Experts script design principles for India

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) A nine-member panel of experts under the aegis of the National Institute of Design (NID) has prepared guidelines to help designers and manufacturers tool their wares to suit the Indian social landscape and open wider marketing avenues.  At a media interface here Tuesday, the panel authors said the Universal Design India Principles (UDIP) are based on usability, equitability, culture, economy and aesthetics.

The UDIP have been modelled on the seven standard global design principles, keeping the Indian cultural context in mind.  According to a member of the panel, Professor Abir Mullick of Georgia Institute of Technology and a scholar in residence at the NID, "The Indian design principles were inspired by Tagore’s ideal – the problem is not how to wipe out all differences, but how to unite with the differences intact". "Our primary focus is to make design equitable and democratic so that it becomes an uniting force. Indian designs will have to ensure usability because Indians are pragmatic by nature. We don’t throw away goods if they can be used."

"Aesthetics has to be crucial to Indian design to reflect the country’s cultural heritage and designs have to be economical. It should be unique to the cultural ambience of India," Mullick told IANS.  The contemporary idea of design as we know now has come from the West. Our design has been intrinsic, our craftsmen were designers. But India is now a global economy and has to interpret traditional design in the contemporary language to make it distinctive. The country is now paying attention to the fact," Mullick said.

He said innovation was the plank on which the Indian design movement would ride.  Disability is at the forefront of the design movement in India – with specially designed products for the disabled driving the design business, Mullick said.  Citing Census 2011 statistics, he said India "has 2.19 crore people with disabilities, constituting 2.13 per cent of the total population and nearly one-third of the global population of the disabled".  "Moreover, the elderly population in the country was the second largest with high family dependency, half of which have at least one kind of dependency. Design has to be accessible to them," he said.  Other members of the UDIP authors’ panel include experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the NID and the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal.

Manglogrean.com

Postcard from Japan: Disability and Disaster

Suzanne Kamata was born and raised in Grand Haven, Michigan, and now lives in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan with her husband and two children. She is fiction editor for the popular e-zine Literary Mama, and edits and publishes the literary magazine Yomimono. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times, and received a special mention in 2006. She is also a two-time winner of the All Nippon Airways/​Wingspan Fiction Contest. She is the editor of Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs.

Whenever I case a new location, look at friends’ vacation photos, or watch travelogues, I wonder about wheelchair accessibility. I wondered the same thing on Friday afternoon, watching disaster coverage on TV with my eleven-year-old daughter in Japan.

An hour earlier, when I went to pick her and her wheelchair up from school – the school for the deaf, which is housed in an aging four-story building with no elevator – her principal rushed out to my car to tell me to hurry home. He told me that a tsunami warning had been issued for Tokushima Prefecture. Although we live around 500 miles from Miyagi Prefecture, the scene of the greatest devastation, the deaf school is right next to an tributary of the Yoshino River, not far from the inland sea, and our home is just on the other side of the levee. It seemed like a good idea to get away from water.

As I listened to the sirens coming from across the road, warning people to leave the riverside, my daughter and I watched footage of people scrambling up hills as their houses, cars, and livelihoods were washed away. I couldn’t help thinking about how hard it would be to get a wheelchair up that hill – and later, seeing photos of the aftermath, of how hard it would be to push through that debris.

It’s not especially easy to get around with a wheelchair at the best of times. There are many restaurants near our house that we can no longer visit as a family because they are accessible only by steps. At the local McDonald’s, the Happy Meal display blocks the wheelchair ramp, and the toilet stall is too narrow for my daughter and her wheelchair. Last summer, she and I went by train to a small town an hour west of here for the funeral of one of her teachers. In order to board a "barrier-free" train car in Tokushima City (pop. 264,764), I had to carry her wheelchair up steps to the platform. There was no ramp. And of course there were no wheelchair ramps in the little towns we travelled through, nor at our final destination. I found out later that I could have called for assistance in advance, but it seemed like a lot of trouble. Why not just pour a little concrete?

After living in Japan for 23 years, I’ve come to understand that along with the capacity for endurance, much vaunted by the foreign press these past several days, and a sense of fatalism encompassed by the oft-repeated phrase "shikata ga nai" (it can’t be helped), the Japanese can be characterized by an aversion to meiwaku (being a burden) In other words, no one wants to make trouble. This, I believe, more than a sense of shame, is why people with disabilities are sometimes reluctant to venture out, and why people don’t like to complain.

Last week, I discussed these issues with a nurse that I’ve been teaching privately for the past couple of years who is writing a dissertation on accessibility. This week, we talked about the earthquake. She told me that she had grown up in Miyagi, where over a thousand bodies were found in the sea, and that her grandmother’s house in Fukushima has been irreparably damaged. She told me that as a nurse, training in Chiba, one of the shakier cities in Japan, she learned to wrap patients in a sling made of sheets for easy transport. (It takes too much time to get patients to wheelchairs and gurneys.) She said that she could do this in three minutes flat.

Japan is arguably the most disaster-ready nation on earth. Earthquake drills are held regularly at my children’s schools. Outside my daughter’s classroom – and every other classroom – there is a backpack with emergency supplies. My kids – and every other kid in Japan – have padded, fireproof hoods near their desks. This past week, my daughter has been practicing for earthquakes every day. Her teacher tells me that although at first she dawdled, she is getting faster at crawling under her desk. But her classroom is on the first floor of an old building that still bears cracks from the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.

I am relieved when I see people in wheelchairs among the evacuees on TV. They made it out alive, in spite of their disabilities. Meanwhile, I am reminded of that great law of nature – sometimes only the fittest survive. One woman who escaped the flood confessed that she couldn’t save her elderly parents. In order to live, she had to let them go.

Photo by rachelcreative on Flickr. Used under creative commons.

BEACON BROADSIDE Ideas, opinions, and personal essays from respected writers, thinkers, and activists. A project of Beacon Press, an independent publisher of progressive ideas since 1854.

A New Financial Access Frontier: Persons With Disabilities

Can a person with a disability living in a developing country become the valued client of a financial institution?  According to Harvard Law professor Michael Stein, 650 million people around the world, nearly 10 percent of humanity, have a disability, and over 80 percent of these people live in developing countries. Yet, in research studies, fewer than 1 percent of the clients of microfinance institutions, dedicated to serving the world’s financially excluded people, were found to be persons with disabilities. One of the last great human rights struggles is only now starting to penetrate the world of low-income finance.

But how best to make progress in disability inclusion?

In June, the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION, in conjunction with the Disability and Development team of the World Bank, brought disability activists together with leaders from microfinance in a roundtable entitled, “A New Financial Access Frontier: People with Disabilities” to begin a dialogue. Disability activists and microfinance professionals are two tightly knit communities with their own vocabularies and their own ways of seeing the world so it is not surprising that at times heated debate preceded agreement on clear objectives.

In 2006, the passage of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities gave the disabilities community a major boost. This Convention requires all ratifying governments to “promote, protect and ensure” the rights of persons with disabilities. 2010 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act, and implementers of that landmark legislation testified to the remarkable changes it has brought about. Unyielding commitment to the human and economic rights of persons with disabilities is the lifeblood of many people in the disability community. The activists carry this message to financial service providers: Financial service providers wake up and act! It’s a matter of human rights, and it’s the law (in 85 countries).

The microfinance professionals, for their part, were happy to acknowledge the justice of the cause, and admitted to being somewhat abashed at their own ignorance. But, they approach the topic with a certain “Show Me” wariness. Their dedication to reducing financial exclusion notwithstanding, they want to be convinced of a business case for inclusion of persons with disabilities that is realistic and sustainable. Moreover, the U.N. Convention, though perhaps an interesting sign of the times, is certainly not a mandate they feel direct pressure to fulfill.

Once the two sides got past their introductory positioning, they began a fruitful search for strategies that might work. Listening, it struck me that the biggest barriers are less practical than about attitudes. Yes, physical accessibility matters, but in the context of developing countries, accessible design in a bank branch means little if the road to the bank is unpaved and pot-holed. Technologies like mobile phone banking and voice-enabled ATMs could overcome physical barriers at a stroke. They generated much hopeful enthusiasm, even though they have yet to be used widely to reach low income or disabled clients.

But negative attitudes are the real tough nut to crack, for both prospective clients with disabilities and for microfinance providers. Many person with disabilities have experienced so much societal exclusion and marginalization during their lifetimes that they often lack the confidence to approach financial institutions or to even conceive of themselves as microentrepreneurs. Disabled persons organizations (DPOs) and other disability rights organizations work on overcoming such barriers, both societal and self imposed, and help prepare their clients to connect with mainstream institutions, among them financial.

On the provider side, staff are often the perpetrators of exclusion, simply because they have absorbed the culturally prevailing images of people with disabilities as not competent or unable to handle financial responsibilities. In some cases, laws still create roadblocks, for example, if blind people are prevented from signing contracts they cannot see. Cultural attitudes may be starting to shift, thanks to the Convention.

Both sides agreed that persons with disabilities do not need special financial products to succeed, even though they may need flexible accommodation to help them access mainstream products.

A number of microfinance specialists reminisced about specific clients with disabilities. They reported that these were solid clients: resourceful people who knew how to overcome challenges and who were happy to receive a chance from a bank. When they talked about these clients, they sounded a lot like the early advocates of microfinance two decades ago, countering the objections of mainstream banks to serving the poor. In those days, the microfinance activists insisted that the poor and excluded were capable of being responsible clients. One hundred and fifty million microfinance clients later, the bet on the poor has proved sound. Round-table participants are preparing now to make similar bets on people with disabilities.

Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion

The Huffington Post

Disability law: Hunger strike called off

After the Centre partially conceded their demands, a group of disabled people on Wednesday called off their hunger strike held to protest against their poor representation on a committee which is drafting a new law to protect their rights.  Javed Abidi, convenor of the Disabled Rights Group, said the strike had been called off after the Centre’s positive response.

A S Narayanan, secretary of the National Association of the Deaf, told The Indian Express through a translator that Gopal Reddy, personal secretary to Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik, had confirmed that six more people would be added to the committee, of whom three were disabled. This would bring the total number of disabled people on the committee to six.  Following pressure from various disabled groups, the Social Justice And Empowerment Ministry had formed a committee in April to draft a new legislation, reflecting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to replace the Disability Act, 1995. The first meeting of the committee will be held on Thursday.

Disability activists are looking for three main changes to the Act.

VINAY SITAPATI
Indian Express

Enabling the disabled

With sensitised education for the disabled high on Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal’s agenda, all eyes are on the 2011 Census which will provide crucial statistics on the number of disabled Indians and what disability they suffer from. But a raging dispute has broken out within the disability sector about the exact question in the Census questionnaire and Census Commissioner Dr C Chandramouli is being lobbied by different groups.  World over, asking the right question has proven the key to getting accurate disability figures. According to a 2009 World Bank Report, in countries which ask a simple yes/no question, disability statistics range from 0.5 per cent of the total population (Nigeria) to 3.8 per cent (Ethiopia).  In countries which list the types of conditions, the number is only slightly higher. But in countries which ask specific activity-related questions (for instance: do you have trouble walking/ remembering?), disability statistics range from 10 per cent (Poland) to 19.2 per cent (United States) of the country’s entire population. The more specific the question, the more likely it is to yield a higher percentage of disabled people.

The Indian Census asked a question on disability for the first time in 2001 (see box). Based on this question, the Census Commissioner estimated that 2.13 per cent of the population, or roughly 25 million Indians, were disabled.  But this  number has been criticised for being too low. Javed Abidi, a disability activist and the head of National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), says the low number is because the question in the 2011 Census merely listed the type of conditions, which world over have excluded many disabled people. He adds that the Census enumerators in 2001 were not sensitive. “In fact, they did not even identify me as disabled,” he  complains.

Mithu Alur, founder of Able Disable All People Together (ADAPT, formerly Spastic Society of India) says when she  spoke to Chandramouli, “he admitted that the 2001 data for the disabled was not robust, as they had very little time”.  But while there is agreement on the need for a better question in the 2011 census, agreeing on the details has run into rough weather. Two drafts have emerged amongst the competing NGOs, each accusing the other of trying to hog the limelight.  All are agreed that the new question on disability must be activity-based (like in the US and Poland), but there is a dispute about what the exact question will be.

The first draft is led by a group that includes Abidi. This draft was the result of a day-long roundtable here on March 31,
co-organised by Abidi, and attended by “representatives from 22 states and the Census Commissioner himself”, according to him.

The second draft has been formulated by ADAPT. Alur says these questions are based on a widely accepted, UN-approved standard, called the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (see box). These questions are slightly different from the March 31 model. Alur says her suggestions “are more explanatory and inclusive”.

Alur charges Abidi with not including her NGO in the March 31 deliberative process, and of hijacking the disability agenda. Abidi strongly denies this allegation. “I sent an email to Dr Alur inviting her to the meeting. She did not come, but emailed me the sample questions that she suggested,” says Abidi. “Her questions were raised before the forum, and rejected.” Alur denies this, saying it was a general email which did not “contain any details of the meeting”.  Abidi feels ADAPT’s sample questions are too “western” and unsuitable for Indian conditions. One of the questions the ADAPT wants to ask is “do you have difficulty in walking or climbing stairs”. “Half  of Vasant Kunj will say yes to that question,” says Abidi.

Both Alur and Abidi have a personal stake. Abidi is wheelchair-bound. Alur’s daughter Malini was diagnosed very early with cerebral palsy. Both groups had joined hands to demand amendments to the Right to Education Act in August 2009 to make it disabled friendly.

Regardless of which version finally makes it to the Census questionnaire, disability activists say versions are  improvements from the 2001 Census question as they are more descriptive, and expand the word “mental” in the 2001 question to involve specific forms of mental illness.  Chandramouli could not be contacted by phone. Alur says he has given disability activists till April-end to provide suggestions.

Vinay Sitapati
Indian Express New Delhi : Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010

Emotional homecoming: Autistic teen returns home from jail

Posted at: 04/08/2010 5:17 PM | Updated at: 04/08/2010 11:38 PM

By: Linzi Sheldon | WHEC.com

It was an emotional homecoming for a mentally disabled teenager Thursday night. He was released from jail after what his mother calls a horrible misunderstanding. “I was really happy to see her,” 19-year-old Jarred Crawford said. “Just, yay!” his mother Jamie Britt said. “He’s home! He’s home where he needs to be.” Crawford says he is just happy to be home with his family. His story triggered an outpouring of support from News 10 NBC viewers.  The teenager is autistic and his mother says he had  a meltdown at Victor High School on Wednesday  after there were four fire alarms. The school’s resource officer says Crawford punched and kicked him. Jarred was sent to jail by a Victor town judge after his mother said she couldn’t post bail. Britt says on Thursday, an employee from the public defender’s office spoke with the local judge who ordered Jarred to jail. She says that’s when the judge agreed that Jarred could be released.

News 10 NBC was there for that reunion at Ontario County jail. Britt said it was overwhelming to be able to hug her son  again and take him home. She says on Wednesday there were four fire alarms at Victor High School. She says some  autistic children are extremely sensitive to sound and other stimuli and when all that happened, he became physically aggressive with the school resource officer.  A judge sent Jarred to jail when Britt couldn’t post bail. Jarred called jail “scary” and says he is glad to be back home. “Happy,” he said. “Very, very happy. I’m at home, I have my dog upstairs, I have my Furbies, I have my mom, I have my sister…I can see them now. I don’t have to talk to them over the phone, I don’t have to see them through glass.”

After hearing that Britt couldn’t afford the bail money, some viewers called News 10 NBC offering to help her pay for it. Britt says she wants to thank them for their generous offers and kindness. She hopes this whole situation makes people more aware of some of the challenges facing autistic children. “Education is the key,” she said, “that’s the only thing that can happen differently. That’s education for the school systems as well as for the Sheriff’s office and the deputies and everybody that’s dealing with children and young adults that have these issues.” Jarred will not be attending school on Friday. He will be back on Monday when he is scheduled to have a meeting with school administrators. Jarred is still charged with disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer but Britt says she hopes to work with the public defender’s office and the judge to have those charges dropped.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

Manmohan promises disabled-friendly laws

FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS: Physically challenged persons, under the banner of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled and led by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, march on Parliament Street in New Delhi on Tuesday to press their demands. Photo: V. Sudhersan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government was in favour of amending the laws, if need be, to make them more disabled-friendly. He gave this assurance to a delegation of the differently-abled persons who met him in Parliament. The delegation was led by CPI (M) MP Brinda Karat.  “The Prime Minister was extremely sympathetic towards the demands of the disabled persons and said their demands were genuine,” Ms. Karat said. Dr. Singh assured the delegation of changing the laws to make them disabled-friendly, if necessary. The Prime Minister interacted with the members of the delegations and enquired about their problems. Talking to The Hindu, Ms. Karat said this was the first time that a delegation of differently-abled persons had visited Parliament House. “It was pointed out to the Parliament staff that there was only one gate (Gate no 9) in Parliament House for the physically disabled people and this was far away from the main entrance,” Ms. Karat said. The delegation also met the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik who told them that the government was finalising a new law for the disabled that would replace the existing law.

Earlier, a large number of people with different forms of disabilities marched to Parliament House to demand a better deal. Marching under the banner, ‘National Platform for the Rights of Disabled Persons,’ the people highlighted the plight of the economically and socially disadvantaged among the disabled, the poor, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. “The basic issue is that of the approach of the government and we must request you to consider our demands not as an act of charity but as fulfilment of entitlements and rights as equal citizens of India. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the persons with Disabilities which enjoins the government to ensure minimum rights and livelihood to disabled citizens,” the marchers said in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister. The demands include a comprehensive social security system for all persons with disabilities and their families including the Antyodaya cards, free health care for disabled persons, amendments to the Right to Education Act to make provision for disabled teachers and professional and identification of jobs for the disabled immediately with annual special recruitment drives each year.

Besides setting up a separate Ministry for disability affairs, the memorandum also sought issuance of a universally valid identity card and replacing the current Persons with Disabilities Act (1995) in consonance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention and harmonising other laws, the disabled persons also wanted proper enumeration of the persons with disabilities. The organisations that participated in the march included the Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Samaiilani, the Differently Abled Persons Welfare Federation of Thiruvananthapuram, the Karnataka Rajya Angavikalara Mattu Palakara Okkota, the Jharkhand Vikalanga Morcha, the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of all types of Disabled and Caregivers and the Vibhinna Prathiba Vanthula Jakkula Vedika of Andhra Pradesh.

The Hindu

Mobilising campaigners for disability and development

In May 2008, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) entered into force. This latest expression of the spirit embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was brought to life largely through years of campaigning by disabled people, their organisations and their allies. The UNCRPD guarantees people with disabilities the right to full participation in every aspect of society, calling on governments and civil society groups to make all of their programmes inclusive and accessible, including development projects.  Disability campaigners earned another victory in November 2009, when the UN General Assembly passed a resolution recognising the importance of including disability in all Millennium Development Goal (MDG) programmes. Before this, the MDGs had made no mention of disabilities.

This international recognition is crucial as people with disabilities are among the poorest and most marginalised in the world. While 10% of the world’s people are disabled, 20% of people living on less than a dollar a day have disabilities. In some countries, 90% of children with disabilities do not attend school and the unemployment rate for disabled people in some African nations can be over 80%. Without urgent attention to such issues, it will be impossible to meet the Millennium Development Goals.  It is now essential to build on the campaigning achievements behind the UNCRPD and the new MDG resolution. Every country must sign, ratify and implement the UNCRPD, which is still the subject of intense lobbying from disability and development stakeholders worldwide. Its rights-based agenda will also demand new approaches from campaigners and development practitioners alike to ensure that all programmes, including those designed to meet the MDGs, are based on inclusion and participation.

You are invited to explore how people with disabilities, disabled people’s organisations and other organisations can best campaign for the promises of the UNCRPD and MDGs to be realised. How can they most effectively mobilise disabled people to become local, national and international campaigners? What additional barriers to effective advocacy might disabled people face compared to non-disabled people? How can the larger development community ensure that it supports this advocacy work and changes its own policies to include disability?  Useful sites for your research include.

• www.lcdisability.org/international
• www.lcdisability.org/youngvoices
• www.lcdisability.org/uncrpd
• www.un.org/disabilities
• www.africandecade.org
• www.gpdd-online.org
• www.dpi.org
• www.unicef.org/protection/index_43931.html
• www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/disability/index.htm

guardian.co.uk

My ‘Raid de Himalaya’ experience: Deepa Malik

Deepa Malik is no stranger in the field of disability sports. A paraplegic with a strong resolve, she has won numerous accolades for her participation in various adventure sports. Whether it is swimming against the strong Yamuna current, or riding a special bike or even taking a shot at the Paralympics, she has done it all! Last October, she became the first paraplegic to participate in the toughest car rally, the ‘Raid-de-Himalaya’. In a tell-it-all with D.N.I.S., Malik shares her experience with disability and what it took to take the long and arduous Himalayan road.

Deepa Malik

I was not born with a disability. After 30 years of regular life, I became a wheelchair user due to three spinal surgeries for repeated tumors resulting into spinal cord damage and paraplegia. I could easily compare the two worlds, that of able bodied people and that of the physically challenged. I had the maturity to feel that a lot could be done in the field of disability in our country, starting from social outlook, acceptance of disabled, to their inclusion into the mainstream.  I noticed that wheelchair users mostly remained at home. I felt a need to generate motivation among them, so that they live a more wholesome life. This inspired me, and I set out on a mission called ‘ability beyond disability’ in my own little way. I had no clue what I had to do. But I felt that I had to contribute in some way or the other. Promoting outdoor sports I felt was the best possible way. And then to my horror, I found out, that I was the first paraplegic woman to join the world of sports in the Indian scenario!

Driving was another of my passion. So much so, that I often laugh that God probably misinterpreted my desire of ‘being on wheels’ and therefore made me sit on a wheelchair! I had always wanted to rally but somehow, I was made to believe that my this desire would never be fulfilled in the present life because of my disability. That only strengthened my resolve and I decided that I must take part in the world’s highest and toughest car rally ‘Raid-de-Himalaya’.

Everyone thought I had lost it. With a spine that had been cut open thrice and a bladder and bowel condition, how was I going to manage a long, strenuous, high altitude journey, in minus temperatures? The only person who stood by me was my husband. He let me follow my dream, and told me that I would have to get there on my own effort.

I started my homework. Being an army wife, my first try was with the army adventure cell. But I soon learnt that only serving army officers’ wives were allowed to participate. I kept struggling for three years until I landed at the flag off of the Desert Storm Rally in Delhi in February 2009.

I literally sat there trying to pick up contacts and telling various teams about my wish of doing a rally. Some thought I was crazy, some felt happy about my courage but it was the Pune Millennium Team that took me seriously and taught me all the skills of navigation. Through them, I learnt what were the legalities required to be on a rally and that was going to be a challenge.

I got in touch with Himalayan Motorsports Association (H.M.A.) and Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (F.M.S.C.I.) regarding my acceptance in the rally as a formal competitor. They needed a bit of time, as it was the first time a disabled person had approached them. But I was happy that they appreciated my love and enthusiasm for motor sports and felt positive. I just held my breath back till I saw a ray of hope when they agreed but I had to complete all the required paperwork.

The most difficult task was to get the personal accident insurance on heavy risk basis. Next up was to start looking for sponsorship and a professional to accompany me and form a team. I am extremely grateful to Maruti Suzuki and three time Raid-de-Himalaya winner, Rakesh Diwan for supporting my endeavour. My husband, too, joined me as an attendant.

After a long struggle for permissions, sponsorships, a rally vehicle, a professional team partner and procurement of snow clothing, I found myself in Shimla. Initially people thought I was there to cheer a friend but the moment I got my name stickers on the car and a competitor’s license and an identity card on my neck, everyone took me seriously. I was very happy to see the surprised look on everyone’s face! It was a moment of achievement, a sense of satisfaction to be able to turn a dream into a reality and to prove to the world that disability is a state of mind and not of the body.

We were flagged off on the morning of October 7. It was a harsh 8 day, 1700 k.m. drive in minus degree temperatures. Even on an altitude of 18000 feet with oxygen shortage, I was able to sustain it all. It was tiring but the adrenaline rush was so high that I never felt tired. During the rally, we were in third position in the adventure category until an unfortunate accident happened.

The car ahead of us braked suddenly and our car skidded and hit the snowy road. The radiator developed a crack and the rest of the journey was completed filling up water every few k.m.s. That made our journey even more challenging and longer in terms of time. But on the whole, the experience was amazing. And I was awarded the TRUE GRIT TROPHY for outstanding courage.

More than the trophy, what made me happy was the declaration by H.M.A. official, Manjeev Bhalla that henceforth disabled persons will also be eligible to compete in the rally. I was thrilled that my efforts opened doors for people with disabilities to the world of motor sports.

Sometimes we take it for granted that a particular thing or activity is not meant for disabled people. Society then reinforces that belief. It happened to me as well when I decided to go for motor biking. But once I was determined, I did not only get a special bike designed but also made it on record time.

I feel that it is important for one to think beyond the stereotype and follow your heart.

Suits over Web sites get mixed results

Posted: Monday, January 11, 2010 11:00 pm

Last year, the nonprofit law center Disability Rights Advocates settled a suit over access against Hotels.com and Expedia.com.  In the settlement, the online travel companies agreed to start providing information about hotels’ accessibility features, such as Braille signage and the width of doorways, on their Web sites.  In 2008, the group also successfully settled a lawsuit accusing Target of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act because its online store could not be navigated with a screen reader.

According to Karla Gilbride, fellowship attorney with the center, courts across the country have interpreted how the Americans With Disabilities Act should apply to the Internet differently.  She said some courts have ruled that the law guarantees access to all Web sites, while others have decided it should only apply to Web sites that are associated with a physical space, such as a store or bank.

Billings Gazzette

Special-education mediation is an alternative to litigation

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

STAFF WRITER

Disputes between parents of students with disabilities and school districts occur frequently. In the area of school law, special-education lawsuits are numerous. For both parties, the monetary and emotional costs of litigation are high and the benefit to students with disabilities dubious.

Unlike other civil litigation, the adversarial relationship between parents and school districts does not end with the court decision. Both parties remain cross, more so the losing party. The student must continue to attend school and bear the effects of a damaged parent-school relationship. This unfortunate situation is exacerbated by attorneys who pit parents against school districts to win a case. Attorneys are well aware of federal and state special-education law that encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution procedures. Instead, they rush to adversarial administrative hearings and the courts, which prolong resolution of the conflict. Obviously, it is in their financial interest not to mediate. Attorney fees are not awarded for time spent in mediation. It is not uncommon for an attorney to require a $5,000 retainer for legal services — fees that courts have held unreasonable — and not inform parents of their right to seek mediation.  Recent amendments to the federal special-education law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004) allow school districts to seek reimbursement of their legal costs when parent complaints are found to be frivolous, unreasonable and without foundation. Also, school districts can obtain rewards when parent suits cause unnecessary delay and needless increases in litigation costs. Under these provisions, costs are levied against the attorney, not the parent. Special-education law permits the parties to use alternatives to due process hearings and lawsuits to settle their disputes. Resolution sessions and mediation procedures are written in the statute. The law requires that school districts inform the aggrieved parents of their right to mediation. Mediation must be voluntary by both parties and cannot be used to deny a hearing. Mediation is conducted by a trained and impartial conciliator. Typically, the signed mediation agreement reflects a compromise by the parties that ensures that the best interests of the student are paramount. The mediation agreement is enforceable in a federal or state court.

Another provision goes further to resolve parent-school disputes when they first arise. Resolution sessions offer the parties the opportunity to resolve a dispute within 15 days after the parent request for a due process hearing. If resolved, a settlement agreement is produced and is enforceable in either a federal or state court. The Congressional intent of the 1975 passage of the Education of Handicapped Children Act (now IDEA) was to afford parents of students with disabilities a voice in deliberations about their child’s educational program. The due process protections were designed to foster a collaborative/cooperative relationship between parents and the school officials. An unintended consequence of the legalization of special education has been rampant litigation that has harmed the parent-school relationship. Since 1990, Congress has attempted to remedy this state of affairs by adding those alternative dispute resolution mechanisms discussed above.

The reader should not be left with the impression that legal representation for people with disabilities is not needed, only that it is needed in some cases and not others. Attorneys from Disability Rights New Jersey are to be lauded, for example, for their recent civil action in obtaining community-based housing for eligible people with mental disabilities now held in state institutions. Disputes in special education revolve around whether a student with a disability has an appropriate educational program and whether the school placement is least restrictive. Most of these disagreements are resolved by parents and school officials acting in good faith. Many more disputes could be defused and resolved by the use of alternative conflict resolution procedures to avoid costly hearings and litigation. The savings in terms of dollars and mental anguish are huge for both parents and schools — money and time that can be used to improve the student’s education and build trust between parents and school officials. The ethic of professional practice is not only to inform parents of their rights, but to counsel them about alternatives to filing a lawsuit.

Stanley J. Vitello, Ph.D., J.D., is a professor of special education at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University. A former Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Public Policy Fellow, he assisted in the 1990 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Dr. Vitello (svitello@aol.com) is founder of The Vitello Group, which provides special-education instructional and mediation services.

NJ.com

Community provides accessibility for everyone

At Waterfront Ridge in Munhall, developer Steve Chupinka’s goal was to build affordable and accessible houses. “As a real estate agent, I really saw a need for it,” said Mr. Chupinka, president of Bryler Development and K&S Real Estate. It was a need also recognized by United Cerebral Palsy / Community Living and Support Services, a nonprofit human service provider for people with disabilities in Allegheny and surrounding counties. They joined together to create a two-unit, one-level patio home that is handicapped-accessible and uses “smart home” technology. There will be an open house at 106 and 108 Waterfront Ridge Lane today from noon to 5 p.m. Later this month, four men with disabilities will move into the units. Twenty more units are to be built in the development. “This is a community where anyone can live,” Mr. Chupinka said.

The first two units have been specially designed to serve the needs of the men involved in the UCP/CLASS program, said Ron Ruppen, facilities coordinator for UCP Community Service Centre. Two of them are in wheelchairs and have cerebral palsy, and the other two have different levels of brain injury but are ambulatory. Smart technology includes monitors that detect water leaks and bathroom floors made of special material to prevent slipping. An intercom system links the two units, so in case of an emergency, phones or panic buttons are programmed to activate the intercom to call UCP staff members for help. Cameras will monitor the entrances so residents can see visitors on their television screens. All of the doorways are at least 36 inches wide, so wheelchairs can easily pass through. The entrance to the house does not have a step for better wheelchair movement, Mr. Ruppen said. The bathrooms are wide enough to allow for easy turning radius for a wheelchair, and the showers have roll-in access. “This home and the home next door are fully accessible, but they are residential in nature,” said Al Condeluci, CEO of UPC/CLASS. “They don’t look institutional.”

The single-floor living spaces include two bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, a large living room area, kitchen, dining area, laundry room and back porch overlooking the Monongahela River. UCP/CLASS designed its first smart home two years ago in North Versailles, Mr. Condeluci said. One of the key elements they were aiming for with the Munhall location is “visitability.” The sidewalks between the houses facilitate connections with the community, he said. The homes’ design also promotes the idea of aging in place, or creating a home that remains easy to manage and access as residents age. The four men who will live in the houses saw their newly finished homes last Thursday. The men, who are currently living at Alvern Gardens in Castle Shannon, gave input about furniture, paint colors and kitchen accessories, UCP/CLASS residential supervisor Beth Dotson said. UCP/CLASS owns the house and will provide staff support for the men, who will pay rent and utilities. The Waterfront Ridge properties will cost $135,000 to start and can run up to $200,000 depending on what technology and other amenities are included. For more information, call 724-263-6843 or go to www.brylerdevelopment.com/waterfrontridge. To get to Waterfront Ridge from Pittsburgh, take the Homestead Grays Bridge, left on Route 837, right on Whitaker Way and follow the signs.

Kaitlynn Riely can be reached at kriely@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10009/1026548-30.stm#ixzz0c9EQOUQr

Dr. Alan Brightman: Assistive Technology Pioneer, Advocate for People with Disabilities

by Kim Dority, Disaboom

Dr. Alan J. Brightman is known as many things: a pioneer in assistive technology who has provided thought leadership in this important area since the seventies; an insightful, pragmatic, and tireless advocate for people with disabilities; the author of numerous books; and the producer of both an award-winning TV series and a stage play.  One of his most important professional challenges came when he founded Apple Computer’s Worldwide Disability Solutions Group in the mid-’80s. Building on his previous work with special-needs children and other people with disabilities, at Apple Dr. Brightman was responsible for ensuring that the company’s engineers designed accessibility into each of the company’s product lines. He has served on the Board of Directors of Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation serving chronically ill children, as well as on Microsoft’s Accessibility Advisory Panel.

Time to rest on his laurels, right? Not a chance. Because today Alan Brightman is engaged in one of his most important roles: Senior Policy Director for Special Communities at Yahoo!, Inc.  Recently Disaboom had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Brightman about the work he’s doing with Yahoo!, and how the company “walks its talk” when it comes to disability and accessibility.   We first learned about Dr. Alan J. Brightman when we reviewed his outstanding book, DisabilityLand. We were struck by the thoughtfulness and honesty of the book, as well as its stunningly beautiful graphics. We’re happy to report that Dr. Brightman, Senior Policy Director for Special Communities at Yahoo!, Inc., graciously agreed to an interview, where we took up way too much of his time, but came away reminded of the Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

Disaboom:  When did your interest in assistive technology – and people with disabilities – begin?

Dr. Brightman: By the time I was in grad school [Ph.D., Harvard, Education], I knew where I was headed. I hadn’t quite planned it out in terms of direction, but two influences shaped my thinking.   First, as part of my program, I volunteered in state schools (institutions), and I couldn’t get out of my head that there were some people 20 minutes away from me who lived like that…it just seemed fundamentally wrong. Second, a lot of the topics in school had answers already, and this field [assistive technology and disability] had a bunch of questions with no answers, or no easy answers. So it always struck me as a cool challenge. Some of the questions I had were if all these folks in the institution go out into the community, how are we going to make that happen? Is that a good thing, is that not a good thing? Or the kid questions: who are those strange people that I’m not allowed to go near? I think my direction mostly showed itself as I started to wander around the world with this filter in my head. It became obvious how unaware people were about disability issues, and I thought that’s where I’m going to start, I’m going to start with awareness.

Disaboom: So how do we move beyond “political correctness” to authentic connection, or discussion?

Dr. Brightman: One thing that DisabilityLand shows is that if you’re worried about correctness, you’re never going to meet the person. If you’re worried about correctness, you’re worried more about yourself than the other person, you’re saying “I don’t want to make a mistake, this is awkward for me.” What we train people at Yahoo! about—just as we did at Apple—is this: “I can teach you about disability so you can get a perfect score on a test about disability, but I can’t make you comfortable with someone in a wheelchair or someone who’s deaf or someone who’s blind… that’s kind of up to your constitution and your willingness to take a risk and discover that gee, the wheelchair tipped over and the guy didn’t break.” Part of the problem is that so many of us have so little social practice interacting with disabled people that we’re only good at socializing the way we normally socialize. Then along comes someone who doesn’t look like the people we socialize with all the time, and you get a little tongue-tied, you feel a little awkward, not quite your regular, spontaneous self. However, as people with disabilities become more and more visible in the world—at work, at bowling alleys, in the mass media—this awkwardness, I hope, will decrease.

In fact, you know what’s interesting to me now? At Yahoo!, our accessibility team will often ask our co-workers why they think people with disabilities matter to Yahoo!  And almost everyone will say it’s because we’re charitable, we’re a good company, we have a nice heart, we’re loving… but, of course, the real reason people with disabilities matter to Yahoo! is that they’re potential customers. And they have money. So if it makes you feel good thinking that we’re all just nice guys doing a nice thing by paying some attention to people with disabilities, that’s fine. But, we tell them, remember that you’re working in a public company whose shareholders expect profitability. And if we build an online store at Yahoo! that some people can’t easily use—or can’t access at all—then we’ve suddenly gone into the sales prevention business. Not a smart way to do business.

Disaboom:  Do Yahoo! employees understand the size of the discretionary income at stake?
Dr. Brightman: That’s the other surprising thing to most salespeople as well as our web designers: how many discretionary dollars exist in the disability community, how large a market segment it is.

The other thing that I find interesting is it’s not just about people with disabilities. I don’t know what kind of surveys you may or may not do about who’s using or who comes to Disaboom, but I would be really surprised if there weren’t a lot of non-disabled, advocate, ally-type people who go there as well.

That’s certainly what my experience has been. In fact, there’s an old, unpublished University study that found that for every individual with a disability, there are 2.7 people around that person who care passionately about what happens to him or her. Could be a family member, could be a next-door neighbor, could be a rehab specialist, could be a peer. It doesn’t make any difference. If something good in the world is going on with regards to people with disabilities, those 2.7 will often be the first ones to get energetic about spreading the word. They make sure that lots of people know about it. Of course, the same holds true for things that aren’t so good. These same 2.7 people will spread that news around as well.

So if Disaboom or Yahoo! or any company wants to attract and engage this segment, it isn’t just the 60 million people in this country that they should be targeting. It’s also the 2.7.

Incidentally, the number 2.7 has probably changed since the study was originally conducted. But the exact number isn’t really important. What matters is that marketers, for example, understand this other aspect of the disabled community, the non-disabled individuals who will carry the marketing message, good or bad.

Disaboom: A huge universe of people are affected, and soon to get much larger as the “aging into disability” trend continues to grow. What about kids with disabilities, and their families?

Dr. Brightman: It angers me to see how parents of kids with disabilities are often forced to become super fighters—Olympian advocates—for their children.   When I was at Harvard, we ran a residential summer camp in New Hampshire for developmentally disabled kids. But we didn’t just accept the campers for our eight-week program. We also required the parents to participate in our fairly intensive training programs as well so that they would become better teachers for their sons and daughters. Our parent training experience, in fact, led to the publication of our book: Steps to Independence: Teaching Everyday Skills to Children with Special Needs, (Brookes Publishing Company, 2004). This book is now in its fourth edition and has so far been translated into eight languages.

The goal of the book, as I said, was all about training parents to be better teachers of their kids. So no matter what your goal is, if it’s to help Billy drink from a cup, or potty training, or whatever it might be, all we cared about was helping parents become good teachers. But then parents began reminding us “I can’t be a full-time teacher. I’m also a full-time spouse. And I have two other children. And I belong to several clubs…” We had to come to grips with the fact that we were training teachers, if you will, who didn’t have an ideal classroom situation. They had real life happening all around them. And unlike some of the neatness conveyed in the book, that real life stuff can get awfully messy.

That’s why each edition of the book changed over time. We of course kept all the guidance about teaching, but we added, for example, information about assistive technology and the Internet that wasn’t in the original version. We also added strategies that parents could use to become more effective advocates for their kids. Because that’s really what it comes down to, isn’t it?

Disaboom: Speaking of the training, a lot of your early work for Apple involved training teachers to use computers as teaching tools, especially for students with disabilities. What’s your feeling about the state of K-12 education today?

Dr. Brightman: I started Apple’s Worldwide Disability Solutions Group in 1985, that was way back, when our premiere product was the Apple IIe. Well, it turned out we had to do an enormous amount of in-service training because, as teachers lamented: 1) I have this strange new machine in my classroom that I’m not sure how to use, and 2) there’s also these strange new kind of kids in my classroom that got imposed on me, too, and I’m not sure what to do with them, either. So this technology and these kids with disabilities were imposed on the regular education teacher who had no training or preparation and in fact never voted for either to begin with. So… we did a lot of teacher training and in-service work so that mainstreaming both the computers and the students with disabilities would eventually work its way into the DNA.

I wish education had a more powerful, lightning-rod kind of spokesperson who could say “this has got to change, and here’s how we’re going to do it.” That’s the kind of inspiration that’s required, I think, if educational reform is ever going to be more than just words. But I have no idea who that person is. In fact, when I was at Apple, the company had never had a Vice President of Education. It had a K-12 group, it had a higher ed group, and it had my group, special education. And suddenly the people who led these three groups were asked to recommend names for a brand new position of VP of Education.

So I’m scratching my head trying to think of who it is that just kind of blows you away, that people would listen to. And in the end, the only name I could come up with was Big Bird. You know what I mean? Big Bird, I thought, could have really affected education policy nationwide. And he would have fit right in at Apple, too. Naturally, my VP recommendation wasn’t all that well received.

Disaboom:  Is tackling education reform too risky?

Dr. Brightman: With such an enormous emphasis on test scores, I think it is. That’s why when I tell teachers I think they should dream a little, because maybe that’s what kids need to learn – how to dream and think outside themselves, think creatively and all – they look at me strangely and say, “Don’t you know what a classroom is today? Don’t you know what my principal’s going to say if I tell her ‘Well we didn’t actually do math today, but we were doing a lot of really good dreaming?’”

Disaboom:  So some changes, but not nearly enough. What are you finding to be the most encouraging changes, and the most discouraging lack of change?

Dr. Brightman: I think the answer’s the same, because without a doubt the most encouraging things that I’ve seen are all on the legislative side. The legislation that has happened since my early Apple days until now is really exciting; when you read the laws it’s kind of thrilling that the country’s gotten more progressive, more accepting of diversity, and that’s all wonderful. However, the discouraging thing is, those of us who were around when the ADA got signed thought this is great, now people with disabilities are going to have jobs, things will be easier, they’ll be employed, sky’s the limit. Well, the sad fact is that when the ADA was signed, roughly two-thirds of employable people with disabilities were not employed, and today roughly two-thirds of employable people with disabilities are still not employed. So that’s really the big discouragement, particularly when so many people could be working at jobs from home. To me, that’s very disappointing.

Disaboom:  And it doesn’t appear that these statistics are improving for students with disabilities who graduate from college, which is especially discouraging.
Dr. Brightman: So many of these students go to college, then end up with no job opportunities.

With the ADA, it’s just like you go to see a really great movie, and you talk it up, and then your friend goes to that same movie expecting to be levitated off her chair, and then because she wasn’t, she thinks, oh, the movie wasn’t quite as good as Alan said it was. The expectations that arose around the time of the ADA signing were so great, that no one was willing to play the role of the Emperor’s New Clothes – nobody was willing to say, but the King is naked.

So, it’s a hard reality now, and I’m not sure how that’s going to get solved, because the other piece of this, being unemployed, is the whole health insurance dilemma. In other words, I could get you a job, but if I do, the public support that’s sustaining you now will go away, and the fact that you’re on your family’s health insurance policy is also going to go away, and you’re going to be less well-covered once you have a job.

So that puts you in quite a bind. You want to be a member of the workforce, you want to be a taxpayer, you want to play a part in building the world and society, but you know that’s going to cost you.

I get more and more impatient with waiting for change.

Disaboom: How do you think the Obama administration will impact change for people with disabilities?
Dr. Brightman: I have a huge amount of hope with the Obama administration. During the campaign, I was a member of Obama’s Disability Policy Committee, and just to hear the level of discussion, and smarts and sophistication in that group alone, really gave me hope. I thought, we’ve got some smart young people who know what they’re talking about who don’t want to accept the status quo.

How much of it you can do inside of a big bureaucracy like the federal government, that remains to be seen. Because it’s really funny – you can move huge mountains sometimes with the stroke of a pen, but I was at an access board hearing in Boston a couple of weeks ago, and the people who presented at the hearings were not worried about moving mountains.

They wanted to know, instead, why the brick pavement that seems to be such a big deal in Boston is even allowed, because when the brick rises up an eighth of an inch, then I’m at risk of falling down because I don’t have very good balance. Or, I need to get an MRI or a physical, but none of the hospital equipment or environment is accessible to me. So, suddenly you realize, okay on one hand, let’s move some mountains and change the world. On the other hand, there’s lots of little everyday annoyances, real inconveniences, that also need to be taken care of. How do you tackle it all?

[Note from Disaboom: as part of the community trying to make sense of that bad photograph, we appreciate not only Dr. Brightman’s advocacy, thought leadership, and dedication to improving the picture, but also his unwaveringly honest evangelism.]

Disaboom: Sounds like a combination of consciousness-raising and radicalizing the troops!

Dr. Brightman: Exactly. And what I like the most is that this way, they get it from day one. You are not a full-fledged Yahoo! employee until you’ve been through this, and part of the “this” is 15 minutes on who people with disabilities are, why they matter to Yahoo!, and what you, specifically, need to be doing about that.  So we still have lots of work to do, lots of problems to solve, all that kind of stuff, but boy, has that made a difference. In addition, we also do a lot of traveling around the country to do workshops, to do presentations, to do videos, just to keep it alive, to keep awareness of people with disabilities alive.  The third thing we do is continue to build our Accessibility Labs. We’re now developing several of these around the world—our most recent one is in Bangalore–which is great, because we can bring people in and have them experience what it’s like to be blind and try to use this website or to be paralyzed from the neck down and try to get this done. This has had a dramatic effect on our engineers, our designers, and even our executive staff.

Disaboom: This is pretty high-impact stuff, and impressive that Yahoo! has this level of commitment.

Dr. Brightman: Well, I think it’s impressive, but more importantly so do so many members of the disabled community around the world. And that’s the fourth category of my work which is best described as advocacy. It’s either advocacy or evangelism or one of those things, and in particular with HR… making sure that there’s an onboarding procedure for people with disabilities, making sure that when recruiters visit colleges and universities they recruit at the disabled students’ service center just like they would at any other part of the university.  And I think we’re getting there. But like most companies, there’s still more we want to do in that area as well.

Disaboom: So, as with other companies, by having more people with disabilities working within Yahoo!, it changes perceptions about people with disabilities…people think of Joe, who happens to use a wheelchair, as the engineer in the next office, rather than seeing him as someone different, someone with a disability.

Dr. Brightman: OR, they see that the differences are terrific. Do you know what I mean? We talk to people who say, “Oh, now I get it, they’re just like you and me.”

No, they’re not! There are huge differences, and some of those differences are fascinating. For example, one guy said to me once, “one of the nice things about being in a wheelchair is that when I go into a fine art museum, I can roll back, steadily, and I get a whole different perspective on this piece of art, while a person who’s walking has a herky-jerky motion and can’t have a smooth visual transition like I do.”

That may not be an earth-changer, but the fact is, I think we should notice the differences. The person who suddenly sits next to someone with a disability – the really big change happens in that person, because not only did he have  little or no direct experience with disabled others, but like most people, he’s probably  built up all these misconceptions and stereotypes that just can’t get broken in a week. That’s why working side-by-side every day is so important.

Just have someone go out and have a drink with somebody in a wheelchair, and they realize, “hey, I can do that!” I know, for example, that when we go out to places and introduce people with disabilities, I can just tell that when the people we’ve met with go home that night to their spouses, one of the things they’re going to talk about is “I shook hands with this guy, and he was blind, and I talked to him for about seven minutes, and he had a great sense of humor,” you know, because that will be the thing that was really different for that person that day. And the day after that, maybe it’ll be a little more ordinary.

I talked to one guy who told me the toughest thing about being disabled is that you’re never perceived as being just plain ordinary, and it’s a real luxury, a real luxury, to be able to just melt in with the crowd, not be noticed. Sometimes you just want to be invisible, and that’s hard to do if you in a wheelchair or have a cane or are using a service dog.

Disaboom: Because your disability has made an announcement about you based on everyone’s perceptions.

Dr. Brightman: Yep, ordinariness is not a bad thing to shoot for because you’ve got ordinary people doing ordinary tasks 95 percent of the day; that’s what is going on. So even if you’re living a wonderfully exciting life, most of it is kind of ordinary: you get up, you brush your teeth, you get dressed, and I just think that people with disabilities think “that’s not bad to aim for, just being regarded as a little less special, a little more ordinary.”

Yahoo!’s Commitment to Disability

Yahoo! clearly picked the right man for assistive technology smarts and disability advocacy. But it’s also a testament to Yahoo!’s business sense that they recognized the importance of people with disabilities as both consumers and potential employees.

[Note from Disaboom: as part of the community trying to make sense of that bad photograph, we appreciate not only Dr. Brightman’s advocacy, thought leadership, and dedication to improving the picture, but also his unwaveringly honest evangelism.]

Books by Dr. Alan Brightman
DisabilityLand, by Alan J. Brightman and Richard Ellenson. Select Books, 2008. 135p. ISBN 159079124X.

Connections: In the Land of Disability, Alan J. Brightman. Palo Alto Press, 2006. 136p. ISBN 0976651211.

Steps to Independence: Teaching Everyday Skills to Children with Special Needs, 4th ed., by Bruce L. Baker and Alan J. Brightman. Brooks, 2004. 359p. ISBN 1557666970.

Independence Day: Designing Computer Solutions with Individuals with Disability,  by Peter Green and Alan J. Brightman. Henry Holt, 1991. 135p. ISBN 0805017364.

Ordinary Moments: The Disabled Experience, Alan J. Brightman, ed. Human Policy Press, 1985. 160p. ISBN 0937540110.

Like Me, by Alan J. Brightman. [out of print] Little, Brown, 1976. 48 p., ISBN 0316108073.

Disaboom

Ramasamy will enjoy his drive again

Mohamed Imranullah S.

Denied approval for his modified vehicles, physically challenged lawyer moved court

— Photo: G. Moorthy

R.Ramasamy in his modified car.

MADURAI: R. Ramasamy (42), an MBA graduate and practising lawyer, who was paralysed below his waist about 17 years ago, will drive again, thanks to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.  Despite his condition, Mr. Ramasamy wanted to drive. He approached an automobile mechanic to modify his car as well as a two-wheeler. He wanted the clutch, brake and accelerator to be operated with hands. The mechanic obliged — he mounted the acceleration control on the gear shaft and placed the brake control, using a lever, below it. The clutch could be activated by pushing down the lever attached to the gear rod.  His two-wheeler did not have to undergo much alteration, but for attaching two extra wheels.  Even as the lawyer was looking forward to drive, Regional Transport Officials here refused to register the vehicles without the approval of the Automotive Research Association of India, Pune.  The ARAI informed him that approval could be given only to company manufactured vehicles.

The lawyer filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court Bench here. Accepting his arguments, Justice Prafulla Kumar Misra held that
government officials could not refuse to register vehicles altered by local mechanics to suit the needs of physically challenged or to issue driving licence for such vehicles.  “A manufacturer of a particular type of vehicle may not think of manufacturing ‘invalid carriage’ (vehicle for physically challenged) on account of economic factors such as lack of demand… Even assuming that invalid carriages were still being manufactured, I do not find any restriction in altering a normal vehicle and re-registering it,” he said.  The officials were directed to consider the lawyer’s applications for registration as well as driving licence afresh in the light of the observations made in the order and to take an appropriate decision within four weeks.

© Copyright 2000 – 2009 The Hindu

North Zone Consultation on New Disability Act in January

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: At the National Consultationorganised by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for DisabledPeople (N.C.P.E.D.P.) in October this year, a consensus was reached totake the demand for a new disability law forward and to the grassroots.Accordingly, it was decided that 4 Zonal Consultations would held. Thefirst of these, the North Zone Consultation, will be held in New Delhiin the later part of January. The North Zone Consultation will be heldin collaboration withAction for Ability Development and Inclusion (A.A.D.I.). It may bementioned that around 80 renowned disabled rights activists from acrossthe country attended the National Consultation on ‘The Rights ofPersons with Disabilities (Respect for Dignity, Effective Participationand Inclusive Opportunities) Act, 2010’. It was agreed that theDisability Act of 1995 was archaic and hence it was time to go in for anew comprehensive Act based on U.N.C.R.P.D. rather than going in forAmendments to the Disability Act of 1995, as suggested by the Ministryof Social Justice and Empowerment.

DNIS

Centre does a U-turn. Deaf persons cannot drive!

D.N.I.S. News Network, India:The Centre is consideringslamming the brakes on deaf persons getting behind the wheel by hintingon the preposterous idea that accident rate could go up if hearingimpaired persons were given licenses. Poor traffic etiquette and thecountry’s frightening accident rate seem to be the basis of this biasagainst them. This is a complete U-turn from the government’s initialresponse twomonths back. Then, it had given out affirmative vibes that it was“considering” allowing hearing impaired people in India to drive.

National Association of the Deaf(N.A.D.) had filed a publicinterest petition on this matter in the Delhi High Court. The case isstill underway.

DNIS

Access not legally binding, feels Urban Development Joint Secretary!

D.N.I.S. News Network: A.K. Mehta, Joint Secretary, Ministryof Urban Development feels that access is not legally binding, as theDisability Act of 1995 says that ensuring access depends on ‘economiccapacity’! This shocking statement was made by Mehta in a meeting withJaved Abidi, Honorary Director, National Centre for Promotion ofEmployment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) on December 17.

Mehta also disclosed that the Ministry is currently studying theaccess guidelines of various countries to come out with a comprehensiveguideline for India.

D.N.I.S. had earlier carried a story on how the Ministry hadcalled for applications for conducting access audits of public placesin Delhi without fixing any technical criteria. A meeting was alsoconvened by Mehta to ‘harmonise the three guidelines currently in placefor accessibility’. Neither AccessAbility nor N.C.P.E.D.P. were invitedto this meeting. N.C.P.E.D.P. then wrote to Mehta on October 12 on thisissue and submitted a copy of the proposed revisions to the AccessGuidelines in the National Building Code. The letter was not evenacknowledged until Abidi brought this to the notice of Jaipal Reddy,Minister of Urban Development in their meeting on December 4.

DNIS

From DNIS: “No to Amendments,” is the writing on the wall!

While the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment continues to take an ostrich like attitude and push for Amendments to the Disability Act 1995, disabled rights activists from across the country were in Delhi on October 29 and 30 at the National Consultation on ‘The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Respect for Dignity, Effective Participation and Inclusive Opportunities) Act, 2010’ organised by N.C.P.E.D.P., to take their demand for a fresh new law forward. Dorodi Sharma of D.N.I.S. takes a look at it.

Amendments to the Disability Act of 1995 have become like an urban legend in the disability sector. And why not? After all, from Maneka Gandhi to Meira Kumar to now Mukul Wasnik, amendments to the Act seem to be their favourite task. Although, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (M.S.J.E.) is all gung-ho about the amendments, for the disability sector it has come a tad too late – so late that it is time for a fresh new Act.

The Disability Act of 1995 came at a time when the rights based movement in India was at a nascent stage. Thus, it was like manna from heaven for a sector which till then had been neglected and segregated. However, 14 years since then, the paradigm has shifted considerably, more so with India ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (U.N.C.R.P.D.). Popular sentiment in the disability sector is that any amendments to the old Act will merely be cosmetic and mostly a patchwork.

Disabled Rights Group (D.R.G.) had formed a Core Group which took up the task of drafting a new law. A delegation met with Mukul Wasnik giving him a detailed representation on how the proposed amendments left out several provisions of U.N.C.R.P.D. There is an infectious excitement throughout the sector regarding a new law. So much so, that the D.R.G. Core Group even thought of a new name!

With a view to broadbase this discussion, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) organised a National Consultation on ‘The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Respect for Dignity, Effective Participation and Inclusive Opportunities) Act, 2010’ in New Delhi on October 29 and 30. The top notch and most respected disabled rights activists from across the country were there. The Consultation was divided into different sessions over 2 days. The topics for discussion included ‘New Law and not Amendments’, ‘Definition of Disability’, ‘Legal Capacity’, ‘Accountability’ and ‘One Law and not Four Laws’. All the leaders and activists present unanimously agreed that the Disability Act of 1995 was archaic and had served its time.

What was interesting to see was that the issue attracted instant support from most mainstream, national level political parties. Prakash Karat, General Secretary of C.P.I. (M) and L.K. Advani of B.J.P. personally wrote to N.C.P.E.D.P. and nominated senior members from their parties to attend the Consultation. “Let me assure you that C.P.I. (M) is committed to the rights of people with disabilities. It would not be content with mere expression of solidarity or support. We will very much be part of your movement,” said Muralidharan, member of C.P.I. (M) at the Consultation.

“The 1995 Act was inadequate even when it was enacted. Today, in a changed circumstance, amendments by themselves even if aimed at overhauling the Act would not suffice. Only a fresh law replacing the 1995 Act would satisfy,” he stated categorically.

Najma Heptullah, Member of the Rajya Sabha from B.J.P. promised support on behalf of her party. She is the Chairperson of the Subordinate Legislation Committee and promised that she would also look into the lack of implementation of the Disability Act of 1995. She gave an assurance at the Consultation that she would personally take this issue up with Mukul Wasnik. Incidentally, Heptullah was the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha when the Disability Act of 1995 was passed.

M.S.J.E. also seemed to be feeling the heat. Javed Abidi. Honorary Director, N.C.P.E.D.P. personally met Mukul Wasnik on October 22, who assured him that Ministry officials would be present at the Consultation. And sure enough Dr. Arbind Prasad, Joint Secretary and Nidhi Khare, Director, M.S.J.E. attended the Consultation on the first day. Dr. Prasad said that the Ministry was open to “suggestions”.

Although officials from M.S.J.E. seemed cagey about the whole issue, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office (P.M.O.) seemed to be more than willing to listen. Sanjay Mitra, Joint Secretary and Rajeev Topno, Deputy Secretary at P.M.O. answered queries from disabled activists ranging from the non – implementation of the XIth Five Year Plan to the question of a new law. Mitra said that disability was an issue close to the Prime Minister’s heart. He advised the sector to be resilient in their demand.

The discussions on both the days saw some exciting views come up. While the definition of disability was most debated, it was finally settled that the current definition envisaged in the draft Disability Act 2010 would be circulated and debated upon at a larger level to reach a consensus. Legal capacity and accountability were also discussed at length. Implementation of the law in general and accountability on part of both, government and the private sector in particular were a major concern at the Consultation.

“It is unfortunate that in this country a person can be penalized for cutting down a tree or for jumping a traffic light but there are no punitive measures to ensure that the rights of disabled people are judiciously implemented and that they are not exploited and abused,” said Abidi.

Praveen Kumar and Victor Cordeiro spoke at length about the need to take the grassroots level disabled population into consideration and ensure that the law is implemented properly. Another topic which saw a much heated argument was the issue of having one consolidated law rather than four different laws on disability. The leadership seemed to be clearly divided on the issue. Even though the merits of having an umbrella law were articulately placed by the speakers, the jury on this one is still out.

It became very clear by the end of the Consultation that there can be no two ways on the sector’s stand on amendments. However much the Ministry tries to play with semantics, the writing on the wall is loud and clear: “No to Amendments and Yes to New Law.” The leadership who attended the Consultation vouched to carry this cry to the length and breadth of India. N.C.P.E.D.P. is planning to follow this National Consultation with four Zonal Consultations, sometime around January next year. In the meantime, the drafting process of the Disability Act 2010 by the D.R.G. Core Group in New Delhi is expected to be over by December. This draft would be widely circulated and discussed in the sector and the final draft would then be submitted to the government.

The Indian disability sector has always been accused of being reactive. But this time around, they have decided to take control of things and play a strongly proactive role. If the Ministry officials have a quarter of pragmatism and intelligence they credit themselves with, they would surely see a golden opportunity to set an example by joining hands with the disability movement, rather than fight with them or mock at them. An example of Government – N.G.O. ‘partnership’. An example that probably will take the meaning of democracy to a new and higher level.

From DNIS