Teaching People With Intellectual Disabilities How To Protect Themselves From Assault | Spokane Public Radio
Earlier this month, NPR aired a series of stories detailing sexual harassment of people with intellectual disabilities. The network told stories about caregivers and others in positions of authority who raped women. The Arc of Spokane operates a program that provides people who have intellectual disabilities with tools to protect themselves from sexual assault. Theresa Fears, who teaches in the program, has a passion for working with people who have intellectual disabilities.
How Voters With Disabilities Are Blocked From the Ballot Box | Pew Charitable Trusts
For decades, Kathy Hoell has struggled to vote. Poll workers have told the 62-year-old Nebraskan, who uses a powered wheelchair and has a brain injury that causes her to speak in a strained and raspy voice, that she isn’t smart enough to cast a ballot. They have led her to stairs she couldn’t climb and prevented her from using an accessible voting machine because they hadn’t powered it on.
The Ohio Abortion Ban’s Distortion of Disability Rights | the New York Times
On Dec. 22, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio signed Senate Bill 164 banning doctors from performing abortions in cases in which a fetus is likely to have Down syndrome according to prenatal testing. Despite being staunchly pro-choice, I was primed to sympathize with the bill’s supporters more than ever, given my personal circumstances.
Working too long can be unhealthy — and fatal | CBS News
Americans age 55 and older have the highest rate of fatal work injuries among all age groups, and it worsens as they get older. According to the Census of Fatal Occupation Injuries, the death rate for workers 65 and up was almost three times the national average in 2016, the last year figures were compiled. Some would argue it’s their own fault. Those older than 65 should retire, if it’s financially feasible. But many haven’t saved enough money. Instead they had to spend what they earned on raising children and trying to keep up with the never-ending bills.
What It’s Really Like To Shop For Clothes As A Person With My Type Of Disability | Bustle
Women the world over know fashion already isn’t designed with the average person in mind. And if this is a problem for the average woman, what if you aren’t average? Trying to find the right clothes can be a problem for pretty much everyone, but it’s compounded just a tad more with a disability. I am one such disabled woman who recently came to the painful realization that clothing and my body don’t mix. But unlike the average woman who knows from the outset that clothing will always be a source of frustration, I was fortunate to avoid this discovery until my early 20s. It’s not that I didn’t love clothes already, but I never felt a pressing need to worry about my clothing until I had left school and entered the workforce.
Denver Students Imagine a Live-Work Space for Artists with Disabilities | 303 Magazine
Within the artistic community, the conversation on everyone’s mind is being able to live and work as an artist without being a ‘starving’ one. Live-work spaces are fundamental to the healthy functioning of a creative culture and Denver has been lacking in that department, even though the art and culture scene is blossoming in other ways. But, imagine adding the dimension of disability to an artist’s life and the availability of a shared and supported space to create, live and work is even more essential to sustaining their careers. That’s the task the founder of Access Gallery in the Art District on Santa Fe Damon McLeese gave to Architecture graduate students at the University of Colorado Denver for a show titled Art of Architecture.
REICH: Hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid | Chicago Sun Times
Fresh off passing massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, Trump and congressional Republicans want to use the deficit they’ve created to justify huge cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. As House Speaker Paul Ryan says “We’re going to have to get … at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit.”
Telling My Boss I’m Disabled Should Be About Getting What I Need To Do The Job I Love | The Huffington Post
‘m a junior doctor and I’m on the training track where you change role every four months. I’m currently in a GP practice but previously I’ve been in various hospitals. The change every four months is stressful and very challenging, because it’s new people who don’t know you, don’t know why you’re in a wheelchair, and are desperate to ask. Normally the training is two years, but I’m doing it part time. It’s a very strict criteria and a big process to initially apply. Then every four months I must resubmit my claim to work part-time, signed by four people and it’s so much extra admin.
Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon want to fix health care | CNN Money
Amazon is partnering with Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, to get into the health insurance business. The three companies unveiled a yet unnamed company to provide their U.S. workers and families with a better option on health care. The statement said the new company will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” As of a year ago the three companies had 840,000 global employees between them, though they did not breakdown how many of those are in the U.S. As of now the companies are concentrating on a product for their own employees and family members, not a product to offer to other companies.
FCC extends waiver for video game accessibility for the last time | engadget
The idea behind 2010’s 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) is to make sure that federal accessibility laws created in the ’80s and ’90s were updated to include new digital and communications technologies. The part of the Act pertaining to video games and advanced communications services (think gaming chat and the user interfaces around gamer communications) has been given a year’s waiver. As reported by Gamasutra, this is the third and final time games will be exempted from accessibility requirements. The new deadline is set for January 1st, 2019.
Volunteers fly those affected by mudslides to lifesaving treatment | NBC News
Two non-profits have helped more than 80 people get to hundreds of appointments, transporting them to airports and flying them over the disaster zone, after the recent California mudslides.
Meet the woman challenging Arab notions of disability | Al-Jazeera
It was 2008 in the Gaza Strip. When winter arrived, so did the Israeli warplanes. Reem Alfranji lived in a second-floor apartment with her husband, Mohammad, and two sons – five-year-old Aboud and Amro, a toddler. During glass-shattering uninterrupted bombardment, the family would stay at her uncle’s downstairs, where the vibrations were less aggressive.
Paraclimber doesn’t let disability get in her way | WCAX3
Maureen Beck was born without her lower left arm, but that doesn’t stop her from doing what she loves. “Because of my disability I found the climbing community,” she said. A filming session with her and other disabled athletes, turned into a documentary made by climber turned filmmaker Cedar Wright. The film went on to be a part of the Reel Rock Tour, featuring various rock climbing athletes from around the world. “We’re real athletes we try really hard, we fail sometimes, and he just really wanted to help us tell the story. It’s the message were trying to send like, we don’t want to just be an inspiration, we want to be actual athletes as well,” Beck said.
Riders Outside Manhattan Can Now Hail Accessible Taxis, Too | New York Rimes
New York City is expanding a taxi dispatch service for the disabled to allow people who use wheelchairs to order accessible cabs in the boroughs outside Manhattan, officials announced on Wednesday. The expansion of the service, which had been limited to Manhattan, marked the latest development in the city’s decades-long efforts to provide people in wheelchairs and motorized scooters with more equitable access to transportation.
How Might Medicaid Adults with Disabilities Be Affected By Work Requirements in Section 1115 Waiver Programs? | Kaiser Family Foundation
Medicaid provides health insurance for over 80 million Americans, including pregnant women, low-income parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, while Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a monthly cash payment to help low-income people with disabilities pay for housing, food, and other basic needs. SSI does not include health insurance, but people who receive SSI generally automatically qualify for Medicaid. SSI enrollees are a subset of all Medicaid enrollees with disabilities. People who receive SSI cash assistance must meet stringent income, asset, and medical eligibility criteria. Many people with disabilities do not receive cash assistance from SSI but still qualify for health insurance from Medicaid through other eligibility pathways.
New Law in Nevada Requires Pharmacies to Provide Prescription Drug Reading Devices \NCD
Beginning this month in Nevada, consumers with disabilities who request a prescription drug label reading device from their pharmacies will either be given one or be given directions on obtaining one owing to a new law that requires pharmacies to do so. According to the new law that Nevada passed with unanimous consent last year, Nevada’s pharmacies must offer, free of charge, talking prescription readers so their blind and visually impaired customers can access critical information from their prescription drug containers. The devices work in connection with special talking labels that pharmacists add to a prescription medication’s container.
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