Author: stevekuusisto

(The Guardian)
June 5, 2012

UNITED NATIONS– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] The UN’s special rapporteur on torture has made a formal approach to the US government over a special-needs school near Boston that inflicts electric shocks on autistic children as a form of behavioural control.

Juan Mendez has told the Guardian that he has opened discussions with the US mission to the UN in Geneva as a first step towards investigating the school.

The rapporteur plans to contact the US state department and has the option of reporting the matter to the UN human rights council.

Mendez said he was “very concerned” about the use of electric shocks, which are inflicted on autistic children through pads applied to their skin.

“The use of electricity on anyone’s body raises the question of whether this is therapeutic or whether it inflicts pain and suffering tantamount to torture in violation of international law,” he added.

Entire article:
UN calls for investigation of US school’s shock treatments of autistic children
http://tinyurl.com/ide0605121a
Related:
The United Nations calls again for investigation of JRC’s shock treatments (Disability Rights International)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0605121b
Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth
http://www.cafety.org
Judge Rotenberg Center — Facility Uses Electric Shock To Change Behavior (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/ma/jrc.htm

So I admit, I've got the blues. Was it Dr. Phil? His show entitled "Deadly Consequences" managed to advocate for euthenizing children with disabilities and when I heard about it I felt like a man who eats his own marrow for supper–the poverty of ideas and of compassion that the episode displayed was spiritually overwhelming, or almost. I say "almost" because I'm not alone in my anger and disgust. It's easy however to stop writing. It's easy to say, "Well, the Fascists are all about us, let's stop thinking about them for awhile." It's advisable to take some time, keep calm, breathe, rebuild your motorcycle or whatever else you generally do when its time to take care of your unconscious. I've been playing with my guide dog and talking to my wife's horse. 

I'm comforted by many sources. Thank you Bill Peace for your abiding and shrewdly tempered blog "Bad Cripple" where we recently read the following:

"To me, disability rights is fundamentally a civil rights issue. This is as obvious to me as is the need to breath. Unfortunately the vast majority of people do not equate disability rights with civil rights. Disability for most people is a medical problem and the notion of disability rights as civil rights requires a theoretical leap they are unable or unwilling to accept. Such a leap in logic requires one to disregard all they have been explicitly taught and absorbed about disability. The inability or refusal to consider disability rights as akin to civil rights is an increasing danger to all people–not just those with a disability."

NESN

It’s been a while since the golf world has heard from Casey Martin. Last he showed up on the radar, he was successfully suing the PGA Tour — in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, a case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court — under the Americans With Disabilities Act to allow him the use of a golf cart during tournaments.

Martin was born with a defect in his right leg, Klippel–Trénaunay–Weber syndrome, which affects circulation in the limbs. He played his college golf at Stanford University, where he was a teammate of Tiger Woods.

During the ongoing case (while he was allowed a cart) and after its resolution, Martin enjoyed only marginal success in golf, earning a full PGA Tour exemption for only the 2000 season. However, he competed in many Nike Tour events (now the Nationwide Tour), and currently serves as the golf coach for the University of Oregon.

On Tuesday, however, Martin, now 40 years old, earned a spot in the 2012 U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club by making it through local and sectional qualifying, culminating with a 5-foot par putt at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Oregon. And yes, Martin will be using a cart at Olympic Club next weekend.

(Daily Beast)
June 1, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] When the Push Girls roll into a room, your eyes do not focus on the shiny wheelchairs underneath them. That’s because you really haven’t seen anything like this formidable posse before — five women bonded by the common obstacle life has thrown at them, but even more so by how they’ve chosen to handle it. Gorgeous, joyous, and sentenced to sit for the rest of their lives, it’s easy to comprehend why the Sundance Channel would find them worthy of their own series.

Push Girls, which premiereson June 4, isn’t like other unscripted franchises that put women together in the hopes of headline-grabbing catfights. The show, produced by Gay Rosenthal (Little People, Big World), depicts the reality of living with paralysis and how it doesn’t have to define a person’s life. That may sound really hokey, but spend some time with knockouts Angela Rockwood, Auti Angel, Mia Schaikewitz, Tiphany Adams, and Chelsie Hill, and you might be left pondering how you’ve handled your own setbacks.

“The people in our immediate lives have been able to deal with the paralysis and realize that this is not a tragedy,” said 33-year-old Schaikewitz, who became paralyzed at 15 when an arteriovenous malformation ruptured in her spinal cord. “It’s uplifted us and uplifted them. Only people we’ve had these intimate relationships have experienced it. What’s great about the show is the audience is going to be able to see that, whether they met us in person or not.”

The five women didn’t know each other when they were able to walk but now they’re as inseparable as Carrie Bradshaw and her Sex and the City cohorts. Angel, Schaikewitz, and Adams, who all live in Los Angeles, met serendipitously through Rockwood, a model and actress who became a quadriplegic nearly 11 years ago following a car accident. Two years ago, they all met 20-year-old Hill at a benefit and fast became the older sisters she always wanted.

Entire article:
Push Girls on Sundance: Summer’s Most Surprising Show
http://tinyurl.com/ide0601125a
Related:
Wheelchairs can’t slow these powerful ‘Girls’ (Washington Post)
http://tinyurl.com/ide0601125b
Push Girls (Sundance Channel)
http://www.sundancechannel.com/push-girls/

THE PUSH GIRLS ARE HERE

All new original series premiering June 4th at 10p!

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/htmlFederated?&width=370&height=250&flashID=myExperience1920013242345&bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&playerID=625479735001&playerKey=AQ~~%2CAAAAAGLt-No~%2C6QdLGNH5aG496sKnwGoc32dieXcWivgq&isVid=true&isUI=true&dynamicStreaming=true&wmode=transparent&adServerURL=http%3A%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fpfadx%2Fsundance.video%2Fpushgirls&%40videoPlayer=1630320044001&autoStart=&debuggerID=&showNoContentMessage=&startTime=1338893893003&refURL=http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=push%20girls&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sundancechannel.com%2Fpush-girls%2F&ei=OubNT7GfG4n56QGcv-yODA&usg=AFQjCNEc6wirK8DXZQScSWT4QuFgLTzm3A

A story from syracuse.com:
Alec Baldwin to host panel, film on fracking today at Landmark Theatre
Download the syracuse.com app for your iPhone from the App Store today!

(Not Dead Yet)
May 31, 2012

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] On May 29, thirty national disability organizations lead by Not Dead Yet issued a letter to the Dr. Phil Show, criticizing its April 13th segment entitled “Deadly Consequences.”

According to the letter, the segment “presented the idea that parents should be able to euthanize their children who have intellectual disabilities” and did so in “such an extremely unbalanced manner as to amount to a promotion of such a deadly proposition.”

National organizations signing onto the letter include ADAPT, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Easter Seals, National Association of the Deaf, National Disability Rights Network, Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), The Arc of the United States United Spinal. Over sixty state and local disability organizations also joined in the letter.

The organizations call upon Phil McGraw and the Dr. Phil Show “to publicly apologize for the ‘Deadly Consequences’ segment and to give equal time to individuals with intellectual disabilities and organizations advocating their equal rights.”

Entire press release:
Thirty national disability organizations blast “Deadly Consequences” segment of the Dr. Phil show
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9551185.htm
Related:
Text of Response to Dr. Phil Segment ‘Deadly Consequences’ with List of National, State and Local Signons.
http://tinyurl.com/ide0531121b
Video clip:
Deadly Consequences — April 13, 2012 (Dr. Phil)
http://drphil.com/shows/show/1826

New iOS App Offers More Choice and Access
to Print-Disabled Americans

Baltimore, Maryland (June 4, 2012): NFB-NEWSLINE^®, a free audible newspaper service for blind and print-disabled people, today announced the launch of an exciting new access method. NFB-NEWSLINE^® Mobile, a free iOS application now available in the Apple App Store, features the text of over three hundred newspapers, forty magazines, and wire feeds, plus personalized television listings. This breakthrough access method will allow NFB-NEWSLINE^®subscribers to easily view online and download their favorite publications with their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), said: “NFB-NEWSLINE^® has made another groundbreaking advance with NFB-NEWSLINE^® Mobile. It is easy to learn, simple to use, powerful, and practical for today’s mobile computing environment. Now blind and print-disabled people have a wealth of information, available to them at their fingertips, which can be quickly and easily accessed throughout the day.”

“We are proud to offer our subscribers this new exciting mobile iOS application that allows them access to their favorite publications at home, while traveling to work, in the classroom, or in the office. If you’re looking for news from around the corner or from around the globe, NFB-NEWSLINE^® Mobile can help you quickly find it,” said Scott White, director of the NFB-NEWSLINE^® program for theNational Federation of the Blind.

David DeNotaris, a blind professional, said: “Access equals success, and we have access to more newspapers, magazines and TV listings then ever before! So far I’ve used NFB-NEWSLINE^®Mobile at the pool, on the treadmill, on the train, while waiting for breakfast at the diner, and I am sure lots of other places to come! I really enjoy my iPhone, and now that NFB-NEWSLINE^® is on it, I can’t put it down! Great job, NFB-NEWSLINE^® team!”

NFB-NEWSLINE^® allows those who cannot read conventional newsprint due to a visual or physical disability to access publications as well as television and job listings over the telephone, on the Web, or by download to digital talking book players or MP3-playing devices.

To learn more about NFB-NEWSLINE^®, please visitwww.nfbnewsline.org. Those interested in subscribing to the service may fill out the online application form, write tonfbnewsline@nfb.org or call(866) 504-7300. In order to be eligible for NFB-NEWSLINE^®, an individual must be a USresident who is legally blind or has a physical or learning disability that prevents the independent reading of newspapers.

Phil Taylor’s piece on the Mets is “spot on” and speaks for generations of fans:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/phil_taylor/06/02/mets.johan.santana.no.hitter/index.html?xid=cnnbin

“The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have repeatedly promised to do a better job of handling the medical evaluations of wounded and disabled service members. Instead, they are doing worse.”

Full editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/sunday/a-disservice-to-disabled-troops.html?hpw

Comedian Margaret Cho made news this week when she announced on Fox News that she doesn’t want to have a “retard baby”–you can see the video here.

Now I of course can’t speak for all the retard babies, but as a preemie blind kid born in the fifties, who would have been the subject of abortion prognostications had pre-natal testing existed, I can tell Margaret to shut her pie hole. Kids with disabilities have nobility and beauty.

I’m not without subjectivity. I love nobility and beauty in all it’s forms. Some of my best friends are the very people Ms. Cho would call retard babies. In turn I choose not to call Margaret anything. She’s likely a sad person. History is filled with self-loathing comedians.