As More With Autism Near Adulthood, Clues to Success Emerge

Disability Scoop/ Michelle Diament/ May 14, 2015

Link to article

Key Points: "The ability to do everyday, self-care activities like bathing, cleaning and cooking trumped other factors like symptom severity and intellectual functioning, according to findings from a new study being presented this week at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Salt Lake City" It was found that adults with more self care skills were more successful and independent in employment.  We as educators need to think more about teaching self care rather than concentrating solely on social and communication skills.

Intended Audience: Educators, Parents

Relevance: With the increase in adults with developmental disabilities, we need to make sure they are being taught self care skills as young children.  This is something we sometimes don't think about as teachers.  We need to introduce more of these skills into our curriculum.  

Employers Learn to Embrace Disability Hiring

I found this article on Disability Scoop.  It was written on March 23, 2015 by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz. The article talks about how businesses are starting to hire people with developmental disabilities.  Some key points of the article  include stories of adults who are working jobs where they are not underemployed.  Many businesses with the support of the organization "Best Buddies" are hiring disabled workers and becoming examples to other businesses.  The intended audience for this article would be teachers of older disabled students and business owners.  This is an especially relevant article because we do need to think about how we can best serve the population of disabled adults.   Many times we discount what they can do and do not provide the opportunities for them to be successful.  One thing I did not know was that Walgreen's specifically hires adults with disabilities and that 21% of their work force is made up of disabled adults.  That is huge!!! It really makes me want to patronize their store more often!