Center for Disabilities Studies

Yearning for warm sands and tranquil seas this spring? Look no farther than the Absalom Jones Community Center in Newport, Del. On April 27, Delawareans with disabilities and University of Delaware student volunteers will team up to paint their own tropical island paradises at Artfest, a celebration of community and creativity. Now in its 12th year, Artfest is a collaboration of the Center for Disabilities Studies, Art Therapy Express and the New Castle County Department of Community Services.

A student and a staff member from UD’s Career and Life Studies Certificate (CLSC) program for students with intellectual disabilities will be attending the annual Disability Policy Seminar in Washington, D.C. as Think College Policy Advocates. Their selection by two national disability organizations enables them to learn from some of the nation’s foremost experts in topics like health care policy and inclusive education and visit Delaware’s elected representatives on Capitol Hill.

Spectrum Scholars, the college-to-career program supporting UD undergrads with autism, continued its series of autism acceptance trainings with a presentation to the UD Career Services Center. The session covered specific techniques career counselors can use and emphasized that interview skills and internships are crucial for job-seekers with autism.

The CDS-administered Family SHADE project, which connects families and care providers to each other and to information that benefits children with special health care needs, has teamed with Danio Diary, a health care app that allows everyone involved in providing care to an individual to see and update the same set of records. Family SHADE and Danio Diary won the first of three phases in the Health Resources and Services Administration’s innovation in care coordination challenge and now have the opportunity to test and tweak their product.

At the first annual Women’s Leadership Conference Delaware, Pell joined a panel of education leaders to examine how gender informs the use of traditional discipline, such as suspension and expulsion, as well as the growing use of group discussion and mediation. While rates of discipline for female students are lower than those for male students, they are increasing among certain groups of females, especially African Americans. Conversely, among school administrators, female educators are more likely to use discussion and mediation than males.