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Your
quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the
movement toward full community inclusion around the world.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Year V, Edition 862
Today's front page features 9 news and information items,
each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the"Below the Fold"
link at the bottom of this page for 43 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"I want to show Australia everything is
possible. I hope to motivate disabled people to get out and
live."
--Kris "Bigs" Bignall, who plans to travel all the way around
Australia in his motorized wheelchair, guided by a chin joystick controller
(Third story)
"I just want to be part of the whole. I don't want to be special. I
just want to be included."
--Teri Westerman, who says she has finally
found a church where she feels accepted (Sixth story)
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# INSTITUTIONS
Legal Dispute Over
Muscatatuck Moves Is Finally Settled
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
January 22, 2004
BUTLERVILLE, INDIANA--A legal dispute
between the State of Indiana and families of residents of Muscatatuck State
Development Center ended Wednesday as a judge accepted a settlement agreed to
by both sides.
The ruling by Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance means that the institution housing people with developmental disabilities will close in June of 2005, after homes in the community have been found for its 121 residents.
"We always agreed that no one should leave Muscatatuck until there is an appropriate place for them to go where they will be well-cared for," Cindy Collier, director of Policy, Planning and Communications for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, told the Indianapolis Star. "That's how it was, that's how it is, and that's how it always will be."
Parents of Muscatatuck residents appeared resigned to the fact that the institution -- which once housed 2,300 people -- will finally close.
"I think it means we probably better get on with the process and attempt to get a place for our profoundly retarded and medically at-risk kids down there," said Frank Migliano, whose son has lived there for more than 40 years.
The facility had been operating under a court injunction since April of 2002. The parents requested the injunction after the late Governor Frank O'Bannon announced in April 2001 that the aging facility would close by the end of 2003.
O'Bannon's decision came, in part, because federal investigators had found repeated incidents of abuse, neglect and exploitation of Muscatatuck residents -- incidents which caused the federal government to cut payments to the state. Indiana lawmakers had told O'Bannon that the state could not afford to expand community-based supports while continuing to fund the 85-year-old former Indiana Farm Colony for Feeble Minded Youth.
In their request for an injunction to halt the moves, the parents association accused the state of putting Muscatatuck's then-279 residents at risk of harm by closing the facility and moving them into the community.
An appeals court said the lower court was not specific enough when it ruled that the state could not pressure parents or guardians to transfer their family members from the institution, and that it could not keep the state from reducing staff levels. It did, however, uphold the lower court's ruling that certain standards must be met before residents can be moved.
The parents group, along with members of the state employees union, had lobbied lawmakers to delay closure until at least 2005.
Related:
"Trouble with Indiana's Institutions" (Inclusion Daily
Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/in/indiana.htm
---
# CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Second Trial
Begins For Cop In Donovan Jackson Arrest
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion
Daily Express
January 22, 2004
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA--Testimony began
Wednesday in the second trial of former Inglewood police officer Jeremy Morse,
who is charged with assaulting Donovan Jackson during a July 6, 2002
arrest.
Prosecutors claim that Morse used excessive and unnecessary force when he and Officer Bijan Darvish arrested Jackson, who was 16 at the time. Morse faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Jackson, who is black and reportedly has a developmental disability, was arrested for assaulting officers outside a convenience store after he had been asked to sit in a squad car.
A videotape of the arrest, showing officer Morse slamming the hand-cuffed Jackson onto the back of a patrol car and repeatedly punching him in the face, was broadcast on television news stations around the world.
Morse was fired from the Inglewood Police Department and charged with assault. His coworker, officer Bijan Darvish was suspended and charged with filing a false police report.
Morse's first trial ended in a jury deadlock six months ago.
Jackson, now 18, testified Wednesday that he was sitting in the squad car, but got scared and stood up when he saw several officers running toward him. He said the officers beat him, struck him with a flashlight and choked him until he passed out. He testified that he did not try to scratch, hit or kick any of the officers.
Jackson said he was unconscious and doesn't remember Morse hitting him or slamming him on the squad car.
Defense attorney John Barnett pointed out that Jackson testified to a grand jury that he was awake at the time and did recall being slammed on the car. Barnett pointed out other inconsistencies in Jackson's statements.
Barnett also said that Morse was using a technique called "wedging", which the police department had trained him to use.
The videotaped scene reminded many of the well-known 1991 police beating of Rodney King Jr. Four officers accused in King's videotaped beating were later acquitted, sparking violent riots in Los Angeles.
Related:
"2nd Trial Begins for Ex-Inglewood Officer" (Los Angeles
Times -- free registration required)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-morse22jan22,1,5602719.story
"Donovan
Jackson' Arrest" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/djackson.htm
---
# AWARENESS / ACHIEVEMENT
'Bigs' Wants To Show 'Everything Is
Possible'
January 22, 2004
MAROOCHYDORE, AUSTRALIA--Kris "Bigs"
Bignall is planning a trip next year.
A 16,000 kilometer (10,000 mile) trip.
Around the continent of Australia.
In his battery-powered wheelchair.
Guided entirely by his joystick chin control.
"This has been my dream for 17 years," he said, pointing to a word board on his lap using a laser pointer on his cap. "I want to show Australia everything is possible. I hope to motivate disabled people to get out and live."
"Although they have a disability, it should not stop anyone," he told the Sunshine Coast Daily.
Related article:
"'Bigs' plan: Round Australia by chair" (Sunshine
Coast Daily)
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/data/full_stories/january04/23/3.html
---
# ACCESSIBILITY / TECHNOLOGY
New Website Gives Info On
Disability-Friendly Businesses
January 22, 2004
GRIMSBY,
ENGLAND--Wouldn't it be great to have a local resource that told you which
theaters had the best wheelchair-accessible seating, which restaurants provided
menus in large or Braille print, which stores had personal shoppers to assist
you, or which businesses were simply the most positive toward customers with
disabilities?
An estimated 20,00 people with disabilities in North East Lincolnshire can benefit from such a service called "DisabledGo".
The new service was founded by Gregory Burke, a 29-year-old wheelchair user. It is being supported by local government authorities and businesses.
"The new website gives people an informed choice, confidence and freedom," said Burke.
DisabledGo spokesperson Steve Massey said: "This is not a minority issue. There are more disabled people than Pop Idol voters."
"Businesses are missing out. Even though people may not be now, they can end up disabled in later life."
Related:
"Open-and-shut case for improved access" (Grimsby
Telegraph)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/red/0122a.htm
DisabledGo
http://www.DisabledGo.info
---
# RECREATION / CHILDREN
Alec Is "Part Of The
Team"
January 22, 2004
CLARKSVILLE, MARYLAND--Seven-year old Alec
Chase has been playing soccer for the last four years.
His team, the Columbia Black Dragons, had a perfect 15-0 record this fall.
Alec has autism. The other kids on his team don't.
"It's so important for him to be around typical peers - otherwise a child never sees how they could be or should behave," said his mother, Shari Chase. "It's important I think, too, for the other kids to realize that inside Alec, or other challenged kids, are kids like them. They have the same feelings."
New coach Gabe Dagen told the Howard County Times: "It was rewarding to help all the kids get better, to improve, including Alec, in what they were doing. The kids accepted Alec as part of the team - they didn't require much prompting."
Alec sleeps with the team picture near his pillow every night.
"They are all my friends," he tells his mom.
Entire article:
"Soccer team important part of autistic boy's
life" (Howard County Times)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/red/0122b.htm
---
# CONGREGATIONS / ACCESSIBILITY
'I Just Want To Be
Included'
January 22, 2004
DENVER, COLORADO--The following five
paragraphs are excerpts from a story in Thursday's Denver Post:
Teri Westerman has been told that if only she prayed hard enough, she would be able to get up and walk out of her wheelchair.
She's been told she has cerebral palsy because her mother or father sinned when she was in the womb.
Westerman, 46, has been stared at and segregated when she's gone to churches in search of community and spiritual strength. Only recently did she find a church that views her as a person to be valued, not a problem to be fixed, she said.
"I just want to be part of the whole," said Westerman, an accounting technician for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in Denver. "I don't want to stick out. I don't want to be special. I just want to be included."
"When I go in there, they see me, not the chair," Westerman said. "The chair is just a machine. It helps me get around. It's not part of me, physically. It doesn't define who I am.
Entire article:
'I just want to be included' (Denver
Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1906695,00.html
---
# TODAY'S FEATURED LAWS WEBSITE
Mental Retardation and the
Death Penalty (Death Penalty Information Center)
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=28&did=176
---
# EXPRESS EXTRA!!! From the Inclusion Daily Express Archives -- One year ago:
ADVOCACY / ACCESSIBILITY
Fan Did Not Want To Be "The Grinch
Who Stole The Super Bowl"
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
January 22, 2003
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA--For any of you who
may have been worried about it, Super Bowl XXXVIII will go on this Sunday as
planned.
But failures on the part of the City of San Diego to make Qualcomm Stadium accessible to fans with disabilities nearly stopped the event before it got started.
Beverly Walker, an avid sports fan who uses a wheelchair, is tired of battling the city to make the facility more disability-friendly and to comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Years of advocating for accessible -- but not separate -- seating, for example, were ignored until she used the word "lawsuit" in 1997.
After many more months of delays the city finally settled, agreeing to make the necessary changes by April of last year and to save a certain number of tickets for fans with disabilities.
By December 2002 it was clear that some of the work still was not completed. Walker also learned that the NFL (National Football League) had no intention of setting aside Super Bowl tickets as agreed to in the settlement.
So, in an attempt to give the city a "kick in the pants" to focus on completing the work, she and her lawyer filed an injunction asking the court to suspend the Super Bowl.
"We felt that, if they thought maybe the Super Bowl was in jeopardy, maybe that would get them to make the modifications a little faster," Walker told the San Diego City Beat.
On January 9, Judge Leo Papas denied her request for an injunction.
Even so, Walker sees the attempt as a victory.
"I believe that the disabled community won, and we won because we got more things accomplished in the stadium over a shorter period of time," she explained. "I believe that if we hadn't [filed an injunction], disabled people would have went to the Super Bowl and found that there were a lot more things noncompliant that were potentially dangerous."
Related article:
"The Woman, The Wheelchair & The Super Bowl
-- Beverly Walker and her Qualcomm crusade" (San Diego City Beat)
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=472
---
# DISCUSSION BOARD
Check in with other Inclusion Daily Express
readers:
http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily
---
# BELOW THE FOLD
Click here for the rest of today's
disability-related news:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/04/btf/01220449.htm
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