Resources

While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted how individuals worldwide live, work, communicate, and receive medical care and education, it has further illustrated the disproportionate gaps that exist for people with disabilities to receive these same resources and services necessary for survival and quality of life. The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) has identified, responded to, advocated for, and addressed the needs of people with disabilities throughout the pandemic.

The Multicultural Council (MCC) advocates for training, direct service, outreach, technical assistance, clinical services, research, and dissemination to be provided in a culturally competent manner and secure the meaningful participation of individuals from diverse racial and ethnic and linguistically diverse backgrounds at all levels of the Association's membership.

AUCD MCC Council Presentation 2017 [download]

The "Milwaukee-Link" addition to the Madison-based Wisconsin LEND program provides opportunities for former MCHB-funded Pipeline undergraduate trainees and others who are in graduate school at UW-Milwaukee (UWM), to participate in the WI LEND program and receive leadership training to work with children with autism and other developmental disabilities, their families, and systems of care. A priority is placed on recruiting LEND trainees from under-represented groups who plan to live and practice in the city of Milwaukee.

VT LEND Director, Dr. Contompasis and VT LEND Family Faculty, Ms. Fatuma Bulle collaborated with Vermont's Title V Children with Special Health Care Needs Program to create educational fact sheets for parents of children recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in Burlington's growing refugee resettlement community.

UCEDD Minority Partnership Grants Evaluation Report

This report was developed to guide UCEDDs and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) by revealing strategies, highlighting accomplishments and outcomes of the projects, and identifying lessons learned by grantees as well as provide recommendations for UCEDDs, AIDD, and AUCD. The expectation is that by informing the network, leadership from all Centers will seek out similar opportunities to create academic and clinical programs for diverse students and the individuals they will go on to serve.

When creating a new publication or posting information, there are several aspects to keep in mind during the development phase to ensure the publication fully takes into consideration cultural and linguistic differences and representations, regardless of the methods by which that publication or piece of information is being produced and disseminated. The following guidelines, developed by AUCD in 2013, are not intended to be either requirements or a checklist that guarantees a product or piece of information is appropriate to all audiences. Rather, we hope that this document will serve as a point of reference and stimulate careful consideration for anyone writing or producing information for any audience.

When preparing a presentation for any audience, there are several considerations to keep in mind to ensure the presentation is fully takes into consideration cultural and linguistic differences of the audience and information being presented. The following guidelines, developed by AUCD in 2013, are not intended to be either requirements or a checklist that guarantees a product or piece of information is appropriate to all audiences. Rather, we hope that this document will serve as a point of reference and stimulate careful consideration for anyone preparing a presentation.

When planning a meeting, there are several aspects to keep in mind to ensure the activity fully takes into consideration potential cultural and linguistic differences of attendees and participants. These guidelines, developed by AUCD in 2013, are not intended to be either requirements or a checklist that guarantees an event or activity is fully welcoming and appropriate to attendees of all backgrounds. Rather, we hope that this document will serve as a point of reference and stimulate careful consideration for anyone planning an event or activity of any size.

This report provides information about the availability of services and support for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families, the needs of DD tribal members and their families, and tribal members' familiarity and contact with the DD Network agencies.

In the current environment, many contracts and grants are requiring documentation of activities concerning cultural competence and/or sensitivity, including self-assessments and training. Therefore, the purpose of the instrument is to assist organizations to assess their progress towards cultural competence, both at the organizational and individual level. Created by an AUCD workgroup in 2004.

This survey provided a snapshot of specific aspects of diversity among the AUCD network.

AUCD's Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit is a website that provides concrete objectives, strategies, and resources to help you realize your goals related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural and linguistic competence. Strategies and resources are aligned with the roles of three specific audiences: federal funders, national organizations, and university-based centers and programs in the disability community; though many others may benefit as well.

In accordance with the vision for people living with developmental and other disabilities to have a future in which culturally appropriate supports are universally available across the lifespan that lead to a healthy quality of life, AUCD celebrates Minority Health Month. Learn about some of the network's targeted efforts in education, research, and service aimed at reducing racial and ethnic health disparities at the intersection of disability and minority health.

Finding Answers Intervention Research (FAIR) Database The FAIR Database contains journal article summaries fromsystematic reviews of racial and ethnic health disparities intervention literature. The FAIR Database was designed to provide a customized list of interventions that match a user's interest in the following areas: disease area, racial/ethnic population, organizational setting, and intervention strategy.

This report, co-authored by PolicyLink, describes the imperative to ensure equity in HIAs, identifies principles for equity in HIAs and recommends strategies for the implementation of each principle. The report also shares specific examples of HIAs that show the principle in practice, along with two case studies that effectively incorporate all the principles. The report also describes some of the challenges for ensuring equity in HIAs as well as strategies to overcome the challenges.

Study findings recently published in the Educational Researcher examine whether children who are racial-ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in early intervention and/or early childhood special education (EI/ECSE). The researchers analyzed 7,950 48-month-olds participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative data set of children born in the United States in 2001. Findings indicated that by 48 months of age, minority children are disproportionately underrepresented in EI/ECSE.

At the turn of the 21st century, several important reports and events designed to raise awareness of health disparities and to describe initial efforts to reduce health disparities took place. The Surgeon General's office released several reports that showed dramatic disparities, for example, in tobacco use and access to mental health services by race and ethnicity. Second, the first real legislation focused on reducing health disparities was signed into law, creating the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities within the NIH. In 2001, the IOM released its landmark report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, highlighting the importance of a focus on health care quality rather than a focus on only access and cost issues. Building upon these reports and events, the IOM held a workshop on April 8, 2010, that discussed progress to address health disparities and focused on the success of various federal initiatives to reduce health disparities. This document summarizes the workshop.

The RWJF national program Finding Answers developed a six-step framework to help people and organizations reduce disparities. Now available in a simple graphic that's easy to distribute - or tack up above your desk -the Roadmap can help you fit reducing disparities into all health care quality improvement efforts.

The National Partnership for Action To End Health Disparities was developed with the mission of mobilizing and connecting individuals and organizations across the country to create a nation in which all people have a chance to reach their full health potential. This National Partnership for Action: Toolkit for Community Action will help individuals, communities and organizations from the public and private sectors work together to implement programs and policies and engage with the NPA to reach that goal.

In recognition of National Minority Health Month, Equity of Care has released a short video on the collection and use of race, ethnicity and language (REAL) preference data and its important role in reducing health care disparities. The video is the first in a month-long rollout that will detail the work of the Greater.

The Office of Minority Health and partners are dedicating the month of April to raising awareness about the remarkable moment of opportunity to advance health equity through the Affordable Care Act. By improving access to quality health care for all Americans, the Affordable Care Act will help reduce health disparities that plague communities of color and result in higher rates of disease and premature death. This year's theme Advance Health Equity Now: Uniting Our Communities to Bring Health Care Coverage to All is a call to action to improve the health of our communities and increase access to quality, affordable health care for everyone.

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) funded Empowerment: Building Research Infrastructure Capacity (Project Empowerment) offers Points of Empowerment, a series of topical fact sheets on minority populations with disabilities. The latest issue is a recap of survey data on college students with disabilities. Previous topics include stroke, brain injury, employment, and perceptions of psychiatric services.

A new resource page has been added to the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange: Honing Cultural and Linguistic Competence. This page features innovative programs and quality tools for improving cultural and linguistic competence as well as reducing health care disparities for vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minorities.

The CLCADO is intended to support organizations to (1) plan for and incorporate culturally and linguistically competent values in their work; (2) enhance the quality of services, supports, and advocacy; (3) effect change in education, training, technical assistance, research, and public policy; and (4) advance cultural and linguistic competence.

This study aims to identify the issues and challenges faced by women and girls with disabilities in the Pacific and to analyse social and economic factors impacting on their human rights. Women and girls with disabilities experience disadvantages and discrimination based on the combination of both disability and gender-based discrimination, known as 'intersectional discrimination'. Responses targeted to their specific issues and needs are therefore required to ensure that they enjoy the same rights as all others, including disabled men and/or their non-disabled peers.

Linda Espinosa, former Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, challenges six commonly held beliefs about the development of young children who are learning English as their second language and presents research evidence drawing from a variety of disciplines that can better shape education policies for all children.

Attached is the Report on Racial/Ethnic and Gender Inclusivity of the College of Education (COE) Faculty, Staff, and Students. The report was presented to The College of Education Congress from The College of Education Faculty Senate Committee on Diversity at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Many of the contributors worked within the Center on Disability Studies (HI UCEDD). For any questions or comments about the report, please contact Steve Brown at [email protected].

The movements to advance family-centered care and cultural and linguistic competence have often evolved along parallel tracks. This fact is well documented in the early definitions of family-centered care in the literature (Bishop, Woll, & Arango, n.d.). Although these definitions reference honoring cultures, cultural diversity, and family traditions, little emphasis was placed on policies and structures necessary to translate this philosophy into family-centered practice. This review encompassed the period of 1993-2003 and included 250 journal and other articles, books, chapters, videos, monographs, Web sites, training manuals, resource catalogs and guides, block grants, and display posters. The authors found that little mention of cultural competence was made in family-centered care materials (Arango & McPherson, 2005).

The Great Lakes ADA and Accessible IT Center is pleased to announce that the US Department of Justice has expanded the number of documents available on their web site which have been translated in Spanish.

The Cross Cultural Health Care Case Studies, developed collaboratively by the seven MCHB-funded Pediatric Pulmonary Centers (PPCs), were developed to familiarize health care providers with common issues that arise while working with people of diverse cultures.

  from http://www.hrsa.gov

The United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration has developed this webpage for health providers.

The William T. Grant Scholars Program supports promising early career researchers from diverse disciplines. The award supports the professional development of early career scholars who have some demonstrated success in conducting high quality research and are seeking to further develop their skills and research program.

  from http://www.rwjf.org

Hospitals in northern New Jersey are working to expand their translation services and increase cultural competency in an effort to improve care for the region's growing number of racial and ethnic minority patients, the Bergen County Record reports.

  from http://www.rwjf.org

In an effort to help reduce racial and ethnic health care disparities, proposed new regulations would require Massachusetts hospitals to collect more detailed data about patients' race, ethnicity, preferred language and education level, the Boston Globe reports.

  from http://www.rwjf.org

The Virginia Department of Health has launched a new Web site that allows medical staff to look up Spanish translations for common medical phrases and terminology, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

This monograph, published by the Family Caregiver Alliance, offers advice for health and human service practitioners on how to work with Latino families and informal caregivers. It uses case studies to illustrate how specific cultural characteristics, such as language, customs, and religion, can impact caregiving situations, and offers suggestions on ways cultural competency can be improved at organizational and policy levels.

DiversityBusiness creates, produces and manages seminars covering industry specific business-to-business topics.

Disaster assistance is available to "qualified" immigrants, which includes lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, Cuban-Haitian entrants, and battered spouses and children. Unauthorized immigrants and non-immigrant workers (also known as temporary workers) are eligible for non-cash, in kind emergency disaster relief such as food and shelter, search and rescue and emergency medical care.

The purpose of this program is to provide vocational rehabilitation services to American Indians with disabilities who reside on or near Federal or State reservations, consistent with their individual strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, and informed choices, so that they may prepare for and engage in gainful employment, including self-employment, telecommuting, or business ownership. Deadline for Applications: April 21, 2006.

This training module is for law enforcement officials, attorneys, and advocates to better serve people with developmental disabilities within the courts or criminal justice system.

HRSA unveils this user-friendly site highlighting approximately 40 HRSA-supported projects on the critical subject of serving ethnoculturally and socially diverse groups.

The goal of this website and corresponding print document is to encourage the use of cultural brokering as a key approach to increase access to, and to enhance the delivery of, culturally competent care.

The Encyclopedia answers the question: What is disability and why is it important in my life? An international editorial board of seventy-four editors from the Americas, Europe, Australia, India, Japan, and China, all experts in their own sub-fields of disability, developed these volumes. The result is a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural, and historically grounded resource tool that guides the reader across fields, theories, debates, and practices.

Simplified stereotypes of "typical" Americans, Brazilians, Chinese, and other groups are common but highly mistaken, according to a National Institute on Aging (NIA) study that examined the accuracy of national character stereotypes in 49 cultures worldwide.

A conference call with the network presented by Rooshey Hasnain, Ed.D., from the Institute for Community Inclusion (UCEDD) at the University of Massachusetts Boston on March 30, 2005.

A 2004 telecast provided by American Public Health Association.