ADALive!

Accessibility is about far more than meeting legal requirements, it's about ensuring people with disabilities can fully participate in work, education, and everyday life. In this episode of ADA Live, accessibility advocate Esther Klang shares her personal journey and explains how assistive technology, communication access, and thoughtful design have helped her maintain independence. Drawing on her...

Marco Damiani, Chief Executive Officer of AHRC New York City (AHRC NYC), joins the DEP RRTC’s Let’s Get to Work podcast hosted by Dr. Peter Blanck, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and Principal Investigator of the DEP RRTC. Drawing on decades of experience supporting people with disabilities, Marco discusses his journey from working as a direc...

Dr. Purvi Sevak, Senior Director of Mathematica’s Disability Practice, joins the DEP RRTC’s Let’s Get to Work podcast hosted by Dr. Peter Blanck, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and Principal Investigator of the DEP RRTC. Dr. Sevak discusses her path from an undergraduate student studying health policy to her work at Mathematica, the evolution...

Archive, Bios, Description, Transcripts for Episode 154: The Access Coalition: Creating More Inclusive Retail Spaces available at: https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-154/ Under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, retail spaces are required to provide goods and services to customers with disabilities equal to the goods and services offered to customers without disabilities. This all...

Archive, Bios, Description, Resources, and Transcripts available at: https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-153/ Our guest, Dr. Joseph A. Stramondo, drawing on both philosophical analysis and his own lived experience with dwarfism and an incomplete spinal cord injury, and the host for this episode, Stephen Kuusisto, will discuss the challenges of traditional medical models of disability and advocate...

Archive, Bios, Description, and Transcripts for Episode 152: New Opportunities for Job Success for Workers who are Blind: The Monarch Rise Project https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-152/ The employment rate of adults with low vision or blindness (52%) is significantly less than the general population of working-age adults (76%). This data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Research and...

Jonathan Martinis, Director of Knowledge Translation for the DEP RRTC, and Barry Whaley, Director of the Southeast ADA Center, join the DEP RRTC’s Let’s Get to Work podcast to discuss how knowledge translation can connect research, policy, and real-world impact. Peter Blanck, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University and Principal Investigator of the DE...

More information, bios, and transcript available at: https://bbi-dep-rrtc.org/resources/podcast-series/lgtw-beth-23/ Beth Sirull, President and CEO of the National Organization on Disability (NOD), joins the DEP RRTC’s Let’s Get to Work podcast to discuss the future of disability employment policy and why employing people with disabilities “is good for business.” Beth explains that NOD has long fo...

In this episode, we welcome Naureen Hunani, a registered dietitian, educator, and the founder of Registered Dieticians or RDs for Neurodiversity, a group dedicated to changing how healthcare and mental health providers can support neurodivergent people with feeding and eating challenges. Her work focuses on the lived experiences of autistic and neurodivergent people and the intersection of feeding...

Get answers to questions about Supported Decision-Making (SDM) in this conversation between Leo True Frost, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy who uses a communication device to speak, and Jonathan Martinis, Senior Director for Law and Policy at the Burton Blatt Institute. Martinis explains that SDM involves individuals seeking advice and support to make decisions, similar to how non-disabled i...

Lex Frieden, a pioneering disability rights activist, shares his journey from the car accident that left him paralyzed to his pivotal role in shaping disability employment policy. He recounts his struggles with accessibility and education, leading to his advocacy for the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In his interview with Peter Blanck, Chairman of the...

Nancy Horton, Associate Director of the Mid-Atlantic ADA Center, discusses the top five hospitality holidays for guests with disabilities. She emphasizes the importance of year-round accessibility, employee training, and clear communication about facilities and events. For New Year's Eve, she highlights the need to keep accessible routes clear and provide information about loud activities and long...

Archive, Bios, Description, and Transcripts for Episode 148: Housing, Disability Rights, and Planning Accessible Communities available at https://adalive.org/episodes/episode-148/ Professor Robin Malloy and Dr. Peter Blanck discussed the complexities of housing rights for people with disabilities, emphasizing the intersection of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and zoning laws. Robin high...

In this episode, we talk about some of the most common questions that the Southeast ADA Center received this year related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the legal rights of people with disabilities. We have received over 1,600 questions this year. As a team, we focus on each request for information and send specific resources to help with those questions. Our guest is Jenny Sykes...

Vidya Sundar and Debra Brucker, co-principal investigators of the University of New Hampshire’s new Disability and Rehabilitation Research Project (DRRP) on Living and Working with Long COVID and Disabilities, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDLRR), discuss their proposed research activities to be implemented over the next five year...

Sharon Rennert, senior attorney with the ADA Division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has played a leading role in the development of their policy interpretations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. In this podcast, Sharon explains the protections for people with disabilities in employment and how they apply to people with Long COVID. Rennert describe...

Professor Yana Rodgers, Rutgers University and Professor Jennifer Cohen, Miami University discuss their collaborative research about Long COVID, disability and accommodation. Their research examines the prevalence of Long COVID across different demographic groups, and the extent with which workers with impairments associated with Long COVID have benefitted from remote work. People with pre-existin...

Pandemic Patients founder Andrew Wylam discusses the reasons he created the organization, and his vision for future national efforts to address issues facing individuals with disabilities with Long COVID. The organization also manages a COVID 19 Advocacy Center to connect individuals with Long COVID with policy makers in support of legislative proposals that will improve access to health services...

Mason Ameri, associate professor at the Rutgers University Business School, describes how the pandemic has transformed the outlook of disability employment. Tight labor markets have demonstrated an increased willingness by employers to have remote workers, and people with disabilities are helping meet this demand. However, the growth of telework is more likely in white collar jobs, and workers wit...

Nicholas Wyman, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Skills and Innovation, describes the value that apprenticeships offer in addressing disability employment disparities. In doing so, he describes the obstacles that people with disabilities face in seeking employment, whether outright discriminatory assumptions or longstanding practices that may have good intentions but have adverse...

Ari Ne’eman, doctoral candidate in health policy at Harvard University, says that the numbers demonstrate the extraordinary impact the COVID-19-induced shift to expanded telework had on the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, but even those don’t tell the complete story regarding what remote work means for disability employment. It is a situation reflective of the gains prospect...

Lydia Brown, director of public policy at the National Disability Institute, discusses two issues preventing people with disabilities from excelling in the workforce and in general: policies that trap them in poverty and artificial intelligence that discriminates. Antiquated Social Security rules with asset and income limits create a poverty trap that limits a disabled individual from seeking more...

Zach Morris, Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University School of Social Work, calls for a re-evaluation of the systems in place to support people with disabilities. We must recognize that people with disabilities not only earn less than people without disabilities. They also face extra expenditures to cover disability-related out-of-pocket costs.

Lisa Mills, Owner, Moving to a Different Drum, Disability Policy and Services Consulting, discusses opportunities to increase employment outcomes by braiding and blending resources across funding sources such as vocational rehabilitation, Medicaid, and Ticket to Work.

Chai Feldblum, Vice Chair of the AbilityOne Commission and former EEOC Commissioner, discuss the importance of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and describe the strategic plan to modernize the AbilityOne program. She also talks about the recent rule that prohibits payment 14(c) subminimum wage on contracts within the AbilityOne Program.