Tag: Disability In Focus

By: Kelly Stout, Transitional Specialist The Arc CARES Program - The Arc of New Jersey Even though they may learn differently, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are intelligent in their own way. Therefore, I believe people with disabilities have the right to learn about sex education. For people with disabilities, there are many benefits to learning about sex education:

• Learn about the opposite sex
• Reduce vulnerability
... Read more

by Alison Lozano I am clearing out my office in preparation to retire at the end of January. During that process I have discovered many pieces of paper that I have not looked at in many years, most of them are being deposited in the recycling bin. However, while accomplishing that clearing out task I found one important document that unfortunately I have not looked at in several years, my dissertation. In 2000 I presented my dissertation to the faculty of the Graduate School of Social ... Read more

by Norman Reim What Are We Waiting For? Waiting Lists and Community Infrastructure There are still waiting lists for residential supports for people with developmental disabilities. We say we don’t like the fact that they are waiting. We should be even more concerned about the systemic problems in the broader systems of support they are waiting for. According to a report from UCP national released earlier this year there are 268.000 waiting now as compared to ... Read more

by Alison Lozano I am an "old world" social worker and possibly that is why I have some real concerns about how the practice of social work has lost ground over the past few years, in particular as it relates to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. The changes have come about slowly as the social service system has shifted away from social workers being on the front lines of direct services for families and towards case management and managed care. ... Read more

by Norman Reim

Family Support is Struggling for a New Identity

The New Jersey State Regional Family Support Planning Councils were a force in the DD system during the 1990’s and early into the 2000’s. The activities of the nine regional councils ranged from active and engaged, to militant and scattered, to rebuilding and dormant. But the overall effect was one of local councils made up of families of individuals with developmental disabilities using their voices to try to ... Read more

Special Education is in need of an overhaul. There’s a ton of money involved and, more importantly, the quality of the education of students with and without disabilities is at stake. Like all other education, special ed is administered and funded largely at the local and state levels. However, for special ed the federal IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) is the primary ruling piece of legislation. IDEA drives the policy but accounts for less than 10 percent of the ... Read more

I recently attended a one-day conference on employment of persons with disabilities. What made this conference different were the participants. The audience was made up equally of individuals in private business and those who work with people with disabilities who are seeking employment. Unfortunately there were not many individuals with disabilities or their families in attendance. There were two types of employers present. First, huge corporations that have made a concerted effort to ... Read more

A few posts back I talked about some aspects of the Big Business of Disability. I want to talk some more about that. Before it had been the over prescription of medications that got me going. That’s created, in part, by a profit driven system where the “diagnosis,” for want of a better word, is made because there is a drug to prescribe rather than that’s the best thing to do for that particular individual at that particular time. As I said before I believe that is a symptom of ... Read more

Today we’re going to math class. I know. I hear the collective groan. But United Cerebral Palsy recently released a report on how states are doing in terms of some areas of money and numbers and while it may turn you off as deadly dull, these are the kinds of stats and trends that tell us where we are and where we may be going with services for people with developmental disabilities in our state.  It is stuff we need to know, think about and act upon. Read more

There have been many attempts to standardize education since schooling for all children became mandatory in most Western countries.  I have documented the experience I had as a child in England with the 11-plus exam (People & Families Magazine, Summer 2012).  I took the 11-plus three times in the space of one year in a futile attempt to pass the standardized test.  It was not until I was in my early 30’s, and completing my first graduate degree, that I realized I had a ... Read more