Ben and I worked for the same organization, but we chose to be friends and work-siblings! I will cherish our goofy conversations, our joyful chats, our sad times, and our shared love of all the Fellows who came through our program.

Some of our funniest conversations had our beloved cats involved. I remember helping Ben use a lint roller on his then-new wheelchair because a certain little Miss Madison had decided she liked his new orange wheels! We both had fur all over us, and we just started laughing so loudly that we interrupted a meeting in the office next door and got shushed. Which made us laugh even more (after we shut the office door!). [continue reading…]

Theresa Soares

In celebration of our newsletter edition on disability and religious education, my colleagues, Shelly Christensen and Ben Bond, invited me to share a brief reflection on my own personal experience, from being a young Catholic with a reading disability in both public and private school, and through my journey of becoming an advocate for disability inclusion in college and now into my career. This opportunity to share my story among our community is not only a privilege, but also a beautiful reflection of the strong culture of belonging that is at the core of our work at RespectAbility. I’m grateful to my colleagues for their invitation and am happy to share my story with you in this special newsletter.

My story begins as a kid growing up in the occasionally sunny, but more often foggy, beachside town of Pacific Grove, California. I had the opportunity to attend public elementary school where I first experienced difficulties learning to read. This challenge came as a surprise to my teachers and family who had otherwise observed that although I was struggling to read, I was bright and enthusiastic about learning, especially having displayed an expansive vocabulary and conversational aptitude for a young person. Through early intervention and the support of my teachers, I was tested through my district, and diagnosed with dyslexia. With the diagnosis came the opportunity to have accommodations and support services for my disability which I desperately needed in order to learn to read and write at grade level and keep up with my peers. School was challenging, and as a young student I remember long hours at the kitchen table after school, struggling to read through my homework, sometimes, I would close my eyes and imagine as a youngster, a place where reading wasn’t so challenging, where I could read like the other kids. [continue reading…]

Victoria White

Have you ever been at a staff meeting to plan an event, class, service, or project, and one voice spoke clearly at just the right moment: “Have we thought about how this will affect [insert name of particular individual or group you are thinking about]?” Perhaps you have been that voice. In seeking to include students with varied abilities in Christian schools, WITH Ministries has pioneered inclusive education for forty years, and inclusive worship in congregations for ten years. There are many great ideas from the world of educational inclusion that can be used to welcome, include, and support full participation of people of all abilities in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is not complete without each piece. At WITH Ministries, we quote 1 Corinthians 12, verse 18 (“God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted them to be.”) and verse 27 (“You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”) We even use a call-to-worship from Romans 15:7 (“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God,”) urging each one to “make Heaven a noisier place” by bringing praise to God through the acceptance of His children. All of His children, of all abilities. That means thinking about how worship and teaching practices will impact persons with varied abilities. It means thinking for neurodiverse people, people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health disabilities, and sensory disabilities. [continue reading…]

Howard Blas

The profile of bar and bat mitzvah recently got a boost thanks to Adam Sandler’s 2023 movie You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. While the movie takes a playful look at how plans for a girl’s bat mitzvah unravel over a popular boy, the institution of bar and bat mitzvah has been around for generations and is quite natural, simple, and free from drama. There are many options for making bar and bat mitzvah “customized” to the needs of each learner.

Many bar and bat mitzvahs take place in a synagogue or temple on a Saturday morning. Since the Torah (biblical scroll) is read on other days including Mondays, Thursdays, Jewish holidays, and the first day of each Hebrew month, b’nai (plural for bar and bat mitzvah) mitzvah may be celebrated on a variety of days and in a range of settings. Reading from the Torah is not a requirement. I like to tell families that you don’t “get” bar mitzvahed or “have” a bat mitzvah—you “become” b’nai mitzvah”—even if you stay in your pajamas, under the covers when you turn 13 (12, traditionally, for girls) on the Hebrew calendar. [continue reading…]

Radha Mehta’s brilliant narrative short film, DOSH, follows a hard-of-hearing mother as a night with her husband’s traditional family goes amiss; while spotlighting the fight against familial denialism and damp cold alienation that many Disabled people face — while also maintaining a dark and thrilling plot.

The title, DOSH, is Hindi for “fault.” In the film, the protagonist confronts her mother-in-law about her husband’s mental health hoping for a mother’s support, but she’s quickly shut down. Things go awry when her husband retaliates by ripping the assistive hearing devices from the protagonist’s ears during a pre-wedding ritual. Overall, this an intersectional masterpiece. It weaves the culture of Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities with South-Asian taboos like disability being shameful or a punishment from God, while also leveraging the dramatic tension of a husband and wife in freefall. A pivotal scene at the end of the film depicts the deeply empathetic protagonist kneeling down in the tub with her distraught husband, the one who tossed her assistive hearing devices. [continue reading…]

What do you think about when you are shopping for clothes? Maybe you like wearing specific colors, or have a go-to brand, or perhaps you are thinking about a special event. For many disabled people, while all of that is important to take into consideration, many other factors go into deciding whether to purchase an item of clothing. A pair of jeans might look great on the rack, but how easy are they to put on? Can the buttons on that shirt be fastened without needing to ask for assistance? This outfit looks great, but are the seams and the fabric sensory-friendly? These questions just scratch the surface of the problems that the adaptive fashion industry is trying to solve.

Adaptive fashion is clothing modified with certain features to fit the needs of disabled consumers. There are various types of adaptive clothes to cater to the different types of disabilities. [continue reading…]

Every year, the Rehabilitation Services Administration engages in a reallotment process for the Federal fiscal year, both for vocational rehabilitation funding and for the State Supported Employment Services (Supported Employment) program. This means that every year, even though there are tens of thousands of people going without services, unspent funds are moved from their original state of allocation to another state.

In supported employment alone, 13 state agencies relinquished almost $2.5 million in supported employment funds, up from under $2 million in FY 2022. The relinquishment means that for 13 populations, some of the unserved folks were unserved because their programs lacked the capacity to properly spend the funds to serve them. Learn whether your state agency is relinquishing funds in the chart below. Engage with the agencies in your state to learn what you can do to help, from writing to your state or federal politicians to mobilizing your local disability community. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility’s federal policy advocacy is often done in coalition, ensuring the input of people with disabilities and the power of the disability community at large is appreciated at the federal level. Check out our latest advocacy highlights working in partnership with the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities:

Designating People with Disabilities as a Health Disparity Population

We urged the National Institutes of Health to formally designate people with disabilities as a health disparity population. This proposal would help to reduce health disparities and promote health equity for people with disabilities. This would also align with broader efforts to promote equity for those who are multiply marginalized. [continue reading…]

Spotlight on Service Dogs

September is National Service Dog Awareness Month. Did you know that 500,000 service dogs are tasked with helping their disabled partners every day in the United States? This month and every month, we celebrate the service animals that help our community live more independently and fully participate in all aspects of community.

Monthly Employment Update for People with Disabilities

According to the latest National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE) report:

In August 2023, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities continued to surge to an all-time high of 41.2% compared to 37.6% in August 2022. This continues the substantial growth from last year in the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities as we work towards closing the gap between workers with and without disabilities. Workers without disabilities also increased their labor force participation rate, which was 77.5% in August 2022 and rose to 78.2% in August 2023. [continue reading…]