The National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) has released a toolkit dedicated to increasing awareness and knowledge of the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native persons living with disabilities. The toolkit — “Understanding Disabilities in American Indian & Alaska Native Communities” — contains information about disabilities, tribes and resources.
Gathering national technical experts, NICOA updated and expanded this valuable resource, first developed by the National Council on Disability in 2003, with the latest data and more recent resources. Thanks to funding from the Administration for Community Living / Administration on Aging, this wonderful new toolkit is now available to download.
The resource is divided into dedicated sections for healthy living, education, independent living, vocational rehabilitation and employment resources, assistive technology, housing and facilities, and transportation. You will find suggestions for improving services, providing protections, and utilizing resources in local tribal communities for people with disabilities. Additional information provides overviews on federal disabilities laws, initiatives, agencies, and organizations that support work with Native individuals with disabilities and communities.
The toolkit is of high quality in its description of the problems facing American Indian and Alaska Native students with disabilities. In the education section, the toolkit reviews individualized education programs (IEPs), outlines what each IEP should include, and provides tips for parents as they work with their child’s school to develop an IEP. The education section also lists organization contact information for supports and resources. While the other sections are not focused on educational issues, there are still valuable resources and contact information for anyone working with Native students with disabilities.
The most unique feature of this toolkit are the stories featuring people living with a disability. They reflect on their life, their relationship to the Native disability community, and how their disability has made life both more fulfilling and, at times, more challenging.
The trainings are focused on understanding the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native elders and best practices in Indian Country. Native elders and their communities can use these trainings to celebrate — through storytelling — the profound teachings of our elders.
The information within the toolkit addresses an urgent need of Native people today and has been formatted for easy accessibility. This resource has the potential to have a high impact on its target population through the dissemination of critical information to parents, community members, tribes, and schools.
This project is dedicated to building bridges between tribes and those in the Aging Network who want to help but are not sure how to begin. It is our hope that this guide assists tribes and their allies as they work together to make good decisions about our shared future.
Hi, I just wanted to be sure you knew about this chance to comment on updating the regulations for 504 by HUD. They have, among others, a specific question about their housing funding that goes to Tribes and Tribal housing. I don’t know what kind of outreach they are doing so I wanted to be sure people knew about this. (Through ADAPT I have heard comments about problems but they were not too specific.)
This is the specific question below but to see the whole thing you can go to:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/25/2023-08464/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-disability-updates-to-huds-section-504-regulations
Comments are due by July 24, so not that much more time. I hope you already know about this, but better safe than sorry.
Question for Comment 12: HUD has enforced Section 504 requirements against Tribes and Tribal entities that receive HUD Federal financial assistance. While the Department recognizes Section 504 obligations are consistent across all recipients of HUD Federal financial assistance, the Department also recognizes the unique relationship between the Federal Government and Tribes and seeks comment from Tribes and Tribal entities in accordance with HUD’s Government-to-Government Tribal Consultation Policy.
( a) Are there tribal specific circumstances that HUD should consider regarding Tribes and tribal entities, particularly with respect to the construction of accessible facilities?
( b) Are there unique types of discrimination members of Tribes with disabilities experience, particularly with respect to non-Tribal grantees or other entities covered by Section 504?
( c) Are there unique types of discrimination members of Tribes with disabilities experience with respect to the provision of reasonable accommodations, the provision of appropriate auxiliary aids and services necessary to ensure effective communication, access to accessible facilities, or accessing services and programs in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of members of Tribes with disabilities?
Feel free to share with whoever you think might be interested.
Thanks!
Stephanie Thomas
Check out http://www.adaptmuseum.net