CEDHARS Director Dr. Jim Rimmer, inaugural Lakeshore Foundation endowed chair in health promotion and rehabilitation science in the UAB School of Health Professions, was named the 2024 recipient of The Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award.

Welcome back for the next installment of trending news and stories in the disability community.

Alex Evancho had been considering a career in physical therapy as she finished up degrees in Spanish and psychology at the University of Georgia.

Welcome back for our second installment of trending news and stories in the disability community. This edition features articles on disability pride books, spotlights on disability creatives and news on accessibility advancements.

Dr. Yumi Kim, postdoc in the Department of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation and SHP Research Collaborative, recently received a psychosocial research postdoctoral training fellowship grant from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation to study participant engagement in spinal cord injury research.

As Dr. Scott Crawford enters his bedroom, adorned with photos of sailboats, nautical memorabilia and sailing decorations from wallpaper all the way down to the light switches, he is filled with a sense of peace and serenity.

Dr. Hui-Ju “Zoe” Young graduated from the Health Leadership Academy (HLA) on Wednesday after completing the 9-month program. As part of this program, Young was part of an interdisciplinary team and completed a group project focused on improving job quality for respiratory therapists at UAB.

We are excited to introduce our new series highlighting different stories and news items coming out of the disability community. We will share trending articles, podcasts, books, movies and any form of media that increases visibility of and perspective from the disability community.

The inaugural CEDHARS research symposium “Addressing Ableism in Research, Healthcare, and Higher Education” was held January 25-26, 2024, at the UAB Alumni House to bring together and promote leading voices in the movement toward inclusion science.

Our fellow Research Collaborative center, the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD), turned 25 on April 1. As we celebrate a quarter century of NCHPAD, we’re immensely proud of the nationwide impact the center has had promoting the health, wellness and inclusion of people with disabilities into all areas of life.

Movement to Music, M2M, dance instructors will be helping adapt a community event series being hosted this summer by Women Under Construction Network to make it inclusive and accessible for all.

The Alabama primary nomination for the 2024 election took place a few weeks ago. In the spirit of the election year, let’s discuss voting rights for Alabamians with disabilities.

James Tucker recently retired from director of the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, ADAP, which he headed for almost a decade. He worked for ADAP from 1997-2024, and prior to that, he was involved in disability rights litigation with other organizations.

Tucker’s retirement plans include spending time with family, traveling and hiking. He recently corresponded with CEDHARS to share his perspective on disability rights in Alabama and how they have evolved since he began working in the field.

Home and Community Based Services, opens a new website HCBS, are services for people with disabilities, funded by Medicaid. HCBS are an alternative to long-term residential institutions for people with disabilities. In Alabama they are run through the Alabama Department of Senior Services opens a new website (ADSS), the Alabama Department of Mental Health opens a new website (ADMH), the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services opens a new website (ADRS) and the Alabama Medicaid Agency opens a new website (AMA). Federal oversight is done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services opens a new website (CMS).

The inaugural CEDHARS research symposium, “Addressing Ableism in Research, Healthcare, and Higher Education” was the culmination of months of tireless work by our staff and partners. This first-of-its-kind symposium brought together 120 attendees and 12 invited speakers from all across North America who presented their research on issues associated with ableism across the spectrum from healthcare to higher education.

My name is Madison Etheridge, and I am 15 years old. I was born with cerebral palsy.

CEDHARS Director James Rimmer, Ph.D., will be the recipient of the Marchase Award as part of Core Day on Jan. 9, 2024.

April Turner is the Director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Program in Alabama. Since being named director in 2019, Turner has made Alabama one of the nation’s leading states in TBI supports and services.

September is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month in the United States. There are roughly 300,000 people with spinal cord injury and 18,000 new diagnoses each year in the country, according to the UAB National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

The National Institute of Health made a landmark move Tuesday, advancing the priority of research for people with disabilities and aligning more closely with CEDHARS vision of inclusion science.