Return Of The "Pool Noodle?"

School bans blind girl from using her walking cane – for fear of tripping up teachers
Emma Lazenby, BT.com - November 17, 201

Just short of a year ago, we read a similar story, about an American school district taking away a young blind boy's white cane because they said he used it to threaten harm to someone. They gave him a semi-flexible foam "pool noodle" instead, and shortly afterwards, gave the cane back to him and apologized for confiscating it. Compared to this British girl, that case seemed like more of a real dilemma. One way or another, safety was at least a bit of a reasonable factor. The disability rights consensus was 1. Don't confiscate a disabled person's main tool for adaptation, and 2. Do make sure that young disabled children are trained in how to use these tools safely and appropriately.

The same formula probably should apply for Lily-Grace, or any kid just starting to use a white cane, crutches, or a wheelchair. Nobody is saying she's reckless with the cane, but she's seven years old, and there's a method to using a while cane. You don't automatically know what to do with a cane just because your blind and they had you one.

Both situations underscore how small disability-related problems get out of hand when one or two people with some sort of veto authority get antsy about anything unfamiliar going on in their professional territories. It gets worse when they happen to have a personal preoccupation with certain aspects of disability life. It may sound strange, but there are people who have very firm opinions about the use and abuse of white canes, crutches, ramps and elevators, and wheelchairs ... not to mention service animals. And they absolutely do not see it as ableism in its purest, simplest form. I suspect the officials responsible for both of these crises felt that they were the only ones with the good sense to raise concerns and put the brakes on well-meaning but carelessly permissive policies. Couple that with administrative procedures that handle contentious issues too slowly and deliberately, and you get, I think, maybe 75% of the news stories about ableism that make it into the mainstream press.

It's so galling when it is happening, that it's easy to froget that most of these situations are resolved more or less properly in the end. Blind kids get to use their white canes in school. Customers can, usually, enter coffee shops with service animals without it making the local news. Most people don't regard ramps and elevators as expensive luxuries, at least once they are fully installed. But in the meantime, massive time is wasted futzing around with pointless deliberations when the eventual outcome is rarely ever in real doubt. This is where a bit of autocracy can actually be a good thing. We need more school principals and headmasters who are willing to say, "I appreciate your concern, but unless there's an actual problem, blind students will be able to use white canes ... or whatever they need ... in our school. That's the way it's going to be."

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Celebrate Access Equality, September 26, 2015

I have been seeing Facebook posts and Tweets from disability blogger, activist, and filmmaker Dominick Evans, about a multifaceted event he’s been planning for September 26, called Celebrate Access Equality. For some reason, I kept mentally noting it and then promptly forgetting about it. I can’t keep track of every disability rights event, and even if I could, I don’t have the time and energy to dive deep into all of them. So this one slipped to the back burner.

Today I got an email from Dominick, which he sent out to a whole bunch of online disability activists and bloggers. I read it, and basically, I’m in! This event is going to be well worth the time and effort, no matter what kind of disability rights activity you are into. Here is Dominick’s email.

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are well! I’m writing to tell you about a project I’ve been working on the last several months. I am working with others with disabilities around the world to promote a day to educate and inform about access barriers. I believe that the vast majority of discrimination people with disabilities face is due to lack of access.

In my mind, access isn’t just about physically being able to move around this world. Access barriers can be mental and emotional. Access barriers can include stigma and oppression. As such, something needs to change. We need to make the  world aware of access barriers, so that real change can be made. That is the idea behind the day of Access Equality.

Participation can occur anywhere in the world. There are a variety of ways to participate. These include:

-blogging

-sharing our FB page located here:  https://www.facebook.com/AccessEquality

-tweeting about access barriers using  #AccessEquality

-contacting state and federal government representatives

-protest in your own community

-sign petitions relating to access barriers

-rate a business for accessibility on apps like AXS Map and AbleRoad

-support organizations holding protests, actions, and events on September 26 by sharing their updates

We’re also planning events throughout the day, including a twitter chat, and live streaming.

We are offering two gift cards on Amazon to encourage participation. One person will randomly be selected from those who choose to blog, and one person will be selected from those who take pictures in their community and post them to our FB page and/or using our #AccessEquality. Participants do not have to be disabled themselves, although we heartily encourage individuals to share their own personal experiences with access barriers!

The idea is to create so much content and noise on September 26 that it is too hard not to notice us.

You can find more ideas and information here:

http://www.dominickevans.com/2015/09/celebrate-access-equality-on-september-26/

I could really use your help. Please share this information with your networks and encourage participation. Please also consider participating. We need your voices!!

I appreciate your consideration and possible participation.

Thanks,

Dominick

I plan on joining in the Twitter discussion on September 26, posting a blog post here at Disability Thinking on that day, and helping promote all of the above activities.

Most of all, I plan to help Dominick kick off a really significant push for disabled people and disability activists to enter hundreds, maybe thousands of businesses into online accessibility mapping tools like AbleRoad and AXS Map. Nothing is definite yet, but it looks like our best bet will be to use AXS Map, which has a feature that keeps track of group mapping efforts.

To review ...

These mapping tools use existing Internet-based maps and consumer review sites like Yelp to form the basis of easily consulted reports on accessibility at businesses and other public facilities. Both programs can be added to and consulted on a PC’s web browser, and both also have accompanying mobile apps, so you can enter reviews immediately, without having to take notes and enter them later. Anyone can go to one or both of these sites, download the apps, and get started. If you’re still foggy on how this works, check out this video:

Our tentative plan is to set up a Mapathon at AXS Map, and invite people to register (for free) and commit to enter a certain number of site accessibility reviews. We are thinking we will use September 26 for the kickoff, with an end date of December 31. As soon as the Mapathon is set up, we’ll announce how to get started.

Meanwhile, here is some additional information about the September 26 Access Equality Day:

Celebrate Access Equality on September 26

Dominick Evans - September 14, 2015

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Accessibility Apps Need Us!

I spent the morning exploring the new Apple mobile device operating system, iOS 9. Among other improvements, the Maps app offers more information on businesses and attractions. Just click the label for, say, the Dunkin’ Donuts on Main Street, and you’ll see the address, phone number, price information, and both quotes and a direct link to Yelp reviews. I live in a small City and I don’t travel much, so I don’t expect to use the Maps app much myself, but it’s pretty cool.

It also got me wondering, for the eleventyith time, why we still don’t have a really comprehensive Internet-based database where disabled people can find out about the accessibility conditions at all kinds of businesses.

There are a few sites and apps designed specifically for accessibility ratings, like AXS Map and AbleRoad. Both build upon existing mapping and review services, Google Maps and Yelp respectively. This seems like the obvious way to document accessibility everywhere. The information can then serve as a guide to individual disabled people, and as an advocacy tool to encourage business to address their accessibility problems sooner rather than later.

The problem is that the system will only work if enough people add accessibility reviews, and that is up to us, the disability community. I don’t know how many disabled people regularly add accessibility reviews with mobile apps or websites, but I almost never hear anyone mention it, either in person or on disability blogs like this one. I could be all wrong, but it still feels like most of the disability community complains about accessibility, but relatively few of us help document the problem using tools that are more effective and easy to use than anything we’ve had before.

Isn’t this something we could all get behind? Can't we do this?

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Imagining The Next Apple Event

I watched today's Apple Event, which included a major overhaul of the Apple TV system. I may find the new Apple TV hard to resist, but I'm going to try.

The new Apple TV will apparently run stand-alone apps. This suggests the possibility of using Apple TV, with its new Bluetooth remote and Siri-based voice controls, to run a full slate of household appliances and devices. This could make it the most elegant and complete home automation unit ever ... a blast for tech nerds, and a major liberation for people with significant physical disabilities.

Imagine turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors and windows, turning heat or air conditioning up and down, controlling kitchen devices, or flushing a toilet through voice commands or the flick of a thumb. That's what I'm talking about. It's not far fetched at all. Lots of companies already sell control devices you can plug into any standard appliance, and control from a central unit like a smartphone. It's just that right now it's a rather confusing and very expensive field. Apple is great at making things easy to use, and, if not cheap, at least reasonably priced and easy to pay for. Apple seems like the perfect company to make environmental controls an everyday, common reality, including for disabled people.

The problem is, I still don't know and I can't seem to find out whether anything like this will be included in the new Apple TV, or any of Apple's other product lines. If anyone knows about new apps and systems that maybe just didn't make it into the event, please let me know.

The last Apple Event, back in March, did include a lengthy demonstration of Home Kit, a suite of home appliance devices controlled mainly through an iPhone. However, the presentation was a bit confusing and I don't recall Tim Cook mentioning how useful these controls could be for disabled people.

Here is what I hope to see, maybe at the next Apple Event:

- A smoothly operating, flexible, and simple home appliance control app that will work on any Apple device, including the Apple TV.

- A control app designed by Apple, included free with all Apple operating systems. Users would pay only for each device control unit they want or need for their own homes, purchased from third-party developers.

- I would love to see Tim Cook introduce a person with significant physical disabilities to explain and demonstrate the app at the Apple Event. It worked well when he had Christy Turlington introduce the Apple Watch's fitness features.

I don't mean to imply that the system is only for disabled people. It's just that disabled people can dramatically illustrate, in a unique and memorable way, how useful environmental controls could be for everyone.

Apple is already a leader in making its products accessible to disabled people. I am still waiting for the company to turn it's products into tools to make the whole world more accessible for everyone, especially disabled people.

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I Almost Overlooked A Worthy Petition

"Make Drew Feel Incredible (because he is)."

"Everyone deserves the opportunity to feel special."

These are the first two lines of text I read of an email from Change.org. My first though was, “Oh, no! Another non-disabled brother, sister, or parent asking people to please, make a disabled kid’s day by helping them rack up a million “Likes”, or voting for them to win some “special hero" contest they’re about as likely to win as being struck by lightning. I see stuff like this a lot on Facebook, and occasionally in emails, too. They make me feel rotten because the intent behind them is obviously good, but the neediness implied underneath is nauseating.

Then, for some reason, instead of trashing the email, I read it more closely. First I noticed a sub-headline I’d missed because the text was a sort of gray color instead of black. It reads:

"Petitioning Warby Parker"

Now, because I listen to a few hipster podcasts, I know that Warby Parker is an Internet-based mail-order company that sells glasses. Apparently, you fill out a style preference questionnaire online and they send you several pairs of actual glasses of different styles for you to try on at home. You keep the one you like and send the others back. And of course, they’re all meant to be absolutely in style, especially, I’m guessing, for millennials and hipsters of all ages.

So, now I’m intrigued.

I read on, and discover that this is a petition to get Warby Parker to offer some more in-style frames that fit some of the unique face-nose-ear shapes and sizes common to people with Down Syndrome. The creator of the campaign, Bre Whitehead, appears to be the sister of a young man with Down Syndrome who she says, "has a killer fashion sense, and likes to be on trend.” He can’t get cool looking glasses though because none of those designs as currently offered work for his smallish ears and nose bridge.

Having a body that doesn’t match up well with clothes I’d like to wear is familiar to me. So, I’m sold. This is brilliant and amazing and here is why:

- If the petition succeeds, this will make Andrew (the brother, not me) feel special, but in a way that is very specific to his personality, not in some generic or essentially meaningless way, like a million “Likes” or a pizza party or something.

- The petition also calls attention to a very specific, probably not well-known, but really meaningful barrier to the general happiness and freedom of expression of people with a certain kind of disability. Assuming what the sister is saying is more or less true, an entire group of people being stuck with ugly specs is a big deal, especially when they, especially benefit from standing out visually in unique and expressive ways.

- Because we’re talking about cool glasses and not food, clothing, shelter, or healthcare, there’s probably nobody else even thinking about addressing this issue.

- The petition targets a company that can do something about it … if it’s possible to do so … and one that professes to exist partly to be altruistic.

- Andrew will feel special, and so will other people with Down Syndrome, because they will have more choices than before. Choice is something a lot of disabled people don’t have, because we need a thing, but they only make one kind of that thing that will work for us, if we are lucky.

- Finally, I love that Ms. Whitehead isn’t asking for something just for her brother. She’s linking what he needs with what a lot of other people like him probably need (and want!), and aiming for a systemic solution, not an individual gesture of charity.

The reason I am making such a big deal out of this is that because i first mistook this email for a syrupy disability beg, and then realized it was sort of the opposite, it helped me think about the difference between the two approaches people take towards “helping” disabled people. From a distance, people might not see the difference. But it’s night and day to me.

I’ve signed the petition, and so should you.

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Apple Followups

A couple of months ago I blogged about possible disability uses for the new Apple Watch. It looks like folks are finding unexpected uses already:

A Deafblind Woman Found a Hidden Feature in Her Apple Watch That Changed Her Life

Max Plenke, News.Mic - May 4, 2015

Also of note, well-deserved recognition for Apple’s VoiceOver, just one of the many accessibility features installed standard in all Apple devices.

Apple receives Helen Keller award for VoiceOver technology

Buster Hein, Cult Of Mac - May 6, 2015

I’m honestly not on Apple’s payroll. It’s just that I’ve been using Apple things since the late ‘80s, and I’ve met many disabled people who swear by their accessibility tools.

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Netflix Makes A Good Decision

Netflix Begins Audio Description for Visually Impaired

Tracy Wright, Netflix US & Canada Blog - April 14, 2015

One good thing about terrible, self-sabotaging decisions by high-profile corporations as that they can usually be reversed very quickly, with the right kind of targeted advocacy. This appears to be a great start, and I am especially glad Netflix won’t stop with just Daredevil.

Congratulations to all the bloggers and petition signers who helped make this happen. And biggest thanks to the folks at the Accessible Netflix Project, who have been working on this literally for years.

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Accessible Netflix Petition

Petitioning Netflix: Make Daredevil Available to The Blind Community ... Change.org.

I rarely post two items in a row on the same topic, but this “Daredevil” accessibility issue with Netflix is the Platonic Ideal of a disability advocacy issue:

- Netflix still won’t provide Audio Description for the blind for its new “Daredevil” series … or any of its other shows for that matter.

- “Daredevil” is a TV adaptation of a Marvel Comics superhero who is blind.

- A CNBC story says that it costs between $1,000 and $5,000 to provide Audio Description, the amount depending on length of a show. That seems like a lot of money for you and me, but for Netflix? Come on.

- Netflix’s non-response response, after almost 3 years of advocacy, suggests that there’s no real opposing view here. It’s just apathy and neglect. That is sadly typical of disability issues, where the most common enemy isn’t opposition, but indifference.

- The issue is important to blind people in a very direct way. It is important to all disabled people as a matter of principal and precedent. Yet, it is not so important or complex that it scares off people who don't like getting involved in advocacy with intense emotions, a steep learning curve, and a lot at stake.

Please sign the Change.org petition, Tweet it, and Facebook it.

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Daredevil: Live Tweet, First Impressions, and an Epic Accessibility Fail

Last night’s Daredevil live tweet, under the #DaredevilDVP hashtag, was a blast. Alice Wong has assembled a Storify to archive the event.

“Marvel’s Daredevil” itself, the new Netflix series posted just yesterday, is pretty great, too. It’s dark without being gloomy, funny but not frivolous, and the action is exciting and violent without (yet) feeling dehumanizing … though parental discretion is most definitely advised. I have only seen the first episode, but the show is very promising.

As disability depictions go, Matt Murdock / a.k.a. Daredevil, the blind superhero isn’t bad, but not yet a revelation. The show indulges in a few blindness cliches, like face-touching and wishing to see again. But the show does interesting things with these themes and they feel more earned and specific than usual. My only concern is that if Murdock continues dropping clever one-liners about being blind, well into the series, the whole “Get it? I’m blind!” schtick could become stale. My guess is that the blindness stuff will fade into the background while we dig into the story.

By all means, watch Daredevil. But while you watch, ponder the fact that while blindness is an integral part of the Daredevil story, Netflix so far has not provided an Audio Description track that would enable blind viewers to enjoy the show fully. It’s bad corporate citizenship for Netflix to neglect Audio Description as it does for all shows, but it’s laughably terrible PR for them to leave it out of this show in particular, and to fail to respond meaningfully to people who have been asking about it since last summer.

Fans to Netflix: Make Daredevil accessible to the blind

Tom DiChristopher, CNBC - April 10, 2015

Daredevil, Man Without Fear … Accessible Netflix Project

manwithoutfear.com - July 17, 2014

Accessible Netflix Project

Get it together, Netflix. You've got another good show there. Don't ruin it by stonewalling on Audio Description. Just make it happen.

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Throwback Thursday

A year ago in Disability thinking ... A Ventilator In A Fraternity House.

I need to do more biographical posts.

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Thinking About The Apple Watch, Drooling Just A Bit

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch seems useless — just like the first PCs and smartphones

Timothy B. Lee, Vox.com - March 10, 2015

Covering the Apple Watch Launch as a Blind Apple Fan

Francie Diep, Pacific Standard - March 10, 2015

I won’t be buying an Apple Watch anytime soon. A new iPhone might be in my future, but not an Apple Watch, though I have to admit, it looks pretty cool. Apple products always at least look good.

It does look like the Apple Watch might have a couple of advantages for disabled people over other “smart” devices:

1. You wear it on your wrist, so it’s probably easy to get to and hard to lose. You can also probably mount it in a dozen other creative ways ... strapped to a wheelchair armrest, hung on a chain around your neck, wrapped around a cane.

2. It's got those sensors on the back that can detect your heart rate, and motion sensors that can tell when you are standing, sitting, walking, running, etc. This suggests could monitor some chronic health conditions. If those sensors are possible, others might be not far off, like sensors for blood sugar (diabetes), oxygen levels (asthma), or maybe even mood.

An iPhone could be made that would accomplish these things pretty easily. Apple could add diagnostic sensors to the back. Third-party companies could sell all sorts of add-on straps and holders to secure the phone in a wide variety of situations and orientations. Still, the watch’s size and convenience may offer advantages no phone or tablet can match.

I doubt the Apple Watch as currently conceived and marketed will revolutionize life for disabled people, but it does seem like the kind of multipurpose gadget that creative minds could adapt and put to use in ways Apple might never have thought about.

For example:

Voice Output … It would be great to be able to record and store lots of phrases for daily use by people with speech impairment, easily retrieved and then played on the watch. It may already be able to do this in a rough sort of way, using the watch's speech to text feature. Note: There seems to be some ambiguity about whether VoiceOver will work on the Apple Watch. VoiceOver is a feature built into all current Apple devices that audibly “reads” whatever is on the screen, mainly for the benefit of visually impaired users. It seems to me very unlikely that VoiceOver wouldn’t work on the Apple Watch, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Voice Input … Siri comes standard with the Apple Watch, same as the iPhone, and you can control all of these devices with your voice, using Siri. A few tweaks here and there to Siri and maybe other apps, should easily make the Apple Watch fully voice operable. This could be extra helpful for people who can’t use their hands, or have difficulty working with really small displays and icons.

Environmental Controls … The Apple Watch will have a built-in app that turns it into a remote control for your TV and music devices. Could it be that difficult for someone to design an app that controls automatic devices … such as door and window openers, lights, thermostats, even an adjustable bed ... throughout a house or apartment? Environmental controls for disabled people have been around for years, but tend to be expensive and tied to very specialized and exclusive control systems. A wrist-based controller that adjusts to multiple systems seems like a natural.

Identification … The health app on the iPhone already has a feature that stores your personal medical information for emergency retrieval. A similar app could be easily designed to store information and helpful instructions for people with disabilities that sometimes impair communication and require help from random strangers, not just EMT and ER doctors.

Personal Emergency Response … Personal Emergency Response Systems already use pendants and watch-like controllers, so again, creating apps for these services should be easy. It may even have the basic capability of direct two-way verbal communication. At minimum, it seems capable already of sending a verbally dictated text message to anyone with a receiving app.

The Apple Watch is going to be expensive, and I’m not even thinking about the $10,000 gold “Edition” edition. But iPhones are expensive, too. The thing is these devices do more than one thing, which makes their higher prices a reasonable value, even for people without a lot of money. If programs like private health insurance, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Medicaid were to see the adaptive value of such devices, they might come within reach of people with even the highest adaptive needs, and lowest incomes.

Of course, there are also going to be features of the Apple Watch that are basically already fully available through other devices, either existing iOS apps, or websites any Apple device … or any computer device at all … can access. Once you see the thing as a platform more than a purpose-built device, the possibilities do seem endless.

So, I’m not buying an Apple Watch yet, but I know better than to say “never”.

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That Wheelchair

National Museum Of American History

Ed Roberts' Wheelchair Records a Story of Obstacles Overcome

Victoria Dawson, Smithsonian.com - March 13, 2015

It’s hard to believe Ed Roberts died 20 years ago. I never met him, but by creating the Independent Living movement, he was one of the most influential people in my life. Ed Roberts was inspirational, in the best, least sentimental, most literal sense. His example libertates disabled people, and his ideas give structure to our struggle for equality and freedom:

“ … a man who defied—and encouraged others to defy—the once-undisputed view that severely disabled people belonged in institutions and that the able-bodied best knew what the disabled needed."

I guess if you have to boil Independent Living … and all of Disability Culture for that matter … into two points, those are good ones.

As for the wheelchair, I love how used, personalized, and “lived in” it looks. I also appreciate what Simi Linton says about wheelchairs in a quote in the Smithsonian article:

"'It isn’t a device that binds us or limits us: it is an ally, an accommodation,' says Simi Linton, a consultant on disability and the arts, the author of My Body Politic, and herself a wheelchair user. 'It shows a disabled person’s authority over the terms of mobility. It expands our horizons.'"

Ed Roberts and the birth of Independent Living are both part of history. Yet, the issues today are basically the same as they have been from the start. We still struggle to help disabled people live on their own terms. Disabled voices still have to fight to be heard and listened to. And people still view disabled people and their accessories with as sort of low-grade dread.

There’s still a lot of work to do. Even thought some of the surface issues have changed, and even though expectations for disabled people are, thankfully, somewhat higher than they used to be, the goals and battles are basically same.

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Dog Video Of The Day

Disabled wiener dog gets a 3D-printed wheelchair

Bonnie Burton, C-Net - January 28, 2015

I’m not feeling very chatty today, so I figured I’d share this story and embed one of the videos.

Notice that the reporter doesn’t call the dog “wheelchair bound”, usually a go-to journalistic term for human beings who use wheelchairs.

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Turtle - Lego - Wheelchair

This video and the story behind it has been making the rounds of disability blogs for a couple of weeks now. I finally watched it and I have say, it's worth sitting through all the German for the eventual payoff. It’s cool as a still picture, but even cooler on video.

The Boy With The Cane. Or, What The Heck Is A "Pool Noodle"?

School punishes blind child by taking away cane and replacing it with a pool noodle

Fox2 Now St. Louis - December 17, 2014

So, first I had to look up what a “pool noodle” is. Turns out it is a long, thick, semi-flexible “stick” made of squishy styrofoam, used as a toy or perhaps a sort of float by kids in swimming pools. Looking at pictures of “pool noodles”, I can see right away what the school staff were thinking. It’s long and semi-rigid, so it could, in theory, provide some of the sensory feedback of the canes used by blind people. At the same time, it is made of a material that can’t really hurt anyone, even if used as a deliberate weapon. I’d bet real money that there is at least one person at that school who really, honestly thought they had come up with a brilliant solution to a perceived disciplinary problem.

Of course, one suspects that the “problem” was either overblown or nonexistent. Dakota’s parents say it was all a misunderstanding … that the bus attendant might have seen him raise his cane and assumed it was to hit someone.

To me, this isn’t the issue. Dakota is still a young boy. It’s entirely possible that on occasion, he’s used his cane in questionable ways. It’s also possible he’s still learning how to control his cane, and not accidentally bump it into people or trip them up. The point to me is that the school should have a more thoughtful set of guidelines and procedures for how to deal with Dakota if he should misbehave, as most 8-year-olds misbehave from time to time. And a central tenet of any disciplinary plan should be to never take away an assistive device a child depends on for independence and mobility. This would apply to canes, crutches, a speech device, a wheelchair, or any other equipment that helps them with their particular disability.

It seems to me that part of the formula for kids like Dakota should be some sort of peer counseling “real talk” where someone he trusts … maybe a blind adult ... tells him, as a friend and ally, that assistive devices should never be used as weapons or to cause mischief. Teach disabled kids that they have an absolute right to their devices. They are not revokable privileges like a cell phone. But they also have a responsibility to use and look after their devices with great care. That seems like an essential bit of “growing up” that disabled kids, in particular, have to do. In a way, it’s part of learning self-advocacy.

As a side note, I found it kind of appalling that apparently, the cane was supplied by the school, which is one of the excuses the school used for taking it away. I suppose it’s good they provided the cane, if Dakota’s family can’t afford one, but also reminds me of all the ridiculous angst some school administrators go through over fears that school-provided assistive devices will be “misused” … including being taken home. Especially with something like a cane, whoever pays for it ought to just give it to the person who needs it, with no strings attached.

Update: Via @SFdireworlf, Dakota's school district apologized for taking his cane away. 1. I hope the district also agrees on a disciplinary policy that excludes confiscation of adaptive devices, and 2. I hope Dakota gets a cane of his own.

In The Driver's Seat

Getting a Driver’s License When You Have Special Needs…This Amazing Young Woman Shares Her Story

Charisse Hogan, Shared Abilities - September 20, 2014

I wish Charisse’s video had been available when I was young.

I learned to drive during my Senior Year in college, which isn’t really all that late, I know. At the time, though, it felt like I was finally getting around to trying one of the few things I had put off in my life specifically and solely because of my disability. It was scary and alluring at the same time. And the first, most important obstacle actually to experience the physical sensations of driving. After literally only about 10 minutes of tentative driving in an empty parking lot, with an instructor and a driver’s seat piled high with with text books and pillows, I knew that driving was going to be possible. In fact, I quickly got the feeling that it wasn’t even going to be that difficult. Before that, I couldn’t imagine doing it.

Maybe that’s a disability thing. We have a little more trouble imaging in doing certain things other people do, and there are both physical and psychological hurdles to even trying.

I was also very fortunate not to be tied in with a formal training program of any kind. I hired a local high school driving instructor who also had a talent for adaptation. He worked up the measurements for changes to the driver's seat and pedal blocks, which a local car customization shop implemented. Of course, I didn’t have any neurological issues to deal with … for me it was mostly about my height. I often wonder how things would have gone for me if I had needed adjustments more completed than a lifted and tilted seat.

Anyway, given the scheduling difficulties she mentions, it’s great that Charisse started the process early. If she gets her license this year, she’ll have gotten it a year earlier than the age I got mine.

Video Of The Day

It seems appropriate to embed this Amputee OT video, seeing as how two of the main characters on “Red Band Society” are amputees. Another detail I didn’t mention was that Leo never wore a prosthetic in the Pilot, at least not that I noticed. Since it isn’t clear how long ago his leg was amputated, so maybe he’s not ready for one yet, but it could be just another authenticity fail on the part of the writers.

Schedules

The Schedule Talk

It Keeps Going - August 20, 2014

(Via the Wheelie Wifee Tumblr blog)

This blogger goes on my favorite disability blogger list because she focuses on practical ways to combat depression, aimlessness, and inactivity … risks I think disabled people face more than most. This is especially true for those of us who do not have jobs. There are usually good reasons why we don't, but whether or not you are even in the market for a job, it can get really depressing when it seems like you have nothing to do every day.

I would like to note three more benefits for disabled people of making and using a schedule, beyond the benefits discussed in the article:

1. It keeps you ready for the rhythms of employment, in case the right opportunity comes along to get back to the workplace.

2. It provides you with coherent answers to job interview questions about what you’ve been doing while unemployed.

3. If you need to apply for disability-related benefits, a detailed daily schedule can help document the extent and limits of your activities.

For my schedule, I use Apple Calendar and Todo, applications that work on my Macintosh computer and iPhone.

More Important, Not Less

Don’t Let Medicare Take Away Severely Disabled People’s Ability to Communicate!

Center for Medicare Advocacy

Medicare plans to stop approving purchase of speech devices … electronic machines that generate speech for people who can’t speak due to a disability … for people in health care facilities like nursing homes. Picture Stephen Hawking with his voice synthesizer.

The rationale, it seems, is that such facilities provide total care, so it’s less important for the patient to be able to communicate.

The same rationale use to be used … may still for all I know … to refuse purchase of electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters for people in nursing homes and other institutions. Someone in such a facility doesn’t need to be mobile in an institutional setting, because the institution does everything for them.

In both cases, this is a twisted rationale only a penny-pinching bureaucrat could come up with. I’m not knocking penny-pinching bureaucrats. It’s not horrible for someone to ASK whether these devices are still necessary for people in medical facilities. The problem is that other people with some knowledge of health care and disability (including disability rights) should answer that yes, they are necessary. In fact, they may be more necessary since even the “best” institutions tend to curtail patient mobility and healthy activity, and communication is the patient’s best protection from neglect, abuse, or medical error.

Let me say it again … it’s fine to question what some might see as “sacred cows”. But the accountants need to sit down and shut up when the items they want to skimp on are found to be, in fact, vital.

Click the link above to write to your Members of Congress.

Welcome Ramps!

ConvertaStep

Via the Cripple Fabulous: Hell On Crutches Tumblr blog.

It’s accessibility day, I guess. These ramp / welcome mat things go well with the article on cardboard furniture.