Disability Awareness
The disability field is constantly changing and sometimes it is difficult to know “what’s in and what’s out.” Also, individuals with disabilities are a diverse, unique, and vast population. No one person can know all the right answers on how to interact and communicate with every individual.
But there are a few things that we do know. People with disabilities want to be accepted and included in all aspects of life like anyone else. At NDCPD, our mission is to support individuals with disabilities to have the same opportunities everyone has so they can lead a full and productive life.
To help us meet our mission, it is important to have current information about disability-related topics and to interact respectfully with others. There are three main ways that we accomplish these parts of our mission. Ms. JoLynn Webster is NDCPD’s  Director of Human Potential and helps meet this part of our mission. Below are some of the Disability Awareness activities that she coordinates.
 Best-Practice Disability Awareness Resources
- Dis & Health Journal – Choosing Terms to Describe Disability, 2022
- History of Stigmatizing Names, 2016
- The Rise and Fall of Mentally Retarded: The EVOLUTION of the “R” word, 2015
- USA News Today Article on Special Needs, 2021
- What’s In and What’s Out
- Why Special Needs is Out
 Disability Awareness Training
Staff at NDCPD can provide training on what’s happening in the disability field and how best to interact with people with disabilities. This information would be invaluable to agency staff, school students, etc. – anyone and everyone! For more information, send an email to ndcpd@minotstateu.edu or call 800-233-1737 and ask for Michele Burney.
 AskNDCPD
NDCPD has a project called “AskNDCPD” in which you can ask questions about disability-related topics, as well as types of services and supports that are available for people with disabilities and their families. “AskNDCPD” staff will research your question until we find an answer or direct you to someone who can help if we don’t provide the service or support ourselves. If you have a disability-related question, send an email to ndcpd@minotstateu.edu or give JoLynn a call at 800-233-1737.
