Arie Rimmerman

Arie Rimmerman

Arie Rimmermanthe Richard Crossman Chair for Social Welfare & Planning and distinguished faculty member in the School of Social Work, Social Welfare and Health Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, has been appointed a Senior Fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University.

The BBI Senior International Fellows program is for outstanding participants to collaborate with BBI researchers and to foster the interdisciplinary study and application of disability law and policy as it relates to the advancement of the social and economic independence of people with disabilities. “We are extremely honored to have Professor Rimmerman join us at BBI to collaborate in writing opportunities, and research grants on the interpretation and development of public policy and law related to persons with disabilities and their families,” says Syracuse University Professor and BBI Chairman Peter Blanck.

Rimmerman is an internationally known researcher in the areas of intellectual disabilities and disability studies. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, books and book chapters in Israel, Australia, Europe and the United States.  He is the author of three recent books by Cambridge University Press, Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities (2013), Family Policy and Disability (2015) and Disability and Community Living Policies (2017).

Rimmerman is the Founder of the Israeli Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities, Rimmerman established graduate studies in this area in Israeli universities. Aside from his scientific contributions, he served as an advisor to ministers of labor and welfare, the ministries of defense and justice, and leads public committees related to people with developmental disabilities, veterans with disabilities and people with work-related disabilities. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Doctoral Student Fellowship (1979), the Lehman Award (1987), the William Trump Award (1998), the International Award of the American Association on Mental Retardation (1999) and the Burton Blatt Distinguished Leadership Award (2006).

Rimmerman holds a B.S.W. from the Tel Aviv University School of Social Work, an M.A. from the School of Social Work at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and a Ph.D./D.S.W. from the School of Social Work at Adelphi University/Brandeis University.

Publications

Arie Rimmerman, Disability and Community Living Policies, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Arie Rimmerman, Family Policy and Disability, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Arie Rimmerman, Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Other publications by Dr. Rimmerman

Academic Website for Arie Rimmerman

Montserrat Perena Vicente

Montserrat Pereña Vicente, professor of law and senior researcher at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain, has been appointed a Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) Senior International Fellow. Professor Vicente is also director of the Research Centre on Persons Law and Patrimony Law, where her studies focus on the rights of people with disabilities and the impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on legislation and legal practice of countries in continental Europe, South America, and Cuba.

The BBI Senior International Fellows program is for outstanding participants to collaborate with BBI researchers and to foster the interdisciplinary study and application of disability law and policy as it relates to the advancement of the social and economic independence of people with disabilities. “We are extremely honored to have Professor Vicente join us at BBI to participate in seminars, writing opportunities, and research grants on the interpretation and development of public policy and law related to persons with disabilities and their families,” says Syracuse University Professor and BBI Chairman Peter Blanck.

Professor Vicente works at the interface of research to practice along with Spanish leaders examining alternatives to guardianship for people with disabilities and mental illnesses. She is the lead investigator of a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Union entitled “Empowering People with Disabilities.”

“This project highlights the challenges facing the Spanish legal system in regard to guardianship and proposes alternatives and legal reforms that take into account the will and preferences of people with disabilities,” noted Professor Vincente.

While at BBI, Professor Vicente will conduct a comparative study of the Spanish and American systems of guardianship and supported decision-making. She aims to provide new insights and knowledge for legal reform in Spain and elsewhere.

Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto directs BBI’s Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach initiative. A University Professor at Syracuse, he is the author of the memoirs Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”) and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening as well as the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light, and Letters to Borges. His newest memoir, Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey, is new from Simon & Schuster. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, and The Ohio State University. Professor Kuusisto has served as an advisor to the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show; Dateline; All Things Considered; Morning Edition; Talk of the Nation; A & E; and Animal Planet. His essays have appeared in The New York Times; The Washington Post; Harper’s; The Reader’s Digest; and his daily blog “Planet of the Blind” is read globally by people interested in disability and contemporary culture.

He is a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. His website is: www.stephenkuusisto.com

Books (other than edited volumes) and monographs

  • Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. March, 2018
  • Letters to Borges: A Collection of Poems, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA,  2013
  • Do Not Interrupt:  A Playful Take on the Art of Conversation.  Sterling Publishing, New York, NY.  June 2010.
  • Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening.  New York: W.W. Norton and Co. 2006.
  • The Emptiness Between Stars: Gedichte/Poems. Selected poems from Only Bread, Only Light, translated from English into German by Lilian Faschinger. Vienna, Austria: Kurbis, 2003. (The Emptiness Between Stars: Gedichte/Poems is in German and English and also in German Braille and English Braille.)
  • Only Bread, Only Light: Poems. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2000.
  • Planet of the Blind. New York: The Dial Press, 1998.
  • Foreign Editions/Translations of Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening Kuulukuviat.  Trans. Helsinki: Arkki Books, 2007.

Edited books

  • Kuusisto, Stephen, Deborah Tall, and David Weiss, eds. The Poet’s Notebook: Excerpts from the Notebooks of Contemporary American Poets. 1st pb. edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Approximate percentage of contribution 33%. I assisted with the conception of the book and corresponded with approximately half of the contributors.
  • Kuusisto, Stephen, ed. Taking Note: From Poets’ Notebooks. Geneva, NY: Hobart and William Smith Colleges Press, 1991.

Chapters in edited books

  • “Selections from Planet of the Blind” The Disability Studies Reader, 4th Edition, Ed. Lennard J. Davis. Routledge, 2014
  • “Plato, Again.”  Telling Stories out of Court: Narratives about Women and Work Place Discrimination, Ed. Ruth O’Brien.  Cornell University Press, 2008.
  •  “Teaching By Ear.”  Disability and the Teaching of Writing, Eds. Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson and Brenda Jo Bruggemann.  Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2007.  124-129.
  • “In the Dark.” Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action, Eds. Joyce Armstrong Carroll, Edward E. Wilson, and Gary Forlini. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. 168-169.
  • “Life Without Mozart.” Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act, Ed Ruth O’Brien.  Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2003. 81-95.
  • “Blind Date” Dog is My Co-Pilot: A Collection of Writings on Dogs. Ed Claudia Kawczynska. New York: Crown Publishing, 2003. 40-48.
  • “Nanao Sakaki’s ‘Real Play’.” Nanao or Never: Nanao Sakaki Walks Earth. Ed. Gary Lawless. Nobleboro, ME: Blackberry Books, 2000. 68-78.
  • “Tender Helpers.” (Selections from Planet of the Blind.) Their Healing Power. Ed. Phyllis Hobe. Vol. 2 Listening to the Animals Series. Carmel, NY: Guideposts, 1999. 35-42.
  • “Robert Bly’s Iron John and the New ‘Lawrentian’ Man.” Critical Essays on Robert Bly. Ed. William Virgil Davis. Critical Essays on American Literature. New York: G.K. Hall, 1992. 96-103.

Mizuki Hsu

Leading Japanese disability advocate, Mizuki Hsu, has been appointed a Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) Visiting Fellow during Fall 2015. Ms. Hsu will be in residence at BBI’s Syracuse offices to examine and partner with BBI staff on topics including employment of people with disabilities.

Although Ms. Hsu lost the ability to walk when she was two years old, her parents advocated for her to receive the same educational services as did non-disabled Japanese students. At the age of 17, she had a chance to visit Australia and was impressed by the advanced infrastructure and accessibility there. Since then, she became interested in knowing more about welfare in developed countries. With those thoughts, she went to The University of Wisconsin River Falls in the U.S and received her B.S. in Communication Studies and International Studies. After returning to Japan, she worked with three companies in Tokyo and volunteered at a non-profit which publishes a magazine for women with disabilities.

Her research focus at BBI is “How to Maximize Inclusion of People with Disabilities in the Workplace.” Ms. Hsu will take her research findings back to Japan to work on increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Japan. She personally had a hard time at building a good career, encountering numerous barriers to accessibility and discrimination against persons with disabilities.  Her current project, sponsored by the Duskin AINOWA Foundation, is to improve equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Japan by learning how U.S. companies, non-profits, and governments implement employment equality strategies and policies efficiently and successfully. “Employment and economic participation is the gateway to full participation as a citizen, in communities, and in life.  We look forward to learning more about Japan from Ms. Hsu and sharing successful strategies for inclusion based on our research in the U.S.” says Dr. Peter Blanck, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute. In addition to her main research project, Ms. Hsu will support ongoing research and projects being conducted by BBI to improve economic and community participation of people with disabilities.

Website

Benoit Eyraud

Benoît Eyraud is a senior lecturer at the University of Lyon, a team member of POCO (Policies of Knowledge) at the Centre Max Weber and a delegation researcher at the Study Centre for social movements (CNRS/EHESS/Paris).

After leading various research programs on regulation restoration in the fields of mental health, disability and dependency within the framework of Collectif Contrast, Benoît Eyraud introduced a scientific and citizen-based initiative on the challenges of exercising rights for persons with disabilities (Confcap Capdroits). From this perspective, he is particularly interested in issues of civil capacity and the controversy surrounding Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Within this context, Benoît Eyraud was also a participant in the inter-ministerial work group for the legal protection of adults and is an expert member of the well-treatment committee, a joint member of the National Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities (CNCPH) and the High Council for Family, Childhood, and Ages of life.

He is scientific director of the ANR Acsedroits project and the participative action-research program Capdroits (CNSA).

Featured recent publications:

  • Presumption of Capacity and Vulnerability in context of dementia:Exercising rights in troubled civil life, Culture Medicine and psychiatry (to be published 2019
  • La participation des personnes en situation de handicap au débat démocratique :Retours sur une démarche collaborative autour de la CDPH / Participation of persons with disabilities in democratic debate: looking back on a participative approach about UN Convention on the rights of Persons with disabilities, Participation, revue de sciences humaines et sociales, 2019
  • Choisir et agir pour autrui? Controverse autour de la convention de l’ONU sur les droits des personnes handicapées (avec C. Hanon et J. Minoc), Doin, 2018
  • Contrainte et consentement en santé mentale, forcer, influencer, coopérer (avec Livia Velpry et Pierre Vidal-Naquet), PUR, 2018
  • Civil capacity and legal restrictions : a scientific and citizen based forum and action in support of a change of outlook and practices (2018), Download the Platform for Advocacy booklet
  • All vulnerable, all capable, Capdroits Manifesto (2018)

Deepti Samant Raja

Blending backgrounds in Electrical and Computer Engineering (with a focus on Telecommunication) and Rehabilitation Counseling, Samant Raja brings in over nine years of experience promoting the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities focusing on assistive and accessible technology service delivery, breaking workplace barriers, and technology use for successful employment outcomes. Until recently, Deepti Samant Raja was the Director of International Programs and a senior researcher at the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University.

She is a lead researcher and involved in project management for the Center on Effective Rehabilitation Technology service delivery, a $2.5million, multi-organizational center, that focuses on identifying and analyzing effective models of technology service delivery for successful employment outcomes for persons with disabilities. She is working as a policy researcher for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)-funded Accessible Technology Action Center with a focus on offering recommendations for internal policies and external practices that strengthen ODEP’s work in supporting multiple stakeholders to improve the work experiences of persons with disabilities through accessible technologies. She has participated in instrument design, data collection, and data analysis on multiple BBI research projects, including employer case studies funded by the US Department of Labor. She was a key member of the research team investigating the costs and benefits of technology-based workplace accommodations under the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Workplace Accommodations as well as the research consortium that undertook employer case studies funded by the US Department of Labor focusing on employer practices and workplace culture that facilitate the inclusion and productive employment of persons with disabilities. She participated on a Department of Veterans Affairs study investigating effective employer practices, policies, and programs for Veteran employees including those with cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

Samant Raja also worked for the Secretariat of the Global Partnership for Disability and Development, where she oversaw capacity building, knowledge creation, and dissemination activities to mainstream disability in development. She coordinated a demonstration project in mainstreaming disability in poverty reduction and other development strategies in Mozambique, and managed a team of consultants working on a study of inclusive disaster management practices in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States.

Samant Raja has published articles and presented on accessible Information and communications technology (ICTs), access to assistive technology, and inclusive employment and effective corporate practices. She serves as an invited member on key international task forces, including the UNICEF Task Force on Assistive Technology and Children with Disabilities, and was as the Co-Chair of the community of practice on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities of the World Bank’s Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development in its inaugural year. Samant Raja has a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, and a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering.

Nienke Dosa

Dr. Dosa is a pediatrician with board certification in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. Her clinical practice is the care of children, adolescents, and young adults with spina bifida, cerebral palsy and vision impairment/blindness. Her academic work is focused on the development and evaluation of community-based models for developmental disability care, particularly as this relates to transition to adulthood and inclusive fitness.

Katherine McDonald

Dr. Katherine (Katie) McDonald is a Professor of Public Health in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and a Faculty Fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. Dr. McDonald received her B.S. with Distinction in Human Development and Family Studies with a minor in French from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Community and Prevention Research Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. McDonald uses ecological theory and social action research to understand and promote the community integration of individuals with disabilities.

Her current research spans two core areas of inquiry.

(1) Respectful, Inclusive Research with Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Dr. McDonald studies human research ethics, with an emphasis on the research participation of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her long-term goal is to contribute an empirical perspective to respectful, inclusive research practices for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her mixed methods work in this area includes an array of stakeholders as research partners and research participants.

(2) Participatory Action Research Addressing Disparities: Dr. McDonald conducts collaborative research with community-based organizations and community members on health, education, community and employment disparities experienced by individuals with disabilities. One long-standing collaboration is the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE; www.aaspire.org ). AASPIRE conducts research on the needs of autistic adults through academic-autistic partnerships, including studies on access to quality healthcare and employment experiences. With several ADA Centers (http://adata.org/ ) and universities, Dr. McDonald conducts research on community participation among adults with disabilities. She is also working with United Cerebral Palsy to build a network of people with disabilities prepared to engage with and in patient-centered outcomes research (http://mylifewithoutlimits.org/speak-for-yourself/ ).

Dr. McDonald received the Stevens-Shapiro Fellowship from the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID), the Early Career Award from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and was an International Visiting Fellow at the University of Western Sydney in Australia. Dr. McDonald is a Fellow in the AAIDD, and Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Dr. McDonald previously lived in community with individuals with and without intellectual disability in a community of L’Arche.

Publications

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Doug Kruse

Doug Kruse has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He conducts econometric studies on employee ownership, profit sharing, disability, worker displacement, pensions, and wage differentials.

Professor Doug Kruse’s book Profit Sharing: Does It Make A Difference? won Princeton’s Richard A. Lester prize as the year’s Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations. His recent co-authored books include The Citizen’s Share: Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century (Yale University Press), People with Disabilities: Sidelined or Mainstreamed? (Cambridge University Press), and Shared Capitalism at Work (University of Chicago Press). He has published over 100 scholarly papers, including articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Economic Journal, Human Resource Management, Monthly Labor Review, and Industrial Relations.

He has testified four times before Congress on his economic research, and conducted several studies for the U.S. Department of Labor and for the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Professor Kruse served as Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2013-2014. He is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA), a Research Fellow at IZA – The Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn, Germany), an editor of British Journal of Industrial Relations, and was appointed to New Jersey’s State Rehabilitation Council and the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Academic Profile Doug Kruse

Paul Harpur

Dr. Paul Harpur has been appointed a Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) Distinguished International Visiting Fellow during February, 2016. Dr. Harpur is a tenured academic at the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland.  The TC Beirne School of Law is a research intensive institution, which in the 2015 QS World Rankings was ranked the 49th best law school in the world.

Dr. Paul Harpur’s research analyses the practical and theoretical operation of laws and institutions that impact upon equality for persons with disabilities.  This research agenda considers the capacity of persons with disabilities to exercise various rights protected by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Dr. Harpur brings his personal experience to his research, being totally blind, a former Paralympian and practicing lawyer, in addition to his extensive research experience.

Dr. Harpur’s research focus at BBI is on his contracted book with the Cambridge University Press, “Disability Human Rights: Opening the Book for Print Disabled”.

People read for education, employment, health and to participate in the economic, cultural and political life of their community. People with print disabilities, such as blindness, low vision, mobility impairments and dyslexia, depending where they live in the world, can access between 7% and less than 1% of the world’s 130 million titles. Standard paper books require scanning and alteration so that persons with print disabilities can access them.  This is an expensive and time consuming process for the 17 million print disabled in the US and even more difficult for the estimated 300 million print disabled in less wealthy countries. Unlike books printed on paper, E-Books start digital and have the capacity to solve the book famine. As the numbers of commercially available E-books grows through the thousands and into the tens of millions, the dream of universal access could be a reality. To realise the potential of this, technological changes will require a paradigm shift in how laws and institutions balance copyright and human rights. Dr. Harpur’s monograph will critically analyses the role of laws and institutions in enabling and disabling access to the written word.  Historically, laws and institutions constructed disability access as an exception which was partially tolerated.  A new disability human rights paradigm has emerged which is placing human rights over copyright interests. The new disability human rights agenda is connected with a range of legal and policy developments at the international and national levels.

Academic Bio for Dr. Paul Harpur

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