Changing the Look of Advertising

Something a little lighter but just a wonderful initiative. You may want to share the challenge with families.

PALOS PARK, Ill. — Fairies are everywhere, their little wings hanging askew as they pose in front of a 100-year-old barn in a Palos Park backyard. But these are no ordinary fairies —s ome are in wheelchairs, others have Down syndrome, they’re every ethnicity and age. And in the midst of the fairy fray stands the person who brings the magic to the photoshoot—photographer Katie Driscoll.

Driscoll, a Palos Park mom of six children, is the force behind the Changing the Face of Beauty campaign, a grassroots project that aims to include children of all abilities in the media and advertising.

Opinion: Look at the Person, Not the Disability

Peter Ripley

Peter Ripley wrote this column for the Peninsula Daily News. Ripley, 52, has arthrogryposis, a congenital joint disorder that makes him unable to walk. 

 As we commemorate National Disability Employment Awareness Month this month, we need to reflect on far we've come, and still need go, to overcome barriers to employment for the disabled.

My story is about how I overcame adversity, the challenges I was born with ­— and the challenges which were placed on me by others because of underestimation and ignorance of not knowing how to treat someone with a disability in regard to employment.

High School Coach's Special Tie with Son

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Rocky Mountain High School baseball coach Scott Bullock never has had to search for his team's character. It was there when the Lobos won the past four big-school titles with skill, class and academic acclaim. They're in the mix for a fifth this spring.
Perhaps that's because Bullock, from age 6, learned to grow up fast. It was then his older brother, Dean, had a diving accident that led to his becoming a quadriplegic. Six months after his brother's accident, his mother died. His brother passed away in January at age 48.
As for his identity, the person Bullock ultimately became as an adult has also been greatly shaped by his son, Tagg, who will celebrate his seventh birthday next month. A short, stocky bundle of energy bound for first grade next year, Tagg was born with Down syndrome.

Prosecutor’s employee delivers with speed

As we begin Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, this is a perfect article which illustrates how people with disabilities can shine at their job, just like you and me. This is about a woman who brings a smile to the job every day and gives 110%. Wouldn't you want to hire someone like this? Celebrate Developmental Disability Awareness Month.


HAMILTON — Elizabeth Crehan loves sports. Known as Liz or Lizzy to most, she excels in softball and is looking forward to playing shortstop this spring. But perhaps she should have considered track, because the 39-year-old laps everyone daily in her deliveries for the prosecutor’s office.
Crehan, a Hamilton High School graduate with development disabilities, has held the position for 18 years. She has no plans of making any changes.
“I like what I do,” Crehan said. “I would miss my friends too much."
Her father laughed and said, “they have to make her take a vacation.”
Despite her challenges, Crehan has a memory for numbers, which makes an often-painstaking job a breeze for her. She pulls scores of case files for the seven common pleas court dockets.
“She can pull 70 lickity split,” Holstein said. “It’s amazing how she remembers the cases by their case numbers.”

Danish IT Firm Hires Individuals with Autism

Check out this amazing story of a Danish businessman who has hired individuals on the spectrum. He was in Australia recently for an autism conference. And his quote of the day: "The term disability often overshadows the abilities that are typically there, somewhere. You just have to find them."

A Danish businessman who runs a successful IT firm staffed only by people with autism says it's time to recognise the special skills of people with disabilities.
Thorkil Sonne founded Specialisterne (English translation: Specialists) five years ago, and his team of consultants now make light work of some of the most detailed, time consuming and repetitive jobs in computer programming.
"I have 43 employees now with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and we serve customers like Cisco and CSC, and big Danish companies, for services like software testing, data entry and quality control," Mr Sonne told AAP.
"It's all the tasks where you have to be very structural, you have to have very high precision ... These tasks are very well suited to our staff but not so motivating for people that are generalists."

Click here for more coverage of this incredible story.