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Some key findings include the following: People with disabilities experience significant health disparities and barriers to health care, as compared with people who do not have disabilities. People with disabilities frequently lack either health insurance or coverage for necessary services, such as specialty care, long-term services, prescription medications, durable medical equipment, and assistive technologies. Most federally funded health disparities research does not recognize and include people with disabilities as a disparity population. The absence of professional training on disability competency issues for health care practitioners is one of the most significant barriers preventing people with disabilities from receiving appropriate and effective health care. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had limited impact on how health care is delivered for people with disabilities. Significant architectural and programmatic accessibility barriers still remain, and health care providers continue to lack awareness about steps they are required to take to ensure that patients with disabilities have access to appropriate, culturally competent care.

Click here to register for this event What: Telling Our Stories is a monthly webinar series that hosts people with disabilities sharing their stories of success and challenge. This month our guest speaker is Anthony Tusler, author and disability advocate. Guest Speaker: Anthony Tusler is a writer, consultant, trainer, and advocate on disability issues related to technology access and policy, alcohol and other drug policy and training, and disability culture. He was the Coordinator of the Technology Policy Division at the World Institute on Disability for three years and the founding Director of the Disability Resource Center at Sonoma State University. He helped to start the Institute on Alcohol, Drugs, and Disability and Community Resources for Independence ILC in Northern California. He has taught at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College.He is the author of the book, How to Create Disability Access to Technology: Best Practices in  Electronic and Information Companies. His web site AboutDisability.com is the home for The New Paradigm of Disability Bibliography. When: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:30 PM –  1:30 PM MST

Click here to register for this event What: Linda James Myers, Ph.D. will present "The Challenges of Cultural Congruence: What Every Advocate Should Know" on Thursday, June 16, from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Dr. Myers is a professor at The Ohio State University, past president of the Association of Black Psychologists, and chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities (AACLD). This webinar will focus on the importance of cultural congruence, one of the most challenging and often least discussed issues central to the success of Black families as they seek to provide a quality education for their children. As a member of a cultural group whose ethnic and racial heritage is congruent with and supported by that dominant in this society, Euro-western white, one may assume that this prevailing cultural worldview and the subsequent educational and other social institutions created by it are universally suitable and acceptable. The assumption is often made that the prevailing cultural worldview is universally adopted and held by all Americans, particularly those who have been in this country for generations and for whom English is believed to be their first language. This webinar will explore how these assumptions have hurt non-immigrant African Americans and their progeny, particularly in terms of education, their potential for educational achievement, and the current disproportionality we see in special education. Emphasis will be placed on how advocating for a culturally congruent educational experience on behalf of Black students and their families has the potential to transform the negative educational outcomes that have plagued this population for decades. This is the first in an Equity and Ethnicity in Special Education four-part series of webinars hosted by COPAA, a non-profit organization that works to protect special education rights and secure excellence in education on behalf of the 7.1 million children with disabilities in America. When: Thursday, June 16, 2011 - 12:00 pm Mountain If you would like to register for this event or any of the four-part series, please click here. COPAA non-member registration is $65.00 for one session or $195.00 for all four sessions. The full four-part series includes: Thursday, June 16, 2011 - 2:00 pm Eastern The Challenges of Cultural Congruence: What Every Advocate for Black Students Should Know Presenter: Linda James Myers, Ph.D. Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 2:00 pm Eastern Addressing Legal Issues of Disability and Race Discrimination Presenters: Matthew Engel, Esq., Ron Lospennato Esq. Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 2:00 pm Eastern Representing Parents Whose Dominant Language is Other Than English Presenter: Gabriela Ruiz, Esq., Southern Legal Counsel, Inc. Thursday, July 14, 2011 - 2:00 pm Eastern Disproportionality: What are we doing about it? Presenters: Sonja Kerr, Esq. Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP)

Click here for more information about this Conference What: The Pacific Rim International Conference (Pac Rim) on Disability & Diversity has been widely recognized over the past 27 years as one of the most “diverse gatherings” in the world. The event encourages and respects voices from “diverse” perspective across numerous areas, including: voices from persons representing all disability areas; experiences of family members and supporters across all disability areas; responsiveness to diverse cultural and language differences; evidence of researchers and academics studying disability; stories of persons providing powerful lessons; examples of program providers, natural supports and allies of persons with disabilities and; action plans to meet human and social needs in a globalized world. Each year the conference hews to its traditional areas which have bred much of the interdisciplinary research and educational advances of the last three decades. But each year new topics are introduced to foment discussion and change. The intent is to harness the tremendous synergy as generated by the intermingling of these diverse perspectives, thus, creating a powerful program which impacts each individual participant in his or her own unique way. When: March 26 & 27, 2012 Where: Hawai‘i Convention Center 1801 Kalakaua Avenue Honolulu, HI 96815

Disability is often treated as something that should be hidden away, an object of secrets and shame. When it is visible, it’s unfortunately common to see it handled as the source of pity porn; disability is presented as something tragic that is supposed to evoke pity and sorrow. Here are seven notable people bucking the trend when it comes to disability and visibility — they may be disabled, but it’s not the sum total of who they are, and they’ve got way too much on their plates to have time for pity parties.

Click here to register for this event What: This session provides a new perspective on diversity by showing how children with special needs (including ADHD, learning disabilities, and autism) can be looked upon in a more positive way by seeing each person in terms of their strengths rather than their weaknesses.   Dr. Armstrong will examine findings in evolutionary psychology, neuropsychology, anthropology, and other fields to show that what we regard as “disabilities” in our culture may have at other times and cultures been considered assets and advantages.  Using this new and inclusive concept of “neurodiversity” Dr. Armstrong argues for a radically new approach to special education based upon deep respect and the celebration of natural brain differences. When: Thursday, June 16, 2011 10:30am - 11:30am Mountain Time

This guide is designed to assist youth with and without disabilities to learn about the rich history of people with disabilities. Although designed primarily for youth and emerging leaders with disabilities, the guide can be used in multiple ways to educate a broader audience as well. Starting shortly before the United States was founded, the guide features examples of the remarkable diversity, creativity, and leadership that have shaped the disability community and American culture.

Every child, regardless of income, race, background, or disability can learn and must learn. And, our system of education—spread across 50 states, 15,000 school districts, and 95,000 schools—must embrace this core belief every day in every possible way. If our children are not learning, then we, as adults, have failed. That is why educators, advocates, parents, and policymakers need to make sure that students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum and are held to the same, high standards as their non-disabled peers. We can work toward this by: creating a culture of high expectations; ensuring students with disabilities have full access to college- and career-ready learning opportunities and assessments; and supporting students with disabilities so that they may excel in the general curriculum for college and career success.

This project explores the life stories of thirteen leaders in the self-advocacy movement and their perspectives on key issues and leadership challenges. Part of the broader disability rights movement, the self-advocacy movement is unique in that it has been led and informed by the individual and collective experiences of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Despite its widespread existence nationwide and internationally, few works have explored the rich history, culture, and significance of the self-advocacy movement. To help fill this void, Joe Caldwell, Ph.D., Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, undertook this life history project and donated transcripts to The Bancroft Library for its Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement collection. More about Self-Advocacy Movement oral history project.

It's Our Story is putting the voices of America's disability activists online, public and accessible, for the world to see.  We've already released testimonies from some of the most influential disability leaders of our time.

Carrie Sandahl talks about Chicago with the wide-eyed wonder of a newcomer. She's enthralled by the cultural energy, the varieties of educational programs for kids and families and the on-going opportunities for new talent, especially artists with disabilities.

Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn’t, she’d like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled people into “inspiration porn.”

The Montana Youth Leadership Forum is a unique leadership training program for high school students with disabilities.  Each year the program begins with the Forum that takes place for a week in July where students are brought to the campus of Carroll College for training.  During the Forum students have the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of disability, self advocacy skills, and how the enhance their self esteem.

A Free One Day Guided Group Discussion on the Independent Living Movement - Missoula - Oct. 7, 2010 Connect with others. Culture begins with a common history, come share your stories and learn about others, locally and nationally. Become a part of Disability Culture. If interested in attending, Contact Mary Olson at Summit Independent Living Center by October 1st, 2010: molson@summitilc.org or 728-1630

Working in the Arts with Children on the Autism Spectrum When: 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturday, April 28 Where: Paris Gibson Education Center-Cafeteria, 2400 Central Avenue, Great Falls Renewal Credits: 6 OPI Cost: Free Target Audience: Teaching artists, classroom teachers and paraprofessionals, arts education staff from cultural organizations, and support staff for people with disabilities

What would you do if the doctors came out and told you your child had what mainstream society considers a disability, like having a hearing impairment? In that instance, you are thrown into a new world into a culture you know little about that uses a foreign language. According to one family that went through this, you learn a lot very quickly.

Kojiro Hirose, a professor at the Graduate University of Advanced Studies and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, will present, “The World through Touch: Creating a Museum Everyone Can Enjoy” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, in 1-121 Wilson Hall at Montana State University.  Hirose, who is visually disabled, will lecture about his work as an organizer of various exhibitions of “tactile culture” at Japan's National Museum of Ethnology, and his efforts to make museums accessible for everyone.

The nation’s top psychiatrist is calling on others in the profession to “transform what has become a culture of influence” surrounding financial relationships between physicians and drug companies. In a commentary in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas Insel, tackles head-on the perception that psychiatrists are tainted by their relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Our Mission:  The mission of the Denver Metro Community Parent Resource Center is to provide information and resources to low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse families who have children, age birth - 26, with disabilities living in the Denver metro area.