Jail guard with CP sues over discrimination

From SanLuisObispo.com August 1:

A former County Jail guard is suing the Sheriff’s Department, claiming he was fired and discriminated against because he has cerebral palsy.

Edward Cox, 26, says he was wrongfully fired and that employees there intentionally inflicted emotional distress and discriminated against him because of his physical disability, according to a lawsuit filed July 11 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Rob Bryn declined to comment this week on the allegations, saying the agency had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit.

He also noted the department would not comment on the case because it involved a personnel action—the firing of an employee still on probation.

Cox, of San Luis Obispo, is asking for an unlimited amount in compensation, lost earnings and benefits, according to the lawsuit.

A court date has been set for Nov. 20.

Cox’s attorney, Maury Mills of Ventura, said his client could perform all of the essential functions of the job without special accommodations and had passed required tests. He has no physical limitations but does visibly show some signs of cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy refers to a range of physical disabilities caused by damage to the motor control centers of a developing brain.

In the suit, Cox described how he was fired during a probationary period about four months after he was hired on June 7, 2007. He said he was not given proper training and not treated the same as four other new hires.

He contended he was familiar with the requirements of a correctional officer through his father, who had worked in that position for 20 years at the same department.

One instance of reported mistreatment alleged in the suit was when a supervisor told a colleague that he would not go easy on Cox, without saying that about the other trainees.

Cox also said he was not given training necessary to complete his assignments.

When he complained to a superior about the lack of training, verbal abuse and negative reports about his performance, Cox said he was offered an opportunity to begin training anew, but he would have had to complete it within three months instead of six.

But nothing changed related to Cox’s training; he was fired and not given a reason for the termination, he said in the lawsuit.

Youth with disabilities learn leadership skills

From the Contra Costa Times in California:

SACRAMENTO — From the wheelchair she uses because of her cerebral palsy, Alva Gardner sees issues others may overlook.

Take public restrooms. Sometimes able-bodied people use stalls reserved for the disabled, taking away from those who need the access, she said. Other times, diaper changing stations are placed in there.

Those are just two of the concerns that Gardner said she hoped to bring to state legislators' attention on July 30.

"I'm very into disability awareness and public speaking about it," said Gardner of Oakland. The recent Head-Royce School graduate is one of 53 California students in Sacramento this week, taking part in the Youth Leadership Forum for Students with Disabilities.

The forum is intended to inspire the students to reach their career goals, live independently and get involved in their communities.

The program is in its 17th year in California, where it was founded. Similar programs now exist in 30 states and Puerto Rico.

The week's activities, held in the state Capitol or at Sacramento State, have included seeing the latest in assistive technology devices for the disabled, team-building exercises and learning about disabled history and culture.

Emergency communication access improves in Beijing

From Xinhua:

Beijing has unveiled a communication platform for the disabled on July 30 in a bid to help the city's nearly 300,000 blind or deaf residents to send digital signals in case of emergency.

The platform will allow emergency departments such as hospitals and police to receive digital signals sent by the disabled through the transfer of telecommunication services, according to sources with the Beijing Disabled Persons Activity Center.

Users may dial 63051111 or send messages to 10639111, and their information will be forwarded.

The phone numbers will soon be connected to 120, 119 and 110, emergency calls for hospitals, the fire service and police respectively, according to the Center.

Beijing had a population of 999,000 disabled, of which 227,000 had listening difficulties, 67,000 were visually impaired and 6,000 had language difficulties, according to China's second national sample survey on disability conducted in 2006.

Philippines law adds more privileges for people with disabilities

From The Visayan Daily Star:

The law amending the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons gives more privileges for the differently-abled, Tony Fabruada, president of the Provincial Federation of Persons with Disabilities in Negros Oriental, said July 28.

Republic Act 9442 or the Magna Carta for the Person with Disability which amended RA 7277, reinforces the rights and privileges of PWDs, who are now entitled to a minimum of 20 percent discount on various services such as hotel and lodging, restaurants, recreation centers, theaters, cinemas, carnivals, and concerts, among others.

They are also entitled to the same discount on medicine purchases and medicine and dental services, as well as domestic air, sea and land travel and public railways for PWDs, Fabruada said.

He also said these incentives under the new law are available for PWDs upon submission of their identification cards, passport and transportation discount cards.

The new law also prohibits the ridicule and vilification of the differently-abled. Violators will face penalties ranging from 50,000 ($1,129 US) to 200,000 ($4515 USD) and imprisonment from 6 months to six years at the discretion of the court, Fabruada said.

The law also states that any person who abuses the privileges granted by the law shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than six months or a fine of not less than 5,000 ($113 USD) but not more than 50,000 ($1129 USD) or both at the discretion of the court.

If the violator is a corporation, organization or any similar entity their officials shall be liable. If the violator is a foreigner, he shall be deported immediately after serving his sentence without further deportation proceedings.

Fabruada said that the term used in the new law referring to the differently-abled is now “person with disability” instead of “disabled person” which was used in the old law.

The Magna Carta for the PWD aims to fully integrate differently-abled persons into the mainstream of Philippine society, he said.

Britain probes deaths, NHS responsibility for disabled people

Martin Ryan

From the BBC:

People with learning disabilities are suffering and even dying as laws to protect them are ignored by the NHS (National Health Service) in England, says an inquiry report.

The independent inquiry, launched after the deaths of six patients, called for tougher inspections and more training for staff.

However, it said new laws to ensure equal access were not needed.

Learning disability charities (like Mencap) welcomed the report - but one said there was a danger little action would be taken.

Dame Jo Williams, (the British charity) Mencap's chief executive, said: "It proves that people with a learning disability are being discriminated against in the NHS, which is leading to unnecessary pain and death.

"It is clear that there is a desperate need for mandatory learning disability training for all health care professionals, and for people with a learning disability and their families and carers to be at the centre of all decisions made surrounding their health care."

Mencap's own report, "Death by indifference", included the cases of Martin Ryan, a 43-year-old with Down's syndrome and autism who died after going without food for 26 days while in hospital following a stroke. (He is pictured above.)

His mother Anne said: "They did not listen to us, and we knew Martin better than anybody. We were totally ignored."

Other cases highlighted included that of Emma Kemp, of Newbury, Berkshire, who, despite being given a 50% chance of survival after a cancer diagnosis, was not treated immediately after doctors said she would not co-operate.

Also featured was Mark Cannon, a 30-year-old with a learning disability, died in 2003 eight weeks after being admitted to hospital with a broken leg.

His father, Allan, said at the time of the Mencap report, that he believed his son would have survived were it not for his disability.

"The medical staff had such poor understanding of Mark's needs," he said.

All six cases have also been investigated by the Health Service Ombudsman, which is expected to deliver its findings later in the year.

Learning disability charities welcomed the report - but one said there was a danger little action would be taken.

New Hampshire magazine focuses on universal design

From New Hampshire Magazine's August issue:

Have you ever noticed that most homes seem to be just right for a young, fit, six-foot tall male? But for those who don’t fit that description, daily routines can be difficult. Light switches are too high for children. Electric outlets are too low for those who have trouble bending. Doorknobs are almost impossible to turn, especially for someone who has arthritic hands or who has two bags of groceries in one arm and a fussy toddler in the other. Steps become a seasonal hazard for all, and for some a year-round barrier.

It doesn’t have to be that way. In the 1970s architect Ron Mace began to design homes that were comfortable and adaptable to a wide range of physical abilities. The term “universal design” was used for this new approach. Mace called the houses he designed “homes for everyone.”Fast forward to the 21st century — key elements of universal design are the law of the land for public buildings. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), public buildings must be accessible. We have come to expect level entry doors, ramps, wide aisles, accessible toilets and other design features that make it possible for almost all citizens to move about in the community with greater ease and safety. Home design, however, has not moved forward at the same pace.

Trinka Russell wants to change that. Russell speaks to the issue of home design from both personal and professional experience. After 18 years working as a hospital nurse, she decided to take time off to develop a new career. She studied art and design at the New England School of Design. She expected to use her new skills to design more comfortable and efficient hospital units. But life intervened. Seventeen years ago she gave birth to twin boys, both of whom have cerebral palsy.

“Our Cape-style home was totally inaccessible,” she says. “We realized that we just couldn’t continue living this way. I designed our new house and the results were profound. Life became so much easier and the boys could be more independent as they grew. But you can’t tell by looking that this is home to people with severe mobility, vision and balance impairment.”

Looks are important, say proponents of universal design. A house that conveys “impairment” may stigmatize the occupants and will be harder to sell. And being visibly different is simply not necessary.

Russell taught a graduate course in home design at Suffolk University for seven years. Then she launched her own business as a design consultant. Two years ago she was elected to the N.H. House, representing Stratham. She has put her professional work aside to “learn the ropes” of legislation and better serve her community. She sees a growing need for homes that meet the needs of elders.

“If more money went into making such homes, elders could remain independent for longer,” she says. “We would save money in the long run. There would be less need for chore services and home care.”

Many of the needed adaptations are inexpensive to make. She gives examples: Loss of hand strength is common among older people. That, plus arthritis, can make it impossible to turn a doorknob. Replacing knobs with levers (purchased at a hardware store) usually solves the problem. Use color contrast to help a person with low vision locate essential areas. A section of brightly colored tiles on the bathroom floor, in front of the door, the sink and the toilet, help the resident locate the right spot. For
low budget cabinetry, use drawers instead of pull out shelves.

The starting point for universal design is accessibility. Can a person with physical impairment get in and out of the house? If not, there are safety issues, but perhaps even more damaging is the isolation of the resident. The most desirable solution is to build with ground level entry, back and front. When working with an existing home, however, a ramp is often the only solution. A ramp is essential for wheelchair users and helpful to many others. People who use canes, crutches or walkers, who have joint problems or are temporarily impaired will find life easier without steps.

Exercise in a pill may benefit wheelchair users

The Wall Street Journal reports on two new drugs that apparently mimic the effects of physical exercise on the body, and researchers say they may have benefits for people with limited mobility who have difficulty exercising.

In a series of startling experiments in mice, the drugs improved the ability of cells to burn fat and retain muscle mass, and they substantially prolonged endurance during exercise. Using one of the compounds for just a month, even sedentary, couch-potato mice improved their endurance running by a staggering 44%. Some mice that combined a month of exercise with the other drug bolstered their long-distance running by about 70% over untreated mice.

One of the drugs is already in late-stage human trials for other purposes, and the mouse experiments raise hopes for new strategies to protect people against obesity, diabetes and muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

Researchers say the drugs might benefit people who are ill in bed or wheelchair users who "can't exercise, and this would give them some of the benefits," said Joseph Hornyak, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. But the pills would be unlikely to provide all the benefits of real exercise.

"People who exercise have lower levels of depression and higher bone density," said Prof. Hornyak. "Whether or not this pill would confer those benefits, we don't know."

Oregon offering assisted suicide instead of cancer treatment?

Barbara Wagner asked for a new chemotherapy drug and was sent a letter offering physician-assisted suicide.

From KATU-TV in Portland, Ore:

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Barbara Wagner has one wish - for more time.

"I'm not ready, I'm not ready to die," the Springfield woman said. "I've got things I'd still like to do."

Her doctor offered hope in the new chemotherapy drug Tarceva, but the Oregon Health Plan sent her a letter telling her the cancer treatment was not approved.

Instead, the letter said, the plan would pay for comfort care, including "physician aid in dying," better known as assisted suicide.

"I told them, I said, 'Who do you guys think you are?' You know, to say that you'll pay for my dying, but you won't pay to help me possibly live longer?' " Wagner said.

Dr. Som Saha, chairman of the commission that sets policy for the Oregon Health Plan, said Wagner is making an "unfortunate interpretation" of the letter and that no one is telling her the health plan will only pay for her to die.

But one critic of assisted suicide calls the message disturbing nonetheless.

"People deserve relief of their suffering, not giving them an overdose," said Dr. William Toffler. He said the state has a financial incentive to offer death instead of life: Chemotherapy drugs such as Tarceva cost $4,000 a month while drugs for assisted suicide cost less than $100.

Saha said state health officials do not consider whether it is cheaper for someone in the health plan to die than live. But he admitted they must consider the state's limited dollars when dealing with a case such as Wagner's.

"If we invest thousands and thousands of dollars in one person's days to weeks, we are taking away those dollars from someone," Saha said.

But the medical director at the cancer center where Wagner gets her care said some people may have incredible responses to treatment.

Blind centenarian bonds with others through reading

Elizabeth Goodyear, who is 101.

From The New York Times Aug. 1:

Stephanie Sandleben, a yoga instructor with tattoos on each shoulder, just finished Chapter 19 of Tina Brown’s biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Sara Nolan, a 28-year-old graduate student, is 30 pages into a Rumer Godden novel. Mark Kalinowsky, 48 and a real estate broker, has long since stopped reading; he just comes to chat.

These three disparate characters are part of a ragtag crew that cycles through the worn one-bedroom Murray Hill walk-up where Elizabeth Goodyear, who recently celebrated her 101st birthday, is confined after two knee operations. A lifelong lover of books, Ms. Goodyear lost her sight about four years ago, but in its place has acquired a roster of readers who stop by regularly, bringing with them dogs, gifts from their international travels and offerings of dark chocolate, the elixir she has
savored daily since she was 3.

“Usually there’s something going on here,” Ms. Goodyear observed the other day during Ms. Sandleben’s weekly visit. “It’s strange. You’d think if you got to be 101, nothing much would happen. But it does.”

It started with a neighbor two generations younger, who once asked Ms. Goodyear to watch her bags while she ran back upstairs to fetch a bow and arrows for a trip to Maine.

As Ms. Goodyear grew more frail, the neighbor, a yoga instructor named Alison West, started stopping by to kiss her goodnight each evening. On learning that Ms. Goodyear had outlived her savings, Ms. West raised money to pay for her rent-controlled apartment and part of her home health aide’s wages. Then, about five years ago, she posted a sign seeking readers at yoga studios downtown and sent out an e-mail message that was forwarded and forwarded again.

“Liz has no family at all, and all her old friends have died, but she remains eternally positive and cheerful and loves to have people come by to read to her or talk about life, politics, travel — or anything else,” the message read. “She also loves good chocolate!”

Reading to the blind or the elderly is hardly novel. In New York City, two well-established programs, Lighthouse International and Visions/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, have hundreds of volunteers who make home visits or read to clients at their offices and in senior centers. The National Federation of the Blind provides a free telephone service through which people can hear articles from more than 200 newspapers and magazines, and the Jewish Guild for the Blind offers a similar program using special radios.

But the casual, organic way in which this particular group came together around Ms. Goodyear is a window into the way New York can be a small town, the way strangers become a community, the way books, reading and, especially, stories bind people together.

ADAPT activists block McCain bus

From the Racine, Wis., Journal Times:

When John McCain visited Racine’s Memorial Hall Thursday, there was never a dull moment.

From protesters with masks and supporters in sequined hats to wheelchairs interrupting McCain’s motorcade, there was no shortage of noteworthy people and
events.

Two men in wheelchairs put themselves in front of McCain’s campaign bus as he tried to leave Memorial Hall.

The bus stopped as Secret Service and Racine police moved the men, separating them for questioning.

The men were Steve Verriden, a quadriplegic man from Madison, and John Donnelly, another Madison man with cerebral palsy. The men are members of ADAPT, a non-profit national direct action group working on disability rights for the last 20 years, said ADAPT organizer Jason Glozier.

Verriden and Donnelly blocked McCain’s bus as part of a national attempt to get McCain to meet with ADAPT and support the Community Choice Act, a bill that would allow communities to choose whether they fund nursing home facilities or community service facilities first. Under current law, funding first goes to nursing home facilities, Glozier said.

“What we’ve been doing is hitting him in every state we have membership in,” he said.

The men were let go a few minutes after the incident.

Jerry Hershberger, 62 of Caledonia, saw the event from a second floor window of the Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St.

“It was a pretty gutsy move,” he said. “I respect their courage.”

Hershberger said it reminded him of the lone man standing in front of tanks in China’s Tiananmen Square.

He said Secret Service and police handled the situation very professionally and quickly.

.

Report says parents in Spain abort 9 of 10 fetuses with Down syndrome

From the Catholic News Agency July 31:

The National Association for the Defense of the Right to Conscientious Objection is deploring new data this week that indicates that 9 out every 10 babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are aborted by their parents in Spain.

General coordinator of the Association, Jose Antonio Diez, said that in 94.5% of the cases that a prenatal diagnosis indicates the presence of Down’s syndrome, the baby is aborted.

He said such diagnoses are often used to “eliminate children with more or less serious defects. The doctor is not free to offer alternatives,” and for this reason many parents are now conscientiously objecting to prenatal diagnosis that is not intended for medical treatment, Diez said.

Spanish law does not permit abortion in cases in which the fetus is presumed to have “serious physical or mental defects,” such as Trisomy 21, spina bifida or anencephaly.

According to the “Women's Help Line Foundation” (Linea de Atencion a la Mujer), allowing the abortion of handicapped persons is discrimination “incompatible with the Convention on the rights of handicapped persons approved by the UN in New York on December 13, 2006. Spain signed that Convention on December 3, 2007, and it took effect on May 3.”

Article 10 of the Convention affirms that “the signatory States reaffirm the inherent right to life of all human beings and shall adopt all necessary measures to guarantee the effective enjoyment of that right by handicapped persons equal to all others.”

Britain's Missing Top Model says having one arm is no big deal

In an interview in The Daily Mail about her photo shoot for the magazine Marie Claire after winning Britain's Missing Top Model reality TV show, a competition for disabled women, Kelly Knox, 24, said she feels lucky to be born without a left hand and lower arm.

"I didn't look down at my arm once, or even remember I was missing an arm. But I've spent a lifetime ignoring it - it's second nature to me. If I had been born with two arms, I would never have been in this magazine. In fact, I'm the lucky one," she explained.

As a child, she hated any prosthetics that were tried and has never worn one since.

Although she feared the TV program might turn into a "freak show," she says she was interested to meet people with other disabilities.

"But part of my interest was the fact that I've never actually thought of myself as disabled," she said. "I've never sat down and fretted about my arm, or even wondered what life might have been like if I'd been born with two. I was actually curious to know what I would be like around people with different disabilities.'"

With fears of autism, parents overzealously question doctors

Sandra Devlin tests the recognition skills of her baby, Delilah.

The Newhouse News Service reports on pediatricians being swamped with questions from concerned parents these days -- everyone fearing their child may have autism.

Every generation of parents has a worry unique to its era. In the ’40s, the specter of polio made mothers frantic about any trip to the neighborhood swimming pool. The ’80s brought the sense that every child risked abduction, his photo ending up on the side of a milk carton.For today’s parents, that fear is autism.

"In my office, that’s the big elephant in the room. They’ll ask about something else, but what they’re really asking is, 'He doesn’t have autism, does he?’ It is the question for this generation," said Dr. Ari Brown, a Texas pediatrician and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

With autism spectrum disorders now diagnosed in 1 out of 150 children nationally, rare is the parent who isn’t aware of autism. And with that awareness can come a new wariness of vaccines, which a vocal minority of autism activists blame for the jump in cases. Pediatricians report seeing more parents question, delay or even shun altogether the traditional round of childhood immunizations.

Such worries never crossed the mind of Sandra Devlin, of Denville, N.J., (pictured above) with her first two children, now 19 and 13. Autism arrived on her radar screen for the next two kids, now 9 and 3. With Delilah, born 11 weeks prematurely, that concern is front and center.

"I never did that with my older kids," she said of her new habit of checking for eye contact from Delilah. "But now I’m looking specifically for autism."

Pediatricians say this worry has its benefits: Parents are more aware of crucial child-development milestones and as a result, they are quicker to pick up on lags. That may mean some cases of autism — maddeningly difficult to catch in the youngest toddlers — are diagnosed earlier.

"If you have a child who doesn’t talk, I think in other generations they would’ve said, 'Oh, he’s a late bloomer.’ It wasn’t a big deal," said Mary Jean Wick, a mother of five. "Now it’s definitely a fear for this age of parent."

However, it can make some parents see autism behind every bush.

"Thirteen years ago, parents wouldn’t be able to answer the question, 'How does your child play?’ " Brown said of her early years in practice. "Now you hear, 'Oh my God, my child lines up his trains. Does he have autism?’ There are these extreme parents who think every little thing is autism. I have to say to them, 'Sometimes kids can be quirky.’ "

Man swims across Lake Ontario to raise awareness about Asperger's

Jay Serdula, left

The Toronto Sun reports that Jay Serdula completed a 41-hour swim from Niagara-on-the-Lake across Lake Ontario to Vicki Keith Point July 30. Serdula undertook the swim to raise awareness of Asperger's Syndrome, which he was diagnosed with as a child.

DNA mutations may trigger schizophrenia

From Bloomberg news:

Spontaneous defects in DNA may trigger schizophrenia, according to research that bolsters results of smaller studies aimed at finding the genetic causes of the disabling mental disorder.

In the largest study of its kind, international research teams found evidence that schizophrenia can be caused when genes are duplicated or deleted in an often random process that isn't inherited from parents, according to reports published July 30 in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.

Scientists found that people with schizophrenia are more than 10 times as likely to have these rare chromosomal alterations as people who don't have the illness.

While the findings fill in parts of the puzzle of the disease, they also suggest it may be caused by a complex set of genetic flaws, which could complicate the search for effective treatments.

"This is just the beginning,'' Pamela Sklar, a geneticist and psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led one of the research teams, said yesterday in a conference call. "It only explains a tiny fraction of why people might develop schizophrenia.''

Family history is a strong risk factor for schizophrenia, with about 40 percent of patients having a close relative with the disease. Schizophrenia, like some other illnesses, is believed by scientists to result from a combination of both genetic and environmental causes.

In one of the studies, researchers examined data from nearly 3,400 schizophrenia patients and about 3,200 other people in five countries. Researchers looked at a relatively rare type of change in the human genetic code in which people have a large stretch of DNA that is missing or duplicated. Scientists have been linking these "copy number variations,'' or CNVs, to more illnesses, including autism and mental retardation.

Researchers found that those with the alterations were 10 times more likely to have schizophrenia and that two specific parts of the genome, when altered, greatly increased the risk of developing the disease.