TRENTON, N.J. — A dispute over the state’s delay of a plan to move developmentally disabled people out of institutions is headed for trial in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson in Trenton has rejected arguments she heard a week ago from the advocacy group Disability Rights New Jersey and the state Department of Human Services urging her to use court records to decide whether the state violated the rights of about 1,850 people by failing to move them from institutions.
The trial is needed, Thompson said, to determine whether the state is justified in postponing a plan to move them out of the state-run developmental centers before 2015 because it can’t afford to pay for it.
Disability Rights contends confining these people to institutions violates their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The advocacy group sued when the state failed to adhere to its own plan introduced three years ago that called for relocating 100 willing developmental center residents in the first year and 250 every year thereafter.
The plan was a response to a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Olmstead that says federal law protects the right of disabled people to live in “the most integrated setting’’ possible.
Thompson said she could not decide the case without determining whether “New Jersey has an Olmstead plan that can be considered to be effectively working given the recent fiscal crisis and budget cuts,’’ according to her Sept. 24 decision.
Human Services spokeswoman Nicole Brossoie said the state relocated 121 people from institutions in fiscal year 2008; 112 in 2009; and 62 in 2010.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Case about NJ postponing deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities will go to trial, district judge says
From The Star-Ledger in N.J.:
Indiana parents sue school district because it won't let their son with MD be assisted by his mother
From The Indy Channel:
CARMEL, Ind. -- The mother and father of a dying 9-year-old boy stricken with muscular dystrophy are battling Carmel Clay Schools, hoping to make the last months of the boy's life as normal as possible.
Greg and Susie Cowen said the school system is making a difficult situation worse by not allowing Jake Cowen's mother to accompany him to class, 6News' Joanna Massee reported.
Jake's doctor expects the boy to live nine months. Aside from MD, the fourth-grader is also afflicted with autism.
Jake needs either a nurse or his mother to help him, but Susie isn't permitted inside Mohawk Trails Elementary School.
"They've said that I'm not allowed to go in and tend to his medical needs," Susie Cowen said. "We want Jacob to go to school because he loves attending school."
Principal Linda Wilson declined an on-camera interview, but told Massee that the school accommodates the needs of children with medical issues.
Jake's parents said they don't trust school employees after an incident in which they claimed a teacher nearly pulled feeding tubes the boy requires out because she thought it was a backpack instead of a feeding apparatus.
"It feels like they're trying to bully us out," Greg Cowen said.
Steve Dillon, director of student services at Carmel Clay, denied Cowen's accusation.
"The school system would never push out a student that has medical needs simply because of their medical needs," Dillon said.
Attorneys Catherine Michael and Ron Frazier are working with the Cowen family to fight the school and the clock.
"We hope that the school district is going to realize the gravity of this situation and take immediate action to correct it," Michael said.
"He could actually have fatal results as a result of the administrators and the teachers not fully understanding his medical fragility," Frazier said.
Jake is now being kept at home. His parents requested a hearing before the Department of Education. Part of the request includes that Jake's mother be allowed to accompany the boy to school when his nurse isn't available.
California nursing home fined for dropping wheelchair user from mechanical lift, which led to her death
From the Los Angeles Times:
A Northern California nursing home was fined $100,000, the highest penalty under state law, after a mechanical lift that was not properly maintained broke and dropped a patient who injured her head and later died.
The 60-year-old patient, who had a heart condition, diabetes and a muscle wasting disease, was confined to a wheelchair and needed help getting up and into bed, according to a California Department of Public Health investigator’s report released Tuesday on Eskaton Care Center Manzanita in Carmichael.
A state investigator found Eskaton Care Center Manzanita staff failed to maintain the lift used to transfer the woman to bed. On July 20, 2008, as nurse assistants were transferring the woman from her wheelchair into bed, the lift sling holding the woman broke and she fell and hit her head on a nearby door, according to a nurse’s notes. The woman was transferred to an emergency room, where medical records show she later suffered bleeding in her brain, brain damage and a stroke. She died four days later.
The sling that broke was supposed to be checked monthly, but had not been checked in five years, according to the facility maintenance director.
Eskaton Care Center Manzanita is one of 35 properties and programs operated by Eskaton, which is based in Carmichael and serves about 14,000 people annually, including about 3,000 residents, according to spokesman Stuart Greenbaum.
In a plan of correction submitted to the state, nursing home officials said they had required more frequent inspections of the lifts and trained staff to better inspect and operate them.
Eskaton officials did not dispute the investigator’s findings, but were still considering Tuesday whether to appeal the fine, according to Trevor Hammond, the company’s chief operating officer.
“We feel very sad that it did occur,” Hammond said.
Dallas County releases deaf man after two decades of wrongful suspicion and imprisonment for sex crime he didn't commit
Stephen Matthew Brodie (pictured) walked out of the Dallas County Jail a free man Tuesday, nearly 20 years after first declaring his innocence and 24 hours after a judge finally agreed with him.
"I was not worrying about it," a smiling Brodie, who is deaf, said through an American Sign Language interpreter. He said he was just happy to be free.
After 18 hours of questioning over eight days – much of it with no sign language interpreter present – Brodie had pleaded guilty in 1993 to abducting the girl from her home and forcing her to perform a sex act. He had come to investigators' attention when he was arrested and confessed to breaking into a vending machine at a community pool not far from the girl's home.
Brodie walked out of jail about noon Sept. 28 with his arms raised in the air and holding hands with his attorneys, Dallas County public defenders Michelle Moore and Julie Doucet.
Other onlookers applauded, and while most clapped the traditional way, others clapped in American Sign Language by holding their arms up and wiggling their fingers.
Brodie, who has been deaf since contracting meningitis at age 18 months, said he was looking forward to riding horses again and eating lunch with his father and friends.
As he addressed the media, he took a gulp of Dr Pepper.
"That's the only thing I missed a lot," he signed.
Although Levario cleared Brodie of the sex crime Sept. 27 after a three-hour hearing, he was serving prison time for failing to register as a sex offender in Lamar County and needed to be released on that case, as well. Because he did not commit the sex crime, there was no need for him to register.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who created the conviction integrity unit to re-examine questionable convictions, apologized to Brodie, as he has to every man exonerated since he took office in 2007.
Brodie's father, who adopted Brodie at age 6, put his arm around Watkins and said, "I tell you what. God bless you. You really started something here."
Watkins told Brodie's father that the credit should go to Jena Parker, the paralegal in his conviction integrity unit who brought the case to his attention.
"She's the one you really need to thank," Watkins told him. "She read your letter and got all this going."
Parker said that when she first read the letter from Brodie's father, two things stood out to her: If a deaf person had committed the crime, he would have had no gauge of how loud he was as he went through things in the house; and how did the child victim understand Brodie's instructions when his voice is often unintelligible?
Once she looked at the police file, Parker said, she began to have questions about points that were raised in court this week and ultimately led to Brodie's release. Those included a fingerprint on a window screen at the girl's home that did not match Brodie, as well as a hair on a blanket that did not match him or anyone in the girl's family.
Brodie is the third man in Dallas County cleared without DNA evidence and the second exonerated after pleading guilty to a crime. He is also the second exoneration in a Richardson case .
The county has recorded 20 DNA exonerations – more than any other county in the nation since 2001, when Texas began allowing post-conviction genetic testing.
Eight of those exonerees showed up to greet Brodie on Tuesday and gave him several hundred dollars. Thomas McGowan, the other man exonerated in a Richardson case, said he came to let Brodie know he wouldn't be going through his readjustment alone.
"It's a day of freedom. It's a beautiful day," said McGowan, who was cleared in 2008. "I remember when I got out it was the most beautiful day in the world."
Uganda Parliament tables amendment that recognizes albinos in disability laws
Albinism has been included in the new disability coding by the gender, labour and social development ministry, state minister Emmanuel Otaala said. The minister tabled the National Council for Disability Amendment Bill, 2010, which contained the new list, before Parliament Sept. 27.
Albinos have been complaining of neglect by the Government, having been excluded from the 2006 Persons with Disability Act.
They argue that the exclusion deters them from benefiting from development programmes as they suffer stigma and discrimination.
Albinism is a condition where a person is born without enough skin pigment called melanin. Melanin is a chemical that colours the skin, eyes, and hair. Without it, people look pale and their hair may appear yellow.
In the Bill, the disabled are categorised as sensory disabilities, physical disabilities, including those whose limbs have been amputated. Deformities, including lower limbs, spinal cord injuries, rheumatism, club feet and albinism are also included.
The Bill also seeks to streamline the election of persons with disabilities to Parliament and local government councils. Representatives will now be chosen basing on their political party affiliations in accordance with the multi-party system through the formation of electoral colleges.
“In forming electoral colleges, gender should be taken into consideration,” Otaala said. The Electoral Commission will be required to facilitate the formation of electoral colleges at different levels of government.
In addition, the EC shall appoint returning officers and presiding officers for the purpose of conducting elections of representatives of persons with disabilities.
“Any person with disabilities who meets national standards for elections has a right to contest for any elective office to represent persons with disabilities,” reads the Bill.
At every level of representation, a committee of five members shall have a representative of the blind, deaf, physically disabled, women with disabilities and youth with disabilities.
The district executive committee members shall form four regional electoral colleges to elect four representatives to Parliament and a woman representative, according to the Bill.
Iowa works toward more accessible voting
A bipartisan campaign is underway to try and get more people to take advantage of some high-tech voting equipment the state has available at all polling sites. The AutoMARK ballot system (pictured) allows a voter to magnify the ballot on a touch screen, or listen privately as the machine reads the candidates.
The radio and TV public service campaign features Michael Barber, president of the Iowa chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. Barber says for years blind Iowans had to have someone else help them vote. Barber says when he first voted back when he was 18, he had to take his mother along to help him vote. He says he was intimidated by that because his mom would know who he voted for, but he still wanted to vote.
The problems in the 2000 election led to federal money being allocated for new voter machines and the AutoMARK machines were included. Barber got to use the machines the first time in 2006. “And I was so excited, I can’t describe to you how excited I was, to finally be able cast my own private ballot without anybody knowing for whom I voted,” Barber says, “that was big. That was really huge for me, as a blind person, because for once I was able to do something privately without anybody knowing, that was a big thing.”
Secretary of State Micheal Mauro says the machines are not just for the blind, they are for anyone who needs a little extra help to cast their vote by themselves. He says its about being able to magnify the ballot for those who have a little trouble seeing. Mauro says it will help people who have trouble marking the small oval on the ballot, or who have trouble holding a pencil.
Mauro says county auditors have long kept magnifying glasses at the polling places to help some people read the ballot, or brought ballots to the curbside so people could fill them out. Mauro says they want people to know the machines now handle many past problems and allow you to vote by yourself.
He says their goal is to put the machines to use, as they cost money to have them and it’s important that people take advantage of them to be able to vote independently. The machines also include a “sip and puff” feature, so someone who can’t use their hands can still be able to vote.
Jones County Auditor Janine Sulzner is appearing in the public service announcements with Mauro and Barber to explain how the machines work.
Pacific leaders gather to discuss how to create a barrier-free, inclusive Pacific for disabled people
Disabled people make up an estimated 10 percent of the Pacific population. They are the region’s poorest and most at-risk people but a mix of political, cultural and geographical factors means their needs have long gone unmet.
This has begun to change as Pacific leaders commit to agreements like the Pacific Regional Strategy on Disability (PRSD) and the United Nations’ Biwako Millennium Framework, which aim to build a barrier-free, inclusive Pacific.
While such regional agreements indicate growing attention is being paid to the issue, action at government level of the disparate island nations varies greatly.
Alastair Wilkinson, regional adviser for social development at UNESCAP, says that due to fundamental national differences progress is being made at very different rates across the Pacific.
“Melanesian countries are the worst off with the fewest services, early identification, intervention and rehabilitation, and Polynesian countries are not much better off,” Wilkinson says.
The regional adviser cautions against making sweeping judgments on the region, however, as the situation can be quite variable from one country to the next.
“In the North Pacific, because they receive a lot of support from US mainland programmes, they tend to have quite good services, especially for special education and inclusive education,” he says.
“But the Marshall Islands receives a lot of funding for these types of services too, yet there isn’t much evidence for it on the ground.”
Other Pacific nations are essentially able to “export” such challenging social issues to larger countries of which they are “independent but in free association”, such as the Cook Islands and Niue with New Zealand.
The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are also seriously under-resourced in terms of disability support, says Wilkinson.
“Although the Solomons has a rudimentary community based rehabilitation programme run through the Ministry of Health, it is seriously underfunded and basically became defunct during ‘the tensions’.”
Despite varying conditions across nations Wilkinson says that all Pacific people with disabilities suffer from a lack of services and a lack of community awareness.
Aid organisations like the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand, which works to eradicate curable blindness in the region, have experienced firsthand the disparities in disability development across the Pacific.
Adrienne Kohler, communications manager for the organisation, says its work has ranged from Suva, where they have almost run out of cataract patients, to Papua New Guinea, which is “becoming a forgotten country”.
“I’ve just been up there and I wasn’t aware of how bad it was,” Kohler says.
“I lived in Africa and it’s worse than anything I ever saw there; I never once needed an armed guard like I did in Papua New Guinea.”
She says plenty of aid money is flowing into the country but little is making its way to those who need it and the health situation is overwhelming.
“You make progress with one type of disability but that doesn’t mean the situation is improving in other areas.
“Just look at AIDS over there – as a result of all the sexual attacks it’s just out of control. And there’s no one to do anything about it.”
All over the Pacific people with disabilities face discrimination in the form of unemployment, education, accessible environments and communication. For women and children these affects are felt most keenly, as in many cases they are already subject to marginalised status.
The children’s aid organisation UNICEF Pacific have in recent years focused their efforts on tackling issues surrounding children with disabilities, who make up about a third of the region’s estimated 832,900 Pacific Islanders with disabilities.
In their report Pacific Children with Disabilities published in August this year, the organisation found that while children were well cared for by their families and communities they still suffer significant stigma and discrimination.
“Access to services is poor; especially education where [children with disabilities] are usually either not sent to school by over-protective parents or not allowed entry by school management.”
There is also a prevailing view in many Pacific communities that see disability as a curse or punishment for wrongdoing, which leads to many children being hidden away from society with their needs going untended as an “invisible population”.
Women and girls are subjected to a compounded stigma based on assumptions about their status and ability as both females and people with disabilities.
A report from the United Nations Development Programme Pacific Centre explains that compared with males and non-disabled female peers, women with disabilities are less educated, experience higher rates of unemployment, more likely to be abused, are poorer, more isolated, and suffer worse health problems.
The 2009-published report Pacific Sisters with Disabilities says that although most Pacific nations have ratified at least one or two human rights conventions relating to people with disabilities few have moved with solid legislation in the area.
Whether it is because of corruption stemming the flow of aid money or planning not prioritising disability related projects, Pacific communities of the disabled are increasingly looking elsewhere than their governments for help advancing their situations.
Disabled person organisations (DPOs) are non-government organisations that seek to assist the disabled communities effectively, making their voices heard by those in power.
Over the past few decades DPOs have become increasingly effective in the Pacific, successfully lobbying each country to progress their disabled population by making ministerial level commitments to plans like the BMF and PRSD.
Australian Pacific Islands Disability Support (APIDS) is one such organisation that works to coordinate support for disabled people across the region, including lobbying the Australian government, facilitating voluntary work by professionals and raising funds for other DPOs in the Pacific.
Robyn James, secretary of APIDS, says it is the spirit of cooperation and communication among DPOs in the Pacific that has led to disability issues becoming more visible and higher on the agendas of those in power.
In order to keep assisting people with disabilities advance their cause James says that major donors need to start viewing advocacy as a higher priority.
“We are a very small organisation run by seven volunteers with skills and interests in advocacy and support rather than fundraising,” she says.
"Our biggest challenge is convincing the big donors, such as AusAID and NZAid, that in order for people with disabilities to progress issues then the DPOs must be funded and resourced to undertake their own advocacy with government, community and their own members.”
With only so much money to go around DPOs often end up competing for funding when their organisational priorities do not align, James says.
“Organisations like Christian Blind Mission or World Vision might see disability as a funding priority but they see service provision as a higher priority than advocacy.
“The amount of funding at this stage is just not enough for all.”
Despite the often-problematic complexities of the issue, the rights of people with disabilities in the pacific are slowly on the advance.
Following this year’s Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific disability ministers have begun work on applying the PRSD, a regional strategy to protect the rights of people with disabilities and work towards development of a disability inclusive Pacific.
Frederick Miller, disability coordination officer at the PIF Secretariat, says that disability is an issue that lends itself to a regional approach that reflects the reality of the Pacific and its unique social, economic and geographic context.
The PRSD makes the necessary shift from old charity and medical models to a human rights-based approach to disability concerns, Miller says.
“Persons with disabilities have argued that their ability to function as full and active citizens in a modern society is limited not by their disability but by society’s failure to recognise them and accommodate their needs.”
With empowerment of Pacific people with disabilities slowly rising, increased cooperation between DPOs and a renewed focus at a regional level, come 2012 the planned review of the PRSD well hopefully tell the tale of a more equal Pacific.
Quebec orchard accused of turning away autistic youth
NOTRE-DAME-DE-LOURDES, Que. - A Quebec orchard is being accused of turning away a group of autistic youth because of their disability, something the property's owners strongly deny.
It all centres around something that happened last Sunday in the small Quebec community of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, some 175 km northeast of Montreal.
Seven autistic youth, under the supervision of eight adults, showed up at the R. Helene et Pierre fruit-picking orchard and were turned away. But the sides disagree on why they were denied access.
"I was told that all along they felt the woman at the orchard was looking for a reason to not take them in," said Manon Champigny, who heads an autism advocacy group in the region.
She was told that as the group was leaving the orchard, another group arrived and was welcomed.
But the orchard's owner said it never happened that way.
"That's wrong, there was no other group," said Pierre Boudreau."We refused those young people because we were at full capacity, not because they were handicapped."
He maintained his little orchard was overflowing with visitors that Sunday.
"It was one of our biggest days," he said. "It was a beautiful day, there were people everywhere and kids were running every which way. It was manic."
He also said the orchard hadn't taken a reservation for the group the week before, noting weekends had a 'first come, first serve,' policy.
But at least one person unhappy with the treatment took to the web and the angry missive, along with the phone number for the orchard, spread quickly across social media.
Within hours, the business was flooded with angry email messages.
"Some people even said that if they lived nearby, I would be sleeping with one eye open," he said. "It's been a constant harassment."
Disability advocates in Scotland say assisted suicide law will wrongly make "death a better choice"
From The Scotsman:
Disability campaigners Sept. 28 warned MSPs that proposals to legalise assisted suicide will make "death a better choice".
They told a special Holyrood committee set up to look into Independent MSP Margo MacDonald's bill that it would take Scotland down the "wrong route".
Ms MacDonald, who has Parkinson's disease, wants to change the law that leaves Scots open to prosecution for culpable homicide. But Pam Duncan of the disability group Inclusion Scotland hit out at the proposal.
She said parliament and local council body Cosla had signed up to a "vision for Scotland" to give disabled people more control over their lives. "That requires that we set up structures to support that - not that we make death a better choice.
"I believe we are going down the wrong route. We are distracting from the fact that disabled people are under-represented in education, that their lives are placed as having less value than other people's."
She pointed to the case of 23-year-old rugby player Daniel James, who was helped by his family to kill himself in a Swiss clinic two years ago after being paralysed in a training accident.
Ms Duncan said: "It was considered that had he not been a disabled person, his choice to end his life at that age would've been inappropriate."
Johanna McCulloch from the Scottish Disability Equality Forum said a majority of its members supported assisted dying in principle.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sign language researcher Carol Padden wins MacArthur genius grant
Carol Padden (pictured), Ph.D. will receive $500,000, no strings attached, in recognition of her research on the structure and evolution of sign language.
The grant is administered by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The grant will be paid out over the course of five years. Padden can choose to spend the money in anyway she wishes.
Padden says she is still taking the news in and is unsure how she will spend her "genius grant".
"I have a few wild ideas that I have been obsessing about for a long time'" Padden said. "This grant offers freedom and validation. I’m going to continue what I am doing, just a little a bit different."
Padden has traveled the to many different parts of the world to research other types of sign languages. About eight years ago, Padden started working with a new sign language in Southern Israel, developed in the last two or three generations.
The professor said she would like to keep traveling to learn more about other sign languages, in different parts of the world, including Ghana, Bali and the Amazon.
"This will let me explore some of the answers to my questions, Padden said."
The grant was also bestowed on 22 others, various other fields ranging from typesetting to biomedical animation.
Each will receive $500,000 for their various projects.
Padden is the 16th UC San Diego scholar to receive the MacArthur grant and the seventh from UCSD's Social Sciences division, according to university spokeswoman Inga Kiderra.
Padden was born deaf to deaf parents, but spent most of her educational years in public school, something she describes as being "akin to being abroad." She graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. 1978 and earned a Ph.D. from UC San Diego in 1983.
First gallery show for Ohio man uses art to deal with his dyslexia and bipolar disorder
Ever since he was old enough to grasp a pencil, Kyle Boganwright has communicated through his drawings.
Whimsical creations help Boganwright work around the frustration of dyslexia and harness the restlessness of bipolar disorder. The young man and his art are the closest of friends.
Still, it managed to surprise him this week.
"This is a great feeling," Boganwright, 20, said, taking in the joy of his first gallery showing. "I've always tried to give to people with my art. Now, it's like my art is giving back to me."
Mirrors, Artwork by Kyle Boganwright opened Sept. 22 at the Fresh A.I.R. Gallery and soon posted brisk sales.
"It's probably a record-breaker for a Fresh A.I.R. opening, or very close to it," said Myken Pullins, spokeswoman for the 6-year-old gallery.
Boganwright's mom, Julie, is gathering more pieces to satisfy enthusiastic collectors.
Operated by the mental-health agency Southeast Inc., Fresh A.I.R. exhibits the works of artists affected by mental illness or substance-abuse disorders.
The academic success that often eluded Boganwright blossomed in art classes at Hilliard Davidson High School.
The graduate won national recognition and a scholarship last year when he took a top prize in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a prestigious competition that had been won by Truman Capote and Andy Warhol.
"Kyle is only the second central Ohio winner in more than 40 years," said his high-school art teacher and mentor, Dan Gerdeman.
Boganwright attends Columbus College of Art and Design. He thinks his art really took off a few years ago when he stopped taking the medications that made him feel drowsy and dull.
Although he and his family must monitor his condition carefully, he feels great and just got his first apartment.
"His stuff just pops against the wall," said Sandra Stephenson, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health. She was among those admiring Boganwright's pieces at the gallery reception.
One of his former principals, Chuck Page, also came to the opening. He said he's happy that Boganwright stayed true to his talent instead of worrying about how to fit in.
"Many young people want to be the round peg in the round hole," Page said. "Not Kyle. His imagination is larger than that."
National Endowment for the Arts announces new director of Office of Accessibility
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that Beth Bienvenu (pictured) will join the NEA as the new director of Office of Accessibility.
Dr. Bienvenu will manage the NEA's technical assistance and advocacy work devoted to making the arts accessible for people with disabilities, older adults including veterans, and people living in institutions. This includes initiatives related to universal design, arts and aging, arts in healthcare, and careers in the arts for people with disabilities. She began her work Sept. 27.
Prior to coming to the NEA, Ms. Bienvenu worked for five years as a policy advisor with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Disability Employment Policy. In that capacity, she analyzed federal laws and regulations, as well as public and private sector policies and practices related to all elements of employment for persons with disabilities. She created and delivered training sessions on recruiting, hiring, accommodating, and retaining individuals with disabilities and developed partnerships with other federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and business on behalf on those constituents.
In addition, since August 2005, Ms. Bienvenu was an adjunct professor at George Mason University teaching arts policy in the Master of Arts Management program.
"I am delighted to welcome Dr. Bienvenu to the NEA," said Chairman Rocco Landesman. "Her achievements and commitment on behalf of people with disabilities are significant and the relationships she has developed with other federal agencies and organizations will be particularly important as we forge ahead with this work."
Ms. Bienvenu said, "I look forward to working with the NEA staff and constituents in the field to ensure that everyone can participate in arts programs as audience members, participants, artists, or performers. I am honored to continue the Accessibility Office's excellent work in helping arts organizations become fully accessible, bringing the arts to underrepresented groups, and ensuring that these groups are served by NEA programs."
From 2000-2005, Ms. Bienvenu was a senior associate with TATC Consulting, a Washington DC-based firm providing management consulting services. One of her projects with TATC was to work with the Institute for Museum and Library Services, DOL, and the NEA on youth employment programs with arts organizations and libraries. Also, she has been a consultant with the Center for Nonprofit Management in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and program coordinator with the University of Oklahoma's Advanced Programs, Europe.
Ms. Bienvenu has a B.A. in Sociology and Music from Alma College in Alma, Michigan; M.A. in Sociology from Indiana University; M.A. in Arts Administration from Indiana University; and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from the University of Oklahoma, Norman.
Ms. Bienvenu replaces Paula Terry who has served for many years at the NEA on behalf of populations often isolated from full participation in the arts. Ms. Terry has established leadership initiatives in Creativity and Aging, Universal Design, Careers in the Arts for Individuals with Disabilities, Arts in Healthcare, and Arts in Corrections. Under her leadership the Accessibility Office has helped form a nationwide network of accessibility coordinators in state and regional arts agencies and has produced a variety of reports and technical assistance materials for the field. In recognition of her accomplishments, the NEA has garnered national honors including the 1998 Universal Design Award, a 2002 award from the National Business & Disability Council. In 2006, the NEA was recognized for excellence in accessibility leadership by the Christopher Reeve Foundation and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
For more information on the NEA's accessibility programs and publications, please visit http://www.arts.gov/.
New birth control pill contains folic acid
From CNN:
A new oral contraceptive that contains folic acid has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Folic acid helps the body make healthy new cells and is critical for pregnant women because it helps prevent major birth defects of the brain and spine such as spina bifida.
The tablet, called Beyaz, has both estrogen and progestin but also contains a folate, a B-vitamin essential for cell growth and reproduction. Beyaz is made by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is based on Bayer's previously approved birth control pill YAZ.
Beyaz is approved for pregnancy prevention and a severe form of premenstrual syndrome called premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PMDD which can cause a host of symptoms including severe depression, anxiety, difficulty concentrating and mood swings. Beyaz can also be used to treat moderate acne in adolescents at least 14 years old who already have their menstrual cycles and are taking birth control pills.
Getting enough folic acid before and during pregnancy will prevent most neural tube defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests women take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day, starting at least a month before getting pregnant. Beyaz has 451 mg of folic acid.
Dr. Sharon Mass, an OBGYN in private practice in Morristown, New Jersey, thinks the addition of folic acid is a good one. "From the contraceptive perspective we have a commonly used pill with an excellent history in pregnancy prevention–the pill is 99 percent effective when taken as directed." Now there's an added "benefit of giving preconception folic acid to women in their childbearing years which is important for reducing the risk of neural tube defects in a pregnancy that might be conceived after discontinuing the pill," she continued.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Stanley Tucci commits to making film about famed blind baseball writer Ed Lucas
Many of the greatest sports movies have championed the underdog -- an individual or a team that defied the greatest of odds to succeed.
Few individuals have defied greater obstacles to succeed in the sports world than Jersey City's Ed Lucas (pictured). His story is certainly the stuff movies are made of. And his story is apparently going to be a major Hollywood movie.
Acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci (pictured) has announced he will be directing -- and probably starring in -- a film about the life of baseball writer Lucas, who was blinded as a child and became one of the most respected and loved figures on the metropolitan New York sports scene.
Lucas was 9 years old in October 1951 when Bobby Thomson hit his famed "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run that won the pennant for the New York Giants. A huge Giants fan, he went out to play ball with some friends after that game and while pitching got hit between the eyes with a line drive, blinding him.
He was determined to have a career in baseball, despite everyone telling him it couldn't be done by a blind person.
St. Joseph's School for the Blind helped teach him to be self-sufficient, and Lucas, with his motto of "never, never give up," persisted and achieved his dream of becoming a baseball writer.
Yankee great Phil Rizzuto became his best friend, and Lucas' columns and stories have appeared in The Jersey Journal and Yankee Magazine, among many others.
"Tucci called me last week and told me he's totally committed to making this movie," said Lucas. "Then I was shocked when he then came out and told The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets that he was going to do it."
Work on the script for "The Ed Lucas Story" -- the film's tentative title -- began four years ago by the veteran screenwriting team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mendel, whose credits include "A League of Their Own," "Fever Pitch" and "City Slickers."
It got sidetracked for several months by a Hollywood writers strike and it wasn't until two years ago that Lucas got his first copy of the script. As per usual in Hollywood circles, the script bounced around for awhile until Tucci received a copy.
"He told me that he read it in a half hour and that he fell in love with the story and wanted to play Ed Lucas," said Lucas.
The two met in Manhattan in early July.
"He just wanted to talk in general to get a feel for me," said Lucas, who added that they had a chance meeting at CitiField later in the summer. "He didn't say at that time he'd do it."
Tucci, who's highly in demand, was at the time committed to going to England to complete filming on "Captain America." He currently is on screen in "Easy A" and his new film "Burlesque" is scheduled to open this fall.
But when Tucci called last week, he told Lucas that now that he's finished work on those films he's committed to doing "The Ed Lucas Story" and will be shopping around for a studio to produce it.
Tucci could not be reached for comment at his Manhattan-based studio, Olive Productions, which he founded with actor Steve Buscemi.
Study shows attitudes toward disabled people in UK are improving ahead of London Paralympics
Attitudes towards people with a disability in Great Britain are improving and could be one of the legacies of the London 2012 Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) were told this week at a three day project review with the London Organizing Committee.
At the seventh Project Review (20-22 September), a nine strong contingent from the IPC was updated on various areas of work for the London 2012 Paralympics including research findings that show four in 10 people believe the Paralympic Games will bring a lasting breakthrough about the way people with a disability are viewed in the UK.
The IPC was also informed that nearly 600,000 people have registered their interest in buying Paralympic Games tickets, whilst there has been strong interest in volunteering for the Games which take place from 29 August until 9 September 2012.
Xavier Gonzalez, the IPC's Chief Executive Officer, said: "With less than two years to go until the start of the London 2012 Paralympic Games it is really encouraging to learn that more people are taking an interest in the Games and that attitudes towards people with a disability are changing. This has the potential to be one of the real legacies of the Games in London.
"The comprehensive activity that the London Organizing Committee implemented to mark the two years to go mark last month clearly played a key role in shifting those attitudes as has the partnerships they have established with Channel 4, Sainsbury's and BT.
"The key now is to build on this momentum and ensure that the activity for the Paralympics going forward is differentiated from that of the Olympics so that people understand the values of the Paralympic Movement and the exciting sports they can see in 2012."
Other topics which the IPC was updated on at the Project Review included Operational Integration, Broadcast, Transport, Technology, Volunteering, Brand and Marketing, Communications and Commercial.
The IPC group also received a tour of the various venues that will be used to stage the 2012 Paralympics and the Paralympic Village.
Gonzalez added: "Overall, planning is very much on track for delivering a highly successful Paralympic Games in 2012 and credit must be given to the London Organizing Committee for their hard work.
"During our three days in London we shared a number of ideas and gave some constructive feedback to the updates we were given.
"There is still much to be done between now and 29 August 2012 when the Paralympic Games start and we will continue to work closely with all those involved to ensure that London delivers the best possible Games."
Whilst in London, Xavier Gonzalez also met Justin King, the Chief Executive of Sainsbury's, to discuss how Sainsbury's 850 plus stores will be used to promote the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Following the Project Review, the IPC hosted a transition planning workshop on Thursday (23 September) for 100 members of the London Organizing Committee. It will aim to increase awareness and knowledge on the period between the conclusion of the Olympic Games on 12 August and the start of the Paralympics on 29 August 2012.
For more information about the London 2012 Paralympic Games, please visit http://www.london2012.com/.
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