DisTHIS! film series returns Sept. 30

From DisTHIS!:

A moody teenager believes his family loves his disabled brother more than him and decides to get revenge. . .by hurling him off a mountain.

COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, another excellent production by the BBC, looks at a family where one child is different – but which child? And the challenges that causes – but to which child?

The film is a surprisingly unsentimental, but frequently funny 90 minute drama which explores the volatile relationship between two brothers. David is a typical 15-year-old with an active imagination. Ben is slightly older and has Down syndrome.

Written by Mark Haddon, author of the best-selling novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” Haddon’s script deals with Down syndrome warmly and wittily, rather than worthily. And it centers on an often overlooked aspect of disability in the often “feel good, overcoming obstacles, paint-by-numbers” world of TV dramas -- the way disability affects the entire family.

Features great performances from Tommy Jessop as Ben and Nicholas Hoult (from ABOUT A BOY and the controversial TV drama SKINS, shown stateside on BBC America) as David. (Both are pictured.) MOUNTAIN is more humorous, and touching, than you’d expect.

Screened along with the animated short COUSIN, Academy Award winner Adam Elliot’s childhood remembrances of a cousin, his special arm, pet rocks and shopping carts.

Date: Wednesday, September 30. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Screening begins promptly at 7. Refreshments will be served. Sorry, this film is not captioned.

NEW location: 5 Washington Place, Room 101 (Ground Floor) between Mercer and Broadway in NYC.

Suggested donation: $5

Screenings are regularly filled to capacity. To RSVP and secure YOUR seat, please email: disTHIS@dnnyc.net

ABOUT US: The disTHIS! Film Series, a program of the Disabilities Network of New York City, began in April 2006 to showcase festival quality, cutting edge short, documentary, feature and experimental films that offer ground-breaking interpretations of the disability experience beyond "movie of the week" cliches.

Acclaimed by film lovers with and without disabilities, disTHIS! has been featured in Disability Studies Quarterly, the Tribeca Trib, the New York Nonprofit Press, Able News and the New York Times Sunday Style section (above the fold!) for presenting quality disability cinema with the promise of "No handkerchief necessary, no heroism required!" disTHIS! films are frequently funny (and meant to be), remarkably sexy (just like our audiences), often controversial (because we like that sort of thing).

Always provocative; never quite what audiences expect. Monthly screenings are followed by audience “talk-backs” and regular appearances by filmmakers, actors and other guests.

Throughout our history, we've teamed with Film Comment, the BBC, IFC, and MTV, among others, to bring audiences the cutting edge of disability-themed cinema and television.

disTHIS! is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the generous support of the Fund for the City of New York, the Screen Actors Guild, the NYU Community Fund and our members.

Canadian singer Justin Hines honored with March of Dimes Award of Excellence

From JustinHines.com:

For his tireless work as an advocate and role model for people with disabilities, internationally-renowned singer-songwriter Justin Hines (pictured) was awarded the 2009 March of Dimes Canada Rick Hansen Award of Excellence.

When Rick Hansen completed his "Man in Motion" World Tour, he was honoured by March of Dimes at the Mayor's Civic Lunch. Arising from his accomplishment was the creation of the Rick Hansen Award of Excellence, which is presented periodically to the rare individual who has made outstanding contributions, or who has accomplished an outstanding achievement benefiting the cause of persons with physical disabilities internationally. Winners will have demonstrated by action and deed, the dedication and commitment exemplified by Rick Hansen, and be credited with an internationally recognized accomplishment in aid of people with physical disabilities.

The Rick Hansen Award of Excellence is not offered yearly, but rather to the select individuals, who like Justin; best personify the spirit of the Award. The last recipient of the Award was the Honourable David C. Onley, Ontario's Lieutenant Governor.

“We have been very fortunate to develop a wonderful relationship with both Justin and his management team over the last few years,” says Ruth Kapelus, Public Relations Coordinator for March of Dimes Canada.

“Justin is such an accomplished musician and it is rare to see someone with his talent and level of success determined to use this success to help others. He has supported March of Dimes at fundraisers, conferences and events and this is just a mere snapshot of his charitable endeavours. Justin touches people with his music, but for us at March of Dimes, we are even more deeply touched by his commitment to helping people with disabilities,” she continues.

Justin started his own charitable foundation at www.justinhines.org and also supports Variety Village, Reach for the Rainbow and a number of environmental causes.

In addition to the Rick Hansen Award of Excellence, Justin has been honoured with The Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson Easter Seals Award for Achievement in the Performing Arts, a YTV Achievement Award for Best Performance or Host in a Variety program or series, FACTOR (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record) Breakthrough Artist of the Year (2008) and a Gemini Award nomination.

Surfing serves as rehab for those battling addictions

From The NY Times:

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The first time Darryl Virostko (pictured) surfed waves as tall as three-story buildings at Mavericks, the legendary surf spot some 50 miles north of here, he was high on acid.

It was not the only drug Mr. Virostko, 37, would take during his surfing career. Even as he was earning a reputation as one of the most fearless surfers in the world — wining the Mavericks competition, the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, three consecutive times — he was also becoming an alcoholic and methamphetamine addict, dependencies that propelled him to success at surfing but eventually crushed him.

“With meth, you’re moving a million miles a minute,” said Mr. Virostko, whose nickname is Flea. “You’re psyched to catch any wave you can.”

By 2005, during a peak in methamphetamine use in Santa Cruz County, more than half of the drug-related arrests by the sheriff’s office involved methamphetamines. In a survey of 500 counties across the country completed in 2005, 87 percent reported increases in methamphetamine-related arrests in the previous three years. California counties reported a 100 percent increase.

“Meth was gigantic,” said Josh Pomer, 36, a surf filmmaker from Santa Cruz who has known Mr. Virostko since elementary school. “Everybody had sores all over their faces.”

Mr. Virostko has been sober for a year, and this month he started a program called FleaHab in collaboration with a local drug rehabilitation center. He will teach surfing and other sports to patients undergoing supervised alcohol and drug rehabilitation.

Mr. Virostko hopes that FleaHab will be his anchor in the dry terrain of sobriety. Addicts in the program will replace the high of drugs with the endorphin rush of strenuous physical activity, he says. He recently took a group surfing to try his hand at teaching. “It’s like I’m learning to surf again,” he said. “Seeing them so excited reminds me of when I first started.”

Mr. Virostko checked into a drug rehabilitation center in August 2008 after an intervention. Months before, in an inebriated state, he fell 60 feet down a cliff. “Once you start using meth it’s not something you can stop doing overnight,” he said.

After getting clean, Mr. Virostko gained 30 pounds that he is now working feverishly to lose before facing those mountains of saltwater this winter. “Life sober is hard,” he said. He said that he is nearly broke and that he fills in on construction jobs “just to be able to eat.”

Still, a cobbled-together life sober is better than the fate that befell some of his fellow surfers.

When methamphetamines hit this beachside college town 70 miles south of San Francisco, Mr. Pomer said, many local surfers disappeared from the water at famous surf breaks like Steamer’s Lane. “It was a zombie land,” Mr. Pomer said, describing the hollow-eyed, pockmarked surfers. “By 2005 the place was practically deserted. Everyone was inside their houses doing meth.”

The drug played a role in disaster on some occasions.

In late 2007 a big-wave surfer, Peter Davi, 45, drowned in 30-foot plus waves in Monterey County. Methamphetamine was found in his body, according to a toxicology report.

Though Mr. Virostko broke free, for years he was near the epicenter of this town’s drug-addled surf culture. His house on the city’s Westside was a “meth den,” covered in spray paint and enveloped in the smell of methamphetamine — an odor “like burnt carburetor,” said Mr. Pomer, who is making a documentary about “the Westsiders,” a group of surfers here known for their surfing prowess and for viciously defending surf breaks they considered their territory.

After winning the Mavericks “Men Who Ride Mountains” contest in 1999, Mr. Virostko said he rented a suite of rooms at a Santa Cruz hotel and held a multiday blowout featuring booze, scantily clad girls and a rainbow of pills, powders, acid, marijuana and mushrooms. In an intoxicated frenzy, he and his friends threw the suite’s furniture out a window and down to the beach below.

“I spent money left and right,” said Mr. Virostko, who earned more than $12,000 a month in sponsorships from surfboard and apparel companies.

He said his heaviest drug use followed a 2004 injury from falling down the face of a 40-foot wave at Waimea Bay in Hawaii. After that, he said, he took hard to methamphetamine and was drinking up to a half-gallon of vodka a day.

This winter, when North Pacific storms send swells crashing as monstrous waves against the craggy rock bed at Pillar Point, Mr. Virostko will be one of 24 big-wave surfers summoned to compete in the Mavericks competition. In an El Niño year like this one, the waves are predicted to be unusually large. The winner will take home $150,000.

This will be the first time Mr. Virostko competes as a sober man. And while many recovering addicts required by 12-step programs to choose a higher power opt for God, Mr. Virostko says he chose the ocean.

“Every time I’ve surfed Mavericks, I’ve gone under a wave and I’ve said, ‘Please just let me come up,’ ” Mr. Virostko said. “I’ve been talking to the ocean my whole life. It’s bigger and way more powerful than me.”

Wheelchair, scooter users find danger in Southern California sidewalks, streets, crosswalks

From The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif.:

A week after talking with a reporter about how dangerous it is to ride her wheelchair among distracted drivers and roads without sidewalks, Alice Mares called back with the bad news.

"I was run over in the parking lot."

Her story and the recent case of a wheelchair user struck in Yucaipa illustrate a well-known fact among the disabled: Navigating Southern California's notoriously pedestrian-hostile streets is tricky enough for those on two legs; it can be downright dangerous for people who get around by electric scooter or motorized wheelchair.

Last month, a 43-year-old Yucaipa man was left in critical condition after being struck by a truck while he crossed Yucaipa Boulevard in a motorized wheelchair. The truck was driven by a 16-year-old boy, who police said was not speeding and tried to stop before plowing into Wayne Swanson's wheelchair.

Police in the San Bernardino County city said Swanson was trying to cross the road at an unmarked intersection, a spot where it's legal to cross but where a pedestrian must be on his toes.

Dale Cole (pictured), of Temecula, said he has been hit three times since he started using an electric scooter in 1986. The first accident sent Cole to the hospital.

Cole, an amiable 83-year-old, spends his days buzzing around Old Town Temecula in southwestern Riverside County with his Cairn Terrier, Deletta Mae, in a basket in the front. He and the dog, accessorized with rose-colored sunglasses and a blue hat, are well-known local attention-grabbers.

For the most part, Cole doesn't have problems getting around the relatively tranquilstreets of his neighborhood in Old Town, a tourist spot with shops and restaurants that is designed to be walkable. It's a different story going to the grocery store, when he must cross six traffic-clogged lanes of Rancho California Road . Drivers, Cole said, simply don't pay enough attention.

Mares, 50, said she was cutting across the parking lot of her apartment complex in Perris. She was headed to the mailboxes at the front of the property when a large truck, driven by a man apparently distracted by a conversation with his passenger, struck her wheelchair.

Mares, who has multiple sclerosis, flew about five feet onto the concrete, getting pretty banged up along the way, she said. Her motorized wheelchair still rolls but now it malfunctions constantly, forcing her husband to push her to various errands and doctor's appointments.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department confirmed they responded to the accident, but said a report was not yet complete and it was not known if the driver would be cited for the crash.

The problem confronts people in wheelchairs and those who ride mobility scooters, the three- or four-wheeled electric devices that travel faster than wheelchairs but require users to steer with their upper bodies.

Scooters and wheelchairs provide much-needed mobility and freedom for people who can't walk and can't drive. But too often, they are put in harm's way.

Because the users sit low to the ground, their heads are often just four feet from the sidewalk. This makes them difficult to see for passing motorists, who may not be paying full attention, Mares said..

Mares said she may buy a long orange flag, or "maybe a flag pole" to attach to the chair to improve her visibility.

A week before she was hit, Mares and her husband navigated the crowded parking lot of a shopping plaza and about a mile of narrow sidewalks and busy intersections to get to a doctor's appointment.

Her route, planned in advance to avoid most of the trouble spots, took Mares past the intersection of Perris Boulevard and Nuevo Road. Manuel Gomez, driving an electric mobility scooter, was struck and killed by a school bus there in 2005.

"It's pretty dangerous," Mares said.

Several Inland police agencies said they don't keep records of how many accidents involve those in scooters or wheelchairs.

The law treats those mobility vehicles the same as pedestrians, which means they are supposed to stay on the sidewalks. But nearly 20 years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, people who ride wheelchairs or scooters said their biggest problem is a lack of adequate sidewalks.

John Fatone, 66, a retired construction supervisor who started using a mobility scooter a year ago because it afforded faster travel than his motorized wheelchair, said his neighborhood in Perris is sorely lacking in sidewalks. Fatone drives a car, but for shorter trips around town likes to be able to be outside on the scooter.

"You go along Perris Boulevard ... there's nothing. There are no sidewalks," Fatone said. "What do I use? What do I do, fly over where we have no sidewalks?"

Perris Boulevard, the city's major thoroughfare and gateway to many stores and businesses, is a hectic multilane road. Approaching the popular Walmart location there can be a difficult proposition, where a lack of sidewalks in spots forces a person in a wheelchair to travel in a bike lane.

Don Hawecker, is a 44-year-old from Riverside who has used a mobility scooter since losing both legs after he was struck by a car while riding his bike nine years ago. He says his city is getting better for the disabled.

Hawecker is a member of the city's Commission on Disabilities. The commission takes complaints about disability-related issues, like lack of curb-cuts in sidewalks, directly to the city.

He said there are still obstacles, but many of the city's trouble spots are being addressed.

And despite challenges, wheelchair and scooter users said they continue to brave traffic because it beats the alternative.

Cole drives to the various trash barrels in the neighborhood, looking for returnable cans and bottles, but the main goal is to get out of the house, he said. A few times a month, he makes the six-mile trek up busy Jefferson Avenue to the Murrieta Senior Center.

"I know that if I had to sit in the house all these years and watch that stupid TV, I'd have been dead a long time ago," Cole said.

USA Today profiles surfer Clay Marzo

From USA Today:

Clay Marzo (pictured) rides the big waves off Maui like no other surfer, carving turns like a skateboarder on a liquid vert ramp or a snowboarder in a moving turquoise halfpipe.

Marzo glides through the barrel, a transparent tube of water, and dips his mop of golden hair into the wave's cascading wall, then shakes hundreds of shiny droplets into the air in the film Just Add Water. His barks of joy can be heard through the roar.

Marzo, 20, may be the world's most creative surfer. He also has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism.

Asperger's has given Marzo the burden of honesty that leaves little room for empathy. It also has given him a special focus for gifts of athletic skill to go with his 6-1, 175 pound body.

He is most comfortable in the ocean on his six-foot Super board, where the headache-inducing buzz and grind of life on land is replaced by the simple Zen of gliding through sun-dappled water. Even his long eyelashes are sunbleached.

"Waves are toys from God," he says.

Mitch Varnes, a former editor of Surfing magazine and now principal of Board Sports Management, which represents Marzo and several other riders and surf industry companies, says "he's so innovative, it defies traditional surfing terms. There aren't even names for some of the stuff he does."

His surfing peers marvel at his skills, but also are baffled by his many quirks and mannerisms, which include lots of hand-rubbing, hair-twisting and voracious eating habits.

Nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater says, "He knows things I don't know. He knows things that all the guys I'm surfing with don't know."

Laird Hamilton, king of the 50-foot wave genre and one of the biggest names in the sport, calls Marzo "an artist who can't be pigeon-holed. He's something all together different that should be cherished."

Marzo's impact on the sport has been so significant that major sponsors and contest directors now are changing the structure and judging of new surfing competitions to focus on the creative and expressive aspects that the goofy-footed (surf lingo for right-foot forward) surfer is bringing to the sport.

Along with Slater and other top pros, ESPN is in the process of developing such an independent tour with a $1 million prize pool that may be introduced soon.

"ESPN is speaking with a group trying to develop a new tour," says Chris Stiepock, vice president and general manager of ESPN X Games Franchise. "Conversations have been positive and more information should be available soon."

Marzo isn't waiting for the change. On Aug. 19 he won the Association of Surfing Professionals Pro Tour men's qualifier event in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, with flashy barrel-riding and his brand of tail-drifting turns.

Marzo always has had a deep connection to water.

His mother, Jill Marzo, says Clay swam when he was just 1 month old but didn't walk until six months later.

"I liked to take baths with my kids when they were little," she says. "Clay loved to feel water trickle through his fingers. When he was 9 months old, we moved from San Diego to Hawaii, where we lived only 30 feet from the ocean. He was in the water all the time, spending hours at the shore break. He was part fish and was becoming part of the ocean."

When he was 2, Clay got his first boogie board — a short board that is used for bodysurfing — and began riding four-foot waves on his stomach.

"He was so natural, I never worried about it," Jill Marzo says.

He first stood on a surfboard at 4 and entered a 7-and-under surfing contest when he was 5. He placed fifth.

His half-brother Cheyne Magnusson, who is six years older, won the Hawaiian surf championship in 2000 and signed his first pro contract with the Quiksilver pro team at 13. He later appeared on the MTV reality series Maui Fever.

"People were interested in Cheyne, and then Clay came along," their mother says.

When Clay was 9, he already was attracting attention for his unique style of surfing that used lots of spin moves and showed a penchant for "backside" surfing, a more difficult style in which the rider performs turns with his back to the beach.

Clay was signed to a pro contract with the Quiksilver team at 11 after winning the Hawaiian boys state swimming championships and several other surfing contests.

"Clay doesn't try to surf like anyone else," says Adam Klevin, a long-time friend and surf cinematographer. "He seems to be double-jointed, almost leaning back in the water. He also surfs more than anyone I know. Other surfers will ride two sessions (roughly two-hour periods spent in the water) during a day, but Clay wants to do three and he gets better as the day goes on while everyone else gets tired. He puts a tremendous amount of energy into what he loves."

When he was just an 11th-grader in Maui, he won a national surfing championship with two perfect 10-point rides.

Much of Marzo's behavior didn't play well in other aspects of his life. He had difficulty adapting to school and dropped out after the 11th grade.

His pro surfing career suffered away from the waves because he could not connect with fans and abhorred meet-and-greets with sponsors.

Outside of his mom, younger sister Gina and a few close friends, most people didn't understand Marzo. Cheyne is not on speaking terms with him. His dad, Gino Marzo, doesn't live with the family.

"I had people coming up to me asking, 'Is he smoking dope? Is he high?' " says Quiksilver co-founder and CEO Bob McKnight, who has known Marzo since the surfer was 11.

"He seemed like he was stoned all the time. Some of the parents said they didn't want him hanging around their kids."

Through all of his early difficulties, no one had considered that his problem was more than just a bad attitude. The word "Asperger's" had not been spoken but in hindsight the connection is apparent.

Asperger's Syndrome is a neurological condition and is one of five diagnoses that are considered part of "the autism spectrum."

According to Johanna Sorrentino, author of Understanding Asperger's Syndrome, elements of Asperger's can include:

•Intense or obsessive focus on a physical act or field of interest.

•Inability to read non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, posture and vocal tones.

•Total honesty, which includes saying whatever comes to mind regardless of the consequences.

His usual way of dealing with the world is to put on headphones. Says Klevin: "He'd rather listen to music than hear people talking."

"He has a huge seashell collection," his mother says. "They're all organized by size and type. I think it helps him find structure in the world."

He's also obsessed with watching himself on video. After contests or riding sessions, he'll dominate the editing table, watching his rides over and over, oblivious to the other riders waiting to see their performances.

"He doesn't read, doesn't like computers, doesn't watch TV or most movies," says his mother. "He just likes to watch himself surf and videos of when he was a baby. He learns from seeing himself."

Quiksilver believed in Marzo enough to finance the 2007 film about him, a standard practice in a sport that doesn't receive a lot of mainstream television coverage.

Jamie Tierney was picked by Quiksilver to direct the film, which was to be titled "Misunderstood."

During the course of shooting, Tierney noticed something familiar about Marzo's behavior.

"My parents are both psychologists," he says. "I could tell he was more than a typical teenager."

It took Tierney several months before Jill Marzo would agree to have Clay diagnosed.

"I didn't want him to be seen as different, to be treated like a label or something," she says.

Tierney wanted to "see the positives and beauty in it, I wanted to make something more than just another cool surf movie."

The title was changed to Just Add Water and the theme fell into place.

"Almost everyone has had to deal with something like this," Tierney says. "Let's talk about Asperger's but not as disease or a disability. Clay is so good because he has Asperger's, not in spite of it. His level of focus in the wave is incredible, he makes instant natural connections with the water, something very few people have."

Quiksilver now is embracing Marzo and the proposed ESPN tour as an alternative to traditional surfing contests. The action sports apparel company also plans more films, online videos and surf adventure projects for Marzo.

"There are plenty of areas where he can excel," says McKnight. "Our goal is to let our fans see the world through different eyes."

While Marzo's style is dazzling, his personality can be abrasive or come off as self-centered.

The structure of traditional surfing contests does not make sense to him. Most competitive surfers wait for waves that will allow them to show their style and skill and will often battle for position on those select waves.

Marzo believes that there's merit in every wave and he likes to wait for them apart from the aggressive pack.

As a result, he may not get good scores from judges because he doesn't play the game by their rules.

"Some riders are great at playing the system," says Hamilton, 45, who left the contest scene in 1981 at 17 to concentrate on finding and filming the world's biggest waves.

"But that's like having an art contest. In the end, this is all about expression. Surfers are not good at being told what to do. They should be allowed the freedom to express themselves all the time and not just at 12 o'clock on Sunday."

For Marzo, the answer is simple: "I'd rather not be judged."

Marzo can speak for himself, but his Asperger's makes face-to-face interviews difficult and uncomfortable.

In a phone conversation, he discussed his difficulties with the amount of travel he must do and dealing with a world that can be scary and boring at the same time.

"When I am traveling and get upset, I keep one good thought about it: how great it is going to be when I see my girlfriend again," he says. "I know her brothers from north Maui. I know they had a sister, but I told them I didn't like her. But I do like her. She's a good friend and she makes me happy."

Clay and Alicia Yamada also share a love for the traditional Hawaiian plate lunch, Sambazon Superfood Acai berry bowls, cheesy scrambled eggs and pizza.

He likes to listen to rap music and has an uncanny ability to memorize a song after listening to it once or twice. He also has memorized all the dialogue from the films Harry and the Hendersons and Elf.

When asked if he identified with the title characters in those films — a gentle Bigfoot who is being hunted by humans and an adult-sized elf who has lost his ties to the North Pole — he pauses for a long minute, then agrees that he has some things in common with them.

"But I don't think I'm misunderstood," he says. "I think I'm very easy to understand."

UK conference on hate crimes to focus on attacks against disabled people

From yourthanet.co.uk:

Attacks on disabled people will be top of the agenda at an anti-hate crime conference this week.

Representatives from the county council, police and various support groups will be among those discussing the worrying trend, at Ashford International Hotel on Tuesday, September 29.

The conference comes just weeks after the Government published its Hate Crime Action Plan, which sets out a range of policies designed to further protect vulnerable citizens.

One of the guest speakers at the event will be the Ashford VIP (Visually Impaired Person) group founder Susan Aiken, who is registered blind and has been a victim of disability hate crime.

She said: “Once when I was walking along the street with my cane, an arm shot out in front of me and hit me in the face. At the time I was intimidated, frightened and angry, but there was nothing I could do...

“It’s almost like going back to World War Two when the Jews were persecuted by the Nazis for no reason other than their religion.

“People target us for no reason other than our disability.

“I think sometimes youths get a kick out of doing nasty things to disabled people, like it’s some sort of game. It’s a power thing.”

Two years ago there was national outrage when Hartlepool resident Christine Lakinski – a woman in her 50s with learning and physical disabilities – was urinated on, covered in shaving foam and filmed on a mobile telephone as she died after collapsing in the street.

Despite the circumstances of her death, police were unable to prove her assailant Anthony Anderson was motivated by hatred of her because of her disabilities.

Kent Chief Constable Mike Fuller and Kent County Council chief executive Peter Gilroy will be the main speakers at the conference, entitled Know your Rights, Right the Wrongs.

Mr Gilroy said: “It is an awful truth that disabled people are too often the victim of hate crime but have neither the means nor the access to report incidents.

“We want to make people aware that we have a zero tolerance policy in Kent to bullying and hate crimes of any nature.

“The conference will highlight for us all that in a civilised society we should treat everyone as we
would wish to be treated ourselves.”

As well as allowing disabled people to speak about their experiences, the gathering will also include speeches about the law surrounding disability hate crime and how it is investigated.

Police will also use the event to talk about how the force helps deaf and speech-impaired people access their services using text messages, and the advice they give to people with learning difficulties.

Mrs Aiken said: “It’s all about making links between disabled people, the police, councils and everybody else. It’s important to understand where hate crime begins and how it should end, because we’re all human beings at the end of the day."

Double amputee without health insurance must use ER for medical care

From the Belleville News Democrat in Illinois:

BELLEVILLE, Ill. -- Jennifer Moore (pictured) was 15 months old when surgeons at the Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis amputated her disfigured left leg below the knee. Three years later they did the same thing to her right leg.

As if being a double-amputee wasn't enough of a challenge, Moore, 21, has battled a host of other birth defects, including an upside-down kidney and a blocked urethra, the tube to her bladder, making her susceptible to kidney infections.

What's making her struggle even tougher, though, is the fact she can't find a job.

Which means she can't get health care insurance. Which means she doesn't have a primary care physician.

So when Moore gets sick -- which is often -- her only recourse is to spend hours waiting in hospital emergency rooms for a doctor to see her.

Moore's inability to get insurance illustrates what, in the view of many experts, is one of the Illinois health care system's biggest Catch-22's. It's a coverage gap that has left tens of thousands of men and women in medical limbo.

To qualify for the state Medicaid program, the federally funded insurance plan for the poor, childless adults such as Moore must first be certified as disabled by the federal Social Security Administration.

The problem is, despite Moore's many physical disabilities, the Social Security Administration has deemed her physically capable of work.

So the administration denied her application more than a year ago.

Three weeks ago, Moore woke up in the middle of the night, doubled over with severe stomach cramps. She began vomiting.

Rushed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville, Moore spent the rest of the night in the ER waiting, where her problem was diagnosed as gastritis. The bill for her visit: more than $12,000. Moore, who lives with her mother and grandmother in rural Belleville, has been without insurance for three years -- since she turned 18 and grew too old for the coverage she had received under her mother's employer-based health plan.

Since then, Moore figures she's been to emergency rooms in the metro-east and St. Louis area nearly three dozen times.

"The doctors all look at you like you're crazy," Moore said. "'Why don't you have a primary care physician?'"

Meanwhile, she's accumulated a mountain of medical debts she can barely comprehend.

"It's terrible," Moore said. "Sometimes I'm afraid to open the mail."

Moore's been waiting more than a year for a chance to appeal the Social Security Administration's decision before an administrative law judge -- a situation made worse by a flood of new disability applications from newly jobless middle-aged workers, said Tom Yates, a spokesman for Health & Disability Advocates in Chicago.

The agency that reviews Social Security disability claims in Illinois has seen a 100 percent increase in initial claims, Yates said.

"There are huge backlogs right now," he said. "I suspect a lot of older workers have gotten laid off in this recession. And they got nothing else. They're applying for disability on the basis of you name it -- their back, diabetes."

And until her appeal is approved, Moore remains ineligible for Medicaid coverage.

Moore said she doesn't understand why she should be excluded for insurance coverage -- or why her only hope for contact with a physician must come in the form of costly ER visits.

"I was born like this," said Moore, who, after many years of walking on her hands, has the V-shaped back and thick arms of a gymnast.

"I can't really help it," Moore said. "That's what I thought the system was in place for, people like me. But it's not proving that way at all."

The problems facing Moore are "incredibly common," said Susan Simone, a senior staff attorney at the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, in East St. Louis. "It's a nightmare for people."

Simone said she has at least 10 clients in Moore's situation.

"So that whole group of (age) 18 to 64, single adult, are between a rock and a hard place," Simone said. "Especially if they are poor. And because the Social Security system takes so long to get a decision at the hearing level, these people are waiting two years."

Nationwide, nearly 40 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 lack health care insurance. And nearly 28 million of the 47 million Americans without health insurance hold either part-time or full-time jobs, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.

In Illinois, at least 400,000 low-income adults can't obtain Medicaid coverage because Social Security won't certify them as disabled, said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago.

The medical problems these adults face, and the huge hospital bills they rack up, make a powerful case for universal health care coverage, Bouman said.

"The problem is they don't have a doctor, or ongoing primary care," Bouman said. "Then every little problem they have has to wait until it's an emergency. That's why health care reform actually saves money in many ways. You avoid all these acute care episodes in hospitals."

The main Senate and House health care reform measures being debated in Congress would extend Medicaid eligibility to adults who earn 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

Another reform would decouple Medicaid eligibility from the need to be certified disabled by Social Security.

"So you'd really be looking at someone's income level, not really other factors," Yates said. "And if you think about it, policywise, that's the right thing to do, to divorce medical coverage from disability payments."

The Social Security Administration is taking steps to ease the backlog of pending cases, said Andrew Salata, an administration spokesman.

"What we have done over the last couple of years is we've added more enhancements to streamline the process," said Salata, noting that "everything is handled electronically in our office."

During 2010, the agency plans to open 14 new hearing offices across the nation, including five in the six-state region that includes Illinois, Salata said.

And since June, the agency has hired 148 administrative law judges and 850 support staff, he said.

As for Moore, she remains hopeful that either health care reform will be passed by Congress or Social Security will approve her disability claim.

With health care insurance, Moore would have a primary care physician, who'd make sure that "I wouldn't have to go and spend six hours in the emergency room every time there's something wrong with me," she said.

Moore emphasized she wants to finish her education and find a job. She remains upbeat about her prospects.

"I always have to look at it like tomorrow will bring something else. God has always taken care of me," she said. "I know that this is not going to be like it is forever."

Blind presenters teach first graders about independent living

From The Daily Herald in Killeen, Texas:

A group of visually impaired presenters enlightened Peebles Elementary School first-graders in Killeen Wednesday about independent living without perfect sight.

Five adults connected to a group called VIP for Visually Impaired People who are also Very Important People, showed students a machine that types in Braille, a computer that talks and numerous other tools available for the legally blind.

In three sessions that dealt with mobility, technology and Braille, the speakers reminded the sighted children that the visually impaired can do anything they could do, but in different ways and with different tools.

Cindy Castillo, who said she lost most of her vision due to a genetic condition, showed students a clock that announces the time verbally and a scanning device that identifies the color of clothing.

Kenny Norton, another presenter, turned his laptop computer around so students could see it and showed how he could enlarge the type. Students laughed when they saw a mouse arrow icon taking up most of the screen.

Talking computers, cell phones and dictionaries make life easier and allow many visually impaired people to maintain employment, Castillo and Norton told the first-graders.

Deanna DeGraaff introduced students to Princess, her 2-year-old Labrador retriever recently trained as a guide dog. She told the children to never pet a guide dog without asking the handler, to never call a guide dog and to pick up food they drop in a restaurant to prevent guide dogs from eating improper food.

In a third session Jennifer DeGraaff and Cynthia Washington showed students a Perkins Brailler, which looks like a typewriter and a slate and stylus used to emboss Braille symbols on paper.

Answering questions from curious students, the pair said again and again "We do it just like you," and pointed to their tools and said, "That's my paper and pencil."

DeGraaff showed students a board book for young children that she said her husband labeled so she could read it in Braille while her daughter followed along reading the words and looking at the pictures.

Castillo said the visually impaired group members travel around the community speaking and presenting to help change public perception of the blind.

She recalled an older family member who started to lose her sight and became homebound and said independence is much easier today because there are so many tools to help those with poor vision to function.

"If we can change kids' perception early, maybe some of these students will hire a blind person."

First-grade teacher Heather Self said the visit fit well with the grade level's unit about learning differences in senses, which teaches about how the disabled handle life differently that others.

"They see that they are the same," Self said, emphasizing the importance of tolerating people of all ability levels.

A 12-year-old chronicles her life with dyslexia in new book

From PR.com:

DEWITT, Mich. -- Written by 12-year-old Jennifer Smith (pictured), Dyslexia Wonders reveals the daily struggles of a child plagued by dyslexia.

Happy-go-lucky until she entered Kindergarten, Jennifer seemed like the other bright children her age. She was energetic, curious and talkative. But when it came time to learn the ABCs, to read or to tie her shoes, Jennifer couldn’t comprehend and her world began to slowly collapse.

As time passed, it became clear to her that she was indeed different from her classmates. She felt alone, afraid and stupid; but most of all, she was ashamed of herself for not being able to learn.

All her family members, as well as her teachers and other school professionals, were perplexed and at a loss as to how to help this child. Life was passing by and it seemed that Jennifer was being left behind.

But one day when Jennifer was eight years old, one of her teachers had an idea that might shed light onto this dark mystery. Tests were performed and a prognosis given: Jennifer was dyslexic. The term was new to Jennifer and her family, but it didn’t take long before her mother, Anita, dug into books and online information to learn all she could about dyslexia. Anita and Jennifer began using new methods of learning and soon Jennifer was learning and catching up with her classmates.

Today she is a 16 year old high school junior and carrying a 3.75 GPA. Although she still struggles in school, she is determined to live life as normal as possible and to help others do the same.

To achieve her goal of helping others not feel the shame she felt for so long, Jennifer has established the Jenny’s Wish Foundation. Proceeds from the sale of her book, Dyslexia Wonders, will go toward scholarships for students who struggle with learning challenges, as well as grants to organizations specializing in education and youth development.

When a campus has construction, wheelchair users face even more access issues

From The Towerlight, the student newspaper at Towson University in Maryland:

In 60 minutes, a person could do a lot of things – watch two episodes of his or her favorite sitcom, make a dozen or more bowls of ramen, or take a long nap. For Kiara Gittens, however, 60 minutes is her commute to class – and she lives on campus.

Gittens, a junior at Towson, is physically disabled and has to get around via her motorized wheelchair. With construction on campus being something seen more often, she said that it takes her at least an hour in order to get to class on time.

“I don’t like it at all. It has made my life horrible,” she said. “This is now my third year. Never in my life have I had to go through all this drama just to get to class. Figuring out how to just get around is so much work.”

Because of the construction, temporary wooden ramps were built under the Lecture Hall steps to help the disabled get to Linthicum Hall. Vice president for student affairs Deb Moriarty said that the ramps were “built to standards,” but Gittens said that they are too narrow to navigate.

“It’s barely maneuverable at all,” Gittens said. “The fact that they have the ramp where they have it causes issues, because student groups set up tables there. Then I have to figure out a way to get around those tables in addition to trying to just get around the ramps. It’s impossible.”

The administration hadn’t heard that there were problems with the ramp, according to Moriarty. She also said Disability Support Services has been doing what they can to provide alternate routes.

“They try to plan with access in mind, and it’s not always going to be the same access that it was before, but we try to make sure that we can reasonably get disabled students to where they need to go,” Moriarty said.

Provost Marcia Welsh said more action needs to be taken, such as going beyond the minimum requirement, in order to help the disabled students on campus.

“We have some challenges, and we need to make sure we’re not just doing the letter of the law, but the right thing for students who need a college education,” Welsh said.

Other things, such as the handicapped-accessible doors in every campus building, also require attention as soon as they break down, Welsh said.

“[With] those kind of things, I think we have no excuse,” Welsh said. “We need to make sure that they are working. Having a slope be four percent instead of five percent is a different issue, but I think handicap-accessible doors should be fixed immediately.”

Gittens has also faced challenges regarding stairs on campus appearing where they haven’t before, and that “walking people” don’t understand the difficulty of getting around campus. Welsh agreed.

“Sometimes, I think if you’ve never been in the situation, you don’t appreciate the challenges,” Welsh said.

Moriarty said that the services offered to disabled students are responsive.
“I feel really good with the services that we provide for students with disabilities,” Moriarty said. “If we continue to hear about concerns, we will do our best to alleviate those concerns as quickly as possible.”

But Gittens said that the University isn’t doing enough.

“They don’t do anything. They closed a walkway to repave it and I had to go all the way around Hawkins Hall to get to class, and I ended up being late,” Gittens said. “They didn’t even tell us at all.”

Until the construction is over, it’s going to be a regular hour transit for Gittens.

“It’s my only option,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m not going to get to class.”

Disability rights scores big in Florida, with more community-based programs to be funded

From Jennifer LaFleur at ProPublica:

We reported in June that thousands of people continue to live in nursing homes and other institutions in spite of a 1999 Supreme Court decision saying people with disabilities should be able to live at home if they want to and are able.

Now, disability activists who have pushed for equal access to community services have scored a big victory in Florida.

The Florida Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Elder Affairs must spend $27 million to improve access to community-based programs for nursing home residents under a settlement agreement last week.

The agreement is a result of a class-action lawsuit brought against the state in 2008. The case involved 8,500 people with disabilities living in nursing homes who said they were "unnecessarily institutionalized" because Medicaid would not cover services in the community.

According to The Associated Press, a federal court will monitor the arrangement, which requires the improvements to be made during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

In their lawsuit, the defendants said that providing services at home would cost the state less. Florida currently spends more than 80 percent of Medicaid long-term funds for elderly and people with disabilities on institutions, including nursing homes.

The state spends more than $4 billion a year in Medicaid on long-term care.

"This is a positive sign because the amount of the settlement is the kind of amount that will get the attention of policymakers in other states," said Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed in other states.

Currently under Medicaid, people who qualify for the level of service provided by a nursing home can get it because that service is mandatory, but programs that fund community services are not automatic.

Some people wait for years to get into state programs that would allow them to have services at home, such as an attendant to help them get out of bed, dress or bathe.

Disability activists also had a win in Washington, D.C., this week. Senate Finance Committee Chair, Sen. Max Baucus, added a provision to healthcare reform legislation that would increase states' Medicaid match for providing community services rather than placing people in institutions.

New research seeks to help blind people see

From The New York Times:

Blindness first began creeping up on Barbara Campbell (pictured) when she was a teenager, and by her late 30s, her eye disease had stolen what was left of her sight.

Reliant on a talking computer for reading and a cane for navigating New York City, where she lives and works, Ms. Campbell, now 56, would have been thrilled to see something. Anything.

Now, as part of a striking experiment, she can. So far, she can detect burners on her stove when making a grilled cheese, her mirror frame, and whether her computer monitor is on.

She is beginning an intensive three-year research project involving electrodes surgically implanted in her eye, a camera on the bridge of her nose and a video processor strapped to her waist.

The project, involving patients in the United States, Mexico and Europe, is part of a burst of recent research aimed at one of science’s most-sought-after holy grails: making the blind see.

Some of the 37 other participants further along in the project can differentiate plates from cups, tell grass from sidewalk, sort white socks from dark, distinguish doors and windows, identify large letters of the alphabet, and see where people are, albeit not details about them.

Linda Morfoot, 65, of Long Beach, Calif., blind for 12 years, says she can now toss a ball into a basketball hoop, follow her nine grandchildren as they run around her living room and “see where the preacher is” in church.

“For someone who’s been totally blind, this is really remarkable,” said Andrew P. Mariani, a program director at the National Eye Institute. “They’re able to get some sort of vision.”

Scientists involved in the project, the artificial retina, say they have plans to develop the technology to allow people to read, write and recognize faces.

Advances in technology, genetics, brain science and biology are making a goal that long seemed out of reach — restoring sight — more feasible.

“For a long time, scientists and clinicians were very conservative, but you have to at some point get out of the laboratory and focus on getting clinical trials in actual humans,” said Timothy J. Schoen, director of science and preclinical development for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Now “there’s a real push,” he said, because “we’ve got a lot of blind people walking around, and we’ve got to try to help them.”

More than 3.3 million Americans 40 and over, or about one in 28, are blind or have vision so poor that even with glasses, medicine or surgery, everyday tasks are difficult, according to the National Eye Institute, a federal agency. That number is expected to double in the next 30 years. Worldwide, about 160 million people are similarly affected.

“With an aging population, it’s obviously going to be an increasing problem,” said Michael D. Oberdorfer, who runs the visual neuroscience program for the National Eye Institute, which finances several sight-restoration projects, including the artificial retina. Wide-ranging research is important, he said, because different methods could help different causes of blindness.

The approaches include gene therapy, which has produced improved vision in people who are blind from one rare congenital disease. Stem cell research is considered promising, although far from producing results, and other studies involve a light-responding protein and retinal transplants.

Others are implanting electrodes in monkeys’ brains to see if directly stimulating visual areas might allow even people with no eye function to see.

And recently, Sharron Kay Thornton, 60, from Smithdale, Miss., blinded by a skin condition, regained sight in one eye after doctors at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine extracted a tooth (her eyetooth, actually), shaved it down and used it as a base for a plastic lens replacing her cornea.

It was the first time the procedure, modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, was performed in this country. The surgeon, Dr. Victor L. Perez, said it could help people with severely scarred corneas from chemical or combat injuries.

Other techniques focus on delaying blindness, including one involving a capsule implanted in the eye to release proteins that slow the decay of light-responding cells. And with BrainPort, a camera worn by a blind person captures images and transmits signals to electrodes slipped onto the tongue, causing tingling sensations that a person can learn to decipher as the location and movement of objects.

Ms. Campbell’s artificial retina works similarly, except it produces the sensation of sight, not tingling on the tongue. Developed by Dr. Mark S. Humayun, a retinal surgeon at the University of Southern California, it drew on cochlear implants for the deaf and is partly financed by a cochlear implant maker.

It is so far being used in people with retinitis pigmentosa, in which photoreceptor cells, which take in light, deteriorate.

Gerald J. Chader, chief scientific officer at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Retinal Institute, where Dr. Humayun works, said it should also work for severe cases of age-related macular degeneration, the major cause of vision loss in older people.

With the artificial retina, a sheet of electrodes is implanted in the eye. The person wears glasses with a tiny camera, which captures images that the belt-pack video processor translates into patterns of light and dark, like the “pixelized image we see on a stadium scoreboard,” said Jessy D. Dorn, a research scientist at Second Sight Medical Products, which produces the device, collaborating with the Department of Energy. (Other research teams are developing similar devices.)

The video processor directs each electrode to transmit signals representing an object’s contours, brightness and contrast, which pulse along optic neurons into the brain.

Currently, “it’s a very crude image,” Dr. Dorn said, because the implant has only 60 electrodes; many people see flashes or patches of light.

Brian Mech, Second Sight’s vice president for business development, said the company was seeking federal approval to market the 60-electrode version, which would cost up to $100,000 and might be covered by insurance. Also planned are 200- and 1,000-electrode versions; the higher number might provide enough resolution for reading. (Dr. Mech said a maximum electrode number would eventually be reached because if they are packed too densely, retinal tissue could be burned.)

“Every subject has received some sort of visual input,” he said. “There are people who aren’t extremely impressed with the results, and other people who are.” Second Sight is studying what affects results, including whether practice or disease characteristics influence the brain’s ability to relearn how to process visual signals.

People choose when to use the device by turning their camera on. Dean Lloyd, 68, a Palo Alto, Calif., lawyer, was “pretty disappointed” when he started in 2007, but since his implant was adjusted so more electrodes responded, is “a lot more excited about it,” he said. He uses it constantly, seeing “borders and boundaries” and flashes from highly reflective objects, like glass, water or eyes.

With Ms. Morfoot’s earlier 16-electrode version, which registers objects as horizontal lines, she climbed the Eiffel Tower and “could see all the lights of the city,” she said. “I can see my hand when I’m writing. At Little League games, I can see where the catcher, batter and umpire are.”

Kathy Blake, 58, of Fountain Valley, Calif., said she mainly wanted to help advance research. But she uses it to sort laundry, notice cars and people, and on the Fourth of July, to “see all the fireworks,” she said.

Ms. Campbell, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for New York’s Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped, has long been cheerfully self-sufficient, traveling widely from her fourth-floor walk-up, going to the theater, babysitting for her niece in North Carolina.

But little things rankle, like not knowing if clothes are stained and needing help shopping for greeting cards. Everything is a “gray haze — like being in a cloud,” she said. The device will not make her “see like I used to see,” she said. “But it’s going to be more than what I have. It’s not just for me — it’s for so many other people that will follow me.”

Ms. Campbell’s “realistic view of her vision” and willingness to practice are a plus, said Aries Arditi, senior fellow in vision science at Lighthouse International, a nonprofit agency overseeing her weekly training, which includes practice moving her head so the camera captures images and interpreting light as objects.

“In 20 years, people will think it’s primitive, like the difference between a Model T and a Ferrari,” said Dr. Lucian Del Priore, an ophthalmology surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, who implanted Ms. Campbell’s electrodes. “But the fact is, the Model T came first.”

Ms. Campbell would especially like to see colors, but, for now, any color would be random flashes, Dr. Arditi said.

But she saw circular lights at a restaurant, part of a light installation at an art exhibition. “There’s a lot to learn,” she said. Still, “I’m, like, really seeing this.”

Spanish actor with Down syndrome wins top acting award

From AFP:

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — A Spanish actor with Down's syndrome, Pablo Pineda (pictured), picked up the best actor prize at the San Sebastian film festival on Saturday for his touching portrayal of a man with the disability.

In the movie "Yo, Tambien" ("Me Too") Pineda plays a 34-year-old man with Down's syndrome who earns a university degree and then falls in love with a colleague at work.

Pineda's character, Daniel Sanz from Seville, is the only person with Down's syndrome to obtain a university diploma in Europe, and the film tells the story of him starting out in his first job in regional social services.

The character's story mirrors the actor's own life. Pineda has a university degree in special education and he gives a convincing and moving portrayal of Sanz as he adapts to the demands of his first job.

To play Sanz with a range of emotions from joy to disappointment and sadness "called for a lot of introspection, I had to relive some very difficult moments," said Pineda after the feature-length film by directors Antonio Naharro and Alvaro Pastor was screened at the festival.

Pineda's co-star Lola Duenas, who plays the work colleague that his character falls in love with, also captured the spotlight at the festival in northern Spain, winning the best actress award.

In 1996, Belgian actor Pascal Duquenne was awarded best actor at the Cannes film festival along with Daniel Auteuil for their roles as a duo in the film "Le huitieme jour" ("The Eighth Day").

Deaf American actress Marlee Matlin meanwhile won an Academy Award in 1986 for her portrayal of a deaf woman in "Children of a Lesser God".

NYT review: TV show "Brothers" features "raw realism" by using actual disabled actor

Alessandra Stanley's review in The New York Times:

Adult brothers who squabble like children are a classic element of a family sitcom. Adult brothers who squabble like children, even though one is in a wheelchair, is a sitcom etched in family misfortune.

And that disconcerting mix of canned laughter and raw realism distinguishes “Brothers,” a new Fox comedy that begins on Friday. It’s not always funny, but it can be, at times, remarkably bold.

Michael Strahan (pictured), the former New York Giants football star, is cast as a retired N.F.L. star named Mike Trainor, who still locks horns with his brother, Chill, played by Daryl Mitchell (pictured), an actor known as Chill who was paralyzed in a car accident in 2001. Chill picks Mike up at the airport in Mike’s Bentley, which he modified to suit his disability.

“Adjustments?” Mike exclaims, as he stares in horror at the dashboard. “This used to be a car, now it looks like a cappuccino machine.” Laugh track.

Fox is known for cutting-edge comedies, most notably “The Simpsons” and “Arrested Development.” Several other series, “Malcolm in the Middle” and more recently “Family Guy” and “Glee,” have supporting characters in wheelchairs. But those seditious satires come in sophisticated wrapping — animation or single-camera filming and characters that breach the fourth wall to address the viewer. The soundtracks and cinematic style constantly remind viewers that they are not watching a typical sitcom. “Brothers” has a laugh track and the kind of one-two punch lines and plot points found on “The King of Queens” or “My Wife and Kids,” except that life-altering conditions are neither airbrushed nor central, they are just part of the domestic landscape.

Chill’s condition is a subject of jokes, except when it’s not, and the same is true of the father’s short-term memory loss, severe enough to suggest early-onset Alzheimer’s. The father, Coach (Carl Weathers), feels fit and fine, but he has a hard time remembering that he is forgetful.

The balance between humor and pathos is a hard one, and this show teeters on the edge and occasionally falls flat.

The family matriarch, Adele (C C H Pounder of “The Shield”) summons Mike home partly because she is concerned about her husband’s decline; he tends to repeat the same question a minute after posing it the first time. When Coach discovers another reason for his football prodigy’s return — Mike’s manager absconded with his money — he is indignant that he wasn’t informed earlier.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Mike was broke?” Coach asks his wife. She snaps back, “You would have forgotten in five seconds.”

In a different episode Adele fumes at her husband for forgetting her anniversary, a timeworn sitcom predicament that dates back to the days of “The Honeymooners” and “I Love Lucy.” Here it has a different twist, but strangely is left dangling, as if the writers forgot Coach’s mitigating memory problem. Chill is the most compelling character in the story — Mr. Mitchell’s jokes, and many are at his own expense, are quicker and sharper, and his delivery is less stagey than those of some of the other actors, who seem to be pacing themselves on a very slow metronome.

Mr. Strahan holds his own, however, and is quite appealing as a well-meaning jock who cannot keep up with his brother’s relentless mockery, especially about the gap in his smile. “You know what you should do with your two front teeth?” Chill says to Michael. “Introduce them.”

Adele is a classic sitcom matriarch who keeps her sons and husband in line with quelling stares and a scolding vibrato. Ms. Pounder does her best to avoid coming off as Tyler Perry’s Madea. Adele is bossy, but quite elegant and proud of her well-preserved looks. “Oh God, not a wrinkle,” she says, preening into a mirror. “Thank God I’m not a white woman.”

Adele maintains that she doesn’t really believe that Chill is paralyzed; a running joke has her stabbing his leg with a fork to see if he feels anything. But she has moments of maternal eloquence. When Mike says he let his brother win at basketball because he is in a chair, Adele passionately corrects his use of the preposition.

“He’s not in a chair,” she retorts. “Now when you are in something, it surrounds you and it controls you — you are in the ocean, you are in quicksand, you are in the Republican Party.” Adele adds, “Now that boy is on that chair, he uses that chair as a tool same way you use your skinny little legs. You don’t walk in them, you walk on them.”

That is a pretty good description of how “Brothers,” treats physical handicaps — as a fact of life, not a defining ordeal. The show’s humor, however, doesn’t live up to Fox comedy standards or its own good sense.

Chicago says it plans for stadium seats to become wheelchairs if it gets 2016 Olympics

From NBC Chicago:

If Chicago wins the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, it could be a moving experience for thousands of disabled people around the world.

That’s because a majority of the seats in the planned Olympic venue at Washington Park may be converted into wheelchairs for the destitute and disabled, the Sun-Times reports.

Designers plan to make the 80,000 seat stadium collapsible so that it won’t take up as much space once the games – should Chicago land them – are finished. That means nearly 50,000 seats will go elsewhere. So they’re hatching a plan that would convert the remaining seats into permanent wheelchairs.

The idea belongs to Darren Brehm, a consultant for the Chicago 2016 bid team. Brehm has been wheelchair-bound ever since a 1990 car wreck left him paralyzed so he knows the value of this idea.

"It could change a lot of people's lives,'' said Brehm.

Olympic big wigs like it too.

"It addresses a social issue where we can make wheelchairs -- privately funded -- available to people around the world with disabilities,'' said Chicago 2016 bid CEO Patrick Ryan. "There are still people around the world who still have to drag themselves because they don't have wheelchairs."