About 56.7 million people — 19 percent of the population — had a disability in 2010, according to a broad definition of disability, with more than half of them reporting the disability was severe, according to a comprehensive report on this population released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The report, Americans with Disabilities: 2010, presents estimates of disability status and type and is the first such report with analysis since the Census Bureau published statistics in a similar report about the 2005 population of people with disabilities. According to the report, the total number of people with a disability increased by 2.2 million over the period, but the percentage remained statistically unchanged. Both the number and percentage with a severe disability rose, however. Likewise, the number and percentage needing assistance also both increased.
NPR Morning Edition’s David Greene interviewed author Ben Mattlin on August 31, 2012, and the two discussed Mattlin’s experiences living with spinal muscular atrophy. A graduate of Harvard, Mattlin also provided insightful commentary about his dealings (and frustrations) with the Muscular Dystrophy Association while growing up and also talked about his growing acceptance of being part of the larger community of people with disabilities.
This interview was an opportunity for Mattlin to showcase his sharp wit and humor, as well as to bring some important issues to the table regarding where the Disability Rights Movement has succeeded and what strides it needs to make. The book, Miracle Boy Grows Up: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity was published earlier this year.
If you’re in the Phoenix area, Paul Bendix will be giving a reading from his collection of essays offering a perspective of his life with a disability, Dance without Steps, at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m.
“In his recipe for Pea Soup à la Quadriplegia, Paul Bendix advises to crush garlic with your wheelchair tires and cut up carrots with your teeth. So begins his offbeat and frequently humorous account of life with paralysis. Mugged and shot in the spinal cord at age 21, Bendix recounts working at jobs with one unfeeling hand, wheelchair journeys through suburbia, and perils of taking a shower in France. He looks straight at the hand he’s been dealt and the fierce complexities that have come with it.”
I have followed the recent controversy at my alma mater, Sacred Heart Academy, with keen interest.
I have passionate feelings about the decision not to let Dominic Sheahan speak at the 2012 graduation ceremonies, but for many, those opinions would distract from the point of this commentary. I wouldn’t want to do that.
While I have empathy for everyone caught in this crossfire, my prayers and emotional connection have largely been with a man who I am quite certain has been saddened and hurt by events of the last month, Dominic’s grandpa, Jerry Sheahan.
Jerry Sheahan is one of the most pivotal figures in my blessed life. I have never publicly told him that. In this very difficult month for Jerry, and before either of us pass; it strikes me as important to tell him and the world. I also think the tale carries larger lessons for all of us.
This Arizona family won’t let DNA, stature, brittle bones or wheelchairs get in the way of living.
Clockwise from top left: Richard Alexander, Johl Driscoll, Jacob Driscoll, a dog Riauna rescued, Riauna Driscoll, Jeena Driscoll, Spirit and Lauri Alexander.
Photo courtesy Lauri Alexander
If Lauri Alexander could stand, she would be about 3’9” tall. But she can’t stand without support, and she can’t walk. She’s 49 now, with graying, sandy brown hair that reaches down her back. Her direct green eyes are set behind wire-framed oval glasses. Motherhood, brittle bone disease and congestive heart failure have taken their toll on her fragile body.
She was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as OI or brittle bone disease. It renders the bones so frail they snap like twigs, affects stature and causes walking problems.
But Lauri always yearned to be a mother to both biological and adopted children, so against medical advice and the strong possibility of passing on her damaged DNA, she bore two children and adopted two more. Despite her disabilities, she took on seemingly impossible personal, medical and societal challenges to become a mother.
Destiny Dash, one of millions of American with disabilities, had trouble finding a job, despite protections afforded by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I don’t think this job is for you.”
Six years later, the words still sting for Destiny Dash. The recent college graduate had been sitting with her mother in the lobby of a potential employer’s company, reviewing materials for her upcoming interview.
The job, selling magazine subscriptions over the phone, had seemed easy enough. As a theater studies major at the University of Illinois, Dash had plenty of experience memorizing and delivering lines, and she was rehearsing the agency’s scripts with her mother that morning as she waited for the interview to begin.
It was hardly an ideal job for Dash, but she was growing increasingly anxious for employment and the sense of independence it might finally afford her. Born with spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, she has used a wheelchair most of her life. But as badly as she wanted a job – and a place to live on her own – she was having trouble finding something suitable.
“A job search is tough for any student fresh out of college,” Dash said. “But it’s like 20 times scarier, 20 times tougher, for someone like me than for an able-bodied person.”
That morning, when her interviewer emerged from her office to start the interview, Dash could tell from her face that something had already gone wrong.
Melissa Sgroi, chair of the Communications Department at Misericordia University is doing a study on media workers with disabilities and is seeking media professionals with disabilities of any type who took at least one journalism or communications course in college (no degree required). They must have had a disability as a student and are now working in some facet of the media — TV, radio, PR, graphic design, advertising, etc.
The study is important because there is no literature addressing media professionals with disabilities who made the transition from college to work (and very little about students in journalism/mass communications education). Sgroi believes the results will shed light on their experiences and thus help educators and others improve these experiences in the future.
Full announcement below
Melissa Sgroi, a doctoral candidate at Wilkes University who is also a communications educator and former print and broadcast journalist, is conducting a research study titled “The Essence of the College-to-Career Experience of Media Professionals with Disabilities.” The study seeks to describe the experience of media professionals with disabilities who took course work in journalism or mass communications in higher education and successfully made the transition from college to the media workplace. A degree is not required.
Media professionals with disabilities are invited to share their perceptions of their experiences in college and their careers. This knowledge and insight may help educators, media professionals, and industry leaders improve the educational and workplace experiences of both students and workers. You must be willing to participate in an hour-long interview and submit a media product that you feel in some way represents your experiences. Some information in the interview may be considered sensitive or personal in nature. All information will be kept strictly confidential and your name will not be used in results or reports.
To qualify, you will:
Be a full-time, part-time, freelance, contract, retired, or currently unemployed worker in any business or non-profit organization in which your work directly contributes to the creation of media products.
Have a disability.
Have taken journalism or mass communications course work in postsecondary education at a two or four-year degree-granting institution in the U.S. A major or degree is not required.
Have had a disability as a postsecondary student.
Be a legally independent resident of the United States.
Be at least 21 years of age.
All participants will receive lunch at a restaurant of their choice with a maximum value of $20. Please contact Melissa Sgroi at melissa.sgroi@wilkes.edu or (570) 674-6744 to receive more information.
Several high school students listen attentively to the young man standing before them. Not long ago, Jesse Riddle, who has a learning disability, had been sitting where they are.
But with drive and determination, he is living his dream of helping people with disabilities find employment. In the process, he has become an inspiration for the students of Osceola County.
A girl sits on a couch, laughing and smiling frequently. Her colorful, bright dress matches her vibrant personality. A black Labrador, Olivia, is sprawled on the carpet contentedly. She’s never too far away from her owner, criminal justice sophomore Katherine Chavez.
In conversation, Katherine has a peculiar tendency to look above the head of whomever she’s speaking with, like she expects the person to be taller than he or she really is. It’s a rough subject to bring up, as if calling attention to the elephant in the room. But why does she do that?
Emmanuel Joseph and George Amoah, two disabled Ghanaians, occupy different ends of the spectrum. The former lies on a piece of cardboard in Accra Central, his half-naked body twisted and mostly paralysed, the sun beating down on him while he waits to collect three dollars, the average proceeds of a day’s begging.
