Mitsubishi Electric: Changes for the Better

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Disability Advocates to Receive Prestigious Leadership Award

posted February 16, 2010
Don Dew and Lawrence Carter-Long chosen for AAPD’s Paul G. Hearne award

WASHINGTON, DC – February 9, 2010 - The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is pleased to announce Don Dew and Lawrence Carter-Long have been selected for AAPD’s prestigious 2010 Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award.

Dew of Hays, KS, and Carter-Long, of New York City, will be presented with their awards, which are given to emerging leaders in the national cross-disability community, at the 2010 AAPD Leadership Gala on March 10 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Dew and Carter-Long were chosen by a national advisory committee to receive $10,000 each to further their work in the disability community. AAPD’s 2010 Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award is supported in part by a grant from the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation.

"In a year when we are celebrating both the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 15th anniversary of AAPD, I am delighted that our National Advisory Committee has selected two individuals with the skills, vision, and track record that can help move our community forward," said AAPD President and CEO Andrew J. Imparato. "Don Dew and Lawrence Carter-Long are helping bridge communities, educate the public and foster a dialogue that will change attitudes and improve opportunities for people with disabilities."

Dew works through his organization, ReachOut USA, to ensure full equality for the four million Americans who have a disability and are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). ReachOut USA works to make LGBT groups more responsive to people who have disabilities and at the same time make disability groups more responsive to the LGBT community.

"It is such an incredible honor winning the 2010 Paul G. Hearne Award, especially looking at the past winners and their accomplishments. It is very overwhelming and humbling," Dew said. "This award has strengthened my determination to continue to represent and serve all people with all disabilities or chronic illnesses and to obtain the goal of outreach and collaboration between the disability and LGBT communities to achieve full independence and inclusion for everyone."

After several years spent working in the animal protection community, Lawrence Carter-Long moved over to the Disabilities Network of NYC, an organization that brings people, organizations, government and industry together to find solutions to the problems faced by New Yorkers with physical, visual and hearing disabilities, and works for full inclusion of people with disabilities into the vast civic, social and economic life of New York City, and eventually became Executive Director of the organization.

"Five years ago when I left my previous career to focus primarily on disability rights, I was determined to use the skills I'd developed to further access and inclusion for everyone. Winning AAPD's Hearne award affirms that decision, and holds me accountable to it. I am grateful -- and eager to utilize the opportunities the Hearne award provides to take my advocacy efforts to the next level," Carter-Long said.

For more information about the event, visit www.AAPD.com.

jfactivist.typepad.com/jfactivist/2010/02/disability-advocates-to-receive-prestigious-leadership-award.html

MEAF Director offers commentary on disability funding for DPP

posted December 02, 2009
MEAF Director Kevin R. Webb was recently featured in a Diversity in Philanthropy Project executive commentary along with other board members from the Disability Funders Network. The profiles are designed to encourage other funders to intentionally consider people with disabilitie sin their grantmaking activities.

Read the profiles at <www.diversityinphilanthropy.com/voices/exec_com/>.

Mitsubishi Electric honored by the National Inclusion Project

posted October 29, 2009
Over the past year, MEAF has supported the National Inclusion Project, which is working in partnership with the National Summer Learning Association, to develop a curriculum designed to help summer camp programs more fully include children with disabilities, and encourage campers of all abilities to engage in meaningful service-learning projects. The program is being piloted at camps in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, and Ohio.

On October 17th, the National Inclusion Project recognized Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA with its Corporate Champion Award at a star-studded gala event in Raleigh. Sally Wade, VP of HR for the corporation, and Kevin Webb from MEAF attended the event to receive the award. Also receiving Champion Awards that evening were Patrick Henry Hughes, along with his father and band director, and the Sparkle Effect High School Cheerleading Squad for their work to change attitudes and stereotypes.

You can learn more about the National Inclusion Project and awardees in a story in the Triangle Business Journal: triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/09/28/newscolumn1.html

Or by visiting the National Inclusion Project website: www.inclusionproject.org/

ADA Anniversary Highlights

posted July 23, 2009
A number of events around Washington on July 22, 2009 marked the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law on July 26, 1990. Among the highlights:

* Senator Dick Durbin, Assistant Majority Leader (D-IL), called the ADA the greatest civil rights legislation of the past 40 years but decried the lack of progress on the employment of people with disabilities. "It is shameful that more than 60% of people with disabilities are unemployed, and it is unacceptable to use the current recession as an excuse." Citing the poor record of the Federal government (less than one per cent of the Federal workface has a disability), he announced plans to proactively recruit PWD for staff positions in the Senate.

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) lauded the recently passed ADA Amendments Act for restoring the original intent of the law to protect the rights of all Americans with disabilities, and pledged that any health care reforms must include coverage for pre-existing conditions. She announced that on Oct. 7 a statue of Helen Keller will be unveiled at the Capitol.

* Assistant Labor Secretary Kathy Martinez, newly confirmed as head of the Office of Disability Employment Policy, declared her intention to take disability "off the special shelf" and into the mainstream. Noting that "attitude is caught not taught," she stated that ODEP aims to drive policy so that PWD can be perceived as participatory and productive citizens.

* Education Secretary Arne Duncan, giving the keynote address at the AAPD Justice for All awards ceremony, pointed out that students today represent the first generation to grow up under the ADA, with the additional benefits of IDEA and No Child Left Behind. He told an audience including several Members of Congress and White House senior officials that Stimulus funds offer an unprecedented opportunity to create a learning environment in which every child can succeed.

* MEAF/AAPD Congressional Interns -- part of that first generation mentioned by Secretary Duncan -- were given certificates at the awards ceremony as their summer internships on Capitol Hill draw to a close. Former Congressional intern Stacy Cervenka was singled out by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS, a Justice for All awardee) as a "gift" to his office and an example of the exceptional abilities of young people with disabilities. Stacy now serves as the correspondence director for the Senator.

And later this week...President Obama will sign the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, adding the United States as the 141st signatory and capping many years of effort by disability advocates.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ADA!

MEAF Co-Hosts Forum on "ARRA IDEA Funding -- Doing It Right"

posted July 21, 2009
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) designates $12B for special education, offering an unprecedented opportunity to transform the way schools educate students with disabilities. But there are also huge challenges to investing the funds wisely -- especially at a time when cash-strapped school districts confront so many needs. Moreover, the ARRA will only last two years, requiring short-term decisions for long-term goals.

To examine both the opportunity and the challenges, MEAF co-hosted a Congressional forum this week on ARRA IDEA Funding: Doing It Right. Panelists included senior officials from the Dept. of Education, the head of a family advocacy group, a special ed district supervisor, and a school principal, representing the spectrum from policy-makers to advocates to on-the-ground decision-makers. Primarily aimed at Congressional staff members, the forum attracted more than 60 representatives of education, policy, and disability organizations, along with a sizeable youth cohort.

Several of the panelists highlighted the benefits of inclusive education for both students with and without disabilities. Among the recommendations was to "Eliminate special education as a separate parallel program and move it to becoming an integrated support for the entire instructional system."

Summary notes from the forum follow. [We will be happy to send the PDF Handout attachment on request.]

-----------------------------------
Forum on ARRA IDEA Funding – July 13, 2009 – Summary Notes & Resources

This week's forum on ARRA IDEA funding brought into focus both the unprecedented opportunities to effect real transformational change in how students with disabilities are educated, and the formidable challenges to investing in ways that will do so.

On opportunities, some of the points highlighted by the panelists were:

* Improving instructional quality and access to general education curriculum – Investing in professional development, technology for differentiated learning, and data management systems.
* Integration and inclusion are key – Tapping into multiple funding streams, "silo breaking,” moving toward special education as integrated support for the entire instructional system.
* No need to reinvent – Research-based strategies and best practices, such as response to intervention, positive behavioral supports, and universal design for learning, are available for dissemination.
* Focus on performance – Monitoring and evaluation can move beyond policy compliance to focus on meaningful outcomes and substantive student performance.

Among the primary challenges are the inherent complexities of the funding process, the sometimes conflicting needs of state and local educational agencies, and lack of understanding of what’s required for systemic change. Recurring themes raised by panelists and audience members were:

* The need for continuing communication from the Department of Education on the intended outcomes, spending guidelines, and reporting requirements for the ARRA funds.
* The need for vigilant tracking of spending decisions made by state and local educational agencies, as well as monitoring changes in LEA ratings that impact the flow of funds.
* The potential need for policy fixes down the road relating to maintenance of effort, permissive use of funds, and system requirements that limit joint funding of instructional initiatives.

For additional information:

Dept. of Education guidance:
www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/guidance/idea-b.pdf

Best practices in inclusive education:
www.ncld.org/on-capitol-hill/policy-related-publications/challenging-change

Special Education investment options:
www.smartmoneywisechoices.org

Universal Design for Learning:
www.cast.org

Tracking ARRA IDEA spending:
www.IDEAmoneywatch.com

We would like to thank all of you who helped organize the forum, attended or expressed interest in attending, and most especially, our outstanding panelists: Judy Wurtzel and Patty Guard, Department of Education; Candace Cortiella, The Advocacy Institute; Judith Moening, North East Independent School District, Texas; and Claire Crane, Ford NASA Explorer Elementary School, Lynn MA.

And we welcome your comments, counterpoints and questions -- let the conversation go on!

Rayna Aylward
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Rayna.aylward@meus.mea.com

Stewart L. Hudson
Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
Hudson@tremainefoundation.org

Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
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Suite 1150
Arlington, VA 22209