Pam D’Occhio, owner and founder of Deafinitions & Interpretation LLC, says that disparities in access to spoken and written information still exist between hearing people and those who are deaf or hard of hearing. D’Occhio has been tapped to interpret government announcements about coronavirus in the past several weeks.
UD professors Jodi Haddon-Perilla and Juan Perilla won a $200,000 Rapid Response Research grant from the National Science Foundation supporting their work using supercomputers to model the atomic structure of the COVID-19 virus. Haddon-Perilla says the goal is to build a complete model of the virus’s structure and behavior – which currently does not exist – to examine how it functions. This will offer researchers insight into ways to stop the virus from functioning.
The Delaware Housing Assistance Program, administered by the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA), is providing emergency housing assistance to renters whose income stream has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Households are eligible for as much as $1,500 in payments. Application information is available on the state coronavirus website and the DSHA website.
Parents of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities report facing a host of new stresses and difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing. Their concerns range from difficulty explaining the disruption in routine to the prospect that medical professionals may discriminate against people with disabilities.
A $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus plan signed by President Donald Trump offers some benefits to people with disabilities, advocates say, but may also prompt unprecedented changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The legislation provides extra funds for housing assistance, independent living centers and several Medicaid programs, but also instructs Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to report to Congress on recommended IDEA waivers.
