Recently, I had the opportunity to give a webinar on disability cultural competence to social service workers, but was met with many blank stares. As a disabled social worker myself, I often notice that the disability community is not recognized as a cultural group. Disability is also not considered as a social identity in diversity […]

View Full Article - What Do You Know About Disability Cultural Competence?

A new analysis led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers finds that the number of U.S. adults who report they have a disability is 27%, representing 67 million adults, an increase of 1% since the data were last analyzed in 2016. In this new study, which used data collected in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the […]

View Full Article - New Analysis: More U.S. Adults Identify as Disabled; Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities Persist

Though virtual learning is seemingly becoming less commonplace across the country, it’s still certainly around and likely will be for some time. And we all know that virtual learning has its challenges. Especially when it comes to differentiating in the virtual classroom. For students with special education accommodations, teachers will need to get creative in […]

View Full Article - Zoom Differentiation and Accommodations

Are you a fan of “Bachelor in Paradise?” Whether you realize it or not, this season of the “Bachelor” franchise spinoff took on the topic of disability empowerment. Which is not exactly an expected topic for mainstream television. For years, the “Bachelor” series has been criticized for featuring primarily White contestants, and has worked to […]

View Full Article - What “Bachelor in Paradise” Can Teach us About Empowering the Disability Community

A key part of anti-racist social work practice is engaging in the art of reflection as we consider the person in the environment. This also involves being aware of the larger social context in which we live and practice. The social context can, for some people, include experiences of racism and ableism. Recently, I wrote […]

View Full Article - Unpacking the Historical Relationship of Racism and Ableism

What do you get when you mix the taboo nature of discussing sexual intimacy with the social stigma surrounding intellectual and developmental disabilities? The answer: a heck of a lot more problems than you might think. Sexual education in the school setting is already a hot-button issue for non-disabled students. But when students with intellectual […]

View Full Article - Sexual Education & Disability: Why it Should Matter to Social Workers

I taught special education in a sub-separate classroom for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I’ve also worked as a paraprofessional in inclusion classrooms with students with learning disabilities, health disabilities, and mental health disabilities. I’ve planned lessons and units and activities. While I’m far from the most experienced teacher in the world (and far […]

View Full Article - On the Inherent Ableism in Thinking You’re a Good Teacher

The social work field is often full of situations that are not straight forward. On a Reddit social media post, a social worker reached out to the social work community for advice on a particularly unclear situation. The social worker runs a solo, private practice in a small town, and recently had a request from […]

View Full Article - Case Study: Reasonable Accommodation in Social Work

Becoming a social worker is never how I expected my career path to go. I always admired what they did but never believed myself capable of doing it. Now that I am in my graduate program for social work, the pieces are all falling into place. Finally, I found a community that encompassed everything that […]

View Full Article - Unlearning Ableism, a Social Worker’s Duty

These days, many social workers are pretty clear that anti-racism is something they need to consistently work on in their practice, but when it comes to ableism, well, that’s something else altogether. Let’s start with a quick definition of ableism to build our disability competence a bit. Disability activists Talila Lewis and Dustin Gibson frame […]

View Full Article - Recognizing Ableism’s Link to Racism

Conversations about police violence are happening all over the world from the killing of Mr. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Black and so many other Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC). America is at an inflection point where we are being forced to examine our ugly stain of racism which permeates through every American […]

View Full Article - Black Disabled Lives Matter and How Social Workers Need to Address Structural Ableism

The Tourette Association of America (TAA), the premier national nonprofit organization serving the Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Tic Disorder community, will host a series of virtual events and activities in honor of Tourette Awareness Month, May 15 – June 15.   Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, impacting an estimated 1 million Americans, characterized […]

View Full Article - Tourette Association of America marks National Tourette Awareness Month with Engaging Virtual Events and Activities

The Ruderman Family Foundation, a leading disability rights organization, published a new white paper which offers recommendations to help health policymakers make decisions to ensure the lives of people with disabilities are not secondary amid the collective public health goal to save the most lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Fair Resource Allocation During the COVID-19 […]

View Full Article - New White Paper Provides Triage Blueprint for COVID-19 Pandemic to Protect People with Disabilities

More than half of family caregivers are between the ages of 18 and 49 years old – and as the U.S. population ages, increasing numbers of these caregivers will be enrolled in colleges. Often categorized as “nontraditional students,” college-enrolled caregivers are responsible for children, spouses, and dependent parents with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Nontraditional students […]

View Full Article - How Universities Can Better Support Student Caregivers

  For ages, special education has been developing on its own, together with the development of ordinary education. It emphasizes disorders and the ways special education students are lacking compared to an average student. Those who have a noticeable dysfunction have even been mocked for their lack of focus or skill to learn something – […]

View Full Article - Four Ways Neurodiversity Holds the Key to the Future of Special Education

My professor asked me to reflect on the ways in which I have engaged in ableism as a social work student. While I could not think of a professional instance, I was able to reflect back on my personal life about a time that I did engage in ableism. Recently, I gave birth to my […]

View Full Article - How Reflecting on My Choice to do Prenatal Tests Made Me a Better Social Worker

My first job right out of high school was working in a public library. I was one of three library pages who would put books away in order to maintain the bookshelves. A majority of the library staff watched me grow up in that building, and I was given my first opportunity at an internship […]

View Full Article - On Stacking Books in the Library, and Undoing My Own Ableism

While working at a disability group home agency, I came to know“ Jane,” a person with Rett Syndrome. Jane was non-verbal and was unable to walk independently. She used a specialized walker to move around. In addition, she developed her own sign language in order to communicate. During the day, Jane would attend a day […]

View Full Article - Let People Who are Non-Verbal Communicate in their Own Way: A Social Work Challenge

Did you know that over one fifth of the United States population has an impairment that leads to a disability? Given this, social workers are bound to engage in practice with disabled people across many service sectors – a reality which leads to the need for disability competence – and that includes competence around language choices. […]

View Full Article - Language Is Power: Two Things You Need to Know for Practice with Disabled People

The Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care (SJRCC) is inviting submissions for a special themed issue on disability to be published in December 2018. We are seeking ideas for papers now on any aspect of disability and residential child care – or indeed any aspect of care, or leaving care. We’d like to hear from […]

View Full Article - Scottish Journal For Residential Care: Final Call for Views and Experiences of Disability