The Department of Educational Specialties in UNM’s College of Education (COE) presents the Dr. Jane Blumenfeld lecture Thursday, Sept. 18. The lecture, titled “Parents of Sons and Daughters with Disabilities: Their Contributions and Aspirations for Ethical Communities,” will be held in Travelstead Hall from 5 to 6:15 p.m. A reception will follow.
The lecture features Rud and Ann Turnbull, both distinguished professors in the department of special education and co-founders/co-directors of the prestigious Beach Center of Disability at the University of Kansas.
The Turnbull’s will present an overview of parents’ contributions to disability rights for children in a speech that will hit on a variety of topics involving children with disabilities, their lives and adaptations to the world around them and the impact that parents have on the disability rights for children. Parents of children with disabilities have made a significant impact on policy and practice that fosters empathy, compassion and dignity and simultaneously ensures that their children “get a life” in addition to getting an education.
The Turnbull’s are parents of three children, one of whom, their son Jay, experienced multiple disabilities growing up and yet, had an “enviable life” of equality of opportunity and independent living. They say, “Jay was our best professor.”
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is generously supported by the Dr. Jane Blumenfeld Endowment for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Special Education Assessment and Diagnosis.