Nine Broadway theaters to gain disability accessibility

From The AP:

Nine historic Broadway theaters will be more accessible to the disabled under an agreement signed by a major theater chain and the federal government.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the deal announced Jan. 29 with the Nederlander  Organization will eliminate hundreds of barriers to accessibility.

A similar deal was reached in 2003 with Shubert Theaters.

Bharara says the combined agreements cover more than 20 Broadway theaters.

The government says two of the theaters affected by the latest deal were built more than 100 years ago. Four others were constructed during the 1920s.

The theaters include the Nederlander, Gershwin, Brooks Atkinson, Lunt Fontanne, Marquis, Minskoff, Neil Simon, Palace and Richard Rodgers.

The Nederlander organization also will pay a $45,000 civil penalty.

Artist reimagines Disney Princesses as disabled to highlight social exclusion

From The Huffington Post UK:

Disney Princesses have long been held up as a blueprint for little girls to aspire to.

And while their quest to find the man of their dreams (in most cases) has been criticised by feminists far and wide, one artist claims there is another shortcoming of Disney's creations - one that is seldom discussed.

"Have you ever seen a disabled protagonist in a Disney movie?," Alexsandro Palombo asks on his blog, before swiftly answering his own question: "You sure don't because disability doesn't match Disney's standards!"

Through his work, 'Disabled Disney Princesses', the artist raises previously unasked (and unanswered) questions: would the princesses enjoy the same lifestyle if their bodies were different? Would the films be as popular?

Speaking to HuffPost UK Lifestyle, Alexsandro reveals the issue of disability and social exclusion is close to his heart.

"Two years ago I had a rare form of cancer and after surgery to remove it some parts of my body are now paralyzed. I am now a disabled person, and every day I have to deal with all forms of discrimination," he told HuffPost UK Lifestyle.

"Through this series I wanted to give visibility to this problem of strong discrimination directed to the persons with disabilities who live in our society."

The striking illustrations really hit home and serve as a sobering reminder - for both children and adults - of social discrimination of people with disabilities.

In Great Britain, actor Henry Winkler’s children's book series, Hank Zipzer, about a boy with dyslexia, premieres on BBC iPlayer

From the BBC in the UK:

BBC has today announced that Henry ‘The Fonz’ Winkler’s brand-new comedy drama series, Hank Zipzer - which is coming to CBBC on 28 January - will first premiere on BBC iPlayer. 

Audiences will be able to watch the show a week before it’s aired on CBBC, starting with the first episode being available on 21 January and continuing on a weekly basis throughout the series.

This is a part of the BBC Trust’s approved BBC iPlayer trial to premiere up to 40 hours of programmes across the service, exploring the role of online premiering across a range of genres and channels.

The 13x30-minute series - which is inspired by the book series Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever – is based on Henry Winkler’s own experiences as a young boy growing up with dyslexia. Fast-paced and funny, the series follows the everyday life of 12-year-old Hank Zipzer, a young man with a unique perspective on the world.

Victoria Jaye, Head of TV Content for BBC iPlayer, says: “We’re thrilled to premiere CBBC’s brand-new comedy drama series Hank Zipzer on BBC iPlayer. This builds on the success of premiering our first Children’s series, 4 O’Clock Club, on iPlayer back in December - the first episode we premiered received close to half a million requests in seven days. We want to draw on BBC iPlayer’s popularity to help grow new hits for the BBC, so we’re excited to see how far premiering Hank Zipzer can drive more viewers to this exciting new show.”

Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC, says: “We’re proud to continue to deliver high-quality programmes in a way that suits our audience. I am certain that CBBC viewers and their parents will love the Hank Zipzer TV series. Hank’s adventures illuminate the ups and downs of a child navigating through life with dyslexia and do so with great warmth, insight and humour. The fact that Henry Winkler also appears in the show is just a huge cherry on an already delicious comedy cake.”

Fashion blogger Jillian Mercado stars in edgy Diesel ads

From The Huffington Post:

Among his cast of 23 models featured in Diesel's new campaign, Nicola Formichetti tapped Jillian Mercado, style blogger and Fashion Week regular who uses a wheelchair.

Mercado, who was diagnosed with spastic muscular dystrophy, rocks Diesel's signature denim alongside artist James Astronaut in the brand's Spring 2014 ads, which were styled by Formichetti and shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. "It's never easy for her to move from point A to point B, but she's totally fearless and has really been an inspiration to me," Formichetti told Women's Wear Daily. "You don't have to be a conventional model type to represent a brand."

The inspirational 23-year-old grew up in New York's Upper West Side, where she gained a keen interest in fashion. She went on to study merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Technology and intern at Allure before starting her coverage of New York Fashion Week for both Patrick McMullan’s PMc Magazine and her personal style blog, Manufactured 1987.

"I knew I was throwing myself into the fire when I wanted to work in fashion," she told the Daily Beast back in February 2013. "I work equally as hard as everyone else does in this industry, and my chair doesn't give me permission to slack off. My passion is equal to yours -- I just come with a chair that moves."

With her Diesel ads set to break in the March issues of Vogue and Interview, we'd say the fashion world is more than ready for Mercado's passion and work ethic. Luckily, Mercado takes time to enjoy the fruits of her efforts. "You all have no idea how speechless I am right now," she wrote in her blog after seeing the Diesel shot. "Thank you for giving me a chance of a lifetime and believing in me. This is beyond everything."

In Canada, Saskatchewan women promote dancing equality, hope wheelchair dancing will catch on

From CJME News Talk Radio in Saskatchewan, Canada: 

Two Saskatchewan dancers are proving it doesn’t matter who you are: you can still become a dancer.

Brooke Bittner and her dance partner Sheri-Lynn Turgeon are promoting the idea that those in wheelchairs can still enjoy dance. The two have been practicing and performing together for the last five years even though Turgeon is confined to a wheelchair.

Bittner said when she first met Turgeon she really wanted to take part in a competition. The teacher she was working with at the time didn’t believe in competitions, which is why the pair teamed-up.

“I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for her to come with me. And she’s my friend, so it was just for fun when we started. It definitely became a lot more than just dancing for the two of us,” Bittner said.

Both women live and dance in Saskatoon, but Bittner is from Shellbrook and Turgeon is from Martensville. Bittner said she was drawn into working with Turgeon because it would provide a new experience.

“When I moved to Saskatoon I’d never seen anything like it," she explained. "Being from Shellbrook—you know, small town—you don’t really see anything like that. My mom actually worked with [Turgeon’s] mom and so when Sheri said she danced I decided I needed to go watch because I’ve never seen anything like that,” she explained. “The first time I saw her dancing it was crazy. I thought it was wonderful.”

They took part in their first competition in Biggar about three years ago.

“Most of the girls had never seen anything like that so we got some crazy looks going out on stage,” she said.
Following that they had people come out to other competitions and festivals they were taking part in, just to watch them perform.

The pair now rent a space through Dance Saskatchewan, working out all of their own choreography.

They've already been through some competitions together and they're hoping to be able to compete in this year’s Prince Albert Festival of Dance.

They most recently performed at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival in Saskatoon this past August. 


The two are promoting their special brand of dancing in the hopes that others will take it up.

“One of the girls that Sheri has known for a long time, she was a big dancer growing up and she was actually in a car accident and became paralyzed. And one of her biggest problems was she couldn’t dance anymore.

“So I was hoping that in doing this and getting out there [people] become more aware and maybe some dance schools will add [this kind of dancing] so that other girls can dance.”

She insisted there is no perfect body type when it comes to dancing; everyone can and should be able to do it.

“I can honestly tell you that, after dancing with Sheri, going back to dancing normally—like by myself—is definitely not the same.”

Both Bittner and Turgeon got a chance to train under Kitty Lunn in New York City. Lunn was a prima ballerina who, through a slip-and-fall accident, broke her neck and became paralyzed from the waist down.

“Because dance was such a big part of [Lunn’s] life she rewrote the [Royal Conservatory Ballet Syllabus] and accommodated for wheelchair dancing,” Bittner explained.

Bittner and Turgeon took part in a week-long session with Lunn.

“She taught us a bunch of stuff and we got to see what different kinds of things you could do with the wheelchair,” Bittner said.

“I probably learned more in that one week with her than I did my entire dancing career.”

Free, online Disability Advocacy through Media training course now available

From Beth Haller, Media dis&dat blogger:

I have developed an online training course about disability advocacy using media that is open source so advocates around the world can use it. I hope it will be translated into many languages.

The online course, Disability Advocacy through Media, will introduce advocates to how to use traditional and online media advocacy techniques to build awareness of disability issues. It covers the use of social media, videos, websites and blogs for disability advocacy. It includes e-lectures, self-teaching assignments, and all-online readings and other resources.

This course is a collaborative project between the College of Fine Arts and Communication and the Hussman Center for Adults with Autism, both at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, USA. For more information about the Hussman Center, visit its website here.

This course is meant to be used and shared. If you have comments or ideas about the course, feel free to contact me, Beth Haller, at bah621@gmail.com.

The list of lessons in the course:

• Unit 1: What has happened to traditional news media in the USA? 
• Unit 2: What was traditional news media advocacy for disability advocates? Part 1 
• Unit 3: What was traditional news media advocacy for disability advocates? Part 2 
• Unit 4: The intersection of old/new media in advocacy 
• Unit 5: Public Service Announcements/Video News Releases 
• Unit 6: Activism of all kinds reinvigorated by social media 
• Unit 7: Why disability activists should use social media 
• Unit 8: Facebook 
• Unit 9: Twitter 
• Unit 10: Vlogs & video 
• Unit 11: Blogging 
• Unit 12: A word about accessibility

Paralyzed teen using mind-controlled exoskeleton will kick off 2014 World Cup in Brazil

From New Scientist:

It will be quite some show of skill. The first kick of the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil might not come from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Instead, if all goes to plan, a teenager paralyzed from the waist down will use the world's most advanced mind-controlled exoskeleton to swing at the ball.

The spectacle will showcase the Walk Again Project, an international collaboration using technology to overcome paralysis. The team's exoskeleton supports the lower body and is controlled by patterns of brain activity detected by electrodes placed either on the scalp or within the brain itself. These signals are sent wirelessly to a computer worn by the wearer, that converts them into movements. The kicker will be one of a small group of people training in Brazil with a virtual exoskeleton before trying the real thing.

Movement alone isn't enough to make the experience of walking feel natural, so the team hopes to incorporate sensors into the exoskeleton that feed information about touch, temperature and force back to the wearer. That feedback will come through a visual display or a vibrating motor. Eventually these sensations could be transmitted straight to the brain, which would allow the wearer to truly feel that the exoskeleton is part of their body.

"The vibrations can replicate the sensation of touching the ground, rolling off the toe and kicking off again," says the lead robotic engineer Gordon Cheng, at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. The challenge will be to match those sensations to the brain patterns and movements. "There's so much detail in this, it's phenomenal," he says.

New children’s book tells story of father of disability rights Ed Roberts

From PRWEB:

Ed Roberts was an active boy who loved playing football and baseball at the park across from his house. But in 1953, everything changed: He contracted polio and couldn’t even breathe on his own, much less walk or run. This new children’s book profiles the courageous young quadriplegic, who would go on to fight for his own rights and the rights of all people with disabilities – a legacy that continues today.

“Ed Roberts: Father of Disability Rights” delves into Roberts’ life, detailing his early days in an iron lung and learning his lessons via the phone, battling school officials about high school graduation and becoming the first person with significant disabilities to attend the University of California at Berkley. Inspired by the civil rights and liberation movements, Roberts fought for equality for people with disabilities. As director of California’s Department of Rehabilitation and sit-ins in San Francisco, he helped bring change that let people live more independent lives, paving the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws promoting equal access. The World Institute on Disability, which Roberts co-founded, helps people around the world.

An illustration symbolism guide details the meanings of symbol-rich drawings by Patrick Wm. Connally. The symbols -- unique to Roberts and the disability civil rights movement – portray information via their colorful graphics. For instance, the boy peeking out of the drawing on Page 23 represents Roberts’ son. Readers are invited to find other symbols in the book as well.

Author Diana Pastora Carson, who has a master’s degree in education, is an elementary teacher, disability rights advocate and a consultant and speaker who specializes in inclusion and diversity as it relates to disability. Her inspiration is the experiences of her brother, who grew up being misjudged and excluded. Carson has taught disability studies courses through the San Diego State University Foundation and served on the board of directors for Disability Rights California. Her other books include “Foundations for Ability Awareness” and “Ability Awareness in Action: Teaching Ability Awareness to Children and Youth.”

In addition to his art, illustrator Patrick Wm. Connally is a civil rights advocate, consultant on access and disability rights, a family caregiver and co-host and producer of a radio program featuring disability issues. He is founder and president of Disability Rights Enforcement Education Services and has served on government and nonprofit boards and committees such as Disability Rights California, World Institute on Disability, and Research and Training Center on Personal Assistance Services. His artwork has helped raise money for animal rescue projects and promoted world-class museum events.
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For additional information, please visit http://www.edrobertschildrensbook.com.

Melissa Shang, 10, petitions American Girl to name doll with disability 'Girl Of The Year'

From The Huffington Post:

A bright and adorable 10-year-old is petitioning the American Girl brand to name a doll with a disability as its 2015 "Girl of the Year" because "disabled girls are American girls too," she says.

Melissa Shang launched a petition on Change.org titled "American Girl: Release an American Girl with a disability." Melissa has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which damages the peripheral nerves, causing muscle weakness and decreased muscle size, according to the Mayo Clinic. She uses a wheelchair.

Melissa has been a fan of the American Girl dolls since she was 7 years old. Her favorites are the "Girl of the Year" dolls, a special edition character that highlights an overarching theme for the year with a back story focusing on a modern-day issue. In the past, these dolls have promoted issues like community service and anti-bullying efforts.

But a doll with a disability has not yet been added to that list.

Melissa's petition says: "For once, I don’t want to be invisible or a side character that the main American Girl has to help: I want other girls to know what it’s like to be me, through a disabled American Girl’s story.

Disabled girls might be different from normal kids on the outside. They might sit in a wheelchair like I do, or have some other difficulty that other kids don’t have. However, we are the same as other girls on the inside, with the same thoughts and feelings. American Girls are supposed to represent all the girls that make up American history, past and present. That includes disabled girls."

American Girl, a subsidiary of Mattel, has made strides in bringing diversity to its products. Besides selling dolls with a variety of racial, ethnic and religious back stories, last year it introduced bald dolls to represent girls experiencing hair loss, and it began offering "Special Sparkle" accessories like a hearing aid and a guide dog.

“We have a long history of speaking to diversity and making girls feel good about themselves, and this is just another way we are expanding on the idea,” spokeswoman Julie Parks said at the time, according to ABC News.

Melissa's petition has received more than 300 signatures, but still needs more than 9,000 to reach its goal.

‘Top Chef Canada’ and ‘MasterChef’ winners launch culinary TV series for visually impaired people

From Yahoo!:

"Top Chef Canada" winner Carl Heinrich and "MasterChef" winner Christine Ha are launching a new culinary series for the blind and visually impaired, and it's all happening in Canada, reports TV Guide Canada.

Called "Four Senses," the 13-episode series will air on the Canadian network Accessible Media Inc., and will tape in Toronto. Promising to "focus on the broader discussion on disabilities and how people are breaking stereotypes," something tells us that by creating this program in the first place, they're taking a step in the right direction.

Fans of "MasterChef" may remember that Ha is visually impaired herself, but more importantly, she won Season 3 of the series (which included a $250, 000 prize and a cookbook deal). That's why "Four Senses" will work to obliterate stereotypes: Ha and Heinrich will describe and demonstrate ways to prepare dishes, talk to visually impaired triathletes and actors with macular degeneration, and stress the importance of getting accessible books into libraries -- as well as the science behind our senses, so we can actually understand them.

Obviously, this is terrific not only for the blind and visually-impaired, but also for other viewers. A series like "Four Senses" can educate those who don't know what it's like to rely primarily on only four senses, and in turn, we can advocate for proper books and programs because we can better understand (and respect) the challenges faced by those who struggle with their vision.

From the description, "Four Senses" seems like a program that advocates strength, confidence, and embracing one's abilities -- which is necessary to winning both "Top Chef Canada" and "MasterChef," and thus makes Ha and Heinrich prime hosts and creators. And by opening the show up to athletes and actors, not only do Ha and Heinrich show that cooking is for anybody, but that one is hardly alone in dealing with visual impairment.

The only thing that would make it better? To broadcast on more networks than AMI. Here's hoping another Canadian network gets wise and takes advantage of this unique, important program.

Times Square lights up with disability message against assisted suicide

From The Christian Post:

ADAPT and Not Dead Yet launched a new messaging campaign which will be displayed on the New York City Times Square CBS Super Screen. The video message will be displayed once an hour, eighteen hours a day for three months.

The Super Screen is 26 ft wide and 20 feet high. You can find it under the CBS logo on 42nd St., between 7th and 8th Avenue. These messages are displayed in a ten second video and will run once an hour, 18 hours a day for the next three months.

The first message avows that life, with or without disabilities, is worth living. Many misguided individuals have promulgated so-called "assisted-suicide" and euthanasia laws throughout the world that discriminate against elderly and disabled people by creating a state supported path to death. An all too common belief that a person is better off dead than severely disabled has been enacted as public policy.

In Oregon, doctors report that people ask for assisted suicide because they feel like a burden on others, indicating that they may have even felt a duty to end their lives and relieve society of the "burden" of their existence. In addition, many individuals with newly acquired disabilities have been assisted to die before being provided an opportunity to experience all that life with a disability can offer. Not Dead Yet challenges the social message that we are "better dead than disabled" and that society is better off without us.

The second message asserts that the quality of our lives is greatly enhanced when we are allowed the liberty to live in our own homes and apartments, supported by attendants that we hire and direct. We view nursing homes as a type of segregation and incarceration that violate our civil rights, as affirmed in the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision.

The third message calls upon everyone-with or without disabilities-to join us in our historic battle for our civil rights. We are not helpless and we neither need nor want pity. We need equal access to jobs, businesses, places of entertainment, government offices and our own homes. Everyone may at any time join our ranks by acquiring a disability. Join us now and ensure that we will all have quality lives no matter what the future may hold.Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination.

= = = =

Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination.

ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom.

'Breaking Bad' star RJ Mitte plans music career

From Star Pulse:

'Breaking Bad' star RJ Mitte wants to start a music career.

The 21-year-old actor - who played the character of lead actor Bryan Cranston's son, Walter Jr., in the recently concluded hit TV series - has aspirations to record some of his own songs and has been brushing up on his instrumental skills.

RJ - who has cerebral palsy - told BANG Showbiz: "I'm working on it right now, I'm learning guitar, I'm learning piano.

"I have a little bit of an issue, I have one good hand, the other hand is a little stiff and rigid, but I'm getting control over it.

"I love music, at one point I had close to half a million songs on a hard drive. My house is constantly being filled with music, every music, vinyl, everything. It's really brilliant."

Although RJ suffers from cerebral palsy (CP) - a condition which normally occurs before or during birth for a number of reasons, usually due to a lack of oxygen to the brain - through "tons of yoga" and exercise, he has the condition under control, and had to accentuate its characteristics for the series.

RJ - also known as Roy Frank Mitte - has previously said: "It took a little bit of convincing [to get the part], as at first Vince [Gilligan, show creator] thought I was actually too able-bodied.

"I can't tell you the last time I've gone to a doctor for my CP. I have it under control for the most part."

College sophomore making Cincinnati campus wheelchair-accessible

From USA Today:

CINCINNATI — Sara Whitestone (pictured) was frustrated and didn't mind if everybody knew it.

After the University of Cincinnati sophomore waited on a windy November day for a shuttle that would accommodate her wheelchair, she encountered a bus without a lift and a driver reluctant to help.

"Not okay UC! I don't want to keep hearing the same apologies!" Whitestone tweeted after pulling herself onto the bus.

Later, after wheeling into the Tangeman University Center, she was blunt about her plight.

"It's demoralizing," she said, "to have to depend on someone else."

In some ways, Whitestone seems like the average 19-year-old. She's majoring in biomedical sciences, takes some classes online and would like more time to go out on the weekends.

But she's also afflicted with a disease that some days keeps her unable to get out of bed. Even climbing onto a bus will keep her in pain all day.

So Whitestone has gone a step beyond simply dealing with her own circumstances. Since arriving here, she's made it her personal mission to improve accessibility to students with disabilities.

Called SaraSpins, the group she started has raised nearly $20,000 for motorized wheelchairs for at least one other student, and raised awareness on UC's main campus.

Whitestone struggles with daily tasks that most students take for granted, and sometimes that gets her down. She gives herself injections every day, and a nurse comes to her off-campus apartment once a week to inject more medicine.

"It's chronic pain. It's every day," she said. "Those days are really hard for me. If I wasn't in this chair, you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with me. That's why they call it the invisible illness."

Whitestone seems to crave normalcy, like a night out with friends or a seat in the regular student section at Nippert Stadium.

But she's also sacrificed some of her regular life for her cause, and that seems to be the way she wants it, said her mother, Jen Whitestone.

"I think most of us who aren't in wheelchairs assume that the world's accessible," Jen Whitestone said. "Sara feels it's her job now to let people know that it isn't.

"Her father and I tell her, 'Don't forget about your classes.' But we also see she feels she has this social obligation, and we get that. It's who she is."

Whitestone wasn't always in a wheelchair. She has played flute and piccolo with the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and ran the Flying Pig half-marathon in 2010.

But in late November of that year – Nov. 24, to be exact – she missed school with a headache. She thought she had an inner-ear infection.

She eventually was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME, sometimes called chronic fatigue syndrome.

One of the symptoms is POTS, a debilitating auto-immune disease that eventually left Whitestone dependent on a wheelchair.

She was hospitalized a couple of weeks later, and Christmas 2010 was, she recalls, "probably the sickest I've ever been."

Her parents tried to get her to face the reality that she wouldn't go to college, at least not right away. She was essentially home-bound for a year.

She got herself to UC, an accomplishment she calls "a miracle."

But she soon realized that getting around campus was harder than she had anticipated. Riding her wheelchair down the campus' Main Street, the chair bounced over all the bricks, and Whitestone has to go through three sets of doors, take an elevator and out-of-the-way ramp to traverse about 50 yards to the western edge of Nippert Stadium.

"I think it's accessible, but it's certainly not equal opportunity and it's certainly not inclusive," Whitestone said. "Every time a friend walks with me to class, they're like, 'Where are you going?' The heart of main campus doesn't even seem welcoming to me. Like the labs ... I can't reach the sinks. I can't reach the glasses. I can't reach anything."

Whitestone is one of fewer than 10 students on main campus who have registered for disability services with a wheelchair.

"I do understand that I'm one person out of 43,000 students," she said. "But there's a reason there are so few of us."

Whitestone and SaraSpins have become ubiquitous at UC, appearing before the Board of Trustees and organizing a "UC Wheels" event when close to 70 students rode around campus on wheelchairs to see for themselves. She even was grand marshal of this fall's Main Street Stride, an annual fall event.

Whitestone has done several of those trips with UC architects and other officials, searching for ways to make it easier for those who use a wheelchair.

One example: a smooth-pavement path on the campus' Main Street.

"She's an inspiration," said Abbey Hunter of Jeffersonville, Ind., a sophomore who also has suffered from POTS and used a wheelchair provided by the group last year. Intensive therapy has her able to walk on her own this year.

"Everybody knows her," Hunter said. "She's a Twitter ninja. She's pretty ill and she's trucking along."

Hunter met Whitestone on her first day at UC. She said the normal three- to four-minute walk from the center of campus to the DAAP building, where she takes most of her classes, will take 12-13 minutes.
"It takes a lot of energy just to plan where you want to go," Hunter said. "Definitely, getting around is frustrating."

Student body president Joe Blizzard spent a half-day in a manual wheelchair during the UC Wheels event this fall. He had never noticed, for example, that some bathrooms in Tangeman require you to go through three separate doors.

"You've got to take some time and plan where you're going," Blizzard said. "Main Street was difficult. And my arms are pretty sore."

Whitestone says just that awareness will help.

"I feel like students and faculty are listening. I'm starting to make a difference," she said. "I hope by the time I leave UC there are structural changes to campus."

Mike Southern, director of UC's Office of Disability Services, met Whitestone during her first semester. He acknowledges that Main Street could be more accessible to wheelchairs.

The disability services office services about 500 students who are dealing with issues ranging from learning disabilities to mental health problems to serious injuries.

"We try our best to be accessible, but I think Sara has brought the understanding that we can do better," he said. "She will do some great things in her life. I have no doubt about that."

Pursuing those changes may have left some scars, but she is determined to keep working.

"People aren't mean, they're just ignorant," she said. "They can be extremely disrespectful. People ask, 'What's wrong with you?' I feel like I'm supposed to represent everybody in a wheelchair, and I am constantly having to prove that I'm OK. All the time." 

Whitestone is a little uncertain about her own future.

"I really want to go to medical school," she said. "Realistically, I have to prepare myself that I'm not going to be able to do that."

She took two online classes this fall and will depend on them even more next semester.

Remembering 'Beyond Ramps: Disability at the end of the Social Contract' author Marta Russell

From Canadian professor Ravi Malhotra, who is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and co-authored an article with Marta Russell in Socialist Register in 2001.This appeared in New Politics:

Marta Russell died a few days ago in Los Angeles days short of her sixty-second birthday. A journalist and commentator about issues affecting disabled people as well as a film industry worker for many years, Russell was best known for her landmark and pioneering book, Beyond Ramps: Disability at the end of the Social Contract (Common Courage Press). Here she set out a compelling critique of how capitalism marginalizes and oppresses disabled workers. 

Reading it as a young disability rights advocate, I found Marta's book a breath of fresh air, combining passionate advocacy with an understanding of political economy and an account of how disabled people are systematically oppressed by capitalism.

Marta was particularly unique in focusing on an anti-capitalist critique of disablement policy in the United States where postmodern analysis of the disabled body has predominated. With Jean Stewart, she wrote a remarkably biting piece about prisons and disablement for Monthly Review. 

She was also not shy about criticizing misguided strategies by disability rights movements that she felt were too moderate or co-opted. 

Disabled since birth, Marta leaves behind a daughter, Georgia Scheele, her partner, Steve Weiss, and countless disabled people she radicalized around the world. Advocates of socialism from below would do well to revisit her work on this too often ignored topic.

Here is a list of Russell's publications from her LinkedIn page: 

Her book - Beyond Ramps, Disability at the End of the Social Contract - was published in 1998 by Common Courage Press (Honorable Mention from Gustavus Myers Program for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America at Boston University).

Essays, articles include (but not limited to):

"Backlash, the Political Economy and Structural Exclusion." In Linda Krieger (ed), Backlash Against the Americans with Disabilities Act: U of Michigan Press (2003).

"Capitalism and Disability." Leo Panitch & Colin Leys (eds) A World of Contradictions: Socialist Register, 2002.

"The Political Economy of Disablement." Real World Micro 2001, Marc Breslow, Ellen Frank, Cynthia Peters the Dollars & Sense Collective (eds) Cambridge MA.

"Targeting Disability." Monthly Review, 2005.

"What Disability Civil Rights Cannot Do: Employment and Political Economy." Disability & Society, 2002. 

"Disablement, Oppression, and the Political Economy." Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 2001.

"Disablement, Prison, and Historical Segregation." Monthly Review, 2001.

"The New Reserve Army of Labor?" Review of Radical Political Economics, 2001.

"Backlash, the Political Economy and Structural Exclusion." Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 2001.

“Being Disabled and Poor in New Orleans,” ZNet, September 2005.

“The Social Movement Left Out,” ZNet, August 2002.

“Supremely Insensitive: the High Court’s Decision to Side With Business On the ADA” WorkForChange.com, March 2002.

“Work Ought to Mean Getting Ahead,” Los Angeles Times, July 1994.

“Productive Bodies and the Market,” Left Business Observer, ed Doug Henwood, November 1999.

“Wheeling Through Mr. Bill’s Neighborhood,” The Disability Rag & Resource, November 1994.

In Japan. filmmaker captures the 3/11 stress of Tohoku’s deaf community after tsunami

From Japan Times:

Nobuko Kikuchi (pictured), a 72-year-old resident of Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, couldn’t hear the emergency sirens that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011.

Nor could she hear the public announcement urging people to evacuate to higher ground as a massive tsunami approached the coast of northeastern Japan’s Tohoku region.

Kikuchi is deaf. She owes her life to a neighbor who came to alert her. Kikuchi narrowly escaped the monster wave, which uprooted and washed away her house.

In another part of the city, a deaf couple who ran a beauty salon survived — though nobody came knocking on their door. After the quake, they smelled a “strange odor” and ran up to the second floor of their house. But after the tsunami swept through their house, destroying all the equipment in their salon on the first floor, the couple spent a lonely night alone. They had no information about the scale of the disaster or where they could go to get help.

Such horrific experiences of the Great East Japan Earthquake fill “3.11 Without Sound — There Were Deaf People in the Disaster Area, Too,” a 23-minute documentary recently released by deaf filmmaker Ayako Imamura.

Nagoya-based Imamura, 33, has made seven visits to Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures since the disaster, meeting and interviewing victims there.

Her film is a bitter reminder of how people with disabilities are neglected during disasters and denied access to the kind of information that can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Statistics on the number of deaf and hearing-impaired people affected by the disaster are hard to come by. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which has a department serving people with disabilities, will only say that as of May 2011, 14 deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Miyagi Prefecture were killed by the tsunami/quake. A total of 736 others were confirmed to have survived. The ministry has no data for such casualties in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

In the film, Imamura cites a report by public broadcaster NHK that puts the number of fatalities among deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the three prefectures at 75.

Imamura, who has shot numerous documentaries on Japan’s deaf community, met and interviewed several deaf and hearing-impaired people in Tohoku, including Kikuchi, who the film focuses on.

In an interview filmed in an evacuation shelter one month after the disaster, Kikuchi breaks down as she explains she can’t hear any of the announcements on food rationing and other assistance — no one has thought to take her special needs into consideration.

She and her husband, Tokichi (who is also deaf), had no other way of keeping track of new developments than by watching hearing evacuees.

“If they see other people lining up, they would follow suit, assuming some aid item would be handed out,” Imamura says in the film. “It’s a huge form of stress for her, and she has no time to relax all day.”

Kikuchi regains some semblance of normalcy over time. She looks much better in August 2011, when Imamura visits her at an apartment-style temporary housing facility, into which the couple moved that May. 

Nicely coiffed and made-up, Kikuchi smiles as she teaches her granddaughter how to make key chains with colorful plastic beads. The temporary dwelling has the basic necessities — a TV set, air-conditioning and a yellow light to let the couple know when they have visitors. But then a hearing film crew member notices that a fishmonger has just passed — without bothering to tell the Kikuchis.

Imamura visits her again on Dec. 25, 2011. Kikuchi looks pleasantly surprised, showing off many donated sweaters that she was given at a Christmas charity event. But her expression clouds again — conveying to the filmmaker through sign language her feelings of insecurity about her future. Kikuchi says she doesn’t know how much longer the situation will continue. She tells Imamura she is alone now, because Tokichi was hospitalized the previous month.

Now that she’s finished the movie, which is subtitled in English, Korean and Portuguese, Imamura says everyone living in Japan should have equal access to vital information, regardless of disability or nationality. Tsunami warnings should be sent to all mobile phone users, she says, using handsets’ vibration setting to send emergency alerts to both deaf and blind people. Imamura says all public announcements should be made in simple Japanese and in various languages.

“There are many people in society — hearing people, hard-of-hearing people, blind people, people in wheelchairs and foreigners,” Imamura says in an email. “The message I want to get across in all of my films is that a society where all these people are able to live the life they want to live is a very rich one.”