Borders, Barriers, and Brains: Issue Definition in Rights Based Policy Related to Autism

In issue definition related to rights based policy, Canada has been stereotypically understood as taking a more positive, human rights centered approach whereas the United States has been expected to take a more negative, civil rights based tact. While this difference in approach is expected to be a key to a broad base of differences between the two nations and societies, the difference is arguably unusually relevant in the disability policy arena. After all, recent changes in the understanding of disability is transforming disability from an issue of personal culpability overseen by medical professionals and tempered by charitable efforts to an issue of shared social and personal construction for which society at large is responsible. As the incidence of disability continues to rise, broad changes in social, political, and economic infrastructures are the expected result of recent innovations in disability related policy. These changes will affect society well beyond the lives of individuals with disabilities. Over the past decade, Canada, the United States, and several other counties have experienced a surge in the reported incidence of autism. The public management of needs related to the autism baby boom is an unfolding process. This year the Canadian Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of Auton v. British Columbia, which is focused on the question access to intensive therapy (specifically Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA) as a medical right. This case is especially interesting in the North American context both because of its inherent implications for the construction of rights and because of the compelling difference in the definition of the therapy from the United States (where students have a rights based access to special education and ABA is consistently defined as an educational right). To examine this question of the relationship between neurodiverisity and the construction of rights I am conducting surveys of issue stakeholders including parents, agency workers, school district representatives, and practitioners in the medical community. The surveys are correlated with the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey run by Statistics Canada. I examine how the current definition of rights in the realm of autism policy fits into the ongoing history of the definition of human and civil rights in North America.Includes bibliographical reference

The Case of Interagency Coordinating Councils: Examining Collaborations in Services for Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities often require a myriad of services to develop to their full potential. In the current era, centralized services and residential institutions have become less accepted as a matter of course. Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs) were created to lead integration of services for children with disabilities in the context of decentralized service provision and a growing preference for person-centered, community based services. In this paper, the Federal ICC and several State ICCs were examined as a case study of the challenges associated with orchestrating multi-level, interagency collaboration. Emergent themes of interorganizational infrastructure, shaping participation, and service purposes and priorities are discussed as important elements of the ongoing creation of a new governance of services for children with disabilities.Includes bibliographical reference

Comparative Canadian and United States Autism: A Narrative Analysis

This article examines autism policy narratives inCanadaand theUnited States. In both nations, meta-narratives emerged, establishing federal autism policy. Whereas the stories associated with these meta-narratives shared starting points, the stories unfolded in nationally distinct ways

The Role of Non-Profits in Shaping Civil Rights: Understanding of Disability in Families of Children with Autism

Challenges associated with disability are increasingly linked to civil rights oriented policy solutions. Nevertheless, public policy theory suggests that issue definition includes competitive promotion of preferred linkages of problem definitions to policy solutions among stakeholders. In this article, we use the case of autism to examine the role of nonprofits in shaping understandings of disability

Brain Politics: Comparative Issue Definition in Autism Related Policy

Graphic presentation concerning Autism and public policy. Data presented in tables.Western Political Science Associatio

Constructing Knowledge of Nutrition: A Comparative Study on State Nutrition Policies for Children with Disabilities and Chronic Illness

Powerpoint presentation delivered concerning nutritionWestern Social Science Associatio

Improving Enforcement of Protection Orders in Domestic Violence Situations

Domestic violence is increasingly recognized as a serious social problem in Missouri. Protection orders are designed to offer individuals some level of safety, but nationally it is estimated that a quarter of such orders are not followed and enforcement is inconsistent. Noncompliant batterers typically increase the level of threats, coercive tactics and violence, and often the victims must relocate to hide from the abuser. These relocated victims need protection in new communities, but frequently they run into difficulties because of different legal jurisdictions across county and state lines. The Full Faith and Credit provisions of the Federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994 offer remedies to this problem, but states (including Missouri) have experienced considerable difficulties in implementation of the provisions of this act. Such problems include lack of coordination among jurisdictions, low levels of understanding about the law, scarce government resources for addressing impediments, and failure to enforce protection orders