NJN Network

By Stephen Pate
NJN News
January 5, 2009

And we think we have problems: the US Census Bureau announced on December 18th that 54 million Americans have a disability.

“About one in five U.S. residents – 19 percent – reported some level of disability in 2005, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. These 54.4 million Americans are roughly equal to the combined total populations of California and Florida.” says the press release.

“Among those with a disability, 35 million, or 12 percent of the population, were classified as having a severe disability, according to Americans With Disabilities: 2005.”

“Nearly half (46 percent) of people age 21 to 64 with a disability were employed, compared with 84 percent of people in this age group without a disability. Among those with disabilities, 31 percent with severe disabilities and 75 percent with non severe disabilities were employed. People with difficulty hearing were more likely to be employed than those with difficulty seeing (59 percent compared with 41 percent).

“A portion of people with disabilities — 11 million age 6 and older — needed personal assistance with everyday activities. These activities include such tasks as getting around inside the home, taking a bath or shower, preparing meals and performing light housework.”

14% of Canadians are reported by Statistics Canada as disabled.

Letters to the Editor
The Guardian

Front Page
UPEI reminds me of a stubborn teenager. You can talk to them, reason with them, and try to lay down the law. We all know how stubborn kids can be when they want to do the wrong thing. (Stephen Pate on the lack of accessible parking for the disabled at the University)

On July 4th, 2008 the Guardian (UPEI’s plan to remove designated parking) reported UPEI was removing the last three accessible parking spaces on the inner campus. Those spots are gone and UPEI adamantly insists it is right.

Accessible parking means the spot is less than 50 meters from the door of the building. That is the National Building Code standard and the City of Charlottetown by-law. (Ed: the City does not enforce this by-law consistently)

60% of the blue painted parking spaces at UPEI do not meet the national standard. At UPEI, the only accessible parking is at CARI, the Sports Centre, Murphy, AVC Small Animal Hospital and MacDougall.

This move has reversed three decades in the accommodation of people with disabilities at UPEI. President MacLauchlan stubbornly refuses to budge from that decision.

Do they understand at UPEI that walking is very difficult for the blind and the walking disabled?

The effect of this policy is that very few students with disabilities attend UPEI. While UPEI should have 150 students with disabilities, it has about 20. If you build a wall, they can’t get there.

PEI Disability Alert measured and counted each parking space twice. 60% of UPEI disabled parking is not accessible and that is a fact.

President MacLauchlan and the Board of Governors have been asked repeatedly by students, staff and PEI Disability Alert to provide accessible parking but they refuse. We’ve tried letters to the paper, email, criticism, satire, protests, and TV coverage. All have failed to move them.

UPEI reminds me of a stubborn teenager. You can talk to them, reason with them, and try to lay down the law. We all know how stubborn kids can be when they want to do the wrong thing.

Please put accessible parking back on UPEI campus. It’s for our children’s future. If the young people with disabilities cannot attend UPEI, how will they escape the grip of poverty?

In September 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law 1,100 pages of improvements to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Protection of the disabled in the US is even stronger now.

UPEI’s decision is unlikely to happen in the United States and should not be allowed to happen here.

The new episode is up.

Highlights
Obama and Civil Rights

Headlines – Ghiz in China, Currie burns his way through Prince and Kings Counties

Take this job and shove it – please Minister Gail Shea

Pete from Peakes on millionaires

and more

Fun, sharp and the show to watch.

Send us your comments.

Printed in the Guardian, Eastern Graphic and West Prince Graphic.

STEPHEN PATE
P.E.I. Disability Alert, Charlottetown
Wednesday October 8th, 2008
Editor:

The Green Party, Liberals and NDP would improve the lives of Islanders and Canadians with disabilities if elected on Oct. 14. We contacted all Island candidates for a local response. The Conservative Party did not reply.

It’s my understanding local Conservative candidates were told by the Prime Minister’s Office not to respond on campaign issues. Stephen Harper likes to control the media.

It appears the Conservatives plan nothing of substance to improve the lives of Islanders and their families living with disabilities after the election.

There are 22,000 Islanders with disabilities, which affect one-third of Island homes. They have lower incomes than non-disabled people, lack supports like wheelchairs or home care, have higher drug costs, and suffer discrimination in work and society generally. Many of the same issues are faced by seniors.

A disabled person who is unable to work will be living at 60 per cent of the poverty line on P.E.I. The Green Party and NDP would increase incomes for the disabled to at least the poverty line for those unable to work due to disability. The Liberal Party would partially move the disabled closer to the poverty line. The Conservatives have no announced plan.

Both the Green and NDP support forms of national pharmacare for those high drug costs. The Liberals have a $900-million commitment that lacks specifics. The Conservatives have no announced plan. Assistive devices like wheelchairs are expensive and 4,000 Islanders still need something. The Greens and the NDP promise coverage for all people needing supports. The Liberals will work with the provinces, which has created spotty results in the past. Again, the Conservatives have no announced plan.

The Green and NDP have promises to beef up Canada’s legal protection of the disabled. The Liberals and Conservatives did not respond on that question.

It’s pretty dry stuff but important. We have trouble getting politicians to change things based on election promises. Without a commitment before the election, there is rarely any change. Please talk to your candidate.

The Green Party, Liberals and NDP would improve the lives of Islanders and Canadians with disabilities if elected on October 14th. The Conservative Party did not reply. We contacted all Island candidates for a local response.

The Conservative Party platform released on October 7th contains no new initiatives for those living with disabilities.

Apparently local Conservative candidates were told by the Prime Minister’s office not to respond on campaign issues. Stephen Harper likes to control the media. Tom DeBlois promised me face to face he would reply but didn’t. It appears the Conservatives plan nothing of substance to improve the lives of Islanders and their families living with disabilities after the Election.

There are 22,000 Islanders with disabilities which affects one third of Island homes. The have lower incomes than non-disabled people, lack supports like wheelchairs or home care, have higher drug costs, and suffer discrimination in work and society generally. Many of the same issues are faced by seniors.

A disabled person who is unable to work will be living at 60% of the poverty line on PEI. The Green Party and NDP would increase incomes for the disabled to at least the poverty line for those unable to work due to disability. The Liberal Party would partially move the disabled closer to the poverty line. The Conservatives have no announced plan.

Both the Green and NDP support forms of National Pharmacare for those high drug costs. The Liberals have a $900 million commitment that lacks specifics. The Conservatives have no announced plan.

Assisted devices like wheelchairs are expensive and 4,000 Islanders still need something. The Green and NDP promise coverage for all people needing supports. The Liberals will work with the Provinces which has created spotty results in the past. Again, the Conservatives have no announced plan.

The Green and NDP have promises to beef up Canada’s legal protection of the disabled. The Liberals and Conservatives did not respond on that question.

It’s pretty dry stuff but important. We have trouble getting politicians to change things based on election promises. Without a commitment before the election, there is rarely any change.

Please talk to your candidate.

Brian Pollard, NDP candidate

The NDP have provided an excellent response, if I’m allowed to editorialize, that address the questions comprehensively.

For the details, please visit our sister site for the Election coverage. NDP reply on Election 08 disability issues

By ANNA M. TINSLEY
atinsley@star-telegram.com
Fort Worth Star Telegram

Charlotte Stewart took her car in for an inspection recently, but she couldn’t sit with others in the waiting area.

She was using a rolling walker to get around that day but couldn’t get on the sidewalk because there was no ramp. So she waited outside, in the heat.

“Changes are definitely needed,” said Stewart, executive director of REACH, which helps people with disabilities in Fort Worth and Dallas. “It has been 18 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act passed. There’s so many places where people with disabilities still have problems.”

Plans are under way to update the landmark 1990 ADA legislation and create stronger standards to give disabled Americans better access to everything from courtrooms to swimming pools.

The changes that could go into effect next year, officials say, are geared to ensure that a disability doesn’t exclude anyone from anything — testifying in court, going to a movie, riding an amusement park ride, even playing miniature golf.

But that access would come at a cost. The proposed changes could affect more than 7 million businesses, as well as numerous government agencies, at a cost of more than $20 billion over the next 40 years, according to the Justice Department, which is spearheading the proposal.

“There’s some good stuff in there but some very negative things also,” said Bob Kafka, an organizer for ADAPT of Texas, a disability rights group. “At the same time they giveth, they taketh away.”

There are more than 41 million disabled people in the United States, including 3 million in Texas, more than 650,000 of them in Dallas-Fort Worth, Census Bureau records show.

On the table

The Justice Department has proposed about 1,000 pages of changes to the ADA, including requiring light switches in hotel rooms to be no higher than 48 inches from the floor and requiring courtrooms to provide lifts or ramps to help people into witness stands.

Not to mention requiring that half the holes at miniature golf courses be accessible to those in wheelchairs and ensuring that sports stadiums seating 25,000 or more provide written safety and emergency information — perhaps by flashing it on large screens — to alert the hard of hearing or deaf.

The Justice Department wants feedback on the proposal by Aug. 18. If approved, changes would affect new businesses or buildings scheduled to be altered.

Businesses would be required to make relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated changes.

Disability advocates say they fear that some changes don’t go far enough, especially regarding information technology. Check-in kiosks at airports or hotels, for instance, present opportunities for fraud.

“I am very keen that there will be rules to ensure access for individuals with vision loss to all of the technology systems, present and future, that people use in their everyday lives,” said Wayne Pound, a vice president with Lighthouse for the Blind of Fort Worth. “Things like cellphones, ATM machines, computer systems — anything where there is an on-screen display — should be designed in a manner that would permit its use by an individual with limited eyesight.”

Service animals

A key item of growing concern to some is a plan to limit service animals for the disabled to dogs or other domestic animals such as cats. That would exclude reptiles, birds, exotic animals, farm animals, monkeys and miniature horses.

“We believe any animal that can be trained to perform tasks directly relating to an individual’s disability, they are service animals,” said Ed Eames, president of the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, whose group represents members in Texas.

The proposal would also distinguish between an animal that gives comfort to a person with an emotional disability and service animals that are trained to help.

Eames said his group doesn’t believe that animals that help with emotional disabilities should be classified as service animals because they don’t have extensive formal training.

City buildings

As proposed changes to the ADA are being considered, local businesses and government officials continue working to meet the existing standards.

Two years ago, ramps were added to the dais in the Fort Worth City Council chambers after Danny Scarth, who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, was elected. And last year, about $100,000 of work was done at the municipal court building to make cashier stations and courtrooms more accessible, said David Ondich, the city’s ADA coordinator.

Scarth said businesses and city leaders need to keep in mind that accessibility is not just a technical standard.

“People need to feel included from a social standpoint,” he said. “There are still many places I go, such as the movie theater downtown, where there are difficulties.  . . .  The goal is to be inclusive.”

At what cost?

Justice Department officials say that the cost to bring buildings into compliance might be great but that revenue should dramatically increase as facilities become more accessible.

Some businesses, such as Putt-Putt Golf and Games in Hurst, are already in compliance with some proposed changes.

At the miniature golf course, there are two courses: the Adventure Course, which has stairs and hills, and the Harbor Course, a flat course designed to accommodate wheelchairs, walkers and strollers.

Each has 18 holes, for which golfers use the same putters and balls.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Tameka Gaines, an assistant manager. “It’s all about being equal.”

Staff writer Jeff Claassen contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.

Proposed changes

Proposed changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act were published in June and could go into effect next year. They include:

Stipulating that people with disabilities may use traditional and power wheelchairs and electric scooters in pedestrian areas. But public places could restrict golf carts, Segway vehicles and other motorized devices.

Declaring only dogs and other domestic animals to be service animals. The proposal also seeks feedback on whether there should be a weight limit for guide dogs.

Ensuring that courts provide a lift or ramp to help people into the witness stand.

Requiring auditoriums to provide a ramp or lift so wheelchair users could easily participate in activities such as graduations.

Making sure hotel room light switches are no higher than 48 inches from the floor; the current maximum is 54 inches.

Stipulating that new swimming pools of more than 300 feet in size provide at least two entries, such as ramps or chair lifts.

Requiring sports stadiums that seat 25,000 or more to provide safety and emergency information through printed messages to alert those hard of hearing or deaf.

Online: More information on the proposed changes, www.ada.gov/NPRM2008/ADAnprm08.htm

Feedback
Comments on the proposals are due by Aug. 18; all comments will be available for public viewing at www.regulations.gov.

Post comments at www.regulations.gov. Search for “CRT 105″ for Title II; “CRT 106″ for Title III. Click on “Send a Comment or Submission.”

Send comments to ADA NPRM, P.O. Box 2846, Fairfax, VA 22031-0846.

Send comments via overnight delivery to the Disability Rights Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1425 New York Ave. NW, Suite 4039, Washington, D.C. 20005.

ANNA M. TINSLEY, 817-390-7610

Marin Independent Journal
Jennifer Upshaw
Article Launched: 07/12/2008 11:05:01 PM PDT

Little white dots have appeared on street corners in San Rafael neighborhoods – a sign that the city continues to work toward compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The dots denote where up to 100 future curb cuts – ramps that lead smoothly from the sidewalk to the street – will be placed. The work is part of a 2004 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to bring better disability access to the city.

“We go out there and do a survey of each of these corners to make sure our design is compliant with the latest design standards,” Public Works Director Andy Preston said. “Each of those corners that has dots is going to be a curb ramp.”

As part of the agreement, the city has built 124 curb ramps, part of a backlog of 800 ramps dating to 2002 that should have been built when the city resurfaced its streets, said Richard Landis, the city’s disabilities act coordinator. The city has spent about $438,000 on ramps.

The city aims to build another 100 ramps in the next cycle, he said. A contract to resurface streets and install ramps is expected to go out to bid this summer. Construction could begin this fall.

Federal officials contacted the city in 2003 requesting help investigating the city’s compliance with the 1990 law. In early 2004, federal officials toured the city to assess its compliance with the federal guidelines.

The council years earlier approved a plan to remove barriers to access. Sidewalk, intersection and ramp installation, assisted listening devices and telephone systems for the hearing impaired, parking changes, restroom and public counters, notices of rights and an equal opportunity-affirmative action employment policy have been established.

But federal officials said more work was required and reached a settlement with the city. Similar agreements exist in San Luis Obispo, Seaside and Carson City, Nev.

The agreement states, among other things, that the city will:

- Make changes to facilities and programs to remove barriers in facilities such as the downtown plaza, the Public Works building at 111 Morphew St., and the parking structure at Third and C streets.

- Bring on oral and sign interpreters to the police department to provide 24-hour services, equip the department with a phone system for the hearing or speech impaired and adopt a statement on communicating effectively with those with hearing disabilities.

- Implement procedures to alert people who have disabilities about the city’s emergency operations plan, including procedures for notifying them during an evacuation, ensure community centers are equipped with backup generators and ways to refrigerate medications – and are operated so the disabled and their service animals are not separated.

- Implement a written process to get comment from people with disabilities on curb cut installation requests, and install curb ramps on sidewalks when a street or a pedestrian way is built or altered. Within 10 years and six months, the city is expected to install curb ramps at pedestrian walkways and intersections constructed, altered or repaved since 1992.

“It’s going fine and we’ll strive to do everything we can to come into compliance,” Mayor Al Boro said. “Whenever we have the resources we’ll continue to apply them.”

New York Times
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: June 16, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is about to propose far-reaching new rules that would give people with disabilities greater access to tens of thousands of courtrooms, swimming pools, golf courses, stadiums, theaters, hotels and retail stores.

“Disability is inherent in the human condition. The vast majority of individuals who are fortunate enough to reach an advanced age will benefit from the proposed requirements.”

The proposal would substantially update and rewrite federal standards for enforcement of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a landmark civil rights law passed with strong bipartisan support in 1990. The new rules would set more stringent requirements in many areas and address some issues for the first time, in an effort to meet the needs of an aging population and growing numbers of disabled war veterans.

More than seven million businesses and all state and local government agencies would be affected. The proposal includes some exemptions for parts of existing buildings, but any new construction or renovations would have to comply.

The new standards would affect everything from the location of light switches to the height of retail service counters, to the use of monkeys as “service animals” for people with disabilities, which would be forbidden.

The White House approved the proposal in May after a five-month review. It is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, with 60 days for public comment. After considering those comments, the government would issue final rules with the force of law.

Already, the proposal is stirring concern. The United States Chamber of Commerce says it would be onerous and costly, while advocates for disabled Americans say it does not go far enough.

Since the disability law was signed by the first President Bush, advances in technology have made services more available to people with disabilities. But Justice Department officials said they were still receiving large numbers of complaints. In recent months, the federal government has settled lawsuits securing more seats for disabled fans at Madison Square Garden in New York and at the nation’s largest college football stadium, at the University of Michigan.

The Census Bureau says more than 51 million Americans have some kind of disability, with nearly two-thirds of them reporting severe impairments.

The proposed rules, under development for more than four years, flesh out the meaning of the 1990 law, which set forth broad objectives. The 215,000-word proposal includes these new requirements:

¶Courts would have to provide a lift or a ramp to ensure that people in wheelchairs could get into the witness stand, which is usually elevated from floor level.

¶Auditoriums would have to provide a lift or a ramp so wheelchair users could “participate fully and equally in graduation exercises and other events” at which members of the audience have direct access to the stage.

¶Any sports stadium with a seating capacity of 25,000 or more would have to provide safety and emergency information by posting written messages on scoreboards and video monitors. This would alert people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

¶Theaters must provide specified numbers of seats for wheelchair users (at least five in a 300-seat facility). Viewing angles to the screen or stage must be “equivalent to or better than the average viewing angles provided to all other spectators.”

¶Light switches in a hotel room could not be more than 48 inches high. The current maximum is 54 inches.

¶Hotels must allow people with disabilities to reserve accessible guest rooms, and they must honor these reservations to the same degree they guarantee other room reservations.

¶At least 25 percent of the railings at fishing piers would have to be no more than 34 inches high, so that a person in a wheelchair could fish over the railing.

¶At least half of the holes on miniature golf courses must be accessible to people using wheelchairs, and these holes must be connected by a continuous, unobstructed path.

¶A new swimming pool with a perimeter of more than 300 feet would have to provide “at least two accessible means of entry,” like a gentle sloping ramp or a chair lift.

¶New playgrounds would have to provide access to slides, swings and other play equipment for children who use wheelchairs.

The Justice Department acknowledged that some of the changes would have significant costs. But over all, it said, the value of the public benefits, estimated at $54 billion, exceeds the expected costs of $23 billion.

In an economic analysis of the proposed rules, the Justice Department said the need for an accessible environment was greater than ever because the Iraq war was “creating a new generation of young men and women with disabilities.”

John L. Wodatch, chief of the disability rights section of the Justice Department, said: “Disability is inherent in the human condition. The vast majority of individuals who are fortunate enough to reach an advanced age will benefit from the proposed requirements.”

By 2010, the department estimates, 2 percent of the adult population will use wheelchairs, and 4 percent will use crutches, canes, walkers or other mobility devices. Likewise, it said, as the population ages, the number of people with hearing loss will increase.

Under the 1990 law, businesses are supposed to remove barriers to people with disabilities if the changes are “readily achievable,” meaning they can be “carried out without much difficulty or expense.”

The Bush administration is proposing a safe harbor for small businesses. They could meet their obligations in a given year if, in the prior year, they had spent at least 1 percent of their gross revenues to remove barriers.

Curtis L. Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, a coalition of legal advocates, said: “Safe harbors make us very nervous. A small business could spend the requisite amount of money and still not be accessible.”

Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed rules “are so long and technically complex that even the best-intentioned small business could be found out of compliance by a clever lawyer looking to force a settlement.”

The Justice Department cited the “monetary cost cap” as one of several steps it was taking to limit the rules’ impact on small businesses. But Mr. Johnson said he feared that courts would view the ceiling as a floor and tell businesses they should spend 1 percent of their revenues on removing barriers.

The proposed rules affirm the right of people with disabilities to use guide dogs and other service animals in public places, but they tighten the definition to exclude certain species.

When the existing rules were adopted in the early 1990s, the Justice Department said, few people anticipated the current trend toward “the use of wild, exotic or unusual species” as service animals.

The proposed rules define a service animal as “any dog or other common domestic animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks” for a person with a physical or mental disability.

Under this definition, the administration says, monkeys could not qualify as service animals, nor would reptiles; amphibians; rabbits, ferrets and rodents; or most farm animals.

Under the rules, a hotel, restaurant, theater, store or public park could ask a person with a disability to remove a service animal if the animal was out of control or not housebroken, or if it posed a direct threat to the health or safety of others.

By way of example, the rules say that a theater could exclude a dog that disrupted a live performance by repeated barking.

The rules confirm that people with disabilities can use traditional wheelchairs, power wheelchairs and electric scooters in any public areas open to pedestrians.

But shopping centers, amusement parks and other public places could impose reasonable restrictions on two-wheeled Segway vehicles, golf carts and “other power-driven mobility devices” used by those with disabilities.

Epilepsy Foundation

Urge Representatives to Join as Co-Sponsors by July 26

Ed: for Canada see end of article.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) issued a Dear Colleague letter asking their fellow Representatives to become co-sponsors of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007.

Recent court decisions have dramatically limited the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act such that most people with epilepsy are deemed not to have a disability and therefore cannot seek legal recourse if they are discriminated against because of their epilepsy. The Epilepsy Foundation has called on Congress to pass legislation which would clarify this issue and restore the ADA to its original intent.

Epilepsy Advocates should contact their Representatives and urge them to sign the Dear Colleague letter and become an original cosponsors of the ADA Restoration Act, no later than July 26, the anniversary of the passage of the ADA.

You can take action by sending your Representative the ADA action alert. We encourage you to personalize the alert with your own experience with epilepsy.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 to give people with disabilities equal rights in our country – including in the workplace.

Until 1999 there was little fanfare about whether a person with epilepsy is covered by the ADA, or its model counterpart, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Most cases presumed that epilepsy was a covered disability.

Since 1999 though, courts have been struggling with figuring out exactly who should benefit from the ADA. It was in 1998 that the Supreme Court handed down its now landmark decision in Sutton v. United Airlines, requiring that the effect of mitigating measures (such as taking medication) be considered in determining if someone has a disability under the ADA.

Since then, courts have recognized that epilepsy is a disability in only a few cases. As a result, people with epilepsy are questioning whether they are even entitled to the protections of the law. Even more troubling is that employers, public accommodations, schools and state agencies have also begun to ask the same question.

Just like other Americans, people with disabilities can and want to work to their full ability. The ADA was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support to create a level playing field so everyone who wants a job has a fair chance to find and keep a job they have the skills to do.

Many people who are trying to work despite having an impairment are not being given a fair chance. The ADA Restoration Act of 2007 would correct this injustice. This legislation restores the basic right of people who have a disability to be judged based on performance – just like women, minorities, and the rest of the American workforce.

Ed: Canada has no legislation similar to the ADA. Some protection is contained in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; however, legislation to back up the Charter is weak to non-existent. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act is considered largely useless and is presently under revision.