Live.WORK.Achieve
A Listserv for the Mississippi Partnerships for Employment
for Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities
Including Intellectual Disabilities Project
August 2013
Welcome to Live.WORK.Achieve, a monthly e-newsletter targeting anyone interested in and supportive of employment for youth and young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Live.WORK.Achieve is offered through the Institute for Disability Studies in collaboration with the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities and Disability Rights Mississippi and includes resources and information on employment and career development.
Inside this edition:
1) Statewide Community Forums – Aug. 20, Brandon; Aug. 22, Gulfport; Aug. 28, Oxford
2) Training Module on Assistive Technology in the Workplace
3) New Gadgets, Technologies Help People with Disabilities Find Work
4) South Dakota Governor Creates Disability Task Force
1) Statewide Community Forums – Aug. 20, Brandon; Aug. 22, Gulfport; Aug. 28, Oxford
The Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities, Disability Rights Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi’s Institute for Disability Studies, Mississippi’s Developmental Disabilities Network partners, will again host statewide community forums in August as an opportunity for public input. Each meeting will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. The free town hall type meetings will be held on the following dates in Brandon, Gulfport and Oxford at these locations:
· Aug. 20 – Brandon, Region 8 Mental Health Mental Health Center, 613 Marquette Road
· Aug. 22 – Gulfport, Knight Non-Profit Center Banquet Room, 11975 Seaway Road
· Aug. 28 – Oxford, Oxford Conference Center Auditorium, 192 Ed Perry Boulevard
Attendees are welcome to discuss any of their concerns: employment, housing, transportation, health care, community services. For more information about the forums, call Shirley Walker at Disability Rights Mississippi at 601.968.0600.
2) Free Training Module on Assistive Technology in the Workplace
Assistive technology enables individuals with disabilities to access devices, equipment, and services so they can perform job tasks and maintain employment. Employers and employees with disabilities can greatly benefit from exploring the use of assistive technology as an accommodation in the workplace. This free 21-minute introductory training module and accompanying transcript from the Job Accommodation Network covers the basics of assistive technology, alternative input, products, and resources available for use in the workplace. This module can be used to train new accommodation specialists, disability managers, and others responsible for making accommodation decisions. For more information or to view the module, visit the JAN multimedia training microsite http://askjan.org/training/library.htm.
3) New Gadgets, Technologies Help People with Disabilities Find Work
An increasing number of people with disabilities are able to find and keep jobs as well as engage more broadly in their communities because of new technologies specifically aimed at helping them better communicate or complete tasks. “In the professional careers, technology has helped increase the employment rate immensely. It’s actually allowed us to participate in office careers more than ever before,” said Kathleen Martinez, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor, Disability Employment Policy. Ms. Martinez has been blind since birth. For more information, read this article from the Columbus Dispatch in Columbus, Ohio: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2013/07/01/new-gadgets-help-disabled-find-work.html.
4) South Dakota Governor Creates Disability Task Force
Gov. Dennis Daugaard has announced the formation of a task force to study the employment of South Dakotans with disabilities as part of his Employment Works! initiative. Led by the state’s Department of Human Services, the task force will bring the private and public sectors together to ensure people with disabilities are a vital part of South Dakota’s workforce, and will offer a broad spectrum of perspectives that will include the voices of people with disabilities and their family members, the business community, representatives of state government, service providers and nonprofit stakeholders. For more information, read this article from the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan http://www.yankton.net/life/article_e8d00ba4-eb2b-11e2-96a1-001a4bcf887a.html.
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Live.WORK.Achieve is sponsored by the Mississippi Partnerships for Employment (MSPE) for Youth and Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities, Including Intellectual Disabilities project. MSPE is funded by the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is managed by the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities (MS CDD), Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) and The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies (IDS).
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