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Disability Digest
The monthly member-only newsletter of
Disability Network Southwest Michigan
February 2016
At Your Service
The Mid-Atlantic ADA Center partnered with Storyline Motion Pictures to produce this dynamic new customer service film, At Your Service, addressing best practices, insights, tips and recommendations on how to provide exemplary customer service to individuals with disabilities.
woman talking and gesturing 
click picture to watch video
and scroll down for captioning options 
J udge Orders Back Pay
For Sheltered Workshop Employees

judge_s gavel
In Tiffin, Ohio a judge ordered a sheltered workshop to pay damages and back pay after ruling that the sheltered workshop wrongly set sub-minimum wages for several employees with disabilities. Barbara Corner, lead attorney for the petitioners and employment team leader for Disability Rights Ohio, said "We feel that the points we wanted to make were heard by the judge and validated by the decision." Corner said the decision could "put a lot of workshops in somewhat of a vulnerable place," in terms of how they pay employees.
Read the entire article at Disability Scoop.
Disabling Segregation  
 
Photojournalist Dan Habib didn't give much thought to disability -- until his son Samuel was born with cerebral palsy. In this TED Talk, the disability-rights advocate explains his family's fight to ensure an inclusive education for Samuel, and how inclusion benefits not just Samuel, but all of us.
 
D an Habib is the director, producer and cinematographer of the documentary, Including Samuel. Habib's second film, Who Cares About Kelsey?, documents the lives of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, and shows innovative educational approaches that help these students to succeed-while improving the overall school culture and climate.
book cover _The Speed of Dark_
Book Club

Wednesday, March 2,
12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m. (lunch provided)

Held at BOTH our Kalamazoo and St.Joseph Offices.

RSVP to Dale (269) 345-1516 x123

The Speed of Dark
(By: Elizabeth Moon)

In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Genetic defects will be removed at birth. Lou Arrendale, an autistic adult, is a member of the lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the rewards of medical science. But then he is offered a chance to try a brand-new experimental "cure" for his condition. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself?

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It's Our Story champions a fuller knowledge of disability life and culture by exposing visitors to the ways in which people with disabilities interpret, live, critique, and comment upon their diverse experiences. It's Our Story expands and explores equal rights for people with disabilities by providing a platform for the collective voice of an empowered and engaged community.
Disability Network Southwest Michigan
Kalamazoo Office
St. Joseph Office
517 E. Crosstown Parkway
2900 Lakeview Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
 St. Joseph, MI 49085
(269) 345-1516
 (269) 985-0111
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