A seventeen-year-old high school senior with a winning smile and short brown hair that throws off reddish glints, Donald (not his real name) has Down syndrome. He is a young man of few words and, like most guys, keeps his feelings to himself...
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It’s rare to see a fourteen-year-old working these days. The times have changed and priorities have shifted along with the times. A combination of unmotivated and/or overindulged youth coupled with protective parents keeps too many teens...
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Most presidential historians and scholars consider Abraham Lincoln to have been America’s greatest president. Of all the values and principles our Republican 16th president believed in, the idea that an individual should work hard was the...
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How old were you when you got your first job? I’m sure it wasn’t when you were twenty or twenty-two or . . . never. You likely got your first job when you were in your early teens. That’s what most of us did. We babysat...
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For some reason, society has unreasonably low expectations of youth with disabilities and a propensity to stereotype. In fact, there’s a prevailing and widespread belief that youth with disabilities pretty much have four job options if they...
Read More A tall and slim strawberry blonde, Kelsie (not her real name) is a seventeen-year-old high school junior born with Spina bifida, a congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube. In addition to her Spina bifida...
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Posted by Jim Duncan / PR Monthly For a decade, Mike Kelly worked in public relations. And by all accounts he had a successful career. He plied his trade for national companies in a few locations across the country, met interesting people, was...
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This two-part interview was conducted by Courtney Williams from Disability Life. Part Two is below. PART TWO CW— SPEAKING OF SALES, HOW ARE BOOK SALES GOING? MK— I’m nowhere close to that hundred thousand copies, I’ll tell you that...
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For some reason, society has unreasonably low expectations of youth with disabilities and a propensity to stereotype. In fact, there’s a prevailing and widespread belief—even sometimes within the educational establishment—that youth with...
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In the second section of my book I talk about how multimillionaire celebrities I reached out to demanded tens of thousands of dollars to briefly appear at charity events I had conceived and organized benefiting individuals with disabilities, and...
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FROM THE IDAHO STATESMAN (www.idahostatesman.com) SPOTLIGHT ON IDAHO AUTHORS “Special Stories: Short Stories on Youth with Disabilities and My Adventures Working in the Disabilities Field” by Mike Kelly; Vendue Books ($19.99 pbk/$6.99 e-book)...
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Over the last fifteen years, award-winning transition educator Mike Kelly has worked with hundreds of youth with a wide range of disabilities living across America. During that time he has served as an employment specialist, job coach, event...
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