Tech pros with disabilities use creativity to level the field (Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology, Oct. 20)
To companies considering hiring people with disabilities, Laureen Summers says this: “Disabled employees bring a unique perspective and creativity to problem solving that can enhance everyone’s lives.”
Research: Study connects police tactics and mental health concerns (MSNBC, Oct. 16)
A new study in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that there may be a connection between intrusive police practices and mental health. The study found that the people who dealt with the police more also reported dealing with symptoms of trauma and anxiety, and that those symptoms were greater when their interactions with police were more intrusive.
Research: Teens may be taking ADHD meds in response to academic pressure (Huffington Post, Oct. 16)
According to research published this month in the American Sociological Review, middle and high school students are 30 percent more likely to have a prescription filled for stimulant medication during the school year than they are during the summer. However, these rates aren’t uniform across class or location. Students from higher-income families, and students who live in states whose governments more closely monitor school performance, are more likely to only take medication when school is in session.
Opinion: Eight steps schools can take to prevent Autism-elopement tragedy (Huffington Post, Oct. 16)
Most school districts do not have an elopement protocol… After consulting with both local law enforcement and Police and Autism: Bridging the Gap, here’s a protocol I’m suggesting to my child’s school district. I’m calling it the SPECTRUM Alert for Schools. It’s important to note that this alert/code will necessarily look different for each school.
Council gathering information on disability services (Gazette, Oct. 15)
The Maryland Statewide Independent Living Council is trying to collect information about disability-related programs in the state. The council wants to hear from people with disabilities, as well as their family, friends and caregivers. A survey is posted at www.surveymonkey.com/s/KRS3KWZ.
App turns a smartphone into a speech translator for the deaf (Engadget, Oct. 15)
Transcense can translate speech into written words and transcribe it on screen in near real time. To make that possible, the app connects to several phones and activates their mics to capture what everyone’s saying, then it uses voice recognition to assign each person in the group a color for their speech bubbles.
Tennessee families work for disability employment (Daily News Journal, Oct. 14)
Tennessee’s Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities held an Employment First conference October 15 to bring stakeholders together as a part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
White House to spotlight disability employment (Disability Scoop, Oct. 13)
Ten people from across the country will be honored at the White House this week for their efforts to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities… include[ing] a veteran with a disability who runs his own organic egg business, managers from Walgreens, Procter & Gamble and Microsoft who have taken steps to boost disability employment within their ranks and the founder of a company that helps ensure that the digital systems businesses use are accessible.
Opinion: Fixing the broken mental health system (Huffington Post, Oct. 13)
Access to humane mental health and substance use treatment must be provided in local, community-based treatment settings, not jails or prisons, nursing homes, shelters, or long-term hospitals.
Connecticut renews efforts to find employers for persons with disabilities (The Day, Oct. 11)
Jonathan Slifka, just named this week as chairman of the Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, said he is hoping to convince more companies statewide that hiring the disabled is a sound business practice.
Breaking the taboo: It’s time to talk about mental health (CNN, Oct. 10)
On World Mental Health Day, around the globe many of us, perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions, will be raising awareness of mental health issues to challenge outdated views, and to put an end to life-limiting, and sometimes life-threatening, stigma and discrimination that’s still attached to having a mental health problem in so many countries and communities.
Mental illness, homelessness, drug addiction: Do these sound like crimes? (The Nation, Oct. 9)
As mental-health services disappear across the country, it is the police departments, the court system and the prisons that, more and more, are charged with care for those with mental illnesses.
Government makes disability employment agreement universal (Bloomberg, Oct. 9)
[Israeli] Economy Minister Naftali Bennett has expanded a union-inspired agreement on hiring of people with disabilities to the entire Israeli workforce… Bennett has now required all Israeli workplaces with at least 100 employees to ensure that the[y] comprise at least 2 percent of their workforces within a year and 3 percent within two years.
Vermont closed workshops for people with disabilities; what happened next? (Public Source, Sep. 28)
The sheltered workshops that are still prevalent in Pennsylvania were shut down in Vermont more than a decade ago. And now, the employment rate of people with developmental disabilities in the New England state is twice the national average.