Who's in the News

Four news items are presented in this issue, including articles from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the American Psychological Association's newsletter, APA Monitor, as well as a segment on National Public Radio.

On October 5, 1999 the Washington Post published an article entitled Advocating for Disabled Parents Agency Leads Drive to Ensure That Handicaps Are Not Automatic Obstacles to Creating Families.The article presents the story of how Dr. Megan Kirshbaum, Director of the NIDRR-sponsored National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities at Through the Looking Glass in Berkeley, CA, started the agency and describes one of her first cases in advocating for the rights of parents with disabilities. It also covers current activities at the National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities.

The article was written by Mr. Jay Mathews, Washington Post Staff Writer, who initially developed an interest in Through the Looking Glass during his media coverage of the Tiffany Callo case. He subsequently interviewed Kirshbaum for his book, A Mother's Touch: The Tiffany Callo Story (1992) which details the efforts of a young mother with a disability and Through the Looking Glass in battling the courts for custody of her infant son. The Washington Post story was initiated by a press release that was disseminated by the National Resource Center for Parents with Disabilities in 1997. There was extensive interviewing and exchange of material between Matthews and the Center staff, and the article was pending for a year before final publication.

Dr. Paul Preston, the Center's Co-Director, indicated that the Post article stimulated other newspapers including their local paper, the Oakland Tribune, to work with them on an upcoming article about the Center. For further information, call Dr. Paul Preston at 510-848-1112, ext.104, or email: paul_preston@lookingglass.org

An online version of the Washington Post article is available (for a fee) at:

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/archives/front.htm.

The New York Times published an article entitled Tight Labor Supply Creates Jobs for the Mentally Disabled on November 11, 1999. The article includes a quote from Dr. Charles Lakin, Director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota, "There has been incredible growth in the number of people with intellectual disabilities going to work for pay. We've gone from just getting a job for these people to sitting down and asking them about their career aspirations."

The article was written by Mr. Dirk Johnson, staff writer at the Times' Chicago office. Mr. Johnson had been referred to Dr. Lakin by the Arc-U.S. According to Dr. Lakin, "I found Mr. Johnson to be a good guy -- eager to contribute to spreading the word about employees with developmental disabilities. He seemed pleased to plug issues of importance, most notably the Work Incentives Bill which was to be voted on at the end of the week in which the article appeared."

The Times article stimulated development of a similar article by Ms. Kay Miller, at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, entitled Companies Welcome the Developmental Disabled, published in the November 22, 1999 issue. This article also quoted Dr. Lakin: "It also is part of a larger national trend in which tight labor markets- an unemployment rate at 4.1 percent nationally and 2.5 percent in Minnesota- have forced companies to look beyond the traditional labor pool." For further information, call Dr. Mary Hayden, Research Director, at 612-624-5005 or email: hayde001@umn.edu

An online version of the New York Times article is available by subscription at: http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?Tag=/&URI=/99/11/15/news/national/worker-shortage.html

A 60-minute segment on the topic of Mentally Ill Voters appeared on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, October 25, 1999. Among the participants was Dr. Kay Schriner, Director of "The Empowerment Project: Promoting Equality for People with Disabilities through Electoral Participation" at the University of Arkansas. The show's host, Melinda Penkava, introduced Dr. Schriner as "the Director of a research project funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research." On the program, Dr. Schriner stated that voter registration "not only empowers the individual themselves, but it also empowers the democratic process." For further information, contact Dr. Schriner at 501-575-6417 or email: kays@comp.uark.edu

A RealAudio version of the October 25, 1999 broadcast is available at: http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=10/25/1999&PrgID=5 [inactive link 5/03]

Note: Real Audio software is needed.

NIDRR staff have been working with the American Psychological Association (APA) to have psychologists who are NIDRR grantees provide research information to APA publications. Dr. Constance Pledger of NIDRR has established an ongoing relationship between NIDRR and the APA during the past two years. This relationship has included multiple meetings between the leadership of the APA and the NIDRR Director. As a result, several NIDRR grantees were featured in three articles in the November 1999 edition of the APA Monitor, a national monthly newsletter sent to over 150,000 psychologists. [NOTE: Effective January 2000, the publication was converted to a four-color news magazine, Monitor on Psychology.]

The November 1999 APA Monitor included an article entitled Knocking Down Societal Barriers for People with Disabilities, by Lisa Rabasca, Monitor staff, that discussed community living issues, employment, coordinated services, and personal assistance services for persons with disabilities. The article featured quotes and information provided by: Dr. John D. Corrigan, Principal Investigator at the Ohio Regional Traumatic Brain Injury Model System, Ohio State University; Dr. Susanne Bruyére, Principal Investigator at the RRTC for Economic Research on Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities, Cornell University; and Dr. Kristofer Hagglund, Principal Investigator at the Missouri Model Spinal Cord Injury System, University of Missouri.

The Monitor article Guidelines for Spinal Cord Injuries Don't Go Far Enough, also by Lisa Rabasca, featured a review of new clinical practice guidelines by Dr. Timothy Elliott, Project Director at the RRTC on Secondary Conditions of Spinal Cord Injury, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The third article entitled Public Interest: Environment Now Key to Disability Research, by Joe Volz, Monitor staff, examines the environmental causes and ramifications of injury and disability. This article included extensive information and quotes from: Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, Project Director at the Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury System, Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation in West Orange, New Jersey; Dr. David Patterson, Co-Principal Investigator at the University of Washington Burn Injury Rehabilitation Model System; Dr. Richard Melia from NIDRR; and Dr. Kristofer Hagglund, Missouri Model Spinal Cord Injury System.

Dr. Rosenthal and Dr. Pledger were instrumental in working with APA staff to develop and publish the November articles and are working with the Director of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research to develop articles for an upcoming issue of American Psychologist.

For further information call Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal at 973-731-3600, email: tbi@kmrrec.org or Dr. Constance Pledger at 202-205-4352, email: connie_pledger@ed.gov

The articles are available in the online version of the November 1999 APA Monitor at: http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov99/.

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