The NCIL Women’s Caucus has determined that the 2014 women’s economic agenda and President Obama’s plan to expand opportunity for every American needs to include more clearly issues and concerns of women living with disabilities. For that reason, it is important that women with disabilities tell Congress about the important issues they would like to see highlighted, enhanced, and added. If you would like to share your thoughts, please come prepared to speak on camera at this year’s Annual NCIL Conference in Washington, D.C. Your ideas will be recorded on Sunday, July 27, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Washington.

You will have the opportunity to speak for two to three minutes about what your vision is for:

• Access to education for yourself and other women living with disabilities
• Access to education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for future employment as a woman living with disabilities
• Access to child care as a woman living with disabilities
• Access to employment as a woman living with disabilities

Your message will be edited, captioned, and shared with Congress as our statement from the NCIL Women’s Caucus!

For more information, please contact NCIL Women’s Caucus Co-Chair Mary Margaret Moore at [email protected] or Co-Chair Sarah Launderville at [email protected].

To mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, StoryCorps in San Francisco is reserving a number of sessions from July 2014 – December 2014 for members of the disability community to record their stories. People are also welcome to record their stories at the Atlanta and Chicago StoryCorps locations as well.

How it works: Two people who know each other come to one of 3 stationary booths, located in San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago, to record a meaningful conversation with each other, in any format and language that they choose. For the Disability Visibility Project, feel free to share your stories about the disability experience. What was life like before and after the ADA? How did it impact your life? What do you see in the future for people with disabilities?

• More information on StoryCorps

After a 40-minute recording session, each participant pair goes home with a broadcast quality CD of the conversation that just took place and, with their permission, a copy of the conversation also gets archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

• More on what to expect

All reservations at the booth are free, although a donation is always appreciated. Depending on community response, more sessions will be added in 2015 for the SF Bay Area disability community.  [Read more…]

Allie Cannington of Fairfax, Calif. has been selected to serve as the 2014-2015 Youth Transitions Fellow at the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), the longest-running national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. Sponsored by The HSC Foundation, the Youth Transitions Fellowship provides a young person with a disability an opportunity to gain professional experience in a position designed to improve coalitions and youth-based programs. The HSC Foundation partnered with NCIL to fund the fellowship as part of its mission to help young people find self-directed paths to adulthood and employment.

As the Youth Transitions Fellow, Cannington will facilitate collaboration among internship, fellowship and apprenticeship programs for people with disabilities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. She will also support projects that benefit young people by partnering with the Youth Transitions Collaborative, a member organization that works to empower young people with disabilities as they enter the world of work.

Cannington is a recent graduate of American University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. A natural organizer, she founded the Disability Rights Coalition of American University, and has also previously served as a youth organizer with YO Disabled & Proud and a peer counselor and program co-lead with the CA Youth Leadership Forum for Students with Disabilities. After graduating from the American Association of People with Disabilities’ internship program, Allie served as a policy intern for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She joins a team of advocates in NCIL’s office at the National Youth Transitions Center in Washington, DC for the one-year fellowship.

The NCIL Board of Directors, with assistance from the Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee, has successfully negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding between NCIL and the American Red Cross (ARC). An official signing ceremony will take place during the NCIL Annual Conference on Thursday, July 31. However, the two entities have not waited for the MOU to become official before collaborating to assist individuals with disabilities immediately following a disaster.

Severe weather hit several states during the last few days of April with significant tornado damage affecting Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi. Thousands of individuals were impacted, many of whom had disabilities. ARC contacted Christy Dunaway, Chairperson of the NCIL Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee and Director of the CIL in Mississippi, just a few days after three tornadoes destroyed sections of several towns in her state. Two representatives from ARC traveled to Mississippi and spent over a week with Christy and her staff to ensure the development of a strong working relationship between the local CIL and the Regional Red Cross, both of whom had already taken steps to work together in the past. As a result of these efforts, the local CIL learned a great deal about the inner workings of the ARC, where and when the CIL’s expertise can best be used to assist individuals with disabilities affected, and who the key players are in local disaster relief. All of these efforts have been documented and the NCIL Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee will work diligently with the ARC to encourage this type of continued collaboration with other local CILs. If you have questions or need intervention between your local CIL and ARC or FEMA, please contact us through the NCIL offices. We have learned a lot and are ready and willing to assist.  [Read more…]

Dr. Muge Akyildiz, assistant professor at Anadolu University, is conducting post-doctoral research at California State University, Chico, in the Recreation, Hospitality and Parks Management Department. The research is on “Serious leisure as therapeutic tool for physical disabilities and its effect on leisure satisfaction.” The purpose of this study is to collect data that will allow them to explore the nature of serious leisure with physical disabilities. Serious leisure is a systematic pursuit which participants see as a way of life, have passion for, and are committed and dedicated to.

Dr. Muge Akyildiz seeks 200 people with physical disabilities who engage in serious leisure (such as water ski, dancing, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair lacrosse, sailing, wheelchair tennis, cycling, track and field, etc. to complete the questionnaire.

Those who participate in this survey will have an opportunity to win 1 of 10 $20 Gift Cards for Amazon.com. If you would like to be entered in this random selection of drawing, include your email address at the bottom of the questionnaire.

• Take the survey
• Direct all questions to Dr. Muge Akyildiz at [email protected].

NCIL is happy to announce the 9th Annual Policy Briefing.

• Thursday, June 12, 2014; 3:00 – 4:30 pm Eastern

• Register online

This important presentation will to bring advocates up-to-date on national issues and federal policies that affect people with disabilities and provide participants with question and answer sessions with national leaders to ensure you have in-depth information on the issues you care about most.

The Policy Briefing will ensure that we are fired up and prepared for NCIL’s 2014 Day on the Hill! For those of you who will not be at the 2014 Annual Conference on Independent Living, this will provide you with valuable and timely information that you can use in your community. Please share this training announcement far and wide so that our issues reach many people.

This teleconference is free for NCIL Members. There is a $25.00 registration fee for Non-Members, per call-in site. Fee does not apply per participant in group, provided the group uses the same conference line.

• Materials: This call will address the issues covered in NCIL’s Legislative & Advocacy Priorities Booklet (PDF or plain text).

The Policy Briefing will be available via teleconference and CART (captioned) webcast. You must register by 12:00 Noon Eastern on June 12 to participate in the call.

Please contact Tim Fuchs at [email protected] with any questions.

NCIL has joined a broad coalition of advocates urging substantive changes to the Combating Autism Act. The following letter was sent to Senator Menendez, Representative Smith, and Representative Doyle, and outlines common-sense recommendations that will ensure that federal funds are better used to benefit the community that this legislation is designed to serve, including:

• Rebalance the Autism Research Agenda
• Increase representation of services-oriented agencies and autistic adults on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
• Stop the use of language that stigmatizes autistic individuals.

Read the letter and see a list of supporters.

Visit ASAN’s #StopCombatingMe web page to find out how to take action on this issue.

This is a call for resolutions to be presented to the NCIL Membership at the Annual Council Meeting. This will be the only call for resolutions to be presented for the 2014 NCIL Annual Council meeting. The Annual Council Meeting will be held Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC. The President will recognize the contact person listed in your resolution to speak at the Annual Meeting. If you are unable to attend, please indicate a designee that will be in attendance. A guide to writing a resolution is available on our website, and a link is included below.  [Read more…]