Rock Steady Blog

By Michael Rock Many people find it unnerving to interact with law enforcement officers. For people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, these sentiments can be amplified due to the nature of the deficits they face. Ignorance about disability and its intersection with the law from police can further exacerbate possible tensions. A strong example of […]

By Michael Rock When states need to better manage their budgets, services for people with disabilities are often among the first things to be cut. The implicit and sometimes explicit reasoning for this is that people with disabilities are seen as financial burdens rather than as people with unique needs and talents that just need […]

By Michael Rock On March 26, 2019, a former FedEx employee from Middletown, New York was arrested after being discovered in a kickboxing class after claiming he was unable to do his job following a disabling injury. Before his detention, he stole over $9,000 worth of Workers’ Compensation benefit payments. According to the Social Security […]

By Michael Rock Few things bring people together as music does. For people with disabilities, especially children, access to music has numerous benefits. Such benefits include improved relationships between children and their parents, greater auditory, literary, language, and social skills, greater fine motor abilities, increased memory, lower rates of fear and higher thresholds for pain, […]

By Michael Rock Everybody likes to laugh. However, people should be aware that their jokes don’t come at the expense of other groups. Too often and for too long, people with disabilities have been objectified as a source of amusement. Since ancient times, they have frequently appeared in such fields of entertainment as circuses. In […]

By Michael Rock The 2016 United States presidential election marked a turning point for the disability rights movement. During that campaign, Hillary Clinton became the first major candidate to offer a comprehensive plan to better address the needs of people with disabilities. Though her bid for the nation’s highest office was unsuccessful, it empowered many […]

There are perhaps fewer things that are as instrumental to developing people’s sense of purpose, community, and ethics as religion. Unfortunately, people with disabilities may find themselves marginalized in or excluded from houses of worship and other holy institutions. According to a recent study, people with disabilities marked by social deficits are less likely to […]

By Michael Rock As the importance of diversity in media is increasingly recognized, there are still challenges regarding representation of people with disabilities. About 15% of the global population has a disability. This segment is more likely to live in poverty and experience social exclusion than those without disabilities. Proper media representation can play a […]

By Michael Rock Despite the prestige of a college degree in an increasingly competitive job market, college students with disabilities are faced with a number of disadvantages compared to their peers without disabilities. According to current laws, colleges and universities are not required to offer the same supports for students with disabilities as schools are. […]

By Michael Rock Despite the need for people with disabilities to access mass transit, many of the current options are inadequate for them. Despite the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, various forms of public transportation currently pose challenges for this key demographic. Specialized paratransit is limited in some […]