The following article appeared in DISABILITY INTERNATIONAL; Asia-Pacific Region, Vol.11, No. 2 1999. Disabled Peoples' International. The paper was presented by Ms. Viitanen at the Disability and Development Workshop held at the ADB Headquarters in Manila, Philippines from October 13-14, 1999 under the sponsorship of the Finnish government and ADB.
In October 2000, Yoshi KAWAUCHI, architect, access specialist and advocate, Tokyo, Japan, email address bzh15277@nifty.ne.jp sent us this report on the new Japanese legislation on access in public transportation:
The law requires public transportation operators to make their facilities accessible in the case of new construction or major renovation, and make efforts (note 1) to make their existing facilities accessible.
Ms Katz is Director, Division of Disability and Aging, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S.. Department of Health and Human Services.
The following is an article from American Rehabilitation Volume 24, Number 4 Winter 1998 Personal Assistance Services Part 2 of 2.
American Rehabilitation is the official publication of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 330 C Street S.W. Washington D.C. 20202-2531
Internet browsers with computer-generated speech and smarter wheelchairs and canes are just some of the innovations making it easier for people with disabilities to interact with the world.
Imagine being able to type simply by looking at the letters on a keyboard. Or being able to hear the Internet "spoken" by a Web browser.
For most people, such innovations could make life more convenient. But for people with disabilities, they could change the way they live.
Imagine you have a stroke, your child has a car wreck or your newborn has physical and/or mental disabilities. What do you do? Where do you go? What kind of services are available?
Accessing community-based services for the growing number of people with disabilities, older Americans and their families is one of the most critical issues facing this country.
The current public system of support services was designed more than 30 years ago based on a medical model of service that held that people with disabilities, regardless of their age, should receive services in nursing homes or some other congregate institution.
Lange Jahre war eine Pflegeversicherung ein umkämpftes, ein strittiges Thema. Unbenommen war von allen Seiten immer zu hören, daß es nötig sei, das Pflegefallrisiko abzusichern. Es sollte nicht mehr wie früher dazu kommen, daß Menschen durch einen Unfall zum "Sozialfall" würden, daß deren Familien von den Sozialämtern unter Druck gesetzt werden, erhebliche Teile ihres Familieneinkommens zur Versorgung des Pflegebedürftigen auszugeben. Zum Beispiel haben die Sozialämter den Angehörigen eines in einem Heim lebenden Schwerstbehinderten vorgeschrieben, wieviel sie für ihr Auto bei einem Neukauf ausgeben dürfen - damit nicht zuviel des Geldes den Klauen der Ämter abhanden kommt, um für den Heimplatz genommen zu werden. Aber geeinigt haben sich die politischen Matadore nicht.
The first global meeting on Independent Living was convened in Washington DC September 21-25, 1999. Over 100 leaders evaluated the movement's 30 year old history and set the agenda for the future.
Conference reports and reflections
The Independent Living Institute invites the conference organizers and participants to publish / link to their conference reports or to share their impressions and comments in their respective languages.
Twenty-five years ago I was very excited about many of the programs in Sweden that were providing basic assistance for disabled people thar enabled them to live more integrated in the community.
[The following article appeared in the Spring/Summer 1997 issue of Spectacle, published by Pachanga Press, Burlington MA.]
Orange, pink, and lavender flyers fluttered in the breeze as we handed them to any passer-by willing to take one. "Tune Out Jerry!" the flyers urged. "Boycott the Telethon!" Some two dozen of us lined up in front of the hotel shouting chants, distributing leaflets, and answering questions from the media, while the local segment of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon broadcast from a ballroom two floors above. Though I would stay outside all afternoon, I remembered all too well the scene that was taking place inside.
"Bam, bam, bam". It was late in the evening and in the silence of night the door shook with the loud knocking. I instantly guessed that this could only be the security police. My friends who had been sharing a pleasant evening suddenly seemed pale and wide-eyed, as I suppose I must have been. There was nothing to do but open the door before they broke it down. Being in a wheelchair I had long ago reckoned that if the police did decide to arrest me there was going to be no escape. So at last, like other comrades that I had read about or met, my time had come...
Ten years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the 1978 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act. These Amendments included Title VII, a new grant program for Independent Living centers. Title VII was hailed as a victory for the Independent Living Movement. Today, there are approximately 200 Independent Living centers, many of which had their beginnings in the Title VII program. But with the passage of the 1978 Amendments, the Independent Living (IL) movement crossed a threshold and entered a new stage in its life cycle as a social movement.
On January 15th, 1998 (Martin Luther King's birthday), in a ceremony in the White House East Room, Justin Dart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest civilian honour in the U.S.A. There is no disabled person who deserves this more. Justin has been a fighter for human rights and democracy all his adult life. he has witnessed the degradation, segregation and oppression suffered by so many disabled people around the world and has not only given them his love and empathy, but given his time, his energy and whatever resources he could to changing society to ensure that these horrors no longer happened.
We have learned that on July 28th the government discussed a proposal to set aside 4 billion Czech crowns to construct new buildings for institutional care. This will happen because many existing institutions will be closed down - not due to the good sense of the government, but because the buildings have to be returned to their former owners (restitutions). The owners naturally do not want institutions for people with disabilities in their buildings.
Independence through Mobility by Ralf Hotchkiss is a book about the nuts and bolts of starting a shop and producing the Hotchkiss manual wheelchair with a minimum of equipment, materials, skills and capital in Third World countries.
Ira E. Holland, President of Concepts of Independence, Inc.
Last January the tidal wave of Republican reform finally hit New York State (as it did many other states). With it came a new governor and a new set of home care priorities focused on streamlining a program that served more than 75 thousand people at a cost of nearly $2 billion per year. The governor's goal was to slash $400 million in home care services, which would have forced me and other ventilator-dependent quadriplegics into nursing homes.
Genetics and bioethics are issues at the forefront of media interest. They directly affect disabled people's lives but we are not being invited to partake in the current debates and are mainly unaware of the issues. This seminar aims to change this situation and give disabled people a voice.
CANBERRA, June 8, 2000 (AAP) - The elderly and disabled use new technologies least, even though they could benefit most from them, a new report has found.
Attorney-General Daryl Williams today tabled in parliament a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) report which found new technology could bring huge advantages to the elderly and disabled if access problems were removed.
The report into new service and information technologies said the main barriers to using the Internet and other electronic services for the disabled and elderly were cost, limited access, concerns about privacy and security, and no human touch.
by Dr. Bill Albert,
Chair of the Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People
and the International Sub Committee of
the British Council of Disabled People, 1998
The following paper draws heavily on the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People's (BCODP) discussions on the issue of genetics and disabled people. Please note that this paper is NOT BCODP policy but rather a discussion document intended to encourage debate within the movement. For more information on the issue of genetics and disabled people BCODP please refer to the BCODP web site.
Assistive devices include a variety of tools and equipment that enable disabled people to be independent. A wheelchair can enable a person who cannot walk to move around their home, or to work or school. A white cane may make it possible for a person with a visual difficulty to be mobile, and a hearing aid can enable a deaf person to use a telephone. Provision of such devices help to ensure that people with disabilities function as active members of society.
The World Programme of Action Concerning People with Disabilities, launched by the United Nations in 1983, identifies three major programmes that are central if the marginalisation and oppression of disabled people throughout the world is to be addressed. These are:
European Anti-Discrimination Council ger sin årliga utmärkelse European Citizen Award till Adolf Ratzka, Independent Living Institute för sitt långa arbete mot diskriminerng.
Peter Singer, recently appointed to a tenured chair at the Center for Human Values, begins his first semester of teaching at Princeton University in October, 1999. Princeton University is a prominent leader is shaping national policy on bio-ethics.
Singer is arguing for major policy changes: people with significant cognitive disabilities and infants with any known disability should be killed when there is a benefit to the non-disabled people around them to having them removed.
The first targets of Singer's proposed policy changes are people with cognitive disabilities, perhaps the most devalued members of our community. It is time for all of us to come together in strength to oppose any threat to any one of our brothers and sisters.
EU Parlamentet röstade den 2 april 2009 med 360 mot 227 röster för en föstärkning av det planerade anti-diskrimineringsdirektivet. Bl a ska direktivet uttryckligen betecknar otillgänglinga allmänna kommmunikationer och byggnader som diskrimineringsgrund. Här följer några viktiga utdrag ur texten från Europarlamentets hemsida
HSO, Handikappförbunden, valde den 13 maj den före detta riksdagskvinnan Ingrid Burman som ordförande. Organisationen består av 43 medlemsförbund som sammanlagt representerar en halv milljon medlemmar. Eftersom Ingrid Burman inte har ett funktionshinder kan man tolka HSO:s val att ingen bland HSO:s medlemmar med funktionshinder anses kapabel att vara HSO:s ordförande, att egen erfarenhet av funktionshinder räknas inte som merit. Återigen får vi stå ut med att andra för vår talan, att allmänheten får intrycket att personer med funktionshinder inte kan tala för sig själva.
Panel discussion: Models, milestones and achievements by the Swedish Independent Living organisations, Susanne Berg, November 8 2008.
STIL is the oldest Independent Living organization in Sweden. The organization started the Swedish movement and therefore has worked the longest with the Independent Living model.
At the conference in 1983 the Independent Living movement was presented by Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann among others. It was presented as a movement with two sides, two legs.
