Tag Archives: Disability

Voices

OPINION | Multicultural Village Offers Real Help for People With Disabilities

by Ginger Kwan

As a parent of an adult son with autism, I’m constantly asking myself a question that haunts all parents in my situation: Where will my son live after I’ve passed away?

A recent report by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services found a huge lack of affordable housing that meets the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Over 37,000 Washingtonians with intellectual disabilities face housing insecurity, while the state has only 1,382 Housing Trust Fund units that serve this community.

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Voices

OPINION | Early Childhood Special Education: Barriers and Solutions for Equitable Access

by Fernanda Martinez Novoa and Dr. Abigail Grant

The long-overdue focus on special education by Washington legislators is welcome.  

But any special education reforms will be incomplete if policymakers fail to also focus on early childhood special education. Inequities in educational outcomes for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and students with disabilities are caused by systemic factors, including the system through which early childhood developmental delays are identified and responded to.

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News

Black, Disabled, and Foster Students Most Likely to Be Isolated or Restrained in Washington Schools

by Lauryn Bray

Coming Into the Light: An Examination of Restraint and Isolation Practices in Washington Schools is a recent report published by ACLU of Washington and Disability Rights Washington (DRW) detailing findings that school districts throughout Washington State frequently utilize restraint and isolation tactics as disciplinary practices. The report identifies Black students, students with disabilities, and students in foster care as demographics disproportionately affected by these practices. State law says that incidents of restraint are permitted only in the event of an emergency in which the student is at imminent risk of inflicting serious physical harm to themselves or to another student, while isolation is banned entirely. While, according to the report, incidents of restraint and isolation remain prevalent throughout the state, lawyer Andrea Kadlec says there is misunderstanding around what exactly constitutes restraint and isolation. 

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Voices

OPINION | Love for the People at Seattle Public Schools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

by Krista Hanson

I learned they existed just weeks before we met. I attended a meeting to create something called an Individualized Education Plan — the IEP, they called it, rolling it out like a one-syllable word. My son’s IEP detailed the minutes per week he would have with school-based therapists. I was a child who moved through schools without ever meeting these people, so I had no idea how central to my son’s experience of school they would become.

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News

Summit Community Center to Open for Local Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

by Ronnie Estoque

On March 6, the Summit Community Center (SCC) — a space for adults ages 18–29 with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) — will be opening its doors in the Capitol Hill neighborhood (1830 Broadway Ave.). Overlooking the north end of Cal Anderson Park, the SCC will offer programming and various classes that focus on four core pillars for its community members: education, recreation, community, and growth. 

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Arts & Culture

The Disabled List Gets Even More Hilarious With Its First-Ever Comedy Festival

by Vee Hua 華婷婷

Since 2018, disabled comedians Dan Hurwitz and Kayla Brown have been organizing The Disabled List, which is arguably the most boundary-pushing, irreverently joyful stand-up comedy showcase in the Puget Sound region. On Jan. 27 and 28, they will be hosting The Disabled List Comedy Festival 2023 at Northwest Film Forum. The two-day event will be their largest to date, and will feature New York-based headliner Gibran Saleem on Friday, Jan. 27, as well as many of their regular comedians.

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Voices

OPINION | Expensive Out-of-State Placements Separate Developmentally Disabled Youth From Their Families

“I Want to Go Home” Advocacy Report

The following is an abbreviated and lightly edited chapter from a new systemic advocacy report published by the Office of the Developmental Disabilities Ombuds (DD Ombuds), “‘I Want to Go Home’: Reevaluating DDA’s Children’s Services to Prevent Hospitalization and Out-of-State Placement.” In 2017, the DD Ombuds was created by the Washington State Legislature to improve the lives of persons with developmental disabilities. The DD Ombuds monitors services provided to people with developmental disabilities, reviews facilities and residences where services are provided, resolves complaints about services, and issues reports on systemic issues within the service system. To read the complete report, visit the DD Ombuds website.

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Arts & Culture

‘This Is Spinal Injury’ by Seattle Comedians With Disabilities Premieres at Festival

by Laszlo Jajczay

Dan Hurwitz wants more people to be talking about issues affecting people with disabilities — he’s also a stand-up comedian, filmmaker, and writer.

His latest production, This is Spinal Injury, is a mockumentary that features Hurwitz and fellow comedian Kayla Brown attempting to put on “the greatest, most accessible, yet simultaneously least commercially viable comedy show featuring comedians with disabilities in the history of the Pacific Northwest,” according to the film’s website. Hurwitz recently spoke with the Emerald about how the film got started.

“A couple years ago, we started a comedy show called the ‘Disabled List’ and we gathered several other disabled comedians to perform. At the time, we were performing at the Pocket Theater in Greenwood and it was very well received,” Hurwitz said.

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Arts & Culture

‘Flying Blind!’ Shares the Everyday Experiences of Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals

by Mark Van Streefkerk

Blind or visually impaired (BVI) people navigate a world built for sighted people everyday, but how often do sighted people truly see these individuals or understand their experiences? The audio play Flying Blind! offers a candid look at life for BVI people, with plenty of insights for sighted folks to take note of. Produced by South Seattle-based Anything is Possible Theatre Company (AIP) and written by and with the blind and low-vision community, the play is a series of audio scenes, sounds, original songs, and music that together illustrate some situations BVI people encounter — situations that can be frustrating, misunderstood, or even comical. 

“Please don’t tell me that I’m an inspiration just for getting out the door today. / Can you see that the main obstacle is not what I can’t see, but a society that’s not set up for people like me?” asks the opening song in Flying Blind! 

“Our society is not set up for people who have blind or low vision — or any kind of disability really,” said Kathleen Tracy, composer and music director for Flying Blind! “[BVI] people are amazingly resourceful and can totally live their lives [in spite of] impediments, some of which are hilarious and some of which are infuriating.”

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News

Cascade Behavioral Health Staff Strike Against Unsafe Working Conditions Continues

by Alexa Peters

Content Warning: This article contains brief mention of suicide.

On the evening of Aug. 1, Eiob Teklie, a mental health technician at Cascade Behavioral Health (Cascade) in Tukwila watched as an unstable male patient stole an employee badge and ran with free rein throughout the multi-wing psychiatric facility, verbally and physically assaulting employees and tormenting patients suffering from acute mental illness. 

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