“Over the last 20 to 30 years, things have changed significantly for people with disabilities, young people especially. They’re much more educated, they’re much more tech savvy, their expectations are very different from the previous generations.”
– Michael Reardon, Office of Disability Employment Policy’s Supervisory Policy Advisor

Washington, D.C., August 30 – During a day-long summit held on Capitol Hill, policymakers explored how current policies affect access to employment for people with disabilities.

The “Public Policy and Jobs for People with Disabilities” discussion featured: Mary Lazare, Principal Deputy Administrator, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Aging, Administration for Community Living (ACL); Rachel Stephens, Program Director of NGA (National Governors Association) Economic Opportunity; Michael Reardon, Office of Disability Employment Policy’s Supervisory Policy Advisor, Employment-Related Support Policy leading the SEED (State Exchange on Employment & Disability) initiative; and Tina Williams, Deputy Director, Office of Federal Contracting and Compliance programs (OFCCP). RespectAbility’s Policy and Practices Director Philip Kahn-Pauli served as moderator. [continue reading…]

Vivian Bass with RespectAbility Staff and Summer 2019 Fellows

Rockville, Maryland, August 26 – Vivian Bass, a member of RespectAbility’s Executive Committee, addressed the RespectAbility National Leadership Fellows on July 30. She discussed three key factors to guide board members and staff in achieving a professional yet open relationship.

The first is mutual respect. As an avid member of RespectAbility’s board along with many other boards, Bass has had plenty of experience with handling these relationships. She said that an organization won’t go anywhere without mutual respect between its board members and staff. Although board members and staff work closely together, there still needs to be a “clear line in the sand” so no one oversteps or gets blindsided by another, she said. [continue reading…]

For this week’s Shabbat Smile, RespectAbility’s president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi offers tips on things parents of children with disabilities and their teachers need to do in order to have a great experience in Hebrew and religious school. This piece was previously published in the Times of Israel. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., August 22 – Entertainment leaders convened at RespectAbility’s 2019 Capitol Hill Summit last month to discuss how they are working to change the media’s portrayal of people with disabilities. The panel featured moderator Jonathan Murray, reality TV pioneer, and panelists Nasreen Alkhateeb, Candace Cable and Teresa Hammond, with a video greeting by the creators of this summer’s breakthrough hit The Peanut Butter Falcon.

Inclusive Education Through Digital Platforms

The panel opened with remarks from Hammond, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of GoNoodle. GoNoodle is a platform utilized in four out of five American classrooms as a classroom management tool. It features a variety of characters, called champs, including the newest addition, Flash Bolton.

Flash is a “lick trick personality, who is up for adventures. He rides a wheelchair and likes all things fast—planes, trains, cars.” RespectAbility played an instrumental part in creating Flash Bolton, who will make his debut this fall to the 14 million children using GoNoodle.

Cable, a self-advocate and 12-time Paralympic medalist, helped develop Flash. She discussed the process of developing an authentic character who uses a wheelchair. Cable acknowledged GoNoodle’s effort in this. She said GoNoodle’s willingness to learn and ask questions was “a great example of authenticity, willingness to try things, and engaging a community so that everyone’s included in this process to get it right.” [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., August 20 – At RespectAbility’s annual disability summit on Capitol Hill, Vincenzo Piscopo, community and stakeholder relations director for the Coca-Cola company, discussed how to transform society’s perceptions of people with disabilities. By changing the labels put on people with disabilities and giving them opportunities, people with disabilities can be just as, or even more, successful than people without disabilities.

Through his work with Coca-Cola, Piscopo has reshaped the meaning of disability by giving people with disabilities the opportunity to define themselves, instead of letting society define and stigmatize them. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., August 19 – “The hardest part is to just start; your impact will be immeasurable,” said Steve Bartlett, a former congressman from Texas who was a primary co-author of the Americans with Disabilities Act and moderated a panel entitled, “Making a Difference.” This panel was part of the summit, “From Washington to Hollywood and Beyond: The Future of Americans with Disabilities,” so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of society.

Bartlett, who represented Texas’s 3rd Congressional District, demonstrated his knowledge and experience on the subject. Showing up and making the initial connections are the most important parts of making a positive difference, both in the world and in one’s personal career, Barlett expressed. For instance, he relayed a powerful story of a chance meeting with a man who offered to volunteer for his campaign on Sunday nights. That man continued to advance in local politics and eventually ran for Barlett’s previously held seat and won, thereby succeeding Bartlett. [continue reading…]

Presents Award to Reality TV Pioneer Jonathan Murray

Washington, D.C., August 17 – California Congressman Brad Sherman spoke to RespectAbility Fellows, staff and supporters as they converged on Capitol Hill for the nonprofit’s annual summit, “From Washington to Hollywood and Beyond: The Future of Americans with Disabilities.”

As the congressman for California’s 30th congressional district, he opened his remarks by talking about Los Angeles as a city.

“It is in Los Angeles where dreams are put on the screen, and where the world’s culture is coming from. And that is a culture which has for far too long stigmatized those with disabilities, and one step at a time, that will change,” he said. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., August 16 – Opening in more than a dozen additional locations this weekend, The Peanut Butter Falcon is pulling in audiences from varied backgrounds. Centered on a marginalized character – Zak (Zack Gottsagen), who has Down syndrome – this film normalizes Zak and his journey precisely because it is presented as a universal dilemma. Zak wants what many others his age want – a chance at pursuing his dreams and independence.

The Drive for Independence

The Peanut Butter Falcon, which premiered at SXSW, is an example of a film providing cultural relevance on issues important to the disability community – and providing the opportunity to create wide-reaching impact. In the beginning of the film, Zak has been living in a residential nursing home for the past two-and-a-half years – a 22-year-old with roommates and friends four times his age. [continue reading…]

Rockville, Maryland, August 15 – RespectAbility today announced a $1.5 million two-year initiative that will allow exceptionally talented adults with disabilities from across the United States to travel to the Washington, D.C. area for a semester-long career-training fellowship. One of the funders, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, has just committed $200,000 over two years to support this program.

Co-authors of the Americans with Disabilities Act with RespectAbility Fellows inside the U.S. Capitol.

RespectAbility, a nonpartisan nonprofit that fights stigma and advances opportunity so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community, will run the training as a part of its proven National Leadership Training Program. Depending on the area of focus that they choose, National Leadership Fellows will have the chance to:

• Enable diverse people with disabilities to get the skills and jobs they need for a better future.
• Fight implicit bias and stigmas by promoting accurate portrayals of people with disabilities in TV, film and the news media.
• Educate philanthropists and nonprofits about how they can include people with disabilities equally in their work.
• Reach out to candidates for Senate, Governor and the Presidency in a nonpartisan way to encourage key conversations about issues that impact millions of people in America who live with a disability.
• Include people with disabilities in faith communities.

[continue reading…]