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Syracuse University’s School of Education will create the Center on Disability and Inclusion, a group that will work to advance inclusive education and disability rights. 

The center is a collaboration between the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, the Center on Human Policy and the Inclusion and Communication Initiatives. The collaboration will make it easier to seek grants and share resources and expertise, SU said in a news release. 

Grant funding from the New York State Department of Education, The Taishoff Family Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education will support the CDI.

SU will formally celebrate the center’s launch at an upcoming virtual gathering of staff, alumni and supporters.

Christine Ashby, an associate professor of inclusive education and disability studies, will be the director of the new center. Beth Myers, an assistant professor of inclusive education and director of the Taishoff Center, will serve as the center’s assistant director.

Ashby is also the director of Syracuse’s Inclusion and Communication Initiatives, which has faced criticism for teaching the discredited practice of facilitated communication, a technique designed to enable communication for nonverbal people who have disabilities such as autism, brain damage and cerebral palsy. 

In the technique, a facilitator guides the arm or hand of a person with disabilities to help them type on a keyboard or other device. The process has led to unfounded accusations of abuse, among other inaccurate results. 

Speech pathologists and other experts have said that SU should be “ashamed” to promote the scientifically discredited technique.

Published on October 4, 2020 at 12:17 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3