All posts by Anna

Video Post: Rachel

From the video description: Rachel is a volunteer at Science World in Vancouver. She has applied for a power wheelchair from the Equipment and Assistive Technology Initiative (EATI) to be more independent and effective at her job.

The video shows Rachel, a young white woman in a manual chair, at Science World. She’s shown going around the exhibits, helping out children who are seeing things, confirming the various exhibits are in working order, and checking out the computers around the center.

Caption: Rachel Elizabeth Roberts, Science World Volunteer

Rachel: I was in high school and I was placed here to do a work experience program, and I liked it so much that I decided to come back.

I help out with some stuff in the galleries.

I just do two galleries, “Search” and ‘Treasure”, and just talk to customers. You get to meet a lot of interesting people.

And I also make sure to check things are working properly.

It is difficult. I find I get tired from my upper arms, my arms, but it’s okay, I feel like the power chair will help me get to where I need to be faster, so I don’t waste any time. I just go straight to work.

I think it will help immensely because I get to do other things. There’s a whole world of possibilities that I haven’t even tried that I’m willing to try. Work in OMNI, maybe help the staff with stuff like scheduling and I’ll be more independent and just … just do more things, like… like… go for a walk on the sea wall, or with one of my workers, or just, you know, experience new things.

I’m really excited. I can’t wait to see what the summer has in store now that I have wheels.

Caption: B.C. Personal Supports Network Equipment & Assistive Technology Initiative (EATI)

A film by Angelina L Cantada

Canadians: Tell Your MP To Vote for C-304

One of the ways I entertain myself on the bus is looking at houses and apartment complexes we pass and deciding whether or not we’d ever be able to live there. “Hmm, that looks like a ramp could be built to the front door.” “Wow, that’s a useless step that could be taken right out. Is that there for decoration?” “Damn, I hope no one in that apartment building ever breaks a leg because that’s never ever going to be accessible to people who can’t climb a flight of stairs.”

Finding housing is one of the main challenges facing people with disabilities and their families. Don and I spent months looking for an apartment building in Halifax that didn’t have “just a tiny flight of stairs”. I’ve talked to people with service animals who have repeatedly struggled with being refused housing for having a “pet”, even though such refusal is illegal. Mia Mingus, Crip Chick and their supporters have been documenting their attempts to find accessible affording housing.

On top of this, finding affordable housing when one or more members of your household have a disability can be incredibly difficult and daunting. Disability is expensive, even with Canada’s patch-work attempts at assisting with the many and varied costs. Assistive technology and its upkeep is costly. Medications are costly. Having in-home assistance is costly. “Special” foods that are necessary if one has any dietary restrictions are costly. Transportation, adapted or otherwise, is costly. These bills add up, and trying to adapt or locate accessible housing on top of it can lead to hopelessness and despair. (Certainly it did when Don and I tried to find accessible affordable housing in Halifax.)

Next Wednesday, October 20th, Canadian Members of Parliament will be voting on the Private Members Bill C-304, “An Act to ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for Canadians”.

This Bill has been pretty much off the radar for anyone who isn’t on poverty-rights mailing lists – a search through CBC, for example, finds only two hits, one from 2009 and the other in a 2010 blog entry that mentions it in passing at the end. This isn’t particularly unusual, since Private Members Bills, especially ones supported by opposition parties, don’t really get a lot of attention because they don’t often pass.

At the same time, though, this is the problem. This bill explicitly talks about housing as a right. It explicitly talks about housing for people with disabilities. To quote:

“accessible housing” means housing that is physically adapted to the individuals who are intended to occupy it, including those who are disadvantaged by age, physical or mental disability or medical condition, and those who are victims of a natural disaster.

It is so rare to see any bill in parliament that acknowledges disability, let alone one that actually talks about housing needs. It would be great if we could make some noise, if we could make it clear to our Members of Parliament, our elected representatives, that we as Canadians care about accessible and affordable housing needs, so even if this bill doesn’t pass, the next time the topic comes up our MPs know: This is something that Canadians want addressed.

The people behind Red Tents have planned a National Day of Action in support of Bill C-304 on October 19th. Their main event is in Ottawa, but I know there are other events planned around the country: Halifax’s event is all day Saturday and Sunday, for example, and a quick internet search found events in Winnipeg and Vancouver as well.

I would also recommend contacting your Member of Parliament between now and Wednesday to let them know that you support Bill C-304. Your contact with them doesn’t have to be long – mine was only a few sentences – but let them know that you support accessible affordable housing in Canada, not only for people with disabilities, but other groups that are also included in this Bill. You can find the contact information for your Member of Parliament here, but be aware that, like all Government of Canada websites, this one may not be accessible to screen readers. Another option is to use Make Poverty History’s email form to contact your MP.

For more information:

Here is the text of the Bill, in both English and French.
Open Parliament has all the debate on the Bill in a handy searchable format.
The Council of Canadians with Disabilities has a history of the Bill.
Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation has details as well.
Red Tent’s details on the Bill.

Let’s Bust Some Myths: Depressed People Are Always Sad or They’re Faking!

Last year, after the incredibly scientific method of “looking at Facebook photos”, Manulife Insurance Company decided that Nathalie Blanchard wasn’t really depressed, she was just faking it, and thus cut off her disability-related funding.

Mix up a few details, and Blanchard’s story is a pretty common one. Whenever I talk to people who are currently living with long- or short-term depression, or have lived with it in the past, they tell me the same story: Friends thought they were faking because they managed to get out and have a good time. They laughed at a joke once and everyone decided they were “over” their “funk”. They didn’t act like stereotypes of depressed people, so they must not actually be depressed.

Woe, and all that.

This is what short-term depression was like for me: I spent four months getting up, going to work, doing my job quite well, eating at work, coming home, feeding the cat, lying down on the couch, falling asleep, and waking up to do it all again the next day when the cat bit me to remind me that I had to feed him. I didn’t answer the phone. I didn’t go online. I didn’t eat when I wasn’t at work. I didn’t go into my bedroom. I enjoyed my job, and was often bubbly and vivacious at work, and while everyone outside of my job figured there was something up, everyone I worked with thought I was great fun and having a lovely time.

This is what short-term depression looked like for my friend: She spent a few months being aware of every possible way she could kill herself in a room. She was really angry and yelled at people a lot. She would go for long walks in the dark and wonder if someone would just hit her with a car and be done with it. She cut off most contact with her friends and spent as much time as possible alone. She was told that she should “get over it” – whatever “it” was – because everyone gets “down” sometime and she was just being a drama queen.

This is what short-term depression looked like for another friend of mine: He didn’t feel like doing anything, so he didn’t. His doctor encouraged him to go out with friends, so he went out with friends, and laughed when other people laughed and acted as normal as he could. Sometimes he’d have a really good time, and then he’d feel bad because if he was having a good time, he probably wasn’t depressed, and that meant he was just a horrible person, so he’d go back into his room and not do anything because otherwise he was bad, and then the doctor would encourage him to go out and the cycle would begin anew. But most of the time he just didn’t feel much of anything. People told him he must be getting over everything because otherwise he wouldn’t be getting out.

Depression can be sitting alone in a room being sad or down or feeling empty and alone. But when this is the only thing that people think of when they think of depression, not only are there cases like Blanchard’s, but there is pressure on the person with depression, from friends, family members, co-workers, even themselves, to look “depressed enough”.

This stereotype can also lead to people with depression delaying seeking assistance. When I was depressed, I didn’t think I was really depressed, because I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t crying. I just didn’t want to talk to anyone. At all. Ever again. But I just knew I wasn’t depressed because I didn’t want to die. It took me many months to get any of the help I needed, and many of my friendships were irreparably damaged in the meantime.

This stereotype can also lead to more social isolation for someone with depression. If one needs to “act depressed” in order for people to take depression seriously, that can lead to sitting alone even if sitting alone isn’t what one wants to be doing.

I can’t tell you how people will behave when they’re depressed because, even when depressed, people can and do make all sorts of choices. They may do any of the things I’ve referred to here, or they may do something else entirely. If you think you’re depressed, I encourage you to do what you need to do to get through it, and I hope you find the help you need to recover.

For your reading enjoyment, a “Things People Say To People With Depression” Bingo Card. It looks like it was originally posted by inbar–1423 on Tumblr. The link is to one with the image described.

ETA: Actually, the bingo card was originally created by YouKiddinRight on Livejournal. Thanks for the correction!

Recommended Reading for Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Description is below.
Black and white advertising image. On the right is a man standing behind a podium that has US flags, his eyes covered with SLOGAN OBSESSED. On the right is the text: Labels get in the way. Disabilities rarely do. Learn the truth. Think Beyond The Label.com Photo courtesy of Kate in DC.

A few signal-boosting calls to action that people, especially those in the US, may want to participate in.

Penny Reeder at Abled Body: Share your Smart Phone Strife with the FCC

And one other thing, I don’t want to pay any more for my smartphone than anybody who has a Blackberry, Droid, or iPhone. I don’t believe I should have to pay extra for a screen reader, like TALKS or MobileSpeak. I don’t mind paying for apps that maximize my capabilities, like GPS or the Kindle app, because everybody pays for those. But everybody doesn’t pay extra for the opportunity to read what’s on the screen!

When I go to meetings with sighted colleagues, I find they are connected in real-time to their smart phones. Ask them a question like, “What does a First Class stamp cost?” (I can never remember…), or “What should the temperature of a medium-rare burger be? — and they can respond, literally, in seconds! That’s because they can see the screen, so they don’t need spoken output to access the information, giving them immediate access to answers.

There’s more information and how to contact the FCC to discuss your accessibility-related concerns at the post.

Steve Spohn at Abled Gamers: Sony’s new Firmware stops disabled gamers from playing PS3

Mad Catz, makers of many PS3 modded controllers, supplies the circuit boards to Broadened Horizons for several of its accessible controllers. These controllers are responsible for allowing severely disabled gamers with no dexterity or hand movement at all to use their PlayStation 3. Normal OEM controllers require lots of finger movement and hand strength while Broadened Horizons’ controllers allow for little or no movement at all.

Suddenly, and without warning, several of these motor impaired gamers were locked out of their favorite activity.

Steve provides information about how to contact Sony and raise concerns with them directly.

Blog Posts:

Steven M. Schwartz at the Emperor Has No Toque: “A Demographic of Silence Living With Mental Health Stigma”

Silence when it comes to mental illness is a killer, a killer of self esteem, hope, and emotional safety. Silence mixed with stigma is painful and is a cause for those living with Mental Illness to separate ourselves from the world around us. Rarely does a person living with mental illness speak out to identify with or protect others traveling down our own road, because the fear of being stigmatized by others is a constant shroud that covers us. We have all faces stigma, either self imposed or from a external source, both feed each other and keep us in so many ways from reaching our potential.

Holy Gray at Don’t Call Me Sybil: Speaking of Crazy

One thing that struck me when reading RMJ’s post was that, like the mythology that surrounds Dissociative Identity Disorder has roots in the truth, most of those negative connotations of the word “crazy” spring from reality, however distant. In light of that, I understand why Natasha Tracy and others choose to embrace the word. Why not call a duck a duck? The problem as I see it is that while most of us reserve the word “duck” exclusively for referencing actual ducks, we don’t use “crazy” in the same way. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s used in positive or negative ways. If, from this day forward, we all used that word only to mean (1) stunningly awesome, or (2) mentally ill, it would still irk me. Because if your boyfriend is crazy hot, DID isn’t crazy. And if DID is crazy, your boyfriend isn’t crazy hot.

Laura Hershey at Life Support: My Wheelchair, My Body, Myself

For that’s exactly what this felt like to me – an assault. It was a direct, physical affront to my person. This man wasn’t just messing with some piece of equipment. He was interfering with my mobility, my power to position myself, to go where I want. My wheelchair is a part of my means of being in the world. In other words, it was part of me that he grabbed – my wheelchair, my body, myself.

Would anyone else recognize this? If I had tried to charge him with assault, would the legal system have supported me? Were other passengers aware of the depth of this violation? Or did they accept his statement that he was “helping” me?

Writer in a Wheelchair on Disability Voices: Virginia Ironside’s Comments on Sunday Morning Live

Her take is that it’s a moral thing and that it’s to be done to prevent suffering. She does then go on to say that there are millions of disabled people who live “Marvellous” lives but there are also thousands of millions who are suffering and not live no kind of life.

She’d do it to a child she really loved and she doesn’t know any mother wouldn’t. I personally am very glad that according to Ms Ironside’s views my own mother can’t love me and must be a terrible mother.

WHEELIE cATHOLIC: Independent Living: Planning Pet Care

I do have to change my cat’s diet and routine a bit. One thing that is always time intensive is when new tasks get added to the schedule around here. I have a limited number of care hours. Anything that goes over those hours gets added to what I have to do with adaptive devices. That can drain energy I need to work.

So I start by trying to figure out ways to do the new tasks using assistive devices. If I can’t or if the energy it will take won’t work, I add it to what others do and have to pick out something they are doing that I can take on. There are only so many care hours and since I also use them also to help me get my work done, it takes a lot of planning and resourcefulness on everyone’s part.

Canadians: Participants are needed for a study of cell phone based emergency services.

(via email)

Participants are needed for a study of cell phone based emergency services.

Researchers at the Neil Squire Society are conducting a study to look at how 911 emergency calls and emergency disaster alerts on cellular phones can be made more accessible.

The goal of this project is to get input from actual cell phone users on how the next generation of emergency services should be designed to ensure accessibility before they are released. Your feedback will be used to make industry and government aware of the unique needs of the Blind community.

We are currently looking for people who are blind and currently use cellular phones and would be interested in attending a focus group or completing a brief survey.

Eligible participants will have a choice of attending one of the focus groups being held in locations across Canada or answering questions in a survey. The focus groups will typically last 2 hours and consist of 6 to 8 people. There will be a brief presentation and an open question and answer session.

To learn more about this research and your eligibility, please contact:

Neil Squire Society
EMAIL: research@neilsquire.ca
Toll Free Telephone: 1-877-673-4636
Address: Suite 220 -2250 Boundary Rd.
Burnaby, BC V5M 3Z3

Principal Researcher
Dr. Gary Birch, PhD, P.Eng.
Neil Squire Society
Executive Director and Director of Research & Development

Sadly, I cannot answer any questions for you regarding this study.

Signal Boost: ADA Transportation Webinars

(Via email)

Dear Friends,

The Topic Guides on ADA Transportation, a series of technical assistance documents funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and developed by DREDF and TranSystems Corporation, will be featured in a series of seven once-a-month webinars, one webinar on each Topic Guide. The webinar series will be coordinated by the DBTAC Great Lakes ADA Center and the DBTAC-Southwest ADA Center in collaboration with Easter Seals Project ACTION.

Registration: Registration is available on-line at www.adaconferences.org.

Funded by FTA to provide technical assistance on transportation to transit agencies, riders, and advocates, the Topic Guides on ADA Transportation bring together the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Department of Transportation ADA regulations, FTA determinations, and best operational practices for ADA compliance. The Topic Guides also draw information from many other sources. The Topic Guides are available online at http://dredf.org/ADAtg.

Webinar Schedule: Second Tuesday of the month, beginning October 12, 2010 and ending April 12, 2011.

Time:
2 pm to 3:30 pm Eastern Time
1 to 2:30 PM Central Time
12 to 1:30 Mountain Time
11 to 12:30 Pacific Time
10 to 11:30 Alaska Time
(Hawaii time will vary)

Presenter(s): Marilyn Golden, DREDF Policy Analyst and invited guests to be announced

This series of Topic Guide Webinars will include:

1. Equipment Maintenance (October 12)

2. Stop Announcement and Route Identification (November 9)

3. Eligibility for ADA Paratransit (December 14)

4. Telephone Hold Time in ADA Paratransit (January 11)

5. Origin to Destination Service in ADA Paratransit (February 8 )

6. On-Time Performance in ADA Paratransit (March 8 )

7. No-Shows in ADA Paratransit (April 12)

View the Topic Guide Home Page, which offers each Topic Guide in HTML, a PDF download, and a plain text option, at http://dredf.org/ADAtg.

The FTA Office of Civil Rights has also linked to the Topic Guides on ADA Transportation on its ADA website at www.fta.dot.gov/ada under DREDF.

Unfortunately I will be unable to answer any questions about these webinars.

Blind & Low-Vision Consumers Left Out in Point of Sales Transactions

Like a lot of consumers in North America, I carry my debit card with me pretty much every where I go. From buying my yummy lattes to buying school supplies to paying for groceries, I use my debit card for probably 90% of my financial transactions. For me, the debit card and PIN system is excellent because I don’t need to carry cash and try and figure out the taxes to be carrying the right amount, or worry about how much money I might lose if I drop my wallet.

This is becoming increasingly difficult for Blind consumers across Canada. While the old debit card machines had a raised number pad, almost always with at least a raised dot indicating the center key (and thus allowing a blind person to orientate themselves and put in their private security code without assistance), new debit machines are being introduced that use dynamic touch screens instead of a number pad.

This puts Blind consumers in a tough spot: Either carry enough money with you everywhere to cover all of your expenses, or give someone else your private security code, your PIN – and give them access to your finances.

Jeffrey at Black Sphere Tech writes:

If you can’t independently verify that you are being charged the correct amount or expected amount, you are liable for the cost that gets authorized through this POS system and no bank or credit card company will help you.

The banks and credit companies use a PIN system for authentication. If you can’t use the [Point of Sale] device, you can’t independently enter your pin. If you give your PIN to another person you are now giving them full independent access to your finances and they have the power to clear you out financially and you are liable and no bank or credit card company will help you. So scenarios where you get a friend, buddy or store employee to enter the PIN for you are not an option.

Blind and low-vision consumers have been raising the issue of the need for point-of-sale transactions to be accessible to them for a very long time. In Everett’s blog post on the subject, Sorry, We Don’t Serve the Blind: inaccessible point-of-sales devices, he points the reader towards articles written in 2004, and I’m certain there are ones from before that since I’ve had a bank card since 1986. As society becomes more and more digital, with fancy touch-screens for everything, the need for the designers of these touch screen devices to consider Blind and low-vision consumer’s needs is greater. Without that consideration, more of the world becomes as inaccessible as, say, a Government of Canada website.

The thing is, as both Everett and Jeffrey point out, it doesn’t have to be this way. Both Google and Apple, leading developers of consumer products with touch-screen technology, have made touch screens accessible to blind users. If I go to use my bank card in an ATM, there is an option there for Blind or low-vision consumers to use assistive technology to make the ATM accessible to them, privately, without needing anyone else to have access to their personal financial information.

I believe, perhaps naively, that this is an oversight, and one that merchants and Interac Inc, the primary provider of Point of Sale devices in Canada would work with consumers to correct. Please take the time to contact Interact and raise your concerns about accessibility for Blind and low-vision Canadians.

Also, be sure to read The epidemic of inaccessible Touch Screen Point Of Sale Devices to blind consumers and Sorry, We Don’t Serve the Blind: inaccessible point-of-sales devices. Jeffrey has started a working group that is going to also lobby on this issue, and you can contact him directly for more information – his contact details on in his blog post.

Signal Boost: The First Assistance Dog Blog Carnival!

Sharon at After Gadget has just announced that she’s going to go ahead with the Assistance Dog Carnival!

What Will the Assistance Dog Carnival Be About?

Topics will vary with each edition. The host for each edition will announce their theme at least a couple of weeks ahead of time (maybe more, if possible, to give us people with deadline issues a chance to get something in?), along with the deadline for submissions and expected publication date.

I’m very excited about this! Read more about After Gadget.

Signal Boost: Request for Article Suggestions in the Canadian Blind Monitor

The theme for the next issue of the Canadian Blind Monitor will be Passionate Pursuits. We want to hear about the things that AEBC members and other vision impaired Canadians are passionate about and the things in which they are involved. Maybe it’s related to community, family, politics, health, education, a vision issue, recreation, work, etc. It can be controversial or about every day life and either positive and negative in nature. Articles from or about family, friends, and other members of the community will also be considered.

For information or to give suggestions, please call 1-800-561-7447 and leave your phone number so that we can call you to determine if you or someone on the CBM team could write an article about your suggestion. You can also email bcooke[@]blindcanadians[.]ca

Deadline for ideas is October 31. Deadline for articles is December 15. See the AEBC website for writer guidelines. The next CBM out in early 2011.

Record of the Dead

Trigger Warning for discussion of abuse and murder of people with disabilities.

This list of September media reports about people with disabilities murdered or dying under strange circumstances is presented without commentary, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing people may want to discuss about it in comments. I do not believe for a moment that this list is complete. It is sorted alphabetically by last name. Almost all links are to news reports.

Joseph Abdo, 68, multiple sclerosis, Castleton Corners, NY. Died in a house fire.

Shah Amin, 19, “intellectually disabled”, Marsiling, Singapore, September 26. Found strangled in his hotel room after the body of his father was found in a nearby park.

Leosha Barnett, 17, epilepsy and undefined mental disabilities, Fort Worth, Texas, May 21. Starved by her mother and sister.

Deborah Boudreaux, 60, cerebral palsy, Houston, Texas. Strangled in her bed. 2 people have been charged, one of whom lived in the same building.

Jeffrey Bishop, 53, undefined physical disabilities, Louisville, Kentucky, sometime in the first week of September. Strangled by roommates/care-givers, who left his body in the basement so they could collect his disability cheques. [Indictment]

Kimberly “Kimmie” Daily, 16, developmentally disabled, Puyallup, Washington, August 17. Raped and murdered. A neighbour is charged in her death.

Jennifer Daugherty, 30, “mentally disabled”, rural Pennsylvania, February. Tortured to death by “friends”, one of whom wants charges dropped.

Payton Ettinger, 4, “mental and physical disabilities”, Greensburg, Indiana, May 17. Malnutrition and dehydration. He weighed 12 pounds at his death.

Earl Handy Jr, 39, Deaf, Conroe, Texas, September 24. Found dead in his cell from suicide. [He was in isolation to protect him because he was Deaf]

Ernie Hernandez, Jr., 37, “mentally disabled”, Modesto, California , August 14. Stabbed to death.

Gerren Isgrigg, 6, unstated “severe medical issues”, Wylie, Texas, April 15. Left exposed in a wooded area by his primary caregiver, his grandmother, he died two days later. “She felt like she was being punished by having to take care of the child.”

Albert David Jenkins Jr, 53, undefined disablities, Mobile, Alabama, May 2008. Shot in the back 7 times; the shooter plead guilty.

Reyal Jensen Jardine-Douglas, 25, undefined mental illness, Toronto, Ontario, August 29. Shot by police called by family for assistance.

Frederick Jones, early 20s, “outpatient care”, Kansas City, Kansas, September 3. Fatally shot at a gas station, died in hospital.

David Lauberts, 50, “developmentally disabled”, Greeley, Colorado, September 2009. His brother pleaded “no contest” to charges of criminally negligent homicide. Cause of death included “active caretaker neglect”.

Teresa Lewis, 41, “She’s not mentally retarded, but she is very, very close to it”, Jarrat, Virginia, September 23. Lethal injection.

Tia McShane, age at death unknown (would now be 11), cerebral palsy, Pensacola, Florida, remains found September 30. “A disabled child’s remains appear to have been found in a Pensacola storage unit, bringing a heartbreaking end to a month long search for a girl whose absence raised no alarm for years.”

Darren O’Connor, 19, partially paralyzed, South Tyneside, UK, July 7. He was discovered with breathing difficulties while in police custody and died in hospital.

Jeremy Price, 18, “had an IQ at the level of mental retardation” and had escaped from a mental health facility, Mattapan, Massachusetts, September 6. Shot by police officers.

Richard Roy, Down Syndrome, St. Jude, Quebec, sometime before September 6. Starved to death after his brother and caretaker died. [More details]

Rylan Rochester, 6 months, “thought to be autistic”, Boulder, Colorado, June 1. Smothered by his mother.

David Skelly, 53, “learning difficulties”, Liverpool, England, September 14. Punched to death by an unknown assailant.

Rohit Singh, 7, “physically challenged”, Bathinda, Punjab. Hammered to death by his father.

Regina Wynn, 87, Alzheimer’s, Richmond, Virginia, Early September. Abuse and Neglect, she died in hospital with bruises on her chest, abdomen, arms, hands and on the front of her head.

John T. Williams, 50, deaf in one ear, arthritic, Ditidaht member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of Canada’s Vancouver Island, living in Seattle. Shot four times in the chest by police officers. [Hundreds Protest police shooting of Native American Carver, Here is a petition you can sign]

Two unnamed men, 87 and 83, “wheelchair bound” and “senile dementia”, Madrid, Spain, September 18. Died after being left in a hot van for 11 hours.