Disability advocates are encouraged by President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, saying that the current appeals court judge’s rulings show an understanding of disability and the rights of people who have disabilities.
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Washington DC, May 26, 2009—The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law today applauded the President’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Her opinions demonstrate that Judge Sotomayor understands the language and the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability rights laws,” said Robert Bernstein, the Center’s executive director.
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Reporting from San Francisco — Is the compulsion to hoard things a mental disorder? How about the practice of eating excessively at night?
And what of Internet addiction: Should it be diagnosed and treated? As the clock ticks toward the release of the most influential of mental health textbooks, psychiatrists are asking themselves thousands of complex and sometimes controversial questions.
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The recent report by the Government Office of Accountability (GOA) on restraint and seclusion of special education students is frightening to many parents and caregivers. Some are demanding answers as to why this has continued for so long as well as how they can make sure their children are protected. Reading these reports can make parents angry in addition to giving them a helpless feeling. However, parents are far from helpless when it comes to prevention of abuse in the classroom.
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President Obama chose to focus on Sonia Sotomayor’s Puerto Rican heritage, childhood in public housing projects and Yale Law School training in nominating the appeals court judge to the Supreme Court today. In other quarters, her health is also getting close attention.
Sotomayor (pictured with the president) is 54 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 8.
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U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, is passionate about eduction.
She graduated from Princeton University in 1976 and from Yale Law School in 1979 and saw education as the path to success. She has remained active in Academia, serving as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law and Lecturing at Columbia Law School. (more…)
James Ballas is trapped in his rented condo in suburban Jacksonville, Florida, because the condo association and management company have not agreed to let him to build a ramp to the parking lot at his own expense. Ballas and his wife say they were told the ramp would be an eyesore.
Florida officials say Ballas, who is preparing a federal lawsuit, is part of a larger trend. They say they’ve seen an increase in the number of people with disabilities who are being denied housing or the right to make reasonable modifications.
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Carolina Alvarado has what she calls “clown music” playing in her head — all the time.
Going through life with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, she said, makes her a professional procrastinator. She sets a timer at 10-minute intervals each morning to keep track of herself. But her disorder, she said, also gives her the ability to stay up all night to get things done.
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Writing in the Albany Times Union, Michael Volkman says the Obama administration has quietly withdrawn its support of the Community Choice Act, which both Obama and Vice President Biden had co-sponsored as senators. Obama had pledged support for the measure on the campaign trail.
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BRATTLEBORO — Advocates for the disabled spent most of this legislative session cautioning lawmakers against cutting programs in an attempt to close the budget gaps that seemed to grow wider with every economic forecast.
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