This week we are reading a lot. Its reports galore following releases this week from the National Council on Disability (NCD), the Employment Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Child Mind Institute. Plus, spotlights from others on the wearable device market, supported employment, WIOA’s unified plans for workers with disabilities, and more Americans with Disabilities Act [...]
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What We’re Reading: April 20, 2015
This week the spotlight continues on Netflix, as the streaming video provider responds to calls for accessibility. We’re also working through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)’s Proposed Rule on employer wellness programs, personal accounts from the intersection of the criminal justice and mental health systems, accessible design, and more. Netflix announced it is rolling [...]
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What We’re Reading: March 30, 2015
This week we’re following the latest on the home care regulation, plus a new proposal to align the Affordable Care Act’s wellness provisions with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008; more on the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) fix and empowering workers with disabilities. The Obama administration is [...]
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What We’re Reading: Feb. 23, 2015
This week we’re reading about reporting standards for schools, new resources for advancing employment of people with disabilities, transparency and healthcare reform, and more. Schools held to more stringent academic reporting standards are more likely to mainstream children with disabilities by as much as 16 percentage-points higher, according to a new study featured on Disability Scoop. [...]
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What We’re Reading: Feb. 9, 2015
This week we’re reading a slew of new federal reports on SSDI, employment and mental health, plus making design and technology accessible. As Congress and the White House tee up their respective SSDI reform proposals, the National Council on Disability weighs in with their own: “Securing the Social Contract: Reforming Social Security Disability.” Also released [...]
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What We’re Reading: Jan. 12, 2015
On day one, the new Congress launches an attack on Social Security. The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and [...]
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What We’re Reading: Jan. 5, 2015
Federal court ruling allows minimum wage exemptions for home care companionship services. On December 22, 2014, a federal district court judge vacated part of a federal Department of Labor (DOL) rule preventing home care provider organizations from seeking an exemption to paying minimum wage and overtime. (Open Minds, Jan. 4) Federal hiring of people with [...]
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What We’re Reading: Dec. 22, 2014
Bill boosting financial security for individuals with disabilities clears U.S. House, awaits passage in Senate. When his daughter Audrey was 4 years old, Rick Hodges went to a financial planning seminar — “like a dutiful dad,” he recalled. But he knew immediately it was of no help. “All these plans are designed for people with [...]
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What We’re Reading: Dec. 1, 2014
Michigan delays implementing health care program for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees (The Times Herald, Nov. 25) The Michigan Department of Community Health announced the start date for MI Health Link – the State’s program for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid – will move from Jan. 1, 2015 to March 1, 2015 to make sure it’s [...]
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What We’re Reading: Nov. 24, 2014
Blind from birth, but able to use sound to ‘see’ faces (NPR, Nov. 21) A brain area that recognizes faces remains functional even in people who have been blind since birth, research says. The finding, presented at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting last week, suggests that facial recognition is so important that evolution has hardwired [...]
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