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Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Year V, Edition 980
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 44 more news items.
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"I've always had this desire to give
back -- and to represent people I'm affiliated with. Now I'm just representing
the disabled."
--Steven Loignon, of Shapleigh, Maine, who developed a
web site and foundation for people with disabilities after his legs were
amputated following a car accident (Fourth story)
"Nosiree, can't have autistic kids living in nice homes with trees up
and down the block."
--From an editorial in the Middletown, New York,
Times Herald-Record, commenting on the real reasons the Town of Monroe
opposed a group home for youths with autism (Fifth story)
-----
# VOTING / ACCESSIBILITY
Election Reform Groups Oppose
Touch Screen Voting Rule
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
July 28, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA--Less than 100 days before
the General Election, the reliability of touch screen voting systems is still
in question in Florida, the state that became the focus of public scrutiny
because of voting problems in the 2000 election.
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause of Florida and other groups asked a judge to throw out a new state rule that prevents manual recounts on touch screen machines.
Fifteen counties plan to use touch screen systems which do not have a paper record. The election reform groups claim that touch screens violate state law, which requires an automatic physical recount when the margin of victory is less than one-fourth of 1 percent, and allows candidates to request a recount when the margin is less than one-half of 1 percent.
State elections officials said that it made no sense to have the rule if manual recounts are not possible.
Electronic voting systems have been favored by disability groups because they have large buttons that can be pressed easily, optional headphones for voters who cannot read because of blindness or other disabilities, along with the option to have the ballot read to them repeatedly to avoid errors.
Last month, the New York Times accused the National Federation of the Blind and the American Association of People with Disabilities of getting "too close" to manufacturers of electronic voting machines in their efforts to make elections more accessible, by accepting large donations.
Related:
"Groups argue need to recount votes made on machines"
(St. Petersburg Times)
http://www.stpetetimes.com/2004/07/28/State/Groups_argue_need_to_.shtml
---
# INSTITUTIONS
State Moves Ahead
With Fircrest Transfers
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily
Express
July 28, 2004
SHORELINE, WASHINGTON--As if to prove that
irony is alive and well in the state of Washington, one member of the
pro-institution group Friends of Fircrest says that a plan to move people out
of the institution violates the residents' rights under the 14th Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution. That Amendment guarantees that no state shall "deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
According to Tuesday's Olympian, the group is reacting to plans by the Department of Social and Health Services to continue down-sizing Fircrest School by closing a third cottage next month and a fourth cottage by the end of the year. On Monday, DSHS decided to make permanent an emergency rule implemented last December that allowed transfers to be made on an involuntary basis.
Fircrest currently has just over 200 residents with developmental disabilities living in 14 cottages. Forty-four were transferred during the fiscal year that ended in June, under direction of the state legislature and Governor Gary Locke. About one-half of those transfers were involuntary. Fourteen were appealed, but none of the appeals were successful.
Maureen Durkan, whose sister has lived at Fircrest since 1974, told the Olympian, "When people say to me everybody can be cared for in the community, I know that's just not true."
"We need intermediate care facilities," she said. "We need institutional care for some of those people to keep them safe."
While that is a point on which community advocates would disagree, the fact is that those who are scheduled to leave Fircrest are merely going to transfer to one of the other cottages on the Fircrest campus or to Rainier School, another state-run institution about 75 minutes away.
If institutional housing is better for their family members with disabilities, why are the families so afraid of them moving to other institition sites?
And isn't the act of forcing these people to be confined behind those institution walls in effect depriving them of "life, liberty, or property"?
Related:
"Fircrest School moves forward on closure" (The
Olympian)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0728b.htm
"Washington
State's Institutions: Fircrest School" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/wa/fircrest.htm
---
# CRIME
Frustrated Father Charged With Killing Son,
10
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 28,
2004
WORTHING, ENGLAND--The father of a 10-year-old boy with
disabilities had been charged with his son's apparent suffocation death,
several British news sources have reported.
Andy Wragg, 36, was charged Tuesday with the death of his son, Jacob, who had Hunter syndrome.
According to the National Institutes of Health, Hunter syndrome is a hereditary condition in which the person's body cannot process certain chemicals. Children that have Hunter syndrome usually experience a number of physical and mental disabilities, and often die before age 20.
Mr. Wragg recently returned home from his job as a security officer in Iraq. From then until the first of last week, Jacob was with caregivers so the family could have some respite time without him.
Wragg reportedly told a friend over a drink on Saturday that he was frustrated that his son no longer acknowledged or recognized him.
Later that day, Wragg decided to stay home with Jacob while his wife, Mary, went to her mother's house with their younger son.
Police claim that Mr. Wragg then suffocated Jacob with a pillow, and called his wife to tell her that the boy had died.
On his way to the police station, Wragg allegedly said of his son: "He is at peace now. I loved him so much. He has a terminal illness -- don't judge me until you know the facts."
Police were not yet willing to assign a motive to Jacob's murder. Both the prosecutor and defense attorney called the case "tragic".
Mrs. Wragg was arrested with her husband, but was later released without being charged.
The couple have been active in campaigns to raise awareness of Hunter syndrome along with funds for other families whose children have the condition.
Jacob's death may be reminiscent of other cases of "altruistic filicide", the killing of a child -- usually one with disabilities -- out of a belief that the death is in the child's best interest.
As is often the case with such "mercy-killings", articles by British tabloid newspapers The Sun and The Mirror clearly sympathized with the alleged murderer. Mr. Wragg was described as a "tragic dad" who was "tormented" by his son's disability.
Related:
"Father in handcuffs as he is remanded over death of
terminally ill Jacob" (The Telegraph)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/0728a.htm
"Why
is tragic dad in cuffs?" (The Sun)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004342603,00.html
Hunter
Syndrome (MedlinePlus -- National Institutes of Health/National Library of
Medicine)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001203.htm
---
# CONTRIBUTION
Stepping Back Into Life
July 28,
2004
SHAPLEIGH, MAINE--After Steven Loignon was involved in a car
accident three years ago, which led to both legs being amputated, his friends
and family developed a web site to help them keep in touch with each other and
to monitor his condition.
This spring, Loignon sat down with a friend to rework the web site.
Now it is a resource to help and inspire other people with physical disabilities.
The site, named for his foundation, Stepping Back Into Life, has resources, information and success stories as "a catalyst for approaching life with more passion and determination than ever before."
Related:
"Amputee offers ways to seize life" (Portland
Press-Herald)
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/040728nemitz.shtml
Stepping
Back Into Life
http://www.loignon.org
---
# COMMUNITY LIVING / NIMBY
"Case Closed, Open The
Home"
July 28, 2004
MONROE, NEW YORK--The following three
paragraphs are excerpts from an editorial in Wednesday's Times
Herald-Record:
OK, we'll make this easy for the state.
Last Friday, the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities held a hearing to allow the Town of Monroe to object to the location of a proposed group home for six autistic boys.
The hearing should never have been held.
Entire article:
"Case closed, open the home" (Record
Online)
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2004/07/28/edita28.htm
"Video
reveals reasons group home blocked" (Record Online -- July 21)
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2004/07/21/weeks21.htm
---
# TODAY'S FEATURED DISABILITY HISTORY WEBSITE
Holocaust
Handicapped: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Soon after Hitler took power, the Nazis formulated policy based on their vision of biologically "pure" population, to create an "Aryan master race." The "Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases," proclaimed July 14, 1933, forced the sterilization of all persons who suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness (schizophrenia and manic depression), retardation ("congenital feeble-mindedness"), physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and severe alcoholism.
http://www.holocaust-trc.org/hndcp.htm
---
# EXTRA! From the IDE Archives -- One year ago:
Paralympians Sue U.S. Olympic Committee For Discrimination
By
Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 28, 2003
DENVER,
COLORADO--The U.S. Olympic Committee discriminates against athletes with
disabilities, three Paralympic athletes alleged in a federal discrimination
lawsuit filed Monday.
Paralympians Scot Hollonbeck, of Atlanta, Georgia, Tony Iniguez, of Aurora, Illinois, and Jacob Heilveil of Bothell, Washington, said in the lawsuit that the USOC violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by not providing the same benefits -- such as elite training, coaching, performance incentives and health insurance -- for Paralympic athletes that it does for Olympians.
"There are some wonderful people at the USOC but they have been treating us unfairly," said Hollonbeck. "For decades Paralympic athletes have been denied reasonable program access by the USOC."
The suit seeks unspecified compensatory damages.
USOC officials say they can not spend as much money on Paralympians because their events cost more.
According to the Associated Press, the USOC spends about 3 percent of its 4-year budget on Paralympics.
The three Paralympians also claim the USOC does not give them adequate representation in its management and operations.
"We can not even sit on the board of our own National Paralympic Committee outside of a single, token disability seat," Iniguez said. "We want what is fair for all Paralympians, not special treatment."
Related article:
"USOC unfair to disabled, athletes say" (Denver
Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~118~1535943,00.html
---
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---
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---
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http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/btf/07280451.htm
------
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