Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Bev at Asperger Square 8: How the Grinch Tried to Steal Autistic Self-Advocacy

Each autistic person deserved life a lot…
But the Grinch, who lived outside of Reason,
Thought NOT!
The Grinch hated autism, every season
He liked to chelate cats and give dogs HBOT.

He thought all he could with his tiny green head
About how to prove they’d be better off dead
Until it occurred to him how to derail
Every self-advocate, make them all FAIL. […]

* Liz Spikol at The Trouble with Spikol: Human Rights Violations at Psychiatric “Hospital”

If you haven’t heard of investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, that’s a shame. I hadn’t heard of him either until Joe sent me a link to his latest expose on an inpatient facility in Accra, Ghana.

* Kenguru: The Car You Have All Been Waiting For (via Uppity Crip)

The first ever electrically powered vehicle designed especially for wheelchair users will become available in the UK soon.

– Driven directly from a wheelchair – access is via the rear-opening tailgate and steering is by motorbike style handlebar (joystick option will be available in time). Your own wheelchair is secured within the car by an interlocking device

– The current design allows parking rear end to the pavement for easy access and it is an ideal solution to drivers who only undertake journeys to local shops and services

– Because of its weight the Kenguru is classified as a scooter and therefore only a scooter driver’s licence is required to drive Kenguru

* The West: Wasps put sting in wheelchair sports

Adam Hart is a battle-hardened veteran of his sport. The 34-year-old is in training to represent WA in the National Electric Wheelchair Sports competition – for the 19th time.

* High Gloss Blue: This Is GOOD Design: An Accessible Treehouse

Located around the corner from Atlanta in Rutledge, Georgia, every summer Camp Twin Lakes welcomes kids with special illnesses, disabilities, and other challenges that would exclude them from partaking in this most celebrated summer ritual elsewhere.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Arachne Jericho at Tor.com: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Fiction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

A survey of the tropes, stereotypes and more realistic portrayals of PTSD on the page and screen, from The West Wing to Lord of the Rings.

* haddayr at no_pity: “I don’t really expect much of YOU . . . “

“I sometimes use a wheelchair,” I told her, and I started to explain that some people with osteoporosis who seem fine are in danger of falling, and some people with emphysema need scooters, etc., but she interrupted me.

“Well,” she said. “You have MS. I don’t expect much of YOU.”

And then, when she saw the look on my face and after I said: “Well, I certainly expect much of myself,” she said: “I don’t want to be politically incorrect!”

* Asahi.com: EDITORIAL: People with disabilities

The government established a policymaking committee where more than half of all the members will be people with disabilities. The committee is headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

The committee’s first job is to consider comprehensive new welfare legislation to replace the Services and Supports for Persons with Disabilities Act, which the Hatoyama administration has pledged to rescind at an early date. The law, which came into force in 2006, has proved very unpopular among people with disabilities. That’s because of the requirement that people with disabilities should, in principle, pay 10 percent of the costs of the welfare services they receive.

* Steve Carter at Examiner.com: Disability discrimination claims are up by 10%, EEOC expects continued increase [see also law.com: EEOC Will Get $23 Million to Reduce 70,000-Case Backlog]:

The number of disability discrimination claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased more than 10 percent last year, and that number is expected to grow in 2010, thanks to the ADA Amendments Act. […] The commission said the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act also brought more charges. […] The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which became effective in November, is also likely to increase the number of complaints filed next year, as is the possible passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

* AdelaideNow: Disabled children forced to wait ‘years’ for essential equipment

Novita Children’s Services states there are already 400 children waiting for 700 pieces of equipment and a support group says some parents are in “total despair” over the growing problem.

The average waiting time for children is 40 weeks, but varies depending on the type of equipment.

* The Age: New building rules to improve accessibility

All new homes would be built with features designed to make them more accessible to the elderly and those with disabilities, under proposed building rules for Victoria.

The changes would include a clear path from the street to an entry, wider doorways and halls, a toilet suitable for people with limited mobility and reinforced bathroom walls for grab rails.

* AFP/Google: TV presenter sorry for calling Boyle ‘retarded’

On Monday Television New Zealand upheld complaints against Henry and the broadcaster said he never intended to offend people with disabilities.

“I am sorry that some people have taken what I said in a way that I never intended,” Henry said.

In the original broadcast, Henry quoted from a magazine article which said Boyle was “starved of oxygen at birth” and suffered an intellectual disability. “If you look at her carefully, you can make it out,” Henry told viewers.

* Voxy.co.nz: Banking Services For Older And Disabled People Improved

The main areas covered by the guidelines are:

improving access to banking services including initiatives such as low tables and teller counters, user-friendly ATMs, meeting spaces and queuing aisles able to be used by wheelchairs, power assisted entry doors, layout and signage suitable for customers who are partially sighted staff, training to cover disability awareness including spotting signs of financial abuse, express tellers and queuing by numbers, observing international W3C web accessibility best practice standards, and easy to read information in alternative formats, including easy read, large print, Braille, DVD, including NZ Sign Language, and audio.

The voluntary guidelines will be reviewed in three years.

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language of varying intensity.

* Janine at StroppyBlog: Legal Step Forward on Disability Rights

The delicious irony in this particular case, the employer concerned was a firm of solicitors, who appeared to think they should not be excessively punished for mistreating an employee with a disabled kid.

Mrs Coleman, a legal secretary, gave birth in 2002 to a disabled son who required specialist care. She claimed that her employer refused to allow her to return to her previous job when she came back from maternity leave; refused to allow her to work flexibly; and subjected her to abusive and insulting comments about her child.

* amandaw at Three Rivers Blog: I have one question for you.

Where have you been for all the women stuck in nursing homes and institutions and all the women who are managing to live independently who will have their services taken back from them and be forced to move into nursing homes and modern institutions?

Because this is just as urgent an issue. And just as timely: it is being considered in the current health-care reform package. This one. This same one with Stupak (or analog). This same one you are fighting to improve for the sake of women.

Where have you been for years on the Community Choice Act?

* Rebecca at The GFCF Cookbook: Every celiac’s nightmare

News spread quickly: there was a gluten-free bread vendor, Great Specialty Products, with a table at the fair. His name was Paul Seelig, and he baked his loaves one small batch at a time in his Amish kitchen with all fresh ingredients delivered from his family farm in Ohio. His table was full of samples that were met with rave reviews by celiacs and non-celiacs alike. The bread was so good. It tasted just like real bread. It was crusty and soft and chewy, just like a good loaf of bread should be. […]

We jokingly began to call Paul “The Bread Alchemist.” We ordered two more times within a two week period, eager to try everything he sold.

And when Malachy, our little celiac, broke out in a strange rash two days after our first order, we didn’t make the connection. We thought he had chickenpox. We continued to buy and eat the bread, and the rash spread all over his body. Our pediatrician was mystified. Bug bites? A viral rash? Nothing made sense.

We weren’t the only ones in the community getting sick. […]

Paul was re-packaging Tribeca Oven’s bread and selling it as gluten-free Great Specialty Products bread.

IN THE NEWS: Special Travel Edition!

* The Consumerist: Man In Wheelchair Unimpressed With Greyhound

Along with being ignored and forgotten on the buses during many rest stops, I experienced wheelchair lifts which were barely operational that briefly trapped my chair, doors that would not close unless the driver banged on part of the frame with a hammer, and finally, a wheelchair lift door which would not open, which trapped me on the bus for over 12 hours. That required a mechanic and support personnel to fix at a station. Oh yes, and one driver who strapped down my chair when I boarded, who refused to release my chair at rest stops, since I “should have had an attendant” and “it wasn’t his job”. From my position, I wasn’t able to reach the release buttons, and was stuck.

* Sydney Morning Herald: Airline ‘erred’ on aid dog

Tiger Airways has admitted it blundered, again, after it told a disabled woman she couldn’t fly on the airline because it does not carry medical-alert dogs.

The disabled woman complained to the Human Rights Commission after she was told the only assistance dogs the airline allowed were seeing-eye dogs – a stance that is at odds with the airline’s own policy published on its website.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes warned that airlines faced government regulation if they did not establish plans covering disabled travellers’ needs.

* wcbstv: Disabled Man’s Ordeal Leads To Bus Matron’s Arrest

Rivera didn’t arrive home Wednesday night. His special needs bus, ironically named Outstanding Transport, should have dropped him in East Harlem, but investigators found him almost a day later — miles away in a Brooklyn bus yard. Sources tell CBS 2 HD Rivera was strapped in his seat directly behind the driver’s seat. […] The source said Hockaday admitted to knowing that Rivera was still on the bus when it was locked up on one of the coldest nights of the year. Her rationale for leaving? She apparently didn’t want to be late for church.

* The Star: Company helps blind travellers

For me, an experienced traveller who is blind, this was my 26th country, my first time on South America, and I was excited about the places I was about to visit. […]

Liz Frankland, one of my fellow participants observed: “There are plenty of sighted people who find it strange that a blind person would want to travel anywhere, but they seem to overlook the pleasure and excitement of being indifferent places thanks to the atmosphere.

“It can be quite exhilarating being in a busy city like Lima, just to be there. Looking around and drinking in the noise and scents of a market, particularly in somewhere so different as Peru, is really interesting, especially when there is food we never see at home.”