by Elise

Students with disabilities are less likely to complete college, while those who do are less likely to become employed full-time, according to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. However, there are ways colleges can help students with disabilities. Students with disabilities in high school can be told about disability services officers in colleges who can offer them resources. Colleges can include information on accommodations in their orientations for new students, as in the S.T.A.R.S. program at Maryland’s Salisbury University. They can provide temporary accommodations to students with disabilities and help them get required documentation and respond to their needs in general. Alternatives to specific requests not supported by testing and documentation by a specialist should be provided. Rutgers University received a grant to provide more assessments and treatment for students with autism and ADHD. College faculty can receive training to accommodate such students, be informed by disability services officers of their legal obligations towards them and be held accountable. For example, faculty at The University of North Dakota’s Accessibility Lab can work with instructional designers and academic technologists for ongoing developments.

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The Supreme Court in Japan has ruled that the government must compensate 11 people—some as young as nine years old—who were involuntarily sterilized under the Eugenics Protection Law, designed to prevent people with disabilities from giving birth. The Court ruled the law unconstitutional, said the forced surgeries were done for “no rational reasons,” and ruled that the compensation ordered by a lower court in 2019 was insufficient. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued an apology. The plaintiffs’ attorneys called the sterilizations “the biggest human rights violation in the post-war era” in Japan, saying it had “created a society that considers people with disabilities as ‘inferior people.’ We call on the society to further promote effort toward eliminating prejudice and discrimination in response to the ruling.” People standing outside the Supreme Court held signs saying, “Victory” and “Thank you,” and declared themselves as human beings. Twenty-eight more cases are pending.

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Margot Imdieke Cross

Disability rights activist Margot Imdieke Cross died in July. She was confined to a wheelchair since she was two years old after a farm accident. She advised on and attended the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act and was an expert in tech regarding state and federal accessibility mandates. Imdieke Cross was Minnesota’s only accessibility consultant who was a specialist regarding specific buildings and other structures, including the state’s Senate Building, Allianz Field and renovations to the Capitol. She championed investments for accessibility in the state’s parks and trails, and, along with friend Greg Lais, co-founded the Wilderness Inquiry, which works to make the outdoors accessible for everyone. Margot Imdieke Cross was known for being fierce, persistent, humorous and kind.