People with disabilities routinely receive substandard health care despite accounting for 20 percent of the U.S. population. Dr. Leana Wen, director of patient-centered care research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University, recounts an emergency room memory when a man in a wheelchair was passed over by the medical staff because they were unsure how to care for him. Wen calls for increased disabilities education and training in medical schools, reporting that more than half of medical school deans say their graduates are not competent to treat people with disabilities. Read more.
New York Times national columnist Dan Barry joined the National Center on Disability and Journalism for its first webinar on disability reporting on May 6, 2014. Barry chronicled his experience reporting “The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse,” a story about 32 men with intellectual disabilities who lived for 35 years in squalid conditions in an old Iowa schoolhouse while working at a nearby turkey plant for sub- minimum wage. Barry said it was very important to him to frame as much of the story as possible through “the eyes and words of the men” rather than writing from a remove.
Webinar attendees had the chance to ask Barry about best practices and specific challenges he faced when reporting on people with disabilities. Barry said he took time to get to know the men and consulted with at least half a dozen experts on correct terminology. He said shedding the all too familiar “paternalistic overlay” when talking about people with disabilities “starts with including everyone in the conversation.”
Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal apologized to a Detroit man with a rare disorder after making fun of the man on Instagram. O’Neal tweeted Tuesday that he had “made a new friend” after calling Jahmel Binion to apologize for mocking the man’s selfie. Binion, who has ectodermal dysplasia which causes a reduced ability to sweat, missing teeth and abnormal hair growth, started an anti-bullying Facebook group, Hug Don’t Judge, after O’Neal’s original post. Read more.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio approved a 30-cent taxi surcharge as part of a plan to make city cabs wheelchair accessible by 2020. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission unanimously approved the charge on Wednesday. Read more.
Medicaid-financed services are essential in helping millions of people living with disabilities quite literally survive. However, there is a major flaw in the oft-debated Medicaid system that is starting to be addressed by members of both parties in Congress– namely, that people with disabilities have to live, “officially at least, as a pauper.” In order to receive life-long care, Medicare recipients cannot have money saved away (as in a college fund for children) and must continue working to receive continued funding.
The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act of 2013 would allow people with disabilities to establish savings accounts to be used for a variety of purposes, including education, housing, assistive technology and other basic needs. ABLE, sponsored by more than 400 members of Congress, is on the legislative agenda again this year and is expected to be voted on in the coming weeks. Read more.
In a letter to the editor, Mississippi U.S. Congressman Gregg Harper wrote a recent court settlement regarding segregated work places in Rhode Island is not enough. Harper said a new bill he is cosponsoring, the Fair Wages for Workers With Disabilities Act, would phase out the practice of paying workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage over three years. Read more.
Hosted by The National Center on Disability and Journalism and The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
1 p.m. Eastern Time
Join Dan Barry and the NCDJ for a virtual conversation about reporting on disability issues. Barry, who writes the “This Land” column for The New York Times, will explain the reporting behind his powerful piece “The Boys in the Bunkhouse” (March 9, 2014), about a group of mentally disabled men who worked in vile conditions for decades in an Iowa turkey plant. Barry also will take questions on covering disability issues in the media.
International scholar Dr. Mara Sapon-Shevin will lead a workshop at Arizona State University April 24-25 on revising syllabi and incorporating disability studies into more courses.
Topics will include conceptual framing of disabilities and reviewing the social and cultural constructions of disability.
For more information on the workshop and how to register, click the image below:
The U.S. Justice Department and the State of Rhode Island settled a “landmark case” Tuesday that will effectively halt the long-running practice of segregating people with developmental disabilities from the general workforce by placing them in sheltered workshops and adult day programs.
Federal officials said the case provides a “road map” of compliance for the civil rights of an estimated 450,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the country. Read more.
Disability advocate Pamela Hoye expressed hope and concerns about a new demonstration project under the Affordable Care Act for low-income seniors and those with disabilities at a recent New American Media ethnic briefing.
Hoye, who has cerebral palsy, said the “continuity of care provisions” under the program (called Cal MediConnect in Calif.) could ease concern but will not replace important trust that’s built between existing doctor-patient relationships. Hoye also raised questions about whether individuals’ needs and preferences would be honored when choosing primary care doctors or “imposed on us by bureaucratic red tape and protocols.”
Read more about Cal MediConnect and Hoye’s analysis here.
