News

Disability in a COVID World: Employment, Communications, Physical Spaces & Mental Health

Date: Thursday – December 3, 2020
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm [Eastern] | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm [Central ] | 10:00 am – 11:30 am [Mountain] | 9:00 am – 10:30 am [Pacific]

In celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD or IDPwD) held each year around the world on December 3, a panel of diverse presenters will discuss disability in a COVID world with a focus on employment, communications, physical spaces and mental health.

This webinar is a collaboration of the Consulate General of Canada in Atlanta, Southeast ADA Center and Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University. Continue Reading

BBI fellow, Arie Rimmerman, Winner for 2020 Landau awards despite coronavirus pandemic

Arie RimmermanThe Mifal Hapayis national lottery has announced the winners of the Landau Science and Arts awards for the year 2020.
The awards will be given to nine scientists and artists, totaling about NIS 1.35 million, with each of the winners receiving a grant of about NIS 150,000. The award is named after Michel Landau, who was appointed the head of Mifal Hapayis in 1951, and is used to promote research, science, the arts and culture in Israel. They have been given for 19 years.  Read Full article

The Inclusive Public Space research project at the University of Leeds, together with Burton Blatt Institute- Syracuse University, want to hear about your experiences as a pedestrian!

Do you find some streets in Syracuse or Atlanta difficult to use because of how they are designed or managed?

The Inclusive Public Space research project at the University of Leeds, together with Burton Blatt Institute – Syracuse University, want to hear about your experiences as a pedestrian! We are investigating the problems caused by unequal access to streets in 10 cities around the world and the way law and government respond to them. We are particularly keen to hear from people with disabilities, older adults and parents or caregivers. If you fit this description, or you know others who do, please consider participating and spread the word. More information about the project is available at https://inclusivepublicspace.leeds.ac.uk/.

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BBI Chairman, Peter Blanck, guest edits Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation special issue for 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Peter Blanck
Peter Blanck

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) of 1990 was ambitious federal legislation designed to promote employment inclusion, along with increased civic and social opportunity in other areas of daily life, by reducing attitudinal and structural barriers for people with disabilities. At the heart of this drive for inclusion was the ADA’s workplace accommodation principle. Today, the accommodation principle means using remote work options, as well as flexible hours and individualized reasonable adjustments to tasks and technologies, to enable full and equal economic participation across the spectrum of disabilities. Continue Reading

Stephen Kuusisto, has a new book due out next week, a collection of poems entitled “Old Horse, What Is to Be Done?”

University Professor Stephen Kuusisto, Director of BBI’s Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach has a new book due out next week, a collection of poems entitled “Old Horse, What Is to Be Done?” It’s his seventh book and his third poetry collection. Of the volume he says: “The poems were written slowly over the past five years although some of them are mined from old notebooks I kept in times of deep solitude. The book is dedicated to the American poet Robert Bly. In my late twenties and early thirties, struggling with blindness and the overwhelming question of “how to live and what to do” Robert counseled me to accept imagination and loneliness as my secret companions. Continue Reading

Video How Lawyers with Disabilities Make Our Justice System Better

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and this year’s observance of this important event is particularly special: It’s the 75th such observance, and it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At LSAC, we’re committed to helping people from all backgrounds, including those with disabilities, pursue their dreams of legal education and add their diverse voices to our justice system.

To mark this occasion, LSAC partnered with the American Bar Association to produce a video about why law firms and other organizations should hire lawyers with disabilities. The video, recorded remotely via Zoom, includes a variety of people with disabilities who are involved in law and legal education.

The video, recorded remotely via Zoom (due to Covid challenges), includes a variety of people with disabilities who are involved in law, legal education, and advocacy for those with disabilities.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9BCsqtCYw&feature=youtu.be

Blog Post: https://www.lsac.org/blog/how-lawyers-disabilities-make-our-justice-system-better

BBI International Distinguished Fellow, Paul Harpur, publishes Ableism at work: disablement and hierarchies of impairments

Paul Harpur
Paul Harpur with his dog

BBI International Distinguished Fellow, Associate Professor Paul Harpur from the University of Queensland, has published his most recent book – Ableism at work: disablement and hierarchies of impairments with  Cambridge University Press..  Ableism at work: disablement and hierarchies of impairments provides a comprehensive analysis of how value judgments in international and domestic laws have resulted in a hierarchy of impairments, whereby the nature of an impairment is used to determine whether a worker is protected and supported, rather than the extent of impairment or capacity to work. Continue Reading

FINRA Foundation Awards 2020 Ketchum Prize to Michael Morris

A Key Architect of the ABLE Act Recognized for Efforts to Advance Financial Capability for People with Disabilities

Michael Morris

Originally News Released WASHINGTON – September 30, 2020 https://www.finra.org/media-center/newsreleases/2020/finra-foundation-awards-2020-ketchum-prize-michael-morris

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation) today awarded Michael Morris the 2020 Ketchum Prize—its highest honor—for his extraordinary leadership in creating a better economic future for people with disabilities through advocacy, research and education. Continue Reading

BBI Chairman Peter Blanck to Address Reed Smith’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit

Dr. Peter Blanck, chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, presented at Reed Smith’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit his recent ground-breaking research regarding the lack of disability diversity in the legal profession. In a recent study commissioned by the ABA to focus on non-visible identities in law, he and his co-authors found that while a quarter of respondents said they had a health condition, impairment, or disability, only a third of those respondents identified as disabled. Continue Reading

Peter Blanck presenting at the Employment Innovation: Improving Work for People with Disabilities Virtual Event,

BBI chairman Peter Blanck will be presenting the new NIDDLR GRANT Disability Inclusive Employment Policy Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers at ACLS’ National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) Virtual Event, October 28, 2020.

The panel: “Looking Forward After Looking Back”: Promising New Research Innovations in Disability Employment, is moderator by Leslie Caplan, Ph.D., Former Project Officer, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. Continue Reading