UCLA honors Disability Pride Month as Americans with Disabilities Act turns 35

The power of language — every language — gives us wings. Take flight with UCLA’s American Sign Language instructors Benjamin Lewis and Jennifer Marfino and interpreter Mariam Janvelyan.

UCLA is honoring Disability Pride Month in July with a look back at the many ways the campus supports the disabled community. This month also marks the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law on July 26, 1990, to prohibit disability-based discrimination.

In 2023, UCLA extended a 16-year-old disability studies minor by launching the first disability studies major at a public university in California. The campus also offers American Sign Language courses and adaptive recreation programs — and has hosted a panel with alumni explaining how they’ve applied their disability studies education to their careers.

Here are just a few of the stories featured on Newsroom:

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More online resources needed to help Californians with disabilities make critical decisions

A California law designed to protect the autonomy of individuals with disabilities to make their own decisions may fall short of its intended goals due to insufficient online resources, according to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

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Supported decision-making enables individuals with disabilities to select a trusted person or persons (often a family member or friend) to aid them in making important decisions about things like their health care and finances. The law (AB 1663) took effect Jan. 1, 2023, and it provides an alternative to guardianship (called conservatorship in California), which places full decision-making authority for an individual in someone else’s hands.

Yet when UCLA researchers reviewed online resources about supported decision-making, they found some important gaps in the kinds of available information and tools. More than 60% of the resources were targeted toward adults 18–64 years old, with fewer resources designed for older adults (65 years and older) or younger people with disabilities.

“Imagine someone else deciding for you where you get to live, how to manage your money, or what medical care you need or want,” said Kristen Choi, an associate professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.  (Continue Reading)

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UCLA honors Disability Pride Month as Americans with Disabilities Act turns 35