Some photos from "Captioning: Your Rights and Advocacy" Conference at The Ed Roberts Campus
With Arlene Mayerson
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The Beauty of the Americans with Disabilities Act
In the spring of 1977, I took a quarter off from college, quit my job and, with my best friend, bought a 1966 VW camper van to explore the United States. Before we left, we spent a warm April day (California was in a drought and Jerry Brown was governor, how odd!) practicing the manual shift on the hills of San Francisco. We figured that if we could manage the hills of San Francisco in the bus, we could manage it anywhere. Continue reading
Translating “The Power of 504”
The Power of 504 is "an award-winning 18-minute documentary, which captures the drama and emotions of the historic civil rights demonstration of people with disabilities in 1977, resulting in the signing of the 504 Regulations, the first Federal Civil Rights Law protecting people with disabilities. Includes contemporary news footage and news interviews with participants and demonstation leaders." Continue reading
Special Education and the “Deserving Disabled”
Backbone Campaign
The 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is coming up next month and the disability rights community has launched a campaign to celebrate the anniversary that has the tag line, "Disability Rights Are Civil Rights." … I think it's an interesting choice for a slogan because I see it as a tacit admission that society as a whole still does not fully understand disability rights as civil rights… Continue reading
Lack of Oversight of Restraint and Seclusion in Special Education
House Committee on Education and the Workforce Democrats
On April 19, 2015, EdSource published an investigative report that explores the California Department of Education's (CDE) lack of oversight of restraint and seclusion in special education. The report concludes that the July 2013 repeal of the Hughes Bill—a law that imposed data collection and other oversight obligations on CDE and regional special education agencies—has created "a shadow discipline system in many special education classrooms, where minimally trained classroom aides have significant leeway in using emergency interventions to manage disruptive students."
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