non-profit, at least 75% of the work must be done by people who are blind or have other significant disabilities. By using Section 14(c), the labor cost for these companies is significantly lower than comparable private companies who pay “regular rates” for labor. I keep talking about AbilityOne and their non-profits and it seems kind of large and amorphous. To bring this down to reality and to an entity you might be familiar with – Goodwill Industries. Goodwill, you know, where you donate all your old clothes and children’s outgrown toys…they are an AbilityOne non-profit. So now, let me get to the nitty-gritty details of the issue...and a third piece of legislation. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA), was signed into law in 2014. I won’t drown you in all the details but let me highlight a couple of “biggies.” WIOA updates the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The part we are specifically interested in is where it oversees the vocational rehabilitation system which helps people with disabilities get the support and training they might need to get a job.
Today's DIW interview is with Vilissa Thompson, LMSW, and creator of Ramp Your Voice! and #DisabilityTooWhite. She is an amazing writer and activist. Join us as we talk about living a "crippled and intersectional life," what disability means in different communities, her policy passion - black disabled women's health, and how she gets into "good trouble." To learn more about Vilissa, check out her website at: Ramp Your Voice or connect with her on Twitter @VilissaThompson. Bonus! Vilissa just started a Patreon! If you want to support disability activism at the intersection of race and disability and health, here is your opportunity - Ramp Your Voice Patreon Transcript DAY: Hello, and welcome to Day in Washington. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed, and I'm really, really excited to expand the show to including interviews with some amazing people with disabilities. Today's guest is Vilissa Thompson, a licensed master social worker from Winnsboro, South Carolina. Hi! How are you? VILISSA: I'm great, Day. I'm so happy to be on. DAY: Awesome. So just as a quick, short introduction. Vilissa's the founder and CEO of Ramp Your Voice as well as a disability rights consultant, writer, and activist. She's been featured in Essence magazine, Forbes, has appeared in The New York Times and BuzzFeed and The Atlantic, among others. And in addition to her advocacy work, I wanna give a little shout out to the fact that she cohosts a podcast as well, which is Wheelin’ and Dealin’. And it looks at politics from an intersectional lens. Whoo! When do you sleep? VILISSA: I make time to sleep. Self-care is a priority because of all the hectic-ness. So I make time. I do. It's hard, but I do. DAY: I first learned of you through Ramp Your Voice. And those of you who don't, go check out the website right now at RampYourVoice.com. The curriculum that you built. And I was kind of hoping you might tell us a little bit more about that because I'm not sure enough people know about it. VILISSA: Oh, yes. You're talking about the syllabus? DAY: Sorry, yeah. The syllabus as well as a little bit about your website in general. Just the syllabus in particular is one of those things that I think doesn't get enough visibility. VILISSA: Well, with Ramp Your Voice, I created it, soon to be five years on July 19. So I'll be celebrating the 5th anniversary this month. And it was my way of creating a space that was a reflection of the world that I want to see, which were more diverse disabled voices. So it was my way of providing the things I was interested in as a black disabled woman, a social worker, and just someone who's living this very crippled and intersectional life. And with the black disabled woman syllabus, I really created it out of frustration of, particularly white disabled folks asking me why do you focus on black disabled women? Or why the harp on the need to discuss intersected identities by disabled people of color? And I got tired of people asking for this 101 information. So in 2016, and right before #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag went viral, I created the syllabus as a way of being a reference point so that if people had questions, I could be like, "Here. Here's a starting point for you to educate yourself and not ask me to do the labor so that you would understand why black disabled women [unclear] and the black disabled experience as a whole matters and why you need to be more conscious of the way that way that you talk about disability, the way that you bring about disability topics in conferences and panels, etc." So it was my way of not having to be pressured to do the labor that people fail to go to Google for. So I figured just put something together that mattered and that has been widely shared within the past two years, particularly within academia circles, having people really put their bodies of work and it would be a reference point in adding to what existed. DAY: I know the word intersection and intersectional ...
INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. BACKGROUND For those of you who may not know, the Farm Bill is one of the largest and most complex statues we have. It is reauthorized every 5 years. This year, the Farm Bill and all of its programs expire on September 30. It covers food safety and production; it covers crop subsidies, agricultural research, rural development, farm credit, conservation, and nutrition assistance – what we used to call Food Stamps and is now called SNAP the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – which is the focus of this podcast. HISTORY & DETAILS The first ever food stamp program in America began in 1939. The idea was to bridge the gap between the farm surpluses and the hungry, unemployed Americans who were suffering as a result of the Depression. Sounds like a great idea, right? I’m going to pause a moment to personalize the history a bit. The very first person to use these original food stamps, and is a good example of the reasoning behind the program, was Mabel McFiggin. Mabel was an unemployed factory worker from Rochester, New York. She used her stamps to buy surplus butter, eggs and prunes. Over the years, the program has grown and shrunk several times. When there were more people out of work and/or the economy was struggling, more people, including many who were still working (just not making enough), would qualify for Food Stamps. When times are good, fewer people applied to the program. It has changed in format and nomenclature. In 2008 it was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and all mention of coupons and stamps was removed as it had now transitioned to Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards that operate rather like debit cards. Its idea was to increase the food assistance available to impoverished Americans in the wake of the great recession of 2007. So let me take a minute to throw some numbers at you: More than 44 million Americans cannot afford basic food necessities. To put that in terms that are a bit more tangible, that rounds out to about one in eight. Think about that, 1 in 8 people rely on the SNAP program to eat. About 16 percent of households in rural areas participate in SNAP. But the numbers are more than 20% in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oregon and Tennessee – so in those states, it isn’t 1 in 8 but one in five The vast majority of SNAP recipients are either children, seniors, or people with disabilities. While children make up about 50% of recipients overall, six million people with disabilities, many of whom are Medicaid recipients, rely on SNAP. And, just to highlight some of the economic impact of the program – SNAP boosts investment in the food industry. It generated more than half a million jobs in 2017 alone. There’s a great example of this from the Union of Concerned Scientists: “Suppose the economy in Anytown, USA takes a turn for the worse. A factory relocates, or maybe a natural disaster shuts down the town’s major industry for an extended period of time. Many households find that they have less money to spend, and business at local establishments slows. Because of hardships resulting from the economic downturn—perhaps job loss, or reduced hours—some families apply for SNAP benefits. "As those families use SNAP dollars to help put food on their tables, the grocery stores they shop at begin to recover. With more revenue, these stores can hire back staff; resume full operation and pay for operational costs like lighting and refrigeration; and, of course, purchase more food from farmers and distributors to meet growing demand. And as SNAP spending is propagated through the supply chain, each sector that gets a share of that additional money is able to spend more money in turn. CHANGES TO THE SNAP PROGRAM Recently, there have been yet another set of changes being made to S...
Click below to listen to the audio podcast: The Holman Rule and What Does it Mean for America? http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/The-Holman-Rule_edit_final.mp3 Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. In early January, the House of Representatives passed a package of changes to their standing rules. These changes would supposedly enhance the House's ability to exercise its €˜power of the purse'. (Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA)). Adoption of procedural rules is pretty normal for any new congress. However, House Resolution 5, which in addition to attempting to move the Office of Congressional Ethics under more direct Congressional control (and which received significant amounts of public outcry), there was also another provision that's received some media coverage in Washington, but didn't quite capture the same level of attention. The Holman Rule. The final version of House Resolution 5 includes the reinstatement of a very old Rule from 1876, called the Holman Rule. Let me start with some background. Congress tends to work along two tracks: authorizing and appropriating. Authorizing legislation is what we usually think of when we say legislation or bills. Congress members vote on language that authorizes specific events, agencies, projects etc. The second track, which most people might not realize is quite so separate is appropriations legislation which is where congress members vote on what to fund and how much to fund it. The Holman Rule is specific to the appropriations track. It allows lawmakers to bring an amendment to an appropriations bill directly to the House floor that retrenches (meaning reduces) expenditures by: the reduction of amounts of money in the bill; the reduction of the number and salary of the officers of the United States; or the reduction of the compensation of any person paid out of the Treasury of the United States. At its core, it would seem the rule is to address saving money and (from a historical perspective) was used to help get rid of corrupt customs officials. Let me give an example of this. In the 1932 Treasury and Post Office Departments appropriations, there was a provision that said: The offices of comptrollers of customs, surveyors of customs, and appraisers of merchandise (except the appraiser of merchandise at the port of New York), 29 in all, with annual salaries aggregating $153,800, are hereby abolished. The duties imposed by law and regulation upon comptrollers, surveyors, and appraisers of customs, their assistants and deputies (except the appraiser, his assistants and deputies at the port of New York) are hereby transferred to, imposed upon, and continued in positions, now established in the Customs Service by or pursuant to law, as the Secretary of the Treasury by appropriate regulation shall specify. . . . So now that you have an idea of how it works, let's look at how things can get complicated. The goal of the rule is to take care of bloated expenditures and to ensure that the executive branch can address poor actors when it comes to agencies. This is about accountability and it allows any rank and file member to focus on specific programs and offices they deem to be wasteful. An example cited by the Washington Examiner (and if anyone has an example given by a legislator who voted for the amendment I'd prefer that), is the story of Elizabeth Rivera of Puerto Rico. She worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs. After pleading guilty to involvement in an armed robbery she was able to get her job back with the agency and win back pay for the period when she had been off the job. I have to admit, I think that would be great use of the Holman Rule. But does it also risk skewing the executive branch of government and its agencies more and more towards the political?
Listen in to hear Geek Girl Riot’s Day Al-Mohamed take you through a quick Supergirl recap of a cool easter egg you might have missed.
Listen in to hear Geek Girl Riot’s Day Al-Mohamed take you through a quick Supergirl recap of a cool easter egg you might have missed.
This is a Day in Washington #Disability #Policy Podcast. Audio File: http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Executive-Order-on-Gun-Violence-and-2.mp3 The President's Executive Order on Gun Violence and Mental Health Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I'm your host, Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to talk about the President's Executive Orders on gun violence. There are a lot of things that are rolled up into that so I thought it might be useful to break them open a little bit, look at them and see what might be of interest here to the disability community. One of the first things on there is that it talks about processing background checks 24 hours a day, seven days a week and improving notification of local authorities when certain persons unlawfully attempt to buy a gun. This sounds like a really good idea; I know there have been backlogs and it's been difficult to keep up and checks are going through as well as they can, so it really offers some substantial change. Again, the creation of the Internet Investigation Center to better track illegal online firearm sales as well as additional ATF agents for the enforcement and prosecution of gun laws - all sound really good. Of course that one in particular, it will come down to implementation. Does this actually get implemented to ensure it works effectively? Now this next one is the point that made me think; it specifically says: "Increase mental health treatment and reporting to the background check system." Whoa, so including mention, automatically connects the two, "mental health" and "violence." The disability community has repeatedly cited statistics from research and from the government's own reports showing that individuals with mental health conditions are actually more likely to be victims of violence. So the presence of it here sets an expectation that could be problematic. The Administration is proposing a $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care. That sounds pretty good. So here's the real kicker, Social Security will include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons. Riiight (said sarcastically). Social Security will "include information." I have a problem with that. Reading through, there are a few other issues. One was smart gun technology and also anyone who is "engaged in the business" of selling firearms must be licensed and conduct background checks on their customers." But let's go back to the mental health treatment and reporting. So in the last seven years our country's made some fantastic progress in expanding health coverage for many americans and even before that there was the Mental Health Parity Act and the ADA and those were both pushing the way we think about mental health and mental illness, fighting to reduce stigma, increased services, and encouraging people to seek treatment. The reports that SSA along with the Department of Justice will basically include in that database are basically 75,000 people who have a documented (and that's actually 75,000 per year) who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment or have been found by state or federal court to be legally incompetent. It reminds me of the way we treat people who use food stamps and the way I've heard politicians talk about the program and its recipients. They're all about preventing them from being able to buy soda or candy bars or junk food, adding restriction upon restriction. Now we do hear about the few people who may game the system but at the same time we also hear about people who are working two and three jobs and still needing the support that food stamps gives them - to basically put food on the table.
Day in Washington #Disability #Policy Podcast. Update on the #ABLEAct and Crabs in a Barrel. Did we sacrifice #disability community solidarity and the good of the many for the good of the few? http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Able-Act-Update-and-Crabs-in-a-Barre.mp3 Crabs in a Barrel by Ka-Son Reeves Audio File: http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Able-Act-Update-and-Crabs-in-a-Barre.mp3 TRANSCRIPT: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to give a bit of an update on the Able Act. The ABLE Act was signed into law by President Obama on December 3rd, 2014. When Able accounts first came out, I'll admit, from a policy standpoint, I was pretty excited. I even did a video Day in Washington about it. Let me give you the quick details: ABLE Act savings accounts would basically allow people with disabilities (and their families), for perhaps the first time, to be able to save money for things they might need without risking their benefits, including health care. Things like, saving for school, or an accessible van (which let me tell, you I only learned recently how expensive those are), additional personal care services, or assistive technology.among other things. You see, public benefits like Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI), and Medicaid for example require you prove that you're poor. Basically, you can't have more than $2,000 and that isn't just cash, that is any asset or item of value. I still remember a young man I met during rehab. God, he couldn't have been more than 19. He cried over the fact he had to give up his classic car. It was the one thing in his life that was his. He'd rebuilt it from scratch, piece by piece. And now, to get access to a surgery he needed and additional care for his diminishing eyesight, he had to sell it. But, lets get back to the Able accounts. Now, people with disabilities and their families can have these savings accounts, which aren't too different from the tax-exempt college savings accounts that you may be familiar with. Up to $14,000 can be deposited into the account per year up to a total of $100,000 before the individual loses some of their SSI. Another key advantage of the ABLE Act is that people with disabilities need never fear that they would lose their Medicaid. For many, that is the only way they can afford their health and personal care services. So now, let me get to the compromises. Although the monetary limitations mentioned above are also compromises, the largest and the compromise that bothers me the most, is the fact that the ABLE act limits its eligibility to people with significant disabilities who got their disability before turning 26. As of March, more than half of the states are now starting to put regulations in place to create these accounts. Which is good news. I have to admit some disappointment that the Able Act will not do everything that we all once hoped. In a world where X percentage of families with a member with a disability live in poverty, we already see growing economic disparities. As it stands, this bill would seem to benefit mostly those who can afford to use these accounts. Also, although the age limit may be helpful for individuals who are born with disabilities, there are many who acquire significant disabilities after 26 that can have devastating effects on their families and their children. And now, this option is no longer available to them. I understand that this bill had and still has an expensive price tag and decisions had to be made. But this disturbs me in that I wonder if we are sacrificing one part of the community for another. When it came to ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and there was a push to remove Trans individuals from the protection of the legislation,
Day in Washington #Disability #Policy Podcast. #GirlScouts Refuses to Provide #Interpreter Services for #Deaf Member. Have they forgotten their own history?! They were founded by a woman with a significant hearing impairment! (Note from Day: The post is up a little late. It's dated for December but still important!) http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Girl-Scouts-Interpreting-Services-Final.mp3 Because I enjoy the irony, here is an image of the Girl Scout Promise - in Sign Language TRANSCRIPT: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. Together, we will explore and analyze issues of interest to the disability community. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to talk about a lawsuit currently in the 7th Circuit. It involves a young girl, a deaf girl, who uses sign language and it involves the Girl Scouts of America. First, let me start with Juliette Gordon Low. Juliette Gordon Low was the founder of the Girl Scouts of America. Because of chronic ear infections she became deaf in one ear in early adulthood, losing hearing in her other ear in 1886. She was 26 years old. In 1912, she created the Girl Scouts to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place and to create programs for girls of all age levels, races, ethnicities, beliefs, economies, geographies and physical abilities. I bring up Juliette Gordon Low, the deaf founder of the Girl Scouts of America because on December 10th, 2014 the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals heard the oral argument in a case brought on behalf of Megan Runion, a 15 year-old deaf girl who was denied American Sign Language interpreters at Girl Scout meetings. Let me read from the Complaint filed with the US District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division: Megan Runnion is a 12-year-old girl who joined the Girl Scouts when she was in kindergarten. Megan is deaf and communicates using American Sign Language or ASL. For six years, Megan was provided with a sign language interpreter by Girl Scouts for troop meetings and outings, giving her an opportunity equal to her peers to participate in Girl Scout activities. Megan loved being a Girl Scout. Near the start of 2011 to 2012 school year as Megan began sixth-grade, Girl Scouts stopped providing sign language interpreters. Despite requests by Megan's mother to reinstate the interpreter services, Girl Scouts refused. Then, in January of 2012 without warning to Megan or her family, the troop leaders announced that Megan's troop was disbanding. Megan's mother was informed that the troop was being disbanded because of her insistence that the Girl Scouts provide interpreter services for Girl Scout programs and activities. Megan has not been offered placement in a new troop with interpreter services despite her mother requesting such placement. Thus, for the very first time since kindergarten, Megan is not a Girl Scout. You'll notice this case is at the Appellate level. That's because Megan lost at the local district court level. The court said that as a matter of law, Girl Scouts is not "principally engaged in the business of providing education, healthcare, housing, social services, or parks and recreation." All items that they would receive federal financial assistance for and therefore which fall under the purview of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Thereby making it mandatory that they provide interpreter services. Just for a bit of background the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It stablishes a federal program that basically is supposed to improve the lot of individuals with disabilities and among its purposes are, let me quote here: "...to empower individuals with disabilities to maximize employment, economic self-sufficiency, independence, and inclusion and integration into society." So the idea being that if there's an entity who receives feder...
Day in Washington #Disability #Policy Podcast. #Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice (#JJ) System and Access to #Education http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/JJ-Youth-PWD-and-Department-of-Ed-Letter-Final.mp3 TRANSCRIPT: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. Together, we will explore and analyze issues of interest to the disability community. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today, I want to talk about young people with disabilities in the Juvenile Justice system and what the Department of Education is doing to ensure they get their Educational needs met. On December 5th The U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services sent out a letter focusing on the educational needs of students with disabilities who are in correctional facilities and highlighting that the requirements of Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) do apply to these students and it is the responsibility of States, State educational agencies and public agencies (including local educational agencies (LEAs), and responsible noneducational public agencies to make sure students are getting appropriate accommodations. €œThe U.S. Departments of Education and Justice recently stated, the fact that a student has been charged with or convicted of a crime does not diminish his or her substantive rights or the procedural safeguards and remedies provided under the IDEA to students with disabilities and their parents." Absolutely! The letter also provides information regarding technical assistance and other relevant resources to help with these students' reintegration into the school setting or participation in programs. Now let me pause and say that students with disabilities represent a large portion of students in correctional facilities. National reports put it at about 1/3 of the population of students in juvenile facilities with some having as few as 9% and others as high as 78%. Let me give you my top 7 key points made in this letter regarding IDEA, Part B requirements, as they pertain to students with disabilities: Absent a specific exception, all IDEA protections apply to students with disabilities in correctional facilities and their parents Every agency at any level of government that is involved in the provision of special education and related services to students in correctional facilities must ensure the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education, even if other agencies share that responsibility. States must have interagency agreements or other methods for ensuring coordination so that it is clear which agency or agencies are responsible for providing or paying for services necessary for these students with disabilities in correctional facilities. State Education Agencies must exercise general supervision over all educational programs for students with disabilities in correctional facilities (unless covered by an exception) to ensure that their educational programs meet State education standards and IDEA, Part B requirements (and that also means ensuring that those same students are included in general State and district assessments. States and their public agencies must have procedures in place to identify, locate, and evaluate students who are in correctional facilities who may have a disability under the IDEA and are in need of special education and related services. Remember that wide variance in percentages of students with disabilities in correctional facilities I mentioned earlier 9% to 78%. Part of the reason for that maybe be related to the question of how much has been invested in identifying and assessing students for disabilities versus assumptions that it is behavioral or that they're problem kids.just a bit of opinion there. Unless there is a specific exception, all IEP content requirements apply to students with d...
Day in Washington Disability #Policy Podcast. National #Disability #Employment Awareness Month (#NDEAM) http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/NDEAM-Final.mp3 Audio file: http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/NDEAM-Final.mp3 TRANSCRIPT: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington. DIW is your disability policy podcast exploring and discussing issues and articles of interest to the community. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month or NDEAM. Held each October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is a national campaign that raises awareness about disability employment issues and celebrates the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities. NDEAM's roots go back to 1945, when Congress enacted a law declaring the first week in October each year "National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week." Whereas Public Resolution No. 176, 79th Congress, approved August 11, 1945, provides in part: "That hereafter the first week in October of each year shall be designated as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. During said week, appropriate ceremonies are to be held throughout the Nation, the purpose of which will be to enlist public support for and interest in the employment of otherwise qualified but physically handicapped workers": Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people of the United States to observe the week of October 7-13, 1945 as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. I ask the governors of States, mayors of cities, heads of the various agencies of the Government, and other public officials, as well as leaders in industry, education, religion, and every other aspect of our common life, during this week and at all other suitable times, to exercise every appropriate effort to enlist public support of a sustained program for the employment and development of the abilities and capacities of those who are physically handicapped. In 1962, the word "physically" was removed to acknowledge the employment needs and contributions of individuals with all types of disabilities. In 1988, Congress expanded the week to a month and changed the name to "National Disability Employment Awareness Month." I struggled a bit with what more to say for this podcast and thought that it might make more sense to have someone else speak. So, Congressman Jim Langevin, perhaps one of the most visible Congress members with a disability spoke at the Library of Congress for NDEAM a few years ago. I want to begin by sharing a bit of my personal story - what led me to Congress and why the issues of empowerment and accessibility are so important to me. Growing up in Rhode Island, I dreamed of a career in law enforcement. That hasn't worked out exactly as I had planned, but life seldom does. When I was sixteen, I was accidentally shot while working as a police cadet Explorer Scout. An officer, thinking the gun he was handling wasn't loaded, pulled the trigger to test it. It turned out there was a bullet in the chamber, and that bullet severed my spinal cord. I've been paralyzed ever since. At first, I was convinced that that gun, and this chair, had ruined my dreams. But I learned that a badge and a gun aren't the only ways to make a difference. You can also change the world with a ballot... a pen... a creative mind. . My work in government has flowed from the fundamental idea of personal empowerment. It's about giving people the tools they need to pave their own way. To me, that's the role of government: not to give people a hand out, but a hand up. giving people the tools to pave their own way to success. What we see here today, as the Library pays tribute to the historic leaders of the disability movement and the everyday heroes in our own schools, workplaces and communities,
Day in Washington Disability Policy Podcast. People with Disabilities and Military - New happenings in 2014. http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/14-8-26-PWDs-in-Military.mp3 Audio file: http://dayinwashington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/14-8-26-PWDs-in-Military.mp3 Transcript: Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. Together, we will explore and analyze issues of interest to the community. I'm your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed. Today's topic is people with disabilities in the military. I wrote about this some last year. You see, around June of last year, Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, lifted the ban on women in combat. Women would be allowed equal opportunity to participate in combat operations. There have been a variety of responses from the public, but I think that in general most people are generally in favor of the change. And to be fully honest, it wasn't like this was not happening already. There are women medics, women Military Police (MPs)), women helicopter pilots and women in other positions who, while not officially part of combat units are attached to such units or operating under the same or similar conditions. To ignore that reality is to denigrate their risks and their sacrifices. That discussion lead to the question of If we are allowing women in to combat, when will we allow people with disabilities to serve? It would seem that the question has become more than an academic exercise. Senator Tom Harkin spoke about this with Leon Panetta just this year The idea may sound laughable to some in the general public but the call to serve is just as strong among people with disabilities as any other community. Keith Nolan, a young man who is deaf who also happened to be a top performer in the California State University ROTC program as a part of a TED Talk said, All I really want to do is join the Army. I want to do my duty, serve my country and experience that camaraderie, and I can't, owed to the fact that I'm deaf. And he isn't alone. There's even a Facebook Page for people with disabilities who want to join the military. Corporal Garrett S. Jones, an amputee who was injured in 2007 by an insurgent's bomb during his unit's deployment to Iraq, shows his prosthetic leg. Jones is a 23-year-old Newberg, Ore., native. (Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Ray Lewis) The Army's Continue on Active Duty (COAD) program is putting military men with clear, visible disabilities back into combat, and retaining and retraining others for other forms of active duty. As of June last year, sixty-nine amputees have returned to active duty. Also of note, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, a 100-year old, 47,000-man (and woman) garrison is now commanded by Colonel Gregory D. Gadson. Colonel Gadson is a double-amputee. Perhaps even more impressive is Marine Corporal Garret S. Jones' recovery and redeployment to a combat zone after losing a leg. With those preliminary programs already in place and courageous soldiers continuing on in their chosen duty, it was perhaps not surprising to hear Secretary Panetta's response. On July 30th of this year, Representative Mark Takano filed H.R.5296 a bill to require a demonstration program on the accession as Air Force officers of candidates with auditory impairments. It mirrors a December 2013 bill from Senator Harkin. A promising project. If an individual with a disability is qualified and capable of meeting the responsibilities and selective criteria that may be necessary for certain jobs and positions, then why not? However, I doubt the issue is quite so simple. I say this because all one has to do is do an internet search to find the discussion on military forums and the response is much more negati...
Assistance dogs go to work every day in workplaces throughout the country. In recognition of the 2011 International Assistance Dog Week (IADW), the U.S. Department of Labor (www.dol.gov/odep) recognized these hardworking dogs! Join Marcie and Whistle as Day Al-Mohamed, Senior Policy Advisor and her guide dog, Vinny, stop by to talk about the innovative way the Department of Labor honored assistance dogs for IADW and all the awesome work they are doing to support the employment of individuals with disabilities. More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - U.S. Department of Labor Honors 2011 International Assistance Dogs Week with Marcie Davis
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