Posted on December 20, 2019
To go from her second-story bedroom to her second-story bathroom, Christine Hoag had to crawl. The bathroom doorframe was not wide enough for her wheelchair to fit through, the hall was too narrow for her chair to turn around and the bathroom itself was so cramped she could barely move between the tub and toilet.
“It felt like I had lost every shred of my dignity,” she says. She also, because of the crawling, had suffered multiple back injuries.
Hoag has Shy-Drager syndrome, a nervous system disorder with symptoms that resemble Parkinson’s disease. A related condition causes low blood pressure and tachycardia, which can produce lightheadedness and put her at risk of falling every time she transitions from sitting to standing. For a proudly independent entrepreneur who once founded her own home care company, the prospect of moving to a nursing home was not appealing. “I want to stay in my home,” she told me, and “have a nice quality of life as long as I’m here.”
Posted on November 20, 2017
People with disabilities are often treated unfairly in the workplace. To make matters worse, people with disabilities who come from a minority racial background are at even more of a disadvantage. As a black man with autism, I fit into that category. I believe a person, regardless of disability or the color of his skin, should be evaluated on the content of his character and on the quality of his work as an employee. However, the stigma still exists that
Posted on October 20, 2017
Let’s begin with SWEET:
“Have a good day, sir!” Ian Snitch said enthusiastically to a guest exiting the Courtyard by Marriot – a courteous and attentive act that Ian executed even before his supervisor, a front-desk specialist, had gotten the chance.
It would be just one of many things Ian said and did on Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) that impressed and amazed me. A first-year student in the University of Delaware’s Career and Life Studies Certificate (CLSC) program, Ian, along
This entry was posted in Center for Disability Studies, community living, developmental disabilities, diversity, Education, employment, inclusion, independent living, intellectual Disabilities, people with disabilities, Uncategorized, University of Delaware and tagged Courtyard by Marriott, Disability Mentoring Day, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Senator Chris Coons, University of Delaware.
Posted on November 24, 2015
My voice recognition software is all out of sorts today. When I say something, it decides to write down something completely different than what I said. Too often, it decides to end a sentence in the wrong place and to start a new sentence with the word and.
I am sure some of you can relate when your voice recognition software on your phone decides to call a different person than you wanted. Maybe you tell the voice recognition
Posted on October 9, 2015
A colleague and I were left waiting for his DART paratransit bus, yet again, last week. It would arrive a full hour and 15 minutes after his scheduled pick-up, giving us abundant time in the hot sun to grouse about and consider the ever-late paratransit bus in Delaware. I’ve worked in the disability sector in Delaware for more than 15 years; the late pick-ups and drop-offs were a problem then and they continue today. We brainstormed how we could
