After graduating from Miami University, I went back to my hometown of Carbonale to begin a master’s degree program in rehabilitation counseling at Southern Illinois University. Like rehab counseling students across the country – every year – I began by learning about the foundational laws that brought the field of vocational rehabilitation into being. There are several of these laws but chief among them was the Smith-Fess Act of 1920, the law that established the Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation program. This program was set up to help injured soldiers returning from World War I to learn new skills so they could continue to have productive lives after their military service was done.
Eventually, the Smith-Fess Act of 1920 was replaced by the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which established the nationwide state-federal vocational rehabilitation program that we have today. Through this program, millions of Americans with disabilities have been able to receive training leading toward employment careers. Many professionals in the field today – including those from Ohio – may not realize the vital role Ohio played in establishing this incredibly important system.
Simeon Fess, one of the bill’s champions, was from Ohio. He was a graduate of Ohio Northern University and in 1907 became the president of Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1912, Mr. Fess ran for Congress, sucessfully, thus beginning a remarkable legislative career in Washington. He would serve 5 terms in the House of Representatives and then 12 years in the United States Senate. Along the way, he pushed through a bill – the Smith – Fess Act of 1920 – that would change the employment landscape for Americans with disabilities for generations to come. 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of passage of the Smith-Fess Act.
Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities – Ohio’s state-federal VR program – put out a video hosted by our governor, honoring the life and accomplishments of Simeon Fess. It turns out Governor DeWine and Senator Fess have a lot in common: They are both from Yellow Springs, they both graduated from the Ohio Northern College of Law, and they both went on to serve in Congress and the Senate. In 1998, then-Senator DeWine was given the responsibility of reauthorizing the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, the law that began with Simeon Fess’ vision for a better life for Americans with Disabilities. Senator Fess passed away in 1936 and was laid to rest in Glen Forest Cemetary in Yellow Springs – directly across the street from Mike DeWine’s childhood home.
Please enjoy this short video and be proud of the role Ohio has played in making lives better for Americans with disabilities, through the generations.
The Direct Support Workforce and COVID-19 National Survey Report 2020
The Institute on Community Integration and the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals collaborated to lift up the voice of the direct support workforce. The aim of this study was to gather evidence about the experiences of the direct support workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and to inform efforts to better prepare for future waves of this pandemic.
Acknowledgments
Funded by grant #90RTCP0003 from the National Institute on Disability Independent Living Rehabilitation Research and cooperative agreement #90DDUC0070 from the Administration on Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The COVID-19 pandemic has induced stress in everyone this year, but for those marginalized by disabilities, and especially those already dealing with social inequity and poverty, the pandemic has dealt additional blows. https://t.co/0SksYj9uKm
Today we unveil the final installment of our interview with Carolyn Knight, director of the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council. In this segment, she discusses an innovative look at providing transportation solutions for people with disabilities. In all of my different areas of work through the years, access to transportation has always been of paramount importance to people with disabilities. The Ohio DD Council helped start a program to provide more public transportation options to people living in Athens county, a primarily rural county in southeast Ohio. The key to the success of the program, Carolyn explains, is the willingness to reach out in partnership with other agencies and programs that are struggling with the same issue for their constituentcies.
Director Knight also talks about the success of the DD Council Legislative Day, where Ohioans with DD come from all over the state to a political celebration and rally, and then go out and meet with the their state representatives and state senators. It is true that two of the best “abilities” in politics are availability and visibility. To be able to share their concerns – in person – with the powers that be is an important way to help people understand the challenges facing Ohioans with DD every day. The Legislative Day has been a huge success, often featuring visits by the Governor, Lt. Governor and other statewide elected officials. It is an idea Ohio led the way on and has been adopted by many other states across the country.
We thank Carolyn for being generous with her time and for her amazing career helping people with developmental disabilities. You can learn more about the DD Council by going to their website (ddd.ohio.gov). Please enjoy part 3 of our interview with DD Council director Carolyn Knight.
Today we are happy to present part 2 of our interview with Carolyn Knight, Director of the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council. The Ohio DD Council is a statewide board made up of Ohioans with developmental disabilities (or family members), disability service providers, and professionals from disability state agencies. The Council takes federal money and sends it out in the form of grants to entitities in our state that are working to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
How does that happen? Where do the ideas for these grants come from? Today, Carolyn talks about the process by which Council sets the agenda and turns innovative ideas into grants that go out into the community. She also talks about a particular grant that is opening up new housing opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.
We are grateful to Carolyn for her time and her lifelong commitment to helping Ohioans with disabilities. Please take this opportunity to learn more about this wonderful program that constantly seeks out new and innovative ways to improve the lives of Ohioans with DD.
I have been working in the disability field in Ohio since 1991. I started working as an intern at Goodwill Rehabilitation Center on Edgehill Drive here in Columbus that fall and I have been around ever since. I eventually moved on and worked as a social worker in the mental health field for a community mental health center in Columbus. I also spent several years working as a rehabilitation counselor in the workers’ compensation field, including running my own business for a few of those.
Upon coming to Ohio State, I was fortunate to be appointed by Govenor Bob Taft to serve on the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council. I spent six wonderful years on the Council. I wound up being the chair of the Employment committee and, in the last two years, the chairman of the Council at large. It was an amazing experience. In all of the experiences I’ve had in my career, none was more valuable than the time I spent on DD Council.
What is DD Council? When I worked in other areas, I could not have answered this question. But it is an amazing group of people (31 in all), made up of people with disabilities (or family members), providers of services to people with disabilities, and professionals from state agencies that touch the lives of people with disabilities. They serve on this Council that is charged with sending out grants into the community to try and establish innovative programs to improve the lives of Ohioans with developmental disabilities.
They are brave. They will try things on a local level no one has tried before, without fear of failure. Througout the years, so many statewide (even nationwide) initiatives that have been implemented to help Americans with developmental disabilities started with a small DD Council grant. They pursue the art of the possible. They are an indispensable part of the disability community, but one that many people may not be aware of.
Today we share the first part of a 3-part interview with Carolyn Knight, director of the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council. In this first interview, Director Knight talks about what a DD Council is, who is eligible to serve on it, what the mission of the Ohio DD Council is, and what they hope to accomplish with the grants that are established by Council.
Parts 2 will be published on December 17 and Part 3 on December 18. We thank Carolyn for her time and her lifelong commitment to improving the lives of Ohioans with developmental disabilities.
**CLICK ON LINK JUST BELOW TO SIGN UP FOR 12/26/2020 2PM VIRTUAL WEBINAR WITH PRESENTER FROM OHIO–Area 14 Workforce Development Board, Athens, Meigs, Perry Counties**
Learning and Leading: Service Delivery to Job Seekers in a Virtual Environment
WorkforceGPS is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA).
ETA-Webinar
Virtual
Wednesday, December 16, 2020 2:00 PM ~ 3:30 PM ET
With the decreased ability to deliver in-person services during the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce and training organizations have met this challenge through delivering online services. This webinar will highlight promising practices and feature organizations that have successfully used virtual platforms to deliver workforce development services to jobseekers.
Description
This webinar follows the kick-off Learning and Leading Recovery webinar held on November 18, that presented the important role the workforce system has in supporting job seekers and businesses through the economic recovery from the pandemic.
Moderator(s)
Eric Nelson, Director, Office of Special Initiatives and Demonstrations, U. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
Presenter(s)
Michele Martin, Senior Associate, New Start Career Network, John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
Laurie McKnight, Director, Area 14 Workforce Development Board, Athens, Meigs, Perry Counties (Ohio)
How autonomous vehicles are changing the future of accessibility
Thu, December 3, 2020, 3:34 PM EST
The Sight Tech Global conference is a virtual non-profit event that brings together the top technologists working on AI-related technologies that are having a huge impact on accessibility, especially for the blind and visually impaired. TechCrunch Editor and Reporter Kristen Korosec spoke Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired CEO Bryan Bashin, Foundation for Blind Children CEO Marc Ashton and Waymo Product Manager Clem Wright about how autonomous vehicles are changing the future of accessibility.
Video Transcript
KRISTIN MYERS: Let’s talk now about the future of accessibility for the differently abled. Our friends over at TechCrunch spoke to the nonprofit Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired about how self-driving cars are going to be impacting accessibility. Take a listen.
– As a blind person myself, I can’t independently get into a car and drive. So right now, I have to get into TNC with a person who may or may not have a status with COVID. Autonomous vehicles offer the chance to have no COVID exposure. That’s going to be with us for a few years. So I think first and foremost, that’s what people think of. And there are a couple of other advantages.
Despite what we like to say, there is still a lot of discrimination against the now almost 10,000 blind Americans who use guide dogs. Autonomous vehicles will not have that discrimination. Anyone gets in the vehicle. And maybe most profoundly, there’s a kind of deeper social equity.
Sometimes we just don’t– as blind people, we don’t want another person to be in our business. We want to just go somewhere. We don’t have to answer questions. We just want to get there, be independent. And so, that equity of being able to go, just like anybody else on a mission, is really profound and will be a huge advance.
KRISTIN MYERS: Marc, I’m wondering what your viewpoint is. Are there accessibility barriers that you think that autonomous vehicles are in a unique position to remove?
MARC ASHTON: I think with all technology, you know, when we have first speech– text to speech software, it was, you know, clunky and what have you. But technology has brought it leaps and bounds over the last couple of decades. And I think with autonomous vehicles, the technology is going to move very quickly. And any problems that do come up with accessibility, I think that technology will be able to solve.
I mean, it’s the ability for just putting the features that some of these autonomous vehicles are doing, which is like a beeping– the ability of the rider to beep the car’s horn so they could find the vehicle, for the Braille inside the vehicle, for the vehicle to explain to the rider where they are at any given time, how far they are to the distance. All that is progressive. So they keep adding these features as they get feedback from riders, but also, just from the community in general.
And a lot of those features, to be quite frank, are just as helpful for sighted people. Being able to find your car by touching the button on your iPhone is pretty global. And so, [INAUDIBLE] great. And I think one of the most of things about autonomous vehicles is just the safety factor, just the, you really aren’t getting in a car with a stranger, you know? And we all love ride hailing, and it’s been a great transformation.
But you’re still getting in a car with a stranger. And some people, that’s very uncomfortable with. And they don’t know that person that you can’t– especially if you’re visually impaired, they can’t identify that person later. And so, I think it’s a very– non-driver could be a big safety factor.
KIRSTEN KOROSEC: So why don’t you, then, walk us through the– how Waymo has approached, not just the design of its vehicle, but importantly, also, the ride hailing app, which is known as Waymo One in the Chandler area, but to make it accessible to all user groups, and in this case, specifically for blind and low vision users.
CLEM WRIGHT: Sure. Yeah, that’s a great list [INAUDIBLE] and definitely a number of things that we’ve talked about and you and I have discussed as well.
– Yes
CLEM WRIGHT: So, we do think of– our overall approach is not to think of, here are a couple of features that we’re going to build just for low vision users or for users with other disabilities. It’s about thinking about the entire user journey from the first time you install the app and start onboarding with Waymo, to getting dropped off at your destination and every step in between, and thinking about what the needs are at those different points in the journey. And different people are going to have different needs. And we want to make sure we meet those throughout.
So, a number of things that Brian called out, like finding the car at pickup, finding the destination and drop-off, really massive challenges. And we found that in– by doing user research with users with a diverse– diverse abilities, we’re able to pick out certain needs and build certain features that then help everyone.
So for example, the honking the horn feature that Marc called out, this was something that we did build. We were more originally, hey, this is something that we know that low vision users are going to need. So we built this out, and we tested it. And we actually were running a separate usability study, a totally different feature, for all sighted users in this study. And they were trying to find the car pick-up, just as part of the flow.
And we accidentally left the honk horn feature on. It was just a prototype phase at that point. And the person– so I was like, oh, I need to find the car. They honked the horn, and the car was pulled up around the back of the hotel where we were testing.
And it was a huge lightbulb moment for me, where it was like, oh, yeah, obviously, this is going to be helpful for everyone. And we’ve seen that time and again in a number of different features we’ve built, where we’ll think of more extreme needs that people with disabilities may face and brainstorm features around them, but then realized, hey, this is something that affects everyone.
International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), 3 December 2020
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is annually observed on 3 December to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities and to take action for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development.
This year, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities will be commemorated throughout the week of 30 November- 4 December in conjunction with the 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The theme this year is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World”.
Commemorative Event for IDPD 2020: Action Toward a Disability-Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-COVID-19 World” 4 December 2020 (11.00 am-12:45 pm EST)
The event will include representatives of Member States, UN offices, organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society, and the private sector. It will emphasize the importance of disability-inclusive responses to COVID-19 and take stock of progress in “building back better,” including addressing the global policy framework on disability-inclusive development newly adopted by the General Assembly Third Committee this past November. The event will also address the tools of the UN system. These include hose developed for the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy, the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNWomen and the World Bank. It will also focus on important steps taken by civil society and the private sector to “build back better” in a disability-inclusive manner.
Draft Agenda
Co-Moderators:Mr. Gopal Mitra, Senior Officer, Disability Team (EOSG) and Ms. Abia Akram, Chair, Asia Pacific Forum on Women and Girls with Disabilities (Civil Society)
Global Action: Strengthening the international framework on disability-inclusive development: disability-inclusive response to Covid-19 and “Building Back Better Toward an Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-COVID-19 World
Introduction: Under-Secretary-General Ms. Ana Maria Menendez, EOSG.
President of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, E. Minister Luis Gallegos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ecuador (Ecuador)
Third Committee Resolution on Inclusive Development for and with Persons with Disabilities/ E. Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo, Permanent Representative, PM of Philippines
H.E. Ambassador Kennedy Gastorn, Permanent Representative, PM of Tanzania
The Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends of Persons with Disabilities (Mexico and New Zealand), H.E. Ambassador Juan Sandoval, Deputy Permanent Representative, PM of Mexico
Video “ON DISPLAY GLOBAL short compilation 2020”by Heidi Latsky Dance
Vision for Action on the Ground: Tools for Building Back Better Toward an Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-COVID-19 World:
Next steps for the implementation of the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy, the EOSG Mr. Gopal Mitra, Senior Officer, Disability Team (EOSG)
UNWomen A.H. Monjurul Kabir, Global Adviser, UN Coordination, Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion/Intersectionality, UN Women
United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD): Ola Abualghaib, Technical Secretariat for the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF)
World Bank Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor, World Bank
Civil Society/organizations of persons with disabilities: Hannes Juhlin Lagrelius, World Blind Union, Co-chair, General Assembly of Partners-PCG Persons with Disabilities (representative of civil society/organizations of persons with disabilities)
Private Sector/Foundations: Yosuke Ishikawa, Nippon Foundation
Respondent:Mr. Cabra de Luna Miguel Angel, EESC Observer to the UNTFSSE, to provide his comments concerning the presentations.
United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS) The UNDIS provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development. The Strategy enables the UN system to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other international human rights instruments, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agenda for Humanity, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Community Conversations Hosted by The Center for Disability Empowerment The Center for Disability Empowerment (CDE) is pleased to offer a series of free workshops designed to explore ways to help communities to become more inclusive and welcoming to all of its citizens. Studies show that people who have important relationships in their lives are happier, healthier, safer and achieve more in life. We know that vulnerable people including elders, people with disabilities and economically disadvantaged people have less social capital and are at great risk for social isolation.These virtual trainings will examine social capital and explore ways for communities to help people build more opportunities for relationships. We encourage community leaders, businesses, civic organizations, schools, faith-based communities, individuals with disabilities and their families to join us for this important discussion!Attached you will find a flyer with more information on each session and registration links. -Susan Hetrick, Executive Director The Center for Disability Empowerment
Ohio Disability Blog 