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.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Year V, Edition 972
Today's front section features 8 news and information
items, each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the "Below the
Fold" link at the bottom of this section for 33 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"While as children we may have been
helpless to challenge society's discrimination, as adults we have a chance to
change the situation. We now have the choice to challenge ableism and society's
definition of disability."
--Sarah Triano, one of the organizers of the
First International Disability Pride Parade, being held Sunday in Chicago
(Second story)
"It was an easy thing to do, they lost their memory and it kept them
quiet."
--Eva Naylor, a former worker at a New Zealand mental
institution, talking about the reasons the patients were given medications and
shock treatments during the 1960s (Third story)
-----
# ADVOCACY
Disability Activist Hugh G. Gallagher
Dies
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 15,
2004
WASHINGTON, DC--Disability rights activist, historian and author
Hugh Gregory Gallagher died Tuesday of cancer. He was 71.
Gallagher was known by many advocates as the drafter of the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, the nation's first federal disability rights law, which led to the broader accessibility provisions of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Gallagher, who contracted polio in 1952 at age 19, became an historian and biographer of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1985, he wrote "FDR's Splendid Deception", about Roosevelt's ability to hide his own disability from much of the world during the Great Depression and World War II. Gallagher argued that FDR's polio was responsible to a great degree for the President's compassion and internal strength.
Looking through archives of more than 35,000 Roosevelt photographs, Gallagher found only two that showed FDR in a wheelchair, even though the President spend much of the day in it. That research led to the publishing of "Nothing to fear: FDR in Pictures".
In 1990, Gallagher wrote "Black Bird Fly Away: Disabled in an Able-bodied World", about coming to terms with his own disability and about society's difficulty in dealing with disability issues.
He also authored "By Trust Betrayed: Patients, Physicians, and the License to Kill in the Third Reich", about the systematic killing of people with physical and mental disabilities in Nazi Germany.
When the FDR memorial was being constructed in the late 1990s, Gallagher led the campaign to have the statue of the President at the entrance depict him in his wheelchair at ground level -- to make his true image more accessible to visitors with and without disabilities.
A memorial service for Mr. Gallagher is scheduled for Saturday. Donations in his memory may be made to the Roosevelt Warm Springs Development Fund. The contact information is available at the National Organization on Disability website.
CSPAN2's Book TV will rebroadcast a March 2002 presentation by Hugh Gregory Gallagher on Monday morning, July 19, at 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Related:
"In Memoriam: A Personal Tribute from N.O.D. President
Alan Reich"(National Organization on Disability)
http://www.nod.org/content.cfm?id=1544
"Hugh
Gallagher Dies; Crusaded for Disabled" (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53688-2004Jul15.html
FDR
Wheelchair Statue Campaign (National Organization on Disability)
http://www.nod.org/content.cfm?id=163
"Nothing
to Fear: FDR in Photographs Hugh Gregory Gallagher" (CSPAN2 Book TV)
http://www.booktv.org/History/index.asp?segID=2260&schedID=297
---
# ADVOCACY
Chicago To Host First International
Disability Pride Parade
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
July 15, 2004
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--Chicago is hosting the first
annual International Disability Pride Parade this Sunday, July 18.
According to organizers, hundreds of organizations and individuals with disabilities are expected to turn out for the parade and post-parade rally.
The parade's Grand Marshal will be disability rights advocate Yoshiko Dart, widow of Justin Dart, who played a principal role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The rally is expected to feature presentations by human rights activists, including Judy Heumann, co-founder of the World Institute on Disability and former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education.
The Disability Pride Parade is Chicago's key event celebrating Disability Pride Month, leading up to the 14th anniversary of the ADA on July 26.
Over a hundred individuals and groups are sponsoring the event.
Related:
Disability Pride Parade
http://www.disabledandproud.com/parade.htm
"Pride
Is Power" by Sarah Triano
http://www.disabledandproud.com/power.htm
Disability
Pride Calendar
http://my.calendars.net/dispridemonthcal
---
# INSTITUTIONS / ABUSE
More Than 300
File Abuse Complaints Against Former Institutions
By Dave Reynolds,
Inclusion Daily Express
July 15, 2004
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--More
than 300 people have come forward to state that they were mistreated while
housed at New Zealand mental institutions during the 1960s and 70s.
Of those, at least 200 have filed claims alleging that while they were at Porirua Hospital they were beaten, sexually assaulted, over-medicated, unwillingly subjected to experiments in electro-convulsive treatments, and placed in isolation for long periods of time -- sometimes for months.
In recent weeks, many of those allegations have been confirmed by former staff members.
One former social worker told the Dominion Post this week that she resigned from Porirua in 1964 after telling officials she was concerned that a 12-year-old boy was being kept in an adult ward where another patient was sexually abusing him.
"They (the doctors) never bothered to speak to patients and find out what was troubling them or why they were there. They were just treated like nonentities," said Eva Naylor. "We came across patients who were just kept there, locked away."
So far, 65 legal claims have been filed in the High Court, each asking for as much as $500,000 in compensation and up to $50,000 in exemplary damages. Another 40 cases are close to being filed, according to Sonja Cooper, an attorney representing many of the former residents.
Attorney-General Margaret Wilson said that extra staff were being hired to assist in investigating the claims. She said that the courts will then decide if the government is legally liable.
Until recently officials had believed the abuses were confined to Porirua and one other former institution. As more claimants came forward in the past few months, 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:
"Abuse claims by patients reach 300" (Dominion Post
via Stuff.com)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2972130a11,00.html
"Culture
Of Abuse At Former New Zealand Institutions" (Inclusion Daily Express
Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/nz/nz.htm
---
# ADVOCACY / FAMILIES
"Finding My Heart Again" by Terry
Boisot
July 15, 2004
GOLETA, CALIFORNIA--Terry Boisot is
back.
The disability rights advocate and mother of two this week returned after a year-long hiatus to write a column about her family and her passion.
Every week between February 2000 and June 2001, Inclusion Daily Express pointed readers to "Disability Matters", a column Terry wrote for the Santa Barbara News-Press.
With new ownership of the News-Press came new priorities, and Disability Matters was dropped.
In a matter of weeks, however, her column was picked up by TheArcLink, where it was run weekly through the end of 2002.
IDE readers were treated to just eight articles by Terry in 2003, only one of which came after July.
What happened?
"As I became more involved in disability advocacy, more and more I found myself sitting in rooms filled with people, many of them friends, whose collective decisions were no longer decisions I could agree with," she wrote this week. "I was angry most of the time, and found myself fighting for everything."
"It took its toll on my spirit and on my soul. I lost my heart for awhile."
Terry wrote this week that she has found her heart again.
Thank goodness.
Related:
"Finding My Heart Again" by Terry Boisot
(TheArcLink.org)
http://thearclink.org/news/article.asp?ID=650
---
# FAMILIES
Tribunal Rules Family Members Can Be Paid
For Providing Care
July 15, 2004
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--The
following three paragraphs are excerpts from a brief item in Thursday's Globe
and Mail:
A B.C. Human Rights Commission tribunal has ordered the provincial government to stop discriminating against disabled people who want family members as caregivers.
The tribunal ruled Wednesday that a father was entitled to be paid money that would have gone to a government-funded caregiver for looking after his severely disabled adult daughter.
It ordered the province to pay upward of $100,000 in lost wages, interest and damages.
Entire article:
"Family can be paid for caring for disabled,
tribunal rules" (Globe and Mail)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0715a.htm
---
# TODAY'S FEATURED WEBSITE
U.S. Census Bureau: Data on
disability
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disability.html
---
# EXTRA!!! From the IDE Archives -- Four years ago:
Boy's Relatives Imprisoned For Assaulting Doctors
July 15,
2000
PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND--Three relatives of David Glass began prison
sentences today for attacking doctors who wanted to end treatment for the
12-year-old.
The boy's uncle Raymond Davis, 43, and his aunt Julie Hodgson, 37, were each sentenced to nine months in prison for violent disorder and assault. Another aunt, Diane Wild, 42, was given a 12-month sentence.
In October 1998, Glass, who has mental retardation and physical disabilities, was in the hospital being treated for a chest infection. The doctors believed David had only a few hours to live and told the family that treatment should be withdrawn and a drug should be given to ease his pain and discomfort. The relatives opposed the doctors' recommendations and accused them of trying to kill the boy.
They then began beating and kicking the doctors until police intervened. Dr. Mark Ashton suffered a number of cuts and bruises, a bite on his hand, and even an injury on his knee that required surgery. His colleague, Dr. Joanne Walker had to be treated for injuries to her shoulder, head, arm, abdomen, knee, chest and face.
Treatment for David was not withdrawn. He was discharged from the hospital the night of the attack and has survived.
David's mother Carol had launched an unsuccessful legal bid last year to keep doctors from refusing potentially life-saving treatment to her son without first gaining guidance from the court.
Related:
"Medical row family jailed" (BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_833000/833654.stm
---
# 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/04/btf/07150442.htm
------
Tell your friends and colleagues about Inclusion Daily Express!
Inclusion Daily Express
http://www.InclusionDaily.com
© Copyright 2004 Inonit Publishing. Please do not
reprint, post or forward without permission.
Reprint guidelines:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/faq/distribution.htm
Inonit Publishing
3231 W. Boone Ave., # 711, Spokane, Washington 99201 USA
Phone: 509-326-5811
News@InclusionDaily.com
Dave
Reynolds, Editor