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January 01, 2006
Medicare changes also affecting low-income, disabled people
A coalition of health advocacy groups went to court to force the federal government to keep Medicaid in the prescription drug business for these individuals, known as dual eligibles. The groups say there should be a backup plan since the transition is not likely to go perfectly.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan turned down that bid (PDF link), though the head of one of the organizations, the Medicare Rights Center, on Friday predicted an appeal.
January 02, 2006
Theater sessions
Based in New York City, NTWH [National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped] purchased Belfast's [Maine] former Crosby High School in 1997 and spent more than $1 million renovating the building to house students and create several theaters, classrooms and lounges.
Each summer, disabled adults have been a part of the downtown scene in Belfast, but the school was virtually empty and quiet through the summers of 2004 and 2005 as NTWH grappled with a financial crisis. A bank foreclosed on the Crosby building and other NTWH properties in Belfast, but the organization was able to raise funds to save the school.
January 03, 2006
Success, struggle mark beginning of Medicare drug plan
In Brooklyn, N.Y., Seth Kaplan, a 36-year-old disabled Medicare recipient, reported a different experience. He said he had struggled unsuccessfully to get his drug plan to pay for his asthma medication. He said that he and his pharmacist had spent two hours on the phone with the insurer, WellCare, and that he eventually had to pay for the drug with his credit card, at a cost of $191.
January 04, 2006
Wheelchair user may sue; wants to go amphibious in the fountain
From an article in The Villager about planned renovations to Washington Square Park:
...the Parks Department says a major reason it wants to raise the park's sunken plaza is to make it handicapped accessible.Now an advocate for the disabled is threatening that her organization will sue if a permanent ramp isn't added to allow the disabled to go into the fountain itself.
Margie Rubin, a resident of the Westbeth artists complex and a member of Disabled in Action--the group that forced New York City buses to add wheelchair lifts--says people in wheelchairs, like herself, or otherwise disabled, have the right to go into the fountain.
Jake Dobkin editorializes thusly at Gothamist:
The Parks Department is saying that no access will be provided, because no one is supposed to go into the fountain itself--the water is recycled, so it's actually fairly polluted, and unsafe to ingest. Even if that wasn't true, should people really be taking wheelchairs into a fountain? Isn't rust an issue? What about electric wheelchairs--aren't there electrocution dangers? Is this a case of political correctness run amok? No lawsuit has yet been filed--let's hope that common-sense wins out here.
(Oh look, there's even a helpful picture to illustrate what will, clearly, happen should a wheelchair user dare enter the fountain!)
Sounds pretty ludicrous, right? However, Mr. Dobkin neglects to include this paragraph from the original article:
"When we move the fountain, we're going to be rebuilding it. And we are going to explore the use of temporary ramps when the fountain is off," Johnston said. "It is used as a performance space when it's not turned on--which is 60 percent of the time."
Call me cynical, but I have a hard time believing the good people at the Parks Department will be mindful enough to lug said temporary ramps into position every time the fountain is turned off. Every wheelchair user knows how that will work. So I have to agree with DIA that a permanent ramp deserves consideration, if for no other reason than efficient use of rebuilding funds. I'm sure wheelchair users everywhere thank Mr. Dobkin for his kind consideration of what might happen to our wheelchairs should one of us decide to go in the fountain, but I like to think we're capable of making our own judgments as to what might cause a rust or electrical problem.
And should one of us do something utterly foolish like go dance around in a fountain in our modern, mostly heavy plastic wheelchairs, I expect the Parks Department will issue an equitable and appropriate punishment, on par with the punishment for able-bodied people who enter the fountain.
Asked if Park Enforcement Patrol officers will issue tickets to parents whose children play in the water, Johnston said each situation will be handled on "a case-by-case basis" but that parents would be told to use the sprinklers in the park, which will be added under the renovation.
January 10, 2006
Bee Line Buses To Accept MetroCards
Westchester's Bee Line buses will soon accept MetroCards allowing riders to take longer trips for less money.
Also Bee Line buses this year will have 104 new 60-seat buses, all of which should be on the road by October. Those additions will make the entire 357-bus fleet wheelchair-accessible, apart from the Bx-M-4-C express buses to Manhattan, which are scheduled to be replaced with accessible buses in 2007. The system also has 50 paratransit buses for the disabled.
Wheelchair user presses protest against club
Most party people in this town have felt the pangs of rejection from being denied entry to a hip nightclub. But when bouncers told 21-year-old Michael Harris that he couldn't enter the Star nightclub with his wheelchair on New Year's Eve, they may have been breaking the law.
"They basically told me they had a policy not to admit people in wheelchairs," Harris said. "They told me that if I didn't leave they would pick me up and take me out of my wheelchair and throw me into the street."
January 13, 2006
Suit seeks affordable housing for disabled
A well-known disability advocate has filed suit against the Long Island Housing Partnership and others for not constructing accessible affordable homes.
Medicaid-increase cap to cost state $1.1. billion
It will cost the state $1.1 billion next year to make good on a pledge to cap the increase in Medicaid expenses for New York City and county governments, Gov. George Pataki announced yesterday.
January 14, 2006
Claire Danes Gets Her So-Called Shot
This fall, Ms. Danes was able to revisit her early love of dance when she appeared at Performance Space 122 in a solo piece choreographed by Tamar Rogoff. The performance, titled "Christina Olson: American Model," was inspired by Andrew Wyeth's painting "Christina's World," in which a young disabled girl, lying on her side in a desolate field, turns toward a house in the distance. Ms. Danes laughingly described filming a video segment used in the piece, in which she dragged herself across East 10th Street on one hip, in the famous posture captured in that painting: "Nobody looked. It's kind of an incredible piece of footage, because everybody was entirely unfazed at some scrawny white girl, you know, dragging herself across the street. And I thought, O.K., I'm playing it way too safe. So I'm getting a lot less squeamish."
Help for elderly on Medicare drug plan
"This new Medicare program and the ensuing wrongful denial of prescription drugs to thousands of elderly and disabled New Yorkers is creating what could soon become one of our state's greatest public health disasters," Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said.Since the federal program began Jan. 1, local, state and federal health officials have been inundated with reports of logistical problems.
Square's fountain to be moved; water jets will move musicians
Folk singers strummed and warbled ballads against it. Local politicians--not one but four--testified against it. The Fine Arts Federation of New York stated it was opposed to the idea. Disabled advocates in wheelchairs angrily said they were being used as "pawns"--and not to do it in their name. And most of the people offering testimony during four hours of hearings on Monday said they didn't want the Washington Square Park fountain moved 22 feet to the east. But that didn't matter to the Art Commission, which voted to approve the shifting of the fountain, as well as the park's two statues, as part of the Parks Department's $16 million renovation project.
January 15, 2006
Election reform must include state's disabled
Governor Pataki's recent State of the State address discussed a wide range of topics, but the issue of election reform was conspicuously absent. This is because New York has been in violation of the full implementation deadline of the federal Help America Vote Act since Jan. 1.
New Yorkers with disabilities have the most to lose because of this. They still are being denied full access to voting machines, the ballot and polling places after more than 200 years in the history of our state and country.
Healthcare Workers Protest
1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East will hold a march and rally for home health aides. Demands include: a living wage, health insurance and access to education for the aides.
Begins at West 110th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.; ends at State Office Building on 125th Street at Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.
10:00AM-12:00AM
Pals to build ramp for Bronx teen
At his former apartment in the Bronx, Edgar Lopez relied on his father to pull and carry him up and down a flight of stairs.
The wheelchair-bound 17-year-old and his family moved to a house in Westbury last year, but the great pains it took for the high school senior to simply arrive home or go out didn't end.
This week, it will.
January 17, 2006
Bronx to get apartments for elderly poor
Three Bronx nonprofits just got the largest chunk of federal grants awarded to the city this year to increase low-income housing for the elderly poor and the disabled.
With the funding from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, the borough will get three new buildings with 167 one-bedroom apartments and six efficiency apartments earmarked for elderly people with very low incomes.
A Determined Volunteer Gets Some Help for Herself
There are those who let a disability get them down. Then there is Luda Demikhovskaya.
"This is how I have learned to survive," she said the other day, smiling broadly from a motorized wheelchair and offering a bright blue business card to a visitor. "Lyudmita Demikhovskaya," the card says, "Disabled Activist."
"I have always volunteered," she said. "I help other people."
But even Ms. Demikhovskaya, 64 and seemingly indomitable, needs help from time to time.
January 20, 2006
Seniors struggle through Medicare drug changes
After struggling to get her 11 prescriptions filled through the new Medicare prescription drug plan, Bronx resident Joanne Carleucci needed an aspirin.
"It was such a bad experience, I went to the pharmacy to get my medication and I couldn't, so I had to go home without it," said Carleucci, 55.
Carleucci was eventually able to get her drugs after her doctor intervened. She is one of millions of seniors around New York and the rest of the country adjusting to the plan called Medicare Part D, which went into effect this month.
January 22, 2006
Donations sought to aid wounded
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a nonprofit organization based in New York City, hopes to raise $35 million to build a physical rehabilitation and burn treatment facility for wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
The organization needs roughly $10 million to get the job done. Construction began Sept. 22, 2005, and is under way still.
CSI's $80M dorm plan hits a snag
Last month, CSI unveiled an $80 million conceptual plan to construct residency halls on a portion of state-owned land, currently occupied by buildings and vacant property under the jurisdiction of the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD).
That announcement led to a heated debate between a college trying to expand its services and a passionate people determined to preserve the legacy of the former Willowbrook State School....
"We believe that we have an extraordinary opportunity for CSI and the disabilities community, and for Staten Island overall," said Robert Huber, CSI's communications director, in response to the state spokeswoman's comments. "At the moment, we are engaged in the process of defining the concept of student housing on the CSI campus. We could follow the conventional approach of constructing dormitories for students at the campus that would mirror the basic way student residences are done at virtually all other colleges.
"However, we also would like to explore a broader, more progressive and innovative use of residential housing that would benefit not only our students but people with special needs, as well," he continued, reiterating that the plan calls for units for OMRDD's clients.
January 26, 2006
Activists Accuse State Of Denying Chinese Immigrant Benefits Unlawfully
Community activists are rallying behind a disabled Chinese immigrant from Queens whom they say is being denied benefits because she can't speak English.
Ping Zhang Guan of Flushing came to the United States five years ago and was working as a home health aid when an accident left the 64-year-old disabled and unable to work.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett Announces $400,000 Multi-State Action Against Consultant Accused Of Deceptively Promoting Sweepstakes for PA and Other Charities
[Pennsylvania] Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced a $400,000 multi-state settlement with a Massachusetts-based fundraising consultant accused of devising deceptive and misleading sweepstakes to boost donations for numerous charitable organizations located in Pennsylvania and 18 other states.Among the charities listed as using the bogus sweepstakes to raise money was the American Foundation for Disabled Children Inc., headquartered at 84 New Dorp Plaza, Suite 207, Staten Island, NY. Charity Navigator gives them a rating of 0 stars.
Housing Court: Should Tenants Have A Guaranteed Right To Counsel?
Lawyer-less litigants are generally intimidated by the maze of housing court, a court that even many lawyers have difficulty figuring out. Some conference participants urged Housing Courts judges to be more protective of tenants, especially the most vulnerable, the disabled, the impaired, the aged.
Homelessness on the rise in New York - report
Overcrowded service shelters, exorbitant cost of housing and cutbacks in government housing assistance are being blamed for the rise of homelessness.
The group's report outlines several suggestions for fixing the problem including a suspension of a reduction in the rent supplement for formerly homeless families. They also recommend making it easier for the working poor and disabled to work while still receiving aid.
January 28, 2006
Skiing program for disabled children a hit at Camelback
Thursday saw the skiers racing slalom style before an awards banquet that evening. Many of the campers came through The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Bohn. Others came from hospitals in New York City or through the Amputee Coalition of America.
January 29, 2006
Food for Thought: New study looks at why New Yorkers aren't getting the food stamps they deserve.
Working New Yorkers eligible for food stamps are often deterred from the program by bureaucratic hurdles, according to a new report from the Urban Justice Center. Researchers examined 1,500 enrollment records from the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the city's welfare agency, and interviewed a random sample of these clients to investigate why they weren't accessing the support. They found that working families often fail to sign up for the program because they can't take time off to apply for benefits, a process that requires one or more in-person office visits. The resulting report, "A Better Recipe for New York City: Less Red Tape, More Food on the Table," urges greater flexibility. HRA could, for example, greatly increase access by extending office hours and allowing more people to conduct eligibility interviews over the phone, an option that's now available only to the elderly and disabled.
Three Who Work Tirelessly to Help Poorest New Yorkers
When Jackie Ebron, Lynette Loadholt and Denise Eugene go to work in the morning, their paths never cross. But their paths do run parallel in many respects. All three women, dedicated to social work, are employed by social service agencies that are among the seven beneficiaries of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. In their different roles, they all spend many hours assisting the city's poorest residents: recent immigrants, newly unemployed or working poor people and medically fragile, physically or mentally disabled children and adults.
January 30, 2006
Weiner: Congress Shortchanged Schools by More Than $2B
In the four years since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was signed, President Bush and Congress have sent New York City schools about $2 billion less than they promised, Rep. Anthony Weiner charged yesterday.
Disabled Vets Find Write Way
A Manhattan theatrical workshop is inviting disabled vets home from Iraq and Afghanistan to sign up for a free writing program designed just for them--and Tony Soprano hopes it's an offer they can't refuse.
Some of the 40 vets who take the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped's seminar may get to hear their words performed next fall on Broadway by the likes of James Gandolfini, star of HBO's "The Sopranos."
Nursing Home Residents May Head Home Soon
It may not be turning back the clock, but senior citizens living in nursing homes could start moving back into the community under a new state program this spring.
The state Department of Health last month applied for a waiver to let nursing home residents on Medicaid apply to receive care at home, in adult day care or assisted living facilities. Up to 5,000 seniors statewide over a three-year period would be shifted out of nursing homes under the program.
January 31, 2006
Faculty unionists call for disability rights funding
NYSUT's Higher Education Council is joining a statewide movement pressing for serious funding for college students with disabilities, along with the faculty and staff who serve them.
Funding now is so limited that some college-bound students with disabilities cannot attend college because institutions cannot afford to meet their needs, a State Education Department official recently told the council.