Victoria White

Have you ever been at a staff meeting to plan an event, class, service, or project, and one voice spoke clearly at just the right moment: “Have we thought about how this will affect [insert name of particular individual or group you are thinking about]?” Perhaps you have been that voice. In seeking to include students with varied abilities in Christian schools, WITH Ministries has pioneered inclusive education for forty years, and inclusive worship in congregations for ten years. There are many great ideas from the world of educational inclusion that can be used to welcome, include, and support full participation of people of all abilities in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is not complete without each piece. At WITH Ministries, we quote 1 Corinthians 12, verse 18 (“God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted them to be.”) and verse 27 (“You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”) We even use a call-to-worship from Romans 15:7 (“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God,”) urging each one to “make Heaven a noisier place” by bringing praise to God through the acceptance of His children. All of His children, of all abilities. That means thinking about how worship and teaching practices will impact persons with varied abilities. It means thinking for neurodiverse people, people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health disabilities, and sensory disabilities. [continue reading…]

Howard Blas

The profile of bar and bat mitzvah recently got a boost thanks to Adam Sandler’s 2023 movie You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. While the movie takes a playful look at how plans for a girl’s bat mitzvah unravel over a popular boy, the institution of bar and bat mitzvah has been around for generations and is quite natural, simple, and free from drama. There are many options for making bar and bat mitzvah “customized” to the needs of each learner.

Many bar and bat mitzvahs take place in a synagogue or temple on a Saturday morning. Since the Torah (biblical scroll) is read on other days including Mondays, Thursdays, Jewish holidays, and the first day of each Hebrew month, b’nai (plural for bar and bat mitzvah) mitzvah may be celebrated on a variety of days and in a range of settings. Reading from the Torah is not a requirement. I like to tell families that you don’t “get” bar mitzvahed or “have” a bat mitzvah—you “become” b’nai mitzvah”—even if you stay in your pajamas, under the covers when you turn 13 (12, traditionally, for girls) on the Hebrew calendar. [continue reading…]

Radha Mehta’s brilliant narrative short film, DOSH, follows a hard-of-hearing mother as a night with her husband’s traditional family goes amiss; while spotlighting the fight against familial denialism and damp cold alienation that many Disabled people face — while also maintaining a dark and thrilling plot.

The title, DOSH, is Hindi for “fault.” In the film, the protagonist confronts her mother-in-law about her husband’s mental health hoping for a mother’s support, but she’s quickly shut down. Things go awry when her husband retaliates by ripping the assistive hearing devices from the protagonist’s ears during a pre-wedding ritual. Overall, this an intersectional masterpiece. It weaves the culture of Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities with South-Asian taboos like disability being shameful or a punishment from God, while also leveraging the dramatic tension of a husband and wife in freefall. A pivotal scene at the end of the film depicts the deeply empathetic protagonist kneeling down in the tub with her distraught husband, the one who tossed her assistive hearing devices. [continue reading…]

What do you think about when you are shopping for clothes? Maybe you like wearing specific colors, or have a go-to brand, or perhaps you are thinking about a special event. For many disabled people, while all of that is important to take into consideration, many other factors go into deciding whether to purchase an item of clothing. A pair of jeans might look great on the rack, but how easy are they to put on? Can the buttons on that shirt be fastened without needing to ask for assistance? This outfit looks great, but are the seams and the fabric sensory-friendly? These questions just scratch the surface of the problems that the adaptive fashion industry is trying to solve.

Adaptive fashion is clothing modified with certain features to fit the needs of disabled consumers. There are various types of adaptive clothes to cater to the different types of disabilities. [continue reading…]

Every year, the Rehabilitation Services Administration engages in a reallotment process for the Federal fiscal year, both for vocational rehabilitation funding and for the State Supported Employment Services (Supported Employment) program. This means that every year, even though there are tens of thousands of people going without services, unspent funds are moved from their original state of allocation to another state.

In supported employment alone, 13 state agencies relinquished almost $2.5 million in supported employment funds, up from under $2 million in FY 2022. The relinquishment means that for 13 populations, some of the unserved folks were unserved because their programs lacked the capacity to properly spend the funds to serve them. Learn whether your state agency is relinquishing funds in the chart below. Engage with the agencies in your state to learn what you can do to help, from writing to your state or federal politicians to mobilizing your local disability community. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility’s federal policy advocacy is often done in coalition, ensuring the input of people with disabilities and the power of the disability community at large is appreciated at the federal level. Check out our latest advocacy highlights working in partnership with the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities:

Designating People with Disabilities as a Health Disparity Population

We urged the National Institutes of Health to formally designate people with disabilities as a health disparity population. This proposal would help to reduce health disparities and promote health equity for people with disabilities. This would also align with broader efforts to promote equity for those who are multiply marginalized. [continue reading…]

Spotlight on Service Dogs

September is National Service Dog Awareness Month. Did you know that 500,000 service dogs are tasked with helping their disabled partners every day in the United States? This month and every month, we celebrate the service animals that help our community live more independently and fully participate in all aspects of community.

Monthly Employment Update for People with Disabilities

According to the latest National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE) report:

In August 2023, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities continued to surge to an all-time high of 41.2% compared to 37.6% in August 2022. This continues the substantial growth from last year in the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities as we work towards closing the gap between workers with and without disabilities. Workers without disabilities also increased their labor force participation rate, which was 77.5% in August 2022 and rose to 78.2% in August 2023. [continue reading…]

Advocating for the disability community takes our policy team all over the country and the Indianapolis State Capitol is only the latest stop for State Policy Manager Jimmy Fremgen!

Jimmy was in Indy for the 2023 Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures and met with legislators and potential policy partners from across the United States, in addition to spending time with the Indiana legislature’s host delegation, where he raised top priorities:

Nothing about us, without us.

Our policy team is pushing hard for every legislative decision that impacts the disability community to include those with disabilities in the decision-making. [continue reading…]

Julian Gavino

Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, offers us a beautiful explanation for those who convert to Judaism. Conversion isn’t seen as a choice as much as it is a calling—specifically a calling from Abraham and Sarah who are considered the forebearers of Judaism. The souls of their children are thought to be dispersed throughout the world, some born to Jewish parents, and others not. When an individual converts, we believe their soul was Jewish all along, a long-lost soul that felt an intense pull toward the Jewish people destined to return home to their parents Abraham and Sarah.

This is what finding both a literal and spiritual space in Judaism felt like for me, coming home. [continue reading…]