Center for Disabilities Studies

The Delaware Network for Excellence in Autism (DNEA), based at CDS, and other centers in UD’s College of Education and Human Development are supporting educators with training and technical resources on remote instruction. The DNEA shifted its training sessions for educators online and is creating guides for explaining Covid-19 to children with autism. The Delaware Academy for School Leadership and Professional Development Center for Educators are also sharing expertise and resources.

Delaware ended its pilot of an internet-based voting system for people with physical disabilities and others voting absentee after a damaging study found cybersecurity vulnerabilities. CDS Director Beth Mineo said that the system’s billing as a way to increase accessibility was “really unfortunate,” because it came at the unacceptable cost of election security. Delaware returned to its preexisting absentee voting system – which includes an option to submit ballots via email that cybersecurity experts also criticize.

The next step of Delaware’s plan to return to normal function after the first wave of Covid-19 starts today. Businesses that could only operate at one-third of customer capacity can let in twice as many people. Among others, this pertains to houses of worship, restaurants, retail stores, hotels and motels, art centers and community pools. The limit of people that can legally gather inside is now 50, while outside the total is 250. Face coverings are still mandatory.

In three legal actions, advocates for those who have vision loss or are blind insist that states offer alternatives to paper-and-pencil mail voting. Paper ballots require a helper to read and fill out. This makes it impossible to cast an independent, private vote. Several states including Delaware adopted an internet-based system that is compatible with many common assistive technology devices. However, election security experts criticize online systems as too dangerous to justify the possible accessibility benefits.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps), gave Delaware permission to join a grocery delivery pilot. The program will allow SNAP recipients to pay for the groceries using their benefits but require them to pay the delivery fees out of pocket.