Disability Wisdom Fall 2017 Update!

It’s been a little over six months since this website was launched. When the website was launched, I started sending out an E-newsletter to my professional and personal contacts every three months describing what Disability Wisdom has been up to. The newsletter isn’t a full listing of projects that I work on with Disability Wisdom, but just highlights a few notable research, training and knowledge translation projects. I try to share a few free publications as well.

Below is the Fall 2017 Disability Wisdom newsletter. My apologies to those of you who have already gotten this in your inbox, but I wanted to make it available to other blog readers who haven’t yet subscribed, and those of you who are reading my website for the first time. Please share a link to this post, or copies of the free downloadable publications, with anyone who might be interested.
Email meif you’d like to receive the quarterly newsletters in your inbox.

For further updates, be sure to follow Disability Wisdom on Facebookand twitteror join the Disability Wisdom Discussion Group.
Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Dear friends and colleagues:
Thank you for supporting Disability Wisdom Consulting. It’s been a pleasure to spend my days learning and teaching about the disability experience, and getting to work with so many dynamic people who are dedicated to making our world a more inclusive place. Below are some quick updates on projects I’ve been working on during the last three months, along with two resources you may wish to share with your networks.

Research Highlights
Exploring Social Assistive Technology Preferences:
This year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing(CUbiC) at Arizona State University. CUbiC is developing haptic aids that could help convey information in an accessible way to users who are blind or visually impaired, including information about their own nonverbal signals and mannerisms during a conversation. Working with CUbiC, I surveyed 77 adults who have been blind since birth to find out what strengths and challenges they experience with nonverbal communication, as well as their feelings about using a haptic aid for social interaction. We hope to publish the findings soon, and will share a summary with you at that time. We also hope to get additional feedback from the 300 individuals who agreed to participate in future studies with us.
Are you interested in using survey tools to get input from people with disabilities? I can work with you to design, program, launch and analyze surveys customized to your needs and goals. Contact me for more information or to set up a meeting!

Training Highlights
Top Ten Tips for Inclusion:
I started out as an inclusion trainer when I was invited to develop some content for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Disabilities Inclusion Learning Centerthree years ago. Over the past few months, I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to continue working in the Jewish community with URJ and with Hillel International,the “foundation for Jewish campus life.” Hillel recently asked me to build a “top ten list” of inclusion tips that any organization can implement to promote inclusion into all aspects of its work. Here is the Top Ten sheet that we developed. The tips begin by addressing person-to-person interactions, and then progress to the organizational level. On the second page of this double-sided handout, you will find links to some of the largest disability advocacy and support organizations in the United States, which can help answer questions about disability-specific issues. Feel free to share the attached resource broadly.
Top Ten Inclusion Tips

Knowledge Translation Highlights
New Fact Sheet: How to Make Healthcare Accessible for All
I wrote this fact sheet for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with a Physical Disability at the University of Washington. Written for healthcare providers, it highlights the most common access barriers that disabled patients may face in the healthcare setting, and practical ways to remove them. Read the fact sheet here:
How to Make Healthcare Accessible for All

Website and Blog Highlights
Check out the Disability Wisdom Logo!
Disability Wisdom has a new logo! You can see it in the banner on this blog.
(Picture description: stylized picture of a head with feathers or spikes (depending on your interpretation) extending in all directions in a rainbow color pattern, with the words “Disability Wisdom Consulting” below the head, and the braille letters “dw” at the bottom.)

Blog Update:
Check out some recent blog posts: Learn how Disability Wisdom got its name, read about controversies around “curing” disabilityand links to some excellent articles on disability issues.
Want to subscribe to the blog? Click the “follow” icon in the lower right of the screen (link labeled “follow” for screen reader users), or email meat Arielle@disabilitywisdom.com to be subscribed by email.
Until next time,
Arielle Silverman, Ph.D.
Disability Wisdom Consulting
Phone: 240-630-1154
Email: Arielle@disabilitywisdom.com
Web: www.disabilitywisdom.com
Facebook
twitter

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *