Contents: Issue no.10 September-October 2001
Independent Living
UK's Direct Action Network Protests Lack of Independent Living in Birmingham
The Direct Action Network, a group of disabled people who use direct action methods to further disabled peoples of rights, held Birmingham City Council to ransom in furtherance of its cause last week...
New Zealand Blind Groups Pound Nail in the Coffin of Paternalism
Blind and sight-impaired New Zealanders have voted for self-determination in a national referendum held by the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind (RNZFB)...
New Law Introduces Use of Assistance Dogs in Japan
In order to carry on daily activities independently, excellent self-help devices and daily living appliances are indispensable for people with disabilities. An assistance dog is "a living self-help device and daily living appliance"...
Access and Technology
Accessible House Exchange: The Internet, England, & My Summer Vacation
Our house trade in an English village had a wheelchair accessible kitchen. For the first time in my life I could easily look into the pots while I cooked...
Mexican University holds Internet course for the Blind
The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM - Technological and Higher Studies Institute of Monterrey), from Mexico, is developing an Internet course for sight-impaired students so as to allow them to study in those programs the university offers on-line...
Accessible Information Technology Certificate Offered
Our colleages at the Rochester Institute of Technology announce the following online certificate program in Accessible Information Technology. For more information or to sign up for the certificate program...
Blind Brazilians Struggle to Access the Banking System
To go to the bank, open an account, and receive a checkbook can be daunting tasks in general and almost impossible for blind people in Brazil. Banks have been a frequent target of complaints by people with visual disabilities...
Brazileans create software so the blind are able to navigate the Internet
News reports indicated today that a Brazilean software company has designed a program that allows blind people to use Windows and navigate the internet...
New Accessibility Manual in Mexico
The Mexican Presidential Office for the Promotion and Social Integration for Disabled People, together with institutions and organizations of civil society have produced a document called "Accessibility Recommendations" with useful information on accessibility in the built environment...
European Survey on eLearning for Disabled People
Technology has great potential to overcome physical barriers. It could improve access to learning for people with disabilities, according to a new survey...
State Telephones for the Hearing Impaired in Bogotá
Nobody in Colombia ever imagined that deaf people could talk on the phone and even fewer could imagine them listening back. The impact was enormous for those non-hearing impaired that were surprised when they received the first calls...
Employment
Disability & Labor Market Analysis Published in Brazil
In Brazil there are currently some 16 million people with special needs, of whom 9 million are working-age. Yet only 1 million Brazilians with disabilities are in the labor force and only 200 thousand have signed work papers...
New Zealand Report Calls for "Real Jobs with Real Pay"
Vocational services in New Zealand will focus more closely on employment, with the outcomes of services being real jobs for real pay...
Employment briefly
Irish Campaign to Promote Employment Opportunities, Lebanon Launches Computer Training Center for Blind Youth, Disabled Entrepreneur in Algeria Creates 30 Jobs, and more...
Governance and Legislation
Japanese with Hansen's Disease Welcome Closure
Hansen's disease is a chronic and infectious disease caused by a leprous bacillus. In the past, when it was called "leprosy," the patients and their families suffered from groundless prejudice and discrimination...
Brazil: Commission to Include Rights of Disabled Persons
To defend all citizens facing violation of their civil rights, with special attention for people with disabilities, children, adolescents, and the elderly, is the goal of the new board of directors of the Brazilian Bar Association's Human Rights Commission...
USA: Votes of Disabled People among "Epidemic of Disappearing Votes"
In a scathing new report, the Democratic staff of the House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary finds that the election irregularities reported in Florida during the 2000 presidential election are "representative of a larger, national problem"...
New Report Finds British Elections More Accessible
Disabled people in Great Britain are more likely to find an accessible polling place now than in past elections, says a new report issued by the Disability Rights Commission. In the 2000 elections...
Is Obesity a Disability? Canadian Airline Challenged
A Canadian law professor, Linda McKay-Panos, claims that she was discriminated against when Air Canada charged her extra for a seat because she is obese...
Colombia Makes an Effort to Ratify the Inter American Convention
Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has committed itself to make an effort and push the legislative process so as to ratify the "Inter American Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against people with Disabilities"...
Colombia: Public Policy
Colombian Disability Policy has been being discussed during the previous 20 months under a work structure framed by National Groups of Inter-Area Linkage formed by representatives from government institutions and members of national non governmental organizations of and, for people with disabilities...
Arts and Media
Workshop: Illness and Disability in Fiction Films
Why is a character in a feature film ill or disabled? There are always at least two reasons - and one of them has got nothing to do with medicine...
Radio Broadcasts by Afghan Blind Boy who Becomes Bicycle Mechanic
The following stories are part of a series of short radio broadcasts translated into Pushto and beamed to Afghanistan and parts of the North West Frontier of Pakistan a few years ago. They aimed to alert families to the idea that their disabled members might find ways of playing a fuller and more interesting part in the life of the community...
Performing Arts Showcase Held in San Francisco: The "Ever Widening Circle" widens again
Several hundred arts lovers turned out on October 4 to support what has become an annual fall showcase of first class talent from the disability community. The celebration, "The Ever Widening Circle"...
New
Body Talk
Video Recommended
Disabled women sure are sexy. I just watched Cheryl Marie Wade's newest video,
Body Talk. I am completely overwhelmed by Cheryl's gorgeous use of language and her powerful sexy images ("marshmallow thighs" that a lover will lick until satisfied)...
Brazil: Media Forum on Disabilities at Risk
People with disabilities in Brazil run the risk of losing a key media forum. Radio MEC, the public radio station of the Ministry of Education and Culture, is revising its entire broadcasting schedule. The program Manhã Viva (Living Morning), featuring an entire timeslot devoted to disability issues, was taken off the air in early 2001...
Australian & U.S. Films on Parenting: one a dirge, the other a dirigible
In preparation for the now postponed International Conference on Parenting with a Disability, Barbara Kolucki and I reviewed several films on the topic. Following are a summary of and some reactions to two of them...
"The Way We Live" 3rd International Festival of Short Films
The Festival of Short Films on the general theme of "The Way We Live" returns this November after a brief hiatus. For the third time, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Behinderung und Medien (Disability and Media Association) is hosting this international festival of short films dealing with disability...
Children's Animated TV Show to Feature Audio Descriptions
The animated children's series
Rugrats, which appears on the Nickelodeon cable network, will premiere on November 1, 2001 with audio description for viewers who are blind or visually impaired...
Disabled Artists and Performers Guild Launched
Interest is growing for the formation of an International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers...
Women
Bulgaria: Disabled Women Condemned to "Slow Death"
It is a sad irony that on World Mental Health day disabled women in Sanadinovo Home, a Bulgarian institution, continue to be condemned to a 'slow death', Amnesty International said today...
Resources about Afghan Women
The listserve "News We Can Use" featured the following organizations helping Afghan women. The listserv can be accessed at...
An Interview with Dr. Anita Ghai, One of India's Advocates for Rights of Disabled Women
Dr. Anita Ghai teaches and researches in the Department of Psychology at Jesus and Mary College in New Delhi, India. She is also a prominent advocate for the rights of women with disabilities...
Tanzania: Researcher Explores Lives of Disabled Women & Girls
Elly Macha, originally from Tanzania, is a researcher from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. She undertook a research project last year, examining educational, economic, and other issues affecting women and girls with blindness and other disabilities...
Politics, Poetry & Performance: Trinidad's Disabled Women Organize & Educate
All around the world, disabled women leaders and activists are working to expand rights and opportunities for women with disabilities. Tactics vary, based on the resources available to advocates, and on the political and cultural contexts within which they are working...
Australian Report Issued on Disabled Women: Sterilization & Reproductive Health
"Moving Forward" - Sterilisation and Reproductive Health Of Women and Girls with Disabilities, is the culmination of a National Project conducted by Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) during 2001. The report provides a context for the discussion of sterilisation and reproductive health of women and girls with disabilities...
Children and Youth
How Children Are Learing about Disability
We know that in many countries today, children with disabilities are included in more mainstream classes than ever before. How are non-disabled children being prepared for these experiences?...
Human Rights of Costa Rican Children with Disabilities
In spite of the progress in legal aspects concerning disability in the country, Costa Rican children with disabilities suffer the same discrimination and social isolation that adults do...
Sembrando Cultura de Prevención "Colombia Prevents as Family"
The new social methods undertaken to approach disabilities in all scenarios to increase development has reached so many sectors in Colombia that now it has a multiplying effect in preventing physical, sensorial, and mental restrictions...
Gazoo: Entertaining Brazilian Website for Children & Adults
An entertaining and interesting site for adults, children, and adolescents is
www.oguia.com.br/gazoo/. It tells the story of a super-hero named Gazoo who uses a wheelchair...
Japan and the Colombian Federation of the Deaf teach by using sign language
Colombian deaf children learn Colombian Sign Language through educational materials provided by the "Libros de Lengua de Señas para Niños Sordos" (Sign Language Book for Deaf Children)...
Deaf Kids Sign on for School in Tanzania
Doris Mbago leads me into the schoolroom where six small girls and boys are seated at a table with their teacher Subira Ally. Before I'm even introduced to Subira, two of the deaf boys have devised a sign name for me and are signing comments to each other about the elderly man with big beard...
International News and Views
UN and Disability Rights: Urgent Request for Action
All of us involved with the defense and promotion of the human rights of people with disabilities are fully aware of the momentous importance that would have the approval, from the United Nations, of an International Convention that protects such rights...
Disabled Afghans in the Cross-Fire of Cultures
"An Afghan brought his severely disabled son into the Mental Health Centre, Peshawar, in Pakistan. Glaring at the school principal he began, in Pushto: 'I carried this boy on my back from Kabul. It took me two weeks. So just don't tell me that he is rubbish to be thrown away'"...
Afghan Amputees Cyclist Group Based in Pakistan
The Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation and Recreation, AABRAR, was set up in 1992 in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan. It has trained over 2000 disabled people to ride a bike, mostly mine and polio victims, thereby making them mobile and transforming their lives...
Statement on "Matching Priorities North & South" by Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development
The DCDD was established in 2000, in response to demands of disability activists in developing countries, to counteract the declining interest for disability within the Dutch Development Cooperation...
Disability in East Timor and Cambodia in 2001
The author (social affairs officer of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Beirut Lebanon) was re-deployed for the United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor (UNTAET) from January to July 2001...
Bush Administration Names Young Disability Advocate to Head Government Research Agency
Steven Tingus, who was born with muscular dystrophy and spent much of his life overcoming obstacles, has received a presidential appointment as director for the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research...
Interview with Luis Fernando Astorga: Bringing Costa Rica to Disability World
Luis Fernando Astorga Gatjens is one of the new reporters for Disability World. A Costa Rican journalist, 49, Luis Fernando started his advocacy for human rights during the 80's. After a car accident led to a leg amputation...
Raising the Bar: Need High Standards & Creative Partnerships To Achieve Empowerment & Enforcement
I believe that there are three imperatives to which we must commit ourselves in order to ensure that people with disabilities are able to share in the future of human kind and even to obtain the basic amenities of life in the present time...
International Conference on Queerness & Disability Planned
"Can you help me? One of the women in my organization is a lesbian. But in my country all of the gay organizations are hiding. If the government finds out that you are gay, then there are problems for you and your family"...
AIDS Causing Rift in South Africa's Ruling Party
South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is showing signs of a major division concerning the country's AIDS problem...
Unesco Director General Establishes Flagship on "Education for All and Disabilities"
Following the September 10-12, 2001 meeting of the Unesco Education for All Working Group, Unesco Director General Koichiro Matsuura announced that Unesco would form a "flagship" programme on education for all and disabilities...
Republic of Georgia Establishes Disability Library
Let me tell you briefly about the non-governmental, non-profit organization "Assistance: Library Cultural Center for Disabled People." The aim of our organization is to...
India: Advocates Protest about Deaths of Psychiatric Inmates
The Center for Advocacy in Mental Health, an Indian mental health advocacy group, has mounted a protest of India's mental health policies following a tragic fire that killed 28 patients of a private psychiatric facility in the state of Tamil Nadun...
Kenya's President Questions Qualifications of Blind Professional
In comments that have caused a "chorus of criticism," Kenyan President Moi raised concerns about the ability of a blind man who is among those leading the nation's constitutional review team...
Looking for Disabled Parents of Teenagers
Through the Looking Glass, a U.S. nonprofit organization serving families with disabilities, is conducting a survey to learn more about the experiences of families in which a parent with a disability is raising a teenager...
U.S. National Council on Disability Calls for UN Disability Rights Convention
Whereas the United States is built upon a strong tradition of civil liberties and fundamental freedoms designed to empower all its citizens to reach their full potential...
South Africa: Disability Pensioners Win Back Benefits
The Supreme Court of Appeal for the Eastern Cape province of South Africa recently ruled that disability pensions should be immediately restored to tens of thousands of individuals...
Obituary: Dr. Sandy Welner, Disabled Women's Health Advocate
Dr. Sandy Welner's death is a great loss to women with disabilities. An
obstetrician-gynecologist, she died at age 42 of complications from an
injury. She researched disabled women's health...
Conferences and Events
Disability Research at the American Anthropological Association Meetings
The 2001 American Anthropological Association meetings, to be held in Washington, D.C. from November 28 through December 2, will include one panel on disability-related research and a meeting of the Disability Research Interest Group...
First Latin American Congress on Inclusive Education
The decision to hold the
First Latin Amercian Congress on Inclusive Education in Brazil
emerged as a initial response to the need to move towards more inclusive and higher quality education systems for all children and young people, including those with disabilities...
Society for Disability Studies, Call for Papers
The Society for Disability Studies (SDS) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the exploration of disability through research, artistic production, and teaching...
Conference on VideoConferencing in Deaf Education, Arizon, March 2002
Gallaudet University, The Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and the California School for the Deaf - Riverside will hold the Third Annual Conference on Videoconference Technology in Deaf Education...
Second Notice: Chronic Disease & Disability Conference
The Section on Chronic Disease & Disability of the Western Social Science Association (the precursor of the Society for Disability Studies) will meet in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 10-13, 2002...
Reframing Disability - AHEAD Conference 2002
AHEAD invites proposals for its twenty-fifth annual conference 2002. The Association provides opportunities for professional development to those who work to assure equal opportunities and full participation for faculty, staff and students with disabilities in higher education...
Summer in Finland
EASYTEX 2002, a Conference promoting good-looking, functional clothing and other textile products to make daily life easier for disabled and elderly people, is being held at the Scandic Hotel Rosendahl, close to the Centre of Tampere, Finland...
Call for Papers: Computers & Disability Conference, Austria, July 2002
The ICCHP conferences focus on all aspects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for people with disabilities and elderly people...
Resources & Book Reviews
Special Issue of Independent Living Network Newsletter in Response to 9/11 Events in USA
We were working on what was going to be the next issue of ILRU NetWork when terrorists violated our nation on Sept. 11...
Brain Disorders and Madness, Past and Present: Book Reviews
These two books document and scrutinise some of the more anguished sides of human experience across the world, with the medical and social responses of very varied communities and societies...
Announcing the launch of SOURCE - an international information support centre
On 31 October 2001, three organisations in the UK are launching a new information support centre. The centre aims to support health and disability activities worldwide by strengthening the management, use and impact of related information...
Travel Newsletter Announces Accessible German Hotel & Cruise through Panama Canal
Roaring Lion Inn Montana Bed & Breakfast, Germany's Haus Rheinsberg, and 10-Day Panama Canal...
New Canadian Online Resource on Disability Management
The National Institute of Disability Management and Research, in collaboration with Labour Canada, is pleased to offer a unique opportunity to participate in the on-line offering of the Institute's well-known Certificate Program in Disability Management...
Recommended Resource: Inclusion Daily Express
As many of the news-oriented disability dot.coms have either ceased operations or greatly reduced their scope and frequency, one that consistently pumps out a wealth of information is the Inclusion Daily Express (www.InclusionDaily.com)...
Disability Buzz
Mexican campaign for UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, Last Chance for Small Research Proposals, and President Bush's Disability Team Takes Shape
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