#intellectualdisabilities — Public Fediverse posts

New Chef Program Helps People With Autism Find Jobs in Fine-Dining Restaurants

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/dining/autism-chefs-restaurants.html

Media Food Bank celebrates three decades of serving the community

MEDIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — Dating back to 1995, volunteers in Media, Pennsylvania have been feeding the hungry. “People who live here care about food insecurity and don’t want people to be without food…the mission is to not only …
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Food #18704860 #foodbank #intellectualdisabilities #volunteers
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2551174/media-food-bank-celebrates-three-decades-of-serving-the-community/

Media Food Bank celebrates three decades of serving the community https://www.diningandcooking.com/2551174/media-food-bank-celebrates-three-decades-of-serving-the-community/ #18704860 #food #FoodBank #IntellectualDisabilities #volunteers

Trump’s Diversity Rollback Ends Crucial Aid for Deafblind Children Like Annie Garner

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/us/trump-dei-funding-deaf-blind.html

Trump Announcement Said to Focus on Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/health/kennedy-autism-tylenol-trump.html

Opinion | I.V.F., Gene Selection and Embryo Screening: Is This the Future of Making Babies?

When Noor Siddiqui was growing up, her mother developed retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that leads to gradual vision…
#NewsBeep #News #Genetics #CA #Canada #GeneticsandHeredity #GenomicHealthInc #InVitroFertilization #IntellectualDisabilities #OrchidBiosciencesInc #PolygenicScreening #PrenatalTesting #Science
https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/11557/

Lawmakers Want To End SSI #MarriagePenalty For People With #DevelopmentalDisabilities https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2024/01/26/lawmakers-want-to-end-ssi-marriage-penalty-for-people-with-developmental-disabilities/30716/
#WomenWithDisabilities #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityPolicy #DisabledAndCapable #IntellectualDisabilities

"Many people with disabilities face stigma, prejudice and discrimination because of their disability... a general pattern was for #MentalHealth conditions, #IntellectualDisabilities and #autism to be judged more negatively than #PhysicalDisability or #SensoryDisability, despite everything else in the scenario being the same. #PhysicallyDisabled #women are judged more negatively than physically disabled #men with respect to having #relationships."

https://www.esri.ie/publications/degree-of-ableism-depends-on-disability-gender-and-the-social-context

International Women’s Day Hero of Invisible Disability Rights – Elaine Wilson:

In celebration of International Women's Day, OutOfExile_IDR honors Elaine Wilson, champion of invisible disability rights and the Olmstead Act.  It seems germane, as March is also Developmental Disabilities Month.

During Martin Luther King week, I posted about Lois Curtis, a champion for Invisible Disability Rights (link below).  Lois, togather with another woman, Elaine Wilson, fought all the way to the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) for the right to live in the community, rather than being institutionalized.  Fighting courageously for their freedom, they won the right to freedom for all people with invisible disabilities.  The case is often refered to as the “Brown v. Board of Education” for people with (Invisible) disabilities.

Excerpt below & image of Elaine from:
https://www.olmsteadrights.org/iamolmstead/history/

[“Elaine Wilson became seriously ill when she was one years old. She was hospitalized with a raging fever and it was unclear whether she would survive... When the fever finally broke and Elaine was …sent home, ….Elaine had lost some of her early motor function abilities, such as crawling or even sitting up by herself. The doctors assured Elaine's mother that (it) was only a lingering effect of the illness…. Elaine eventually did recover, but very slowly”.[]

In school, Elaine lagged behind other students having difficulties with focus and learning , eventually being diagnosed with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) attributed to the prolonged high fever as an infant.  Likley, this was the correct diagnosis.

She was reevaluated as a teen upon enrollment at “Gracewood State School and Hospitol” in Georgia.  There, she was diagnosed with an ableist slur containing the “R" word, once used in reference to PEOPLE living with Down Syndrome. Providers believed the only recourse was institutionalization. (I am bitting my tongue and holding back my opinions on the lot of it.)

She would spend about a decade living in institutions (State hospitals) against her will.  Following that, in the 1980s, she would be “ping-ponged" from care homes to hospitals, back and forth for nearly two decades of her life.

“When I was in an institution, I didn't like myself," Elaine says. "I was trapped. . . . I had no hope. I thought, Oh God, Oh God - When am I ever going to leave here?"

Another hero deserving mention on IWD is Sue Jamieson, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society Attorney who brought the case.  Sue and Lois Curtis were joined by co-plaintiff Elaine Wilson, to blaze the path of freedom for countless individuals with disabilities in their wake.

After more than 30 years and 36 psychiatric institutions, at times living homelessness and in varous “care homes", Elaine along with Lois Curtis, were victorious and finally free.

The 1997 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob said that “… denying the women a community-based life amounted to segregation of people covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.”  Judge Shoob later remarked “They were both so articulate” in regard to the testimony of Elaine Wilson and Lois Curitis.

Elaine passed in 2004 at the age of 53 but, will be forever remembered as a Disability Rights Legend for her resilience, strength and courage.  As part of her testimony, she told the court: “When I was in an institution, I felt like I was in a little box and there was no way out”.

Thanks to Elaine Wilson and Lois Curtis, people with invisible disabilities are afforded the right to live in freedom at home, instead of confinement in a “box", cage or institution, merely because of a health issue.  Thanks and honor to Elaine, Lois and Sue on this International Women’s Day.

“The Brave and the Strong” Lois Curitis – OutOfExile_ID:
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109690867328587920

Elaine’s story continued:
http://www.olmsteadrights.org/iamolmstead/history/item.5405-Elaine_Wilsons_Story_Continued

More on Olmstead and Elaine’s impact:
https://olmsteadrights.wordpress.com/tag/elaine-wilson/

More from disabilityjustice.org:
https://disabilityjustice.org/olmstead-v-lc/

ADA – Community Intergration for Everyone:
https://archive.ada.gov/olmstead/olmstead_about.htm

International Women’s Day Image from:
https://www.desicomments.com/womens-day/international-womens-day-5/

IMAGE CW - (eye contact)
Don't forget the ALT text.

#InternationalWomensDay #ElaineWilson #LoisCurtis #Hero #OlmsteadAct #SueJamieson #SCOTUS #freedom #home #gratitude #CommunityIntergration #DevelopmentalDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #BrainInjury #TBI #ABI #AcquiredBrainInjury #MentalHealth #disability #InvisibleDisabilityRights #Hero #DisabilityJustice #EmbraceEquity

@disabilityjustice
@disability

Student with Downs Syndrome Excluded:

A post by @JDS linked an article about an Alabama elementary school girls basketball team that won the championship in a boys league.  Despite defeating all the boys teams they faced enroute to the top, the league refused to award the trophy to the girls team.  As if this example of “exclusion by bigotry” was not enough to get the juices flowing, the article linked another #disability related story that I couldn’t pass up.  So much for easing back into it.

Morgyn Arnold, who lives with down syndrome, worked as the manager of her Junior high school’s cheerleading team. The cheer team at Shoreline Junior High School in Layton, Utah, chose to take two team photos; one with Morgyn and one without.  The photo excluding her is the one used on social media and printed in the yearbook.  Her name was not even mentioned as part of the team.  Despite all of her “hard work and dedication to the team”, she was excluded .

 According to a relative of Morgyn's,  this “was the second time in three years” that she had “been left out of the yearbook” and had been left off the class list of students by the school in the past.  The school issued a statement on social media that was later deleted.  Is that the “swooshing" of brooms I hear?

I personally have had a similar taste of this elixir of exclusion during my time broadcasting for one university hockey team.  Among the numerous discriminatory and ableist acts I experienced, I too was never mentioned or thanked in anyway by that team.  I felt as if I was a dirty secret or that the team that raved about my broadcasts, was ashamed of me. 

The big difference? Down Syndrome is not one of my disabilities and I was not 14 years old like Morgyn.  Even with my experience, I can’t imagine how she must have felt being subjected to these patronizing, demeaning and deplorable ableist acts of exclusion.

In the mind of the offenders, exclusion, discrimination and bigotry doesn’t have to make sense.  Oftentimes, they assume the people living with invisible, developmental or intellectual disabilities to be clueless or lacking reason and intelligence.  In actuality, this type of behavior and “stigmatude” suggests that perpetrators may be lacking in some of these areas.

For this blatant act of ableism and oblivion to inclusion, Community Intergration and equality I have no cheers, only jeers.
“HIP HIP! Shame on you.”

OutOfExile_IDR #InvisibleDisabilityRights

Link to the article and photos: https://www.ibtimes.sg/utah-school-under-fire-after-leaving-student-down-syndrome-out-cheerleading-team-photo-claims-it-58223?utm_source=Internal&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=related

#EndAbleism #EndBigotry #InvisibleDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #DevelopmentalDisabilities #DownSyndrome #CommunityIntergration #inclusion #equality #stigmatude

@disabilityjustice @disability

Worth reading: Mental Age Theory Hurts: Every adult has the right to grow up. -
By Ivanova Smith
"Have you ever heard the phrase, “That person has the mind of a five-year-old in an adult body?” We often hear the term “mental age of” when medical professionals or news media describe adults with intellectual and developmental #disabilities (#IDD). It is something very harmful that many adults with #intellectualdisabilities have to deal with." https://www.spectrumlife.org/blog/mental-age-theory-hurts-651 #MentalAgeTheory

A social experiment.
👇 👇
The results are in and somewhat sad.

I did a social experiment last night: "Rolos vs IDR - Invisible Disability Rights."

I posted two pieces and the above "social experiment" toot simultaneously so they would appear on the timeline together. Links to both are below.

The score was:
Rolos 9 - IDR 1

The response for Rolo included favoring, boosting and two comments from the same Mastodonian that seemed to want to give a lesson on geometry in reference to the shape of Rolos.

Only one responce for IDR, a single boost. Thanks Jack. :solidarity:

Social change comes with support from all, abled and disabled individuals alike. As long as candy takes precedence over the abuse, mistreatment, exclusion and inequality of human beings, the future looks bleak for persons with invisible disabilities. Experiment failure.

Invisible Disability Rights are #HumanRights and #DisabilityIsDiversity

Heinous abuse of people with invisible disabilities by humanity (cw):
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109549519506159425

Rolos candy:
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109674897422321516

#equality #change #amplify #inclusion #support #listen #EndBigotry #EndAbleism #disability #MentalHealth #DevelopmentalDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #TBI
#DisabilitySolidarity #Love4All #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilityRights #Legend #LoisCurtis #ElaineWilson #OlmsteadDecision #heros

@autisticadvocacy @disabilityjustice @disability

Image courtesy of psu.com

@MarkRuffalo

Click here 🧠 to expand.
Your wisdom and opinions here are greatly appreciated. The oppression of POC was, and is an ongoing plague on society. MLK and his wisdoms have always inspired and fueled my fight for Invisible Disability Rights (IDR) as well.

To paraphrase your statement, I feel it is equally important to:
"listen to the (disabled) community, uplift their voices, celebrate their achievements, and lend support in the ongoing fight for (disability) justice and equality.

Below are two articles. One about oppression and one about a great achievement from a black woman who is a hero to people with invisible disabilities. Lois Curtis' landmark SCOTUS case is touted as the "Brown vs Board Education" for persons with invisible disabilities yet, so few know who she is and fail to honor her for what she did.

Two of my favorites from MLK:

 “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

  He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it,” King said. “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Oppression:
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109549519506159425

Achievement of Lois Curtis:
https://kolektiva.social/@OutOfExile_IDR_Voice/109690867328587920

#equality #change #amplify #inclusion #support #listen #BLM #EndBigotry #EndAbleism #disability #MentalHealth #DevelopmentalDisabilities #IntellectualDisabilities #TBI
#DisabilitySolidarity #Love4All #DisabilityCommunity #InvisibleDisabilityRights #Legend #LoisCurtis #MLK #ElaineWilson #OlmsteadDecision #JohnLewis MartinLutherKingJr #heros

@disabilityjustice @disability @actuallyautistic

“Eunice was also in many ways the anti-Kennedy… She idolized her father, but his competitive zeal had proven disastrous for…#Rosemary, who had been lobotomized in 1941, in a botched attempt to treat the #mentalillness that compounded her #intellectualdisabilities. The surgery, initiated by Joe w/o his wife’s knowledge, left their 23-year-old daughter incapacitated, exiled from her family… until #Eunice brought her out of the shadows after her father’s… stroke in ‘61.” https://a.co/i1tSChh