Join us for the musical event of the fall season! Now in its 10th year, WID’s Ever Widening Circle will be bigger and better than ever with an evening of entertainment provided by world-class performers in the ballroom of the downtown Oakland Marriott on Friday, November 7, 2008. This year, Ever Widening Circle will feature the Grammy Award-winning talents of The Blind Boys of Alabama, revered worldwide for their unique blend of the sacred and the secular.

Samuel Simon, Vice-Chair of WID's Board of Directors, received the inaugural Frank Bowe Award in recognition of his contribution to the development of disability policy in telecommunications. The award was given on June 5th at the University Club at Hofstra University following a Disability Leadership and Policy Summit.

Bruce Curtis is used to dealing with obstacles - stairs in front of a door, uneven spots in a sidewalk, telephones that need dialing...

Marsha Saxton, researcher at the World Institute on Disability and lecturer in the UC Berkeley Disability Studies program, presented this year's Irving Kenneth Zola Memorial Lecture at Brandeis University in the Boston area on March 31, 2008. Irving Kenneth Zola was a much beloved leader in the disability studies movement from the early 70's until his death in 1995. A contemporary of Ed Roberts, Irv, in his capacities as medical sociologist and disability rights activist was particularly interested in the relationship between patients and doctors, and the interaction between the medical system and disability issues.

State and federal rules on access to health coverage and benefits can bewilder even a Ph.D. Some programs, like Social Security disability benefits, have thousands of pages of laws and regulations governing them. Every program has its own unique set of rules on interaction with other programs. The resulting confusion can have a devastating impact on people using more than one program or contemplating a return to work. What can state agencies and other organizations do to help people with disabilities navigate this network and improve their lives? In a groundbreaking new manual—Work Incentives Information Services: Developing a State-Focused Training and Technical Assistance Center—the California Work Incentives Initiative (CWII) at the World Institute on Disability (WID) presents a clear blueprint on how to establish a technical assistance and training center (“TA Center”) addressing these issues.