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RespectAbility Submits Testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Intersections of Students of Color with Disabilities

Washington, D.C., Jan. 17 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, submitted testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in strong support of ending the disproportionate, unjust and counterproductive use of suspensions and expulsions for children with disabilities and students of color.

“The continued use of these tools of exclusion worsens educational outcomes and decreases safety for all students,” RespectAbility’s President, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, wrote. RespectAbility advocates for the 1-in-5 Americans who have a physical, intellectual, sensory, learning, attention, mental health or other disability. This includes six million students with diagnosed disabilities who are enrolled in America’s public schools.
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Rockville, Md., Nov. 30 – A brand new and very important study from Cornell University focuses on intersectionality around youth of color and English-as-a-Second-Language learners with disabilities. The fact is that often people see only race and ethnicity when they think about marginalized communities, and forget that disability impacts every ethnic group, gender identity/orientation and race.

On Friday, December 8, beginning at 9:00 am ET, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold a public briefing: The Intersection of Students of Color and Students with Disabilities, and School Discipline Policies. Current data suggests that school discipline practices have had a profoundly negative impact on students of color and students with disabilities, and that students of color with disabilities face even higher disproportionate impact from discipline practices than white students with disabilities. This causes a lot of students to either be expelled or drop out, which links to the data you see below, which is a result of the school-to-prison pipeline. This public session will live-stream and there will be call-in line (listen-only): 800-479-9001, conference ID 8362937. If attending in person, you should RSVP to publicaffairs@usccr.gov.

RespectAbility’s own white paper, Disability & Criminal Justice Reform: Keys to Success, showed that more than 750,000 people with disabilities are behind bars in America today. Find a special report on it from the PBS NewsHour.

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Michelle Rodriguez on set

Rockville, Md., Oct. 16 – The country just finished celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15, 2017 and ended October 15, 2017. National Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrates their heritage and culture. It is important to note this includes 4,869,400 Latinos living with a disability in the U.S.

Only 37 percent of working-age Latinos with disabilities are employed in the U.S., compared to 73.9 percent of working-age Latinos without disabilities. This is in line with the rest of the country, with fully one-in-five Americans having a disability and just 30 percent of those who are working-age being employed, despite polls showing that most of them want to work.

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Learning from Meyer Foundation Program Officer Julian A. Haynes

Julian A. Haynes with RespectAbility Fellows and Staff

Rockville, Md., Sept. 6 – How is it that income for Wisconsin’s wealthiest one percent grew by 120 percent between 1979 and 2013, while the income for the remaining 99 percent grew by just 4 percent? Why is it that 12.8 percent, twice the national average of 6.7 percent, of Wisconsin’s African-American men are incarcerated in state prison or local jails while only 1.24 percent of white men are imprisoned? More importantly, how can I help solve these problems of inequality?

Julian A. Haynes speaking to RespectAbility Fellows

The courage to ask these uncomfortable questions is what led Julian A. Haynes, a passionate advocate from Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue work focused on addressing the unfortunate reality of racial and economic disparities.

Haynes began his work in the nonprofit sector as a project coordinator with the United Way of Dane County in Madison, Wisconsin where he worked to ensure county residents had ready access to a variety of social services and programming. He later continued his career as a program associate on the education team at the Kresge Foundation, and then as an associate director of programs and policy at Achieving the Dream, a national reform network dedicated to community college student success and completion. He is currently a program officer at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation.

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Calvin Harris Elected as Chair, Succeeding Donn Weinberg; New Board Member Ronald Glancz, Deeply Seasoned Leader in the Nonprofit Community, Elected Treasurer

New members include cross section of national leaders from Hollywood, public policy, philanthropy, communications and the private sector

Calvin Harris, Chair

Rockville, Md., July 19 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, today announced the additions of new members to the boards of directors and advisors, as well as new officers. Notably, Calvin Harris has been elected to be the chair of RespectAbility. He follows co-founder Donn Weinberg, whose impact on RespectAbility and the disability sector has been indispensable.

“We are deeply grateful for Donn Weinberg’s leadership and delighted that he will remain as chair emeritus,” stated RespectAbility President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi. “ Meanwhile, we are extremely excited for Calvin Harris to assume the role as board chair, as well as the additional high level perspectives and personalities that will join him on RespectAbility’s board of director and advisors.”

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Born This Way Nominated for Six 2017 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program

Born This Way Cast

Rockville, Md., July 18 – For the cast of Emmy award-winning Born This Way and others with disabilities, acquiring a sense of financial stability is important in being able to live an independent life.

Born This Way, a reality TV show just nominated for six Emmy awards, including again for the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, which the show won in 2016, is centered on seven young adults with Down syndrome living their day-to-day lives, all while pursuing their passions, following their dreams and defying stigmas. In the final episode of season three, Megan and her mother Kris learn about opening an A Better Life Experience (ABLE) account. ABLE accounts are savings accounts designed specifically for people with disabilities and their families to aid them in financial independence.

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National Leadership Program, Summer 2017

Amelia Heiden

Amelia Heiden was a Policy Fellow with RespectAbility, where she helped to create an innovative Community of Practice in Long Beach, California, with the ultimate goal of creating a national model of success while advancing opportunities for the people and community of Long Beach.

Heiden is a disabled Afro-Latina who has lived with Epilepsy since she was eighteen months old. Her passion and drive for advocacy and activism stems from her life experiences of overcoming adversity and discrimination as result of her disability, racial-ethnic and cultural background.

Heiden’s ability to face and overcome adversity has taught and motivated her to bring awareness to the social and systemic issues that have a negative impact on the disabled community. Heiden is also a first-generation American born. Her unique and diverse background and life experiences have allowed her to address topics of intersectionality within the disability community by talking about how policies affect subgroups within the disability community.

Heiden graduated from the University of South Dakota with a B.A in Psychology and a B.S in Addiction Studies. As part of a graduation requirement, she interned with the Department of Justice at the Federal Bureau of Prisons RDAP (residential drug and alcohol program).

Heiden has been attending public speaking events on disability and special education since her sophomore year of college. Her undergraduate research project on Epilepsy Awareness in Higher Education has been published in multiple media outlets. Heiden has numerous projects with the Epilepsy Foundation to help encourage and empower youth with Epilepsy to achieve their dreams.

Heiden dreams of becoming a disability rights advocate on Capitol Hill to work toward bettering the lives of those in the disability community. She would like to go back to school to work toward her J.D. to become a Disability and Human Rights attorney.

Heiden profiled Gerard Robinson, a guest speaker for the 2017 Summer Fellowship. Read it on our website: Mindfulness and its Impact to Create Change – A Conversation with American Enterprise Institute’s Gerard Robinson.

Learn More About The National Leadership Program

Watch #BornThisWay on A&E, Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. ET. 

View Education Resources on Disability Issues

Rockville, Md., June 27 — In the U.S., schools were not required to provide special education until 1975. Today, the fight for inclusive education remains a constant battle for parents and students. Born This Way, a reality television show that stars seven diverse young adults with Down syndrome, shines the spotlight on the importance of inclusive education and the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process.

Ensuring children with disabilities receive the education and training they need to succeed is vitally important. Nationally, only 65 percent of students with disabilities graduate high school each year compared to 86 percent of student without disabilities. That means there is 21-point gap in outcomes. Furthermore, only seven percent of students with disabilities graduate college. As such, educators have a critical role to play in empowering more students with disabilities to succeed.

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Watch #BornThisWay on A&E, Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. ET. 

View Sexual Education Resources for People with Disabilities.

Rockville, Md., June 19 – Sexual education for young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities is extremely important. Born This Way, a reality television show that stars seven diverse young adults with Down syndrome, is doing its part to highlight this.

According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, an average of 59,000 adults with disabilities are raped or sexually assaulted each year. Approximately half of all adults with cognitive disabilities will experience 10 or more sexually abusive incidents in their lifetime.

The upcoming episode of Born This Way on June 20, 2017 highlights the importance of sexual education as it relates to dating and marriage. The cast speaks with Terri Couwenhoven MS, CSE, a well known sex educator and author. Couwenhoven specializes in the design and implementation of sexuality programs and resources for people with cognitive disabilities, their parents and the professionals who support them.

In coordination with Couwenhoven, RespectAbility has released a lengthy guide featuring resources for sexual education for children, teenagers and adults with disabilities, with a focus on those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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