Bruce Curtis is used to dealing with obstacles - stairs in front of a door, uneven spots in a sidewalk, telephones that need dialing...

Join us for the musical event of the fall season! Now in its 10th year, WID’s Ever Widening Circle will be bigger and better than ever with an evening of entertainment provided by world-class performers in the ballroom of the downtown Oakland Marriott on Friday, November 7, 2008. This year, Ever Widening Circle will feature the Grammy Award-winning talents of The Blind Boys of Alabama, revered worldwide for their unique blend of the sacred and the secular.

Marsha Saxton, researcher at the World Institute on Disability and lecturer in the UC Berkeley Disability Studies program, has been invited to present this year's Irving Kenneth Zola Memorial Lecture at Brandeis University in the Boston area, March 31, 2008. Irving Kenneth Zola was a much beloved leader in the disability studies movement from the early 70's until his death in 1995. A contemporary of Ed Roberts, Irv, in his capacities as medical sociologist and disability rights activist was particularly interested in the relationship between patients and doctors, and the interaction between the medical system and disability issues.

State and federal rules on access to health coverage and benefits can bewilder even a Ph.D. Some programs, like Social Security disability benefits, have thousands of pages of laws and regulations governing them. Every program has its own unique set of rules on interaction with other programs. The resulting confusion can have a devastating impact on people using more than one program or contemplating a return to work. What can state agencies and other organizations do to help people with disabilities navigate this network and improve their lives? In a groundbreaking new manual—Work Incentives Information Services: Developing a State-Focused Training and Technical Assistance Center—the California Work Incentives Initiative (CWII) at the World Institute on Disability (WID) presents a clear blueprint on how to establish a technical assistance and training center (“TA Center”) addressing these issues.

WID and the American Red Cross announced on October 10, 2007 the creation of an innovative national training, awareness and action program to help Red Cross staff and volunteers better serve people with disabilities during disasters. The specialized training program will be funded through a grant from the Verizon Foundation. “The American Red Cross is committed to providing the best service possible by constantly learning and building on its over 100 years of providing disaster relief," said Harold Brooks, chief executive officer of the organization’s Bay Area Chapter. "The American Red Cross trains staff and volunteers to respond to almost 75,000 disasters annually. This grant from Verizon is much appreciated and will help people with disabilities through this collaboration with the World Institute on Disability,” Brooks said.