Blog [with]tv

Happy Father's Day!

From the HeraldNewsOnline.com

submitted by Valerie Brew-Parrish

Like most little girls, I often wondered growing up if one day I would be a mother. I worried about being able to chase the baby and keeping my child safe. Luckily for me, I attended a RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America) conference in Washington, D.C.

Tom Schworles, of Chicago, also attended the meeting. Schworles was a member of the disability savvy organization called COPH (Congress of Organizations of the Physically Handicapped), and I knew him, though not well. During a break in the conference, participants left the hotel to get lunch. I was thunderstruck to see Schworles, a wheelchair user with a form of muscular dystrophy, with two very small children by his side.

My first thought was, "oh no, these kids may dash out into the crowded sidewalks and into the commotion of the streets as they are so little and Tom has no one to assist him." Shame on me for having such a biased belief.

CONTINUE reading Disabled men relish dad role obstacles on way to fatherhood

"Outside The Box"

The Society for Disability Studies and New York University's Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality
Presenting an ALLIGER ARTS Production

OUTSIDE THE BOX/
PERFORMING DISABILITY

An International Cabaret Showcasing Music, Spoken Word, Dance & Drama

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Friday, June 20 - 8 PM

Eisner and Lubin Auditorium
NYU Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South, 4th Floor
between LaGuardia Place and Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012

"Outside the Box/Performing Disability" is an international showcase featuring provocative, exotic and cutting-edge disabled performers.

There has been a seismic shift in disability arts over the last decade, both in form and content. Using unique configurations of body, voice and mind, disabled artists are constructing new art and new art forms.

Mat Fraser, internationally known actor and playwright (Sealboy: Freak, Thalidomide: The Musical) will emcee. Fraser was most recently featured as Puck inThe Kaos Dream, a revisioning of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which toured Britain last fall, where it enjoyed rave reviews, sold out audiences, complaints from Catholic School teachers and standing ovations.

Featuring:
Mat Fraser, Emcee, Actor, Writer, Cabaret performer, Musician and occassional Stripper
Excerpts from GIMP, choreographed by Heidi Latsky featuring dancers
Jeffery Freeze, Lawrence Carter-Long and Catherine Long
Lezlie Frye, Spoken Word
Four Wheel City, Krip Hop (Rap)
Honi Harlow & Mystique presents Bawdville, Deaf Burlesque
Nancy Ostrovsky, Performance Painting
Theatrical Readings staged by Carrie Sandahl and Vicki Lewis
featuring Nikaury Acosta,Christine Bruno*, Jason Fisher*, Pedro Hidalgo*, Anita Hollander*, Neil Marcus,Gregg Mozgala*and Dathan B. Williams*

*appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association

Tickets: $18. Available online and at the door.

Go to http://www.disstudies.org/conference/2008/events/nyu to reserve yours!

For accommodations or other questions, please contact Howard Hines @ 646-344-7261

Event presented with Sign Language Interpretation, Audio Description and Open Captioning.  Space is Wheelchair Accessible.  Assistive Listening Devices, Large Print & Braille Programs Available Upon Request.

Media Inquiries, please contact: Lawrence Carter-Long, Lawrence@dnnyc.net. 917-684-3235

ADA Restoration

ADA Restoration Headed to House Markup on Wednesday 
ADA Restoration Moves Forward in the House 
Disability, civil rights and employer groups are working hard to secure support for the negotiated legislated language that has been circulated on JFA and now has the support of more than 50 national and 60 state and local disability groups, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Human Resource Management, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Human Resource Policy Association, and a growing list of companies, including McDonalds, General Motors and Honeywell. Lobbying on the House side for this negotiated deal began in earnest yesterday, focused on the members of the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Judiciary Committee (which also plans to mark up the bill next Wednesday).

To avoid confusion with the bill that was introduced last July, we have begun referring to the negotiated legislation as the ADA Amendments Act. In anticipation of next week's markup, we are working to counter any efforts in either committee to attach an ADA notification requirement to the bill, a cause that was championed in prior Congresses by Representative Mark Foley of Florida and that is strongly opposed by the disability-civil rights employer coalition working to enact the ADA Amendments Act. We are also working hard to secure White House and Senate Republican support for the negotiated bill.

:::TAKE ACTION:::
At this point, it looks like the bill will receive strong bipartisan support in the committee markups in
the House. We have included a list of the members of the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Judiciary Committee below. 

·      Contact Members on the House Education & Labor Committee and the House Judiciary Committee between now and Wednesday morning and urge them to support the bipartisan negotiated language that will become the Chairman's mark in both committees. The names are below.

Locate the Members' contact information online, or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-1904 (V) / (202) 224-3091 (TTY) and ask to be connected to their offices by name. 

·      If you haven't already, consider having your organization "sign on" to the proposed deal language by sending an email to Anne Sommers, JFA Moderator, at aapdanne@earthlink.net. Support of the deal language means you not only approve of its language and terms, but that you also agree to defend it against all attempts by Members of Congress to amend it--unless both sides agree to the amendments.

We will continue to share the list of organizational support with Members of Congress as ADA Restoration moves forward in both the House and Senate in coming weeks. 

·      Attend the markup! The House Education and Labor Markup is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18th, at 10:00 in the Rayburn building, Room 2175. Advocates are encouraged to show their support through numbers. The accessible entrance to the building is the main entrance with the horseshoe drive off South Capitol Street.

A message from Howard, CEO & Founder, [with]tv

Dear Friend,

I have been meaning to send out an update on our successes and progress for quite some time now and have been unable to do so until now. Please forgive. I know it can be very frustrating waiting for [with]tv to get where we all want it to be. All I can say is that such an endeavor takes an immense amount of passion, energy, creativity, and time. The team of volunteers that works daily on [with]tv for the benefit of all has this, and more. I want to thank Connie, Anna, Mitch, Kathy, Rick, Amber, Scott, Stephen, Elizabeth, Karen, Vince, Day, Jennifer, Rob, Sofya, Mitch, Ron, Chester, and so many others for all they do. It is frustrating for all of us. We all have day jobs (well, I don’t), (well, that is not quite true, I do assist Victoria daily and she assists me!)  We all have much on our plates and everyone is waiting for the day when we can all greet each other daily in our 100% accessible workplace as members of our 100% inclusive workforce. Then we will no longer be volunteers, but will be employees of [with]tv. I look forward to that day and in spades. Then, no more ‘Mr. Nice Guy’.

Seriously though, we all believe in what we are trying to do together, and that means so much to me and keeps me going when I may want to stop. What we are all working on is a project that will indeed benefit us directly in terms of employment, health benefits, and a creative outlet for our energies. But it will immediately benefit and impact upon so many others throughout the world and that is where [with]tv’s true value resides. So here is what we all have been up to. If I leave anything out, please forgive and advise. Will be more communicative, more frequently, going forward.  Just remember there is a lot to do every day. Volunteers in all areas welcome with open arms.

Creating Penelope

Submitted by: Laurie Rubin

The experiences I've had as a classical singer have been incredibly rich ones thus far.  I've been blessed with wonderful mentors, lucky to get some of the wonderful and fun gigs I've gotten, and so fortunate to collaborate with some very fine composers and to sing with some of the best singers and instrumentalists in the field.

As a singer who is blind, I have done recitals and chamber music more than I have done opera.  This is due mostly to a minor logistical difference between me and my sighted counterparts.  Since opera is a business that needs to be run smoothly like anything else, artistic directors are concerned with productivity and tasks getting done as quickly as possible.  When they see me, they envision a situation where it would take longer for me to learn a stage, they think it would take more people to guide me around the stage, and they often think of lawsuits should I manage to find myself falling into the orchestra pit during a rehearsal.

However, things are slowly changing, and I am finding more and more that directors are wanting to think outside the box.  They can envision a situation where a character in the show would be blind.  Well why not?  It is never mentioned in the libretto that she specifically has sight.

Accessible Glacier Bay

Scott Rains
The Rolling Rains Report
http://www.RollingRains.com

From May 25 through May 30, 2008 I tested out the accessible small-ship cruise of Glacier Bay, Alaska. This device -- the McKinnon Hugger -- was a key "freedom machine" that allowed me to move from the boat to a sea kayak each day. Another helpful piece of outdoor adventure gear for transfers to bush planes and kayaks was the Comfort carrier by Gimp Gear.

Waypoint Yacht Charter Services books the wheelchair-adapted wood-hulled yacht the Sea Wolf. The Sea Wolf is a World War II minesweeper just like Jacques Cousteau's original ship the Calypso.

The yacht is small enough to be intimate (six cabins/ three wheelchair usable.) It is retrofitted with wheelchair lifts to each of the three main decks. As Sea Wolf cruises Glacier Bay, Alaska passengers with disabilities can enjoy the sea kayaking or skiff excursion options because the owner has installed a unique lift system.

I was out of my wheelchair and into my kayak with the splash skirt fitted down in 3 minutes thanks to a skilled and attentive crew.

I travel around the world researching inclusion in tourism (just back from Brazil and on to India next month). There is a growing base of practitioners, venues, and  travelers with disabilities developing a sustainable adventure tourism market. This project in Alaska is one of the pioneering efforts in this emerging field.

Balancing Hearts

Last evening Connie and I attended the world premier of a documentary film entitled “A Friend Indeed: the Bill Sackter Story” which was held at the University of Iowa’s Hancher Center for the Performing Arts.

The story of Bill Sackter’s life and times first received national attention in the early 1980’s when a TV film with Mickey Rooney dramatized Bill’s journey from neglect and institutionalization to a featured place in the heart of a community.

The documentary, directed by Lane Wyrick, brings superbly forward the archival film footage of the real life Bill who captured the hearts of a Midwestern college town and then the whole state of Iowa and finally the nation.

Bill Sackter’s story provides a series of intersecting narratives about people with mental disabilities and the proscenium stage of America’s streets.

Abandoned to a Minnesota hospital for “imbeciles” when still a young child, Bill grew up experiencing the inhumane treatment that was so often “part and parcel” of America’s residential institutions for people with disabilities.

Through a series of fortunate and almost happenstance circumstances Bill meets a young college student “Barry” who befriends him and who subsequently becomes Bill’s legal guardian—moving him in the process to Iowa City.

These details are likely familiar to anyone who has seen the original movie starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid.

Lane Wyric’s documentary aims to bring the real Bill—who was affectionately known as “Wild Bill”—the “man in the coffee shop”, purveyor of java and good cheer, impromptu harmonica player, inveterate local talker—and in so doing the film allows those who knew Bill personally to reflect on the impact he had on hundreds of students and residents of Iowa City.

The film is tender, achingly sad, poignant, witty, and altogether charming. I do think that owing to some inexperience dealing with disability as a historical subject, Lane Wyrick misses the opportunity to contextualize the history of disability incarceration and to in turn reflect on the contemporary problems faced by pwds who are still being hospitalized against their wills. The drawback to this documentary may rest in its deep affection for Iowa City’s collective love of this almost forgotten man—and so by turns, it doesn’t delve into the symbolic nature of disability and the industries of medicalization or charity that still haunt many.

Still it is a beautiful film and it helps us to hold a sweet man in our hearts.

S.K.   

Help Bill's Story Reach & Inspire Everyone! Tell a friend about BillSackter.com and/or join our email list to be updated on the new documentary              “A Friend Indeed - The Bill Sackter Story”

LINKS:

http://www.billsackter.com/Bills_links.htm

Cross-posted on Planet of the Blind

Harriet McBryde Johnson

Beth Haller of Media dis&dat has shared her thoughts on the sad news that Harriet McBryde Johnson has passed away: (follow the link above and you will also find numerous links to Harriet's writings and interviews)

I knew Harriet through her writings and the occasional emails we would exchange about media and disability topics. She always supported my work and was a disability activist who truly knew the significance of media images of disability and their impact in the lives of people with disabilities....

She was a spirited and tireless crusader for disability rights, and she will be sorely missed.

Writer and disability rights advocate Laura Hershey of Crip Commentary has created a tribute Web site about disability rights activist, author and attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson, who unexpectedly died June 3.

We (the [with]tv "team") did not know her personally but we benefited from her existence, energy, intellect and her ability.  We would like to honor her and thank her in passing, too little and too late. -- Howard Renensland, CEO & Founder, [with]tv

The FFALF Needs YOU!

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The Fred Fay Advanced Leadership Forum (FFALF) seeks to identify proven leaders from the disability community and bring them together with pioneers from the disability rights movement and key current figures for an informal, comprehensive weekend aimed at giving participants the background, training, information and expertise to return to their communities and organizations and lead successful advocacy efforts for disability rights.

The goal of the FFALF is for the next generation of leaders in the disability rights movement from across the United States to get to know and learn from the current generation of leaders, and for them to strategize together about the future direction of the movement.

Nominees will have demonstrated strong vision and leadership ability by having either:

· improved the civil rights and delivery of services for people with disabilities.
· led disability rights actions that have achieved significant results.
· enhanced opportunities for people with disabilities to participate fully in all aspects of society.

Selected candidates will participate in an intensive, two day, all-expense-paid retreat in Boston on October 24 - 26, 2008, covering a wide range of subjects critical to the disability community. The Fred Fay Advanced Leadership Forum is presented by the Boston Center for Independent Living and members of the Advisory Council. National leaders of the disability rights movement and noted public figures will also take part in the FFALF.

Applications due by July 1st.

For more information:

Brochure

Application

Cross-posted on Planet of the Blind

odd one out: New to the Blogroll

odd one out is a blog that came to our attention as a result of the oh-so-very disturbing story centered around just a small boy. Alex Barton is his name and he's only 5 but already all too familiar with the sting of discrimination and emotional abuse - by his kindergarten teacher, and his five-year old classmates of all people. 

On this blog you'll find "Reality with a refreshing slice of aspie"  as the heading goes.  See for yourself in these three "refreshing" posts on behalf of Alex Barton: The Golden Rule, Dear Governor Crist, and Not Making Connections.