By Joanna McElnea &Menachem Rephun, Self-advocates + Creative Spirit Staff An Open Letter To Americans on the 32nd Anniversary Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Overview Of ADAFor Creative Spirit, the July 26 anniversary of the #AmericansWithDisabilitiesAct (ADA) is our annual opportunity to reflect on the global conversations on equity and inclusion, to see where...

By Menachem Raphun, Communications Manager, Creative Spirit July’s #BIPOCMentalHealthMonth celebrates the diversity of #BIPOC communities and promotes a vital message: that representation, equity, and inclusion for BIPOC people with disabilities need to be substantially improved, along with the quality of mental health care. As noted by Mental Health America, more than 7 million African-American individuals...

The Great Resignation is the term applied to the Covid-19 era trend in which a near-record 47.4 million employees left their jobs in favor of better opportunities, leading to a severe imbalance between worker supply and employer demand. For millions of people with disabilities, who were especially hard hit by the pandemic, getting rehired was...

By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate, and Joanna McElnea, Community Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate “Disclosing a disability to an employer enables a person to live one’s life authentically and be able to bring one’s whole self to work. Hiding a disability takes… energy that could be better spent elsewhere,...

By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate It’s no secret that living with a disability isn’t always easy. From managing physical and emotional exhaustion, to loneliness, challenges with self-esteem, and anxiety about disclosure, having a disability can entail significant levels of stress. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a 2018...

By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate Since the start of the new Millenium, the internet has taken on an ever-more important role in everyday life. Millions of people worldwide utilize the internet on a daily basis for work, entertainment, social interaction, and access to important information. For the disabilities community, the...

By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate Lisa Eason-Adil 1. What would you like employers to know about candidates with disabilities?Lisa Eason-Adil: I would like employers to know, that candidates with disabilities can increase productivity too.  We are the candidates that sometimes work even harder to achieve our goals.  Our work ethic...

RSVP today for our virtual discussion today: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/r5W3Kg6/CSAutismAware. By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate The Current Employment Reality for the Autism CommunityApproximately 1% of the global population (over 75,000,000 people) live with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a broad group of conditions whose symptoms include challenges with social skills and verbal communication,...

Full internet access is vital for inclusion in the digital age and countless aspects of daily life in our digital age, especially job searching and employment. Most employment resources are now online, and most jobs require at least some computer usage and internet access. Creative Spirit’s goal is to ensure fair-wage employment for people with...

By Menachem Rephun, Communications Manager Creative Spirit and Self Advocate March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD), which celebrates the achievements of women on a social, economic, cultural, and political level, and promotes full equality and inclusion. The theme of this year’s IWD is #BreakTheBias, which means countering stereotypes and discrimination and working to create...