The following reports originate from a variety of sources, including the Associated Press. We're always on the lookout for news of interest. Send us news and if we use it here we'll send you a `Piss on Pity' button. Use the eMail below.
Just four short years from now, we will mark the turning of the century þ and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We've mentioned before ("Mark Your Calendar," News & Commentary, May `96) that planning is getting under way for a huge national celebration of the ADA.
Well, plans are moving ahead.
In Atlanta, Mark Johnson, Paul Timmons and their cohorts are getting an organization together. MMG Healthcare is underwriting organizational efforts for the time being þ we thank them for getting in on the ground floor.
So far, the vision taking shape calls for a national, cross-country torch run passing through all the historic places in our disability rights movement history. It would include a week-long festival in Atlanta.
The purpose is two-fold. Educate everybody about the ADA and the disability community. Light a fire under our movement to truly celebrate equal civil rights for the one-fifth of the American public with disabilities.
Beginning this July 26, and at each subsequent ADA anniversary leading up to 2000, we will organize festivals, workshops, seminars, cultural displays and the like.
Now is the time to climb on board. Contact us here at MAINSTREAM if you want to be a part of history in the making.
President Bill Clinton named Marilyn Golden, a policy analyst at the Disability Rights, Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, California, to the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. The president also named Marc D. Guthrie, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Central Ohio, to the board.
Did they or didn't they? Did six big corporations who sponsored the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games refuse to sponsor the Paralympicsþand worseþ refuse to release their sponsorship category so that the Paralympics could approach competitors?
For example, Visa sponsored the Olympics, but declined to sponsor the Paralympics. Negotiations took place, with the Paralympics sending a team of officials to talk to the Visa people in San Francisco. Visa's board of directors nixed the deal. And the sponsorship category was not released.
Could that be because Visa's archrival, American Express, had approached the Paralympics about sponsorship?
The other companies listed in the Sinful Six are John Hancock Mutual Insurance Co., Bausch & Lomb, Sara Lee, Anheuser-Busch and McDonald's.
Some of these companies say they were never asked to release their category. To which the other side says: Baloney.
Chuck Edwards, the marketing chief for the Paralympics, said that all the companies were approached. Initial contacts were made by a company called Isis, and once any interest by a company was determined, Edwards got involved.
Andrew Fleming, chief executive of the Paralympics, points out that McDonald's Corporation did take steps to support the Paralympics. McDonald's didn't give a blanket release, but gave the Paralympics approval to solicit support from competitors under certain restrictions. That's how Chick-Fil-A came to enter a $200,000 deal with the Paralympics.
Also, McDonald's sponsored a week-long national tray-liner program to promote the Paralympics.
So, did they or didn't they? Does it matter? The fact is that, McDonald's aside, these six companies supported the Olympics and refused to support the Paralympics. And the competitors of these companies were not allowed to be supporters of the Paralympics.
Finally, the real question remains: Will these companies become sponsors of the Paralympic Games in 2000? Will they become founding sponsors of the U.S. Disabled Athletes Fund?
They know we are here. They know we are concerned. They say they support people with disabilities. So, will they work with the National Council on Independent Living to see how they can empower people with disabilities? Will they provide funding for a worldwide celebration of disability rights?
Let's ask them. After all, if they want us to support their businesses, they should support us.
Here's where to reach them:
Stephen L. Brown, Chairman, John Hancock Mutual Life, P.O. Box 111, Boston, MA 02117
Edmund P. Jensen, President, Visa International, P.O. Box 8999, San Francisco, CA 94128-8999
Ed Rensi, President, McDonald's Corporation, 1 McDonald Plaza, Oak Brook, IL 60521
August A. Busch III, Chairman and President, Anheuser-Busch, One Busch Place, St. Louis, MO 63118
William H. Waltrip, Chairman, Bausch & Lomb, Inc., One Bausch & Lomb Place, Rochester, NY 14604
John H. Bryan, Chairman, Sara Lee Corporation, 3 First National Plaza, Chicago, IL 60602-4260
Alleging massive non-compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other civil rights guarantees for children with disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund sued the California Department of Education and the Ravenswood school district. The East Palo Alto Community Law Project and the Law Office of Rony Sagy joined in the suit.
The Ravenswood district serves about 5,000 children in the predominantly poor African-American, Latino and Pacific Islander minority community of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park. About 450 children are identified as disabled and in need of services. The suit claims they have been waiting for services for years and were often segregated unnecessarily in "handicapped only" classrooms.
A new Office on Disability Policy has been created to advise the federal Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on all housing issues dealing with disability. They will propose changes to HUD rules or policies that may negatively affect people with disabilities. Thea Spires was named director of the office. She can be reached at (202) 401-7991. Or email her at thea_spires@hud.gov
-- Dr. Megan Kirshbaum, executive director of Through the Looking Glass received the $50,000 Henry B. Betts Award for pioneering work with parents with disabilities. Through the Looking Glass provides direct services, education, research and advocacy that benefit over eight million American families with children in which one or both parents have a disability.
-- Writer Kathi Wolfe, a regular contributor to MAINSTREAM, won an EDI award from the National Easter Seal Society for her article, War Work, in the August 1995 issue of MAINSTREAM. Wolfe's article told how people with disabilities were employed in industry and even in the armed forces during World War II. Kathi did a great job! Congratulations to her! Other winners in the 7th Annual EDI (for Equality, Dignity and Independence) awards included the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, and National Geographic World.
Mobility International USA invites people with and without disabilities, ages 15-34, to apply for summer exchange programs to Mexico and the U.S. The 1997 programs focus on cross-cultural understanding, leadership development, disability and adaptive recreation, among other things. Contact: MISUA, P.O. Box 10767, Eugene, OR 97440.
Increasing numbers of students with disabilities are going to colleges and universities, the American Council on Education reports. The growth is largely due to the provisions of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which bars anyone getting federal funds from discriminating of the basis of disability, and the ADA.
The report says 890,000 students with disabilities entered institutions of higher education in 1993, making up 6 percent of the total undergraduate population and 4 percent of all graduate and first-professional students. The most common disability among undergrads is related to orthopedic conditions (37 percent); others were health (23 percent); hearing (20 percent); learning (18 percent); sight (11 percent); and speech (7 percent).
Students with disabilities also tended to be older than their counterparts. Thirty-six percent of those with disabilities were 35 or older, compared with 19 percent of those who were non-disabled. They also were more likely to be financially independent (67 percent vs 51 percent); married (33 percent vs 27 percent); and/or veterans (17 percent vs 7 percent).
-- From an ad in a local neighborhood newspaper in San Diego for apartments for rent. "A Nice Place to Live" the headline reads. And the units sound great, with "newer decor," "new lush landscaping being installed," "nice kitchens" and "spacious rooms and closets." The bottom line: "Health-Challenged individuals are welcome (however, no elevators)." Ta-boom!
-- The Muscular Dystrophy Association is distributing hand-out ads (hoping we'll use them for free) that extol MDA's support of people with disabilities. Whaaat?
For decades, they say. For decades, MDA has shown how valuable people with disabilities are to society. I've got an open mind, but I don't have holes in my head. Jerry's Orphans has been hammering Jerry Lewis and MDA for years. And Evan Kemp has been doing it since the early 80s. Just check out The Crusade of Jerry's Orphans (MAINSTREAM, August `94). Remember Jerry Lewis? The Jerry who said we were half-human, who said his "kids" could do nothing?
C'mon MDA, stop trying to rewrite history.
A federal court jury awarded $300,000 to a former Denver police officer who was forced to retire after being injured in the line of duty. In the Justice Department's first trial under the ADA, the jury found that the Denver police department failed to reassign Jack Davoll to a vacant civilian job that he could perform þ and wanted to.
"Davoll wanted to work; was able to work; but the city wouldn't let him," said Deval Patrick, assistant attorney-general for civil rights. "That's wrong."
A year ago (Big Fight in a Small Town, Dec. 95/Jan.96), we wrote about the leaders of Spencer, Massachusetts, the town that rejected the ADA. They refused to comply, even dragging their heels when activist Tom Hopkins hauled them into federal court. And the judge lashed the town leaders severely, ordering them to get with the act.
Last Nov. 5, voters in Spencer approved an increase in property taxes to fund renovations to bring the town's three public schools into compliance with the ADA.
Hopkins endured years of harassment for his efforts, including anonymous threats to "burn you out of town." The chair of the town's Board of Selectmen told the local paper that Hopkins was "mentally sick," while a local businessman called him a "stupid cripple" and urged that he "piss at home" instead of pushing for accessible public restrooms.
After Hopkins sued, things began to change. Not only did the town move to make the schools accessible, but it got a new building inspector, a new town attorney and several new faces on the Board of Selectmen.
"This is a real positive step in the right direction," Hopkins told MAINSTREAM after the vote. "This shows that people in the town understand that access is a right, and have made it a priority. There's still a lot of work to be done, especially on attitudes, but I'm quite optimistic now."
Robert Burns, an Iowa developer whose 96-unit housing plan was rejected in May, has filed a discrimination complaint against the city of North Liberty.
The complaint filed Oct. 25 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says the City Council's refusal to rezone about 14 acres from industrial to multi-family residential violated the Fair Housing Law.
The complaint said the council "did not want to allow an increase in the number of minority or handicapped persons in the community." The complaint said the city discriminates against blacks and Hispanics, physically and mentally handicapped people, and families with children younger than 18.
Some Arkansas legislators say merging the state schools for the blind and deaf would make the operation more efficient but parents and teachers are lobbying to keep the schools the way they are.
Consolidating the administration of the Arkansas School for the Blind with the Arkansas School for the Deaf would eliminate duplication of services and save money, proponents say.
But parents and teachers are already lobbying legislators and influential education groups, preparing for an anticipated battle over the issue in the upcoming legislative session.
The Legislature earlier gave the deaf school responsibility for maintenance, housekeeping, transportation and security at both schools.
The National Council of Churches overwhelmingly approved recommendations seeking to remove the barriers for deaf and hard-of-hearing worshipers.
The council's policy statement says that more than 27 million people in North America are either deaf or hard of hearing and that perhaps less than 10 percent of the deaf community "are churched."
To make churches more accessible, the council offers a range of suggestions, including (in some cases) separate worship services with pastors and teachers, preferably deaf users of American Sign Language. Separate services are needed for ASL users because it is a visual language that is structurally distinct from English.
The council says people need the freedom to develop forms of worship that reflect the deaf culture, "such as prayer with eyes open, storytelling, drama and the use of drums."
Dax Cowart was blinded and disabled when he started his car in 1973 and set off two propane gas explosions that burned 75 percent of his body and killed his father.
Today, he is a successful attorney, married and with "a better quality life than most other people."
But he says he still wishes doctors had let him die rather than face the agony of his burns, as he begged them to during 15 months of treatment in three hospitals.
Doctors had no right to keep him alive against his own wishes, Cowart says.
Yale Law School professor Robert Burt disagrees.
Burt says Cowart didn't understand the quality of life he could eventually enjoy. He says Cowart also showed signs he wasn't sure he wanted to die.
Cowart says Burt doesn't understand. "The price in terms of pain was much too high. People, for some strange reason, don't seem to be able to understand that pain can be so terrible that death is a better option."
Cowart, 48, now free of pain and glad to be alive, is still arguing that he had a right to die. His opinions have kept his case at the forefront of debate over when a patient has the right to refuse treatment.
Cowart criticizes his doctors for not giving him enough medication to control the pain. But his strongest complaint is that they ignored his demands to die. If they had let his skin infections spread, he would have died.
"I believe the right to control your own body is a right you're born with," he said. "It's something you don't have to ask anyone else for."
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for a nurse convicted of killing a quadriplegic with a fatal dose of heart medication at a Birmingham hospital five years ago.
The court ruled that Jefferson County Circuit Judge J. Richmond Pearson erred by retaining a prospective juror who said she had already decided that Joseph Dewey Akin was guilty.
Akin, of Marietta, GA, was sentenced to life in prison for his 1992 conviction in the death of Robert J. Price, 32, at Cooper Green Hospital in Birmingham.
Prosecutors said Akin injected Price with lidocaine, a local anesthetic and heart medication, because he got a thrill from the excitement when the man's heart rate monitor sounded and hospital workers raced to save him.
In a 1991 interview, Akin's mother said "the more trauma was involved, the more he enjoyed it."
Akin was also involved but never charged in at least 17 suspicious deaths at North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, GA, where he worked for seven months before being fired for undisclosed reasons. He surrendered his nursing license after authorities announced they were investigating him.
Actor Christopher Reeve, who suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury in a riding accident last May, told hundreds of disabled Coloradans that while he's lost the ability to ski, his brain and heart are intact.
"The most important parts of your body are your brain and your heart, and those work well with spinal cord injuries. I'm thankful they are intact. And in a way þ a strange way þ I'm possibly on my way to becoming a better person," the 42-year-old actor told an audience of about 2,500.
Reeve was in Denver to talk about his life as a disabled man and actor and to raise money for the JumpStart Fund of Denver Options Inc., a non-profit organization that provides services to people with developmental disabilities. He also accepted an award from the group.
Asked why he travels around the country talking about his disability, he said he wants to use his position as a public figure "to do everything I can on our behalf."
"Denial is the worst thing you can do to yourself," Reeve told a young disabled woman who asked him how he dealt with anger.
"I sometimes take out my anger by going outside and shouting. I try not to take it out on the people around me," he said.
Reeve, frank in sharing his thoughts on being a quadriplegic, said he knows from personal experience "how easy it is to look past people with disabilities."
Asked at what point he decided life was worth living, he said it occurred five days after he was first hospitalized in Virginia and his wife, Dana, and their three children walked into the room.
"I've found that the doing of things is less important than just being. My children get as much pleasure getting my undivided attention for a half hour than we ever did going down a ski slope together," he said.
Associated Press reports were used compiling this column.