Hi folks,
I have Dave's permission to share this whole issue of the I D E with you, as I felt it was a really great issue this week, and will give you insight as to why I pay for a subscription. I think Dave does an excellent job.

Mag
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave at Inclusion Daily Express
To: News at Inclusion Daily Express
Sent: 6/28/2005 3:13:11 PM
Subject: Inclusion Daily Express -- Week of June 20 - 24, 2005


INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS
International Disability Rights News Service
http://www.InclusionDaily.com
Your quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the movement toward full community inclusion around the world.
Dear Inclusion Daily Express reader,
Because I was out of the office for most the week attending the Washington Initiative for Supported Employment Conference, I am switching from the usual daily format to bring you all of the week's news in this one edition (with many links on the one Below The Fold page).
I may also use this format for the week of June 27 through July 1, because I am heading out of town to conduct a train-the-trainer course on how to use computers, in Port Townsend, Washington.
Inclusion Daily Express will return with the usual daily format on July 5.
I hope you have a terrific week. -- Dave Reynolds, Editor
Week of June 20 through June 24, 2005
Year VI, Edition 1152
This front section features 15 news and information items, each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the "Below the Fold" link at the bottom of this section for 86 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"I'm not cutting their services. I'm going to provide their services in a nursing home."
--Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, when asked by Randy Alexander of Tennessee ADAPT if he plans to institutionalize about 100 citizens who use ventilators and are on the state's Medicaid program, TennCare. Activists took over the governor's office on Monday (First story)
"We are talking about basic human rights here . . . You have admitted today this state is willing to imprison people simply because they have a disability."
--Randy Alexander of Tennessee ADAPT responding to Governor Bredesen's comments above (First story)
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# ADVOCACY / COMMUNITY LIVING

Tennessee Disability Rights Activists Take Over Governor's Office, Demand Changes In Health Care Budget
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 20-24, 2005

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE--On Monday morning, June 20, a group of about 30 activists swarmed the office of Governor Phil Bredesen, demanding he rethink his cuts to the state's health care program for seniors and citizens with low incomes and disabilities -- cuts that would lead many more Tennesseans to be institutionalized or go without health care all together.
Some of the protesters are still in the governor's office.
The demonstrators are a diverse mix, representing civil, senior and disability rights advocates. They want the governor to halt his plans to cut up to 323,000 people from TennCare, part of which is the state's Medicaid health care program.
Disability rights advocates from ADAPT and the Memphis Center for Independent Living are particularly angered over the proposal which would cause about 100 ventilator users to be moved from their homes in the community into nursing homes -- probably outside the state -- along with Bredesen's comments that the moves amount to compassion on his part.
When Randy Alexander of Tennessee ADAPT asked Bredesen before the protest if he planned to institutionalize people because of their disabilities, the governor responded: "Yes, I care about them."
"I'm not cutting their services. I'm going to provide their services in a nursing home."
Alexander replied: "We are talking about basic human rights here . . .. You have admitted today this state is willing to imprison people simply because they have a disability."
The disability groups point out that in 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its famous Olmstead decision that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires states to provide services "in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities."
By the end of the week, several of the protesters were still occupying the governor's office and the hallway outside it. They still did not have a commitment from the governor to alter his plans, or to meet publicly with the group.
"We will stay as long as necessary," said protester Louis Patrick. "Absolutely, no doubt, we are staying."
Related:
"Governor Bredesen Issues Life Sentences to Vent Users" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/061605s.asp
"The concern over the governors statement" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/061805s.asp
"DAY ONE: Activists Takeover Gov. Bredesen's Office" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/062005s.asp
"DAY TWO: Activists Takeover Gov. Bredesen's Office" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/062105s1.asp
"DAY THREE: Bredesen refuses to meet publicly" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/062205s.asp
"Bredesen, TennCare enrollees meet" (Tennessean)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0620a.htm
"DAY FOUR: Activists remain determined for a public accounting by Governor Bredesen" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/062305s.asp
"DAY FIVE: The Occupation Grows" (MCIL)
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2005/062405s.asp
"AARP to join battle over TennCare" (Tennessean)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0620b.htm
"Opinion: Desperate TennCare Protests" (Tennessean)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0620c.htm
---
Monday, June 20, 2005
---
# CRIME

Florida Agencies Settle To Avoid Rape Suits
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 20, 2005

PORT CHARLOTTE, FLORIDA--Last week, the Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF), and the Children's Home Society of Florida (CHS) agreed to pay a woman with developmental disabilities who was raped as a teenager while in a state-licensed group home.
The woman, identified only as "Dorothy" to protect her privacy, was sent to a group home in 1999 where a caregiver repeatedly coaxed her into sex acts when she was 15 years old. That caregiver, James M. Carver, pleaded guilty in 2003 to lewd sexual battery of a minor and lewd conduct involving a minor, and was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison.
Dorothy became pregnant and had to fight to keep her daughter, who is now 4 years old. She sued both DCF and CHS. Her trial was scheduled to begin on June 14, when it was announced that DCF agreed to pay her $500,000. The next day, CHS, which was responsible for monitoring the group home, agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount.
Her attorney said she now lives in a supervised community setting, where she is learning life and parenting skills. The money will be used to help her raise the child.
Media coverage of Dorothy's case was overshadowed by that of another young woman, identified in the news as "J.D.S.". The woman, who has autism, intellectual disabilities and cerebral palsy, was raped and impregnated by the husband of her Orlando group home's operator. J.D.S.' story made national news when Governor Jeb Bush tried unsuccessfully to appoint a guardian to protect the fetus from a possible abortion. J.D.S.' guardian decided to let that pregnancy continue to full term.
Related:
"Disabled woman settles suit" (Orlando Sentinel)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0620e.htm
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Tuesday, June 21, 2005
---
# FAMILIES / CHILDREN

Mother Admits Punching Boy For Bullying Her Son
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 21, 2005

NELSON, NEW ZEALAND--A Nelson mother was fined $200 last week for striking a boy who was bullying her partially blind son.
The woman, whose name is being protected by the courts, admitted in Nelson District Court to pushing the 11-year-old off his skateboard and punching him in the cheek. According to the New Zealand Press Association, one of the boy's teeth went into his tongue, making it bleed.
The woman said she had confronted the boy after he spat on her son, who was lying on the driveway, and repeatedly flicked a T-shirt into his sighted eye.
"It was a catalyst for her to become distressed and understandably irate," said Judge David Ongley on June 16. "But there's still the fact she hit a child."
The unnamed mother said: "There was no excuse. I should have never done what I did."
A local businesswoman offered to pay the fine.
"Everyone is very protective of their children and probably even more so if they have a disability," said Miranda Wood Van Dyke, the founder of the New Zealand Nature Company, who came forward with the donation.
"I find it incredible that kids would behave like that and that parents would tolerate that."
---
# AWARENESS

Survey: Most Parents With Intellectual Disabilities Should Be Allowed To Raise Their Own Children
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 21, 2005

LONDON, ENGLAND--A new poll sponsored by the charity Mencap has found that most people -- 90 percent, in fact -- agree that parents with intellectual disabilities should be allowed to raise their own children, if they are given right supports to do so.
According to Monday's Daily Mail, surveyors questioned 1,000 people in the United Kingdom as part of Learning Disability Week.
The researchers found that 89 percent of respondents agree that people with such disabilities should be able to choose where they live.
Sixty-four percent of those polled said they had met someone with an intellectual disability within the past year.
Mencap said there is still much to do to educate the public about intellectual disabilities, called "learning disabilities" in the UK. Much of the public still believes, for instance, that people can be cured of these disabilities, or that they are a form of mental illness.
Related:
Learning Disability Week (Mencap)
http://www.mencap.org.uk/html/ldw/index.htm
---
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
---
# TECHNOLOGY / ARTS

Trumpeter Plays Again, 10 Years After Spine Injury
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 22, 2005

ORKNEY ISLANDS, SCOTLAND--Over a decade ago, Clarence Adoo was a well-known trumpet player who performed with the Northern Sinfonia chamber orchestra.
When his spine was injured in a car accident and he was paralyzed below the neck, few thought he would ever perform again.
But Wednesday afternoon, Adoo did perform at the St. Magnus Festival.
Adoo's instrument was not a traditional trumpet, but an electronic synthesizer called HeadSpace. Adoo controls the instrument by movements of head through a mounted sensor and by using his breaths through an air tube.
"First and foremost I just have to really, really try and keep focused and do my job the best I can," he told Grampian TV before the performance. "I don't think I will perhaps enjoy it until, hopefully, people are clapping and not throwing tomatoes at us. I think that's when it will really sink in as to what I've actually done."
Adoo said he hopes the performance will inspire other musicians with disabilities.
Related article with video clips:
"Paralysed musician makes comeback" (Grampian TV)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0622a.htm
Clarence Adoo's Website
http://www.clarence.org.uk
---
# INSTITUTIONS

"Opinion: Close Fircrest, Spread The Savings"
June 22, 2005

SHORELINE, WASHINGTON--The following three paragraphs are excerpts from an editorial in Wednesday's Seattle Times:
Powerful unions and emotional stories about individual circumstances unfortunately have delayed the inevitable closure of the Fircrest School for the developmentally disabled.
Instead of proceeding to an orderly shutdown of the state-run facility in Shoreline, Gov. Christine Gregoire has acquiesced to an expensive study of a vastly more expensive anachronism. Fircrest consumes tax dollars that could be better spread to more developmentally disabled people and their families in community settings.
Fircrest's residential concept went out of fashion with families who used court rulings and changing times to argue for, and seek out, less-structured settings.
Entire article:
"Opinion: Close Fircrest, spread the savings" (Seattle Times)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0622b.htm
Related:
"Fircrest phaseout halted for study" (Seattle Times)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0622c.htm
"Washington State's Institutions: Fircrest School" (Inclusion Daily Express)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/wa/fircrest.htm
---
# TRANSPORTATION / ACCESSIBILITY

Amtrak Can Charge Extra For Groups Of Wheelchair Users, Judge Says
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 22, 2005

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA--Disability rights activists in Pennsylvania were considering this week whether to appeal a federal judge's decision in which he ruled that Amtrak could charge the group of wheelchair users extra to ride together in the same train car.
The members of Disabled in Action of Pennsylvania sued after Amtrak had told them they would charge $200 more than the usual ticket price to cover the cost of removing seats on their Philadelphia-to-Washington trips.
The advocates claimed that the extra charge amounted to disability discrimination in violation of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Stephen Gold, an attorney representing the advocacy group, told the Associated Press: "If you and your family and friends and sisters and brothers and cousins, more than 20, wanted to travel to Washington, you would get a discount as a group."
U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III said that Amtrak met federal law because it must have one space to park a wheelchair and one space to store an unoccupied chair per passenger coach. Bartle said the rail service could charge extra for anything beyond that.
Disabled in Action's executive director, Nancy Salandra, said that most of those who use wheelchairs and travel to the nation's capital are on fixed incomes of about $600 a month, and that the $200 on top of the $90 round-trip ticket price would be far too much for them to handle.
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Thursday, June 23, 2005
---
# ACCESSIBILITY / TRAVEL

Passenger To Receive Settlement Over Airline Mistreatment
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 23, 2005

SUDBURY, ENGLAND--Dr. Lin Berwick will receive a £170,000 ($310,000 US) payout under an out-of-court settlement reached this week, over her claims that airline staff physically forced her into an airplane seat.
Berwick, 55, has cerebral palsy, is blind, and has trouble bending her legs. She claimed that she had pre-booked seats with extra leg room for her Go flight from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Essex, England in September 2001. But when she arrived for the journey, she was informed that the flight was full and she would have to sit in a standard seat.
"Then they started to maneuver me and try to push me to get into the seat," she said. "I got wedged. My knee buckled. In the end I was dragged out into the aisle."
The company admitted wrongdoing soon after the incident. In the settlement, the company's insurers agreed to pay her for the care she needed for her injuries plus compensation for the "trauma and public humiliation" she endured.
Related:
"Payout for 'humiliated' passenger" (BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/4121430.stm
---
# ACCESSIBILITY / LAWS

"A Good View At The Movies For The Disabled"
June 23, 2005

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA--The following four paragraphs are excerpts from Thursday's "Wheel Power" column by The Star's Anthony Thanasayan:
It has been some time since we last caught up with some of the interesting disability happenings around the world.
Most of the stories today have been picked from Inclusion Daily Express (IDE) – an excellent daily e-mail news and disability rights information service from Spokane, Washington, the United States.
On accessibility laws, IDE editor Dave Reynolds a fortnight ago reported that the United States’ largest movie chain Regal Entertainment Group had agreed to rearrange wheelchair seating areas for moviegoers who use wheelchairs.
Well, let's hope that Malaysian cinemas will do likewise to make their venues welcoming to disabled moviegoers.
Entire article:
"A good view at the movies for the disabled" (The Star)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0623a.htm
---
Friday, June 24, 2005
---
# ACHIEVEMENT

Australian Is First Climber With One Arm To Reach Everest Peak
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 24, 2005

CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA--This week, hundreds of residents of Cairns lined the streets to welcome home Paul Hockey, the first climber with one-arm to scale the north face of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
"Wow, I can't believe it," said Hockey, as he accepted the keys to the city following the welcome home parade Friday. "If you can't believe I did it then don't worry cause neither can I."
Hockey, who lost an arm to bone cancer when he was an infant, reached the summit on June 8.
Last year, the Australian climber came to just within 820 feet of the 29,000 foot summit before being forced to turn back.
Hockey is using the climb to raise awareness of and money for cancer research.
Related:
"One-armed climber reaches Everest summit" (ABC)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0624a.htm
"Mum's high hopes" (Sunday Mail)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0624b.htm
---
# ACCESSIBILITY / HOUSING

"Come On-A My House"
June 24, 2005

SPRINGDALE, NEWFOUNDLAND--The following four paragraphs are excerpts from Friday's CBC News "Disability Matters" column by Ed Smith:
I knew that being quadriplegic meant that our lives had changed forever but I was seeing that change in rather simplistic terms.
I knew I wouldn't be hiking my hunting and fishing trails through the hills anymore. And my wife and I wouldn't be chasing whales and schools of fish in our boat and "boiling up" on isolated beaches anymore. I knew from now on I would have to hire other hands and feet to do the many things I had always done for myself, and that would range from dressing in the morning to pursuing my several hobbies and everything in between.
But I wasn't prepared to live my life under virtual house arrest.
I couldn't get into the houses of most of my friends.
Entire article:
"Come On-A My House" (CBC News)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/red/0624c.htm
---
# THIS WEEK'S FEATURED ACCESSIBILITY WEBSITE

Adaptive Environments
Adaptive Environments is a 25-year-old educational non-profit organization committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities. Adaptive Environments' work balances expertise in legally required accessibility with promotion of best practices in human centered or universal design. Projects vary from local to international. All are characterized by collaboration and user participation.
http://www.adaptenv.org
---
# EXTRA! From the IDE Archives -- Three years ago:
Executions Of Convicts With Mental Retardation Are "Cruel And Unusual" Punishment, High Court Rules
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 21, 2002

WASHINGTON, DC--The death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment" when it is used on people determined to have mental retardation and therefore violates the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In its 6-3 decision on Atkins v. Virginia, the Court cited the growing number of states that have decided on their own to stop such executions in the past 13 years since the Justices ruled on the issue. Two states with a death penalty banned it for such convicts in 1989, when the Supreme Court determined that there was no "national consensus" against executing convicts with mental retardation. Since that ruling, however, sixteen more states have adopted similar guidelines.
The Court noted this change in the nation's attitude and added that defendants considered to have mental retardation do not have the same ability as others to defend themselves in a court. The Court also reasoned that it was "not persuaded that the execution of mentally retarded criminals will measurably advance the deterrent or the retributive purpose of the death penalty.''
"Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses, however, they do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct,'' wrote Justice John Paul Stevens for the majority. ''Moreover, their impairments can jeopardize the reliability and fairness of capital proceedings against mentally retarded defendants.''
''Mentally retarded defendants may be less able to give meaningful assistance to their counsel and are typically poor witnesses, and their demeanor may create an unwarranted impression of lack of remorse for their crimes.''
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist disagreed with the majority.
"In my view, these two sources -- the work product of legislatures and sentencing jury determinations -- ought to be the sole indicators by which courts ascertain the contemporary American conceptions of decency for purposes of the Eighth Amendment," Rehnquist wrote.
"To further buttress its appraisal of contemporary societal values, the Court marshals public opinion poll results and evidence that several professional organizations and religious groups have adopted official positions opposing the imposition of the death penalty upon mentally retarded offenders . . . In my view, none should be accorded any weight on the Eighth Amendment scale when the elected representatives of a State's populace have not deemed them persuasive enough to prompt legislative action."
The Court did not specify what is meant by "mental retardation". That is for the individual states to determine. Laws currently vary from one state to the next on how a defendant can prove to have mental retardation. Most require an IQ score of 70 or less and proof that the condition existed before age 18. The states also vary widely as to whether it is judges or juries who decide if the person has mental retardation.
Related resources:
"Atkins v. Virginia" (U.S. Supreme Court)
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-8452.ZS.html
"The Death Penalty and Mental Retardation" (Inclusion Daily Express)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/deathpenalty.htm
---
# EXTRA! From the IDE Archives -- One year ago:
Investigation Continues Into Boy's 1968 Death At Psych Hospital
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 24, 2004

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND--Regardless of what a coroner and pathologist officially reported, Stephen Lindsay believes that his childhood buddy, Clement Matthews, was killed by a nurse at the psychiatric institution where they lived.
Manukau police have believed Lindsay enough to reopen the investigation into the April 28, 1968 death of the 11-year-old Matthews.
Lindsay was 14 years of age when his friend "Clem" died at Kingseat Hospital.
Health records showed that Matthews had been admitted to the institution because of "mental subnormality associated with disturbed behavior of an aggressive nature".
On the morning before he died, Matthews, who had an obsession with food, stole a piece of bread from the dining room. According to Lindsay, a nurse grabbed Matthews by the neck, twisted him to the floor, then kicked him solidly in the back.
"I had heard something snap. It was like a branch breaking," Lindsay told the New Zealand Herald this week. "I knew at the time his back was broken."
Lindsay said he heard his friend scream. He went to comfort the boy, but his friend just groaned as he slipped in and out of consciousness. Staff members then dragged Matthews to his room.
The next morning, Lindsay found Matthews in his room, lying face down and barely breathing. Medical staff pronounced him dead 15 minutes later.
The official coroner's report stated that Matthews died of pneumonia, even though it noted that the boy's health prior to his death "had caused no undue concern."
Lindsay is accusing the staff of the former institution of covering up a crime.
"Clem didn't die of pneumonia," Lindsay said. "He wasn't even sick."
Clement's mother, Rebecca Matthews, also wants to know what happened the day before her son died.
"He was a good boy," she told the Herald.
More than 200 complaints have been filed recently by former patients of psychiatric institutions across New Zealand, alleging that they were physically and sexually abused by staff members and other residents. Some claim they were over-medicated, unwillingly subjected to experiments in electro-shock treatment, and placed in isolation for long periods of time -- sometimes for months.
Most of the complaints concern incidents that allegedly occurred during the 1960s and 1970s by patients who were between 8 and 16 years of age at the time.
Nearly 70 legal claims have been filed so far in the High Court, each asking for as much as $500,000 in compensation and up to $50,000 in exemplary damages, the New Zealand Herald reported. Another 40 cases are close to being filed.
Sonja Cooper, who represents more than half the claimants, said that many were taken to the institutions for the wrong reasons. Most blame their abusive treatment at the facilities for their current depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Until recently officials had believed the abuses were confined to two former institutions. As more claimants came forward in the past several weeks, nearly all of the country's psychiatric hospitals had been implicated.
Most of the facilities either are closed or no longer operate as mental institutions.
Related:
"Witness to boy's death believes there was a cover-up" (New Zealand Herald)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0624a.htm
"Mother wants to know how son died at psychiatric hospital" (New Zealand Herald)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0624b.htm
"Abuse complaints 'should be believed', says lawyer" (New Zealand Herald)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0624c.htm
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# DISCUSSION BOARD
Check in with other Inclusion Daily Express readers:
http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily
---
# IDE ARCHIVE SEARCH
Have Google look for specific words or phrases in Inclusion Daily Express editions going back to December 1999:
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/search.htm
---
# BELOW THE FOLD
Click here for the rest of today's disability-related news:
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/05/btf/06240597.htm
------
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