BAC Rutland

By Mark Zelek
Special to The Miami Herald

A politically popular new law will soon expand the number of workers who can seek federal disability protections under the ADA. This may seem like a bitter pill for companies already struggling through the unfolding credit crisis.
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Just in the past few years, the employment gap has widened between the number of working-age Americans with disabilities who are employed and those workers without disabilities, as a recent government study has reported. (more…)

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Steve Newman had suffered from major depression from the time he was 13. He tried innumerable treatments: psychotherapy and medications. Approaching 60, single by necessity and friendless by choice, he decided his train had only two stops left before suicide.
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Two scientists, drawing on their own powers of observation and a creative reading of recent genetic findings, have published a sweeping theory of brain development that would change the way mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are understood.
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Other than the bailout bill, it may not seem that mental health and macroeconomic health have much in common. But a new study finds otherwise.

A new working paper looks at the effects of psychiatric disorders, like depression or substance abuse, on employment. There are several reasons to expect that people with a history of mental disorders would have lower participation rates in the labor force and a harder time getting jobs. The disorder might interfere with the person’s ability to concentrate and work efficiently, for example, or the person might face discrimination from employers and co-workers because of a mental disability.
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Council on
Disability (NCD) today released a report titled The Rehabilitation Act: Outcomes for Transition-Age Youth, calling on Congress and the U.S. Department of Education to make changes to current service delivery practices that will improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities.
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A new push by the state to standardize the way school districts plan which services special needs students should receive is rattling parents across New York.

At the heart of the process is a document called the Individualized Education Plan, which a team of experts crafts to describe the student’s educational needs and how the school should address them.
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By Dave Gram
The Associated Press
November 10, 2008

MONTPELIER — When Michael Arnowitt arrived at the polling place at City Hall on Tuesday, an assistant clerk led him to the voting booth at the end of the row, where a special phone with an oversized keypad allowed the legally blind musician to vote without needing to have the ballot read to him.
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Cornell University will be presenting its 2008 Disability Status Report via webinar on 11/12/08 - The Annual Disability Status Reports provide policy makers, disability advocates, reporters, and the public with a summary of the most recent demographic and economic statistics on the non-institutionalized population with disabilities. (more…)

A study of kids in California, Oregon and Washington suggests an environmental trigger to the disorder and calls for research to determine possible explanations.
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