*** HEARING THURSDAY ***

Landrieu to Chair Hearing To Examine Regulatory Burdens Facing Small Businesses

WASHINGTON – United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, will hold a hearing Thursday, November 18, 2010 entitled “Next Steps for Main Street: Reducing the Regulatory and Administrative Burdens on America’s Small Businesses.”  This hearing will give small businesses the opportunity to discuss federal regulations resulting from labor and workplace safety law, environmental protection laws, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Committee will also have discussions on the Form 1099 reporting requirement taking effect in 2012.

Your coverage is invited

Who:

U.S. Senate Small Business Committee Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Small Business Committee Members

What:

Hearing entitled, “Next Steps for Main Street: Reducing the Regulatory and Administrative Burdens on America’s Small Businesses”

When:

Thursday, November 18, 2010
10:00 a.m. EST

Where:

Russell Senate Office Building
Room 428A
Washington, D.C. 20510

More information at the Justice for All Website. ht/ @lizhenry.

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

Sandra Graf (SUI) nears the 20km mark during the 2010 Paris Marathon. Photo by Flickr User siobh.ie, Creative Commons License.

Alex Nesbitt at Digital Podcast: USA Network Uses Fake Blind Guy to Celebrate Americans With Disabilties Act (h/t Media dis&dat)

A sighted person is playing a blind person, and there are not any real blind actors on the show that I know of.

What does that say about their real respect for the ADA.

If they wanted to make this about people with disabilities why not extend the principles they claim and find a blind actor to play the part. After all, if the CIA can do it why not Hollywood.

ephemeralhope at If I was walking through a sad art gallery…: You Know You’re Blind When…

I am sixteen years old. Many people believe that I am too young to instruct my elders in how they should be treating people. However, I have lived all my life with a disability that has affected the way people perceive me, I know how it influences the way I feel about myself and choose to live my life. I will not judge you for your point of view towards me and my disability; I will only say that I respect those who see me before they see my disability more than the people that only see me as the blind girl. I do not deny my blindness, nor do I deny my independence and determination to prove that there is more to a person than their disability.

Remember this: if you ever became disabled you would still want to be treated as the person you are today, so do I.

Rhianon Elan Gutierrez at PGA Diversity: We Are the Audience Too: Responsibility as Creators

I am a filmmaker and I have a hearing loss. I understand both sides of the experience: as a creator and as an audience member.

I know how difficult it is to raise money to have the equipment you need, the actors you want, the location that’s beautiful, and the crew you know you need to feed and pay. I’m passionate about the process but what makes it challenging (and ultimately more rewarding) is the responsibilities that I have not only to my goals, my craft, and to my team, but to my audience. During the process of making my films and even afterwards, I make a commitment to be respectful of the access and communication needs and abilities of my cast and crew. I learn new things every day from them and about them. When it comes to my audience, I think about the one person of two hundred. It’s easy to forget this person, but I’ve been this person so I know that I must remind myself of those moments. I love the experience of making films and I especially love to see the impact that my films have on others and the difference that it makes when they can follow the story. I know I am not alone in sharing this sentiment.

Steve Kolowich at Inside Higher Ed: For One, for All

When advocates for students with disabilities asked Stephen Rehberg, an associate academic professional at Georgia Tech’s Center of Enhanced Teaching and Learning, to help create workshops to teach science and technology faculty members how better to accommodate disabled students, Rehberg’s answer was simple: “No.”

“Trying to teach faculty about accessibility is a dead end,” Rehberg said last week, during a session as Blackboard’s annual user conference here. “They’re not going to come to the workshops, and [if] they get there, they’re going to glaze over. I said, ‘I’m not going to waste my time or the grant money.’ ”

kissestokashmir at Your fucking culture alienates me: Something I have been thinking about a lot

And what a weird thing to care about. Who would mourn the loss of their birth defect? (Syndactyly is the official name of my condition.) I would most likely feel different about this if it was located on a more visible part of my body, such as the hands, or actually impeded my functioning. But it didn’t. It was just something unique about me, something that set me apart from everyone else I knew and I enjoyed having something that was unique to me and didn’t know that I enjoyed it until it was gone. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s no point in robbing people of what makes them different or unique and they may very well end up resenting you for the imposition into their lives. What you may consider a defect or an oddity, they may consider a vital characteristic of their personality. And you do not have the right to take it from them or to characterize what it means for them.

Astrid von Woerkom at Astrid’s Journal: Autistic Student Denied Education, Loses Court Battle

This is sad. What is sadder, is that quite a number of students with disabilities are left without education for reasons similar to A.’s. School distritcts excuse lack of education by the argument that they don’t have the resources to educate “difficult” students. Even in countries like the Netherlands, where school attendance is compulsory – I don’t know about the UK -, students are left behind to sit at home.

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

It was a victory, but it was not a comprehensive one. The ADA created a legislative framework for identifying and addressing specific discrimination issues, but as any person with disabilities in the United States can tell you, we continue to face discrimination, including flagrant violations of the ADA itself justified with claims that it’s ‘too expensive’ or ‘there aren’t enough of you people to make it worth it anyway.’

You can’t legislate ableism away. Antidiscrimination laws are excellent, but they are not the final answer. We still face tremendous economic and social disparities, are more likely to go to bed hungry, to live in poverty, to be assaulted and abused, to be unemployed, to be excluded.

As we continue to fight not only for our rights, but for our lives, and for full and equal integration into society, I’d like to celebrate gains like the ADA, while also looking ahead to not only future legislation, but future shifts in social attitudes.

Writing about the ADA today, Senator Tom Harkin, who introduced the bill initially, says:

Every individual with a disability deserves a chance “to live in the world” – to hold a job, start a business, pay taxes and reside with family or in the community.

Despite the great progress, our work is far from complete. For example, millions of people with disabilities – including young people – are housed in institutional settings like nursing homes. With appropriate community-based services and supports, they can have the option of living with family and friends — not strangers. The new health reform law makes some progress on this, but we need to do even more.

Here’s to another 20 years of progress, to disability rights, to disability justice, to equality for all.

The battle isn’t over, not in the United States, and not in the rest of the world.

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

Short notice, but the U.S. government is rewriting the ADA and Section 508 regulations for Information and Communications Technology.  These are the laws that describe how American companies and government websites need to be accessible.   I thought some folks in this community might be interested in commenting on the draft legislation.

The US Access Board (the agency writing this) is especially looking for ideas on making government websites accessible to people with cognitive disabilities. They also want input on what should and should not be reasonable exceptions to the law.

The ADA revision is very short, but far-reaching.  A new section now covers walk-up kiosk interfaces, not just ATMs.  For example, if you’ve ever ordered food in a restaurant or cafeteria using a touch-screen, the new ADA law would apply there.

The first public comment period ends today (Monday) June 21 at midnight Eastern time.

Press release:
http://www.access-board.gov/news/ict-hearing-may.htm

Draft Regulations for comment:
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=ATBCB-2010-0001

via flora in accessibility fail

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

In the blogs:

Reminder! Liz Henry is hosting the Disability Blog Carnival! Submit your links to be included!

Getting her privileged little way:

I was out yesterday with my sister, mother and nephew in Walmart. They walked away for a moment and while I was alone looking at something on a shelf , a woman pushing a large cart came toward me sideways. Instead of asking me to move, she banged the cart into the side of my wheelchair.

I’ve seen this type of rude and boorish behavior before. I was in her way and she is – well – able bodied. Never mind that there were half a dozen other people – also able bodied- who could have moved out of her way. She saw the wheelchair and I was the one in her way.

Two Hospitals to Address Access to Care for Patients with Disabilities [US]

Under a new agreement between the hospitals and the advocacy groups, the hospitals will survey and remove physical/architectural barriers to care, purchase accessible medical devices and equipment (including mammography equipment), review and modify hospital policies, provide appropriate training to staff. The hospitals must regularly report to patients and their advocates on the progress they are making. According to the Globe, advocates hope that the changes to be made at these facilities will serve as an example for hospitals across the country.

Seriously, I have ranted more than one in my own space about wheelchair inaccessibility in hospitals. My biggest pet-peeve is inaccessible waiting rooms. Don’s is people demanding he stand (that wheelchair is not for show), and then baby talking to him. Fun times.

The Etiquette of Menstrual Concealment Preserves Pain as well as Secrecy:

Kate Seear’s newly published study about the diagnostic delay in treating endometriosis finds that menstrual etiquette rules and the culture of concealment are among the most profound causes of the delay between the first experience of menstrual pain and the diagnosis of endometriosis, which then opens avenues for relief through either surgery or medical treatment. The delay is non-trivial: research estimates an average delay of 8 years in the UK and 11 years in the US. Reasons for the delay include minimizing of menstrual pain by doctors, family members, and others, and women’s inability to distinguish between ‘normal’ menstrual pain and abnormal pain, and, Seear argues, the social sanctioning women experience when they talk about menstruation in general or menstrual pain in particular.

I was thrilled to learn that the Disability Studies Lecture Series at Temple U will be available on line in both text and audio.

I’m not just concerned, I’m utterly appalled:

A trial is set to begin in Northern Victoria, in which 30 Australian Aboriginal participants will undergo gastric banding. Because you know, banding has worked for the ‘white population’ so let’s experiment on the blacks and see if it works for them too. And that is practically a direct quote. I shit you not

In the news:

Via UnusualMusic: A Fatal Cultural Gap: Depression Among Minorities

Major depressive disorder is a common disease, occurring in approximately three out of every 20 people in the United States.

However, members of minority communities, especially first-generation immigrants, often express their illness in a manner that is different from their white counterparts, which makes it more difficult to diagnose depression in them, said Dr. Russell Lim, who teaches cultural psychiatry at UC Davis School of Medicine.

“We (who are trained in Western medical schools) are defining depression though our cultural lenses,” said U.S.-born Lim. “A cultural psychiatrist, on the other hand, looks for less specific signs” than those outlined in medical textbooks.

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

The Ashley Treatment Yet Again:

I read as much as I can and try to keep abreast of any new developments. I do this because I remain deeply troubled by the larger implications of the Ashley Treatment, now referred to as growth attenuation by doctors. The change from the simple and easy to google Ashley Treatment to growth attenuation is not a matter of semantics. To me, this is a way for those that have relentlessly pushed this so-called treatment as a viable option to avoid publicity. Frankly, given the hysterical reaction by the mainstream media to the Ashley Treatment I cannot blame them too much. Nothing good came from the media’s pack mentality when the story broke in 2007. The doctors that advocated for the Ashley Treatment came across as arrogant and stuck their proverbial foot in their mouths multiple times. Disability activists were unable to articulate why the Ashley Treatment was so dangerous and were quickly type cast as stereotypically angry. Utterly lost in the furor was any nuanced discussion. Sadly, not much has changed and I remain distressed because I have just finished reading an article scheduled to appear in the American Journal of Bioethics entitled “Ashley Revisited: A Response to Critics” by Douglas Diekema and Norman Fost.

What Kind of Troll am I?:

If you are a reader of blogs about autism, you have seen your share of comments denouncing the views of self advocates around the web. Sometimes they are personal attacks on autistic people. Many rehash the same tired “Not Really Autistic” meme or promote urban myths about the causes of autism. Most feed pervasive stereotypes of one sort or another. Still others are so vile I won’t describe them even obliquely.

Most readers of this blog tend to be civil and capable of using reason to make their points. However, if you are someone who enjoys being abusive toward autistic self advocates and those who support their goals, you just might be wondering…What kind of troll am I? Here is a survey so scientifically valid, it is sure to be linked from AoA ASAP.

Pride & Prejudice:

Then, when I was 27, I was diagnosed with a mental illness. The doctor said to me (in effect), “You have a deeply flawed mind. It’s screwed up and you’ll have to take this medicine that slows your thinking and makes you forget everything. Learn to write it down.” Talk about a slap in the face. I ripped my clothes and dumped ashes on my head and whined long and loud to God about it. “Why me? Oh Woe Poor Poor Pitiful Me!” Then He said to me (in effect) “Deal with it. It’s what you are.” So I realized that I had no right to be proud of my mind anymore. It was kind of a release, because pride is a heavy burden, even when you’re used to bearing it. All of a sudden, I *wasn’t* better than everyone else, and it became easier to be patient and kind. Which turned into something kind of nice.

Freaks, Hercules and the Hydra [long]

Much has been written about the ambiguous nature of disabled people’s exploitation and/or free-willed participation in circuses in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and there are intersections with race and colonialism, among other things (some of which i touched on in this old post), and the film “Freaks” reflects that ambiguity, both from “within-story” and “external” perspectives – most of its cast were “real” circus performers, some of whom had already had long and celebrated careers before starring in it, and many scenes show the “freaks” performing parts of their acts, both in-context in the story and, more problematically, in other scenes that could be regarded as gratuitous (for example, the “Armless Wonder” drinking wine with her feet, or the completely limbless Prince Randian lighting a cigarette using only his tongue). Opinion has been divided over whether the film itself was an act of exploitation of its disabled performers – who were, as reported here, viciously excluded and discriminated against at the MGM studios – as well as whether its climatic scene represents a reversion to negative tropes of disabled people as monstrous and villainous, or a subversion of that trope (however IMO there is considerably more going on there – see below).

Breathtaking to behold: talking back to dismissal:

One of my biggest interests is the study of how oppression plays out, and how it is resisted, among communities that most people would consider minorities. (Note: Minority in amount of power, not in amount of numbers. So yes, women count.) Not some sort of study of victimhood the way some people would paint it, but rather how people resist becoming victims.

It is breathtaking to behold communities where enough people have worked out the way things work, that when they are hit with the usual forms of sexism, racism, ableism, heterosexism, etc., they are ready for it. They have answers to the usual bothersome questions and comments designed to disempower them. Even if the people attacking them don’t understand those answers, they at least are told a lot of the same things by a lot of people.

In the news:
Go, read this! It thrills me to no end.

CDC and disabled patients: ‘We’ll work on this together’ [US]

For many women, the inability to stay still prevents them from seeking regular breast cancer screening.

But a health education program is gearing up to encourage woman with physical disabilities to seek medical attention and get regular screenings.

…

“Women with disabilities are getting screened at a less regular rate because there are so many barriers with going to the doctor,” Egensteiner said.

The medical equipment used to perform mammograms also can prove a barrier for women with physical limitations.

Can you collect employee medical info to combat H1N1? [US] [Note: ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act]

Employer groups have been asking the Centers for Disease Control for guidance on whether privacy rules prevent HR from surveying employees about medical info designed to control the spread of swine flu. The CDC has responded, including an approved form for requesting certain types of info.

The CDC has issued a document – “ADA-Compliant Employer Preparedness For the H1N1 Flu Virus.”

©2012 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.