Veralidaine

Top Three Things I'd Like to See Obama Say About Disability in his Acceptance Speech

2008-08-13T18:44:00Z

Barack Obama will accept the Democratic Nomination for President in front of a crowd of over 75,000 at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado. This moment in history will be both unique and memorable, and the upcoming event has already drawn comparisons to speeches by John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It would also be a perfect moment for Barack Obama to take a strong stand in favor of civil rights and opportunity for the one in six Americans living with disability.

While Obama's Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities is good, it doesn't go far enough, and Obama has missed several opportunities to connect with the disability community, including the recent National Forum on Disability Issues, during which Obama was out of the country. So, here's what I want to hear from Obama when he accepts his party's nomination:

3. "I support preserving the diversity of America, including ethnic diversity, cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, biodiversity, and neurodiversity."

As a minority himself, Barack Obama should understand that diversity is key to human rights in America. However, while his campaign web site says Obama supports funding research into causes of and treatments for Autism, what it doesn't say is anything along the lines of, "Obama supports the rights of those with Autism to exist, reproduce, and refuse a cure if one is developed." While it may be understandable that Obama doesn't wish to distract from his campaign's key issues by going up against well-funded organizations like Autism Speaks, I want to see at least some sort of recognition of the importance of neurodiversity/biodiversity from the candidate who's made his racial identity a central theme of his life and his campaign.

2. "I will reduce disincentives to work in the Medicare, Medicaid, SSI, and SSDI programs."

Hillary Clinton made this promise over a year ago. However, Senator Obama has yet to guarantee that he'll address the Catch-22 keeping people with disabilities who desire employment from finding and keeping jobs. Currently, those who depend on social support for income and health care risk losing their benefits if they earn even a meager income. It's not acceptable to force dependency upon people with disabilities by withdrawing benefits from employed persons earning some money, but not nearly enough to provide a modest home and needed health care.

1. "I will ensure that every person with a disability is permitted to make choices about his or her health care, including receiving in-home attendant services, refusing treatments that are unwanted, and receiving health care services that are wanted, regardless of the type and progression of their condition."

Obama strongly supports the Community Choice Act, which would allow individuals with severe disabilities to receive care in their homes, rather than in institutions. However, there are more issues to address related to making independent choices about one's health than just the nursing home vs. attendant care dichotomy. For example, a cancer patient was recently denied chemotherapy by the Oregon Health Plan, but told the plan would cover assisted suicide. Barack Obama pledges to sign universal health care legislation by his first term in office. While, indubitably, universal health care has many advantages for those with disabilities, issues like this must be addressed. No person should be forced to receive any treatment that he or she does not want, and no person should be forced into hospice care or, worse yet, assisted suicide, when he or she would rather continue to live, even if that person has a debilitating and terminal condition. In Canada recently, three doctors resigned their privileges because they felt strongly that an elderly man should be removed from life support against the wishes of his family. It is imperative that this mentality not be permitted to continue to migrate to the United States if universal health care is implemented. Obama could show political courage by challenging the party line most Democrats toed during the Schiavo case.

How about you? What are your top three for Obama and/or McCain, during their acceptance speeches?

Dan Savage on Sex, Devoteeism, and Disability (controversial, somewhat explicit)

2008-05-28T19:56:00Z

This week in his syndicated column, Dan Savage answers questions about sex and disability.

One of the questions deals with devotees (people who have a specific sexual preference for people with disabilities). Dan's response was interesting to me:

"If you believe in equal treatment for people with disabilities, then that extends to sex. We all want to be objectified from time to time, and a disabled person has just as much right to healthy objectification as any able-bodied person. There's really not much difference between a leg man and a lack-of-leg man—well, except this: The more common a fetish is, the less likely we are to regard it as one."

That makes sense to me on the surface, but then there are all the accounts of unlawful and unethical behavior and just-plain-rudeness from people in this particular category. It reminded me of this post on Screw Bronze, where the blogger, Beth, and her commenters react to the linking of her blog on a devotee site and the way this particular fetish can represent something particularly disturbing:

"While all of us have “types” we are attracted to, we don’t let that dictate our lives. I myself love the look of red headed women with pale skin but I am married to a dirty blonde who was tanned when I met her. She was the right person; because she was a person, not a type, not a fetish. And when the fetish gets to the point that the person is no longer important except in terms of aesthetic value, then not only are you (often) reinforcing stereotype but in the case of women with disabilities, trying to lock them forever in a personal and societal cage."

What do you think? Is Dan Savage, always a proponent of live-and-let-live attitudes toward sex and sexuality, being too accomodating, or is his response spot-on? Are devotees harmless fetishists or, as Beth suggests, a particularly malicious type of disabilists?

If anyone feels moved to write to Dan in response to this column, whether with praise or a complaint, leave your letter as a comment here as well so we can see if a Disaboomer gets published in a future column.

To read the other letters Dan answered and his responses (with guest experts) and a list of resources, go here.

Do I Need A Reason to Support Disability Rights?

2008-05-06T17:41:00Z

Last week, I blogged about why disabilism is my problem for Blogging Against Disabilism Day. This week, the 37th Disability Blog Carnival asks me to consider something very similar: disability identity and culture.

There is an unspoken question asked whenever someone who "looks normal" stands up for equal rights for persons with disabilities, or speaks out in favor of disability pride and culture. That question is, "Why you?"

Able-bodied allies to the disability community, people with invisible disabilities, and parents, friends, and admirers of disability culture share a familiarity with the sudden pressure to self-disclose. A person who looks, walks, talks, sees, hears, and acts, like everyone else in the room, suddenly says, "Don't use the word r#tard. It's hurtful and discriminatory."

There's a pause, a hush, maybe an indignant defense from the person caught using that particular pejorative, and then all eyes turn to the "normal-looking" member of the group who's just outed himself or herself as a disability advocate. They wait. They're waiting for:

"My sister has Down's Syndrome."

"I work with kids with disabilities."

"My mother had fibromyalgia."

"I have MS."

"I volunteer at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities on the weekends."

"I had a friend with Autism when I was a kid."

They're waiting for the self-disclosure that explains why someone who seems so "normal" would identify with the disability community. They're waiting to find out exactly why the friend who spoke up isn't just like everyone else after all: The excuse that allows them to continue ignoring disability identity and culture. They're waiting to be able to explain to each other, later, that:

"I don't know anyone with Down's. How was I supposed to know her sister had it?"

"I work a white-collar job, and everybody kids around like that... it's not like anyone with disabilities is watching."

"He never said anything about his mother being disabled before."

"He looks totally normal. If he wanted us to be more careful with our words around him, he should have mentioned the MS sooner."

"Good for them for volunteering. But it's not like anyone was around to hear."

"How can you be friends with someone with Autism? I don't think they can even talk, most of the time."

The reason an able-bodied or able-looking person needs a reason to be a disability advocate is simple: So everybody else has a reason not to be. It's "not their dog." (caution: link may be mildly NSFW)

They aren't related to anyone with a disability, they aren't disabled, their friends aren't disabled, so it's only natural that only the one person in the group who is any of those things speaks up for disability acceptance and disability rights. By extension, it's okay to disagree, to argue, and expect that a defense of personal connection to disability be offered.

What people who are unfamiliar with disability identity and culture aren't expecting in this situation is a refusal to offer an excuse for standing up against disabilist speech or in favor of disability rights. The pressure to give everyone else an easy way out is significant, but I've made a conscious effort lately to stand my ground. I don't hand over a self-disclosure and an excuse when that familiar, waiting stare descends on me. It's been a little strange, but it's productive, too.

Disability culture (Deaf-Side debate notwithstanding) doesn't require that you show your crip card, or your sister's, mother's, or brother's, to be in favor of that which is right. Thus, a message for every person with an invisible disability, every ally and advocate, every friend or family member who is familiar with the "Why you?" stare:

Stop making excuses for supporting that which is right. Because, when you offer the self-disclosure that stare seeks, it's not yourself for whom you're making an excuse: It's every intolerant person in the room. There's only one answer to, "Why you?"

Because it's right.

Why Disabilism is Your Problem, My Problem, and Everyone's Problem

2008-05-01T16:10:00Z

Blogging Against Disabilism Day

I live in two worlds when I'm logged on to the internet. I live here, on Disaboom and in the disability blogosphere and on disability-related email lists. On the other side of the coin, I live in forums that relate to my job, to my pets, as a commenter on blogs that are witty, clever, and insightful but have nothing to do with disability. Rarely do I mix the two. This week, I did, and the results illustrate just why disabilism is your problem, my problem, your brother's problem, my grandmother's problem, and everyone's problem.

Disabled Politico is at the ADAPT conference and posted a video of a deaf woman taken to the ground by police. Apparently, she was using a bullhorn and police told her to put it down. Unable to hear their instructions, she didn't relinquish the bullhorn, and the video shows her on the floor screaming, "I'm deaf! This sign means I'm deaf!" (Captioned version embedded below).

I posted a link to Disabled Politico's blog about the incident in two places on the internet: An email list that relates to disability, and a forum that doesn't. On the disability-related email list, within a day, someone had identified the woman as a well known deaf blogger, and expressed concern for her safety. There was some muted outrage at the lack of mainstream media coverage of ADAPT's conference and the direct actions including blocking all access to the Health and Human Services building in Washington, D.C. A few people blogged about "the deaf incident" or about ADAPT.

Elsewhere on the internet, the woman in the video wasn't quite so lucky. If I'd bought into the comments on the forum I mentioned, which, by the way, is generally a fairly accepting place when it comes to things like sex, race, sexual orientation, body shape and size, and occupation, this is what I'd be posting:

I've been had. The "deaf" woman in the video almost certainly staged her "take down." She speaks so clearly; she couldn't have had hearing loss from birth. But she claims to understand sign language. That's rare in people who weren't deaf from birth. Except, of course, the kind ASL interpreters who can hear and who learn sign language to help the deaf communicate with the hearing. She was surely being disruptive, and the police are handling it very well. She threw herself to the floor to make it look like she was a victim. She's resisting arrest. I've been had, by Disabled Politico and a sneaky so-called deaf woman, who probably hears just fine!

But I didn't buy in to those comments, especially because many I know in the blogosphere know the deaf woman in the video. Of course she was being disruptive; that's what direct action is. Clearly, the police could have handled the incident more poorly. It's no Rodney King attack- THANK GOODNESS. She is safe and probably spent no more than a few hours under arrest.

I can understand that some people do not feel direct action is an appropriate way to address discrimination. Most of those people have never been discriminated against. However, what I just can't understand or enable, is accusing someone of faking their disability because they speak clearly AND understand sign language. She's just not disabled enough to really be deaf! She couldn't be!

Is it that it's threatening to see a deaf woman who could "pass" judging by speech alone request accomodation for her disability? After all, a deaf woman who spoke clearly was denied a milkshake on similar grounds earlier this year, setting off a huge blogstorm and sparking discussion even in places like The Consumerist that generally don't cover incidents of disabilism.

Or is it just that people, even some people with disabilities, don't see a minor thing like the fear a woman faces as she's unable to communicate with the officers arresting her as their problem?

I think perhaps the latter is true. When disabilism happens, even violently, the word "disabilism" isn't spoken. When Brent Martin was killed, nobody outside the disability blogosphere even mentioned discrimination, hate crimes, or disabilism, much less owned it as their problem.

The fear that a deaf woman feels as she's arrested, screaming, in a room full of people with disabilities, but nobody pauses to get an interpreter to sign the police officers' instructions, is my problem. The accusations that she is lying about her hearing status from others are my problem. It is my responsibility to educate where and when disabilism occurs, as best I can, and hopefully without becoming angry.

When a troll meanders onto the blog of a woman with a disability and spews well-intentioned disabilism, it's my problem. It's my job to speak up. It's my responsibility (and one I didn't meet, in this incident) to educate calmly and without insults, because even if the troll won't be educated, perhaps his friends who he sent the link to so as to brag about causing trouble will. Maybe they'll say, "Gee, pal, this woman doesn't sound like she was asking for anything out of line. What's your problem?" if we explain, calmly, though it's for the thousandth time, that wheelchair users have gender, that wheelchairs can't go sideways, that a woman with a disability has every right to take a pee (and that you, too, can take a pee in an accessible toilet, but she can't take a pee in an inaccessible one- so which one helps more people?)

When I hear the r-word, it's my problem. It's my responsibility to stop and say, "Please don't use that word."

Why is disabilism my problem? Because I'm disabled?

Wrong.

I look, walk, talk, think, speak, hear, and see, more like the disabilists in any of these incidents than the victim.

And that's exactly why it's my problem. Because if I'm not afraid to speak up and speak out against people who look, walk, talk, and act like me, in defense of someone who doesn't, it sets an example for others. If one able-bodied person sitting on a committee for an event says, "Let's get in touch with the local disability community and see what they suggest in terms of accessiblity and accomodations," next time, maybe it's the guy sitting next to her who speaks up and remembers that the disability community wants, "Nothing about us without us," and that this is a perfectly reasonable request.

Maybe the father saying the r-word when he sees a price increase in the grocery store isn't listening when you tell him that word offends you, but maybe his daughter or son is.

Disabilism is everyone's problem, because it's a human problem. Disability is as human as hair color or the common cold. Like the common cold, most people will eventually have a disability, whether age related, injury-related, temporary or permanent. Like hair color, it's also a type of natural, human diversity.

Disabilism is your problem, whether you're reading this as a member of the disability community, as an able-bodied ally, or as a stranger who stumbled across this, because it's a human problem. It's my problem, your problem, and everybody's problem. Take a small step today to own that problem, to deal with it by bringing it into the light rather than sweeping it under the rug.

Add the words "disabilism" and "disabilist" to your vocabulary and to your computer's spell-checker, and start being unafraid to use those words. One small step to create the language that should have been in the news articles about Brent Martin's murder. One small step toward a world where we'll never need to use those words.

Shake it, Baby! My Four Favorite Wheelchair Dancing Videos

2008-04-18T18:46:00Z

Thanks to Wheelchair Dancer's blog, I've discovered that I totally love videos of physically integrated dance. But I'm not a dancer. I'm a klutz. And yes, anyone can dance, anyone can sing, but I stink at it and don't know any of the fancy terms or how to evaluate a dance performance and movement and all that. But I know what I think is beautiful and fun to watch, so here are my top fourfavorite YouTube videos of dancers who use wheelchairs (in no particular order):

In the video below, Marcie Ryan, a samba dancing wheelchair user is pretty in pink, and and pops some awesome wheelies while performing at the New Jersey State Open Dancesport Championships in 2005. Her able-bodied partner is Rubin Zakiryanov, and he's not too hard on the eyes, either!

The next video is a big change from the first one. And, technically, I'm cheating a little, here- this isn't a wheelchair dance video. I think it counts, though; it's dance with bodies that don't fit the societal norm, and it's so remarkable that I just had to add it in.

The third video is a tango by dancers identified as Lisandro and Spirit Synott. They are dancing before a small audience. My favorite part of this video is that it demonstrates first her ability to carry him- in her chair- and THEN his ability to lift her briefly from her chair and carry her. It strikes me as very empowering that the video demonstrates the power of both types of mobility shown to support another person.

The last video is probably the most accessible to dance novices like myself. It features a dance competition in Europe and several dance styles, with captions that introduce each style of dance and give a couple of essential elements like "energy" for each. The dancers are fantastic. I'm loving the clothes, too! Don't particularly care for the lyrics to the waltz music, though.

That's it! There are four because, well, five is overrated, and so is three. The number four never gets any love. Enjoy!

Talking to My Niece About Disability

2008-04-14T23:34:00Z

Niecelet is seven, and she's very curious about the world, as you'd expect at this age. Mostly, she's curious about superheroes, tanks, aliens, and ghosts, but a broken arm while skiing that came with a lot of bruises and stiffness required her to use a wheelchair briefly. By briefly, I mean, "to get from hospital bed to car," plus one trip to the museum where her mother rolled her around instead of forcing her to hobble.

However brief her wheelchair use was, it's engendered a few questions about disability. Take this recent exchange, as I sat at the computer and poked around a service dog's photo album on Photobucket.

Niecelet: He looks silly with that big collar on.

Me: That's a harness. It's so he can support his handler, who grabs that handle there and leans on it. Like when you used my arm to stay stable while walking when you were dizzy after the hospital.

Niecelet: So his owner is dizzy?

Me: His owner has a disability that makes it harder to walk. The dog helps him be more mobile, like the wheelchair at the hospital helped you be more mobile.

Niecelet: Like a guide dog?

Me: Yes, a guide dog is another kind of service dog.

Niecelet: What if the dog got hurt, like he broke a leg or something?

Me: Then he would need a break and he might need to retire. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Niecelet: Dogs can't retire. What would the person do?

Me: Anyone who works can retire, and that means working dogs, too. The person would probably need a new service dog, or a wheelchair or crutches for a while.

Niecelet: Can a dog have a service dog?

So far, not too many difficult questions. She's mostly curious about the technicalities of disability: How to roll around in a wheelchair, who can have a service dog, how people who are blind can read, what sign language is. She hasn't asked about things like public access or discrimination yet, and I haven't had a chance to discuss the ADA with her, which might be for the best. So far, the goal when she asks me about disability is to engender the perception of disability as different, but not scary or lesser, and letting her think everyone sees it that way for a little while might not be a bad thing.

How Not to Get Wheelchairs For Your Kids

2008-04-07T21:52:00Z

A woman in Israel, allegedly frustrated after trying for years to get government authorities to provide customized wheelchairs for her teenage children, threatened to blow up her van in front of Israel's parliament building yesterday. She was frustrated after her son, who has CP, fell from a substandard wheelchair and had to be hospitalized. After a three-hour standoff with authorities, the mother surrendered peacefully and left escorted by the director-general of the Israeli parliament.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, "She is going into the Knesset (parliament) to talk in order to solve her problem."

The woman had claimed to have a gas canister inside the van, along with herself and her daughter (who also has CP), and said she would detonate it if her demands were not met. Rosenfeld announced that the mother will not be arrested "at this time."

Shortly after the incident outside the parliament building, a non-profit organization announced that it will help buy custom wheelchairs for the children. Variety Israel describes itself as, "A non-profit organization, acting for the welfare of sick and disabled children up to the age of 18 years with special needs." The organization will also help the family purchase other medical equipment.

Despite the happy resolution of the Israeli family's struggles, I don't recommend threatening suicide as a self-advocacy strategy. Especially here in the US, it could have some serious unintended results. I don't want to read a headline that says, "Mother of Child with Disability Sent to Guantanamo Bay!"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed 40 years ago today.

2008-04-04T21:34:00Z

40 years ago today, the world lost a civil rights leader who continues to inspire activists across the world to this day. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot in Memphis, Tennessee, a family lost a father and husband, and a movement lost its most recognizable leader. But the movement toward civil rights and racial equality didn't lose its momentum nor lose sight of its goals. Some of Dr. King's dreams remain unrealized, but I imagine that he'd smile to see a black man with a good chance of attaining the presidency this November.

On this 40th anniversary of the assassination of a leader, I'd like to share some of his quotes that inspire me:

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

Martin Luther King Jr. discovered something he would die for, and, tragically, he did so. We'll miss you, Dr. King.

Two links to share:

Robert Kennedy's remarks on the night of Dr. King's assassination

Video about Dr. King's life and death

Five Things to be Aware of During Autism Awareness Month

2008-04-02T22:07:00Z

It's Autism Awareness month, which means we can expect a lot of empty platitudes from politicians, celebrities, and news organizations. It also means the disability community has a unique opportunity to capture the attention of people already tuned in to information about Autism after hearing about Autism Awareness Month from a celebrity or politician, and impart some real Autism awareness. In that spirit, here are five things I as a disability activist would like everyone to be aware of about Autism:

1. Autistic children grow into Autistic adults. People who are Autistic don't disappear at age 18. Some people who are Autistic need significant help with daily lving as adults; others don't. Some write best-selling books and become known world-wide for their contributions to their field, like, say, Temple Grandin. Others don't.

2. Many of these Autistic adults blog. If you want to be aware ofAutism, try hearing it from an Autistic person, like Amanda.

3. As for the Autistic children, many of their parents blog, too. Check out S.L.'s blog, where she talks about her daughter and the realities of raising an Autistic chld.

4. Autism is a developmental disability, not developmental stasis. I'm loosely quoting Andrea, so go read where she said it first.

5. Autism isn't otherwordly, or scary, or alien. In fact, you might do some "Autistic things," too, even if you're nowhere near the spectrum.

Military Prisoners Train Service Dogs for Injured Veterans

2008-03-24T22:55:00Z

At the Camp Lejeune brig in North Carolina, something amazing is happening: 11 young Marines imprisoned for crimes like theft and drug abuse are training service dogs that will be donated to injured comrades returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. While many programs exist that use civilian prisoners to train service dogs and even wild horses, the Lejeune program is thought to be the first of its kind in a military prison.

"The good thing is that Roxy will go on to help someone. Someone I know, most likely, because the Marines are a pretty tight community,” said inmate Chris of the Labrador Retriever he is training. Chris and other inmates spoke to The Republican-American under military rules governing interviews in brigs, which stipulate that inmates may give only their first names and can't tell interviewers the nature of their offense.

The dogs, most of which are Labrador Retrievers and Labrador mixes, were adopted from area animal shelters. One, Bailey, was slated to be euthanized the same day that he was adopted to enter the Camp Lejeune service dog program. Now he and the other dogs in the program are being trained to eventually perform tasks like loading laundry into washing machines, performing banking transactions, and switch lights on and off, as well as other tasks specific to the needs of the disabled veterans to whom they are donated. When the dogs are ready to take on their new roles, each will know more than 70 tasks.

The program is being administered and funded by Rick Hairston, who owns Carolina Canines for Service, a program that trains service dogs and provides them to people with disabilities free of charge. He designed the program and is currently paying the costs for sending two civilian trainers to the base several times to help teach the inmates to train the dogs, vet bills, and other expenses. Hairston says he proposed the collaboration to Camp Lejeune because he could see no other way to increase his organization's output of service dogs, given that each dog takes two to three years to train. The wait for a dog from Carolina Canines for Service is already at least two years.

Cloned Stem Cells Treat Parkinson's In Mice

2008-03-24T21:39:00Z

While it has long been hoped that stem cell research would lead to a Parkinson's cure, scientists recently added another step to the process, which seems to make stem cells more effective in treating Parkinson's in mice: Cloning. Reuters reported Sunday that cloned embryonic stem cells were found to be more effective and less disruptive to the bodies of mice, as opposed to embryonic stem cells that were not genetically matched to each mouse by cloning.

Viviane Tabar and his team first created a Parkinson's-like disease in mice using chemicals to destroy their brain cells. They then took ordinary cells from the tails of the mice, transferred the nuclei from them into hollowed-out mouse eggs cells, and made clones of the mice. This process is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or "therapeutic cloning".

The cloned embryos were harvested for their stem cells after a few days. The researchers grew these in the lab and coaxed them into becoming the so-called dopaminergic brains cells that are lost in Parkinson's.

They put these into the brains of the injured mice. These mice got better, Tabar said. No one has done this before. "It's incredibly hard and it involves a series of inefficient steps," Tabar said.

The process of using cloned stem cells for therapeutic purposes may eventually help to solve some of the ethical concerns surrounding stem cell research, while providing stem cells that will not cause as much inflammation in the bodies of patients.

Mouse Photo by Bas van de Wiel. Photo shows a white mouse inside a coconut shell.

Consequences of Sleeping in Class: Poor Grades, Desk-Head, Hearing Damage?

2008-03-13T20:21:00Z

In Danbury, Connecticut, a 15-year-old boy is suing his school district, claiming his hearing was damaged by a teacher slamming her hand on the boy's desk to wake him during class. Vinicios Robacher was napping during school last December when teacher Melissa Nadeau loudly slapped his desk to wake him.

According to the boy's attorney, Alan Barry, Robacher suffered pain and "very severe injuries to his left ear drum" as a result of the incident. The teen was taken to a hospital after he complained of pain in his ear and his parents found a bloody fluid on his pillow. He has since been treated by ear, nose, and throat specialists, and has regained some hearing, but may require surgery to further repair his ear drum.

According to Alan Barry, "Many of us have fallen asleep in class and had the teacher wake us up. But what happened here was more in the nature of an assault and battery. My client is an extraordinarily bright young man. He's a computer wizard who works late into the night, and that's probably why he fell asleep."

The city, the school board, and its employees are named as defendants in a preliminary notice filed with the city of Danbury, which is required before a lawsuit may be brought against the city.

National Deaf Community to Discuss Book

2008-03-07T17:44:00Z

I'm reposting this info from Talking Books Librarian so that Disaboom members can get in on this community-building project!

Deaf America Reads: “One Book” Reading Promotion Project, March 13, 2008 – March 13, 2010

Posted: 06 Mar 2008 10:38 AM CSTI received the following email today from Alice L. Hagemeyer, Director of the National Literary Society of the Deaf:

On Thursday, March 13, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon, the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, in partnership with the National Literary Society of the Deaf (NLSD), will be hosting a program entitled, “Researching Amos Kendall: Adventures in Library Research, Literature and Literacy.” In 1856, Amos donated land to support the establishment of the first school for deaf children in the District of Columbia, now a part of Gallaudet University.

The program will be held in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue, SE, Washington, DC. Stephen Weiner, provost, Gallaudet University, Diana Gates, Reference Librarian, Gallaudet University, and Lance Fischer, retired archivist and co-editor of “The History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907" by Edward Miner Gallaudet, will be among speakers. http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-044.html

At the closing of the program, Ricardo Lopez, president of NLSD and Lois Hoover, board member and artist, will unveil the NLSD’s “One Book” Reading Promotion Project: Deaf America Reads: March 13, 2008 – March 13, 2010. The title selected for “One Book” will be announced at that time. "This is a wonderful opportunity for the national deaf community to get together to discuss the same book during the two-year project,” said Ricardo Lopez.

Julie Bourne, National Association of the Deaf board member who will make closing remarks at the program agrees. “We must emphasize the importance of local and state level deaf-related organizations collaborating with local libraries across the nation to promote books and reading.”

A Sneak Preview: The title selected for “One Book” is “Moment of Truth: Robert R. Davila: The Story of a Deaf Leader,” by Harry G. Lang, Oscar P. Cohen and Joseph E. Fischgrund. 240 pages, illustrated .

About this book and plans for programming in your community, please visit after March 13, 2008
http://www.folda.net/lib/index.html#reading

Submitted by Alice L. Hagemeyer, Director
National Literary Society of the Deaf
www.folda.net/nlsd

Her Lunch Money? Seriously?

2008-03-06T23:16:00Z

A school employee in Ventura, California has been jailed for stealing lunch money from a student with disabilities. The girl's parents gave her $5.00 for lunch in her lunchbox each day, along with food. When she continued to come home hungry, it was discovered that Kristin Rene Santoyo, 37, had been pilfering the child's lunch money in order to feed a meth habit.

"School worked jailed for stealing from disabled student" is one of those headlines you have to look at several times just to believe it's actually a real-life news story. Headlines like this belong in The Onion, not reality. I hope that the woman so enslaved by her addiction that she stooped to stealing from a person with whose care she was entrusted gets the treatment she needs in prison, and realizes how shameful her actions were.

Triple-Amputee Turtle to Get Prosthetic Fin

2008-02-28T20:20:00Z

Allison, an young green sea turtle, lost three flippers to a predator attack. She is now being fitted for a rear flipper prosthesis. Her prosthetic flipper is being designed by the University of Texas' Dr. Sudarat Kiat-amnuay, and will fit over a small stump of bone on her left rear side. The 10 pound turtle could live to an advanced age in captivity with her single remaining fin plus a successful prosthesis. Currently, she is able to swim only in counter-clockwise circles and has difficulty reaching the surface of her pool to breathe.

Most turtles missing three flippers either die or are euthanized by rescuers unable to guarantee an 450 pound animal with a 100+ year lifespan comfort and quality of life with only one fin. Two finned turtles have been successfully kept in captivity, and three-finned turtles can be released to the wild. Sea Turtle, Inc. originally intended to euthanize Allison humanely. However, the baby turtle was saved after an intern at the non-profit pleaded her case and asked for a chance to nurse her back to health. She is named after one of the tourists who found her injured on the beach and called rescuers.

If Allison successfully adapts to the use of a prosthesis, she will join a small and exclusive club of amputee animals adapting to life with artificial limbs. Fuji, a dolphin living in the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, regained nearly all of her swimming ability with a prosthesis after losing her tail to disease. Barnaby, an Appaloosa horse in the United Kingdom, enjoys life with a prosthetic foot after losing his leg below the fetlock to thrombosis of the arteries. Another horse, Gideon, of Virginia, wears a prosthesis after the amputation of his leg mid-cannon bone, and lives a normal life. He's even sired a foal! Llamas have also been successfully fitted with prosthetic legs, as seen in the video below: