(The Guardian)
July 31, 2012

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND– [Excerpt via Inclusion Daily Express] The US and the EU are blocking a treaty that would give the world’s blind and visually impaired people — 90% of whom live in the developing world — easier access to published works in formats they can use.

A “treaty for blind people” has been under discussion at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) since 2008, but negotiations have made little progress. In the latest round of talks in Geneva, which ended on Wednesday 25 July, negotiators deferred a decision on the issue once again, to the dismay of activists.

“This is not just a legal issue — for us, this is a moral issue. It’s about human rights,” said Teresa Hackett, programme manager at Electronic Information for Libraries, a non-profit group based in the Netherlands.

There are about 256 million visually impaired people in the developing world, according to an estimate by the World Health Organisation. In many rich countries, blind people have ready access to works that have been translated into braille and other accessible formats such as audio and large-print books, although, according to the EU, only 5% of books are accessible to blind people in wealthy states.

However, under existing copyright law, poorer countries can’t access those translations without getting the express permission of the copyright holder.

Entire article:
US and EU blocking treaty to give blind people access to books
http://tinyurl.com/ide0731122

By Andrea Scarpino

“So, did Dad talk your ear off?” my step-mother asked when I returned to her house from the cemetery. “Wouldn’t shut up,” I replied. We like to banter like this, about how much trouble Dad is causing, what he’s been up to since our last visit. He’s been dead five years this summer, and there’s some comfort in talking about him in the present tense, as if he’s holding court in the cemetery like he did in life. The truth is, I had a hard time finding his grave. I had never visited without my step-mother, and only had vague recollections about where in the cemetery their plot is located, how far from one of the intersecting streets. It was stifling hot in Cincinnati, muggy and humid in a way only Ohio summers can be. Cicadas chirped in the trees and grasshoppers leapt from the ground as I walked among the graves looking for his reddish gravestone with the heart shape. When I finally found it, I sat in the muggy grass looking at the engraved birth and death dates, the engraved “Scarpino,” wondering how five years could have already passed. Five years. My grandmother died at the start of that summer two days shy of her 92nd birthday. My father died two months later, only 30 minutes before I reached the hospital. I had flown across the country and driven two hours trying to get to him. Exactly three weeks later, a dear friend was shot and killed while outside his home painting. The Summer of Death, I came to call it. A summer in which nothing made much sense. I remember sitting in my office between teaching summer classes with my head between my knees, trying to work up the courage to go to my next class. I remember driving to work and suddenly realizing I was completely lost, the route I knew by heart suddenly unfamiliar—I had driven a dozen exits past the one I needed. I remember care packages from friends, trying to read even the goofiest magazines they sent without any ability to follow the words on the page. I remember lying in bed. I remember running—and crying as I ran. I remember my left eye twitching constantly—for almost a year, it twitched. I sat in the grass in front of my father’s grave, five years since the Summer of Death, and listened to the cicadas, watched the grasshoppers, thought about how much I still miss him, my grandmother, my friend. How much I would like them all to still be here. And I talked to my Dad, told him some news I thought he would enjoy, asked him to keep visiting me in my dreams, the only time I still feel his presence. But the truth is: he never responds, no matter how much I would love to hear his voice. Unlike in life, it seems he has nothing more to say.

Back then, 1959, he couldn’t distinguish between dreams and daylight. Even in sleep there were wings. Also the trail of shadows or the footprints of shadows, he didn’t know which–he simply understood the soft stirrings were caused by his brother. The twin who goes to heaven is a talker.

(UPI)
July 27, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] The number of severely disabled people in the United States appears to be increasing, the Census Bureau said in a report released Wednesday.

In 2010, 56.7 million people, 19 percent of the total population, had a disability, demographers said. That was 2.2 million more than in 2005, with the percentage of the population considered disabled statistically the same.

But the number and percentage of people with severe disabilities and of those requiring assistance for ordinary tasks was up, possibly because of the increase in the number of elderly residents in the United States, the report said. About 15 million people have difficulty with at least one activity of daily living like eating, preparing food or answering the telephone, and 12 million need assistance to get through the day.

“Americans with Disabilities: 2010” was the first report on the subject the Census Bureau has done since 2005.

Entire article:
Census: More severely disabled in U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/0727122a
Related:
Profile America Facts for Features: Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act: July 26 
http://tinyurl.com/0727122c
Americans With Disabilities: 2010 (United States Census Bureau)
http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf

It has always seemed to me that poetry enters our lives by way of astonishment hugging stealth. This is different from simple persistence:  much of comedy depends on the aggregate absurdities of postural beings who live in a high gravity world. But poetry is another matter: poems are in part a demonstration of steadfast attention, a childlike idea that if we stay long enough in the old boathouse, and peer down into the water with enough hopeful attention, we will see the old turtle who lives in the shadows of the pilings come out like a sorcerer from the woods. And when he appears at last like a mobile and dark piece of crockery, we know that patience, forethought, and the beautiful absurd are all the same. I have always thought of this as comedy raised to a higher dimension, analogous perhaps to the playing of three dimensional chess. Or simply chess by Marcel DuChamps rules. Have it how you will.

(KTSM)
July 26, 2012

EL PASO, TEXAS– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] It may be hard to imagine the same people celebrating and protesting at the same time but that’s exactly what happened today at El Paso City Hall.

Advocates of the Americans With Disabilities Act led a protest in front of City Hall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the act’s passing.

As part of the demonstration, the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project announced a series of lawsuits against city and county governments, claiming they have violated the ADA.

The lawsuits follow the death of an El Paso man struck by a vehicle as he crossed a street near the eastside bus terminal in his wheelchair. ADA advocates blame local government for the incident for failing to provide accessible pathways near the terminal.

Entire article:
Celebration/Protest At El Paso City Hall Over Disabilities Act
http://tinyurl.com/ide0726123a
Related:
Conference Shines Light on Local ADA Lawsuits
http://www.ktsm.com/news/conference-shines-light-local-ada-lawsuits
Disability Rights Group Files Lawsuits
http://www.ktsm.com/news/disability-rights-group-files-lawsuits

Happy ADA Anniversary!!! History was made today!!!

Twenty two years ago today, July 26 , the ADA was signed and NOW… today July 26, 2012  the CRPD was voted favorably out of Committee and to the Senate floor! Thank you for all of your emails, letters and phone calls. This victory belongs to you!!!!

What’s next? The CRPD is now entering its final stage for a full floor vote in the Senate.  We believe there is still time for floor action in the next week before the August recess.  We have to make sure that every Senator hears the disability community’s support behind this important treaty in order to achieve successful ratification! WE NEED a 2/3 VOTE TO RATIFY THIS TREATY… THAT MEANS A 50 STATE STRATEGY! We will not get floor time next week if we cannot show that we have the votes to block a filibuster. There is very little floor time left. As you know the Senate switchboards have been ringing with the homeschoolers, Phyllis Schlafly and Rick Santorum supporters.  But our networks (YOU!) have shown the Foreign Relations Committee that we will not stop until this treaty is ratified… now we need to show the WHOLE Senate.

So here’s what is next:

ACTION: We have just one week before the August recess! Activate EVERYONE to call, email, and visit your Senate offices! Tweet #CRPD and Facebook messages of support! EACH call and contact makes a difference!

MESSAGE: “On July 26^th, the anniversary of the ADA, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted in favor of the CRPD with bipartisan support! Please support the CRPD as it comes to a vote in the full Senate – this is important to the disability community!  This is a Disability Issue!!“

CONTACTS: The Capitol Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.  Ask to be connected to your Senator’s office and call both Senators! Or, you can find Senator’s contact information at this link:  http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Mark your Calendar: National Call for Advocates on July 30^th!

Finally, please join DREDF and USICD for a national teleconference for updates on today’s vote and important details of this final step!

Date: Monday, July 30^th

Time: 2PM Eastern/11AM Pacific

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

Victory is only ONE VOTE AWAY!

From: “Vivian M. May” <vmmay@syr.edu>
Date: July 27, 2012 8:18:36 AM EDT
To: <WGSFACULTY@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Fall course: feminist theories of knowing, WGS 740
Reply-To: “Vivian M. May” <vmmay@syr.edu>

Dear Colleagues,

if you have graduate students who would be interested in taking a feminist theory course focused on epistemology and the politics of knowledge, please let them know about my fall seminar, WGS 740!  A description is below….

Feminist Theories of Knowing, WGS 740

Wed 3:45-6:30

Professor Vivian May, vmmay@syr.edu

 

How do power & privilege shape what “counts” as knowledge & who “counts” as a knower?

This seminar explores a number of questions about the knowledge/power nexus, including:

• What is epistemic hegemony and how does it play out?
• What are strategies of epistemic resistance or insurgency?
• Whose knowledge, and what forms of knowledge, have been considered valid, and why?
• What roles do affect and embodiment play on knowing?
• What are the contours of thinking margin-to-margin (& not just margin to center)?

Drawing on a range of theoretical texts, course readings are organized around several key themes:

• Epistemologies of resistance
• Situated  knowing: Affect, embodiment, identity
• Decolonizing knowledge and decolonial feminisms
• Thinking across borders
• Ignorance and hauntings

Three of the most celebrated chefs in Central New York — Kevin Gentile, Yann Guigne and Eva Zaczynski — will show off their skills for a cause Sunday in an event called Philanthropic Foodies.

It’s a food-tasting fundraiser 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Gentile’s Restaurant, 313 N. Geddes St., Syracuse.

Here’s how it works:

Gentile and his friend Guigne, who is co-owner and chef at L’Adour Restaurant Francais, 110 Montgomery St., Syracuse, will work at stations in the downstairs dining room, each offering about a half-dozen tasting plates or appetizers. Each will also prepare two buffet-style dishes served in the upstairs dining area.

Zacynski, owner of Eva’s European Sweets, 1305 Milton Ave., Syracuse, will prepare desserts, also in small-plate portions.

Other stations will feature locally sourced cheese and produce, and there will be a beer and wine bar and music.

Proceeds benefit the Samaritan Center, which serves hot meals 365 days a year to homeless and needy men, women and children, and The Friends of Dorothy House, which provides home-based hospice care for people with AIDS and terminal illnesses.

A minimum donation of $100 per person is requested. For reservations, go to philanthropicfoodiessyr.eventbrite.com.