Protests & Rallies

• Brian Parker, Chair of the Disability Council of Queensland, Australia, is calling for a protest against exempting public transport providers from the need to expand the number of accessible public transport vehicles (mostly buses and maxi-taxis) for use during the Olympics in October. Parker says both the Australian and Sydney transport planners knew years ago that the demand for accessible transport would increase for this period. Current Australian law is that entities providing certain public services, including transport, have to accommodate disabled persons, unless granted an exemption from the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. Updates will be available at www.orta.nsw.gov.au  (DisabilityWorld will also be on the alert for reports on how well the Paralympic athletes do on obtaining Australian visas. We hear that last year the World Federation of the Deaf Congress in Australia had nearly 50 participants denied visas, including a WFD officer from Uganda.)
• A July 8 rally in London to gather support for official British government recognition of British Sign Language is being organized on behalf of the estimated 65,000 deaf persons in the UK. Sign a petition or get up-dates from bslpetition@fdp.org.uk
• As a result of aggressive lobbying by the disability community, New Zealand's first official recognition of NZSign Language came into force April 1. The demand for sign language interpreter service was embedded in an amendment to the new Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment & Treatment) Bill

People in the News

• The President of Hungary, the Hon. Arpad Gonez, received this year's Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Prize, consisting of $50,000 and a bronze bust of FDR. The award was presented by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on May 12 in recognition of Hungary's 1998 law, "Rights of People Living with Disabilities and their Equal Opportunity." The funds will be given to "Our Table," a Hungarian voluntary organization in the disability field. The award is presented annually by the FDR Institute in cooperation with the National Organization on Disability and details are available from Thackeray@nod.org
• Lucy Wong-Hernandez, Executive Director of Disabled Peoples International, received in April the Liberty Bell award from the Nassau County Bar Association for "promoting understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
• Jolanta Lapiak of Canada has been chosen as the WeMedia profile of the month in recognition of her role as the creator of the www.DeafWorldWeb.org  The website has had more than 100,000 hits and features unique projects, such as an ASL dictionary with 2800 signs. Lapiak, 28, moved to Canada from Poland with her family and now works for the Canadian Association of the Deaf in Ottawa
• Hirotada Ototake, a 23 year old Japanese author who has no limbs, has sold 4.4 million copies of his new book, Nobody's Perfect. It has now been translated into three languages and will be available in English this September. One reviewer noted that "In Japan, disabled and able-bodied people live in separate worlds and this book has lowered the wall a little."

• Senator Jesse Helms, Chair of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, announced on Mother's Day that the UN Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) would "never see the light of day on his watch." Helms clarified that one of his objections to the convention was that it encouraged countries to eliminate celebration of Mother's Day. Details: UN Wire, May 12 issue, www.unfoundation.org
• The Beijing+5 seminar for young, disabled women is fully booked with approximately 50 blind, deaf and physically disabled participants. The seminar, taking place June 1-7 in New York, is being organized by the following groups as equal partners: Rehabilitation International, World Institute on Disability, Disabled People's International, World Federation of the Deaf and the World Blind Union. Also taking an active role are the UN, UNICEF, Inclusion International, Mobility International USA and Mental Disability Rights International. Watch this website for a full report next month about progress made at the June UN Meetings on behalf of women and girls with disabilities.

Making their debuts this issue are country reporters Swantje Koebsell for Germany, Anuradhua Mohit for India, Robyn Hunt for New Zealand and Simon Minty for the United Kingdom. Each is a leading disability advocate in her/his country and a published writer and/or media presenter as well. Their responsibilities are to provide regular reports on what is going on in their countries concerning the main topics of this e-zine.

Ready to Roll

• On May 25 the European Union transport ministers from the 15 member states are reportedly ready to sign a Buses Directive agreeing to mandatory access, including ramps or lifts, for every new urban bus purchased henceforth in the EU. Details: grads@globlenet.co.uk
• The latest issue of Resources to Go reports on new tailored tours, including luxury coaches, for visually and physically disabled travelers to South Africa. Details: www.titchtravel.co.za or email titcheve@iafrica.com

WHO does what?

• The May 15 editorial of The Times of London took the World Health Organization to task for its "politically correct" announced year 2000 priorities on "lifestyle diseases" such as high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease and depression. The Times editors reminded WHO that this agenda is a distinct diversion from its approved mission and "first duty to millions who die young in poor countries of treatable disease." The Times cited their preferred WHO priorities as: AIDS, dengue fever, malaria, drug-resistant diseases and elimination of polio
• Gro Harlem Brundtland,  WHO Director-General, stated in her address to the annual WHO Assembly in Geneva in May that her four priorities were:
· Reducing death and disability
· Reducing risks to human health
· Developing health systems and
· Putting health at the center of economic and development policies

One of the newest of the perennially popular Barbie dolls is Sign Language Barbie who is available from ToysRUs in either Caucasian or African-American versions. The doll comes with a display kit of ASL alphabet and basic signs. Check it out online at http://toysrus.com

Test for U.S. Foreign Service

An alternate test for Americans interested in joining the Foreign Service, but who may have disabilities that necessitate an adapted test, should contact the Office of Management and Budget. Online, information about the test can be downloaded at: www.usajobs.opm.gov/WFJIC/JOBS/WA8413.HTM

Obituaries

• At the end of 1999 the international disability community lost two of the brightest stars in the firmament: Sir John Wilson  of the U.K. and Gaby  Brimmer of Mexico. Sir John's early work with blind people in developing countries is noted in this month's disabilityworld story about the Frontlines of CBR. An eloquent remembrance of Sir John was written by Rachel Hurst in the January issue of Disability Tribune, available online at http://freespace.virgin.net/research/daa/index.htm
• Eileen Giron's memorial to Gaby Brimmer,including a few examples of her poetry in English & Spanish,  appears in this issue of disabilityworld. Gaby, the story of her life, is perhaps one of the best known commercial films about disability.

• The May 3 issue of The New York Times reported on the 25 year reunion of the major players in what became known as the Willowbrook scandal, an expose of one of the largest U.S. institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. A conference of 450 people was held on the former Willowbrook ground on the theme, "Social Justice Has Prevailed." Geraldo Riviera's 1972 television report on the squalid conditions at the residential institution on Staten Island sparked a federal lawsuit which was widely perceived as the beginning of the deinstitutionalization movement in the U.S. The lawsuit brought together parents, doctors, the media and disability advocates in one of the first successful and widely-publicized victories of the disability rights movement in this country.
• The Gallaudet University website has some fascinating articles and projects in the area of deaf history. A project, "History through Deaf Eyes" can be viewed at www.gallaudet.edu/~deafeyes/
• A comprehensive and chilling report on "Deaf People in Hitler's Europe" can be read at www.gallaudet.edu/public.relations/gt/contents.html

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