Barely 29,000 new jobs for people with disabilities in 2018.

• Only 29,893 people with disabilities entered the workforce in 2018, a ten-fold decrease compared to the more than 343,000 new jobs for people with disabilities two years ago.
• Arizona saw the biggest job gains of any state, adding more than 17,000 people with disabilities to the state’s economy.
• At the same time, California saw the biggest job losses among people with disabilities, with more than 21,000 workers with disabilities leaving the labor force.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 24 – New statistics show that job gains among Americans with disabilities have dramatically fallen compared to previous years of sustain growth. The Disability Statistics Compendium, released earlier this month by the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, shows that the national disability employment rate has only risen to 37.6 percent compared to 37 percent last year. [continue reading…]

Kick-starting the month of February and the recognition of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAAIM), President Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin of Israel met with a group of young men and women from the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) volunteer corps. The honored guests met with the president for demonstrating their unwavering willpower and determination to proudly serve their country despite their disabilities.

Among the 20 soldiers present at the reception was Liron Natan of Jerusalem, who serves at the Palmachim Air Force Base as part of Special in Uniform, the IDF’s world-acclaimed inclusion program. During the meeting, President Rivlin invited Liron to share her heartwarming story. [continue reading…]

Zack Gottsagen First Actor with Down syndrome to Present an Award While Tobias Forrest and Victoria Canal Broke Additional Barriers in Performance

Los Angeles, Feb. 13 – When actor Zack Gottsagen presented an award alongside The Peanut Butter Falcon co-star Shia LeBeouf Sunday evening, he made history as the Academy Awards’ first presenter with Down syndrome. The Peanut Butter Falcon provides cultural relevance on issues important to the disability community such as independence while creating wide-reaching impact. The film has grossed more than $20 million and holds an approval rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes – showing that casting authentically can lead a studio to financial and critical success.

Neither Gottsagen nor the film were nominated for an Oscar, however, which Emily Kranking raised in an article about the lack of disability being included in conversations about diversity at the Oscars. In 1993, Educating Peter, a film that follows third-grade student Peter Gwazdauskas, who lives with Down syndrome, won the Oscar for best documentary short. [continue reading…]

“It’s nice to have an ally like RespectAbility that sees a need and then takes the necessary steps to help inclusion across multiple platforms—not only in film and television, but also in the political arena.”

– John Lawson

John Lawson, a self-advocate, has been an integral part of RespectAbility’s team fighting stigmas in Hollywood. He has participated in panels discussing disability and representation in the media; accompanied RespectAbility’s vice president of communications to meetings with various studio heads and network officials; and recently participated in RespectAbility’s inaugural Summer Lab Program. John says the Lab program has been the highlight of his time with RespectAbility so far, because he has had the opportunity to be both a mentor and a participant. [continue reading…]

Erev-JDAD participants

Washington, D.C., Feb. 7 – More than 80 Jewish disability advocates joined together for the inaugural Erev JDAD – the eve before Jewish Disability Advocacy Day – to discuss a variety of important topics regarding disability inclusion. Having surveyed attendees’ interests beforehand, hot topics covered twice-over were civic engagement and advocacy, leadership development, synagogue inclusion, and employment. Other topic discussions included self-advocacy, housing, fundraising, early childhood education, Jewish camping, and fighting stigmas.

While JDAD – a day of civic education and lobbying organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism – has been in existence for 10 years, this is the first formal gathering bringing some of the advocates that come in from across the country together to collaborate. Conceived by RespectAbility, the idea of Erev JDAD was to enable JDAD attendees from around the country to be able to have more time to network with each other – sharing their community’s best practices and planting the seeds for new ones. [continue reading…]

174,000 people with disabilities live in New Hampshire

Manchester, NH, February 7 – Tonight, as seven candidates prepare to take the stage in the first Democratic debate after the Iowa caucus, RespectAbility’s Ben Spangenberg and Justin Chappell will be in the media spin room trying to get candidates on the record on disability issues. They are there on behalf of The RespectAbility Report, an online publication at the intersection of U.S. politics and disability.

Spangenberg has been with RespectAbility for more than four years, and currently serves as the director of its National Leadership Program for college students and recent graduates who want to become future leaders in the disability community. He and Chappell married two weeks after Spangenberg joined the staff. Together, they previously covered debates in the 2016 Election cycle, meeting all major candidates on both sides of the isle.

“People with disabilities have been historically underrepresented in political campaigns, debate and coverage for far too long. I look forward to asking the candidates about policy changes that matter to the disability community,” said Ben Spangenberg. [continue reading…]

Shabbat Shalom,

This Shabbat begins the month of February, better known to the Jewish disability world as JDAIM, Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month (the “A” now stands for two words). It is a month full of activity in the Jewish world. As this Shabbat comes to a close, I will fly from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., both to attend Jewish Federation of North America’s Jewish Disability Advocacy Day (JDAD) and to co-host Erev-JDAD, a gathering the eve before, of nearly 80 JDAD attendees, to brainstorm around pressing issues facing the Jewish disability community, and to invigorate collaboration. I will report back on that in next week’s Shabbat Smile, but for this week I wanted to make a pitch to you about the importance of making sure that this work is a year-round endeavor. [continue reading…]

It’s a great time for those of us who care about people with disabilities. Our voter guide is out and you can see it and much more at www.VoteAbility.com. I also just heard from my friend and disability hero, Howard Blas who is Director-National Ramah Tikvah Network, about some very exciting projects. The first is that the Ramah team is continuing to grow their vocational training for people with disabilities. Secondly, his project on identifying creative job sites for people with disabilities continues. You can check out many success stories here: https://howardblas.com/disabilities/job-sites/

Soon Howard is off to Tanzania to climb Kiliminjaro with a fabulous Israeli disability organization, Access Israel. Check out the press release below. WOW, right? They are going to have a blast.
[continue reading…]

Ash Williams with RespectAbility Staff and Fellows

Rockville, Maryland, January 24 – Gender education is necessary to creating an inclusive and safe space free of hatred where trans people can fully participate in their place of work. Ash Williams visited RespectAbility and delivered a three-hour long training on the importance of gender-based terminology, pronouns, advocacy, inclusion and intersectionality.

Williams divided us into four groups to talk about gender-based terminology. Each group was given two words and the groups shared what those words meant to them. Words included transition, cis, transphobia, trans-misogyny, and trans. Ash recalled multiple workshops where people had hesitation over how words were defined for them so this activity expresses the importance of gender terminology being used contextually and not in a vacuum defined by others.

At RespectAbility it is common for people to introduce themselves with their names and pronouns at meetings, a practice that was put in place earlier this year prior to this Fellowship cohort. When someone asked about not being asked to identify their pronouns – in this situation because this individual was fluid in the pronouns this individual chose to use on any given day – Williams shared the importance of increasing choice by asking future Fellows to “share your pronouns if you want to.” Williams also added that the word “preferred” should never be used when asking for pronouns because a person’s pronouns are the only way they can be addressed. Using “preferred” waters down the importance and makes it harder for trans people to be present in the room. Williams also advised adding “is there anything else you want us to know about you so we can better support you” to our accommodation request forms. [continue reading…]