Disability Beat

Disability Beat is a public affairs program dedicated to people with disabilities. It’s about social justice, community supports, accessibility, integration, inclusion, opportunities, freedom and choice.

If you know a person with a disability, or someone who cares about people with disabilities whether they are a family member, teacher or service provider, please tell them about Disability Beat, every Saturday morning at 7 AM. To listen to archived shows go to http://www.disabilitybeat.com/

Show Topics Upcoming...

• May 17 - Merle Siefken, Project Director of the Parent & Educator Partnership

• May 24 - Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers, and Barb Pritchard of the Health Care Task Force on Educating Medical Professionals about People with Disabilities

• May 31 - Amy Armstrong on Larkin's Place, a proposed center for serving people with disabilities in Champaign County.
• June 7 - Jennifer Knapp of the Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois
• June 14 - Brian King on Asperger's Syndrome

Completed Show Topics

• May 10 - Dr. Sheila Romano, Executive Director of the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities on the Blueprint for System Redesign

• May 3 - Charlene Bennett, Executive Director of Individual Advocacy Group on alternatives to sheltered work and group homes.

• April 26 - Peter Leidy, Composer and performer

• April 19 - Ellen Bronfield of Illinois Parents of Adults with Disabilities (IPADDUnite)

• April 12 - Peter Tracy on the movie "Canvas", a special Anti-Stigma event at EbertFest

• April 5 - Dr. John Trach of the University of Illinois on Training professionals

• March 29 - Nora Handler on Siblings of individuals with Disabilities

• March 22 - John Schornagel, Executive Director of the Community and Residential Services Authority

• March 15, Charlotte Cronin, What You Need to Know About the New Medicaid Waivers

• March 8, Dr. Stacy Dymond on Service-Learning

• March 1, Dr. Johnell Bentz and students from UIUC on the Culture of Disability course.

• February 23 Amy Walker, self-advocate, on proposed legislation to require the teaching of Disability History

• February 16 Babette Leek of the Champaign County Regional Planning Office

• February 9 Jenelle Hardy, PACE Center for Independent Living, Assistance for People with Disabilities in Purchasing their own Home. http:/www.pacecil.org

• January 26 Tony Paulauski, Executive Director of the ARC of Illinois and premier lobbyist for disability issues in Springfield. http://www.thearcofil.org

• January 19 Claudia Lenhoff, Executive Director, Champaign County Health Care Consumers http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/

• January 12 Lilia Teninty, Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities for the state of Illinois

• January 5 Jim Waldrip and Dr. Brenda Page on Community supports

• December 29 Tony Oligney-Estill, Champaign-Urbana Special Recreation

• December 22 Fannie Griffin of the National Alliancee for Mental Illness in Champaign County

• December 15 David Pitonyak on Difficult Behavior, http://www.dimagine.com

• December 8 Joel Sheffel, advocate and Executive Director of the West Suburban Access News Association, http://www.wsana.org/index.html

• December 1 Mike Kaminsky, LIFESPAN, http://www.illinoislifespan.org/

• November 24 Robert Stephens, self-advocate, on group homes and independent living
• November 17 Patrick Henry Hughes, keynote speaker at the Speak Up and Speak Out Summit in Springfield, IL on October 2, 2007

• November 10 Shirley Pacely, Illinois Voices

• November 3 Dr. Paula Kluth, What is Differentiated Instruction, and How does it Help Students with Disabilities? http://www.paulakluth.com/

• October 27 Matthew Cohen, Attorney, Special Education Law http://www.monahan-cohen.com

• October 20 Sheila Krein, Assistant Coordinator of the C-U Autism Network

• October 13 Dale Dileo, Author of Raymond's Room, Highlights from the Speak Up and Speak Out Summit for people with developmental disabilities, October 1-2, Springfield, IL. http://daledileo.com, http://www.state.il.us/agency/icdd/investment/includes/speakupsummit2007.htm

• October 6 Peter Tracy & Barb Bressner, Developmental Disabilities Information Fair (Oct.13)

• September 29 Rahnee K. Patrick, Youth & Education Team Leader, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago on the recent ADAPT actions in Chicago

• September 22 Christie Gilson on Blindness http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Hong-Kong-Fulbrighter/page-1.html

• September 15 Dr. Jan Gaffney, Literacy http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/SPED/frp/gaffneyj

• September 8 Chris Wasik, parent and consultant with Project CHOICES, Parent and Teacher Partnerships. For more information go to http://www.projectchoices.org

• September 1 Melissa Hoerner, co-president of the Down Syndrome Network http://www.champaigndsn.org/

• August 25 Cheryl Jansen, Equip for Equality http://www.equipforequality.org/

• August 18 Tamar Heller & Mary Kaye Rizzolo, IL Center for Excellence in DD http://www.uic.edu/orgs/idhd/index.htm

• August 11 Steve Vaupel, Illinois Service Resource Center (ISRC) Deafness and Behavior http://isrc.itsmyiq.com/

• • August 4 Phil Gattone, Epilepsy, http://www.efa.org, or call 800-332-1000
• July 28 Sheila Romano, Ex. Dir., IL Council on Developmental Disabilities http://www.state.il.us/agency/icdd/

• July 21 Bill Bogdan, Disability Liaison for Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White, Parking Accessibility http://www.wsana.org/id143.html, http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/disabilitypub.html, http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/press/2007/june/070601d1.html, reach Bill by phone at 708-210-2843, by email at , or through the web at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com

• July 14 Sarajane Annin, The Next Chapter Book Clubs http://www.nextchapterbookclub.org/, Family Resource Center 217-359-0287, x303

• July 7 Amy Walker, self-advocate and poet

• June 30 Candee and Katie Basford, College for People with Developmental Disabilities?
  • http://www.WeDanceTogether.com
  • http://www.LivingtheQuestion.com
  • http://www.jonathanmooney.com/
• June 23 Elaina Osterbur, pre-natal diagnosis

• June 16 Barbara Pritchard, Access to Quality Health Care
  • Disability Rights Task Force C/O Champaign County Health Care Consumers,
  • 44 E. Main Street, Suite #208, Champaign, IL 61820, (217) 352-6533, http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/,

• June 9 Paula and Rita Vanier, Raising a Child with a Disability

• June 2 Deb Einhorn, Executive Director of Family Matters
  • For more information go to http://fmptic.org or call 866-436-7842

• May 26 Lester Pritchard, Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois
  • For more information go to http://www.realchoiceinillinois.org

• May 18 Linda Torterelli, Coordinator of the C-U Autism Project

• May 12 Mike Frogley, coach of the U of I Wheelchair Basketball Team
  • For more information on U of I Wheelchair Basketball contact Mike Frogley at 333-4624
  • For more information on wheelchair junior and club basketball contact Jen Ruddell at 333-4606
  • For more information on the DVD Wheelchair basketball instruction series, go to http://www.ottogartenfilms.com

Contact Info Email the program at

Links To Resources

• Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois - http://www.realchoiceinillinois.org/
• Family Support Network http://www.familysupportnetwork.org
• Jerry Lewis Blues, the DB theme song, is written by Peter Leidy. More info is available at http://www.peterleidy.com
• LIFESPAN: Statewide Information Resource & Referral for Advocacy & Services for People with Developmental Disabilities.http://www.illinoislifespan.org/