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

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, 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

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

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

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

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

In recognition of important milestones this year, the Southeast ADA Center and the Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University will host a four-event Virtual Series: Disability Employment–Looking Back & Moving  Forward on each Wednesday in October starting at 1 p.m. [ET].

“Increasing Access and Opportunity” is the October 2020 theme for the annual National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). This year marks the 75th year of NDEAM lead by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). This year 2020 also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 100th anniversary of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). Continue Reading

Today’s unprecedented health, social, and economic challenges raised by the coronavirus pandemic require a retrospective, present-day, and prospective view of U.S. employment policy for individuals with disabilities. Over the next five years, the goal of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on “Disability Inclusive Employment Policy” (DIEP) will be to design and implement a series of studies that produce new data and evidence on policy levers to increase employment rates of persons with disabilities with the objective of informing current and future policy and program development. Continue Reading