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Edmond’s Super Scoop ice cream store

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oct. 12 – Edmond’s Super Scoop ice cream store will continue their tradition of hiring people with disabilities in a new merger with Hank’s Coffee Shop. “So often we forget they are left out,” says the Executive Director of the newly merged store, Not Your Average Joe, about people with disabilities.

Not Your Average Joe is one such example of how Oklahoma is improving its employment rate for people with disabilities.

127,608 working-age Oklahomans with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 37.6 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help raise this percentage.

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Washington, D.C., Oct. 11 – At North Carolina State University, 321 Coffee is a nonprofit coffee shop fully staffed by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities getting payed above minimum wage. CEO Lindsay Wrege is working to open a store front to create more opportunities for people with disabilities.

321 Coffee is an exception, however, as the vast majority of North Carolinians with disabilities are out of work. This month is the perfect time to examine why.

232,875 working-age North Carolinians with disabilities are employed, putting the state’s disability employment rate at 33.8 percent. That total includes people who are blind or deaf or have other visible conditions such as spinal cord injuries, as well as people with invisible disabilities including learning disabilities, mental health or Autism.

As such, Gov. Roy Cooper has declared October as Disability Employment Awareness Month to help raise this percentage. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Oct. 11 – Award-winning producer Diana Romero has worked in the industry for more than a decade. When she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), she approached it the only way she knew how – with a sense of humor.

“When I started having issues with my legs, I withdrew from everything, because of a feeling of shame and embarrassment, mostly coming from not knowing how to live life without the use of my legs,” Romero said in an interview with RespectAbility. “It wasn’t until I decided to travel alone for six weeks that I regained confidence and then took it to the stage. Because I know a lot of people who don’t have disabilities look at me and they think, I wonder what’s wrong with her. I want people to see what my everyday life is. I want people to hear what I deal with…look at the things that happened to me in a humorous way…to me that’s healing… I don’t dwell on it; it doesn’t keep me depressed.” [continue reading…]

• 85% of voters find it very or somewhat important that presidential candidates have campaign events and websites that are open and accessible to people with disabilities, just like everyone else.

• 73% of voters are more likely to support candidates for elected office who will make ensuring that children with disabilities get the education and training they need to succeed a priority.

• 70% of voters are more likely to support candidates for elected office who will make expanding job and career opportunities for people with disabilities a priority, so they can succeed just like anyone else.

Rockville, Maryland, Oct. 10, 2019 – A new poll reveals that 85 percent of registered voters say it is very or somewhat important to them that presidential candidates have campaign events and websites that are open and accessible to people with disabilities, just like everyone else. Voters with disabilities themselves are more enthusiastic about participating in the 2020 elections (52 percent), four points higher than the national average. Despite both of these data points, none of the presidential candidates on either side have made their websites and social media fully accessible to voters with disabilities. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Oct. 10 – NBC’s Perfect Harmony is, at heart, a show about saving and being saved. The show was billed as being about former Princeton University music professor Arthur Cochran (Bradley Whitford) saving an out-of-tune church choir, but the choir, led by Ginny (Anna Camp) ends up saving him back.

An important subplot revolves around Ginny – her love life and her son, who often gets in trouble for acting out at school. Arthur discovers the reason for her son Cash (Spencer Allport) getting into fights at school – “having trouble reading.”

“Every time he looks at a page, the letters float around. It’s called dyslexia,” Arthur tells Ginny. “A lot of successful people have had it. Yates, Churchill, Tom Cruise.”

Ginny is relieved, having thought she caused his bad performance at school “by getting a divorce.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 9 – As people with disabilities turn to YouTube to create content and normalize their experiences, Andrea Lausell is quickly becoming a YouTube star for her honest conversations about disability.

For Lausell, disability was not a negative word that her family was afraid to use. In fact, her parents taught her to be proud of it. They told her it was okay not to be able to do something.

“My mom just always said, as a matter of fact, said, ‘I’m disabled,’” Lausell recalled during an interview with RespectAbility, stating how unique that is based on her Latinx culture.

There is not a world in Spanish that describes disability unless it is a negative word like broken or bad, Lausell said, describing how her paternal grandmother was very distant toward her as a child and only speaking Spanish. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 8 – Will Breman introduced himself to America on NBC’s The Voice by identifying that he is on the Autism spectrum through a joke.

“It’s interesting when someone asks, ‘you seem so socially awkward, do you have Asperger’s?’ Because usually that’s my pickup line, since I have it [Asperger’s].” With that joke, Breman began the process of winning over the audience and the coaches on The Voice.

Breman is a singer and songwriter who hails from Santa Barbara, California. In his introductory package, Breman talked about how he has limited interests and how it was difficult not having a lot of friends growing up. He also touched on how some people told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything. With that, Breman was addressing the low expectations that many people with disabilities face. Breman said that “music became [his] biggest solace and helped [him] express [his] feelings in a way that would otherwise not come naturally to [him].” He said the opportunity to be on The Voice and “break those boundaries down” would be “mind-blowing” to his 12-year-old self. [continue reading…]

Eric Winter as Tim Bradford on The Rookie

Los Angeles, Oct. 7 – For a highly regarded police officer, stating that you may have a learning disability may seem tough to do. But by including this as a new storyline on The Rookie, ABC primetime is highlighting a very common disability.

When Officer Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) orders Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) to read him a newly assigned book, telling her “I memorize best when I hear it,” Chen hesitantly tells him, “you might have a learning difference.”

“Technically it’s classified as a disability, but it really just means that you’re wired to process information differently,” she continued. “In your case, through hearing, rather than reading.” [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., Sept. 26 – When The Real World was launched in 1992, it changed the landscape of television, ushering in the modern era of reality television. Produced by Bunim/Murray Productions, the show continues to focus on a group of people who come from different backgrounds living in a house together, with a different city and a different group of people each season. Twenty-seven years later, the show continues to make an impact. Now streaming for free on Facebook Watch, The Real World has arrived in two new places – Mexico and Bangkok, Thailand. And on both new franchises, disability is represented in an accurate and positive way. [continue reading…]