April 27, 2015

BBI held its Board of Advisors Spring session on Monday, April 27, 2015 at Syracuse University. BBI Chairman Peter Blanck and Executive Director Michael Morris along with Board of Advisor Co-Chairs Joshua Heintz and Larry Silverman opened the meeting with a welcome and introductions followed by topics of emerging areas and current projects. Continue Reading

September 22, 2014

BBI Chairman, Peter Blanck, book: eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by Persons with Cognitive Disabilities now available

The Cambridge University Press is proud to announce the release of eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by Persons with Cognitive Disabilities written by Dr. Peter Blanck, Ph.D., J.D.  The book will be formally released at the Fourteenth Annual Conference on Cognitive Disability and Technology.  Continue Reading

May 13, 2014

BBI Chairman Blanck Addresses International Conference on “Disability Policy Entrepreneurship”

BBI Chairman Peter Blanck addressed an international conference on “Disability Policy Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century.” The June 2014 conference, in Ireland, linked research with future disability reform agendas and  was sponsored by the EU Marie Curie Network DREAM (Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets) at the National University of Ireland (Galway). Continue Reading

Information and the Latest News on the ADA
for the Public and the Media for July 26, 2013 Anniversary

(Atlanta, GA – July 9, 2013) –Celebrations of the July 26, 1990 signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by President George H. Bush will take place across the nation during the week of July 22-28, 2013.

The ADA and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) give civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA and ADAAA also assure equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities for access to businesses, employment, transportation, state and local government programs and services, and telecommunications.

To celebrate this milestone, the Southeast ADA Center, a project of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and a member of the ADA National Network, has created an ADA Anniversary Tool Kit for use by the public and the media through the ADA Anniversary website (ADAanniversary.org). The Tool Kit contains:

• background and history on the ADA;
• information about the Supreme Court’s July 1999 Olmstead Decision prohibiting the unnecessary institutionalization of persons with disabilities;
•  disability statistics; and
• other resources on the ADA.

“Since 1991, the 10 Regional ADA Centers in the ADA National Network have worked to change the landscape for individuals with disabilities by providing free, confidential and accurate information, resources and training to businesses, employers and state and local governments on their responsibilities under the ADA, “ said Pamela Williamson, Director of the Southeast ADA Center.  “We also provide free and confidential answers to questions asked by people with disabilities, their families and other advocates. Recently these have included calls from veterans living in the 8-state Southeast Region, home to the highest number of military bases in the United States.

“Because of the outreach, training and technical assistance the Network has done to promote voluntary compliance with the ADA, people with disabilities now have access to buildings, programs, and opportunities for competitive employment.  And their opportunities for full participation in community life are increasing every day.”

The ADA National Network’s 10 Regional ADA Centers receive hundreds of calls on their toll free number:  1-800-949-4232 (voice/tty) that connects callers to the ADA Center serving their region. The ADA National Network is the “go to” resource for information, guidance and training on the ADA and its implementation — call toll free 1-800-949-4232 (voice/tty) or visit their website at adata.org.

About the Southeast ADA Center

The Southeast ADA Center is a grant project of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University. The Center answers questions, provides training and materials about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Center serves an eight-state geographic region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. As part of the ADA National Network sponsored by grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), the Southeast ADA Center is one of 10 regional centers offering training and technical assistance to promote voluntary compliance with the ADA, including information about the rights of people with disabilities and the responsibilities of businesses as well as state and helpful resource. For more information, visit the Southeast ADA Center website (ADAsoutheast.org).

About the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University

The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University reaches around the globe in its efforts to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities. BBI builds on the legacy of Burton Blatt, former dean of SU’s School of Education and a pioneering disability rights scholar, to better the lives of people with disabilities. Given the strong ties between one’s ability to earn income and fully participate in their communities, BBI’s work focuses on two interconnected Innovation Areas: Economic Participation and Community Participation. Through program development, research, and public policy guidance in these Innovation Areas, BBI advances the full inclusion of people with disabilities. BBI has offices in Syracuse, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. For more information, visit the Burton Blatt Institute website (bbi.syr.edu).

About the ADA National Network

The ADA National Network is the “go to” resource for information, guidance and training on the ADA and its implementation. The Network consists of ten regional centers located throughout the United States that provide services and assistance tailored to meet the needs of local businesses, government and individuals. The ADA National Network is not an enforcement or regulatory agency—but rather a helpful resource.  Contact the ADA National Network with questions on the Americans with Disabilities Act or to find a Regional ADA National Network Center near by calling 1-800-949-4232 (voice/tty). All calls are confidential.  Visit the ADA National Network website for links to extensive ADA information and training opportunities (www.adata.org).

Contact:

Southeast ADA Center
ADAsoutheast@law.syr.edu
404-541-9001 (voice/tty)

PITTSBURGH, PA – Dr. Blanck is University Professor at Syracuse University, which is the highest faculty rank granted to only eight prior individual in the history of the University.  He is chair of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University and will be featured with Joyce Bender on “Disability Matters” on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, from 2 PM to 3 PM eastern time.  Discussed on the show will be the mission of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI).  BBI will build the premier organization to advance civic, economic, and social participation of persons with disabilities in a global society by creating a collaborative environment – with entrepreneurial innovation and best business practices – to  foster public-private dialogue, and create the capacity to transform policy, systems, and people through inclusive education, the workforce, and communities. Continue Reading

People with disabilities used to be called “the least of the least.” They were hidden away all their lives, barred from schools with “typical” pupils, institutionalized and forgotten — except by resigned parents and siblings.

Things began to change in 1975 with passage of IDEA — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — that affirmed every child’s right to an education. By the, the movement for “inclusion” already had begun, along with a campaign to move people with disabilities from institutions into life’s mainstream. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act outlawed discrimination and required accessibility to public facilities and the workplace.

During this time, Syracuse became a standard-setter and a progressive force for change. At Syracuse University the late Burton Blatt, whose groundbreaking work, “Christmas in Purgatory,” exposed the grim world of institutions for the mentally retarded, created the Center for Human Policy. Graduates from SU’s trailblazing special-education programs led inclusive classrooms at Jowonio, a school where typical children learn side by side with special-needs peers. Inclusion spread to the Syracuse City School District — and beyond. SU also did groundbreaking work on autism, led by Professor Douglas Biklen and others.

Meanwhile, more and more people with special needs began living in the community. In 1998, the Syracuse Developmental Center discharged its last residents and closed its doors. Today many of them live in dozens of group homes scattered throughout Central New York, with 50 m ore planned over the next three years. Staff writer Jim McKeever is chronicling life at one such residence in a continuing series that helps bury stereotypes and reinforce the utterly human reality of “mainstreaming.”

Now SU has the opportunity to take its mission to a new level with a $2.5 million federal grant to its new Burton Blatt Institute. Over the next five years, the institute will work on removing stubborn obstacles to employment for people with disabilities.

The focus is on employers — how to modify practices and workplaces to accommodate the disabled and capitalize on their energy and talents. Cross-disciplinary research involves labor relations, management law, technology, social psychology and economics. The project’s reach is national, with forums envisioned across the country.

All can benefit from inclusion, explains SU senior researcher William Myhill — for example, by installing adjustable desks that also accommodate “typical” employees of varying heights. Years of classroom experience demonstrate how inclusion spreads its benefits in more personal ways — by raising awareness and tolerance, inspiring creative approaches and problem-solving.

While thousands of Central New Yorkers with disabilities already are gainfully employed, thousands more are not. Nationally, some 12 million adult Americans with disabilities are unemployed. Now SU will have a chance to reduce those numbers — and make this a richer, more just society.

 

Photo caption: Chris Judge, a resident of a group home for five developmentally disabled men in DeWitt, looks at a drawing he made on the coffee table.

Jaclyn D. Grosso 443-9534

Peter Blanck, one of the world’s leading scholars and experts on disability law and policy, has been appointed a University Professor at Syracuse University. Blanck also has been named chair of the new Burton Blatt Institute: Centers of Innovation on Disability (BBI) at Syracuse University.

The Burton Blatt Institute takes its name from Burton Blatt (1927-85), a pioneer in humanizing services for people with mental retardation, a staunch advocate of deinstitutionalization, and a national leader in special education.

Its new chair is a leading expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), representing clients in ADA-related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and testifying before Congress. His recent work, a treatise on disability civil rights law and policy, is used at some of the world’s most prestigious law schools, including Harvard Law School and the University of Ireland.

“Professor Blanck has been deeply committed to the advancement of persons with disabilities at home and abroad,” says Chancellor Nancy Cantor. “Under his leadership, I expect the Burton Blatt Institute to be a national and world leader in this area.”

Blanck holds SU appointments at the College of Law, the School of Education, The College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Human Services and Health Professions and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. His appointment as a University Professor, the highest faculty rank, is only the eighth such appointment in the history of Syracuse University.

“Peter is internationally renowned in the field of disability law and policy,” says Vice Chancellor and Provost Deborah A. Freund. “As chair of the new University-wide initiative, the Burton Blatt Institute, he is building the premier organization to advance civic, economic and social participation of persons with disabilities in a global society. “

BBI is a collaborative environment that fosters public-private dialogue and seeks to transform policy, systems and people through inclusive education, the workforce and communities.

“I am delighted that BBI already is partnering on activities with virtually all of SU’s academic units, from the College of Law, to the Maxwell and Newhouse schools, to the Schools of Education, Management and Architecture, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts,” says Blanck.

“At SU, it is our mandate, in the name of a pioneering disability rights scholar and champion, Dr. Burton Blatt, to help transform law and policy, and, importantly, attitudes that hold people with disabilities back from their full realization,” Blanck says. BBI has planned several Burton Blatt legacy projects, including a series of commissioned lectures that focus on Blatt’s work and impact.

Blatt was dean of the School of Education and Centennial Professor at SU, served as director of SU’s Division of Special Education and Rehabilitation, and founded the Center on Human Policy to promote a more open and accepting society for persons with disabilities.

Prior to Blanck’s appointment at SU, he was the Charles M. and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law and director of the Law, Health Policy, and Disability Center at the University of Iowa. Before that, Blanck practiced law at the Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and served as a law clerk to the late Carl McGowan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Blanck received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester, a juris doctorate from Stanford University (where he was president of the Stanford Law Review), and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is a former member of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, a former senior fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program, a former fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and a Mary Switzer Scholar.

He is a board member of the National Organization on Disability, Disability Legal Rights Center and of Disability Rights Advocates. He is a trustee of YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network.

Blanck has appointed an executive director, Brian McLane ’69, who will work with BBI satellite offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, which are headed by leading disability law and policy thinkers Michael Morris and Charlie Hammerman, respectively. Each of these individuals is dedicated to creating an accessible and inclusive world of employment and public access in every aspect of life.

BBI has introduced a new 2006 summer law and disability policy leadership program, a six-week program in Washington, D.C. Dean Hannah Arterian of the SU College of Law notes that “BBI has provided funding for a first-of-its-kind program where four SU law students will learn first hand about the public policy making process from a disability perspective.”

To reinforce its unprecedented University-wide reach and collaboration, BBI is also awarding “innovation grants” to SU faculty and students in areas from the humanities to the basic sciences to stimulate fresh and visionary thinking about disability.

Likewise, the School of Information Studies is working with BBI to design cutting-edge approaches to distance learning and building social networks. At its Crouse-Hinds Hall headquarters, BBI is establishing a new world-class survey center to focus on the analysis of disability policy.

For more information about Blanck and the BBI, visit https://bbi.syr.edu.