Institute on Disability and Health Psychology and its Partners Offer Class Teaching Parents and Professionals How to Advocate for the Disabled

San Francisco, February 26, 2007  — The Alliant International University Institute on Disability and Health Psychology (IDHP) will join the East Bay Learning Disability Association and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) in an April 21 class that will teach parents and professionals how to advocate for the needs of the disabled in schools.

Why do the disabled need advocates?

“When I was in grade school, my mom had to come in every year and demand that I be given proper access to the curriculum,” remembers Nina Ghiselli. “The teacher would help me for awhile, but then stop. Finally, in 1981, when I was in third grade, my mom called UC Berkeley to find out what kind of services they offered to disabled students. She came back mad and told my teacher, ‘a learning disability isn’t a death sentence. A college student can get these services at the University, so we should be able to have them here too'!”

Dr. Nina Ghiselli, Director of Disability Services at Alliant International University, now has the job of being a professional advocate for students with disabilities; she also teaches their parents how to get the services needed to give students full access to the curriculum. Dr. Ghiselli, who has a language-based learning disability, works at Alliant with students who have a variety of disabilities including deafness, blindness and ADHD.

To help disabled students and parents break through the system to get the help they need, Alliant, in partnership with the East Bay Learning Disability Association and DREDF is presenting a class entitled, “Advocacy Skills and Documenting Disability: A Workshop for Parents and Professionals.”

"Many times we find ourselves in the role of advocate," explains Dr. Ghiselli. "This may occur in direct or indirect ways, including asking explicitly for an accommodation or service at an IEP or providing documentation to support an accommodation or service." This workshop is designed to teach parents and professionals involved in the lives of children and adults with disabilities to advocate in multiple ways to break through the systems that impact the individual with an emphasis on students receiving special education services.

Because she too is keenly aware of the need for advocates, Danielle Williams, a third year doctoral student in clinical psychology at Alliant, has volunteered to assist with the class. Like Dr. Ghiselli’s parents, Danielle’s mother had to confront school authorities. “During discussions in the classroom I continued to ask to be excused to go to the bathroom. I felt inadequate in my learning and frightened to be asked a question and maybe not know it.” A tutor made the situation worse. “My mother confronted the teacher. She said she was so upset and felt betrayed. She thought she could trust this person with my entire intellectual functioning. Instead, the tutor damaged my self esteem.”

It’s no wonder that parents of children with disabilities often feel frustrated. Because many mental health professionals, educators and parents are not trained in advocacy or applicable laws, they don't know how to effectively ask for accommodation or service.

One of the presenters for the class is Dr. Rhoda Olkin, the founder of Alliant International University’s Institute on Disability and Health Psychology (IDHP), a nonprofit research institute recognizes the parents and professionals who work to advocate for the disabled and understand the need for knowledge of advocacy and applicable laws. Dr. Rhoda Olkin, a Professor at Alliant's California School of Professional Psychology, is a disability activist within her profession and the author of “What Every Psychotherapist Should Know About Disability.” Class co-presenter Wendy Byrnes is a parent advocate for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, California.

Participants will leave their workshop with an increased understanding of educational and civil rights laws and learn covert and overt advocacy skills. Participants will learn how to apply these skills to their professional and personal roles as advocates with the primary goal of increasing self-advocacy for children and adults with disabilities.

Special attention will be paid to providing documentation that drives accommodations by meeting the needs of disability laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities and Education Improvement Act and the Rehabilitation Act, Section 504.

Dr. Ghiselli comments, “More people need to understand what disability is all about and be more sensitive to people’s needs. It’s important not to just brush this off. It’s empowering to have tools. Our parents didn’t have them, and they had to make it on their own. There are tools now. But there’s also isolation, and that’s why we’re offering this class.”

The good news is that times – and educational institutions – are changing. “Here at Alliant, my experience has been incredible because of Nina’s help,” says Williams. “I have gotten exactly the support I need.”

Class Information

• (PSY 0621m) Advocacy Skills and Documenting Disability: A Workshop for Parents and Professionals
• Rhoda Olkin, PhD, Eileen Crumm, PhD, Wendy Byrnes, and Karla Sagramoso, PhD
• Saturday, April 21, 2006: 9:30 am-4:30 pm
• Workshop Fee
          ~ $95 East Bay Learning Disability Association members and Students
          ~ $125 for Non-members (receive a free one-year membership)
• Credit offered:
  6 hours of continuing education credit is provided by Alliant International University for an additional $25
  Sponsored by East Bay Learning Disability Association, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), and the Alliant International University Institute on Disability, Office of Disability Services, and Department Continuing Education.