12:00: Helping local young adults with disabilities find meaningful opportunities post-graduation
1:00: RFK’s comments on autism stir passions
Many students with disabilities will face challenges after graduating high school. The term "disability cliff" refers to the loss of resources and support young adults experience after leaving the school system. Finding employment, accessing housing, and achieving self-directed independence can all be difficult. A local program is working to fill the gap. This hour, Evan and co-host Sarah Murphy Abbamonte welcome guests from Starbridge's Creating a Life After High School program. We explore how the program works and how it has benefited young adults. Our guests:
- Jacob Weishaar, recent graduate of the Creating a Life After High School program at Starbridge
- Kelly Weishaar, parent of Jacob Weishaar and school psychologist
- Maggie McCrumb, graduate of the Creating a Life After High School program at Starbridge
- Jean McCrumb, parent of Maggie McCrumb
- Kristen Lopez, director of marketing and communications for Starbridge
Then in our second hour, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. recently made a series of remarks about autism. RFK spoke about “severe autism” and said he lamented the difficult lives that people with severe autism have to lead. He even talked about creating a “national autism registry,” although his office later walked back that idea. Meanwhile, researchers — including those within his own agency — are pushing back on a number of claims RFK has made about some of the facts surrounding the condition. This hour, Evan and co-host Sarah Murphy Abbamonte sit down with a local clinician and autism awareness advocates to discuss the facts, their experiences, and the ways that autism has affected them. In studio:
- Dylan Dailor, autistic self-advocate
- Jerri Lynn Sparks, autism acceptance, appreciation, awareness, and inclusion advocate for nearly 30 years, and proud mother of a son with autism (and his three siblings)
- Laura Silverman, Ph.D., associate professor and clinical child psychologist in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center
*Notes:
- These stories are reported from WXXI's Inclusion Desk.
- "Connections" is livestreamed each day on the WXXI News YouTube channel. Watch here.
