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Advocacy Practicing the means of grace by seeking justice through prayer, scripture, and study.

Join our Facebook page to receive breaking news and advocacy concerns Prayer Submit prayer requests, volunteer, or read about prayer     Scripture Daily devotion dedicated to practical Christianity   General Conference The Task Force, in conjunction with the UM Association of Ministers with Disabilities, submitted five petitions for General Conference action. Four of these petitions were adopted, and will take effect on January 1, 2013. The petition to provide for a Disability Awareness Sunday as a special Sunday was approved by a sub-committee but did not move out of committee. We thank our friends for their support of these petitions. Disability Awareness Annual Conference Theme Establish the Task Force as a permanent committee Provide for Disability Awareness Sunday as a special Sunday with offering Rationale for above petition Change "incapacity leave" to "medical leave" and clarify process Rationale for above petition Change "handicapping conditions" in ¶651.2 to "disabilities". Rationale for above petition Additonally, some Task Force and Committee on Deaf and Hard of Hearing members who were at General Conference assisted in the revision of resolutions about disability: UM Implementation of United Nations rules Events United Spinal Association and Independence Care System will host "From Within," a conference for women with disabilities, in New York City. This year's keynote speaker will be Ginny Thornburgh. Click here for more information or here to register. Members of the National Council on Disability meet several times through the year to discuss the agency's policies, priorities, and other agenda items. These meetings are open to the public, and people with disabilities are encouraged to attend. Please contact NCD if accommodations are needed. Click here for more information. May 21-22, 2012 July 25-27, 2012 Mental Health America announces a free webinar, "Mental Health Promotion: Utilizing Live Your Life Well in the Community" on May 24, 2012, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Click here for information or to register. The National ADA Symposium, with updates on the 2010 ADA standards, will be offered on May 30-June in Indianapolis. The symposium is sponsored by the ADA National Network, a program of the National Institute of Disability Rehabilitation and Research. Click here for more information. The Minnesota Symposium on Disability conference on July 27-28 will focus on "Perspectives: past, Present, and Future of Disability Studies." Click here for more information. A call for papers is open until May 30. The Association for Airline Passenger Rights offers a free webinar, "Flying made easier for travelers using wheelchairs," on May 31 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. Click here for more information or to register. United Spinal Association/National Spinal Cord Injury Association will conduct a series of free webinars to share information aimed at disability policy concerns. Click here for information about the series. May 31, 2012: Disabled and Seeking Employment: Is the government helping you adequately? Click here for more information about these webinars. The Canadian Disability Studies Association, in cooperation with the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences announces its 2012 Congress, "Crossroads: Scholarship for an Uncertain World" to explore areas of uncertainty, questioning, and debate in Disability Studies. The conference is May 30 - June 1, 2012 at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. Click here for English information. The Midwest Popular Culture Association will conducts its 2012 conference in Columbus OH, October 12-14, 2012. Sessions will include Disability and Popular Culture. Click here for more information. A call for papers is open until May 31, 2012. The Birkbeck Pain Project and Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, announces a public conference, "Pain and Old Age: Three Centuries of Suffering in Silence?" on October 27, 2012. Click here for more information. A call for papers is open until June 1, 2012. A joint conference of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education, the Society for the History of Children and Youth, and the Disability History Association will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2012. The theme is internationalization in education, including the history of disability and its study. Click here for more information about this conference. The Great Lakes and Pacific ADA centers announce the 2012 Accessible Technology Webinar Series, which will explore technological trends and access to people with disabilities. All sessions are free. They are scheduled from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. Central / 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. Mountain and 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. June 12: 21st century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (Jim Tobias, Inclusive Technologies) August 14: Accessible Web Authoring Tools (Jutta Treviranus, Inclusive Design Research Center) October 9: Using the WAVE Web Accessibility Toolbar (Jaren Smith, WebAIM) December 11: Mobile Accessibility (Mobile Manufacturers' Forum) Click here for information and registration. The SUDI 2012 conference on Sustainability and Disability: Creating Jobs in a Green Economy will be June 12-13, 2012, in Manaus, Brazil. Click here for more information. The Disability Inclusive Research Collaboration Conference will be June 13-14, 2012, at the University of Sydney. the theme is "Research Rights: Disability Inclusion Change." Click here for more information. Swansea University Centre for Medieval and Modern Research, in association with the Research Group for Health, History, and Culture, announce a conference, "Care and Cure: Diseases, Disabilities, and Therapies" on June 14-15, 2012. Click here for more information. "Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction" is the title of a two-day interdisciplinary conference at the University of Edinburgh, June 15-16, 2012. Interest is the early modern period through the mid-twentieth century, in fields such as spectacle, progress, symbolism of the monstrous, beatification, aesthetics, and gender treatment. Click here for more information about this conference. The Great Lakes ADA Center, on behalf of the ADA National Network, announces its ADA Audio Conference Series. Sessions are 90 minutes, available by webcast or audio. June 19, 2012: No Parking Here: Accessible parking requirements and enforcement July 17, 2012: ADA Anniversary Update August 21, 2012: Segways, golf cars, four-wheelers, Oh my! September 18, 2012: Accessibility of Polling Places Click here and then choose "ADA Audio Conference Series" for more information and registration. The Society for Disability Studies announces its 25th annual conference with the title "Collaborations, Cultures, and Communities." The conference will be in Denver CO, and topics relating to the area are of particular interest. Click here for more information. Deaf Youth Retreat at Isaiah's Place, Whitney TX: June 22-24 and July 22-24, 2012. Mental Health America will conduct its Capitol Hill Day on June 25-26, 2012, in Washington DC. Click here for more information. Abilities Expo, "enhancing the lives of people with disabilities," will be held in several cities in 2012: Chicago, June 29-July 1, 2012 Houston, August 3-5, 2012 San Jose, November 16-18, 2012 For more information about Abilities Expo, click here. The National Association of the Deaf announces its 2012 Biennial Conference on July 3-7, 2012, in Louisville. Held in conjunction with DeaFestival Kentucky, the theme is "Nothing About Us, Without Us!" Click here for more information. The 2012 Summer Institute on Theology and Disability will be July 16-20, 2012, at Catholic Theological Union, University of Chicago. Click here for information or to register. The International Auto/Biography Association announces its 8th biennial conference on July 17-20, 2012, in Canberra, Australia. Sponsors are the Humanities Research Centre, National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, and the National Portrait Gallery. The topic is "Framing Lives." Among the interests are ethics, social identity, and language. A particular interest is the role of disability, illness, therapy, and recovery in creating narratives. Click here for more information about this conference. The 15th annual conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication will be July 28 to August 4, 2012, in Pittsburgh PA. Click here for more information. DeafNation World Expo, July 29-August 1, 2012, Las Vegas NV "Disability and the Victorians: Confronting Legacies", is the title of a conference to be conducted July 30 - August 1, 2012, at the Leeds Center for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University College. Keynote speakers include Martha Stoddard Holmes, Vanessa Toulmin, and David Wright. Click here for more information. The American Sociological Association announces its annual meeting on August 17-20, 2012, in Denver. The topic is "Real Utopias: Emancipatory Projects, Institutional Designs, Possible Futures." The Section on Disability and Society plans sessions on Disability and Social Policy, Disability and Technology in a built environment, and several round tables. Click here for more information. The Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies and the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation will host a conference on the use of disability sport as a tool for development and inclusion on August 23-25, 2012, at Coventry Cathedral. Click here for more information about this conference. The fifth international conference on Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages will focus on social and cultural approaches to health, cure, and notions of disability. The date is August 23-26, 2012; the conference will be at the University of Tampere, Finland. For more information about the conference, click here. A call for papers is open until September 15, 2011. The second "Making Sense of Chronicity" conference will be held from August 30 to September 1, 2012, at Mansfield College, Oxford. The conference will explore processes that create meaning within the context of chronic illness. Click here for more information about this conference. The Disability Studies Association annual conference in Lancaster, UK, will be September 11-13, 2012. The conference will include a session sponsored by the World Health Organization focusing on violence against people with disabilities. Click here for more information. Mental Health America's annual conference will be September 19-21, in Tulsa OK. Click here for more information. An interdisciplinary conference, "Confined Spaces: Considering Performance, Madness, and Psychiatry" will be September 17-18, 2012, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Click here for more information. Rehabilitation International will conduct its fifth Arab Region Conference on September 25-27, 2012, in Doha, Qatar. The theme is "Together for a better world for all . . . including persons with disabilities in development." Click here for more information. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, sponsored by the United States Department of Labor. The theme is "A Strong Workforce is an Inclusive Workforce: What Can YOU Do?" Click here for more information. The 2012 Southwest Conference on Disability will be October 10 - 12, 2012, at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The conference theme is "Access for All: To Boldly Go Where Everybody Else Has Gone Before." For more information, click here. United Theological Seminary, Dayton OH, will present the 2012 Heck Lectures, "Christians and Disabilities: Renewing the Church and Healing the World ," on October 16-17, 2012. Lecturer will be Amos Young of Regent University. Click here for more information or to register. The Birkbeck Pain Project and the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London announce a conference "Pain as Emotion; Emotion as Pain: Perspectives from Modern History" on October 26, 2012. The conference will explore understandings of pain as sensation and emotion, and how it is understood and portrayed. Click here for information. The 2012 International Day of Persons with Disabilities is December 3. The theme is "Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all." Click here for more information. The Modern Language Association's 128th annual convention in Boston MA will include a session on disability studies. Date is January 3-6, 2013. Click here for more information. The American Historical Association's 127th annual meeting will be January 3-6, 2013 in New Orleans. The theme is "Lives, Places, Stories." Click here for information. The Learning Disabilities Association will conduct its 50th annual conference on February 13-16, 2013, in San Antonio TX. Click here for more information. The United Nations General Assembly has named March 21 World Down Syndrome Day. This date was chosen because Down syndrome occurs when there are three copies of the 21st chromosome. The United Nations General Assembly has designated April 2 each year as World Autism Awareness Day. Autism Speaks will conduct the Light It Up Blue observance on that day. Click here for more information. Home  |  Welcome  |  Advocacy  |  What We Do  |  Ministry In Action  |  Learn More  |  Donate  |  Get Involved  |  Contact Us By reporting on issues of concern to people with disabilities, the United Methodist Task Force on Disability Ministries does not attempt to influence legislation, nor does it favor, oppose, endorse, participate in or otherwise intervene in political campaigns. All items of a political nature are reports only, and are open equally to all candidates. For information see IRS FS-2006-17.