PSA: Spread the word to end the word

via YouTube:

"Not Acceptable" is a powerful and compelling 30 second television PSA which gives voice to a variety of diverse communities each of whom expresses that it is not acceptable to call them by what were once common words, but are now recognized as offensive slurs. It culminates in actress and self-advocate Lauren Potter from "Glee" stating that it is not acceptable to use the word 'retard' and she and "Glee" co-star Jane Lynch make a call to action to stop using the word and to promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to make their pledge online at http://r-word.org.

The PSA was launched by the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, an on-going initiative from Special Olympics and Best Buddies to eradicate the derogatory use of the word "retard(ed)" from everyday use and promote the inclusion and acceptance of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Disability & Discrimination FAQ Video

A college student who is a congenital amputee talks about her experiences involving school and employment opportunities.

Blind man reports being barred from flight due to disability

Zuhair Mahmoud, a blind technology specialist from Virginia, told AP that he was told he couldn't travel alone when he checked into FlyDubai for a flight from Dubai because it was airline policy not to permit a blind traveler to fly alone.

The airline's chief executive offered an apology and denied FyDubai discriminates against blind or disabled passengers.

FlyDubai also promised to rebook Mahmoud on another flight that's convenient for him and offered him a voucher for a free flight to make up for the mishap. "This morning's events were extremely unfortunate and should not have happened. We will conduct a full investigation to find out what went wrong in this situation and take all means necessary to ensure it does not happen again," FlyDubai CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith said in an e-mail to the AP.

Mahmoud wants steps taken to make sure this doesn't happen to other travelers. "The real test is how it's handled and how it's reacted to. Mistakes happen all the time. It's how you deal with them that defines who you are," he said.

Department of Justice and QuikTrip reach settlement

A settlement was announced between the Department of Justice and QuikTrip , a national owner of gas stations regarding ADA claims after complaints about inaccessible parking near Omaha.

The DOJ lawsuit says the investigation revealed a nationwide pattern and practice of discrimination on the basis of disability. QuikTrip worked with the department to amicably resolve the matter without active litigation.

Under the consent decree, which was filed along with a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, QuikTrip will create a $1.5 million compensatory damages fund for individuals who were victims of discrimination based on disability, as well as take various steps to make its stores accessible.

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/07/ada_quiktrip.html#ixzz0u8Tlmgro

Martin Luther King Jr. as Pastor

Martin Luther King Jr. came to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church as a non-controversial hire for pastor in a church with internal issues. His pastoral work led him to his civil rights work. Rosa Parks was arrested a year after his arrival in Montgomery.

King began speaking out and leading peaceful protests. From the church, he helped ignite the Montgomery bus boycott. According to Baldwin, King saw this as a natural extension of pastoring his people.

The 2006 video linked below shows the church and has interviews with members who describe King's impact on them. The PBS video contains a transcript.

Press release- EEOC site:

KMART SUED FOR DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION FOR FIRING GREETER WHO USED CANE

Retail Giant Punished Worker for Back Impairment, EEOC Charges

NORFOLK, Va. – National retail giant Kmart Corporation violated federal law by firing an employee because of his disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed yesterday under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) on behalf of a former worker who uses an assistive walking device.

The EEOC’s suit, filed in he U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Kmart Corporation, Civil Action No. 2:09CV291), asserted that around September 2004 Alonzo McGlone was hired as a greeter at a Kmart Super Center in Norfolk, Va. McGlone, who has a debilitating back impairment, uses a cane to assist him in walking and standing. The EEOC’s suit charged that McGlone was successfully performing his duties as a greeter when he was observed using his cane. According to the EEOC, McGlone was fired because of the use of his cane.

The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement out of court. The EEOC's lawsuit seeks reinstatement of McGlone into his former position or an equivalent one, as well as back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. The EEOC also seeks an injunction ordering Kmart to institute and carry out policies, practices, and training programs which provide equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, and a work environment free from disability discrimination.

“Mr. McGlone lost his job because he needed to use an assistive device to walk,” said Herbert Brown, director of the EEOC’s Norfolk Local Office. “It is unfortunate that many employers still deny people who are ready and able the opportunity to work simply because of a disability. The EEOC will continue to fight for the rights of people victimized by such prejudices.”

During Fiscal Year 2008, disability discrimination charge filings with the EEOC nationwide rose to 19,453 -- an increase of 10 percent from the prior fiscal year and the highest level in 14 years.

Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office, which includes the Norfolk Local Office, added, “This lawsuit is a reminder that, although we have made great strides in educating employers and the public about disability discrimination, some employers still judge applicants and employees based on a disability rather than on their proven ability to do a job.”

According to its web site, www.kmart.com, Kmart is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation. As of January 31, 2009, Holdings operated a total of 1,368 Kmart stores across 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

Press release via site

"I live in a crazy time"

said Anne Frank. And events from yesterday sadly reflect that we still do.

On the day a play about Anne Frank's life was planned at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, an 88 year old man tried to enter the museum . Special police officer Johns opened the door for the man, who opened fire on the officer. According to witnesses, he then shot at other security guards who fired back near the front of the museum. Visitors to the museum fled in the other direction, toward the "Remember the Children" exhibit, trying to find families and friends who came with them. Some visitors dropped and hit the floor. In the words of a witness:

"No one was standing up; no one dared move; we were all very scared. Finally, I ran back towards where my grandparents were to see if they were OK, and there we stayed until further instructions about how to exit the building safely."

They were told by guards to run and headed outside toward the lawn, some weeping. A security guard was killed. The shooter is hospitalized in critical condition.

*

The Southern Poverty Law Center, quoted yesterday as knowing about James von Brunn, the shooter in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum , said he "has an extremely long history with neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He's written extremely incendiary publications, raging about Jews, blacks and the like."

The Center publishes a hate groups map on its site. They report that there were 926 active hate groups across the U.S. in 2008 which they counted. Their statistics do not include individuals, just groups.

*

The play to be performed, entitled Anne and Emmett, "is an imaginary conversation between Jewish girl Anne Frank, who wrote her famous diary about hiding from Nazi occupiers in Amsterdam, and Emmett Till, a black boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955", playwright Janet Langhart Cohen said.

Emmett Till was a 14 year old black boy who was killed in 1955 for flirting with a white woman in Mississippi. He was brutally murdered, his eye gouged out, shot in the head, beaten, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a 70 pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. His body was found three days later in the river and police tried to convince people that the body was not his.

Anne Frank would have turned 80 years old tomorrow. Although we often talk about Anne Frank, the exact number of Jews systematically killed in the Holocaust has never been able to be determined, but is estimated at six millon. By 1945, 2 out of 3 European Jews were killed. Others also died.

As many as one-half million Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons, and more than three million Soviet prisoners-of-war also fell victim to Nazi genocide. Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Social Democrats, Communists, partisans, trade unionists, Polish intelligentsia and other undesirables were also victims of the hate and aggression carried out by the Nazis.

*

The museum remains closed today in honor of the slain security guard, with the flags at half mast. There is no doubt, according to witnesses, that the 39 year old security guard who was killed, Stephen Tyrone Jones, laid down his life to protect the visitors and fellow security guards. After telling the armed man to drop his weapon, the guards fired their weapons near the front of the museum. Jones, shown at left, worked at the museum for six years.


The President issued a statement:

"This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world."

The Anti-Defamation League said the shooting "reminds us in the starkest way where the spread of hatred can lead."

Occurring "at the very place that was created to remember and teach about evil in the world," the attack "is an immediate reminder that words of hate matter, that we can never afford to ignore hate because words of hate can easily become acts of hate, no matter the place, no matter the age of the hatemonger."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned "this apparent bias-motivated attack" and said it stands "with the Jewish community and with Americans of all faiths in repudiating the kind of hatred and intolerance that can lead to such disturbing incidents."

You people

I always know when I see emails that start with "you people" that my eyebrows, which still work, are going to go up.

The phrase "you people", when directed at any minority, including people with disabilities, is never persuasive to use in an argument.

The phrase "we the people", however, sounds really nice. You'll notice that our founding fathers did not put "you people" in the Constitution. Nor did they use the phrase "those people" or "people who look/sound/dress like that".

I first heard "you people" from a teacher. He used to get up and say "you people are lazy" and "you people will never amount to anything". I went home and told my grandmother who said "people like that" shouldn't be teachers.

Of course, it wasn't the last time I heard "you people". I learned that there were others who used the phrase, in much worse ways. They didn't stand in front of a class and call a group of students lazy or worthless, but singled out minorities. "You people" was the preface to discrimination, because it assumed things about a group as a whole, without getting to know those in the group. It was a way to put people deemed not to be as worthy of respect in their place. It was a way to dehumanize people.

"You people have a sense of entitlement."

"You people want everything."

"You people think you're as good as everyone else."

Ugly words like this have nothing to do with "we the people". Such phrases are full of assumptions about the other person and his or her situation. Sadly, there's no room for "we the people" in there, or what kind of solutions we as a country will find together.

Nowadays when I hear the phrase "you people" followed by judgmental statements or assumptions , the sound of a door closing rings in my ears. It is like a parent saying to a child that this conversation, this dialogue is over because their mind is made up.

How many times have we the people in this country allowed some of us to talk to minorities like children? How dare people do that to other adults? I find it laughable some days when one moment I see a person with a disability patronized like that and in the next moment that same person is expected to overcome insurmountable odds because of barriers that we, as a society, perpetuate.

Every day for the past month I've gone past a strip of road where a friend of mine who has CP works tirelessly to clear away leaves and tree branches. It's a side job he does every year to supplement the money he gets. He can only do it for a few hours at a time, because he has difficulty walking and standing for too long but nevertheless he does it to pay his rent and buy his food, even though there are people in town who offer to help him with those costs. He doesn't "want everything", just what others have - the ability to live independently in the community.

Like the story the First Lady tells about her father, who worked with MS, there are many people with disabilities who work. Some work full time. Others work when they can, as they can. Many work for low or no pay, but we don't hear about that often. I hope others get a chance to tell their stories too, so that "we the people" learn it's not an exception that people with disabilities are hard workers. More would be, given the opportunity. And many people with disabilities do work tirelessly as volunteers, when and if they can. I thank the First Lady for opening the door on that dialogue and encourage others to continue it. It's important to hear about how productive people with disabilities are every day.

But it's also important to note that some people with disabilities can't work. Judging someone's innate worth on the basis of whether he or she is productive is based on the same belief system that condoned the euthanasia of those who were seen as burdens on society. This is a dangerous and slippery slope in our society still - one that we haven't had a dialogue about out in the open. It results in poor health care for many, poor housing, poor transportation and hunger.

When we forget that we are all part of "we the people" and think of others as "you people", it is everyone's loss, no matter what words come after those first two.

The question

Hours before the Leno show was taped, at the town hall meeting in L.A., Gary Karp, author and activist, asked President Obama a question:

Q I’m Gary Carr [sic], and Mr. President, thank God for you. (Applause.) Sir, my question regards the true renaissance that’s happening with people with disabilities. They are an emerging population — millions of people with more potential in capacity, more mobile, more educated, more healthy, more empowered technology, but still trapped in very, very old social models that see them in terms of tragedy and charity and need and care. And the modern population of people with disabilities simply does not fit that model.

And as your plan succeeds and you generate these jobs, and as baby boomers retire, we’re going to need every single person of capacity to work that we can. And that must include many, many, many thousands, if not millions, of people with disabilities. (Applause.)

So — I see you nodding your head, so my first question is, do you subscribe to what I’m saying, and next of all, can you talk about how your disability agenda will release this emerging potential that’s currently wasted and untapped?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you are exactly right, that we need everybody. And every program that we have has to be thinking on the front end, how do we make sure that it is inclusive, and building into it our ability to draw on the capacities of persons with disabilities.

That’s true on the education front, where our recovery package increases funding for children with disabilities. It is true in terms of how Hilda Solis, our Secretary of Labor, will be thinking about our training programs, to make sure that we are not excluding from training for high-tech jobs, the new jobs of the future, persons with disability.

It means enforcing the ADA and fighting back on some court opinions that have tried to narrow in ways that I think are inappropriate the original intent of that legislation.

So one of the things that I think is important is to make sure, as you pointed out, that we don’t see this as an afterthought, a segregated program, but we are infusing every department, every agency, every act that we take with a mindfulness about the importance of persons with disabilities, their skills, their talents, their capacity.

That I think is the approach that my administration is going to take, and we hope that by taking that approach that attitude will infuse state and local governments that are also receiving federal money. Okay? (Applause.)

The president spoke about infusing 'every department, every agency, every act that we take with a mindfulness about the importance of persons with disabilities, their skills, their talents, their capacity.' Hours later, he made the Special Olympics joke.

Negative attitudes toward those with disabilities are so ingrained that many who watched the show tell me they didn't even notice the joke. Of course not. We hear these kinds of jokes every day. People with disabilities are still openly mocked. Many who would recoil with horror at being called bigots still laugh at jokes like this and still make jokes like this.

Raising this topic inevitably brings a knee jerk reaction from some who cry out that we are thin-skinned, overly sensitive. They fail to make the connections between the underlying negative attitudes toward people with disabilities that dehumanize them and the fact that it leads to subhuman treatment. We don't even call crimes against the disabled that. We call it neglect when a person with a disability is found living in circumstances that horrify us and are considered criminal for others. When our institutions fail people with disabilities, whether through abuse or neglect, we as a society fail to address it until the media becomes involved and, even then, take years to address one instance. We pay caregivers for people with disabilities such low wages that many go hungry or dirty. Thank God I don't have to live like that, people say.

No wonder jokes like this abound. It's the tip of the iceberg of what's really going on in our treatment of people with disabilities. In fact, we are so busy as a society laughing at these jokes that we don't even take time to look at solutions to the problem. What if we changed our attitudes and took the issue of employment of people with disabilities seriously? What if we built housing that was accessible and provided transportation that was both affordable and available? What if we stopped making jokes about the Special Olympics and volunteered for it instead? What if we started looking at the potential of people with disabilities rather than warehousing them and excluding them from opportunities?

This would require change. First, people would have to realize that joking about disability is adolescent and dehumanizing. They'd have to believe that people with disabilities are fully human, with the same inherent dignity and worth as - well - the able bodied. Some people don't believe this. Others believe they believe it, but they laugh along. They would deny they believe stereotypes, but they laugh at them all the same. And their children laugh along, perpetuating this behavior.

Perhaps some people are laughing out of embarrassment at the way people with disabilities are treated. Unfortunately, although some of those laughing may simply need to change their attitude and are open to change, others are true bigots. These kinds of jokes just encourage them in their bigotry and reinforce their contempt for people with disabilities.

Wasted and untapped. That's how Gary Karp described the potential of people with disabilities. It's so true. I see it in so many lives. I've cried many tears about it.

But, no, I've never ever found it amusing.

The level of suffering caused by our nation's failure to address the needs of people with disabilities so they can attain their potential is staggering.

I hope people can hear the question being asked over the laughter.

Parents protest children's show host who has disability

A disabled CBeebies presenter has been the victim of a disturbing campaign after parents complained that she was scaring toddlers.

They claimed that host Cerrie Burnell - who was born with one arm - is not suitable to appear on the digital children's channel.

According to this article, the decision to hire Cerrie Burnell (shown in the photo at left), who was born with one arm, to take over the Do and Discover and The Bedtime Hour program has resulted in complaints and online comments from parents so vicious that some have had to be removed from the CBeebies website. Miss Burnell studied drama, has performing experience and also works as a teaching assistant at a special needs school.

Disability groups have fiercely defended her and the BBC.

John Knight, of charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, said: 'Disabled people experience disadvantage and discrimination like this every day, largely through ignorance. This needs to change.

'Understanding disability all comes down to familiarity. The bottom line is that seeing disabled people on television should be the norm, not the exception.'

Update: BBC: How Do You Explain a Missing Arm to a Child?

Our nation's creed: our nation's need

As I read about the progress our country has made as we celebrate the inauguration of our first African American president, I remember the words of Martin Luther King when he addressed those fighting for their civil rights.

Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

It would be sugarcoating history to forget Martin Luther King Jr.'s own Letter from a Birmingham Jail, this man who went on to say:


I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

For years we have said that any child can be president in the U.S. Tomorrow, a historic inroad will be made as our first African American president takes the oath of office. It is a day to celebrate the progress we have made and take stock of the work left to do so that our actions can match our beliefs, so that we can honor our nation's creed and meet our nation's need to be whole.

There is much work left to do. Obama's election does not erase the poverty of those in the inner city, those whose educational opportunities are determined by their school district, those whose futures are circumscribed in ways that do not honor our nation's creed.

As for people with disabilities and the struggles they still face that are often not even acknowledged or part of the public discourse, Terri writes in her post Impossible?:

We can say we don't know how (yet).... we can say we don't want to... but we cannot say "that's impossible" in 2009 and retain any credibility.

I believe Barack Obama in yesterday's speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial extended Martin Luther King's Dream beyond skin color, mentioning disability by name (once again--and yes, I am counting!)

So...

Access to
-Education
-Employment
-Healthcare
-Community events and activities (and inaugurations!)
-Citizenship (ie: membership, belonging, contributing)
-Economic opportunity
-ETC.....

Challenging? Sure. Difficult? Sometimes. Stressful? At times.

Possible? Once we decide to do it.

Necessary? If our country is going to live up to the mission and vision our Founding Fathers laid before us, yes indeed.


Martin Luther King Jr. believed that it is only when we let freedom ring for all people that we will as a nation be free. It is only when we live our nation's creed that we will meet our nation's need.

It is about having no invisible citizens. It is about working together in a way that acknowledges the equal rights of everyone.

Back to Terri:

There is much to do. Nothing is impossible. Your gifts are essential. We are going to be friends.

Works for me!How about you?

This makes me MADD

A woman with disabilities, Rose Harn, was asked to leave a fair exhibit and now no one can seem to agree who should take responsibility. In fact, this article lays out the three different versions of what happened.

The woman, who volunteered for MADD as an "example" of what can happen when people drink and drive, was evicted from the fair and now some from MADD are blaming fair officials and others are saying it was MADD that made the decision. Why was she told to leave?

Because the sight of her was offensive to people and they complained. And, after fair officials complained to MADD about the reactions of people, her husband was told not to return - with Rose- as volunteers by MADD.

In the two decades since Harn was left brain-damaged and paralyzed by a 16-year-old driver, her husband has taken her to numerous Mothers Against Drunk Driving events in Idaho as an object lesson in the consequences of drinking and driving.

But that was before MADD removed Harn as a volunteer at its booth at a state fair last month amid complaints that the sight of her was too disturbing.

The Harns have filed a discrimination complaint with the Idaho Human Rights Commission against MADD and the company that operated the fair. MADD is taking a closer look at its practice of bringing accident victims to public events. And the incident has stirred up townspeople in this community of 50,000, situated in a sugar beet- and onion-growing region 20 miles from Boise.

''People with all kinds of disabilities, disfigurements and challenges have the right to be at public events, no matter how queasy someone may be,'' the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa railed in an editorial.

Exactly what happened at the fair is in dispute, and the state agency is investigating. MADD, for its part, said it feared trouble at the fair and acted out of concern for Harn's safety. via NYTimes.com

MADD has issued a statement on its Idaho website.

Not that long since the last of the Ugly Laws were repealed, in the 70s.

Driveby bullying

Twice this past month when I've been out in my power chair, a truck or car went by and a man or woman cried out ableist epithets.

Hey you -ugly cripple!

Has anyone told you that you're disgusting today?


A week ago I was rolling along on a main street and a voice out of nowhere called out an ableist epithet to a disabled friend I was sitting with.

Freak! Freak! Freak!

I looked through the crowd but couldn't find anyone. He said to me "Oh, I have that all the time." He gets around on a scooter and spends most of the day outside.

This kind of name calling is cowardly, often done in a way that ensures one thing: the offender doesn't get caught. I guess you could call it driveby bullying.

When we label people, we objectify them, we dehumanize them. When we hurl names at them openly in front of others, there's a line crossed that is unacceptable.

I see this behavior as a reflection on those who do it, not on me. It's not even personal.

They don't even know who I am.

The sad thing is, as long as they continue to view the world we all inhabit in these narrow ways, they never will.

Don't Enable An Ableist:BADD 2008

Ableism hurts. It can be subtle, like when a customer behind me assumes because I'm in a wheelchair that I can't be in line by myself, or like a sledgehammer, when someone assaults you because you're paralyzed and can't fight back. It can result in discrimination in housing and employment. Ableist attitudes are behind the resistance to providing access to people with disabilities and other social changes that would result in fuller inclusion of us in society.

When some people do or say ableist things, there are those who enable them in various ways. Sometimes it's even the person with a disability, when we apologize to an ableist who treats us badly and insists on us backing down from our position. I have a term for it: enableists.

It can sound like this.

"You just refused to show me an apartment because I have a disability?"

"Absolutely. I don't need the hassle," says the ableist landlord, openly breaking the law.

Upon hearing this, a typical enableist will chime in with "Well, you can't expect Mr./Mrs Ableist to want a tenant with a disability. It does present problems" or "Maybe you should just look at another apartment " or if you point out that kind of discrimination is illegal, an enableist will say "You can't expect other people to know all about disability stuff." (Oh yeah, those silly anti-discrimination laws!)

Yes, enableists continue to enable some ableists to say they don't want to make an accommodation or serve a customer with a disability. And when the ableists offer an excuse, the enableist inevitably helps them come up with more. The enableist seems to jump into the fray to calm the ableist down. Yes, yes by all means, let's keep the status quo. Why should the ableist change, they ask the person with a disability?

Enabling an ableist is just as wrong as being an ableist. It encourages them. It not only makes excuses for them, but it gives them an out and solidifies their sense of entitlement, as if it's okay for them to discriminate against a whole group of people. Enabling ableists sends them a message that it's optional and up to them whether they deal with their ableist attitudes and ways - without facing consequences.

A sure sign that you're dealing with an enableist is that you are left feeling as if you've done something wrong after you've asserted your rights in a reasonable way. And yet, as the chorus of ableist-enableist-ableist-enableist goes on, our voices as people with disabilities seem to get lost in the fray. It's as if a sideshow is going on, completely tangential to the fact that we can't use a restroom, for example, that is All About the Ableist. Poor ableist, the enableist says, as we roll down three blocks in the wintry cold to use an accessible bathroom. This accommodation would cost so much. Why are you asking him/her to do that? Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Poor ableist, says the enableist, after he/she embarrasses us with an inappropriate ableist remark at a social function. Why did you have to point that out?

I guess the answer is: because those of us who do aren't enableists.

{written for Blogging Against Disablism Day 2008}

Genetic discrimination law passed in Senate

After passing by a vote of 95-0, the bill will now go to the House.

The legislation would safeguard genetic information to be kept private between doctor and patient and would prohibit discrimination by employers and insurance companies, among others. It is being hailed by Sen. Ted Kennedy as the first new civil rights bill of the century, noting that discrimination based on a person's genetic makeup is just as wrong as discrimination due to race or religion.

Until recently, genetic tests were used mainly for rare conditions that could have catastrophic health consequences. But there are currently more than 1,200 diseases for which predictive clinical tests are available -- including breast cancer, Alzheimer's and a particularly aggressive type of colon cancer. More tests are in development for conditions such as diabetes.

"We're not talking about rare genetic disorders anymore; we are talking about very common traits," said geneticist Joann Boughman, executive vice president of the American Society of Human Genetics. "We are to the point where we can begin testing people so they can make much better plans to avoid getting sick in the first place."
via latimes.com

If there was a camera there

When I found the piece in the news about Brian, another quadriplegic, being dumped out of his wheelchair by a deputy to "check" his disability, my stomach sickened. I warned Meredith when I saw her that I'd posted a video and what it showed. And then I told her that the news coverage, as hard as it is to see, is a positive step in bringing this kind of behavior out into the light.

I, too, have been confronted by people physically over the decade I've been in a wheelchair. Part of it came from being a quadriplegic in a manual chair. I often had people say to me "Oh you can't be a quadriplegic. Christopher Reeve is one and he's totally paralyzed." Many folks don't understand the variations in spinal cord injuries. (Even in this article, it says that Brian is a quadriplegic, but still able to drive. )

Some quads can look like paraplegics to people if they don't understand the disability. Once I had bones in both wrists broken because a man assisting me "lost patience" with how slowly I "chose to move" and pulled away my wheelchair. I fell onto the ground landing on my wrists. On another occasion a woman pushed food into my face to see if I would "knock off pretending I couldn't lift my arms". And many times I've had change thrown at my face by impatient clerks who think I'm deliberately moving slowly. (And, yes, I've been dumped out of my wheelchair too. )

This kind of physical stuff happens. There isn't always a camera. And let me tell you, this woman deputy's words are classic and her behavior is classic, arrogantly proclaiming "I don't believe what you say about your disability - let's see". I've been questioned incessantly over the years about my disability, but there are these folks who cross the line and become physical. It's sickening to watch and my heart goes out to Brian. No one should be treated like this.

But the point is it's happening out there. Turning our heads away doesn't make it go away. It's time to speak up about it, bring it out into the light of day for what it is.

Because, before anyone assumes that a low level quad isn't really a quad, let me tell you that hand/arm impairments do affect one's ability to get around and do things in our quick paced world and, I suppose if it comes to that, to defending ourselves. Having paralysis in all four limbs renders one more vulnerable. Period. I'm not going to suggest anyone duct tape their hands or spend a day in a wheelchair because that just doesn't do it in my opinion. But I've lived with it for over a decade and I know what it's like to go out into an uneducated world and deal with people who are judging what I can/can't do and take out their ideas on me.

My friends, it sucks. It doesn't always reach this level of behavior, but it sucks. I wish people would educate themselves about disabilities and ask questions if they don't understand. Most of the injuries I've received over the years have been as a result of peoples' impatience on this very issue. And even though their behavior doesn't reach the level shown in this video, it can still cause injuries.

Watching how the media picked up this video and article and how it spread is a positive sign that we are making strides, that this kind of behavior is abhorrent to most people and that those who choose to engage in it face discipline or criminal charges.

What happened to Brian is an assault to him. And to all of us. Not just people with disabilities, but to each and every one of us. It's about not being treated with human decency.

"She certainly wasn't treating me like a human being," Sterner said. "When I saw that one deputy laugh that's when my blood started to boil. That's ridiculous to have that happen to me, then have somebody having a good time laughing about it."

Deputy suspended without pay after dumping man from wheelchair to "check his disability"

A news conference was held today in Tampa Florida about this incident. But a picture speaks a thousand words. Dumping someone on his face to check his disability is not only humiliating, but could result in serious injury or death. 

Brian Sterner, a quadriplegic for 14 years, was arrested on a traffic violation and received this debasing treatment. 

"He says a deputy looked at him and didn't believe he was a quadriplegic. She walked behind him, took the handles on the back of the hospital-grade wheel chair and dumped it forward.

Sterner says he tried to roll as he was going down, but hit so hard he thought he had broken two ribs. Then, while he was on the floor, deputies frisked him and tried to get him back into the chair.

Sterner says he told them how to pick him up and put him back into the chair, but because he can't feel anything from his breastbone down, he says he was injured and didn't know it. Sterner thought he had broken two ribs, but jail x-rays showed that wasn't true."
-via wzzm13.com

Investigations are ongoing, but the disturbing thing is no one in the upper echelon was even aware of this even though it happened last month.

"The Hillsborough Sheriff's Office didn't know anything about the incident until we showed them their own tape. Now an investigation is underway"

The article indicates it's a very active investigation. I bet.

Deaf customer hit in head by clerk...

A deaf customer buying two cans of Sprite was struck in the head after a clerk interpreted his lack of response to conversation as rudeness.

"Cody Goodnight, 30, has been deaf since before the age of 2 and uses sign language to communicate. When Goodnight tried to pay for two bottles of Sprite with a $5 bill, investigators said Ricky Young, 20, told them he thought Goodnight was being rude by not talking to him and hit him in the head with a crowbar." Via MSNBC

The article goes on to say that Goodknight is afraid to go any place alone.

Seeing this article reminded me of an incident that happened a few years ago. I asked the price of an item on a food carousel in a grocery store because it was placed at an angle I couldn't see from my wheelchair. A clerk picked up the ladle, filled it with food and put it right in my face, saying "Can't you read? I got better things to do." She then dumped the food on me. What she didn't realize is that her actions were being filmed on video in the store and that customers walking by witnessed this.

I took legal action. My aim was to get the store to do disability awareness with their employees and we worked things out. I discovered that the store had been sued by another wheelchair user for discrimination. Now it is like night and day when I go into that store - and my friends with disabilities report the same.

The clerk who injured Goodknight, if convicted, faces years in prison. And it's important to remember that, although these incidents don't happen frequently, if they do happen, it doesn't have to be as dramatic as being hit in the head with a crowbar to constitute assault.

No one should ever touch you out of anger that you don't respond to them or ask for assistance. This includes hitting you with an object, throwing something at you or putting their hands on you or your wheelchair, cane, etc. As rare as this is, in my work I've seen other incidents like this.

Our disabilities may prevent us from hearing someone, moving in certain ways or even may require asking a question . It is a lack of awareness of disability on the part of businesses and their employees that results in incidents. Many are not as extreme as this one - luckily- but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed.

People with disabilities need to know how to respond. And if you're assaulted, call the police.

UK woman barred from nightclub due to crutches

A UK woman was told that she would have to leave her crutches by the door in order to enter a London nightclub, according to this story

The nightclub manager stands behind the decision made by staff and claims it was made on advice of counsel. The decision has been called

"absolutely ludicrous' by the Disability Rights Commission.

Jennifer Bartle, 20, said she felt "angry and humiliated" after she was refused entry on the grounds her crutches could be potential offensive weapons.

Miss Bartle, who suffers from a bone disease, informed the Commission after she was denied access to the Hush Enigma Club in Newton Abbot, Devon."

The DRC stated that:

"She needs a written justification from the nightclub as to why they have effectively banned her. It seems clear to us she was being treated very unfairly, the nightclub should know better," they added.

Miss Bartle also raised the issue with her MP, Liberal Democrat Richard Younger-Ross, who said today: "This is an unbelievable decision by the nightclub to deny a young disabled girl access.

"The club are almost certainly in breach of the disability rights legislation."

via www.thisislondon.co.uk

As the article points out, any number of objects could be considered "weapons" that could be thrown. Hmmm, I bet some commentors could name a few....

What to tell kids about prejudice and discrimination

Some suggestions by the ADL, including:

"Why do those people look (or act) so funny? Why can't he walk? Why do they believe such strange things?"

Children need to realize that all people are different. It is important to communicate to children that we often think others are different simply because they are unfamiliar to us. We don't think our own beliefs and appearances are strange or funny because they are what we're used to. Point out that we must appear different to others, too."

For more suggestions, click above.