Cry Me a River, Katrina Percy. Justice for LB!
I originally wrote this piece for the blog 107daysofaction.wordpress.com. I asked for permission to reprint it to help raise awareness on this side of the Atlantic about the story. If you'd like to get involved with Justice for LB and 107 Days of Action, please click here. I've recently been made aware of the story of the death of a young autistic man in the UK that's not getting any press that I'm aware of in the U.S. or Canada. I'd like to tell you Connor Sparrowhawk's story. Connor Sparrowhawk, known as "Laughing Boy" or "LB" to his friends and
FDA Advisory Panel Recommends Banning Aversive Shock Therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center
Thursday, April 24, was a day that I'd been waiting for that day for a long time. An FDA advisory panel finally got to thoroughly hear both sides of the story of what goes on at the Judge Rotenberg Center, and to deliberate, based on testimony, whether what happens to the students there needs to be stopped. And they made the right decision. I just hope that they act on it quickly. I found out about the Judge Rotenberg Center by accident two years ago, doing some research for another post on my blog. I came across an article about
Musings from an Autism Outsider – Seeing the Full Spectrum
When I started writing about disabilities, I’d been working with disabled people for over fifteen years. I’d been in schools and agencies as the numbers of autistic people requiring support had started to rise. I’d heard the projections from the experts about how the numbers were going to continue to rise. And, in my most recent job, I’d had to tell several families with autistic teenagers that the agency for which I worked wouldn’t be able to support them, as we only supported individuals with intellectual disabilities. I knew that autism was a spectrum disorder. But I’d really only seen
Autism, Accommodation, and Double Standards
There are some particularly insidious double standards at work here. It's time to put an end to them.
Man with Down Syndrome owns “The World’s Friendliest Restaurant”
Tim Harris has a great deal to be proud of. "Tim The Man" to those who know him, he's accomplished more in his 27 years than some people accomplish in an entire lifetime. A Special Olympian, he has dozens of gold medals. He's lived on a sailboat and is well-known in the Bahamas as an excellent sailor and fisherman. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 2008 with certificates in food service, office skills, and restaurant hosting. He's now living independently, and really enjoying the fact that he can walk to work - the restaurant that he owns is
Senator’s Call for Transition Action Plan An Excellent Idea
Democrat Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey has introduced a bill focused on transition services for students with developmental disabilities who are transitioning to post-high school life. The legislation, known as the Assistance in Gaining Experience, Independence and Navigation Act of 2013, or the AGE-IN Act, calls for: - Funding for research to determination the best ways to support students with developmental disabilities who are about to leave school. - Creation of a nation strategic plan focused on transition planning for students with developmental disabilities. - Grants to train "transition navigators" to assist students with developmental disabilities to plan for
Advocacy Groups Call for Autistic Teen’s Killers to Be Charged With Hate Crime
How does it make you feel when you hear a story about a mother killing her child? Does hearing that the child had a disability change how you feel? For some people, it does. It changes how they feel enough so that they'll start speaking as if they support the parent's actions, citing unbearable stress and lack of supports and not being able to take the pain to see of seeing a child with disabilities in pain. We heard the media and public talk about this in Canada when Robert Latimer put his 12-year-old daughter Tracy, who had cerebral palsy,
The Need to Reassess the Sheltered Workshop
An emerging story in Rhode Island is raising discussion about sheltered workshop environments for people with intellectual disabilities and the culture of discrimination that they create. Discrimination? Yes. These environments, originally intended to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities had work to do and and a safe place in which to do it, have become the exact opposite. They're also created a culture where it's permissible to not only view people with intellectual disabilities in extremely outdated ways and to treat them accordingly. The most recent story that's brought these issues to the public's attention revolves around a a school
People With Disabilities Practically Absent from Marketing Campaigns
ABC.com reports that despite sporadic appearances in the media and marketing campaigns, people with disabilities are still largely absent, and that many people feel that marketers in particular are losing out because of it. Blaming the absence of people with disabilities in marketing campaigns on "a combination of ignorance, caution, and fear," advocates feel that a concentrated campaign to have people with disabilities included in advertising is necessary, similar to past campaigns to have minorities included in advertising. 57 000 000 Americans have a disability, and as a group their spending power is $200 to $500 billion. They're definitely a
America, the CPRD, and the Global Plight of Disabled Children
A new United Nations report, "The State of the World's Children", finds that children with disabilities are the least likely to receive health care or go to school and are among the most vulnerable to violence, abuse and neglect. With the most recent data available suggesting that 1 in 20 children aged 14 or younger (approximately 93 000 000) has a disability. it's clear that we're in the middle of a child welfare crisis. Not so, according to United States Senators who failed to ratify a United Nations convention designed to ban discrimination on the basis of disability and to
Joe Flacco Pledges to No Longer Use the R-Word
Baltimore Ravens quarterback and Superbowl MVP Joe Flacco has made a commitment to no longer use the R-word, joined by teammates Ed Dickson and Gino Gradkowski. The three men signed the pledge not to use the R-word anymore from the Spread the Word to End the Word website on May 20 and had their photos taken with representatives from the Maryland Special Olympics. Flacco’s commitment to the movement to stop use of the R-word comes on the heels of using it during Superbowl week at a press conference. He apologized the next day, concerned that his “bad choice of words” would damage
Donna Posont’s “Birding-By-Ear” Course Allows Blind People to “See The Unseen”
Donna Posont is living proof that you don't have to be able to see well to go bird-watching. Donna Posont is a field guide in Michigan who leads a group of blind birdwatchers and helps them recognize birds through sound. / CBS News The Field Services Director for Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind, Donna Posont runs a "birding by ear" class in Dearborn, Michigan for people who are blind or who have low vision. Instruction begins inside, where participants memorize bird calls through learning words that have been assigned to birds' chirps and screeches. Armed with a repertoire of bird
Federal Agencies Seek Public Input on Transition Issues for Youth
The U.S. Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services, in partnership with the Social Security Administration, are asking for input about the best way to ensure a successful transition from school to work life for youth with disabilities. For two weeks, starting on May 13, youth with disabilities and their families can share their thoughts on improving transition outcomes via this Web Interface. Policymakers, educators, and service providers are also invited to take this opportunity to share concerns about the “regulatory and legislative barriers that young people with disabilities are facing in accessing employment, education, Social Security and
Childhood Disability Rate Jumps Over 16% in Last Decade
According to findings presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, the prevalence of disability in children has jumped more than 16 percent in 10 years. The reason for this rise in disability prevalence is unclear, although, according to Disability Scoop, researchers believe it’s due to “increased diagnosis of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions.” Researchers identified the rise in disability prevalence by comparing data from the National Health Interview Survey collected in 2009-2010 to those collected in 2001-2002. The National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a poll of more than 100,000
Dave Jacka: Up, Up and Away!
Dave Jacka just began his quest to become the first quadriplegic to fly solo around Australia. Family and friends saw the 44-year-old Fairfield resident off from the airport in Tooradin, Australia on April 28. A wheelchair user since a car accident 25 years ago, Jacka only has a small amount of control of his shoulder, wrist and bicep. He never gave up on his childhood dream of learning to fly, however, starting lessons with a pilot in 2006. He controls the plane by sucking and blowing into a tube, and makes use of enlarged switches and levers in a modified
Shouldn’t New Disability Awareness Course Be Mandatory for Police?
Kudos to New York State for making train-the-trainer disability sensitivity training available to its law enforcement officers as of April 2013, with the stipulation that police officers that take the course must take it back to their respective police agencies. But why not make the training mandatory instead of just "available"? The First Responders Disability Awareness Training Course augments the very basic curriculum in disability sensitivity offered to New York state police officers as part of their core training: 14 hours on mental illness, but only two on autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and blindness and deafness , and none on intellectual
“The Story of Luke” Brings Autism to the Big Screen
But my question is, where are autistic people in the creation of the movie and the movie itself? The representation of autism and disability in film should include the actual voices of autistic people.
Eli Reimer Is First Teen With Down’s Syndrome to Reach Mt. Everest Base Camp
On March 1, Eli was on a plane from Kathmandu to Los Angeles with his father, celebrating both World Down's Syndrome Day and the fulfillment of a dream. The Oregon resident, at the tender age of fifteen, had just become the first teenager with Down's Syndrome to make trek to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Eli's dad, Justin Reimer, who made the trek with him (along with a team of seven) told Time magazine, “We’re able to celebrate that as we departed Katmandu with [Eli] just completing something that as far as we know, no other teen with Down Syndrome [in the U.S.]
Congress Changes Special Education Funding Regulations
This month, Congress clarified how states that fail to adequately fund special education services from year to year will be penalized. The changes to IDEA regulations, put forth by the Obama administration, are said have “broad support on Capitol Hill”. Special education funding is governed by “maintenance of effort”, or a regulation stating that funding levels must maintained or increased from one year to the next. States need special permission and a waiver from the federal government to be exempt from meeting maintenance of effort in any given year, or they may find themselves facing serious consequences. South Carolina and
Doctors across America turning away patients with disabilities, study finds
by Sarah Levis Disabled people in several American cities are going without specialist care because of medical facilities that aren’t physically accessible, says a study that recently appeared in the Annals of Medicine. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s illegal for a medical service provider to turn away someone because of physical disability. Yet in Boston alone, more than one in six doctors refused to schedule appointments for people posing as patients in wheelchairs. Similar findings were reported in three other cities. The study reported similar findings in in Houston, Texas, Dallas, Texas, and Portland, Oregon. The study
“Yoga for the Special Child” Program Benefits Children with Disabilities
Parents say that Gail Gagne's "Yoga for the Special Child" program is "sorely needed" at Glenwood Community Centre in Winnipeg, Canada Gagne rents space from the Community Centre to run her Yoga for the Special Child Program. Four children with a variety of disabilities, including autism, attend on a weekly basis. Parents say that participation in the class has benefited their children in a numerous ways, from improved muscle tone to enhanced ability to focus to sharpened social skills. The Yoga for the Special Child Program is also an athletic outlet for children that, unfortunately, may have limited
People With Locked-In Syndrome Happier Than We Assumed
Locked-in syndrome leaves people awake and aware, but unlikely able to move or talk. But does it leave them unhappy? The largest study of locked-in syndrome to date says, "Not necessarily." Locked-in syndrome is caused by major brain injury, often from some sort of accident. People that have locked-in syndrome are usually totally paralyzed and move their eyes to communicate. It sounds like a very difficult existence, but a "surprising number" of people in the study reported being happy in spite of their disabilities. Researcher Dr. Steven Laureys of Belgium's University of Liege and his colleagues sent a survey to
Sexual Assault and Ableism in Martin de Porres Academy
K.J. told police that she said "No" and "Stop" when the three ninth grade boys sexually assaulted her. She had to be physically assaulted to keep from escaping. But, because K.J. and her attackers were labeled with IQs below 50 the sex is considered "consensual".
