Tash Amplified

This is the first in a series of podcasts in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). TASH’s interim Executive Director, Serena Lowe talks with Alison Barkoff, the Director of Advocacy, Center for Public Representation. They have a wide-ranging discussion of employment policy and programs for people with disabilities, but Alison remains rooted throughout in her experience as a sibling to her brother with disabilities, Evan. Season 4, Episode 2 — 14 October 2020 About the presenters Alison Barkoff is the Director of Advocacy at the Center for Public Representation in Washington, D.C. She works on policy and litigation related to community integration and inclusion of people with disabilities, including Olmstead enforcement, Medicaid policy, employment, education and housing. She serves as a co-chair of the Long Term Services and Supports Task Force of the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities and is the policy advisor to the Collaboration to Promote Self Determination. She lead

Season 4, Episode 1 — 8 August 2019 About this episode We talk with Professors Jennifer Kurth and Andrea Ruppar, two of the six authors of the article, “Considerations in Placement Decisions for Students With Extensive Support Needs: An Analysis of LRE Statements” in the May 2019 issue of Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities (vol. 44, no. 1). They have collected a library of Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and examined them to see how schools and educators decide to remove students from the general classroom, when supplementary services are offered to keep them in the classroom, and when they are withheld. About the presenters Jennifer Kurth is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas. Her academic interests include methods implementing inclusive education, including methods of embedding critical instruction within the context and routines of general education as well as methods of providing appropriate supports and services for individual learners. D

Season 3, Episode 1 — 8 October 2018 About this episode Carol Schall, Assistant Professor of Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Director of Technical Assistance for the Virginia Commonwealth University Autism Center for Excellence, discusses her article, “Employees with Autism Spectrum Disorder Achieving Long-Term Employment Success: A Retrospective Review of Employment Retention and Intervention”. It is one of a collection of articles in the September 2018 special issue of Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities dedicated to “Critical Issues in the Employment of Persons with Severe Disabilities”. About the presenters Carol Schall is the Co-Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Autism Center for Excellence, the Director of the Virginia Autism Resource Center, and the Principal Investigator in the development of the Community Based Functional Skills Assessment for Transition Aged Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders, a grant funded

Season 2, Episode 2 — 7 August 2017 About this episode In preparation for the return to school, the theme of the current issue of our membership magazine is “The Individualized Education Program as a living document”. We talk with Amy Toson, the guest editor of this issue, about what the IEP as a living document means and how to implement such a vision in your meeting or school. This issue is free to members and non-members alike for the month of August. To read the entire issue, visit tash.org/iep. About the presenters Amy L-M Toson, Ph.D. has been working both nationally and internationally for well over fifteen years in the area of inclusive community and school capacity building and systems change. She began her career as a community inclusion facilitator and K-12 inclusive education teacher. She then moved into the role of consultant and professor working with families, teachers and leaders across the globe facilitating effective inclusion for all learners, paying special attention to those who are tradi

Season 2, Episode 1 — 22 June 2017 About this episode Today’s episode is particularly urgent. The Senate released its bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid this morning. Listen to it right away then get busy. TASH talks with Gonzalo Martínez de Vedia, a Policy Manager with The Indivisible Project, about what this bill means and how you can talk to your Senator — Republican or Democrat — to effectively convey the importance for people with disabilities of it not passing. About the presenters Gonzalo Martínez de Vedia is a contributor to The Indivisible Guide and Policy Manager with The Indivisible Project in Washington, D.C., where he helps demystify Congress for 6,000 Indivisible groups across every congressional district in the country. Previously, he advocated for the rights of workers, immigrants and survivors of human trafficking through several NGOs including the Worker Justice Center of New York, the Freedom Network, and Humanity United. Gonzalo was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Arg

Season 1, Episode 16 — 27 November 2016 About this episode Natalie Holdren discusses sessions she will be presenting at the Annual Conference addressing cultural and linguistic competency for school staff working with parents of diverse backgrounds on their students’ Individualized Education Programs, how to make your TASH chapter more inclusive and tools to help people recognize their own cultural biases. This is a preview of the “Inclusion Means Diversity and Cultural Competency” symposium at the 2016 TASH Annual Conference. About the presenters Natalie Holdren is a fifth-year doctoral student at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also serves as Education Specialist Credential Supervisor and Instructor for the UCSB Teacher Education Program. She has served as an educational consultant for several school districts on projects related to special education, inclusion and intervention. She has also worked for United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles, Ventura

Season 1, Episode 15 — 26 November 2016 About this episode Mona Fuerstenau of Bethesda Lutheran Communities and Anthony Armitage of One-Classroom discuss a breadth of ways for faith communities to become agents for greater inclusion for people with disabilities, including advocating for inclusion in parochial schools, how faith communities can be networks of natural supports, and how places of worship can leverage their networks to help people with disabilities in areas such as employment. This is a preview of the “Faith and Inclusion: Embracing Inclusion for People with Disabilities in School and Community” Wednesday Workshop at the 2016 TASH Annual Conference. About the presenters Mona Fuerstenau worked as Speech Language Pathologist for 13 years in multiple settings; early intervention, schools and with veterans. Her passion as a disability advocate stems from the inequities witnessed in all of these arenas. She is passionate about communities of belonging and is working primarily in faith communities at t

Season 1, Episode 14 — 10 November 2016 About this episode We talk with Alice Wong and Andrew Pulrang about their numerous projects, most importantly #CripTheVote and the Disability Visibility Project. We discuss the election, the affordances of online collaboration and activism, intersectionality and disability, and the importance of culture, not just politics. Be sure to check out their #WhatsNext post-election #CripTheVote twitter chat on 10 November 2016, starting at 7:00 PM Eastern. Visit the Disability Visibility Project page for the event or the twitter feed for the hashtag to find out more. About the presenters Alice Wong is a sociologist, research consultant, and disability activist based in San Francisco, California. Her areas of interest are accessible healthcare for people with disabilities, Medicaid policies and programs, advocacy-based storytelling, and social media. Currently, she is the Founder and Project Coordinator for the Disability Visibility Project (DVP), a community partnership with St

Season 1, Episode 13 — 20 October 2016 About this episode Paula Wills and Michelle Phillips of Chicago’s Family Resource Center on Disabilities discuss the services that are available through the Parent Training and Information Center to parents trying to navigate the education provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Prior to being the Executive Director at the Family Resource Center on Disabilities, Michelle Phillips was a skeptical parent seeking help securing her son’s educational rights. She explains her journey from Angry Mom to Power Mom with the help of her Parent Training and Information Center. About the presenters Michelle Phillips (pictured above, second from the left) is the Executive Director of the Family Resource Center on Disabilities, the Parent Training and Information Center for the Chicago metropolitan area. She is the mother of an adult son with osteogenesis imperfecta and a recent grandmother to a grandchild, also with osteogenesis imperfecta. Prior to directing th

Season 1, Episode 12 — 8 July 2016 About this episode Sean Gray, vocalist for the D.C. punk band Birth (Defects), talks with us on how the ethic of punk music affects his disability advocacy and his project, “Is This Venue Accessible”, a crowd-source website to document the accessibility of places to hear music, first in the Northeast, but increasingly globally. About the presenters Sean Gray is the owner and founder of the website “Is This Venue Accessible?” which catalogs accessibility information of music venues across the globe. Along with running Accidental Guest Recordings and playing in the band Birth (Defects) [Bandcamp | Facebook], he has also written for press outlets such as: Pitchfork, Washington Citypaper, and NPR’s Bandwidth.fm. Edwin Canizalez is the Director of Operations and Change Management at TASH. He grew up in Queens in the 1970s and 1980s and his experience of New York hardcore strongly influenced his values of equal access and self-determination. Transcript Announcer: You’re listening