Friendships that Endure By Roxanne Furlong

In 1960, when she was 10 years old, Jackie Van Duzee, of St. Paul, Minn., began to notice at recess that it was becoming harder to exercise. The last one picked for teams, she began using her mind instead of her feet to make it through the bases: keeping an eagle eye on the kid with the ball so she could steal the next base when he looked away.

Heading into seventh grade, she was diagnosed with scoliosis and fascioscapularhumeral muscular dystrophy, a progressive, degenerative muscle disease. Her disability was already noticeable to her classmates, and friends from grade school now shunned her. She walked by lifting her right leg as if to march, moving forward to back with each step and swaying side to side due to the scoliosis. In junior high, the couple of friends she had were fellow drummers in band. No one else approached her or talked to her.

"One afternoon, I was waiting for my mom to pick me up, but she was late," says Van Duzee. "I got tired of standing, so I went into the auditorium to sit down for a while. It was dark and there were kids way down near the stage. They could tell it was me when I walked in the door, and one of them yelled, 'Hey! There's Chicken Breast!' It was a name that kids called me because my back curved and my chest stuck out."

Van Duzee spent many nights lying in bed crying, praying the torment would stop.

"It hurt so much to not have friends at school, but I knew I had the comfort of a loving family to come home to," she says.


Alone in a Crowd
Van Duzee was studious in high school. During lunch, the cafeteria would be packed with kids at long lunch tables, yelling, laughing, horsing around. Van Duzee sat at a table by herself. Nobody would join her or let her sit with them. She ate lunch alone her entire freshman year.

The high school had three floors, no elevators, and Van Duzee fell down many times on the wide, crowded stairways or in the hallways after being bumped or tripped.

"Once I was going downstairs and fell and landed on my knees and my books went flying," she says. "The stairs were filled with kids and I looked up pleadingly for help, but everybody kept on going. I carefully picked up my books, limped to the bathroom and put cold paper towels on my knees."

A gifted artist, Van Duzee went to vocational school for commercial art. Unlike high school, in this setting she made friends easily. "It was a whole new world, you didn't have that peer pressure."

After graduation, she got a job proofreading advertising copy at a firm in downtown St. Paul. There she met the person who would become her lifelong, constant friend and soul mate, Anne Froehle.

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Vocational Expert's 7 Proposals to Solve the Unemployment Problem

The subject is constantly in the news and may decide the next national elections - the infamous jobless recovery. More than 8 million Americans are out of work with another 4 million underemployed or no longer looking for work. Good manufacturing, technical and services jobs are being shipped to India, Asia, and other developing countries. The mood of the middle and working class becomes more pessimistic, the outlook for their immediate future more grim.

Politicians debate solutions: abrogating current trade treaties, providing protection for various industries, investment in retraining programs, wishful thinking that lower taxes will turn everything around, the promise of a labor shortage within 15 years.

Meanwhile, the population grows, demanding the creation of 150,000 new jobs per month just to stay even. Where are the more than 2 million 2004 jobs promised by the Council of Economic Advisers?

They will come when the government truly invests in the social and financial welfare of the working public. Historically, the U.S. has looked at employment only in times of crisis - recession or alarming unemployment figures. Rather than "quick fixes," we need a national long- range policy on employment which addresses the issue, in good times and bad, with sustained interest, analysis, and support.

Here are seven proposals:

1. Create a National Office of Employment to develop long term strategies and oversight of the U.S. labor market in order to track trends, analyze data, research emerging problems, and prepare early interventions.

2. Identify growing and potential industries and the skills they will need in future staff.

3. Design a plan which allows for the rapid retargeting of training courses as Community Colleges and vocational schools are traditionally 5 to 15 years behind current needs.

4. Provide substantial tax incentives for businesses to hire in the U.S. rather than shipping their jobs to low income countries.

5. Devise "red-tape-less" programs to reward employers with significant tax credits for hiring the long-term employed and new trainees.

6. Overhaul the processes of State Unemployment Offices by implementing coordinated support programs in which workers participate as part of receiving unemployment benefits and employers participate as a means of meeting their future needs for staff.

7. Provide incentives for employers to hire more part-time workers. Simultaneously, America must reframe its social policy to promote a new work ethic of reduced work hours, along with increased leisure and volunteer activities, to allow more workers to be employed, albeit for fewer hours. Due to the negative emotional effects of living without work, our society needs to stress high employment rather than high productivity which often translates into fewer workers, working harder and longer.


Dr. Bola operated a rehabilitation company, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, for 20 years. A licensed clinical psychologist, she directed vocational programs for the mentally ill, served as a Vocational Expert in administrative and civil court, and pioneered vocational testimony in Workers' Compensation.
Author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, she can be found at: http://www.virginiabola.com/

Finding Employment When You Are Disabled-by Joann Grant

With growing competency and educational standards, it has become hard to find a job that satisfies both your pocket and desires. And if you are struck with any form of disability at any level, your difficulties increase manifold.

Disabilities have been classified into many categories. Broadly, there are minor disabilities and major ones. Depending on the magnitude of your disability, you get the job. With certain disabilities you can find a job in the open job market as well. For instance, there are minor disability like a limp in a limb or a highly hunched back that might not come as a hurdle between you and your desired job. But other disabilities like an imputed limb or vision impairment can create colossal hurdles.

However, many of the State governments have provided breathers in the form of special job arenas for disabled. For the disabled people special places are made, besides the contemporary job market where they can find good job opportunities. Various places where a person suffering from disability can find a job are:

Sheltered Workshops: If a person is suffering from moderate to severe form of disability, sheltered workshops are the best places to find the job. A sheltered workshop is a place where disabled can learn to do the basic things like packaging of goods, assembling items, to name a few. All this is done through a sub-contracted work.

Production Workshop: Production workshop is a workplace ideal for the people who have moderate disabilities. Here people learn the art of printing and manufacturing. Such people are predominantly known to work in production line.

Open Market: People who are afflicted with slight to moderate disabilities can try and find a good job in an open market. In doing so, they can take help of various job placements organizations. These placement organizations will help them in locating a suitable job of their interests and needs.

For acquiring a good job, an important prerequisite is good education qualification. But besides contemporary form of education, people with disabilities can also look for an option in the vocational field. Through this, they can learn certain skills of basic livelihood, before stepping for a job in the corporate world.

To know more about disability details and disability and other health problems visit http://www.about-disability.com/disability-aids

7 Must Know Tips for Passengers With Disabilities (By Natalia Ippolito)

Plan Before You Stand!

When you make your reservation, communicate your needs to the airlines. Make plans ahead of time for items such as: oxygen supply for origin, transfer hubs and destination, a porter to help with luggage, and/or a wheelchair to help you move through the airport with ease and with less stress.

All passengers with disabilities should arrive at the airport a minimum of 2 hours early. You should always ask the airlines for a gate pass at the time of check in. Gate (escort) passes are for relatives, companions, or assistants who are not flying but accompanying the passenger to the gate. A gate pass is subject to the airlines discretion. Place identification tags on all checked baggage, carry-ons, equipment, and mobility aids and devices. Remember that your medical equipment, mobility aids and devices are exempt from the 2 carry-on or checked baggage rule.

Passengers should always consult their doctor for the best method of screening. Passengers with a pace-maker, defibrillator or insulin pump should choose the full-body pat-down. Any metal detector could drain the battery in your medical device. If your doctor tells you that your medical equipment cannot go through the x-ray machine or needs special handling, inform the screener and ask for a visual inspection.

There are alternative ways for a passenger to be screened if they do not want to or cannot walk through the walk-through metal detector. When a passenger with a disability approaches a screener, the screener should always be discreet if the person's disability is discussed and not visible. They should also ask the passenger if they need assistance. The screener should offer all screening methods. They will ask the passenger if he or she prefers to walk through the metal detector, receive a hand-wanding or a full body pat-down. It;s the passenger's choice. You do not need to disclose your medical condition if you choose to take an alternative screening method. If the passenger walks through the metal detector and it alarms, then the screener will conduct secondary screening using a hand-held metal detector or pat-down.

Ask the screener to change their gloves before undergoing a full-body pat-down or hand-wanding. This will eliminate other people's germs from spreading. You may ask to sit before, during, and after the screening process if you need to. If you cannot remove your shoes because of your disability, then don't. Other screening procedures will be performed to clear your shoes through security. Inform the screener of all sensitive areas on your body before undergoing hand-wanding or a pat-down.

At no time during the screening process should a passenger be asked to take off a prosthetic device for screening, nor should a passenger volunteer. Expect an alternative screening procedure, which will include an explosive trace detection test. This will test your prosthetic for explosives and is required by federal law in order for you to proceed to the gate area.

Sometimes screeners need to be able to visually clear a medical device worn on the outside of the body. If this is the case, a private screening should be offered as a requirement by the screener. If this doesn't happen, the passenger should then request it if they want it. There should always be 2 screeners of the same gender as you (one being a lead or supervisor), you and your family member or companion. Ask for a supervisor or manager if there are only 2 of you going into private screening. You should never be separated from your family member, assistant, or companion when going through the screening process, unless dictated by you. Once your family member has been screened they can offer assistance or directions on the best method for screening if you are not able to communicate it to the screener.

Travel with less stress and be flexible with the changes that come your way with airport security.

Natalia Ippolito, a former airport screener and author of: I MIGHT AS WELL BE NAKED: How to Survive Airport Screening With Your Clothes On. 369 Tips in All- 119 Tips for Passengers with Disabilities! Receive her FREE Tip of The Week, Sample Chapter & Ultimate Packing List & Unknown Fines & Violations Report at: http://www.airportbook.com

Social Security Disabilities

The Social Security Administration operates two programs for providing assistance to people with disabilities. Social Security Disability Insurance program pays benefits to the person with disabilities and certain family members if the insured person has paid social security taxes. Supplemental Security Income program is designed to pay benefits based on financial needs. This program is funded by general tax revenues.

Social Security defines only total disability as disability eligible for benefits, i.e., the person with disabilities is impaired to do the work he did earlier and cannot adjust to other work due to disabilities. Short-term disability and partial disability do not qualify for benefits under Social Security programs. Social Security definition of disability also requires that the disability must last or is expected to last for one year or is expected to result in death.

Social Security has devised a five-step procedure to decide whether a person applying for disability benefits qualifies for the same. The applicant is presented with a question at each step. The questions are: Is the applicant working? Is her/his condition severe? Is the condition in the list of disabling conditions? Is the person able to do the work he/she did previously? Is she/he able to do any other work?

Social Security maintains a list of severe medical conditions for each major body part. Applicants with disabilities that are present in the list of medical conditions automatically qualify for benefits. The list comprises of two parts viz., Part A and Part B. Impairments listed in Part A apply to person age eighteen or older, whereas Part B lists medical conditions applicable to evaluate disability of persons below age eighteen. Absence of any condition in the listing of impairment does not mean that the applicant does not qualify for benefits. Other steps in the procedure are utilized to evaluate eligibility for benefits.

Disability

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