The Center for New York City Affairs presents:
FROM THE MARGINS TO THE MAINSTREAM:
Responding to Rising Rates of Autism
A Developmental Disabilities Watch forum
Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 10 a.m. to noon
Theresa Lang Community & Student Center
55 West 13th Street (near Sixth Avenue), 2nd floor
A fast-growing number of people receiving government-funded developmental disabilities services in New York are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. And in city schools, the number of pupils with autism has increased 72 percent in only five years. How are government, service providers, schools and parents responding? Will changes in these systems affect all people with developmental disabilities?What happens to young people with autism when they transition from school to adult life?
SPEAKERS:
Diana Jones Ritter, New York State Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD)
Margery Ames, Executive Director, Inter-Agency Council of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
Andrew Baumann, President and CEO, New York Families for Autistic Children
Bryan Merandi, participant, Job Path Supported Employment Program
Dorothy Siegel, Senior Research Scientist, NYU Institute for Education & Social Policy
MODERATOR:
Clare Ansberry, author, award-winning journalist and Wall Street Journal Pittsburgh Bureau Chief
Supported by the FAR Fund, the Sirus Fund, the Ira W. DeCamp Foundation and the Milano Foundation
Art: Susan Brown (2004), Family Portrait, Mixed media. Courtesy of Pure Vision Arts (purevisionarts.org), New York’s premier studio and exhibition space for artists with autism and other developmental disabilities. |
