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September 01, 2005
First Phase Of Fulton Street Transit Hub Now Underway
When completed, the complex will connect virtually every mode of transit in Lower Manhattan, including 11 subway lines, as well as the PATH and ferry systems.
It will also be accessible to the disabled, and provide better light and air and overall more pleasant conditions to more than 275,000 daily riders. In addition, it will include a concourse under Dey Street.
Disabled sportsman flies an aircraft: After covering NYC Marathon distance Sergey Burlakov decided to go for the sky
Last year American journalists called Sergey Burlakov the man of the planet after he had covered 42 kilometers of the New York City Marathon. There were 34 participants from 128 countries and Burlakov was the only one with fourfold amputation, that is with artificial legs and arms. He covered the distance in six hours and fifty-one minute. The results were registered in Guinness Book.
Closing VA hosp betrays veterans
Thanks to a close relationship with the New York University School of Medicine, the Manhattan Veteran's Affairs Medical Center has become the premier veterans hospital in the country. On site there are six VA-designated Centers of Excellence. The Northeast Prosthetic Center housed there is the only laboratory in the region authorized to fabricate definitive artificial limbs.
And what does the Department of Veterans Affairs want todo? Close the hospital. Officials assert veterans can receive the same level of care at the Brooklyn facility. But traveling to Brooklyn would pose challenges to patients, many of whom are disabled. To me, this does not sound like saluting our country's noble veterans.
Study: State Could Save On Special Education
New York could serve special education students better and save $220 million a year if it adopted some new methods already in place in other states, according to a study released by a think tank Thursday.
New York's enrollment of special education students has grown because of an abused "bounty" system that began in the 1990s, according to the study by The Empire Center for New York State Policy at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute.
The Blind Trusting Their Stride
Since July, Ms. Nodrat and about a dozen other blind and visually impaired runners have been intensifying their training along Central Park's four-, five- and six-mile loops with a 16-week program to prepare for the New York City Marathon on Nov. 6.
September 02, 2005
Manhattan's last public stable is still at full gallop
A few people begin their mornings here with a gentle trot into Central Park; teenagers learn to groom horses and disabled adults combine riding with physical therapy. Children flock to an equestrian summer camp; underprivileged children get their first opportunity to mount an Appaloosa. People who board their own horses at the stable filter in and out. [See more about therapeutic riding in the Disabled Sports category.]
September 04, 2005
MDAs annual Labor Day Telethon
In a mass email, Muscular Dystrophy Association urged people to consider making a generous donation to the Salvation Army for Hurricane Katrina relief, and a $15 donation to kick-start the Telethon. Jerry Lewis and Casey Kasem will host the 40th annual MDA Telethon beginning September 4th and continuing to the 5th. According to the station listings (.pdf), Channel 9 (UPN) will be airing the Telethon, or watch it online. Remember, if you donate online, you can earmark your donation to go directly to a specific disease or program.
September 06, 2005
Candidates wade into relief debate
[City Council Speaker Gifford] Miller, a sharp critic of Bloomberg's new emergency-scene protocols, had a different opinion.
"There is something wrong with a country that can send 100,000 troops to Baghdad in three days, but can't get 25,000 of our own people out of the Superdome in less than five days," Miller told churchgoers in Brooklyn yesterday. "There's something wrong with our country when we ... can't get relief to 100,000 of the poor, disabled and most vulnerable right here at home."
Heartbreak hotel: Queens house is home to children in country illegally
Faced with these many obstacles, their determined advocates pull no punches.
Malik Jarno, a mentally disabled Guinean orphan, has received more than $1 million worth of Nugent's legal advice, and his case remains unresolved. Nugent even went to Paris and Africa to interview a dozen people who could back up Jarno's claim that as the son of a well-known political dissident, he'll be killed if he returns home.
Audio Description Service Makes Broadway's Wicked Accessible To The Blind
Blind patrons face a challenge when they decide to attend a live performance. Onstage dialogue without visual references can be confusing, potentially frustrating the theatrical experience.
Now an audio description service, Sound Associates' D-Scriptive, fills in those essential visuals, providing more clarity to the blind theatergoer.
September 11, 2005
A respite for campers, families in Spring Valley
[Vacation Camp for the Blind], which just completed its 79th season late last month, is licensed as a temporary residence rather than a summer camp, hosting parents and children of campers in the family cabins.
First founded in 1926 in Rye, it is run by VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a nonprofit that provides education, rehabilitation and social activities for blind New Yorkers.
This summer, the camp was home to 408 visitors who took part in modified sports, family style meals and a custom-designed swimming pool with a ramp for wheelchair users and sprinklers that alert blind campers to the pool's edges.
2nd Circuit Reinstates ADA Discrimination Claim by Worker With Night Blindness
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated an anti-discrimination suit against New York City by a former sanitation worker who claims he was fired because he suffers from night blindness.
Anthony Capobianco sued the city and the Department of Sanitation in 2001 under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which bars discrimination against the disabled.
Planning the Impossible: New York's Evacuation
Joseph F. Bruno, the emergency management commissioner, said the city is prepared to move from 400,000 to two million people from the path of a hurricane--a challenge made a little less daunting by advance warning, knowing which flood-prone areas to evacuate and identifying how many poor, elderly, disabled and non-English speakers live there. Since 9/11, with its hellish communications breakdowns, New York officials said they have also vastly improved their ability to communicate with the public by radio and television and, to a lesser extent, with each other.
September 14, 2005
HUD reneging on building deal, center for disabled charges
Brooklyn's red-hot real estate boom is pitting a local nonprofit group that cares for the mentally ill against the U.S. government.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to sell a Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone to the group, but at market value instead of at a lower price HUD originally agreed to, officials of the nonprofit organization charged.
Ground Zero: The Most Dangerous Workplace
After EPA failed to warn the estimated 40,000 rescue and recovery workers who responded to the WTC tragedy on or after 9/11, thousands have fallen ill and hundreds encounter resistance to health care and compensation claims.
September 16, 2005
Dance Listings: Tamar Rogoff's "Christina Olson: American Model"
Claire Danes will star as the disabled woman Andrew Wyeth made famous in his painting "Christina's World." Wednesday through next Friday at 8 p.m.; Sept 24 at 4 and 8 p.m.; Sept. 25 at 4 p.m., P.S. 122, 150 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 477-5288 or www.ps122.org; $20; students and 65+, $15. (Dunning)
Civilians are learning about emergency preparedness
All Together Now, a household emergency preparedness program coordinated by the New York City Office of Emergency Management, drew double the usual crowd to The Cooper Union’s Wolman Auditorium for its final information session last week. The program, aiming to empower New York City residents to take the practical steps necessary to be prepared for any emergency, will train over 200 preparedness leaders by the end of the month, and pending renewed funding, it may make its way to even more Villagers’ blocks.
In its second phase of implementation, All Together Now is currently conducting a citywide demonstration by training concerned residents as team leaders. These leaders work to establish a preparedness team in their building through hosting four biweekly meetings with their neighbors. Being a team leader is a two-hour-per-week commitment over six months. Together the team works to prepare for emergencies of varying scales. For individuals not interested in a leadership role, there is an abridged household program, and for vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and the disabled, a mentoring program is also available.
September 19, 2005
Pataki, Spitzer: More Staff Needed To Stop Medicaid Fraud, Waste
The Republican Pataki administration and the office of Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Monday agreed the way to combat the alleged loss of billions of dollars each year in Medicaid fraud and waste is to spend more money on staff.
September 21, 2005
Community Board 2 approves residence for disabled in Bulls Head
A uniformed police officer was among the crowd of 60 at last night's meeting of Community Board 2--a precaution following a similar meeting earlier this month during which the airing of plans to establish a community residence for the disabled in Bulls Head sparked acrimony.
As it turned out, the officer's services were not needed, although those attending heckled board members after the residence was approved with all votes in favor and one abstention.
September 22, 2005
Bumpy road to a fix: City finally dumps bridge humps along Williamsburg Bridge
Disabled advocates had argued the bumps were too steep for wheelchairs and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
After insisting last spring the covers did not violate federal law, DOT officials acknowledged this week the steep metal plates were "not fully" in compliance.
"The enhanced bumps will make the bridge fully ADA compliant," said DOT spokeswoman Kay Sarlin.
2005 Million Dollar Duck Race
25,000 rubber duckies race the East River from the Brooklyn
Bridge to the Seaport to benefit the Special Olympics. Want to win a million bucks? Adopt your own quacker or a get a Quack Pack of five.
When: Fri. at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Pier 17 at South Street Seaport, Fulton St., at Water St.
(212-490-1062)
September 23, 2005
Grade school math test results mixed, disabled students make key gains
State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said the steady improvement in performance for disabled students in wealthier schools "is a powerful argument for (increased) state aid... it's a worthy investment." He noted that many critics of the state's efforts since 1995 to raise all students' performance predicted disabled children couldn't meet higher standards.
"When suburban students with disabilities outperform the general education students in urban schools, the enormity of just how broken our urban public school systems are becomes evident," said B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability. "It doesn't matter how much you spend as long as you still aren't taking a different approach to education."
Students with physical and learning disabilities reached another plateau. In fourth grade test results, more than 55 percent of students with disabilities met the math standard. It was the first time more than half the students met the standard, Mills said.
"Some people would say that youngsters with disabilities cannot perform," Mills said. "They can."
Driver, matron charged with leaving 5-year-old boy alone on bus
A bus driver and matron have been charged with child endangerment for leaving a 5-year-old learning disabled boy alone on a parked school bus for more than an hour, prosecutors said Thursday.
The boy was picked up at his home at 7:10 a.m. Tuesday to be taken to P.S. 118, the Queens district attorney's office said in a news release. A passer-by found him "crying hysterically" on the empty bus at about 10:20 a.m., the DA's office said.
City Refuses To Release Plan For Hurricane Evacuation
Almost a month after Hurricane Katrina exposed the devastation a shoddy emergency-management plan can wreak on a major urban center, Mayor Bloomberg refuses to make public the city's own hurricane evacuation plan.
This came to light last Thursday in a report by State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who claims the mayor's office denied requests to provide him with a comprehensive evacuation plan, with little explanation as to why. He wanted to scrutinize the plan for a committee report.
Currently, the OEM's plans call for residents unable to leave the city during a hurricane to make their way to one of 23 reception centers located in the five boroughs.... From there, they will be driven to one of several undisclosed hurricane shelters located near the centers....
Some of the reception areas are located far away from public transportation. In Queens, only two of the four reception centers are accessible by subway. People can travel to the other two by bus, but that would depend on whether the lines are running properly. Some may have to make several transfers to get to the centers, causing potential problems for elderly or disabled people.
Current Threats to Ventilator Users in Cost-Cutting Proposals from Medicaid and Other Medical Insurance: A Resolution
WHEREAS many people with significant disabilities are living longer, healthier, more productive lives with the help of ventilators and other devices that assist breathing; and
WHEREAS advances in technology are making ventilators more portable, reliable, efficient, and easy to use, thus enabling many more ventilator users to live active lives in the community; and
WHEREAS some states, under pressure to reduce Medicaid costs, are formulating or adopting policies that would either deny payment for ventilation devices or would require ventilator users to enter nursing facilities in order to keep or obtain such equipment; and...
[Please visit the International Ventilator Users Network and sign on to support the resolution. -Editor]
September 24, 2005
It's decision time for Medicare Part D
It's time to decide whether to sign up for the new Medicare Part D drug benefit.
Despite its flaws and costs, it will provide moderate drug coverage for beneficiaries who have none, cheap coverage for the low-income elderly, and catastrophic coverage for beneficiaries whose yearly drug bills exceed $5,100.
The initial enrollment period (you must be 65 or disabled to qualify) runs from Nov. 15 through May 15.
September 26, 2005
Update on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
The Sixth Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities met from August 1 August 12, 2005, at the United Nations in New York City. This briefing paper relates developments during that session.
...An advance, unedited copy of the report of the Sixth Ad Hoc Committee can be found at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/ahc6reporte.htm
Detailed summaries of the proceedings are also being prepared by Rehabilitation International and are being made available here as they are completed: http://www.worldenable.net/rights/adhoc6meet.htm
What a relief: Potties are almost a done deal
So just how did Mike Bloomberg achieve the impossible? If you wait long enough, some obstacles just go away, New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall told me. Public toilet design has now evolved to where it's possible to build a much smaller toilet that can still accommodate people in wheelchairs. There's also the technology to equip public toilets with a sensor-alarm that alerts officials if someone has been inside for a sustained period of time.
September 27, 2005
Family caregivers need support, not liability
Most family caregivers have no medical training. Nearly every family caregiver interviewed in a United Hospital Fund survey and in focus groups reported that when he or she took a relative home from the hospital, "I wasn't prepared." National and local surveys both found a lack of instruction in tasks like cleaning wounds and administering prescription drugs.
September 29, 2005
OEM Defends Evacuation Plan During City Council Hearing
The head of the Office of Emergency Management sought to assure members of the City Council on Monday that his agency could effectively manage the evacuation of millions of people in the event of a Katrina-sized hurricane in New York.
September 30, 2005
DIVA TALK: Chatting with Scoundrels' Sara Gettelfinger Plus News of Mazzie, Skinner and Brightman
This week's column is dedicated to Michael Wittenberg, Bernadette Peters' husband who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week. Donations can be made in Wittenberg's name to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Broadway Barks or Standing Tall. The latter was an organization that meant a great deal to the late investment advisor. A message on the Standing Tall website says, "Mike was the beloved Director and Treasurer of Standing Tall, a program for the most severely disabled and multiply handicapped children. Mike was one of the strongest and most physically able people in the universe. He protected a population of disabled children at Standing Tall that must work very hard just to sit, stand, walk and speak. They are the least physically able in our society. He was Standing Tall's guardian angel. The families of Standing Tall drew from his enormous outward and inner strength to find purpose and hope in their lives. His energy, enthusiasm, vision and kindness will be sorely missed."