JFActivist

PWDs in Japan, What is Happening and How You Can Help

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From the Relief Headquarters for Persons with Disabilities of Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake:

Dear Friends,

To support persons with disabilities affected by the Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake on 11 March, DPI-Japan, JIL, Yumekaze Foundation and other Disability Organizations established "Relief Headquarters for Persons with Disabilities of Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake".

Today they open their site in English.  Please circulate among your network!
http://dpi.cocolog-nifty.com/en

Currently, this blog is providing updates from the "Relief Headquarters for Persons with Disabilities of Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake".  This HQ is organized by persons with disabilities to support persons with disabilities affected by the great earthquake.

It will be updated continuously with fresh information thanks to the support of Taisuke of DPI Asia-Pacific office.

Recent Posts Include:

Mass media pays less attention to PWDs in disaster (21 March)

National Welfare Center becomes Shelter for PWDs (19 March)

and Iwaki IL Center evacuates to Tokyo (19 March)

For donation, please visit the following site.
http://dpi.cocolog-nifty.com/en/2011/03/we-need-your-su.html

Dear friends,

On behalf of my colleagues, I sincerely appreciate messages of concern and sympathy from all over the world.

On March 11, massive earthquake hit east-northern part of Japan.  The earthquake recorded unhistorical scale - Magnitude 9.0 - and caused tens of thousands of causalities.  Hundreds of persons with disabilities are highly suffered from this disaster. 

DPOs in Japan immediately set up an emergent disaster relief headquarters at Japan Council on Independent Living Centers (JIL) and appointed me as director.  The headquarters started operation on March 15 in collaborations with DPI-Japan and various groups of persons with disabilities of all over Japan.

In disaster plagued areas, serious shortage of fuel and electricity is a big problem.  Personal assistants cannot reach to users' home.  Respirator users have difficulty in obtaining electric power. Even if they have generators, it is difficult to use portable generator due to lack of fuel.  Shortage of food is also serious...

>>> To Download A Petition Asking the Japanese Government for Appropriate Emergency Relief Supports

Your support is highly, highly appreciated.

Yukiko Nakanishi and Shoji Nakanishi, Director
Relief Headquarters for Persons with Disabilities of Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake

From the TakeAway (3.21.11):

Japan Relief: Helping the Most Vulnerable
John Hockenberry's story interviewing Shoji and Yukiko Nakanishi

The tsunami came too quickly. Japan's coastal towns had only a 30-minute warning, which was barely enough time to escape the wave, and for many disabled citizens, not enough time at all. The disabled are among the most vulnerable victims of the recent destruction in Japan. Yukiko and Shoji Nakanishi are members of a Japanese relief organization that is working tirelessly to provide shelter and evacuation support to northern Japan's disabled populations.

>>> To Listen to the (Uncaptioned/Untranscribed) Interview

From the Beacon Broadside (3.17.11):

Postcard from Japan: Disability and Disaster
by Suzanne Kamata

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...

>>> To Read Kamata's Full Account

HIV/AIDS and Disabilities: Making the Connection

From the State Department (12.13.10):

HIV/AIDS and Disabilities: Making the Connection

By Louise Fenner

Imagine going to a clinic to be tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, if you are deaf and cannot read or use formal sign language. The doctor gives a “thumbs-up” sign. Does it mean “yes, you have HIV” or “yes, you are OK”?

This happened in Mozambique, and the patient went home not knowing his HIV status, said Rosangela Berman Bieler, a Brazilian journalist who is among a growing number of health activists trying to give persons with disabilities better access to HIV/AIDS services. Her group, the Inter-American Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development (IIDI), works with governments in Latin America, the Caribbean and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Berman Bieler spoke December 3 at a conference chaired by Judith Heumann, the State Department’s adviser on disability rights...

>>> To Read the Full Article

First Month Briefing on Disability Issues Held On International Day of PWD

From AAPD (12.3.10):

U.S. Celebrates International Day of Disabled Persons: White House Disability Briefing

On December 3, 2010 – when countries across the globe are celebrating the International Day of Disabled Persons -- AAPD participated in the first of what is to be a series of monthly informal, non-press, briefings from the White House on disability issues and topics. According to Kareem Dale,  Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy at the White House, and the host of the calls, their purpose is “to introduce to listeners the people who work on disability issues in the federal government as they push forward the President’s agenda for people with disabilities.” Note that live on-line transcription of the calls is provided.

On the teleconference, Kareem Dale first clarified his role at the White House is to help the President coordinate disability policy across the government through his position both in the Office of Public Engagement and through the office he works in, the Domestic Policy Council, headed by Melanie Barnes. Kareem said that he expects to hold this teleconference each month, during the first week of every month.

Kareem invited everyone to sign up to get notices for these calls with an email sent to [email protected] and in the email provide your name, the name of your organization, your title, your email address and phone number and then you will  be added to distribution list.  The format of the calls will be one or more speakers from the federal agencies and a question-and-answer section.

The December 3 teleconference included two summary presentations by Alexa Posny, the Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, referred to as OSERS, and Judy Heumann, at the U.S. Department of State. Both spoke extensively of their roles and about their agencies, shedding some light on how disability policy is integrated within the overall federal executive branch.

Secretary Alexa Posny summarized what OSERS does as “focusing on people with disabilities to be held to the same high standards as everyone else in regard to the educational policy and school management issues.” She stated that “OSERS purpose is to help state and local education agencies, from birth to age 21, and to support employment and rehabilitation efforts.”  She went over the history of special education noting that before 1975 access to public school was denied for most children with disabilities. She stated that only 20% of children with disabilities received a public school education then and that the IDEA law has changed all this and ensured due process protections. Alexa Posny also noted that she herself has been in special education for 35 years, both as a teacher and administrator.

She summarized the success since 1975 as follows: that the U.S. now services 6.6 million children and young adults, and 150,000 infants a year. She added that now 60% of special education children are now in general education classrooms.  School graduation rates – where students with disabilities receive regular diplomas -- has increased 45% since 1995, with an associated decrease in dropout rates for students with disabilities. She also noted that enrollment into college has doubled for students with disabilities and more students have jobs than ever before. She said the recent IDEA event on November 29 celebrated these achievements. See more on this celebration on OSERS website at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/idea35/index.html

Judy Heumann then spoke of her role as the Special Advisor on International
Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, a new position created by the President in 2009, when he signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (“UNCRPD”, at  http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150   ). She stated that “the UNCRPD is a very important treaty that has now been ratified by more than 93 countries around the world and signed by 146 countries,” and that “the U.S. is a signatory to this Convention.” She stated that her purpose at the State Department “is to drive home the message that disabled people’s issues need to be part of every aspect of the agency’s work, such as within the international development area.” She mentioned three areas, such as in the U.S. AID program which has a policy on disability, and “to elevate the inclusion of disability into Foreign Service agenda.” Also, part of her job is to work on the ratification package for the UNCRPD, which is the next procedural step after signature. This involves the agencies across the federal government comparing U.S. law to what’s in the UNCRPD. This will result in a major review document or “package” that will then be widely circulated to various entities and then back to the White House for further action.

Advisor Heumann noted that the UNCRPD is very important as it raises up the U.S. community at the international level.  While the ADA is seen by many around the world and copied by other countries, many of whom have adopted similar types of legislation, the UNCRPD can facilitate more meaningful adoption of the issues of people with disabilities in many countries. She said she was just back from a trip to Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria and Qatar where she had met with officials there to work collaboratively on UNCRPD topics.  She said that the U.S. signing and ratification of the Convention had raised the topic of the education of children with disabilities to a higher level for such countries.

She noted that many if not most children with disabilities in developing countries are not attending school, or where attending, are in substandard or separate schools. Heumann also noted the importance of employment of people with disabilities as a critical issue raised by the UNCRPD and how discussions focus often on how to keep or return adults who become disabled in jobs.  She also mentioned the connection between education and moving young people with disabilities into employment.

Heuman mentioned a December 3 conference being held at the State Department, “Keeping the Promise—Making Disability Rights Real,” on the anniversary of the International Day of Disability, which was started in 1991.  The conference focuses on three issues with panels looking at the UNCRPD, at Violence against Disabled Girls and Women, and HIV-AIDS and disability.  Heumann noted that “even though in the U.S. we have great laws, we are still working on implementation.” She stated, for instance, that “there is no meaningful discussion about problems of sexual abuse of people with disabilities [in the U.S.].”

Heumann also talked about the President’s commitment to bring more people with disabilities into the workforce, noting that the State department has a prominent program bringing interns into the organization, all year round, and that the agency is recruiting and hiring more people with disabilities. See State department website at http://careers.state.gov/students/programs.html

The Teleconference Question and Answer period covered topics such as state independent living center advocacy, availability of attendants at gasoline pumps for drivers with disabilities, housing vouchers and further discussion on the UNCRPD.

AAPD encourages disability advocates to sign up for the notifications of these monthly phone calls as a way to know better who the federal appointees are, their roles and what their agencies do. It’s also a way to directly ask questions and see what is the federal government focus.  To sign up, send email to [email protected] and in the email provide your name, the name of your organization, your title, your email address and phone number and then you will be added to distribution list.

Story by Jenifer Simpson, Senior Director of Government Affairs, AAPD.

AAPD Government Affairs Director Speaks at G20 Conference in Seoul, Korea

AAPD Government Affairs Director Speaks at G20 Technology Conference, Seoul, Korea

Caption: Jenifer Simpson (AAPD) and Professor Sang-Mook Lee (Seoul National University

On November 8, 2010, Jenifer Simpson, AAPD’s Government Affairs Director, was invited by Professor Sang-Mook Lee of Seoul National University, to give a talk at the G20 International Symposium on “Convergence Technology & Improving the Quality of Life” in Seoul, Korea.  Held at the Korean Science & Technology Institute, Jenifer focused on how the new 21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act (P.L. 111-260) is an example of civil rights based public policy development that is needed when technologies, such as television and the Internet, converge.  She also focused on how the various organizations that formed the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) -- the national disability advocacy groups like AAPD, ACB, AFB, CSD and NAD -- worked together over five years to reach the goal of amending the Communications Act to modernize the existing disability provisions in light of new Internet connections. Attended by several hundred students and faculty members, the event also included presentations by others on nanotechnology and biomechanics as areas where technology convergence is occurring and that could change the quality of life for everyone, including people with disabilities.

A similar talk by Jenifer Simpson with students at the Seoul National University on November 10 stressed the critical elements needed to ensure empowerment of people with disabilities in influencing technology policy. These included having a clear agenda and the ability to work in coalition across diverse disabilities, knowledge of the public policy making process, a willingness to work with other stakeholders, such as constructive dialogue with representatives from varying technology sectors, e.g., wireless, television, broadband, wire line, and Internet, and persistence.

Background: South Korea, with a population of about 49 million, is a little larger than the state of Indiana, and, according to the Korean National Assembly, there are more than 2.15 million people (4.4 percent of the population) with disabilities. South Korea encourages the employment of people with disabilities, such as via the “Social Pact for Job Creation” as well as the “Employment Promotion and Vocational Rehabilitation for the Disabled Act.” The government has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

 

More information on the G20 Technology Convergence symposium at http://tiny.cc/3fm4p

More on Professor Sang-Mook Lee at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/profile-lee.html

More on Seoul National University at http://www.useoul.edu/

 

http://tiny.cc/3fm4p  is the tiny for the following URL http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ROlMJP9qzgUJ:aict.snu.ac.kr/isct2010/G20_international_symposium_2010.pdf+g20+international+symposium+on+convergence+technologies&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

 

USICD Seeks Input on Global Disability Rights Library

From the United States International Council on Disability (10.15.10):

USICD Announces Open Calls to Discuss Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL)

On Wednesday October 20 at 9:00am EST and Thursday October 21 at 4:00pm EST, USICD will be hosting a pair of teleconference calls for the Disability Community introducing an opportunity to get involved in the dissemination of information about disability rights around the world.  The calls will both cover the same content but are timed differently to accommodate time zone differences.

You know that the disability rights movement is made stronger when disability rights leaders, policy makers, and allies have access to the knowledge they need to learn how to transform their society.  But too many advocates in developing countries are excluded from the information age.  In some countries, less than 5 percent of the population has Internet access.

The Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) project is working to close the information gap for people with disabilities and their supporters who cannot access the Internet.

These calls are the first of a number of opportunities for the community to engage with this project.  We anticipate offering more calls in the coming weeks, including a Skype call targeted to our international colleagues.

>>>Read more about the October 20th and 21st Here. 

>>>>Click Here to learn more about the GDRL

You're Invited - Teleconference on the Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of PWD

From USICD (8.31.10):

*** Correction ***

Regrettably, when we scheduled the advocates teleconference to discuss movement on the CRPD for Thursday Sept. 9th, we overlooked that Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish calendar and Eid ul-Fitr in the Islamic calendar falls on that date.  To respect our constituents' religious observances and afford greater opportunity for participation, we are rescheduling the advocates teleconference for the following Thursday Sept. 16th.  We hope you will be able to join us on this new date. 

Revised Date and Time:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010

2:00 p.m. Eastern Time 

Call in info remains the same. See Below.

From USICD (8.24.10):

 Next CRPD Advocates Teleconference Call Sept. 9, 2010

by David Morrissey, Executive Director

Please join us for the next Advocates Teleconference to discuss movement toward U.S. ratification of the CRPD and related issues.
 
[Corrected See Above]
 
Topics for discussion include:

• ADA 20th Anniversary Wrap Up
• Political Shifts and Progress
• Sign-On Letters to Senators Kerry and Lugar 
• Conference of States Parties 2010: Highlights

The teleconference call-in information is below for your reference.  We look forward to your participation!
 
Teleconference Line: (218) 339-3600  (Note: We have opened a Free-Conference-Call.com line for these calls.  Participants are responsible for their own long distance charges.)
 
Access Code: 543553#
 
CART Real-time Transcription: http://www.streamtext.net/text.aspx?event=USICD  (Simply click this link at the start of the conference to view a text transcription of the discussion on your computer.  Please do not submit questions or comments to the CART operator. )
 
Submitting Comments: This will be an open forum teleconference with time for discussion included in the agenda.  For participants who do not speak, we will be available to read your comments or questionsduring the teleconference.  Please email [email protected] and we will read your submissions during the discussion

From the Honorable Tony Coelho on the Occasion of the ADA's 20th Birthday

From the United States International Council on Disabilities (7.19.2010):

Support Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilites  

On this 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we have much to be proud of as a community.  A little more than twenty years ago, we embarked on a historic journey in advancing civil rights for Americans with disabilities.  We came together with one voice, putting aside our political and other differences, to work toward this cause, and we were joined by our partners in Congress, who put aside their differences to do the same.  And this unity and bipartisan spirit both within our community and in Congress led to our success.  We could not fully imagine then the profound impact our civil rights struggle and work to pass the ADA would have for people with disabilities around the world.  Today, inspired by the ADA, our brothers and sisters in scores of countries have worked to pass their own pioneering legislation to protect and promote their inherent human and civil rights.
 
What's more, the world community came together at the United Nations at the start of this century and did something that is changing the world.  They worked to create international law recognizing, protecting, and promoting the rights of all people with disabilities-the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Americans with disabilities joined them in this effort, sharing our experience with the ADA to strengthen the provisions of this human rights legislation.  The disability rights movement now encompasses a global community.
 
But our work to strengthen and implement the promise of equal rights for people with disabilities at home and abroad remains unfinished.  We have no doubt created a pillar of domestic law, but we must now work to ensure that the United States remains a global leader in the disability rights arena by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which President Obama signed last July.  Ratifying this landmark treaty will not only advance the promise of the ADA at home, it will give the disability rights movement a new vigor abroad with the clear message that the United States affirms the inherent dignity and human rights of all people with disabilities.
 
I am excited by the energy and enthusiasm of USICD in working toward CRPD ratification.  I want to thank USICD President, Marca Bristo, and our Executive Director, David Morrissey, for their leadership in this effort.  I ask you to join with me in supporting USICD in the important effort of making CRPD ratification in the United States a reality.  When the Obama Administration completes its review and submits the CRPD to the U.S. Senate for its consent for ratification, we must come together as the American disability community and proclaim "Yes to Ratification."  Today, 88 countries have already ratified the CRPD.  By joining in this community, we can share our great expertise and leadership in furtherance of the democratic values enshrined in the CRPD.  The CRPD is good for people with disabilities, good for America, and good for the world. 
 
Let us take this opportunity to deliver our unified message to the U.S. Senate.  Please sign on to a letter prepared by USICD to Senators Kerry and Lugar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to indicate your support for the CRPD.  Please follow this link to sign on. 
 
Sincerely,
 
  Tony Coelho

ABC Nightline Covers Torture of People with Disabilities Tonight

MDRI to be featured on ABC Nightline scheduled to air tonight

Washington, DC – June 30, 2010 - Mental Disability Rights International’s (MDRI) latest report and “urgent appeal” to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, demanding the United States government end the torture of people with disabilities immediately, will be the topic of tonight’s ABC Nightline at 11:30 PM (EST).

Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), documents the use of electric shocks on the legs, arms, torsos and soles of feet of children and adults with disabilities – for weeks, months and sometimes years. JRC uses punishments as treatment and US advocates have been trying for decades to close the school and end these practices.

Nightline host, Cynthia McFadden, interviewed MDRI Executive Director Eric Rosenthal, JD and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak for the piece.

Laurie Ahern, President of MDRI and author of the report, states, “The cruelty perpetrated against children and adults at JRC is psychological and physical abuse, couched in the name of ‘treatment.’ The severe pain and suffering leveled against residents there violates the United Nations Convention against Torture.”

MDRI documents torture against children and adults with disabilities living at a Massachusetts residential school and files “urgent appeal” to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture

MDRI is an international human rights organization dedicated to the rights protection and full participation in society of people with disabilities worldwide. See www.mdri.org.

ABC Nightline airs at 11:30 pm EST, following your local news. Be sure and check your local listings.

NY To Remove "Retardation" From Agency Name

By Cara Matthews,  Albany Watch (6.18.2010):

 

Legislation To Remove “Retardation” From Agency Name On Its Way To The Governor

 

The state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will become the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities if Gov. David Paterson signs legislation that passed the Senate today and was previously approved in the Assembly. The name change would make it clear the agency serves people with all kinds of developmental disabilities and conditions, not just individuals with mental retardation.

 

The name was chosen with input from people with developmental disabilities, parents, providers and others, according to Senate Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee Chairman Thomas Morahan, R-New City, Rockland County.

 

“It is important that state and local laws, regulations, as well as future publications, be revised so that the use of the term ‘mental retardation and mentally retarded’ are removed except for clinical purposes as defined in the mental hygiene law.”

 

 

>>> To Read Full Article

 

 

Name Change at Agency to Remove ‘Retardation’
 
 

By Jane Gottlieb - New York Times  (6.7.2010):

 

ALBANY — For the second time in a year, New York legislators are considering changing the name of one of the only state agencies in the country with “retardation” still in its title.

The term, once viewed as clinical and neutral, is now considered so demeaning that leading advocacy groups in the state have promoted a campaign against it and have dropped the word from their own titles.

...“It really is upsetting to me because it’s not just a word anymore; it’s identifying who I am,” said David Liscomb, 63, a consultant and president of the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, who has developmental disabilities. “I want to be identified as a person, and I don’t want the label on buildings and I don’t want the state calling me that.”

...The agency has worked since then to assuage fears that a new name would hinder services. “Our name may be changing, but who we are and what we do stays the same,” it said in a written statement.
...Some advocates say their hesitation to change the name is giving way. “Many years ago people weren’t speaking for themselves and now they are,” Mrs. Messier said. “We’ve worked very hard to give them that right, and they are saying they don’t like the denigrating language. To oppose this would be like clipping their wings.”

 

>>> To Read Full Article

Join Us: USICD to Host Call on UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

From the JFA Moderator:

I attended one of these informational calls in March and was blown away by the caliber of presenters and the clarity and quality of material presented.  This is an amazing opportunity to have some of the foremost experts on this issue give valuable background information, answer questions, and forecast what we can expect around the upcoming push to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

From USICD (April 2010):

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is an important tool for promoting the human rights of people with disabilities.  USICD has been hosting a continuing series of national teleconferences on the CRPD to build awareness and support for the CRPD.  The next teleconference will be aimed at people who may be new to the content of the treaty and would like to learn more.  If you want to know what a treaty is, what the CRPD is about, and how it can help protect the human rights of people with disabilities, this session is for you!  Join us on April 16 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

>>> For More information on the Call

>>> For More Information on the UN CRPD