Disability Awareness Month - Learning Resource Sheet
In October, the University of New Mexico’s HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion observes Disability Awareness Month (nationally celebrated as National Disability Employment Awareness Month). This is an annual celebration that commemorates the numerous contributions and achievements of people with disabilities, and asks everyone to pledge to advancing equity and access in all spaces and environments.
In the UNM HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, we believe that individuals with disabilities, whether temporary or permanent, are entitled to human rights, interests, access, equity, and advocacy. We strive to promote and increase awareness of disability rights, and to always elevate the independence, productivity, and complete community inclusion of persons with disabilities.
To learn more about Disability Awareness Month, visit Library of Congress – National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
For UNM’s Health Sciences Center, if accommodations and/or advocacy are needed, the Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) is available to serve. Contact Kelly Cano Martinez at kcanomartinez@unm.edu and at (505) 277-0316.
This event will honor individuals who have exhibited clinical, research, educational, community-engaged, and/or DEI-related excellence in support of people with disabilities.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
12:00 – 1:00 PM MST
Nominations are open through Wednesday, October 16th!
Hosted by UNM School of Medicine Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
12:00 – 1:00 PM MST - virtually on ZOOM
Presented by UNM Center for Development and Disability's Jayme Swalby, MA, Senior Program TherapistMariah Montoya, BA, Coordinator of Recreational Services of the Autism Programs
Attendees will learn the following:
Rescheduled: Thursday, October 26, 2023
12:00 - 1:00 pm MST
Zoom
Event Speakers:
Kelly Cano Martinez (she/her)
HSC Accommodations Specialist
Accessibility Resource Center
University of New Mexico
Kelly Cano Martinez is an Albuquerque native and alumni of the University of New Mexico’s Sign Language Interpreter program. Upon graduation and working as an interpreter for over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to work at the University of New Mexico. October of 2020, Kelly was hired to work at the University of New Mexico as an HSC Accommodations Specialist. Kelly works with Health Science Center (HSC) students with disabilities to ensure equal access to their didactic, clinical and testing experiences on campus. She is a self-proclaimed “Disney Adult” who enjoys watching Disney movies and spending quality time with her husband, family and friends.
Amanda Butrum
Director
Accessibility Resource Center
University of New Mexico
Amanda Butrum has worked at the University of New Mexico since 2005. She is currently the Director for the Accessibility Resource Center where she coordinates academic accommodations for students with disabilities. Additionally, Amanda worked as a Deaf Services Specialist at several post-secondary institutions in California and as a Sign Language interpreter since 1989. She is nationally certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf as a professional Sign Language interpreter and in 2006 she received her Master's degree in Social Sciences with an emphasis in Women’s Studies.
Learning Objectives:
Sponsored by the UNM Health Sciences Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
12:00 - 1:00 pm MST
The Person-Environment-Occupation model emphasizes that an intersection of each of these factors enables performance or engagement in an activity. In truth it states that a disability is defined by the environmental factors, because the person factors are often immutable; the occupational factors can sometimes be adapted. Whereas, the environment is the limiting factor for success. This ideology is at the core of the Occupational Therapy (OT) profession. The wonderful thing about this perspective is that it fits for every person, specifically receptive to diverse cultures, perspectives, and abilities. This lecture will touch on these facets of OT and how its lessons can be used to frame discussions in public design, legislations, education, and even clinical care.
Learning Objectives:
Speaker:
Tim Dionne, PhD, OTR/L
Assistant Professor
Occupational Therapy Graduate Program
University of New Mexico
Sponsored by the UNM Health Sciences Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Thursday October 19, 2023
12:00 - 1:00 pm MST
Zoom
In this session, we will explore one of New Mexico's hidden gems – a special library entirely devoted to disabilities that anyone can use! Join us as we delve into the process of obtaining a library card and borrowing materials. Discover the diverse range of topics covered in the collection and explore the multitude of resources available to deepen your understanding of disability issues or connect with vital services.
Learning Objectives:
Speaker:
Emily Roberts
Library Services Coordinator
UNM Health & Health Sciences
Sponsored by the UNM Health Sciences Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
12:00 - 1:00 pm MST
In this session, we will provide an introduction to the association between disability and rurality in the state of New Mexico followed by a discussion of key considerations related to the delivery of effective rehabilitation care for individuals living with disability in rural settings.
Learning Objectives:
Speaker:
Rebecca Dutton, MD
Associate Professor & Chief
Division of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of New Mexico
This event will honor individuals who have exhibited clinical, research, educational, community-engaged, and/or DEI-related excellence in support of people with disabilities.
Thursday, November 16, 2023
12:00 – 1:00 PM MST
Ingrid Hendrix is the Division Head for Research, Education and Clinical Information Services at UNM HSC's Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center. In addition to her primary appointment in HSLIC, Ms. Hendrix has secondary appointments in the College of Nursing and the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program. As a medical librarian for over 30 years, she has extensive teaching, literature searching, and knowledge management experience. Ingrid is a tireless champion for disability awareness. She teaches classes to medical, nursing and occupational therapy students on caring for people with disabilities. The classes she teaches are born out of her own personal experiences from her time in hospitals and clinics, and she is able to give students her own insights to shape how they treat people with disabilities. She also presents for national and regional organizations on these topics. In addition, she is an active member of UNM's Facilities Access Committee, most recently advocating for restoring a ramp that had been removed, requiring individuals with disabilities to go through parking lots to get where they needed to go. Her advocacy daily benefits HSLIC and UNM HSC students, staff, and faculty.
Dr. Antoinette Benton is a Professor with the UNM HSC School of Medicine, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine. She is the PI/Medical Director of the Transdisciplinary Evaluation and Support Clinic (TEASC Project), the Adult Special Needs Clinic, the Adult Cerebral Palsy Clinic and the NM DOH SAFE Feeding Clinic (Supports and Assessments for Feeding and Eating). She has been serving as the primary clinical consultant to the New Mexico DOH Developmental Disabilities Supports Division since 2001. She serves as medical officer/chair of the NM DOH Developmental Disabilities Services Division Mortality Review Committee.
Dr. Benton serves as the Chair of the Education Committee in Lifespan Care for the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. She is active with multiple national/international developmental disabilities organizations, including the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association, American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry and the National Taskforce on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia practices.
Dr. Benton has focused her clinical practice on family and patient-centered care delivery for individuals with developmental/intellectual disabilities, complex special healthcare needs of adults with chronic conditions of childhood onset, autism and cerebral palsy. Her clinical, educational and research focuses are in the areas of complex care, developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, spinal cord dysraphism/spinal cord injury, oral/enteral feeding and atypical/nonverbal presentation of pain and illness in the patient with intellectual/developmental disabilities. Dr. Benton is Board Certified in Family Medicine.
Dr. Tye Martin is a biomedical engineer, a PhD graduate of UNM and an alumnus of the Academic Science Education and Research Training (ASERT) Program 2019-2022. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the UNM Chemical and Biological Engineering department focused on development of adaptive, modular platforms for daily needs of people with disabilities.
Within Dr. Heather Canavan’s lab, Dr. Martin has deployed adaptive design principles to develop the SidekickTM, affording wheelchair users a carapace-like modification that transports gear, while preserving ease of access and navigation of doorways. By deploying user-informed design and computer aided modeling he rapidly prototyped and served as a 'test-pilot' for the SidekickTM. He has worked with other investigators, participated in Hackathons and NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corpsä).
Speaker:
Cody Unser
PhD Candidate
Medical Sociology
University of New Mexico
Moderator:
Jonathan Eldredge
Professor
Department of Family Community Medicine
Learning Objectives:
After becoming paralyzed at 12 years old due to the autoimmune disorder called, Transverse Myelitis, Cody Unser along with her mother Shelley, founded The Cody Unser First Step Foundation to raise awareness, encourage medical collaboration and improve the quality of life for those afflicted with Transverse Myelitis.
Through her foundation, she established Cody’s Great Scuba Adventure, which uses scuba diving as a therapeutic tool for people living with disabilities. She is a PADI AmbassaDiver and a certified Christopher Reeve Peer Mentor. She is a research consultant for MedStar Health, writing fact sheets related to paralysis issues as well as being a part of a Podcast Series. Cody is also a committee member on the Primary Care Committee of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), aiming at educating primary care physicians on how to treat individuals with spinal cord injury.
Currently 35 years old, Cody has become a leading advocate for people living with disabilities and spends much of her time traveling across the country to deliver keynote speeches, attend medical symposia and help other grassroots organizations that have similar missions. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Redlands in California where she created her own degree called Biopolitics: The Interconnection Between Biology and Political Action in Human Health. She received her master’s in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Policy at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She currently writes as a patient advocate for US News and World Report about everything she experiences relating to having a disability and navigating the world. She is passionate about the health care of women with disabilities and presents the issues they face at numerous University’s OBGYN Grand Rounds. Cody hopes to keep making an impact for people with disabilities.
Cody was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and is currently a graduate student at The University of New Mexico pursuing a PhD in Medical Sociology.
Sponsored by the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Learning Objectives
During this presentation, speakers will share their:
Audrey Eakman (she/they)
MD Candidate 2026
UNM School of Medicine
AREakman@salud.unm.edu
Audrey Eakman is a Deaf first-year MD student at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She is a member of the School of Medicine’s Rural and Urban Underserved program. She graduated summa cum laude from UNM in 2022 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. As a member of the UNM Combined BA/MD program, she’s also specialized in medical sociology and health communications. She’s participated in research on the effects of the COVID pandemic on rural communities in New Mexico. She was diagnosed with progressive bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at age seven and uses hearing aids, lip reading, and American Sign Language to aid her communication. She is a proud member of and advocates for the disabled community, especially in medicine.
Zainub Dhanani (she, her, hers)
MD Candidate | Stanford School of Medicine MS5/6
MS Health Policy Candidate | Stanford School of Medicine
A.B. Comparative Study of Religion | Harvard College '17
zdhanani@stanford.edu | (678) 665-9004
Zainub Dhanani is a medical student and MS Health Policy student at Stanford School of Medicine. She is the founder of the annual Stanford Conference on Disability in Healthcare and Medicine and a previous BNGAP Academic Writing Fellow. Zainub is also the founder and executive director of the national student-led disability advocacy organization, Medical Students with Disability and Chronic Illness (MSDCI). She has a keen interest equitable design of health systems as well as wellness and belonging amongst healthcare professionals and trainees. Her research focuses on the impact of disability disability in medical education and healthcare experiences, the use of digital and telehealth interventions in improving access to care for vulnerable populations, and health equity in radiology screening and imaging practices. She is thrilled to be able to share some of her work on disability advocacy with you all!
Sponsored by the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Speaker:
Grace C. Clifford, MAEd
Director, Disability Services/CAE Disability Specialist
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Learning Objectives
Following this presentation, attendees will be able to:
Grace Clifford is the Director for Disability Services at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. Born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, Grace is a double alumnus of Baldwin Wallace University where she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology (’09) and a Master’s in Leadership in Higher Education (’11). She has authored and co-authored several publications and pending publications regarding disability accommodation determination and disability access; including chapters in: Principles and Practice of College Health (Vaughn, Viera 2020), Equal Access for Students with Disabilities: The Guide for Health Science and Professional Education, Second Edition (Meeks, Jain, Laird, 2020), and Disability as Diversity (Meeks, Neal-Boylan, 2020). She is also an advisor and lead instructor for the inaugural Disability Resource Professional (DRP) academy launching this winter that seeks to develop the next generation of health science disability access advocates and experts.
Her current research focuses on developing group models to support students with executive functioning and psychological based disabilities, barriers to seeking accommodations for under-resourced students, and improving disability access in health science and professional education.
Sponsored by the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Speaker(s):
Kelly Cano Martinez (she/her)
HSC Accommodations Specialist
Accessibility Resource Center
University of New Mexico
Amanda Butrum
Director
Accessibility Resource Center
University of New Mexico
Learning Objectives:
About Kelly
Kelly Cano Martinez is an Albuquerque native and alumni of the University of New Mexico’s Sign Language Interpreter program. Upon graduation and working as an interpreter for over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to work at the University of New Mexico. October of 2020, Kelly was hired to work at the University of New Mexico as an HSC Accommodations Specialist. Kelly works with Health Science Center (HSC) students with disabilities to ensure equal access to their didactic, clinical and testing experiences on campus. She is a self-proclaimed “Disney Adult” who enjoys watching Disney movies and spending quality time with her husband, family and friends.
About Amanda
Amanda Butrum has worked at the University of New Mexico since 2005. She is currently the Director for the Accessibility Resource Center where she coordinates academic accommodations for students with disabilities. Additionally, Amanda worked as a Deaf Services Specialist at several post-secondary institutions in California and as a Sign Language interpreter since 1989. She is nationally certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf as a professional Sign Language interpreter and in 2006 she received her Master's degree in Social Sciences with an emphasis in Women’s Studies.
Sponsored by the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Sponsored by UNM Hospitals and the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Sponsored by UNM Hospitals and the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Sponsored by UNM Hospitals and the HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
