The Office of Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announces the first-ever federal resource center for women with disabilities as part of the expanding National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC). NWHIC serves as a single gateway to thousands of federal and private sector publications and organizations on women's health through its Web site (http://www.4woman.gov) and toll-free information number (1-800-994WOMAN).

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991

Contents

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Design guidelines of public collective housing for the aging society:
The move toward a new era in Japan

Satoshi Kose, Building Design and Use Division, Building Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan

 Other Columns

by: Audrey King

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Harare 1992

Contents

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UWZ efforts in improving accessibility in Zanzibar Stone Town

H. Khalfan, DPI, Zanzibar, Tanzania

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.

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.

Presentation at the Munich Disability Policy Meeting, November 13, 1995

by Dr. Andreas Jürgens,
legal counsel to ISL, e.V. (Interessenvertretung "Selbstbestimmt Leben" Deutschland e. V. - ISL)

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.

This documentation is courtesy the International Labour Organisation.

Convention concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons)
(Note: Date of coming into force: 20:06:1985.)

Description:     (Convention)
CONVENTION:     C159
PLACE:     Geneva
CONFERENCE_SESSION:     69
ADOPTION:     20:06:1983

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office and having met in its Sixty-ninth Session on 1 June 1983, and

"Legislation for Human Rights"

Stockholm, Sweden, 24 August 1998

by Judith C. Heumann, State Secretary

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.

Tools for Power: Disability and aging

Independent Living Movement: organizing for an active, disabled old age

by Judith E. Heumann

Memo To: The World
From: Candace Hawkins

by Harlan Hahn, University of Southern California (1985)

Contents

Abstract

The Definition of Disability

The Medical Definition
The Economic Definition
The Socio-Political Definition

Toward a Politics of Disability: Traditions and Prospects

Summary and Conclusion

Notes

"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...

The background

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991

Contents

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Harare 1992

Febby Chizima, ZAFOD, Lusaka, Zambia

På svenska

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.

Dear friends,

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.

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.

Introduction

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.

Aims and Objectives

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.

I