Educational – Page 2 – Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Resource Hub

Employment Tips

By Dena Polston

Growing up as a person with a disability, I always sought to achieve, having the same dreams, goals and aspirations as my sister and other non-disabled individuals. Included amongst those aspirations was the desire to obtain competitive employment.

Unfortunately, the opportunities were somewhat limited when it came to acquiring the skills and experience needed to promote my success later in life. Thus, I had to get creative. To that end, I took advantage of every volunteer opportunity I could find as a teenager.

While attending the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI), I volunteered as a tutor for elementary school aged children and a childcare provider for preschoolers while their parents attended meetings and other activities. I worked on the ISBVI switchboard during the evenings as well.

While in high school. A friend from ISBVI and I volunteered at Methodist Hospital on Saturdays and were tasked with a variety of assignments. We both put in over 200 hours there. While these volunteer opportunities didn’t necessarily lead to other employment after high school, those jobs gave me opportunities to meet new people and learn about workplace skills.

I was fortunate to find summer jobs in my home community through the Program for Economically Disadvantaged Youth,

and also worked with the Youth Employment Training Program as a receptionist/typist. These opportunities provided a feeling of accomplishment, allowing me to keep pace with other teenagers.

While attending college at Ball State University (BSU), I took advantage of volunteer opportunities both on campus and throughout the community. Some were for college credit and others for the purpose of giving back. I have continued to volunteer throughout my working life as well, holding leadership roles in various organizations. Volunteering may not give you the job of your dreams, however, it provides a means of networking with other people, learning skills related to employment, and adds experiential credit to be included on a resume.

Vocational Rehabilitation agencies help people with disabilities, who are eligible, find and retain employment. (To find out if you are eligible, contact the vocational Rehabilitation agency for your area.)

Below are some additional suggestions that I, as a former Vocational Rehabilitation Services consumer and counselor would offer:

Take An active Role. When attending a meeting with your Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC), to discuss your 504 and/or Individualized education Plan (IEP) be forthcoming and specific in defining your goals so that you can establish a rapport with your counsello
Avail yourself of experiential learning and other opportunities that will assist you in ascertaining your future goals.
Consider becoming involved in a blindness or disability-related consumer organization such as the American council for the blind (ACB), National Federation of the blind (NFB), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or the Autism Society of Indiana to name just a few. These groups have mentors, special-interest affiliates for high school and college students and conventions where you can learn a mind-blowing amount of information. There is a plethora of exhibitors who display Adaptive Technology and other items along with many resources.
Get involved with your Disabled Student Services (DSS) support office if you plan to attend college in order to familiarize yourself with services offered on your campus as well as obtaining the necessary accommodations. The accommodations you were offered in high school will not carry over to higher education without determining your specific needs. This is another way in which your VRC can assist you. As one of my former supervisors used to say: “You are the one driving the bus” once you are out of high school. In other words, you have to assert yourself and ask for what you need.
Be honest with your VRC about your doubts and fears; see what accommodations the VRC would recommend and/or take another person with you who has been involved in the VR process to better assist in articulating your needs, hopes and dreams. Please know that VR will do all they can to assist you with necessary training, obtaining and retaining employment; however, you have to participate fully in the process and meet with your VRC as often as needed and required. Remember that your goal(s) may change, or VR may not be able to support your original goal. But keep communicating with your VRC in order for you to understand the reason that your goal may not be supported.
Lastly, if a job coach/employment specialist is needed to assist you in determining your vocational goal, assist you in finding places where you and your coach can evaluate your skills and interests and/or assist you in learning tasks for the job you want, work closely with your job coach just as you would your VRC. Don’t assume that your job coach knows your needs. You are the expert on you. If the job coach is not a good fit for you, talk with your VRC to see if another company and/or coach would be a better fit.

The object is to find a job that you will enjoy and want to keep.

Whether you want to work for the purpose of socialization, just to have a little bit of money in your pocket, for a long-term career, or to make a living wage, involvement in your plan is the key.

Remember, your VRC won’t know what you need unless you participate fully and communicate as needed and required. I wish you much success in your training and/or future employment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dena Polston

I am Dena Polston who is a 2012 graduate in the Adult & Community Education Master’s program from Ball State University. I worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for 6.5 years both in the Muncie and Marion regions.

I am from a small town here in Indiana which is Shirley. But I went to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually-impaired in Indianapolis where I graduated from high school in 1981.

I enjoy singing, loving my pet Golden Retriever, collecting recipes and reading books. I also enjoy volunteering in my community and sharing resources that may assist people in their daily lives.

This is a picture of Dena Polston and her former service dog Vern. Dena is a white woman with short brown hair, wearing a pastel floral blouse. She smiles broadly as she hugs Vern. Vern is a black lab, wearing a red harness. Their faces are pressed against each other’s.

Dismantling Perfect Survivor Propaganda in the Anti-Trafficking Movement

By Jaimia Mccoy

While we know that human trafficking exists and is prevalent in our society, there is often the misconception of who is most subject to kind of crime against humanity. Disability critical race theory is a coined phrase that envelopes the vulnerabilities that correlate to the tactics that are used within human trafficking. Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) is an intersectional framework that examines the interplay between race and disability. To have a more thorough understanding of what this means, one must take time to evaluate the historical context that contemporarily exists on a national level. In the United States alone, “approximately 15% of the population has a disability. Black/African-American communities have the highest disability prevalence (14%), followed by Non-Hispanic white (11%), Hispanic/Latino (8%), and Asian (5%) populations.” (1) The most discomforting fact that comes from reading these statistics is knowing that this automatically subjects a diversly abled person who identifies as a person of color to human trafficking, interpersonal violence, and criminalization.

It’s more important now more than ever to acknowledge the insidious ways that human trafficking shows up more pervasively in our country. It is entrenched throughout the creation and history of our society. Because of this subjectification, the main beneficiaries of these crimes continue to profit from human trafficking tactics through means of settler colonialism, apartheid, exploitation, sexual abuse, ethnic cleansing, gender-based violence and so much more. Human trafficking defined is a crime that involves forcing, compelling, coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. This form of abuse can be so subtle that one has no idea what is happening to them, their loved ones or their belongings. On the opposite side of the paradigm, this abuse can be so brazen that one (or many) are physically restrained from knowing or accessing their human right and their human dignity. Rather than conjuring a history lesson that is a topic in it’s own sphere, in relation, it seems more imminent to discuss the harm done as a result of colonialism. In order to understand how this matters in relation to disability critical race theory, the masses will be prompted to evaluate this myriad of victimizations through an intersectionality lens of understanding. Kimberle Crenshaw, the abolitionist and scholar, coined this term in to 1980s to intentionally focus on the ways identities interplay and how those identities that person embodies further marginalizes them. It shows how inevitably these identities predispose a person to violence on at least one or all -ism sphere(s). It emphasizes how diagnoses are weaponized and criminalized.

To acknowledge that chattel slavery was (and is) a real belief system that formed this country is to understand that it has now been modernized. The most marginalized groups of people are still under these same tactics of oppression. Furthermore, the same systems that claimed runaway enslaved people suffered from a mental disease are now misdiagnosing Americans who identify within the African diaspora with a diverse ability. The same systems that created slave patrol systems are now criminalizing dis-ease and dis-ability. A specific case that can be referenced is that of Cyntoia Brown. Born with a fetal alcohol disorder and subject to sexual abuse at a very young age when she was subsequently diagnosed with conduct disorder, she ran away from home on numerous occasions before meeting her trafficker. (2) One day, she was picked up for sex by a 43 year old man who attempted to rape her. An act of self-defense in fear for her life, resulted in a murder, and she was convicted of murder and robbery at the age of 16. She was sent to adult prison where she spent 15 years before she was finally listened to. While she was given clemency and is now able to repair what was stolen from her, she will remain on parole for another 8 years. She can’t violate her parole or she will be sent back to prison to complete her sentence. This story caught media attention in the midst of her disclosing what happened to her, to people who prioritized listening to her instead of attempting to silence her.

In conclusion, disability critical race theory is a framework that can be used to combat human trafficking by appropriately examining trafficking law. It can be used to evaluate how systems are economically benefitting from the hyper-criminalization of diversely abled people of color. This intersection sheds light on the existing complexities of human trafficking and underscores the need for a holistic approach to supporting our most marginalized communities.

References:

1. Catrone, R.G., Baires, N.A., Martin Loya, M.R. et al. An Intersectional Examination of Disability and Race Models in Behavior-Analytic Practice. Behav. Soc. Iss. 32, 152–181 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42822-022-00116-z

2. Rein, R. (2022). Suffering at the Margins: Applying Disability Critical Race Studies to Trafficking in the United States. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 42(2), 183–256. https://doi.org/10.52214/cjgl.v42i2.9065

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jaimia Mccoy

Jiamia McCoy, (she/her/ella), has her BSW and identifies as Black/African American. She is Indiana Legal Services’ anti trafficking social worker, also recognized as a survivor’s advocate, and the first ever in her position based out of Indianapolis. She’s been working with Indiana Legal Services since August 2020 and in the non-profit sector serving survivors of crime for approximately 7 years while she acquired her education in human/social services. She collaboratively works with a team comprised of work rights and survivor rights legal staff – supporting survivors of labor exploitation and human trafficking. Not only is she extremely passionate about anti-racism being prioritized in the anti-trafficking movement and non-profit sector as a whole, she has built curriculums along with conducted robust trainings surrounding the origins and domains of racism in the human trafficking movement. She’s an esteemed survivor educator and consultant on the topics of anti-blackness, decolonization, and anti-oppression. She’s made it a priority in her work to shift the language and perspective to prioritize racial justice and equity within every part of society. Additionally, she’s led as a chair member on multiple state coalitions surrounding anti-trafficking and anti-racism. Outside of ILS, she is a participant in the abolition movement and activist for human & civil rights. She’s also a yoga practitioner, lover of wellness and planting, a mother, and spends most of her time in a book or with family & friends in community.

A Black/African America woman smiling broadly, wearing a back top with a African print with a black jacket. Her braids are pulled back.

The Importance of Having People with Disabilities at the Decision-Making Table

By Dee Ann Hart

What is the importance of having people with disabilities at the decision-making table?

Disability inclusion allows for people with disabilities to take advantage of the benefits of the same activities experienced by people who do not have a disability. Inclusion should lead to increased participation in socially expected life roles and activities – such as being a student, worker, friend, community member, patient, spouse, partner, or parent. The importance of disability representation in leadership fosters a more inclusive and belonging culture.

Disability inclusion means understanding the relationship between the way people function and how they participate in society, and making sure everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities and desires.

Decision making is an essentially social process adopted by individuals or groups to identify and choose the best choice among several alternatives. Decision-making choices are influenced by the preferences, values, and beliefs of the individuals or groups involved in the decision-making process.

Social inclusion is the state of having the resources and opportunities to participate in social, economic, and cultural life, and to enjoy the standard life considered normal in the society in which we live.

Making decisions is vital to a person’s sovereignty and their spirit of personhood. It is a key component for enabling individuals to exercise their authority, have control over their lives, and interact with others in society.

The rights-based model focuses on the equal participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of their lives, becoming productive members of society.

The service delivery approach was changed to a rights-based approach in the late 1990’s to enable people with disabilities to exercise their civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights on an equal basis with others. The rights-based approach aims to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people with disabilities within the national legal framework. This framework tries to overcome exclusion and inequity at institutional, attitudinal, physical, legal, and communication levels.

Participation in decision making is an essential factor in measuring the social inclusion of individuals and groups, especially concerning people with disabilities. Each person with a disability can make decisions for themselves’ or participate in family- and community-level decisions. Participating in decision making at these three levels creates a sense of ownership among people with disabilities concerning familial, communal and societal activities. The personal decisions enables people with disabilities to improve fundamental aspects of their lives such as with respect to food, clothes and other basic needs. At the second level, the decisions help people with disabilities make choices regarding their health and education. Therefore, it is mandatory to involve people with disabilities in all decision-making processes that impact them.

Participation in decision making is a fundamental human right for all, including people with disabilities. Active participation in decision making at the personal, familial, and communal levels gives hope to people with disabilities that they can be productive members of society, and can consider themselves as a valued part of society, compelling their social inclusion in mainstream society.

In addition, it is important to ensure participation of people with disabilities in decision-making processes in family, community, school and other relevant institutions in order to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are properly integrated at all these levels, and that their needs are satisfactorily provided for at each institutional level.

“Nothing about us without us” is a slogan used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the group affected by that policy. The motto ”nothing about us without us” relies on this principle of participation, and it has been used by organizations of people with disabilities throughout the years as part of the global movement to achieve the full participation and equalization of opportunities for, by and with persons with disabilities. The concept of “nothing about us without us” signifies the belief that disability rights should not be created without including the voices of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations. The observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons will focus on the active involvement of persons with disabilities in the planning of strategies and policies that affect their lives. This is the importance of having people with disabilities at the decision-making table!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dee Ann Hart

Dee Ann is 59 years old. Born with severe low vision/visual impairment, 20/200 or worse. Thanks to developments in low vision rehabilitation Dee Ann has enhanced her visual function and improved her quality of life. Dee Ann has experienced the personal impact of irreversible severe vision impairment, delayed motor, language, emotional, social and cognitive development, with lifelong consequences. Dee Ann’s severe vision impairment has also impacted educational achievement, employment and mental health.

Dee Ann has found advocacy and leadership to be among her true inner callings – an internal feeling that drives the passion for her purpose in life.

Dee Ann Hart, a white/caucasian female, short (collar length) brown hair, blue eyes, outdoors on a sunny day in late Fall 2022. The sun highlights her hair and reflects off her skin.

Home and Community Based Supports: How They Bring Freedom and The Need to Expand Them

By Lexi Westerfield

As an individual with multiple physical, psychiatric, and developmental disabilities I rely heavily on home and community based services and supports in my every-day-life to remain as independent as possible and to continue to seek my vision for a good life. Achieving a vision for a good life is what I would hope would be an aspiration for all people with disabilities. whether it be to have a job, be more active in the community, or work on becoming less dependent on family, the right home and community based supports are crucial for success.

I don’t want to go too much further into how much an individual can excel with this kind of care and support without pointing out an important point some people forget about when it comes to home and community based supports. They give and should always give those of us with disabilities freedom. They set us free from institutions or at least they should. They give us choice or at least they should. Look back. I mentioned that vision for a good life. Home and community based services let us have that vision, but it’s just the beginning. It’s important that we expand home and community based services and I will tell you how.

First, it is important that we see a need and meet it. I want to tell you how my home and community based services help me and then how I am hindered

I have done so much with the help of home and community based services. I have attended college, I have lived independently, yet; I have also lived at home with the opportunity to be less dependent on family. I have even had assistance finding resources which lead to my job. I get assistance with my activities of daily living, I get the opportunity to explore the community and do things I enjoy around town, and I get to meet some great people in the process. This may sound like sunshine and rainbows, right? Nope.

I have been hindered. I have missed out on opportunities due to shortages in staff and resources. Low pay, lack of training, and other disparities make staffing difficult for providers. Those factors can also lead to abuse, neglect, and exploitation in more extreme circumstances.

Finding supports that work well for individuals can also be challenging at times. Finding appropriate resources for an individual can also be cumbersome at times. I know this from experience. I have found it difficult to find a Medicaid waiver that is a good fit. What is currently called the Aged and Disabled Waiver was not an appropriate match for me. The Family Supports Waiver, though more of an appropriate fit, limits my resources. With the Community Integration and Habilitation Waiver being an emergency waiver at this time, I am finding it difficult to obtain. I cannot be the only individual experiencing this issue.

Another struggle individuals and families are having is being in the dark about resources. Only 25% of people with IDD in the US receive paid supports. That fact is alarming. I was fortunate to have been made aware of the waivers by medical providers, but many medical providers are not aware. I was also not made aware by my educators when I was approaching transition and I feel that transition is such an important tie to be made aware of these supports.

You may be wondering how we can make waves in home and community based services and supports. It’s all in coming together to use our collective voice. We need to research these issues, talk about these issues, and write about these issues. It’s important to stay tuned, spread the word, and write to our legislators. There are a lot of up and coming changes going on in the coming months and years within the Department of Disability Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) regarding Waiver Redesign so stay informed. . Also, keep your eyes and ears peeled during legislative session.

In conclusion, it is important to recognize the importance of home and community based services and supports and the way they assist people with disabilities, of all types, in working toward their vision of a good life. I gave you some examples of the successes I have had. It is also important to recognize the disparities that effect direct care workers and clients alike which can lead to staffing shortages and, at times, substandard care for individuals with disabilities. Finally, it is important to always be reminding ourselves and each other that we must not sit down and be quiet, but stand strong as advocates and leaders for change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lexi Westerfield

Lexi Westerfield is a 31-year-old Blind and Autistic self advocate who is also a wheelchair user and is proud to use identity-first language to describe herself. Lexi lives in northwest Indiana in the town of Highland with her mom and two cats Maisy and Meiko. She is a contract employee with The Arc of Indiana and Self advocates of Indiana working on projects such as The Advocacy Leadership Network, Speakers Bureau, and being the Good Life Group Coordinator. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for Self Advocates of Indiana. In her free time, Lexi enjoys watching 911, listening to a wide variety of music, and spending time in the community.

Image Descrition: Lexi is a white woman with short brown hair. She wears glasses with yellow tinted lenes. She is wearing a pink top, sitting in her power wheelchair, in front of a microphone and a bottle of water. Lexi is smiling broadly.