US Signs UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United States has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities July 30, 2009.
"Countries that join in the Convention engage themselves to develop and carry out policies, laws and administrative measures for securing the rights recognized in the Convention and abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination (Article 4)." -enable

One of the things I think is very powerful and I'm pleased to see is the explicit mention of a paradigm shift. In an explanatory Powerpoint, "The Convention marks a 'paradigm shift' in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are not viewed as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection; rather as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society. "

Some of the General Principles include

• "Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one's own choices, and independence of persons.
• Full and effective participation and inclusion in society
• Accessibility
• Equality between men and women
• Respect for the evolving capacities of children with disabiliites and respect for the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities
• reasonable [sic] accommodation must be made for persons with disabilities

Access must be ensured to

• Justice
• Living independently and being included in the community
• Information and communication services
• Education
• Health
• Habilitation and rehabilitation
• Work and employment - human resource policies and practices
• Adequate standard of living and social protection
• Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure, and sport"

-Source "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol" ppt

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Disabled Superheros

Artist Donald Soffritti has pictured what the future of some of our favorite superheros might look like. Though light hearted, it speaks to the point that given enough time, we will all likely be disabled.










(Via Too much free time)

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Disabled Drivers Ahead

Courtesy of David Plotzki

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Computer Fairy God Mother

Lorraine Kerwood believed she had mental disabilities growing up, and did not feel safe or secure interacting with others. When she started working with computers, she realized they had no judgments. It inspired her to start "Next Step Recycling." She now refurbishes and recycles old computers and gives them to disadvantaged communities and people with purported "disabilities." Next Step also employs, and offers job training to, people with social or learning disabilities. - Voxant News Room

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US Open Ball Girl who is Amputee

A n interesting piece about a girl who is a ball girl for the US Open and is an amputee. I anticipated a fluff piece spun as an "inspirational" story, but it steered pretty well away from that. They talked about her role as the first individual with a disability as a ball girl at the US Open, but also about her athletic career, and running both marathons and triathlons. As the interviewer mentions, calling her disabled is almost a misnomer, because with the right technology, she does not have much of an impairment.

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You can read more and support this writer at Associated Content

*Inspiring* Disability News Story Template

I don't write about many, if any, "inspirational" disability stories because I think they're misleading, and frequently patronizing to the individual and people with disabilities in general. See the book No Pity : People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement for a great discussion of this topic. I've not been able to articulate my feelings quite as it as well as a writer called Frida.

She writes a blog called, what else, Frida Writes, and has a great satirical piece called "A Woman with X" It is a template for most of the inspirational stories of disability that we see in the news.

"Woman with ____x________ Has (opposite of x) (e.g., heart transplant/big heart; wheelchair/great strides; blindness/great vision)
For those who know her, Jane proves that living with _________ doesn’t have to mean giving up your dreams. While some people with ___________ might give up on life or become depressed, Jane keeps going, fueled by her passion for__________.
The ____-year old Jane, who has had __________ since she was _________, was told by doctors that she would never __________(again). She has been proving them wrong ever since...."

Read the rest at Frida Writes
Don't forget to check out the ADA Mad Libs she recommends as well.


Picture courtesy of Whistling in the Dark

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Dept. of Labor to Start Posting Statistics on Employment of Individuals with Disabilities

Federal Department of Labor is now posting information on employment of those with disabilities.

"In June 2008, questions were added to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to identify persons with a disability in the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older. The addition of these questions allowed BLS to begin releasing monthly labor force data from the CPS for persons with a disability." - BLS.gov

They've cut the table with employment data of those without disabilities, and that you can see the scary statistics of those with disabilities: 20% of those with disabilities are employed as compared to 65% of those without disabilities over the age of 16. When those over 65 are removed from the calculations, the stats are 32% to 75.7% for men and 29% to 66.9% for women (percent of those with a disability employed to those without a disability).

For those stat geeks the tables are available for down load and your own slicing and dicing.


ODEP Press Release
New monthly data series on the employment status of people with a disability (with tables)- BLS

Photo Courtesy of Jim Bowen

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Author's Guild in Kindle Controversy

An interesting argument has sprung up recently regarding text to speech capabilities in a e-book reader. The Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device
is the e-book reader in questions. The Kindle takes a specifically formatted electronic file, and allows the reader to view the file on a small screen about the size of a paperback book. The Kindle also has the ability to convert the text to speech for the reader of the e-book, which is where the controversy has arisen.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

"They don't have the right to read a book out loud," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

A number of tech publications have taken up the issue. Tech Dirt wondered (tongue in cheek) about the legality of reading to our kids, in another article disputed the claim that this would be illegal as it it is not a public performance. The Electronic Freedom Frontier (EFF) disputed the definition of a derivative work, citing that there would have to be a modification of the content to be derivative.
A few have addressed the accessibility issue this could raise for those with disabilities. One commentator questioned whether captioning would then be illegal as it is a text version of audio/ video.
In attempting to defend themselves from the criticism this issue has raised, the Author's Guild posted to their site an explanation / defense. In it they defend their position, but do say that reading to our kids is allowable, and that reading aloud at home is okay. Almost as an afterthought, in the last two sentences of their defense they state:

"Others suggest that challenging Amazon's use of this software challenges accessibility to the visually impaired. It doesn't: Kindle 2 isn't designed for such use. The Guild continues to support efforts to make works truly accessible to the visually impaired."

There are a few issues here. Firstly, accessibility isn't just about making it accessible for those with visual impairments. There are many individuals who would benefit from the text to speech capabilities of the Kindle, such as those with other print disabilities such as learning disabilities or those with mobility difficulties which would make holding a book and turning a page difficult but pushing a button to turn the page okay. Secondly, the issue of whether it's "designed for such use" is irrelevant. It's a nice piece of universal design, it could work well for many with disabilities as well as people who just want that functionality.
I understand that the Author's Guild is positioned to look at the rights of authors, and state that "Until this issue is worked out, Amazon may be undermining your audio market as it exploits your e-books." This assumes that text to speech is comparable to audio books read by a real person. I was unable to find information on the engine which drives the Kindle's text to speech functionality, but would be surprised if it's comparable to a human voice. Both Apple computers and those running Microsoft Windows have text to speech engines build into them, not to mention the commercial products on the market such as JAWS (for those with visual impairments) and Kurzweil 3000 (for those with LD and other print disabilities) so if someone was able to get an electronic copy of a book in the past they could have the same functionality (though of variable quality) with their home computer.
A big difference with this episode with the Kindle is that for the first time the electronic version of the book is the primary product versus in the past it was the alternative format and had to be specifically requested from the publisher or created manually.
Ultimately, for many of those with print disabilities, they have a free alternative, and can be free of much of this controversy through BookShare.org which provides free electronic versions of books to eligible individuals. For those who can prove they qualify, Bookshare will be the better option, for the rest of us, I suspect that e-book readers will be come more ubiquitous. Hopefully this controversy will not color peoples vision of the Kindle, but only raise the profile and drive down the price.

Kindle Demonstration @ Amazon
Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device @ Amazon

Picture of Kindle courtesy of John Pastor

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SSA Criticized for Wait and Denial of Claims

CBS Evening news piece on the wait for individuals to receive Social Security and the amount of individuals turned down for SSI/SSDI

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Snow Poses Challenge for those with Disabilities

Nice to see attention being paid to this in main stream media, though they could use a bit of work on their person first language.

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Disabled Veterans Catch Waves

CBS Morning Show on a program for veterans who have been disabled. It is part of a VA program which gets them out of the rehab center and into the ocean surfing.

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Unions Push for More Opporunities for Actors with Disabilities

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1 in 5 Americans have a disability

Reporting on recently released census results, Medical News Today reports "About one in five U.S. residents - 19 percent - reported some level of disability in 2005, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. These 54.4 million Americans are roughly equal to the combined total populations of California and Florida."

On the working front,

Nearly half (46 percent) of people age 21 to 64 with a disability were employed, compared with 84 percent of people in this age group without a disability. Among those with disabilities, 31 percent with severe disabilities and 75 percent with nonsevere disabilities were employed. People with difficulty hearing were more likely to be employed than those with difficulty seeing (59 percent compared with 41 percent)."

Census Homepage
Census Report "Americans with Disabilities" pdf

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SNL's Disability Skit: Funny or Offensive?

Offensive or not? Patricia Bauer asked the question of her readers. I enjoy a good parody, and don't mind when it pokes fun of our stereotypes or perceptions of disabilities. These can be very healthy to challenge our ideas. However, this SNL skit doesn't parody disability, or attitudes. What do you think?

"But when the camera comes in for a closeup, it reveals that Wiig’s “Judice” has physical deformities — an abnormally large forehead and tiny, doll-sized hands.
There’s also more than a suggestion of intellectual disabilities here. As her three sisters (led by Anne Hathaway) sing conventional lyrics about boyfriends and butterflies, Wiig’s character sings about chasing cars, eating a dead cat she found in the road, and finding love “with my by myself.”

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Savants: 50% are autistic

Very interesting video about savants.

"A fascinating look at the relationship between genius and autism, with particular focus on the phenomenon of savants; a small group of enigmatic talkens with extraordinary mental abilities. Savants number less than 100 worldwide. Some can work out five-digit multiplication in their heads, or recite thousands of books by heart. Others can play a piano melody after hearing it only once. Over half of savants are autistic; others develop these super human talents only after brain injury."

I was especially amazed at the man who could draw a city from a flyover. Interesting piece about him worrying whether he's losing his ability, and whether it's due to working on improving his other skills. Long video, but worth the time to watch it.

Pt 1: Beautiful Minds the Einstien Effect.
Stephen Wiltshire's website

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Christian Perspective of Downs Syndrome

In a very compassionate article Al Hsu talks about having a son with downs syndrome and how is wife and he were encouraged to abort the child. It doesn't preach against abortion, but argues that the church should look to protect all of those with disabilities against discrimination.

"Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche communities, which bring abled and disabled people together under one roof, warns in Living Gently in a Violent World that in a few years there may be no more children with Down syndrome in France because they will have all been aborted. In China, babies with disabilities are often abandoned. Extremist groups in the Middle East have even used people with mental disabilities as unwitting suicide bombers. The church must advocate on behalf of those most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Care for the disabled is a global justice issue.

The 2000 U.S. Census found that 19.4 percent of the population is affected by physical or intellectual disability. One in 140 children now has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the 2007 Annual Review of Public Health. Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries, spina bifida, Alzheimer's, and a host of other conditions affect millions. If you don't currently know someone with a disability, chances are that you will.

All of us are only temporarily abled. We are only a car acci-dent or stroke away from disability. "

Its great to see another perspective on disabliity, and the entire article is worth a read.

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Fantastic (free) rehabilitation articles from Cornell

Cornell University's ILR school has a free "Digital commons" called the Gladnet Collection with loads of great articles on a range of disability and rehabilitation topics. Below are a few of the ones that jumped out.

Disability and the Muslim Perspective: An Introduction for Rehabilitation and Health Care Providers, Rooshey Hasnain, Laura Cohon Shaikh, and Hasnan Shanawani
Job Accommodations for People with Learning disabilities Dale Susan Brown
Scope of Practice for Rehabilitation Counseling from the CRCC
The Disability Divide: A Study into the Impact of Computing and Internet-related Technologies on People who are Blind or Vision Impaired Scott Emery Hollier, Curtin University of Technology

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BBCs missing model Pt III (the final chapter)

After two previous posts on this issue, this (may be) the final chapter about this show. (Pt I and Pt II) A winner has been crowned in the BBCs show the missing Model. The Telegraph (UK) has an article about the winner, Kelly Knox.

Since the original post, I have become aware of a beauty pagent here in America called Ms. Wheelchair America (no prizes for guessing who the contestants are). Sadly, according to the official Ms. Wheelchair America website, Maine was not represented this year.

Ms. Wheelchair Texas Flicr collection

Maine VRC Missing Model Pt I

Maine VRC Missing Model Pt II

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Paralympic manual revisions due to offensive language

In a follow up to an earlier Maine VRC post, here's some video about the recall of the volunteer manual for the 2008 Paralympic games in Beijing due to start September 6.



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Disabled athletes at Beijing 2008

Though you may not realize it if you've been watching the TV coverage of the Olympics, there is more than Michael Phelps and beach volleyball. The Montreal Gazette has a good article on two athletes who are competing in Beijing 2008 who are missing part of an arm and a leg respectively.

"Natalia Partyka of Poland, who was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow, competed in women's team table tennis today. Natalie du Toit of South Africa, whose left leg was amputated just below the knee after a 2001 motorcycle accident, will swim the new 10-kilometre open-water discipline next week."

Media dis&dat has pictures of the two athletes in action

Though he didn't qualify for the Olympics, Oscar Pistorious will run at the Paralympic games. If you're not familiar with him, he fought (and won) to compete against able bodied runners, and there was some debate about whether he had an advantage because of his prosthetics. Though from last year, the video below is an interesting piece on the S. African runner.



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