Companion Card to help the disabled

Companions of severe or profoundly disabled NSW residents will receive free public transport and entry to some government facilities as part of a new initiative.

The Companion Card will be available later this year and is aimed at assisting people who need a carer to better participate in the community.

"The Companion Card recognises that a carer is indispensable to a person with a profound or severe disability and gives them equal access to services and facilities like everyone else," Minister for Ageing and Disability Services Kristina Keneally said.

"The card will be free, it won't be means tested, and we estimate it will make it easier for about 25,000 people in NSW to better access the community, every day services and events.

"In addition to public buses and trains, we believe there will be strong support for the card from the private sector, particularly entertainment and sporting businesses."

All public transport, including ferries, plus entry to national parks and Sydney's Taronga Zoo will be covered by the Companion Card, Ms Keneally told reporters in Sydney.

With a Companion Card, a disabled person and their carer need only buy one public transport ticket and pay a single entry fee to entitle both to travel or access.

"This acknowledges carers and brings great recognition," carer Tania Hayes said.

Mrs Hayes cares for her severely disabled husband Warren, who suffered a brain injury following a tumour 11 years ago.

Welcoming the Companion Card, Ms Hayes said the "minimal" carer's pension did not allow for many luxuries like a trip to the zoo.

The government expects to issue about 25,000 Companion Cards at an annual cost of $2 million a year, Ms Keneally said.

The NSW opposition welcomed the introduction of the Companion Card but criticised the government for not making the move earlier, saying the idea was first slated by the coalition in 2006.

"I welcome Kristina Keneally adopting sound NSW Liberal/Nationals policy. It's just a shame the Iemma government didn't do it when it was first announced back in 2006," opposition disability services spokesman Andrew Constance said in a statement.

"Instead of welcoming sensible NSW Liberal/Nationals policy when it is announced, the Iemma government resorts to political point-scoring before adopting the same policy when the minister has run out of ideas.

"If the Iemma government had been sensible enough to adopt this policy when it was first announced by the NSW Liberal/Nationals in 2006, then carers would already be enjoying the benefits."

Mr Constance said the government should have acknowledged the coalition's input.

Perfecting the application process for the Companion Card took time and Ms Keneally said the government wanted to make sure it "got it right".

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Court denies bid to sterilize mentally disabled woman

Disability rights advocates and medical ethicists praised a precedent-setting ruling Friday by the Illinois Appellate Court denying a bid to sterilize a mentally disabled woman against her will.

The woman, identified only as K.E.J. in court records, isn't capable of raising a child on her own, but her guardian did not prove that sterilization would be in her best interests, a three-judge panel in Chicago ruled unanimously.
"Tubal ligation is a particularly drastic means of preventing a mentally incompetent ward from becoming pregnant," Judge Joseph Gordon wrote in the 36-page opinion. There are "less intrusive and less psychologically harmful [birth-control] alternatives."

The ruling was the first appellate opinion on the issue in Illinois.

"It's extraordinarily significant" because it guarantees the disabled a court hearing, said Katie Watson, a Northwestern University professor who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on behalf of about two dozen medical ethicists.

"In the past, this was a decision that could be made between a guardian and a doctor," she said. "The decision must be moved into the light."

The ruling means a guardian must go through some "significant legal hoops" before a court will order sterilization, said the woman's attorney, John Whitcomb of Equip for Equality, a disability-rights group.

K.E.J., 29, suffered a brain injury as a child when she was struck by a car. As a result, she cannot be left alone to operate a stove or perform most household chores.

The woman lives with her aunt, who was appointed as her guardian in the mid-1990s. In 2003, the aunt filed a "petition for tubal ligation" in Cook County Probate Court, arguing that her niece had a bad medical reaction to other birth-control methods.

mjhiggins@tribune.com

Chicago Tribune, United States

Row over plan to reduce care for disabled

COUNCIL chiefs in Midlothian want to cut care for some disabled children in a bid to plug a £600,000 budget shortfall.

However, the controversial plans have been attacked by opposition councillors, and have been "called in" to be discussed at a meeting next week.

There are 286 disabled children in the county, with 60 of those receiving social care.

The Labour controlled council wants to introduce a "fairer" system, whereby only those with "critical" or "substantial" needs will receive full assistance.

However, opposition councillors claim that up to a quarter of the families currently receiving care may lose out. The plans have been called in by the performance review committee, led by SNP group leader Colin Beattie.

He said: "It's not just numbers we're dealing with, it's people's lives and we have a social responsibility to find out how these lives will be affected."

Colin Anderson, acting director of the social work division, said the new "eligibility criteria" will allow resources to be allocated fairly.

He added: "Failure to confirm eligibility criteria as a permanent policy would jeopardise the council's ability to meet its statutory duties within allocated budgets."

Scotsman, United Kingdom

EEOC issues two guides on employing disabled veterans

After disabled veterans returning from places like Iraq and Afghanistan are treated for their wounds and injuries, the next step for them is to find suitable employment.

Two federal laws contain provisions designed to help injured veterans compete in the workplace: The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Title I of the ADA is administered by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The USERRA is enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The EEOC recently issued two guides providing assistance for employers and veterans on workplace issues affecting veterans with service-connected disabilities. Both are available at www.eeoc.gov. The guides explain how protections differ under both laws and are presented in a question-and-answer format.

In a press release, EEOC Chairman Naomi Earp stated: “Members of the military who have bravely sacrificed for America should never have to come home and face unlawful employment obstacles because of a service-connected disability.” She also expressed the overall goal that injured veterans deserve to compete on a level playing field, along with everyone else.

EEOC legal counsel Reed L. Russell is also cited in the press release as endorsing the release of these two documents. He said these guides will provide valuable assistance to returning wounded veterans and employers.

The first guide shows how the ADA applies to certain aspects of employing disabled veterans such as recruiting, hiring and accommodating these veterans with service-connected disabilities.

The second document highlights protections for disabled veterans seeking to return to their former jobs or those aiming for their first or new civilian jobs. It explains adjustments possibly needed to perform a job or to attain equal access to the workplace.

Both of these guides contain lists of resources that describe how to obtain more information on the ADA and the USERRA. These lists include public and private organizations that can assist employers seeking to recruit and hire disabled veterans.

Vero Beach Press-Journal

Ohio's Medicaid buy-in program allows disabled to work with benefits

A new state program will help Charissa Warner and a lot of others go back to or get full-time work.

April 1 was the first day to apply for Ohio's Medicaid buy-in program for workers with disabilities, which allows eligible disabled workers to continue receiving Medicaid benefits by paying an income-based premium.

The two biggest barriers that stop disabled people from working is lack of accessible transportation and the fear of losing benefits — especially medical benefits, said John Conelly, executive director of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission.

Until now, earning too much meant losing Medicaid benefits or losing a large part of a paycheck.

The commission is the state agency charged with helping Ohioans with disabilities by helping them get jobs through its Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Last year, the commission helped more than 8,700 Ohioans find or keep jobs. In Stark County, the commission served 2,646 people with disabilities and helped 375 get jobs at an average hourly wage of $9.75 per hour, working an average of about 32 hours per week.

For Warner, the Medicaid buy-in means she will be able to go back to full-time work. "We've been waiting for this for years," she said.

The 28-year-old Strasburg woman is a drafting technician, designing roads and bridges for the state Department of Transportation's District 11, headquartered in New Philadelphia.

She's also been a quadriplegic since breaking her neck in a sled-riding accident when she was 11. Inspired by her father's example, she grew up determined to make a living, and the commission helped with her education and with alterations to her van.

She earned an associate's degree in computer-assisted design and a bachelor's degree in computer science at Kent State University Tuscarawas Campus.

Going on her husband's company insurance would put their premiums "through the roof," she said. When she landed a job with the state, she had health coverage, but, "There are a lot of things that insurance doesn't cover. That's why we can't afford to lose our Medicaid," she said.

"A lot of us (disabled people) are uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions," she said

"Most of the people we're working with have more than one disability," Conelly said. "It's usually a combination of physical and psychological."

Warner was working full time, but dropped to part-time because of a "patient-liability" rule that required payment of all money made in excess of the income cap. "It really discouraged a lot of people from getting a job," Warner said.

She's waiting for a state hiring freeze to end so she can go back to full-time work.

Conelly said many disabled people were unwilling to take the risk of losing Medicaid because a catastrophic health problem would wipe out all their assets. The new rules also upped the amount of savings a disable person can have: from a cap of $1,500 to $10,000.

The buy-in allows workers with disabilities earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, after deductions, to pay a monthly premium to continue Medicaid coverage, said commission spokeswoman Eileen Corson.

That percentage amounts to $26,000, but the first $20,000 doesn't count, so people are eligible for the buy-in even if they earn up to $46,000, or more with deductions, she said.

"Medicaid buy-In breaks down the barrier to adequate health coverage and frees Ohio's workers with disabilities to enter the work force or secure higher-paying jobs, strengthening the state's economy," Conelly said

Reach Repository Business Editor Pat Kelley at (330) 580-8323 or e-mail:

pat.kelley@cantonrep.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Ohioans between the ages of 16 and 64 with a disability defined by the Social Security Administration can pay an income-based premium for Medicaid coverage.

Buy-in applications are available at: jfs.ohio.gov/ohp/consumers/Application.stm or by calling the Medicaid consumer hotline at (800) 324-8680 or TTY at (800) 292-3572. Applications may be returned by mail, fax or taking completed forms to the Stark County Department of Job and Family Services.

People with disabilities who would like to get jobs, pursue career advancement or return to work can contact the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission at www.rsc.ohio.state.oh.us or (800) 282-4536 for both voice and TTY.

The Canton Repository

Marshall grad introduces advocate group for the disabled

Cerebral palsy has confined Chris Worth to a motorized wheelchair. But it hasn't held back his ambition.

Worth, who earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Marshall University's Fine Arts program, is the founder and lead director of Enable Project, Inc. Worth and his team introduced the program to the public Saturday night at The Great Give Gala, a fundraiser that featured music by 2005 Grammy nominated artist Al Pettaway and his wife, Amy White, local folk band The Shadow Puppets, a silent auction and a movie.

The program, which is designed to enhance the relationship between disabled clients and the agencies that help them as well as businesses, is a step in the right direction for the advocacy of people living with physical and mental disabilities, Worth said.

"I was trained out of thinking that I was handicapped," Worth said of the a West Virginia family who adopted him at the age of 11 without him being able to read or write. "I'm wanting to bring that spirit of freedom into this world that my parents gave to me."

He said the world doesn't treat the disabled the way his parents do, and he learned very quickly when he went off to college that life was going to be difficult if he didn't find a balance.

"Even though I was raised like that, I still had to deal with not being able to get on a bus," Worth said. "I had to find a balance between dealing with being physically challenged and accomplishing my goals."

He and his brother and co-director Wayne Worth hope Enable Project, Inc., will break down social, economic and political barriers that hinder the potential of a person with a disability.

They have developed a list of providers that will become a database for clients, and they hope to form a network driven by the disabled population itself, Wayne Worth said.

"Our goal is not to shut anyone down, but to work with businesses and other agencies," Wayne Worth said. "To have a collaboration and integration of the physically and mentally handicapped."

Patrick Stubblefield, a 20-year-old with cerebral palsy, said Enable Project, Inc. is going to bring about changes, and he wants to be a part of it.

"What Chris is doing is tremendous," Stubblefield said. "It's really going to open up everyone's eyes and get us the services we've been needing for a long time."

The biggest challenge for Enable Project Inc. is setting goals and defining progress. But Chris Worth said if he's learned one thing through his disability, it's to take things one day at a time.

"I'm a guy who bases a lot on small victories," Chris Worth said.

As far as he's concerned, Saturday's gala was the first of many victories he is sure will come.

Huntington Herald Dispatch

Program gives disabled kids a place to play

The mission a decade ago was simple: Build "one beautiful playground" for kids with disabilities so they too could soar on swings, frolic in sandboxes and traverse bridges.

For the folks at Shane's Inspiration -- a nonprofit started in 1997 to honor Shane Alexander, who only lived two weeks after being born paralyzed -- that mission seemed strong enough to get the roughly 180,000 kids with disabilities in Southern California to come out and play.

But the children didn't come.

"There were a lot of haunting questions over the last 10 years," said Tiffany Harris, program co-founder, along with Shane's parents, Catherine Curry-Williams and Scott Williams. "Where are the children? Why aren't they coming? And how do we remove the bias? We didn't want this to be a hollow mission."

Today, the program has turned a corner with 16 universally accessible playgrounds in Southern California and more on the way, supported in part by the state's Proposition 40.

There also is an educational program in 40 schools aimed at combating bias against children with disabilities, and monthly play dates have brought out thousands of kids.

And now, waiting around the bend, are 80 playgrounds planned throughout the country and as far away as India.

The group's first big break came when then-Councilman Mike Feuer helped secure 2 acres at Griffith Park for Shane's Inspiration, which was completed in September 2000.

And the City Council passed an initiative guaranteeing that similar playgrounds would be built across Los Angeles.

Funds for the project came in 2002, when current City Councilman Tony Cardenas, then-chairman of the budget committee for the state Assembly, backed a bill earmarking $9.5 million of voter-approved Proposition 40 bond money for universally accessible playgrounds in Los Angeles.

"I started to realize that, fundamentally, we needed to do more, so I went ahead and championed it," Cardenas said of Assembly Bill 716, which ensured that at least one universal playground would be built in each of the city's 15 council districts.

Within the next two weeks, more children will have the opportunity to play as more universally accessible parks open in South Los Angeles and the Fairfax District.

In the San Fernando Valley, one is slated for the county's El Cariso Community Regional Park in Sylmar later this year.

"I think you're seeing a spark from Los Angeles that's going to ignite the nation and the world," said Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the city Recreation and Parks Department, which has partnered with such organizations as Shane's Inspiration to build more playgrounds for disabled kids.

"It's a lab, a learning lab -- a real learning lab where kids can get together and see, except for wheelchairs and leg braces, there's not much difference between kids' laughter," he said.

And the playgrounds also allow disabled adults the opportunity to play with their children and grandchildren.

"We want to have a fully accessible playground for all the families," Mukri said. "Can you imagine the men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabilities?"

Gale Williams remembers sitting on the sidelines while his kids jumped around on playground equipment.

The retired computer systems designer and father of four broke his neck in a car crash when he was 18, suffering full paralysis in his legs and partial paralysis in his arms.

"As a father, I didn't have any accessible playgrounds," he said. "I might go someplace with them and watch them play."

A longtime advocate on behalf of those with disabilities, the 69-year-old Williams said being able to participate in something as seemingly small as a playground can have a profound effect on children with disabilities.

"What it does is it expands their imagination, where they know they can do something," Williams said. "Play for a child with a disability helps them get into the mode of 'Maybe I can do more. Maybe I can't be a concert pianist, but I can do other things."'

The latest Americans with Disabilities Act playground standard states that if a playground has elevated ramps or platforms, 50 percent of the activities on those ramps and platforms have to be reachable by children with disabilities, said Virginia Hatley, director of design for Shane's Inspiration.

The ADA accepts the use of "transfer stations," or rises, in which children in wheelchairs have to pull themselves out of their chair in order to access ramps and platforms.

"They consider them a legitimate form of accessibility," Hatley said. "We don't consider that accessible; we consider that humiliating."

While Shane's Inspiration credits the ADA for paving the road for organizations such as theirs, the ADA's compliance board standards for playgrounds are limited because they must consider factors including costs.

Hatley said the price of universally accessible playgrounds generally runs about 20 percent higher than a standard playground -- anywhere from $65,000 to $1 million.

But despite the added cost, Shane's Inspiration, the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds and other groups are aiming for 100 percent fully accessible playgrounds for all kids.

"A child shouldn't have to drive from Chula Vista to Los Angeles to play," Harris said.

Cole Massie of Atwater Village only has to travel a few blocks to enjoy the Shane's Inspiration playground at Griffith Park.

An engaging 10-year-old boy with boundless energy, Cole said he's Shane's Inspiration's "junior chair" of the safety committee -- a job he takes very seriously, as he pushes and pulls on playground bars and jungle gym steering wheels.

"My job as the chair of the junior safety committee is to make sure all the kids are safe," he said while lying on his stomach on the low deck of a playground apparatus, tapping a pole to check its sturdiness.

Born with cerebral palsy, Cole said the playground has allowed him to play on equal footing with other kids, which is great news to his mother, Michelle Massie.

Still, as Cole played on a recent weekday -- struggling to pull his body up and down steps and dragging himself across bridges -- his mother said she usually doesn't bring him to the playground unless it's for one of the monthly get-togethers organized by Shane's Inspiration.

"Unfortunately, when you go on weekends, it's very crowded and there are no special-needs kids," Massie said. "Generally speaking, it's just crazy."

Harris said the monthly "play dates" -- with able-bodied and disabled children -- were added as the group's mission has changed from building playgrounds to using them as an educational tool to end bias against children with disabilities.

An education program, "Together We Are Able," also includes tutorials with able-bodied elementary school students encouraged to give their honest -- and often negative -- opinions about kids with disabilities.

The children are then taken on a field trip where they're paired up to play with special-needs kids, which is followed by another classroom session.

"We don't make it easy," Harris said. "There's this great trepidation as these two buses pull up. ... Two and half hours later, they've eaten lunch together and they've played and they don't want to leave."

At Griffith Park, one boy asked Cole why he couldn't walk. Cole politely answered: "I was born this way."

Question answered. Back to his safety committee duties.

Cole gave his reasons why he loves coming to Shane's Inspiration.

"It's like really fun for the kids," he said. "Because here, it's allllllll about the kids."

rick.cocadailynews.com

818-546-3304

Los Angeles Daily News

Wheel-a-thon event raises awareness for the disabled

Catherine McDonald and her son Jeremy, 14, left, make their around the track Saturday (April 19, 2008) during the third annual Wheel-a-thon sponsored by the Life Center for Independent Living at the Shirk Center in Bloomington. Bloomington. (Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)

Wheels were spinning Saturday to raise money for programs to serve people with disabilities in four central Illinois counties.

The Wheel-a-thon sponsored by the Life Center for Independent Living included a marathon of wheelchairs speeding around the indoor track at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Shirk Center.

In addition to the opportunity for some serious exercise, the fundraiser provided a forum for information and awareness about programs that provide support for disabled people who want to live independent lives.

LIFE CIL provides direct services to about 1,800 individuals a year in McLean, DeWitt, Ford and Livingston counties.

Event coordinator Marianne Cavanaugh-Wozniak said money raised at the Wheel-a-thon will help cover the cost of services not covered by grants, such as a program to loan equipment to disabled individuals. The group had a goal of raising $25,000 from Saturday’s event.

Tim Harshbarger, a member of the LIFE CIL board, considers wheelchairs a powerful symbol for all forms of disability. The chairs that offer people the ability to move may be viewed as a symbol of hardship, said Harshbarger, who is blind.

“People tend to focus on what a person can’t do. When you see people using a scooter or wheelchair, that’s really not the case. These are devices of liberation, not a prison,” said Harshbarger.

Harshbarger and a team of eight family members raised funds and participated in the wheelchair track event.

Mike Ready was able to walk for 40 years before a fall in December 2005 left him paralyzed.

The cost of living independently can be high, said Ready, who works as a Realtor and plans to design homes for disabled residents. Ready said the motorized wheelchair that transported him around Shirk Center cost $16,000.

“An accident can happen. Life can change in a minute,” said Ready.

Activities at Saturday’s fundraiser included a puppet show aimed at teaching children respect for people with disabilities. Students For An Accessible Community from Parkside Junior High and Normal Community West High School performed “Kids on the Block,” a play featuring characters with disabilities.
--Pantagraph.com