Get to know the tireless board members who keep the AADMD going!

Meet Justin Steinberg

Occupation:  Research assistant at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics

Board position: Self-advocates representative

You know kids have a way of teaching us parents things from time to time in the most peculiar ways. And those lessons we learn help us become better and stronger every day.  

At the age of thirteen, I met a five-year-old boy with Down syndrome. I was volunteering as a member of the Future Teachers of America and assisted a kindergarten class during my study hall time. I immediately fell in love with the little boy, Johnny, and spent most of my time with him. After two weeks of volunteering in that class, I was called to the principal’s office—rarely a good thing. When I got there, the teacher at my small rural school’s only Special Education Class stood up to greet me. The kindergarten teacher told her about my interest in working with her very young students and invited me to volunteer for the Special Education class “since I seemed to have a skill and enjoyed working with Johnny.”

Last month, the Justice Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) outlining its proposed regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) for the accessibility of medical diagnostic equipment (MDE).

We recently had a look at ridiculous legacy laws that painted our society as shallow, clueless and shameful. We focused on the so-called Ugly Laws, that from 1867 to 1974 had various cities targeted poor people and disabled people. It was on the books for anyone that was “maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view.” Yeah, it was against the law to be ugly.

Individuals with disabilities make up about 20% of Israeli society, over 1.5 million people (1). The prevalence of disability in the population is similar to other countries, with the CDC in the United States reporting 26% prevalence of disabilities in the 2022 population, up 19% from 2000.

The Inclusive Health Model focuses on the inclusion of all, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, in health, medical, and dental policies, procedures, research, trainings, and services. 

The Inclusive Health Model is an evolution of the Social Model and the Medical Model.  

Throughout time, understanding of societal and medical views of disability and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities changed, starting from a place of wanting to understand, to wanting to treat and ‘fix’, to recognizing that proper healthcare can be a powerful tool towards self-determination and inclusion. 

Jamie is a 48-year-old dynamic, energetic, fun-loving person who happens to have Down syndrome. She lives in a small community-based group home with two other people. She’s known as the jokester in the group and always has a way of making her friends laugh. She is an impeccable dresser and fancies cool hairstyles, which she highlights with fashionable hair accessories.