JFActivist

Schedule for Friday's Presidential Candidate Forum & Webcast

AAPD has just received the following schedule for Friday's "National Forum on Equality, Opportunity, and Access," which we hope will help those attending and joining via webcast better plan their participation:

PROGRAM

8:30 a.m.  REGISTRATION

9:00 a.m.  OPENING CEREMONIES
                   Presentation of Colors
                  National Anthem
                Welcome -   Clyde Terry, JD
                        CEO, Granite State Independent Living

                Grace Sullivan, Executive Director
                Manchester Community Television
 
9:25 a.m.  OPENING REMARKS
          Andrew Imparato, President & CEO
          American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)

9:35 a.m.  MODERATOR - Ted Kennedy, Jr. -  AAPD Board Secretary

9:45 a.m.  NH State Senator Lou D’Allesandro

9:55 a.m.  CANDIDATE: Senator Hillary Clinton (D, NY)

10:30 a.m.  ENTERTAINMENT:  Keith Jones

10:45 am.  BREAK

11:00 a.m.  CANDIDATE: Senator Joe Biden (D, DE)

11:30 a.m.  CANDIDATE: Senator Chris Dodd (D, CT)

12:00 Noon  ENTERTAINMENT:  Keith Jones

12:30 p.m.  LUNCH

1:30 p.m.  CANDIDATE: Governor Bill Richardson (D, NM)

2:00 p.m.  CANDIDATE:  Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D, OH)

2:30 p.m.  CANDIDATE:  Former Congressman David Bonior,   
                        Campaign Manager for Senator John Edwards (D, SC)
 
3:00 p.m.  CANDIDATE: Senator Mike Gravel (D, AK)

3:15 p.m.  BREAK

3:30 p.m.  CANDIDATE: Senator John McCain (R, AZ)

4:00 p.m.  CANDIDATE: Invited — Governor Rudy Giuliani (R, NY)

4:15 p.m.  Retiring of the Colors

4:25 p.m.  Wrap Up

Disability Community Too Big to Be a Niche Market

From the New York Times (October 30):

Web Marketing to a Segment Too Big to Be a Niche

By Andrew Adam Newman

ALTHOUGH 50 million people in the United States have some form of physical or mental disability, they spend money just as easily as others. But there are few efficient ways for advertisers to reach them, and that’s what a new Web site, Disaboom.com, hopes to change.

Disaboom is the brainchild of J. Glen House, who graduated from medical school after becoming a quadriplegic as a result of a skiing accident at 20. The site combines the social-networking features of Web sites like Facebook with information of interest to its constituency: medical news, career advice, dating resources and travel tips...

...Read the rest of the article.

Employers Face Caregiver-Related Suits

From USA Today (October 24):

More employers face caregiver-related suits
By Stephanie Armour

As the number of employees with elder and child care demands grows, more workers are filing lawsuits claiming they've been discriminated against on the job because of their family caregiving obligations.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which recently issued its first guidance for employers about the issue, reports an "upsurge" in cases - with many resulting in awards to plaintiffs. The guidance provides examples of how bias can occur so that employers are aware of the risk.

The type of discrimination is growing so fast, it's been dubbed "family responsibilities discrimination." The Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, which tracks these lawsuits, says such cases have risen by 400% in the last decade...

...Read the rest of the article. 

LA Times Editorial Argues Hate Crimes Against Disabled "Hard to Imagine"

An editorial in today's Los Angeles Times argues that by including the disabled in the Matthew Shepard hate-crimes bill, the authors went from "sensible to extreme."

From "Narrow the hate crimes act" in today's Los Angeles Times:

"Obviously, acts of violence or intimidation should be prosecuted aggressively regardless of the motive, and no doubt some are motivated by hatred of men or women or even (though this is hard to imagine) of disabled people. But such crimes are rare. According to the FBI, less than 1% of hate crimes in 2005 reflected a bias against the disabled. The FBI doesn't keep count of gender-bias crimes, but California does. In 2006, 'hate crime events' involving gender and disability combined accounted for only 0.8% of incidents, compared to 18.8% of incidents motivated by the victim's sexual orientation."

...Read the rest of the editorial.

UPDATE (11/1): The following letter to the editor ran today in the L.A. Times:

November 1, 2007

Disabled deserve inclusion

Re "Too big a tent," editorial, Oct. 29

I was surprised and dismayed to read an editorial urging Congress to narrow the hate-crimes act to not include people with disabilities.

Greater inclusion of people with disabilities in American society has not been a painless process. To say there is no problem is to relegate people with disabilities to a second-class status in which bias-motivated crimes on the basis of disability are somehow more tolerable than those committed because of a person's race, ethnicity, national origin or religion.

Thirty-one states and the

District of Columbia

include people with disabilities under their hate-crimes statutes, but this is not enough. The federal government must send the message that hate crimes committed because of disability are unacceptable and give meaning and substance to this message through the act's provision of crucial resources to local law enforcement.

Curt Decker
Executive Director
National Disability Rights Network
Washington, DC

Senator McCain Confirms Participation in Disability Forum

This afternoon, AAPD learned that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (pictured right) has agreed to participate in the "National Forum on Equality, Opportunity, and Access," a presidential candidate forum to take place this Friday in Manchester, New Hampshire. Although the Senator is unable to join in person, he will be calling in via phone to address the audience of New Hampshire voters and advocates and to answer questions.

Additional confirmations, information about the day's schedule, and details about the webcast are expected out and will be shared over JFA email and on the blog tomorrow.

Whither Pay Television?

Staff Column

The TechnoBeat

by Jenifer Simpson (pictured left)

Many of us already know television is changing and the government has set February 17, 2009 as the date when most TV stations will no longer broadcast in analog and will have switched to digital signal transmission. There’s a lot of hoopla about HD TVs and whether or not consumers have to do anything or whether we understand what even is meant by the digital television. Even pay TV subscribers (cable and satellite) are wondering what’s going on and what they have do. Confusion reigns, in short.

And for persons with disabilities, even before the 2009 cutoff, we’re seeing lost, garbled, missing, messed up and otherwise poor quality closed captioning as a result of  “the digital transition” and technical pass through problems. And no one is telling us whether the voluntarily provided video description, found in many public TV station programs, and relied on by persons with vision disabilities, will still be passed through in 2009. The disability coalition testified to Congress recently on this. With over 400 days left to the transition final date, no one can say the industry hasn’t been warned beforehand that consumers with disabilities might get left behind.

But here’s my main thought: Does anyone think electronics retailers are going to point out that come February 18, 2009, on your ancient ole analog TV set –  the one with “rabbit ears” -- that you will be able to pull out of the air FOR FREE four more channels per TV station in your area. 

And you will get a better picture than the ole analog TV previously showed. So, for a one time cost of a $60 digital-to-analog converter box (only $20 with the government coupon available January 2008) and maybe also springing for a $60 really good antenna, you’ll get a lot more TV channels. Is it goodbye cable, goodbye satellite, goodbye fat pay TV bills?

In most metropolitan areas there are at least four TV stations that can be pulled out of the air. Each of them will have 4 more channels. So there's going to be 16 channels FOR FREE. Although I expect it will take a while for them each to get programming on these four new channels -- and I’m fearing re-runs and no end of talking heads – but maybe I will dump my pay TV service...and put $600+ more away into retirement each year ….or take a trip…..or get new duds….or a new refrigerator…hmm?

Comments?
 
Jenifer Simpson is the Senior Director, Telecommunications & Technology Policy Initiative, at the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD), in Washington, DC.

"Equal Voting Access for Disabled Long Overdue"

Disability advocate Susan Cohen of the New York State Independent Living Council recently wrote an opinions column for the Times Union (Albany, NY) on the persistent barriers to voting that people with disabilities continue to face. Focusing in particular on the experience of advocates in New York, whose state ranked last in implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Ms. Cohen goes on to report on a recent victory in finally having a meeting between the disability community and the New York Board of Elections.

Ms. Cohen writes:

"People with disabilities want, and in many cases are expected, to be productive members of society. That includes owning or renting property, working, paying taxes and going to the polls to exercise their voting rights.

"Yet these same successful, tax-paying New Yorkers still cannot vote independently and privately. Those who need assistance with current voting machines must have two people -- one from each major political party -- go into the voting booth with them. Can you imagine having a cozy party of three in the booth while you are voting?

"Some individuals cannot get into their polling place because they can't grasp the door handles, the ramp is badly constructed or some other barrier blocks accessibility. Some can't get accessible transportation to the polls, and some find their poll workers uninformed and rude when they try to vote. In 2006 and the 2007 primary, many people with disabilities had to travel up to 50 miles to find an accessible voting machine."

...

Read the rest of her column.

Hillary Clinton Agrees to Attend Disability Forum!!

Just moments ago, AAPD learned that Senator Hillary Clinton (pictured left) has agreed to participate in the "National Forum on Equality, Opportunity, and Access," a presidential candidate forum on disability policy to be held a week from Friday (on November 2) in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In addition to Senator Clinton's participation, Senators Biden and Dodd and Congressman Kucinich have also confirmed their participation.

Read more about the forum.

Learn how you can view the forum via webcast.

Youth-Friendly Version of UN Convention Seeking Youth Input

From UNICEF:

UNICEF is calling all young people to contribute their ideas to the child-friendly text of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention is an agreement between countries to make sure that children and adults with disabilities are treated fairly and in the same ways as same as other people. We want you and other young people to know about it.

This online discussion gives you the opportunity to comment on the child-friendly text. Your contribution will help to put the Convention into the hands of children and young people. This way they will know what governments have promised to do to make sure that every child with disability has what it needs to grow, play, participate and go to school, and to reach its full potential as others.

Child friendly text of the Convention [Word] [PDF]

Instructions:

• Online: Read the Child friendly text of the Convention, fill in the online questionnaire below and click on submit.
• Focus group:  Print out the questions, talk to young people and return the answers to voy@unicef.org, with "Child Friendly Convention" in the subject line. Use the Facilitator's Guide for help with conducting a focus group.

Deadline:

• Please submit your answers by November 9, 2007

"The Eugenics Temptation"

Hooking off of Nobel Prize-Winner James Watson's recent assertion that Africans are genetically inferior, today, op-ed columnist Michael Gerson of The Washington Post highlights the shocking and offensive comments of Watson over the years pertaining to genetic deselection of ugly women, gay offspring, and those with Down syndrome (saying of any parent who chose to carry a baby with Down syndrome to term: "You would have to be crazy to say you wanted one, because that child has no future.")

Gerson goes on to explore a tension he perceives between scientific views and liberalism and the accompanying temptation of eugenics.

In "The Eugenics Temptation," Gerson writes:

"The left in America positions itself as both the defender of egalitarianism and of unrestricted science. In the last presidential election, Sen. John Kerry pledged to "tear down every wall" that inhibited medical research. But what happens when certain scientific views lead to an erosion of the ideal of equality?"

Read the entire opinion column.