Know what's happening in the disability rights movement
Disability Digest
The monthly Disability Rights e-publication of Disability Network Southwest Michigan.
July 2021
ADA Celebration to focus on Disability Justice
Join us online for our ADA Anniversary Celebration on July 23. Dessa Cosma of Detroit Disability Power is our keynote speaker. Watch this video of Dessa speaking on disability justice.
Follow this link for more information and to register for our ADA Celebration event.
There is nothing "special" about my needs.
For many people outside the disability community, the terms "special needs" and "disability" seem synonymous; however, most disability advocates object to the term "special needs." Lisette Torres-Gerald with the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities said, "My needs are not special; they are the same human needs that everyone else has, and I should be able to fully participate in society just as much as the next person."
We have featured several articles in the Digest about how, in some ways, COVID helped the rest of the world see that some of the accommodations people with disabilities have been asking for in work and school environments for years are reasonable. Here is another take on how COVID may be shifting attitudes related to the disability community.
It turns out that Long COVID -- the lingering, debilitating exhaustion that some COVID survivors experience -- has similar symptoms as myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). While ME/CFS has been around for a long time, many people, including doctors, have not taken it seriously; often treating it as a psychological issue rather than a physical illness. Now, with a growing prevalence of Long COVID, people are starting to think harder about what it means to live with chronic illness. Follow this link to read the article Is Long COVID Leading to a Tipping Point Toward Chronic Illness?
Amazon prioritizing disability inclusion
in their videos.
Amazon Studios will be taking new steps to increase inclusion of people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups in films and series. “We wanted to move beyond good intentions to creating mechanisms that hold us accountable to a high bar,” said Latasha Gillespie, executive head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Amazon Studios. Follow this link to read the article about Amazon's disability inclusion.
