British actress with cerebral palsy set to feature in 'TV's first disabled character sex scene' on BBC1's 'New Tricks'

From The Mirror in the UK:

20-year-old actress Storme Toolis (pictured) appears as Nicholas Lyndhurst's on-screen daughter Holly Griffin in the long-running BBC1 drama New Tricks, the new series of which started last night.

Her character is young, feisty, opinionated and confident. A typical teenager, she's a law student who loves boys and who has a boyfriend.

Why is this last part noteworthy? Well, because both Storme and Holly have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair.

She has recently filmed one of the few (if not the only) sex scenes on UK television involving a disabled character where their disability is not the focus of the scene - her embarrassment at being caught by her dad is.

"I think [the scene] is extremely important," she said on Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

"I think society is very uncomfortable with the notion of disability and relationships in general. There are TV shows like The Undateables and Sex On Wheels that alienates disabled people and relationships and that don't see them as part of the mainstream. It's amazing that the BBC are doing this."

Storme has become a champion for equal rights for disabled actors, criticising the trend to pigeon hole disabled people in certain roles.

"Most disabled actors get cast in the role of a victim: the victim of an accident or a car crash or as a hospital patient," she is reported to have said.

"Or they're the brunt of someone's joke. It's nice to be reflecting an ordinary person."

She appeared in The Inbetweeners movie although her wheelchair was indeed part of the plot, but that didn't detract from her enjoyment of the film: "That came about because I went to be part of the extras in school scene at the beginning. I got picked up from there and that's how that happened. There were no auditions. It was just luck."

She studies English and Drama at Kent University and reports that it was exceptionally difficult to find a course that would suit her needs: "I applied to over 13 different universities. Some of them you got to the lectures and you can't even get into the halls."

The head of drama at a leading London college said she wouldn't be able to take part in the movement classes, but could "sit and watch".

This hasn't put her off acting though. She says her ambition is to "milk acting for as long as I possibly can. Eventually I would like I would like to become a drama teacher as my teacher helped me a lot and I would like to do that for someone else one day."

In NY City, a blind man files first stop-and-frisk lawsuit after landmark ruling

From The Gothamist in NYC:

A legally blind black man became the first person to sue the city for unlawful use of stop-and-frisk—based on an ordeal that took place in Harlem in September 2010—following the ruling that deems the practice unconstitutional.

54-year-old Jamaica resident Allen Moye (pictured) filed a lawsuit yesterday for an arrest he claims was predicated on bogus charges, the result of a stop made as he waited for a friend on the corner of W.118th Street late one afternoon three years ago. According to the Daily News, the officers reportedly snatched Moye's ID, and left him handcuffed in a police van for several hours.

“They treated me like I was from another planet, like I just landed in a space ship,” he told the tabloid. “They said they didn’t care about the Fourth Amendment.

The lawsuit directly links Moye's treatment with the August 12 ruling by Judge Shira Scheindlin, which opines that "the City acted with deliberate indifference toward the NYPD’s practice of making unconstitutional stops and conducting unconstitutional frisks."

The city's law department says that it's still awaiting the formal papers, and will "review the case thoroughly." However, a city legal source clarifies that the ruling involved requested policy changes, but that Moye is seeking damages, meaning he'll have to prove in a court of law that he was unconstitutionally stopped and falsely arrested.

The charges against Moye—which were related to credit card forgery—were dropped in February 2011.

Blind Comcast exec developing a talking TV channel guide

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

How does a blind person find what to "watch" on a TV with 200 channels and 46,000 video-on-demand choices of movies, shows, and clips? Tom Wlodkowski (pictured), a blind executive at Comcast Corp., thinks he has the answer: a talking TV channel guide.

No joke.

"The television is not strictly as visual a medium as you might think," said David Goldfield, a computer technology instructor at the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. "Radio drama in the U.S. is more or less dead. If you are blind and you want a good story, you're still going to get it on television."

Comcast expects the talking guide to come with its next-generation X2 platform in 2014. The cable giant demonstrated the talking guide this year at a California technology conference and at the cable-TV-industry trade show in Washington.

Comcast also market-tested the guide with 20 average-Joe-type sight-impaired individuals in Philadelphia, arranged by the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The interactive, cloud-based guide - the current voice is a woman, but users eventually could choose the voice, as they can with a ring tone - responds to buttons the person pushes.

This is part of a year-old project at Comcast to make the company's products more accessible to customers with disabilities. Wlodkowski has an "accessibility" team and will soon have a lab in the Comcast Center.

Comcast isn't doing this just to reach out to the nation's 1.3 million blind individuals who fear being left behind as popular culture and media go digital on the Internet and TV.

The Twenty-First Century Communications and Accessibility Act of 2010, passed on the 20-year anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, is forcing technology companies to integrate accessibility functions into products. It's believed that, in three years, talking interfaces will have to come with TV products.

Wlodkowski thinks he also can drive business. People with disabilities account for $200 billion in discretionary spending power, and catering to their needs, he believes, can boost brand loyalty.

"We will meet the requirements of the law, but we also believe there can be innovation," he said.
Wlodkowski is looking to develop products that could help older Americans "age in place" through the Xfinity home products, which now include home security.

Generally, technology companies - with the exception of Apple Inc. - have received poor marks in the selling of blind-friendly products.

"We see it as a civil right, and we see manufacturers embracing accessibility way too slowly," Lauren McLarney, government affairs specialist at the National Federation of the Blind, said of consumer electronics and technology companies. Comcast's talking guide sounds "worthwhile," but she hasn't seen it.

The association offers a channel guide by zip code called "newsline" that last year was accessed 600,000 times.

Before the talking guide, Wlodkowski said, he would have to recognize Matt Lauer's voice at NBC or Anderson Cooper on CNN. He also memorized channel numbers. But most times, he had no idea what was on the channel.

"The only way I could navigate TV before," Wlodkowski said, "was to go up and down the channels and listen until I found something that I liked."

Recently, he was fiddling with a talking TV guide and stumbled on Brady Bunch reruns. "They still syndicate that? Wow," he said.

Formerly with AOL Inc., Wlodkowski is the vice president of accessibility and said his team at Comcast had four goals:

To seek information from disabled customers about what they need and how they interact with Comcast's products.

To integrate functionality into products so they can be more easily used by disabled subscribers.

To introduce specific products, such as the talking guide.

To enhance customer service for disabled subscribers.

Wlodkowski, who was born blind, was raised in Southington, Conn., with three older brothers. His parents insisted on a regular childhood. He rode a bike in the neighborhood, skied with a guide, and marched in the marching band (he beat the snare drum).

His most popular sitcom was Cheers because, he said, "it was relatively easy to follow. When Norm walked in, everybody said, 'Hi, Norm.' "

He attended Boston College, majoring in communications. His first media job was with WGBH, the public broadcasting station in Boston. While there, Wlodkowski developed, with a federal grant from the Department of Education, a prototype of a talking TV interface. It was never commercialized.

Wlodkowski said he was happy to be back in a city with mass transit and lives in an apartment at 17th and Arch Streets. His wife, Michele, and 15-year-old son, Colin, will relocate from Virginia, and he intends to buy a suburban home near a rail line.

One challenging experience in Philadelphia has been mastering the elevators at the sky-high Comcast Center. There are more than 30 elevators, and some go only to certain floors.

"Catching the elevator in this place," Wlodkowski said, "is an art that I don't think I have figured out."

For disabled kids, more accessible playgrounds mean more places to play

From NPR:

Remember running around the playground when you were a kid? Maybe hanging from the monkey bars or seeing who could swing the highest?

It wasn't just a mindless energy burn. Many have called play the work of childhood. Play teaches children how to make friends, make rules and navigate relationships.

But for kids whose disabilities keep them from using playgrounds, those opportunities can be lost.

New federal requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act are changing the landscape for public playgrounds, requiring them to include equipment, materials and designs that provide children with disabilities the same play opportunities as typical children.

But as NPR sought to explore the effects of the new rules, it found that parents and advocates are making the real difference — not the federal government.

The higher cost of "inclusive" playgrounds means many local governments can't afford them. And in places that do offer the kind of shared playing experience contemplated by the ADA, a group of frustrated parents is typically behind it all.

To understand the phenomenon, NPR visited a playground in Pocatello, Idaho.

A yellow-brick road leads to its entrance. Inside there are a pretend John Deere tractor, a make-believe general store, a clock tower and a tall rocket ship.

Seven-year-old Brooklyn Fisher (pictured) plays while her dad, Jonny Fisher, watches.

"I get scared you might run me over," he tells her. "You go flying down those ramps."

Brooklyn says back: " 'Cause I let go of my wheels, that's why."

The wheels she's talking about are on her wheelchair.

This playground, a sprawling, colorful mix of whimsy and history, is named after her: Brooklyn's Playground.

It's designed so that children like Brooklyn, who have disabilities, can more easily play alongside typical children. "You create a place where kids of any ability are going to be playing together," Fisher says. "So now those kids with disabilities are going to be shoulder to shoulder with their peers, who they normally cannot be shoulder to shoulder with."

That's the same idea behind new federal requirements that require accessible playgrounds. Last year, the federal government made access to play areas a civil right under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Play areas are not just places where kids have fun," says Eve Hill, a civil rights lawyer with the Justice Department, which enforces the ADA. "They are places where kids learn to interact with the world, and with each other." That places playgrounds in the same category as other civil rights touchstones.

"Recreation was one of the places where the civil rights movement started, with desegregating pools and desegregating lunch counters and movie theaters. These were not unimportant," she says.

In Pocatello — an old railroad town bordering the Fort Hall Indian Reservation — Brooklyn's Playground sits on a flat, often windy park with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

That it's here at all goes back to a minor domestic squabble and a bump on the head.

When Brooklyn was 3 years old, her dad took her to another playground, and put her in a regular swing. "I thought she could handle it," Fisher says, "So I put her in there, and my wife said, 'I wouldn't do that.' "

Brooklyn was born with spina bifida and has difficulty controlling her muscles. With no back support, she flipped out of the swing and hit her head.

"So it was at that time that my wife said, 'We need to do this. We need to bring a playground for her, for the other kids in our community, to Pocatello.' "

Inclusive designs have been evolving for decades. Federal accessibility guidelines have been around since the 1990s. But in recent years there has been a bigger push by parents, advocates and designers, amounting to an inclusive playground movement.

"We have the therapeutic swings," Fisher says. "These have got backs, so kids that don't have that muscle tone can get in there completely, and feel safe and secure and swing."

One of the elements that legally define an accessible playground is literally the ground.

"We have ramps leading up to all the play structures. You have the solid surfaces throughout the entire playground. With walkers or wheelchairs it's very easy to go around this."

If the surface weren't smooth, if it were sand or those familiar wood chips, kids in wheelchairs might get stuck, or their parents would have to carry them.

But ramps — and other inclusive playground features — drive up costs. For example, the smooth, resilient surface at Brooklyn's Playground cost more than $150,000.

Also, at 15,000 square feet, this playground is something most municipalities wouldn't have the funding to build on their own.

So the Fishers, with the help of a local civic group, started raising money.

Over eight months, the money poured in from grants and hundreds of individual donations, bake sales and garage sales. "We raised $580,000 and it cost $560,000 so we have $20,000 in the maintenance fund," Fisher says.

And when it came time to build the playground, 3,000 people showed up to work. In a week, it was done.

But public playgrounds are generally the responsibility of local governments. So, couldn't the city of Pocatello have built it?

"Absolutely not," says Mayor Brian Blad, "not on the budget we have."

He and officials from other municipalities tell NPR that a weak economy has put many local governments in survival mode — providing basic services and not much more.

"The resources just wouldn't be there for a playground like this," Blad says. "The money is needed in so many other places."

But as of March 15, 2012, federal law requires that public play areas include wheelchair-friendly surfaces and equipment that help kids with physical challenges move around. So if a town does build or renovate a playground, it must meet specific accessibility standards. And, localities must provide their residents with "program accessibility," which means there are equal play opportunities for everyone in the community.

Brooklyn's Playground and the kids who use it were enough to inspire a woman who stopped in Pocatello last fall during a family road trip.

"I was definitely tearful, and a bit overwhelmed," says Amanda Bakker, who visited from Salinas, Calif. "My heart was pounding out of my chest; I had chills all over. I knew that it was a pretty pivotal moment for me."

Bakker had her daughter, Tatum, with her. Tatum, who was almost 2 at the time, has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

"CinemAbility" director Jenni Gold on Hollywood and disabilities

From The Mobility Resource in 2012. Read an August 2013 interview with Jenni Gold in here in Studio Daily.

Who is Jenni Gold?

Film director Jenni Gold has a new film coming out this spring CinemAbility, a documentary exploring how  Hollywood has portrayed people with disabilities. (The film premiered July 26, 2013.)

“I love film and TV, and I was curious how the portrayals have affected society’s understanding. But as CinemAbility developed it became more about inclusion. When different types of people are represented, it affects your understanding of those people. For better or worse and that in turn influences the inclusion of people who may be outside the norm.”

What is her contribution?

Gold is the co-producer, co-writer and director. She also used her vast Hollywood connections and researched decades of  Hollywood  history to tell this important story. Ben Affleck, Jane Seymour, Adam Arkin, Marlee Matlin,  Beau   Bridges  and Peter Farrelly are among the many celebrities and industry professionals contributed their talents to the project.

“This was a seven-year labor of love,” she said. “ Hollywood ’s been supportive of the film. Everyone was very giving of their time. Different companies helped us along the way, and people lent their support and advice.”

Why TMR thinks she is a #MobilityMover and Shaker:

Gold went way back in time to make her movie, discussing Susan Peters, who starred in the film noir “Sign of the Ram” in the 40s after an accident that caused her to begin using a wheelchair.

“She was going to be the next big star, so after the accident, it was so impressive that she returned to the big screen,” Gold said.

The 60s TV series “Ironside,” starring Raymond Burr, was also a groundbreaking example of the power of images.

“It was very progressive even by today’s standards,” she said. “It was a positive portrayal of a person with a disability who was still active and successful. The show is also a good example of how what we see influences us. After the show would air each week and the public saw Ironside using an accessible vehicle, I’m told that The Braun Corporation’s phones would ring off the hook due to people wanting a similar transportation capability.”

Outlook for the future:

Gold’s movie, CinemAbility, is scheduled to debut in April. Gold is deciding where to have her premiere.

“My goal is for word of mouth to spread – this movie is interesting and entertaining. It’s a fun ride, and I hope it will be driven by people’s interest in film and TV history as well as this important topic.”

Aircraft tech delivers better wheel for Paralympic wheelchair racers

From UPI:

LONDON -- Aerospace technology has helped create wheels for Paralympic wheelchair racing athletes to give them an edge, British researchers say.

Using technology that helped develop Europe's Typhoon fighter jet, the new wheel -- made from a composite material similar to carbon fiber -- can provide as much as 20 per cent more acceleration with each push by the athlete, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

Lighter and more rigid than units on current racing wheelchairs, the wheels help turn more of an athlete's arm power into forward motion at speeds greater than 30mph, the researchers said.

"A wheelchair athlete propels themselves not by gripping the rim of the wheel, but punching it," said Kelvin Davies, project leader at BAE Systems, which has been working with U.K. Sport and Paralympics athletes to give British athletes a technological edge. "The downside is that this applies an inward pressure that buckles and deforms the wheel, which is wasted energy."

The new, stiffer wheel resists that deformation, he said.

"We are talking about marginal gains where even in a race as long as a marathon, the difference between winning and losing is just seconds.

"Initial testing suggests that the increase our wheel delivers is dramatic," he said.

Shelly Woods is a wheelchair marathon racer who won a silver medal at the 2012 Paralympics, missing out on gold by just 1 second.

"Paralympic sport is growing year on year in strength and depth, and being able to make use of the best in British engineering can help keep British athletes at the forefront of this fiercely competitive environment," she said.

YouTubecaptions.com wants to bring professional captioning to everyone

From Gigaom:

Online video captioning company 3Play Media launched a new site called YouTubecaptions.com Thursday that aims to make it easier for YouTube users to add professionally transcribed subtitles to their videos.

Users can simply sign in with their YouTube accounts and order closed captions for any of their publicly available videos, with YoutubeCaptions.com charging $2.50 per transcribed minute of video. 3Play Media is working with a network of more than 400 professional transcriptionists, and promises turnaround times of just a few hours.

YouTubecaptions.com isn’t the only way to add closed captions to YouTube videos. The video site rolled out its own automatic captioning based on Google’s speech recognition technology back in 2009, but the results of this can be mixed. That’s why others have stepped in with their own captioning efforts.

Most notably, Amara.org offers users an online editor to add their own captions to their videos, and even crowdsource closed captioning efforts. However, for people who don’t want to deal with transcribing videos themselves, YouTubecaptions.com looks like an interesting alternative.

Director of Towson University's Hussman Center for Adults with Autism visits Serbia in partnership with Centre Living Upright, Novi Sad Journalism School to bolster disability rights there

Note: This is from the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Serbia, who I am partnering with on this project. In the picture, Rhonda Greenhaw meets with parents of children with autism in Serbia.

From August 4^th to August 12^th the Novi Sad School of Journalism and Center “Living Upright”, were hosts to Ms. Rhonda Greenhaw, director of the Hussman Center for Adults with Autism at the Towson University from Maryland, USA. Her visit was a part of the professional exchange within the Empower Partnerships for Inclusive Communities Program administered by Mobility International USA (MIUSA) and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

During the visit, meetings with the representatives of the Provincial Secretariat for Education, Administration and National Minorities and the Provincial Secretariat for Culture and Public Information were organized. On these meetings, it has once more been confirmed that Vojvodina is the region where coexistence of differences is traditionally fostered, but there are still a lot of difficulties and problems which need to be solved, and because of that, an agreement was reached on further cooperation between the Secretariats, Novi Sad School of Journalism and Center “Living Upright”.

In addition to meetings with the representatives of the provincial government, Ms. Greenhaw met with the project coordinators of the Novi Sad School of Journalism and the Centre “Living Upright” who informed her about the activities of these organizations, but she also had an opportunity to socialize and exchange experience with a group of parents of children with autism, a group of users of personal assistance service and with the group of training students who will work in a peer counseling service for children and youth with disabilities.

During the visit, representatives of all three partnering organizations, the Novi Sad School of Journalism, Centre “Living Upright” and Towson University, agreed that one of the main goals of their future cooperation should be the improvement the media image of persons with disabilities and development of their capacity for self-representation. In line with this, the first steps have been made. Meetings were organized with representatives of the media and guest appearances in the local media and the Radio Television of Vojvodina and Ms. Rhonda Greenhaw gave a lecture about self-advocacy of persons with disabilities.

Participation in this program was funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed by Mobility International USA (MIUSA). Neither of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed herein.

IPC bans paralyzed U.S. swimmer from competing because medical report says she MIGHT be able to walk years in the future

From The LA Times:

With the furor over Russian anti-gay legislation and concerns over whether Rio de Janeiro can get its act together, you'd think the Olympic movement has enough on its hands.

Now comes word that officials have banned a paraplegic American swimmer from the Paralympic world championships in Montreal.

Victoria Arlen slipped into a coma at 11 and awoke three years later to find that she was paralyzed from the waist down because of an autoimmune disorder that attacks nerves in the spine.

Arlen has used a wheelchair to get around ever since, but nevertheless resumed competitive swimming and won four medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

The 18-year-old from New Hampshire had her bags packed for the world championships this week when she learned that the International Paralympic Committee had disqualified her, ruling that her condition was not permanent.

The ruling stemmed from a recent medical report submitted to the IPC in which a doctor suggested that, with years of physical therapy, Arlen might be able to walk again.

An IPC official told ABCNews.com the timing was "not ideal," but stood by the decision. Family members said Arlen was crushed.

"I'm so heartbroken with what has happened," she wrote on her website. "I feel numb and completely shocked with the turn of events."

Obamacare: People with disabilities face complex choices

From NPR (This piece is part of a reporting partnership among NPR, Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.)

The Affordable Care Act has set new standards — called — outlining what . But there's a catch: Insurance firms can still pick and choose, to some degree, which specific therapies they'll cover within some categories of benefit. And the way insurers interpret the rules could turn out to be a big deal for people with disabilities who need ongoing therapy.

Bryce Vernon (pictured) is a 20-year-old film student who lives in Los Angeles and has cerebral palsy. He speaks only with the aid of a special computer that is mounted to his wheelchair and tracks his eye movements. Using his eyes, Vernon can indicate on a screen which letters and words he wants the computer's voice to say.

It's amazing technology, and Vernon gets a lot more out of it with help from speech-language pathologist.

"Now Bryce, I want to show you this super cool random button I think you're going to love," Tullman tells him during a therapy session at a special camp for young people who use the technology. Vernon's parents paid out-of-pocket for him to attend the camp.

Tullman helps him pre-load several different ways of saying goodbye.

"Bye, later dude, later, bye, I'm out of here, see ya later," Vernon says, testing it out.

In the parlance of health policy, the work Tullman is doing with Vernon is called "habilitative services." It's different from the more familiar sort of rehab people often get after an injury or surgery. Habilitative services are for people who can benefit from one-on-one time with a therapist to improve daily living skills. But such services can be expensive and not all insurance plans have covered them.

The Affordable Care Act is changing that, says health economist , a health economist with the Urban Institute.

"You're much more likely to find these benefits in a plan in the individual market [starting in 2014] than you would be today — far more likely," says Clemans-Cope.

Far more likely because "habilitative services" is included within the 10 categories of essential health benefits the ACA will require in those new plans. Still, while some categories are straightforward — such as maternity care, drug abuse treatment and preventive care — the category including habilitative services leaves more room for interpretation.

For instance, insurers could choose to cover physical therapy for someone with a broken bone, but not cover long-term support services for chronic conditions, such as speech therapy for kids with developmental delays.

Clemans-Cope says some insurers may arrange their benefits in a way that discourages people with expensive chronic conditions from signing up with them. And, she says, people who want specific therapies covered are going to have to slog through some fine print to figure out if they'll actually benefit from a particular policy. (The new policies will start to go on sale this fall, and go into effect beginning Jan. 1, 2014.)

"This is a big improvement, but we should emphasize that it's not totally fixed," Clemans-Cope says. "And people are really going to have to get help to decide which plans cover the benefits they need. "

Whether a person will be able to get the new therapy benefits also depends on where they live. The level of benefits that insurers have to provide in each category is based on a model policy in each state, and some of those policies are a lot more generous than others.

, an activist in Colorado for people with disabilities, says a lot of details still need to be sorted out before she'll be able to say whether the health care law has improved things much.

"I certainly hope the way the Affordable Care Act is implemented is a game changer for people in the disabilities community. It can be," says Tappert, who spent years fighting for habilitative service coverage for her daughter who has autism. "The opportunity is there for policy makers to vastly improve lives."

Barbara Vernon, Bryce's mother, says Bryce is now covered by Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program. His primary insurance had been her employer-sponsored plan until she was laid off in 2009. She searched for private coverage for Bryce, she says, but "private insurance was so unbelievably expensive, it was unafforadable."

Vernon says her family's health insurance is "a patchwork," with Bryce likely to stay on Medi-Cal even after his 21st birthday. She and her other son have an individual plan they have purchased, and her husband has an employer-sponsored plan that only covers the employee — not the family.

For his part, Bryce Vernon says his life is a lot better since getting the kind of help that many others may be able to get from the health law, starting in 2014. He works hard to get the most out of the technology and the therapy that lets him speak. His advice to others: "Never, ever give up."

The new rules for what health insurance companies must cover may still change. Federal regulators plan to review them as the health law rolls out, and could make changes in 2016.

Disabled Greeks get to swim thanks to solar wheelchair

From Reuters:

Paralyzed from the waist down, Lefteris Theofilou has spent nearly half his life bound to a wheelchair and recalls as if it were a dream the first time a solar-powered chair enabled him to swim on his own in the Greek sea.

"It was unreal," Theofilou, 52, a burly mechanic with graying hair, said as he lifted himself off his wheelchair one warm summer evening, sat on the chair and with the push of a button rode, unassisted, 20 m (yards) to the shore and into the water.

"It makes you feel free and able to do things you could not imagine you could do on your own," he said.
Founded by a team of Greek scientists in 2008 and covered by European and U.S. patent laws, the Seatrac device operates on a fixed-track mechanism which allows up to 30 wheelchairs to be moved in and out of the water a day - all powered by solar energy.

In a country with one of the world's longest coastlines and thousands of islands, it has come as a welcome relief for many Greeks, boosting demand each year. Currently, 11 devices operate in Greece and there are plans to expand the network.

But despite Seatrac's growing appeal - it has already been exported to Cyprus and the team are in talks with architects in Croatia, France, the United Arab Emirates and Israel - it faces hurdles in Greece, where facilities for the disabled are poor.

In the capital Athens, bumpy pavements and potholed roads make moving around difficult. Wheelchair ramps had to be installed during a July visit by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair.

Seatrac's founders have taken advantage of Greece's climate - the country is drenched in sun almost year-round - meaning that the devices can be set up easily on beaches without an electric line to hand and taken down at the end of the season, all without damaging the environment.

The team hope the device could boost tourism, the Mediterranean country's biggest industry, but lament a lack of support by the local authorities which bought the device for 30,000 euros ($40,000) each and are responsible for maintenance after the first year.

Engineer Ignatios Fotiou, one of the inventors, likened the lack of support to "building a penthouse apartment without a building underneath it".

At a busy beach in the coastal town of Alepochori near Athens, vandalism and theft of the solar panel are common. If something breaks, locals say it could take days for the municipality to fix it, sometimes delayed by striking workers.

Often, parents watch as their teenage children use the machine as a diving board.

"These guys have created an incredible thing and we stumble across problems from the state," Theofilou said. "This is Third-World sloppiness."

Minas Georgakis, whose wife Matoula Kastrioti, 46, suffers from multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair, said he had to take matters into his own hands because help from the local administration "simply does not exist".

With wooden planks, he built an additional ramp to allow access to the Seatrac as wheelchairs could not be driven over sand. Even so, the path leading to the device is often blocked by parked motorcycles and uncollected garbage.

"I feel bitter," Theofilou said of the lack of support to nods of agreement by Kastrioti who waited for her turn to board.

"We have thousands of beaches, the most beautiful in the world, and to still not be able to swim in them?" he asked as he emerged from the crystal blue waters.

Deaf rapper, 'Switched at Birth' actors now mainstream stars

From Fox News:

Musician Sean Forbes won the award for “Outstanding Hip-Hop Artist” at the Detroit Music Awards in April. He didn’t even realize it at first.

Why?

He’s deaf.

“Another rapper from Detroit came up to me and said ‘Congratulations Sean!’ and I thought it was for being nominated for Outstanding Hip-Hop Artist.  When he told me ‘Dude, you won,’ I was like, ‘No way!?’” Forbes told FOX411.  “I am so deaf I [didn’t] know what was going on.”

Deaf since infancy – and with both parents in the music industry – he always knew music was what he wanted to do. Buying his first drum set at the age of five, his parents always supported his dream.

“They gave me so much accessibility to music, but also a reality check. Making music wasn't something that everyone made a living doing, but I wouldn't give up on that dream,” Forbes explained.

Being deaf doesn't always mean not being able to hear or produce music – in fact, Beethoven was deaf while composing his most impressive symphonies. Forbes, like other Deaf people, is able to feel the beat of the music vibrating through his body.

One summer, while interning in Chicago with an engineering company, they were so impressed with his work ethic, they offered to pay for his college education. Rather than graduating and going right to work, making $70,000 a year, he chose to follow his heart.

“I didn't want to live my life wearing a suit and tie, riding an elevator…I wanted to do the one thing I truly loved,” Forbes said.

Classifying himself as a musician who just “happens to be deaf,” Forbes is also the co-founder of the Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN).  Founded in 2006, D-PAN works to promote professional development and access to the entertainment, visual and media arts fields for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

"I know, in the next few years, with D-PAN and with my own music, people won't even look at it as 'Deaf people can do music?!' They'll look at it, like 'Wow! Those are some kick-ass entertainers,’” said Forbes.

Forbes isn't the the only entertainer working to make being deaf a secondary issue to their talents.  Matt Hamill, now a UFC fighter, became the first Deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Wrestling Championship in 1997.

Actors and actresses are getting their chances, too. The ABC Family show “Switched at Birth” revolves around the lives of two girls – one deaf and the other who can hear – who found out they were switched at birth. The drama is ranked as cable television’s number one scripted telecast on Monday nights in its. timeslot, according to Nielsen.

The actors and actresses that portray deaf characters on the show are deaf or hard-of-hearing in real life as well.  The show's producer told us that on the set, having a mixture of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing actors is not a problem.

“We're all totally used to having a bilingual set at all times. The deaf actors have interpreters with them but we all interact with our deaf colleagues with a mixture of signing, lipreading, and our own made-up signs,” Lizzy Weiss, the executive producer of the show, told FOX411.

In April, the show aired an episode that was told in American Sign Language, a first for mainstream scripted television. It was one of Weiss’s favorite episodes to work on.

“Paul Stupin and Shawn Wilt, my writers, all of our cast – we all had so much fun with the challenge of making an entire episode of network television without any vocalization,” she said.

But mixing the Deaf and hearing worlds is not always easy. Working in the music industry is a dream-come-true for Forbes, but he says stereotypes about deafness still exist.

“I've had people come up to me and say things like ‘Wow, you're deaf.  I met another deaf person and they're not like you.’ First of all, everyone on this planet is different.  Some have similar upbringings, similar experiences, but no one is the same.....the same goes for the Deaf community,” Forbes said.  “I think that people need to expand their minds about everything as a society and stop judging people based on their appearance when you don't necessarily know a thing about them.”

Many in the Deaf community are thrilled to have a show like “Switched at Birth” that has deaf and hard-of-hearing characters, but Weiss says she still can't please everyone. "Overall, they're thrilled to have a show that portrays deaf and hard of hearing characters week in and week out as protagonists," she said. "Like with fans of any show, some people have issues with certain things. Again, I'm not doing the show to promote an agenda, and this isn't a documentary - it's a TV show, which means we choose stories that are universal, compelling, and emotional."

“I hope 'Switched' opens the door for a ton more stories about deaf characters and other people outside the mainstream,” Weiss added.

Forbes also hopes that the show’s representation of deaf characters will help hearing people to understand and embrace deafness and Deaf culture.

“Just put it in this context." he said. "We have a deaf fighter, a deaf rapper, deaf actors…all we need now are some bona fide deaf politicians."

Activists protesting TV shows that include characters with disabilities but do not cast actors with them

From The Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh, Pa.:

This October, when actor Blair Underwood (pictured) steers a wheelchair into crime scenes as the title character in NBC's remake of the drama "Ironside," some nontraditional casting will be evident. As played by the late Raymond Burr from 1967-75, the original Robert T. Ironside -- a police detective disabled by a bullet to the spine -- was white.

But color-blind casting is not the only kind of out-of-the box thinking that could have ensued in re-creating the series, according to professional actors with disabilities who say they feel frustrated when non-disabled actors win roles they would like to try for.

While acknowledging that the casting of Mr. Underwood, a 1988 Carnegie Mellon graduate, reflects the star power he brings, these actors say the decision highlights the uphill battle to convince Hollywood to give them the opportunity to audition for such roles -- as well as roles of non-disabled characters.

"I don't fault any actor for taking the role of a character with a disability. What a great challenge for any actor," said Tobias Forrest, a 38-year-old actor who uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury.

"But the big problem is about opportunity," said the Los Angeles-based actor who spent several months in Pittsburgh in 2006 as the lead in a City Theatre production. "If all the chances to play characters with disabilities -- or characters without disabilities -- are given to non-disabled actors, we lose an opportunity to move forward in our careers."

Hollywood's practice of casting big names in the roles of characters with disabilities produces a "Catch-22," notes reporter Greg Gilman, who covered the protestations about the "Ironside" casting in the The Wrap, an entertainment industry publication. "There won't be any disabled stars until disabled actors are given prominent roles," he wrote.

Following publication of Mr. Gilman's article, "Ironside's" producers explained that disabled actors were not considered because about 10 percent of the role involves flashbacks to the time before the character's injury.
Certainly, non-disabled actors have created memorable performances in these types of roles. Consider Daniel Day-Lewis in "My Left Foot," Jamie Foxx in "Ray," Gary Sinise in "Forrest Gump" and John Hawkes in "The Sessions."

"Could you find an actor with exactly the same condition as Mark O'Brien to audition for the lead in 'The Sessions?' " asked Mr. Forrest, who had a supporting role in the film. "Probably not. So do what director Ben Lewin did and cast actors with disabilities in supporting roles, so we get a chance to build our resumes."

The number of characters with a disability in television has grown steadily in recent years. This fall alone brings three new offerings. In addition to "Ironside," NBC is also presenting sighted actor J.K. Simmons as a blind lawyer in "Growing Up Fisher" and Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's, as a news anchor with the condition. Casting issues aside, the visibility of these programs brings disability into the mainstream.

Yet ironically, auditioning for too many supporting roles and guest shots involving disability can limit the career path of an actor, says Springdale native John Siciliano, 42, a Los Angeles-based actor and Point Park University graduate who uses a prosthetic leg.

Both he and Mr. Forrest actively audition not only for roles involving disability, but also for non-disabled roles. Only rarely have they won the latter parts.

"When I walk into an audition, you can't tell I have a prosthesis, but it's always about the leg," said Mr. Siciliano.

"Hollywood puts you in a little pipe," he said, adding that he was taken aback as a young actor when he was almost immediately cast as a "crazy, one-legged homeless guy" on both "ER" and "Scrubs." On the plus side, the roles helped him earn his Screen Actors Guild card, he laughed.

Regarding the flap over the "Ironside" casting, he said, "The best actor should always win the role. An actor with a disability is not entitled to a role but to an opportunity to show what they can do."

And breakthroughs do occur, both actors say. Notably, Peter Dinklage, who stars in "Game of Thrones," and Robert David Hall on "CSI" have surpassed being cast solely in terms of their disabilities.

"At the end of the day, talent gets you the job," said Mr. Forrest. "But only if there's a writer who believes the character needs to live, and only if there's a casting director who thinks the actor needs to be seen, and only if there's a producer who believes these choices will make money."

Spain's new Councillor with Down syndrome wants to be an honest politician

From Digital Journal:

Valladolid, Spain - Hoping to make a difference with all the corruption scandals in the Spanish government right now, 30-year-old Ángela Covadonga Bachiller makes history by becoming Spain's first Down Syndrome Councillor in Valladolid. 

 

"I want to be an honest politician" said Bachiller as she began her job on Monday, as a representative of Spain's ruling Partido Popular in the city of Valladolid in north-western Spain. 

 

The previous holder of her post was forced to resign over corruption charges. Bachiller told Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper, "I don't like dishonest politicians and those who don't work for the people." 

 

Bachiller has known for some time that she would be taking up a new political role, but her family kept her out of the spotlight up until recently, when she was officially named a Councillor in the city's town hall. 

 

"I'm very excited, a bit nervous and surprised that there has been so much media attention," Bachiller told the media. "It was a special moment in my life."

 

Bachiller has been working for the last two and a half years as an administrative assistant in the Department of Social Welfare in Valladolid. She narrowly missed out on a spot as Town Councillor in 2011, but along the way made many friends. Because of those friends and the fact that she was so close to winning in those elections, Valladolid's city mayor Francisco Javier León de la Riva described her as "an example of strength and of someone overcoming obstacles." 

 

Her father describes her as "a very responsible and stubborn kid" and her mother says that she is "prepared, qualified and discrete." Her father told El País newspaper, "if she had to get up a six o'clock instead of seven to study because she was finding it (the schoolwork) harder, she would." 

 

According to her boss in the social welfare department, Rosa Hernández: "The most important thing is that her family didn't overprotect her." "She's tenacious and capable of carrying out her work at all times," Hernández added.

 

Bachiller's new position as a Councillor will mean that she will be taking part in municipal plenary sessions and other meetings. She is a strong believer that people with disabilities should be allowed to vote. Bachiller told La Vanguardia, "I've always voted since I was 18 years old, but other people (in my situation) have never been able to."

In Spain, people with intellectual disabilities are theoretically entitled to vote. However, should a Spanish judge declare a person with a disability "incapacitated", they automatically lose the right to vote.

 "We (people with disabilities) want the laws relating to the right to vote changed," Bachiller told La Vanguardia.

When Bachiller was asked whether she thought it should be a normal thing for people with disabilities to work as politicians she said, "Yes, but I have to admit that not everybody dares to include us on their electoral list."

While she recognizes that the road ahead of her will be tough, Bachiller hopes that she isn't the only one with Down Syndrome to become a politician. And not only has she worked hard to attain her current position as Councillor.

According to her father, she also studies English and plays the piano, "very well." Never a dull moment ahead too, as her first activity on Monday was participating in a full council covering topics as varied as the accession of Valladolid to the Accessibility Network, the plans of supplier payment and also for the promotion of electric vehicles in the city.