News

2/12/2019

Tuesdays with Liz: Couples with Disabilities and the Marriage Penalty

Liz chats with Teresa Moore and John Britton, a couple who have been together for eighteen years and both have disabilities, about the risks that getting married carry for people with disabilities.

2/11/2019

AK, KY & UT UCEDDs Collaborate on ACL Mental Health Grant

A collaboration between the Alaska, Kentucky, and Utah UCEDDs will offer training opportunities for self-advocates, family members, direct service providers, and mental health and healthcare professionals to provide quality mental health services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The 3-year, $2.1 million project is being funded by the Administration for Community Living (ACL).

2/11/2019

Institute on Disability Receives Challenge Grant for an Inclusive College Program (NH UCEDD/LEND)

The Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the John Vance ACCESS Fund, a donor-advised fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, to support the implementation of the UNH-4U program, a new initiative providing an inclusive college experience to students with intellectual disabilities. The IOD is currently seeking an additional $150,000 in matching contributions necessary to begin the admissions process for students.

2/11/2019

New Brief About the Status and Outcomes of People with IDD in Integrated Employment (MA UCEDD/LEND)

The Institute for Community�s ThinkWork project partnered with National Core Indicators to create a brief looking at the status and outcomes of people with IDD in integrated employment.

2/11/2019

New Business Engagement Compendium, Online Courses, and More! (MA UCEDD/LEND)

ICI senior policy staff and University of Washington partners continue to offer technical assistance (TA) on Business Engagement and Labor Market Information through the Workforce Innovation TA Center (WINTAC). New online learning resources have been added to ExploreVR's Business Engagement Toolkit to provide Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) practitioners access to more resources that help promote the understanding of business engagement concepts, assess the knowledge of business relations staff, and provide an overview of VR agency models across the country.

2/8/2019

Learning from each other: The Iowa LEND and Puerto Rico UCEDD collaboration

Best practice in the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities includes using applied behavior analysis (ABA), specifically implementing functional behavioral assessments and function-based treatments.

2/5/2019

Tuesdays with Liz: Advocate Everywhere featuring Graphic Facilitation by Inky Brittany

You don't have to be in D.C. to advocate! As Liz explains how you can advocate from wherever you are, Inky Brittany provides graphic facilitation of Liz's advocating tips.

2/4/2019

IU Research Study Concludes that Inclusive Classroom Placements Result in Higher Academic Outcomes for Students with Disabilities (IN UCEDD)

The study, conducted by the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, followed a cohort of Indiana students with disabilities, from third through eighth grade, to assess the relationship between special education placement in high, mixed, and low inclusive classrooms and academic success. By comparing the outcomes of students included in general education classrooms with similar students in separate special education classrooms, the study was able to determine the impact of inclusion upon student state assessments.

2/4/2019

Laura Bozeman Receives 2018 Father Carroll Award

The School for Global Inclusion and Social Development's Dr. Laura Bozeman was named the 2018 Father Carroll Award recipient at the Northeast Regional Association and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired regional conference.

2/4/2019

Longtime Director of VKC (TN IDDRC/UCEDD/LEND) Communications Retires; Taylor Named as Successor

Author: Courtney Taylor

an Rosemergy, Ph.D., deputy director and director of Communications and Dissemination at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC/UCEDD/LEND), has announced her retirement from a position she has held since 1979. For more than 39 years, Rosemergy has diligently directed the dissemination of knowledge about intellectual and developmental disabilities from the Vanderbilt University (VU) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) campuses to diverse local, state, and national audiences. Her retirement is effective January 2019.

2/4/2019

MCDD Presentation for Project SEARCH Interns (MD UCEDD)

Maureen van Stone, the Director of the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities at Kennedy Krieger Institute, delivered a presentation about the importance of advocacy to Kennedy Krieger's Project SEARCH interns and staff (pictured).

2/4/2019

Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome (RTS) Event at the Newport Aquarium (OH UCEDD)

Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome (RTS) Event at the Newport Aquarium On the last weekend in January, the UCCEDD at Cincinnati Children�s hosted an RTS booklet release party at the Newport Aquarium, drawing over 100 guests from as far as Michigan, Illinois and Tennessee as well as regional guests from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio! The booklet, �Understanding Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome: A Guide for Families and Professionals� was developed to help family members of children with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome better explain their child�s condition to healthcare providers, teachers and family members. The booklet and event could not have happened with the generous support of the Dr. Jack Rubinstein Foundation at Cincinnati Children�s.

2/1/2019

AUCD Conference Word Cloud

Created by the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities

During the AUCD 2018 Conference, attendees created buttons using words and phrases reflecting their thoughts on the conference theme, "We All Belong Here." Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities UCEDD high school trainee Danielle Kim and Director of Training Dr. Mirian Ofonedu took the words and phrases used on those buttons and compiled them to form a word cloud. The resulting visual shows the disability rights community perspective that was present at the AUCD Conference: a determined call for all to mean all and to disable the labels that disable.

1/29/2019

AUCD Annual Report 2018

AUCD is pleased to present our annual report for FY 2018. Learn about the individuals and initiatives that make AUCD such a force for people with disabilities and their families around the world.

1/29/2019

Public Health Surveillance of Prenatal Opioid Exposure in Mothers and Infants

The US opioid crisis is the public health emergency of our time and requires urgent public health action to monitor and protect the most vulnerable Americans. We have witnessed a startling death toll in 2017 with 70 237 drug overdose deaths in the United States, of which two-thirds involved opioids. The devastating consequences of this epidemic for mothers and infants have received less attention. Increases in opioid use and misuse in pregnancy have paralleled the increases in the general population; at delivery hospitalization, there were 4 times as many women with an opioid use disorder in 2014 compared with 1999. One of the most immediate and visible impacts of the opioid crisis on infants is the drug withdrawal in the newborn period, termed neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). On the basis of 2014 data, 1 newborn was diagnosed with NAS every 15 minutes in the United States, totaling about 32 000 infants annually with associated hospital costs estimated at $563 million.

1/29/2019

Tuesdays with Liz: Susanna Miller-Raines and all about TPSIDs

Susanna Miller-Raines sits down with Liz to talk about Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSIDs). Susanna gives an overview of what TPSIDs are, how you can find out what TPSID programs are available in your state, and some key acronyms in inclusive higher education.