Planet of the Blind

An Untenable Situation

Shutting an eye can be just as difficult

as shutting an ear, believe it or not.

–Lars Gustafsson

Dear Lars: In my country the vast majority have accomplished the most difficult thing and have managed to shut their eyes. We were good at keeping them open until the American Bicentennial, but something happened in the mid 70’s and people began closing their eyes like angry children. Was it the military industrial complex? JFK? Viet Nam? Watergate? Birds flew into windows. Adolescents ran away. Tiny cyclones swept through tasteful living rooms. Books piled up on desks. One said TV killed democracy. Another said it was insatiable vanity. Soon librarians shut their eyes. And students, who once were our vanguard, they fell asleep.

Lars, those who kept their eyes open by means of strength and sorrow, through sad cheer– they felt themselves standing on the perilous front of a lost battle–the only place where they might confess their hope.

Support the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD)

TELL YOUR SENATORS TO SUPPORT DISABILITY RIGHTS EVERYWHERE!!

Support the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD)

ATTEND THE SENATE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, JULY 12TH

AND CONTACT KEY SENATORS!

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is an international treaty that outlines the obligations of ratifying countries to promote, protect, fulfill, and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. It embodies the American ideals that form the basis of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by empowering persons with disabilities to be independent and productive citizens. The US signed the CRPD on July 30, 2009.

Three years later, the Convention has yet to be ratified by the United States! 153 countries have signed it and 115 others have already ratified it!

On May 17, 2012, the Obama Administration submitted its treaty package to the Senate, which has since been supported by a bipartisan group of Senators.

Thanks to the disability community’s hard work, a hearing on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has FINALLY been scheduled for Thursday, July 12 in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

But we still need your help convincing the Foreign Relations Committee to VOTE YES and send the treaty to the Senate floor for a vote!

We need you to fill the room at the hearing to show our support for the CRPD!

We have received word that the Home School Legal Defense Association, which opposes the CRPD, has activated national calls in opposition to the Convention based on inaccurate statements about the treaty. They will NOT stop us with stall tactics nor erroneous interpretations of the treaty language. Let our voices be heard over the opposition … make a call to your Senator on the Foreign Relations Committee and tell them that the disability community needs their support!

Attend the hearing currently scheduled for THURSDAY, JULY 12TH AT 9:00 AM IN SENATE DIRKSEN OFFICE BUILDING ROOM G50 (note that the time is currently scheduled for 9 am but may change. To see the latest schedule click here)

MESSAGE: “Senator, I am a constituent from your state and I support the CRPD. I look to you to attend the Foreign Relations Committee hearing on July 12th and to support ratification. The CRPD is in the United States’ interests, protects our citizens and veterans abroad, and honors the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

CONTACT:

Chairman: Senator John Kerry (D-MA)

(202) 224-4651

Ranking Member: Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

(202) 224-6797

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) COSPONSOR OF CRPD

(202) 224-6441

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

(202) 224-3553

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD)

(202) 224-4524

Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA)

(202) 224-6324

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) COSPONSOR OF CRPD

(202) 224-5042

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)

(202) 224-3344

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)

(202) 224-6121

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) COSPONSOR OF CRPD

(202) 224-2152

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

(202) 224-4721

Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

(202) 224-3643

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)

(202) 224-5444

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

(202) 224-4744

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)

(202) 224-3041

Senator Jim Risch (R-ID)

(202) 224-2752

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

(202) 224-2841

Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) COSPONSOR OF CRPD

(202) 224-6621

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA)

(202) 224-4024

American Association of People with Disabilities

2013 H Street NW, 5th Floor | Washington, DC 20006

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The First Guide Dogs in the World

Graphic: Black and white artist's sketch of a little dog on a leash leading an older looking man wearing a cape, carrying a walking stick.

From: What a Dog Can Do: A Memoir of Life with Guide Dogs, by Stephen Kuusisto, forthcoming from Simon and Schuster

No one knows when the forerunner of today’s guide dogs first appeared. Drawings of blind people accompanied by dogs date back to the 17th century. Those early pairings were most likely memorization teams, one pictures the dog leading its partner through the village square. It’s clear no substantial training was involved. But we can imagine the tremendous bond with dogs that developed between the uncharted and lonely blind people of prior ages. It is a safe bet that dogs solved the puzzle of solitude for blind travelers who lived in a time when sightlessness was a great calamity. (The idea that blind men and women could be taught to read was a late development in cultural history, as Diderot’s essay Lettre sur les aveugles published in 1749 offered the first speculation that raised letters might be possible.) The world of the blind has been a dismal place throughout much of history. It’s possible to say, along with the poet Pablo Neruda that pure faith cannot withstand the assaults of winter, but your survival is more likely with a dog. Sometimes when I think about the ancient blind with their lives of begging and fiddle playing, their relentless wandering, homelessness, sickness, I weep to imagine the righteous loyalty of those early dogs.

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This Morning I Think of Things I Know

The yellow mask I wear on buses and trains, because I do not trust the uproar,

And behind it, a master of tempests.

The childish trick I have of hiding important things.

In the woods I always stand alone

Like an orphan without mercy.

Because night has no name I spend the days in conjecture.

The summer wind knows about grief.

Gauss, the great mathematician, was a tremendous poet.

Bravo for the New York Mets

I went to see the New York Mets this past Sunday with my inlaws, Bill and Norma, and my wife Connie. Lifelong Mets fans all. Bill has been rooting for "the Amazins'" since their first season in 1962, back when they had players so inept that their manager, Casey Stengel remarked, famously, "Can't anyone here play this game?" If you're not a baseball fan you may not know that in 1962 the Mets lost 120 games, still the record for the worst season in history. They were lovable losers with players like Choo Choo Coleman and Marvelous Marv Throneberry.

The franchise was created to offset the fact that New York City lost two baseball teams to California–the Dodgers and the Giants.

Now the Mets are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and they're fighting to be respectable with a cast of young players and some old fashioned grit. No matter what happens they won't lose 120 games.

Pictured above is the rotunda to Citi Field, which is essentially a museum honoring the memory of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player to be signed by the all-white major leagues. The entrance to Citi Field is stunning, both as a piece of architecture, but also as a civil rights memorial. I do not know of any other professional sporting team that honors civil rights in their stadium. Tell me if you know? Let's go Mets!

Stop the Bullying

toolkit full of resources specifically designed for parents, educators and students dealing with bullying of children with special needs.

Let’s help spread the word, shall we?

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Professor Stephen Kuusisto, blind since birth, is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“, is scheduled for release in October 2012. As director of the Renee Crown University Honors Program and a University Professor at Syracuse University, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com

Heraclitus and Wind in the Trees

There is perhaps a moral law within us, but nothing like the wind out there

and I mean nothing. I stood in a shadow at sunrise

a darkness on my wrist joints, knuckles, open palms

the evening’s chill all around. There is not much

between a person and the wind. We walk with a song on our lips

and one sound overtakes another what with the breeze.

For a helpless moment I thought I was the world.

Poetry as artful plagiarism

“Poetry is an artful plagiarism sometimes, where odd combinations of words influence our language and heightens our experience.” – Stephen Kuusisto

Professor Stephen Kuusisto is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. His second collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press, “Letters to Borges“, is scheduled for release in October 2012. As director of the Renee Crown University Honors Program and a University Professor at Syracuse University, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy. www.stephenkuusisto.com, www.planet-of-the-blind.com

From United States International Council on Disabilities: Sign On!

Please read the message below

USICD News

July 2012

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT FOR CRPD RATIFICATION – SIGN THE USICD LETTER!

Circle that says Ratify CRPD Yes

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be holding a hearing on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities onThursday, July 12, at 9:00 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G-50. Please attend this important hearing.

It is vital that Americans with and without disabilities make support for the CRPD heard in the Senate. Follow one of the appropriate links below to sign on as either an individual or, if authorized, for your organization. Please forward this message to your networks, friends, and family!

Click here to sign on as an INDIVIDUAL

Click here to sign on your ORGANIZATION

A note to our international friends: this letter is intended as a message from U.S. citizens and organizations to elected officials in the Senate, and so it is not open for signing by our colleagues outside of the United States. We appreciate your support!

For Text of the Full Letter

For more information and updates on the process

2012 USICD Annual Meeting – Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who came to USICD’s 2012 Annual Meeting! We were thrilled to see such a great turnout out of members, community members and even some international visitors on Tuesday, June 12 at the U.S. Access Board’s conference center.

Mwesigwa Martin Babu Speaks on International Disability Rights

USICD was delighted to be able to host Mwesigwa Martin Babu, Uganda’s candidate to sit on the CRPD Committee, and Programme Manager for HIV & AIDS at the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU). Martin shared the mission of NUDIPU which, like USICD, is an umbrella organization that is made up of DPO’s from around the country. NUDIPU works not only as an advocate for progress in the laws of Uganda towards PWD’s, but also provides resources and support for various DPO’s and programs throughout the country. He spoke of their emphasis on a rights-based approach to disability rights, as well a more recent emphasis on women, youth and children with disabilities as a particularly vulnerable section of the population.

To read more of Martin’s presentation.

Tech Literacy, Tech Creativity and the GDRL

Ellis travelled across East Africa in May and June to provide technical support and guidance for installations of USICD’s Global Disability Rights Library in the countries of Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Below is the second of a series of reflections on his travels and work abroad. Read the first blog in this series here.

One of the central priorities of Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) country visits are the technical and content trainings that we offer for deployment site representatives. We invite IT specialists or librarians from each site to attend a central training in which we can demonstrate and discuss the library installation process and explore navigation and content of the eGranary. In Kenya this training was held at the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights in N]irobi, which played host to eight other organizations from as far as Kibwezi and Kabarnet, and as nearby as Westlands and Kibera in Nairobi.

To Read the rest of this blog.

USICD Education and Outreach Report

CRPD Logo With the CRPD now being considered in the Senate, we have been spending June and July making sure that the disability community has accurate and thorough information on the disability treaty and the latest news on the ratification process. If you would like to become more involved, please contact our Disability Rights Program Manager Esme Grant

We are excited to announce that Esme and our Program Manager Andrea Shettle will be presenting on the CRPD and GDRL in the Disability Network Zone at the International AIDS Society Conference on July 23. Additionally, USICD Executive Director David Morrissey will be providing remarks at the opening ceremony for the Disability Zone, kicking off the week’s activities for this much anticipated focus area of the conference.

And at the end of August, David will be venturing to Minnesota as a keynote speaker and to host a workshop for the Self Advocate Become Empowered (SABE) Conference. He returns to the conference for a second year, excited to share the CRPD with such an enthusiastic audience of leaders.

Disability References in Rio +20 Report

RIO+20 In June 2012, the United Nations held a conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference, named Rio +20, was attended by heads of state, thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, and NGOs. Participants met to consider how to reduce poverty, advance social equity, and ensure environmental protection. Rio +20 marked the 20^th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also held in Rio de Janeiro. This year’s conference resulted in a 49-page outcome document entitled “The Future We Want” that calls for a wide range of actions that include launching a process to establish sustainable development goals and engaging civil society. This document includes five specific references to disability including participation and access to information, a commitment to an integrated approach to planning and building sustainable cities, and an emphasis on ensuring equal access to education for people with disabilities.

For more information on disability-related content, or for the full text of the document.

International Disability Updates

From June 11^th to June 12^th 2012, international disability experts and representatives from 34 countries attended the first América Solidaria meeting in Quito, Ecuador. During the meeting a variety of disability issues were discussed, including the need for the tourism industry and governments to adapt to the needs of persons with disabilities. Vice President of Ecuador Lenín Moreno, who himself has a disability, decided to hold América Solidaria after his recent visit to the World Bank in Washington, D.C., when he came up with the idea to “organize the first continental meeting for inclusion of people with disabilities.”

In early June 2012, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights within the Canadian Parliament released a report based on testimonies and meetings with members of the international disability community entitled Level The Playing Field: A Natural Progression from Playground to Podium for Canadians with Disabilities. The report “examines how the Government of Canada can enhance its ongoing efforts for eliminating barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from fully participating from physical activities and sports programs,” in the words of a press release issued by the committee.

The Plenary Session of the 22^nd RI World Congress is set to take place from October 30^thto November 2^nd, 2012, in the Songdo Convensia (Incheon, Republic of Korea). USICD members Maria Veronica Reina and Susan Parker will be speaking at this event.

The TAKAFO Campaign within Jordan, led by people with disabilities and DPOs, has recently had great success in the country at the legislative level. Due to advocacy efforts on behalf of the campaign, the Jordanian government re-wrote election law to allow people with disabilities to vote with the support of personal assistants and to abolish a mandate requiring voters with disabilities to swear an oath before voting. TAKAFO will soon launch a new advocacy initiative based upon results in the recently released CRPD civil society report.

Representatives from various civil society organizations and countries met from June 13^th to June 14^th 2012 in theAfrica LDC Civil Society Regional Strategy Assembly towards the Implementation of the IPoA held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More information relating to IPoA (Istanbul Programme of Action) can be found here.

In a previously unexpected move, last Wednesday (July 4^th) the South African Olympic Committee and Athletics South Africa selected amputee track athlete Oscar Pistorius for team South Africa in the 400m and 4×400 relay events of the London 2012 Olympic Games, making him the first amputee to ever compete in the Olympics. Click here for a complete story published on ESPN.com

USICD Says Farewell for Now

A micture of a red-haired gentleman wearing a blazer and button-down shirt

One final note, USICD says goodbye at the end of the month to Program Development Manager Ellis Ballard. Ellis leaves us at the end of July to explore a graduate degree in International Social Work. If you have worked with Ellis and would like to wish him well, please drop him an email ateballard@usicd.org