Inclusion Desk

If you remember J-Mac's big basketball game at Greece Athena, do you realize it's been ten years?

"I've gone from somebody that's an ordinary autistic kid to somebody who's inspired others."

On Tuesday, Jason MacElwain and his coach Jim Johnson announced a February 11 fundraiser for the growing local support group Autism Up.

"It's just been a wonderful, wonderful ten years and it's just unbelievable," said MacElwain.

The Al Sigl Community of Agencies is going to receive a $3 million gift from local philanthropist and entrepreneur Tom Golisano and the Golisano Foundation. That is the largest gift Al Sigl has ever received from a living donor.

Al Sigl is a network of organizations that serves more than 55,000 children and adults with special needs. Officials say that $3 million commitment will fund improvements to the Al Sigl campus on Elmwood Avenue.

Jon Schull is transforming lives for young people in need of limbs. The RIT research scientist is the founder of e-NABLE, an organization that uses 3-D printing to create limbs for children at no cost. While kids would outgrow traditional prosthetic arms that cost around $40,000, e-NABLE can make them for less than $20 each. Watch Schull’s Innovation Trail story from PBS NewsHour.

(Video after the jump)

ALBANY (AP) Several New York state lawmakers raised concerns Tuesday about federal and state policies to move more disabled people from institutions to community residences and managed care for medical treatment.

The state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities currently supports 38,000 New Yorkers in residences and 80,000 with day services. It has about 400 people in institutional settings, a total the agency plans to reduce to 150, Deputy Commissioner Helen DeSanto told lawmakers.

Jerremy Lorch was flying to Vancouver to present a paper at a conference. When he was turned away from his flight, he called his wife to come pick him up.

"When I got to the airport, and he got to the car, he explained that, there was no problem with the planes, they just wouldn't let me on the plane. And I went through a mix of emotions, first, my heart just broke for him."

Lorch is a wheelchair user, and his lawyer says when he told the staff he would need assistance boarding the plane, they did not know how to accommodate him.

At Monroe Community College, a conference called Safe at Home aims to help reduce injuries for people with developmental disabilities.

Molly Clifford is the executive director of Community Health Strategies. She says, more people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are moving out on their own.

"The trend in the disabilities community now is for people to live in the most integrated setting possible, so there has been a huge sea change in the way people with disabilities are living."

The Golisano Foundation will present its first-ever Move to Include Awards next week.

The foundation is dedicated to helping people with intellectual disabilities, and officials say the awards are being given in the hope that the understanding of "include" can be demonstrated at the highest levels of human behavior.

A human movement to see beauty in human diversity. That’s how internationally renowned photographer Rick Guidotti describes the work of a photo exhibition at Rochester’s George Eastman Museum. It’s called Positive Exposure and it includes fifty portraits of individuals with genetic, physical, cognitive, and behavioral differences. Visitors may even recognize some of the faces. Twenty portraits are of Rochester area residents with intellectual disabilities. On this edition of Need to Know we learn more about the exhibit, commissioned by the Golisano Foundation, which is focused on celebrating differences and changing perspectives.

On this edition of Need to Know we examine autism spectrum disorder which affects one in 68 children with boys being five times more likely to have the disorder. African-American and Latino children with autism tend to be diagnosed later in life than Caucasian kids.  The difference can be as great as two or three years which can cause them to miss out on important early intervention. Nationally, researchers are looking at ways to offer better care in under-served communities. One proposed project is trying to reduce that disparity by providing support services for families when the first signs of autism are recognized. Need to Know’s Sasha-Ann Simons reports.