The 10-year, CDS-administered program to support UD students with autism offered its first community training on autism acceptance in collaboration with UD Residence Life & Housing last week. Resident assistants gathered for a session covering challenges college students with autism face and considerations for interacting with residents who have autism.
The University of Delaware Magazine profiles the UD and JPMorgan Chase collaboration to create Spectrum Scholars, a 10-year program supporting UD undergrads on the autism spectrum pursuing careers in electrical engineering and computer science. In seeking to boost employment opportunities for individuals on the spectrum, the program will also offer training in areas like effective communication to UD faculty, staff and community businesses. Administered by CDS, Spectrum Scholars will accept between 5 and 8 students per year, starting in Fall 2019.
Self-advocates and parents stressed that young adults with disabilities need a circle of support and the independence to experiment at events marking CDS’s 25-year anniversary.
Efforts to foster accessibility and empower people with disabilities to drive much of the Center’s work going forward.
At two civil liberties events hosted by CDS to mark its 25-year anniversary, elections and disability rights experts ripped the pervasive injustices and inadequate accommodations that suppress voting and political engagement among people with disabilities in the U.S. and around the world. The experts, including a Stanford Law School professor, Delaware’s attorney general and three leaders from Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organizations, cited physical barriers, poll workers’ lack of knowledge, decades-old prejudices and poor enforcement of voting rights legislation, among other factors. They suggested that educating election officials, raising disability awareness and boosting political participation could increase the presence and sway of people with disabilities in elections.
