Celebrating Disability Pride

This week in North Philly Notes, Eileen Bellemore and Kirsten Behling, two of the coauthors of Disability Services in Higher Education, write about promoting equal access for disabled students.

July is Disability Pride Month, a time to recognize disability as an important part of our diverse identities. It provides an opportunity to share in the pride that disabiled individuals bring to our communities. But as we take this time to support those with disabilities, it is also important to acknowledge that the disabled community is often overlooked, undervalued, and excluded.

Although significant progress has been made since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law 33 years ago today, there is still much work to be done. This month is an opportunity to celebrate and raise awareness of the many ways in which people with disabilities enrich our lives, but it’s also a time to assess how we can become more accessible and inclusive in our thoughts, actions, and environments. Disability Services in Higher Education: An Insider’s Guide focuses on the important role that disability services professionals play as agents of change, working tirelessly to promote full and equal access for disabled students in higher education.

This unique resource provides theoretical and practical content that promotes understanding of the disability services field and encourages discussions to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in higher education. And it provides an assortment of acronyms as well as insights from five authors with 70 years of collective experience in supporting students with disabilities.

Support for college students with disabilities is legally required under the ADA. However, there is no standard blueprint for this complex work. Disability Services in Higher Education provides this blueprint for a wide audience, including new and seasoned professionals, faculty and institutional partners, K-12 educators, and college consultants.

Part one provides an overview of how institutions serve students with disabilities and acknowledges that disability service offices vary widely in staff experience, institutional buy-in, philosophies, and resources.

The second part of the book takes a macro- and micro-level view of the field, looking at office structure and location, staffing levels, models of service provision, spaces we occupy, budgets, onboarding new staff, records management, and guidance on how to advocate for additional resources. We provide a comprehensive analysis of disability as a social construct and as a complicated and often misunderstood identity. We explore historical models of examining disability, language, and identity development, and how we can facilitate their positive development. Additionally, we discuss how embracing disability culture reduces discrimination while promoting inclusion and justice.

In part three, we focus on the interactive process by first providing an overview of the legal, philosophical, and logistical changes that occur during the transition from high school to college. We then discuss the foundational underpinnings of establishing disability and understanding the documentation practices for identifying functional limitations, structuring the intake interview, and making reasonable determinations. In addition, we offer guidance on implementing accommodations and the importance of continued interaction with relevant constituents. Specific categories of accommodation are explored in relation to barrier removal, and we have included a chapter on assistive technology and auxiliary aids that is easily understood. We discuss our role as case managers in coordinating services with other campus providers and monitoring students’ performance throughout their lifecycle. Finally, an entire chapter is dedicated to working with faculty to help them navigate accommodations, from those who are too accommodating to those who struggle to understand the basic premise of access.

Part four focuses on compliance and how legal cases influence policies, processes, and procedures. We aim to make the grievance process less daunting by walking through the complaint process at the institutional and federal levels. We also highlight some well-known legal cases and their resolutions.

In part five, we delve into the concept of inclusion in design, examining its impact on both physical and digital environments and illuminating how design has the power to include or exclude. We explore laws and standards related to inclusion and provide options for meeting or surpassing them. Additionally, we dedicate an entire chapter to universal design, with guidance on encouraging stakeholders to embrace this approach throughout their campuses.

Part six reflects on the insights gained and looks ahead to future considerations as we work towards achieving full inclusion.

In addition, Disability Services in Higher Education is unique in that each chapter begins with thought-provoking questions that aid in learning, while reflective exercises are provided at the end of each chapter. These exercises include real-world scenarios.  Additionally, we offer customizable forms, checklists, training materials, letters, and policy examples. These are freely available and can be used immediately.

As we celebrate disability pride, we hope our book serves as a catalyst for enhancing operational practices and advancing disability rights. It’s our way of honoring and celebrating the intrinsic worth and meaningful contributions individuals with disabilities bring to our society.

From the NFL to TUP

This week in North Philly Notes, Bob Angelo, author of The NFL Off-Camera, recounts his long-held passion for football.

The first book I ever bought was the 1963 Official Pro Football Almanac.

I needed it so I could assign names and paint numbers on all of my electric football players. Not satisfied, I then fashioned pedestal cameras out of modeling clay and Play-Doh. I attached some of them to the perimeter of my vibrating playing field. I placed two more in the two towers that I built with my Remco Girder and Panel/Bridge and Turnpike Building set. Finally, I formed a big neighborhood league of like-minded folks so that I would have worthy opponents once my team was ready to play.

I was ten years old at the time.

Yes, my obsession with professional football predated the full maturation of my cerebral cortex. Little wonder that by the time I’d earned my Bachelor’s Degrees in Journalism and Philosophy (Penn State) and a Masters in Broadcast Journalism (Northwestern), NFL Films felt compelled to hire me. By then, I was 22.

For the next 43+ years, I lived my dream, producing segments and full-fledged films about the NFL and its people. I developed new shows that still exist (Hard Knocks on HBO) and modified existing shows to extend their lifespan (Pop Warner Super Bowl, Quarterback Challenge, et.al.). I worked in shorts most of the calendar year. I shot more than 850 professional games, attended 40 Super Bowls, and worked with and alongside thousands of players, coaches, owners, team executives and media types. When it all ended in the late winter of 2018, the University of Delaware recruited me to teach a production course that I created. In 2020, I did the same at Penn State.

I also started writing my second book. My first was called Beings in Time: An Existential Survey of Human Subjectivity. It sold less than two dozen copies worldwide, most of them in Europe. For years, friends and family insisted I should write a book about my career. I resisted. Sorry, but the Memoirs of an NFL Films Producer sounded lame and rather pompous to me. And yet… I had crossed paths with hundreds of Hall of Famers, Super Bowl champions, and just plain interesting people. Why not?

When Covid-19 ended my college teaching career, I dedicated myself full time to The NFL A-to-Z, or whatever I was calling it at the time. I decided to do a collection of short stories, convinced that pro football fans would not want a long narrative. I came up with a working list of NFL persons with whom I’d interacted personally. This was my only pre-requisite for each story and subject. Then I began writing.

At some point, I asked my wife and son to critique some of the completed stories. My son caught numerous factual mistakes, but in general, he liked them. However, my wife Barbara’s response shocked me. She generally does not like my writing. In addition to my philosophical tome, I have written eight 100-page-plus screenplays—two of which came very close to being optioned by Hollywood producers and one of which became raw material for the movie Spies Like Us. She actually did like my NFL stories. That’s when I knew I was onto something.

But doubt muddied the waters. The more I wrote, the less I liked the entire process. And I had nothing worked out with anybody. No advance. No book deal. No agent. And, pretty much, very little hope that a legit publisher would see any value in any of it. By the time I attended a late 2020 Covid Super Spreader, I had contemplated hitting the delete button on my old war horse Lenovo computer several dozen times.

That’s when a close family friend altered my life’s path.

Professor James Mancinelli asked how my book was coming along. I told him I was ready to trash it. He asked me to tell him one of the stories. I walked him through the Lyle Alzado story as best I could remember it. When I finished, he took off his mask so I could take in his entire countenance and said, “Robert, these stories have value!”

Inspired, I vowed to finish the damn thing. Then I started making calls to friends in the business asking for advice on how to market it. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio hooked me up with a Chicago-based publisher. Ray Didinger gave me names at Temple University Press. Just when I was again about to give up and return to watching TV westerns all day, Ryan Mulligan at Temple contacted me and asked if I was willing to work hard to get my lengthy, undisciplined manuscript into shape for eventual publication.

And we did. Now the book is published and I am talking about it on radio shows and have appearances and newspaper column interviews and live streaming events to promote and publicize The NFL Off-Camera. And people are actually buying it! (Sales have already surpassed my previous book more than tenfold.)

I still think about that 1963 Official Pro Football Almanac. And those clay cameras televising my electric football games to my imaginary audiences. And my obsession with pro football that will be with me until my last day of experiencing Human Subjectivity—which is hopefully a long way off.

An existential maxim states, “To do is to be.” And I still love what I be doin’.

Long live pro football!!!

Announcing Temple University Press’ Fall 2023 catalog

This week in North Philly Notes, we present the titles featured in our Fall 2023 catalog.

My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera, by Beth Kephart
A memoirist’s guide to the role paper plays in our construction of ourselves

In Reunion: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family, by Sara Docan-Morgan

Details how transnational Korean adoptees who have reunited with their birth families navigate identity, family, and belonging

Sons of Chinatown: A Memoir Rooted in China and America, by William Gee Wong

An immigrant father-American son story that illustrates that immigration works despite systemic racism and American exceptionalism

Intimate Strangers: Shin Issei Women and Contemporary Japanese American Community, 1980-2020, by Tritia Toyota

Exploring how Japanese women migrants (shin Issei) are making place/space for themselves among generations of Americans of Japanese ancestry

Taking Stock of Homicide: Trends, Emerging Themes, and Research Challenges, edited by Karen F. Parker, Richard Stansfield, and Ashley M. Mancik

Setting the standard for how to study homicide

Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball’s Stars Avoid World War I, by William Ecenbarger

The fascinating story of top athletes like Babe Ruth dodging military service by playing ball for shipyards and steel mill teams

Digging in the City of Brotherly Love: Stories from Philadelphia Archaeology, Second Edition, by Rebecca Yamin

New archaeological finds in Philadelphia and state-of-the-art analyses bring more of the city’s unknown past and its people to life

The Barnes Then and Now: Dialogues on Education, Installation, and Social Justice, edited by Martha Lucy Distributed by Temple University Press for the Barnes Foundation

As the Barnes enters its second century, how does it honor its founder’s vision while responding to the complexities of contemporary life and museum practice?

Words like Water: Queer Mobilization and Social Change in China, by Caterina Fugazzola

Examining grassroots strategies the LGBT movement in China used to achieve social change without protest

Yes Gawd!: How Faith Shapes LGBT Identity and Politics in the United States, by Royal G. Cravens III

A comprehensive study of LGBT religious experiences in the United States that provides important lessons for American democracy and civil society

The Fantasy Economy: Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Education Reform Movement, by Neil Kraus

Showing how the contemporary education reform movement is a political campaign created to advance the free markets of neoliberalism

Preparing Students to Engage in Equitable Community Partnerships: A Handbook, by Elizabeth A. Tryon, Haley C. Madden, and Cory Sprinkel

A comprehensive handbook for community-engagement professionals to navigate the art of preparing students for humble, respectful, and equitable community partnerships

All Play and No Work: American Work Ideals and the Comic Plays of the Federal Theatre Project, by Paul Gagliardi

How comic plays of the Federal Theatre Project challenged work norms promoted by the federal government during the Great Depression

Building a Social Contract: Modern Workers’ Houses in Early Twentieth-Century Detroit, by Michael McCulloch

Shows that power is negotiated through housing development, which spatializes race and class relations and is central to workers’ security

Inspired Citizens: How Our Political Role Models Shape American Politics, by Jennie Sweet-Cushman

Do Americans have political role models and, if so, what impact do they have on political behavior and attitudes?

The Perversity of Gratitude: An Apartheid Education, by Grant Farred

How a disenfranchised apartheid education prompted thinking

A Critical Synergy: Race, Decoloniality, and World Crises, by Ali Meghji

Shows how decolonial theory and critical race theory can complement each other, applying them in combination to the world’s greatest social challenges

Modern Migrations, Black Interrogations: Revisioning Migrants and Mobilities through the Critique of Antiblackness, edited by Philip Kretsedemas and Jamella N. Gow

Using Black Studies theory to examine the contemporary meanings of migration