World class athletes command respect but just as inspiring are disabled athletes who compete at the very top against able-bodied peers.
Natalie du Toit of South Africa, Manuel de los Santos of the Dominican Republic, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa and Italian Alex Zanardi have shown the way.
South African 'Bladerunner' Oscar Pistorius may have been banned from competing in the Beijing Olympics with his carbon fibre blade attachments but one can only marvel at his achievements.
The disabled sprinter, who had both his legs amputated below the knee as a child, has been prevented from competing in China after a scientific study revealed that he used 25 percent less energy than able-bodied runners to run at the same speed.
Pistorius finished second in the 400m 'B' race at the Rome Golden League meeting in July 2007 against top able-bodied athletes, clocking 46.90sec.
Pistorius's paralympic world record of 46.34secs for 400m is some way behind the best times by able-bodied runners.
The fastest time of an athlete still competing is 43.50 set by American Jeremy Wariner, while the world record stands at 43.18, set by compatriot Michael Johnson.
And what of Manuel de Los Santos, who lives in France but comes from the Dominican Republic, and whose loss of a left leg has not stopped him competing at the highest level in French domestic golf competitions.
When he swings his club, he removes his prosthetic left leg and balances on his right leg.
He wins most events for disabled people but he has become the first amputee to play in the French Grand Prix alongside able-bodied golfers.
He told l'Equipe magazine: "My aim is to be among the best handicapped golfers in the world and to continue to play in the Grand Prix series against able-bodied athletes."
De Los Santos was hit by a car in a motorcycle accident which meant he lost his left leg and he came to Europe with his French girlfriend Elena.
South African Natalie Du Toit made history at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester when she reached the final of the 800m freestyle, becoming the first athlete with a disability to qualify for an able-bodied final in a major competition.
She also won gold in the multi-disability 50m and 100m freestyle races at the Manchester Games.
She broke four world records in one day (heats and finals) in her category's 50m and 100m freestyle.
Alex Zanardi lost both his legs in an accident in 2001 while racing Champ Cars in Germany.
Fitted with prosthetic limbs, he went on to compete against able-bodied drivers in the BMW World Touring Car Championship, using specially-adapted hand controls.
Earlier in his career, the Italian won the Champ Car crown twice, drove for F1 teams Minardi and Lotus between 1991-94 and Williams in 1999.
Source: AFP
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Disabled angry over sterilisation
Many physically disabled women have lost their chance to become mothers as, without their knowledge or even permission, they were subjected to sterilisation.
Published on February 6, 2008
"Some of them don't even know when it happened," Nattaya Boonpakdee said yesterday. "These women found out the harsh reality only after they visited doctors to check why they were not becoming pregnant after being married for a long time."
Nattaya heads the Thai Health Promotion Founda-tion's sexual-health promotion division.
"We have to end this problem," Nattaya said, referring to the fact that many disabled women were sterilised against their will.
She said such sterilisation was a clear violation of their rights.
According to Nattaya, various groups are now fighting for the child-bearing rights of wo-men with physical disabilities.
At a recent seminar on sexuality, many academics said women with physical disabilities have faced a lot of social pressure when they are in a sexual relationship or become pregnant.
"They are sexually controlled. Other people try to
prevent them from being in sexual relationships and from responding to their sexual needs," said Dr Penchan Pradubmook-Sherer of the Mahidol University.
Very often public-health officials urged disabled women to undergo sterilisation, she added.
"When disabled women become pregnant, hospital officials say they are irresponsible and their children will become a burden to society," Penchan said.
Penchan said a disabled woman once complained that she was sterilised because government officials were afraid that she would become pregnant if raped.
"But she asked whether this would protect her against rapists. She said disabled people did not want welfare. They want their rights protected," Penchan said.
Dr Chalidaporn Songsamphan, who teaches at Thammasat University's Faculty of Political Science, said society should not deprive disabled women of their right to become mothers.
Source:The Nation (Thailand)
Published on February 6, 2008
"Some of them don't even know when it happened," Nattaya Boonpakdee said yesterday. "These women found out the harsh reality only after they visited doctors to check why they were not becoming pregnant after being married for a long time."
Nattaya heads the Thai Health Promotion Founda-tion's sexual-health promotion division.
"We have to end this problem," Nattaya said, referring to the fact that many disabled women were sterilised against their will.
She said such sterilisation was a clear violation of their rights.
According to Nattaya, various groups are now fighting for the child-bearing rights of wo-men with physical disabilities.
At a recent seminar on sexuality, many academics said women with physical disabilities have faced a lot of social pressure when they are in a sexual relationship or become pregnant.
"They are sexually controlled. Other people try to
prevent them from being in sexual relationships and from responding to their sexual needs," said Dr Penchan Pradubmook-Sherer of the Mahidol University.
Very often public-health officials urged disabled women to undergo sterilisation, she added.
"When disabled women become pregnant, hospital officials say they are irresponsible and their children will become a burden to society," Penchan said.
Penchan said a disabled woman once complained that she was sterilised because government officials were afraid that she would become pregnant if raped.
"But she asked whether this would protect her against rapists. She said disabled people did not want welfare. They want their rights protected," Penchan said.
Dr Chalidaporn Songsamphan, who teaches at Thammasat University's Faculty of Political Science, said society should not deprive disabled women of their right to become mothers.
Source:The Nation (Thailand)
Disabled man ‘can't board buses’
A disabled pensioner has complained he is being squeezed off buses by mums with buggies.
Both Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach have expressed sympathy for Bob Light, 65, who was unable to board four buses in succession outside The Swan in Cowley Road because pushchairs occupied the wheelchair space.
Mr Light, 65, from Headington, said many mothers were extremely considerate, but claimed that his attempts to travel into the city centre were becoming a nightmare.
If pushchairs are left in the space for wheelchairs, mums are requested but not legally obliged to fold them up.
Mr Light said: "I travel into town all the time and I think the bus companies have got it wrong.
"Nothing should be in the wheelchair space except wheelchairs at any one time.
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"All pushchairs should be folded up and then you wouldn't have a problem.
"Don't get me wrong - a lot of women do fold them up when you ask, but a lot don't and I think it's disgusting."
Oxford Bus Company director Louisa Weeks said she sympathised with people with wheelchairs who had problems.
"We do know that from time to time the wheelchair space is already taken by buggies," she admitted.
"Unfortunately, despite signs saying that wheelchair users have priority, some passengers refuse to move their buggies and on occasions they've been extremely rude to our drivers.
"We really are between a rock and a hard place and drivers need the wisdom of Solomon to resolve disputes at times. We'd love to wave a magic wand and come up with a solution that keeps everyone happy."
Stagecoach spokesman Chris Child said his company's policy was the same.
But he explained: "Drivers cannot enforce this and passengers do refuse.
"This puts them in a difficult position when a passenger is less sympathetic to a wheelchair user.
"We work closely with disabled passengers to understand their concerns and this is something which they regularly raise with us."
Source: Oxford Mail
Both Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach have expressed sympathy for Bob Light, 65, who was unable to board four buses in succession outside The Swan in Cowley Road because pushchairs occupied the wheelchair space.
Mr Light, 65, from Headington, said many mothers were extremely considerate, but claimed that his attempts to travel into the city centre were becoming a nightmare.
If pushchairs are left in the space for wheelchairs, mums are requested but not legally obliged to fold them up.
Mr Light said: "I travel into town all the time and I think the bus companies have got it wrong.
"Nothing should be in the wheelchair space except wheelchairs at any one time.
advertisement
"All pushchairs should be folded up and then you wouldn't have a problem.
"Don't get me wrong - a lot of women do fold them up when you ask, but a lot don't and I think it's disgusting."
Oxford Bus Company director Louisa Weeks said she sympathised with people with wheelchairs who had problems.
"We do know that from time to time the wheelchair space is already taken by buggies," she admitted.
"Unfortunately, despite signs saying that wheelchair users have priority, some passengers refuse to move their buggies and on occasions they've been extremely rude to our drivers.
"We really are between a rock and a hard place and drivers need the wisdom of Solomon to resolve disputes at times. We'd love to wave a magic wand and come up with a solution that keeps everyone happy."
Stagecoach spokesman Chris Child said his company's policy was the same.
But he explained: "Drivers cannot enforce this and passengers do refuse.
"This puts them in a difficult position when a passenger is less sympathetic to a wheelchair user.
"We work closely with disabled passengers to understand their concerns and this is something which they regularly raise with us."
Source: Oxford Mail
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Disabled are among the most excluded
Estimates vary from 40 to 90 million people in India: World Bank report
Households with disabled significantly poorer than average
Private sector incentives for hiring disabled people found to be few
Children with disability are around four or five times less likely to be in school than the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe children, says a recent World Bank report — “People with Disabilities in India: From commitments to outcomes.”
“People with disabilities are among the most excluded in society,” notes the report. With better education and more access to jobs “India’s 40 million to 90 million disabled people can generate higher growth, which could benefit the country as a whole.” What is more, it says that people with disabilities are also victims of “multiple deprivations.”
Households with disabled members are significantly poorer than average, with lower consumption and fewer assets. Disabled adults also have far lower employment rates than the general population — down from 43 per cent in 1991 to 38 per cent in 2002, even amidst high economic growth. This the report points out, “despite the fact that studies show that disabled employees have extremely good performance rates.”
Socio-economic outcomesSome of the findings of the report are: There are substantial differences in socio-economic outcomes, social stigma and access to services by disability type, with those with mental illness and mental retardation in a particularly poor position. There are also major urban-rural differences in outcomes. Gender, class, and regional variations are also significant in many cases. There is growing evidence that people with disabilities comprise between four and eight per cent of the Indian population — around 40 to 90 million people.
Estimates suggest that disability due to communicable diseases could be halved between 1990 and 2020, but disability due to injuries/accidents is set to double by then. A more than 40 per cent increase in the share of disability due to non-communicable diseases has also been projected.
The educational attainment rate of the disabled are much lower — with 52 per cent illiteracy against a 35 per cent average for the general population.
Illiteracy is high among children across all categories, even in the best performing States. A significant share of out-of-school children is those with disabilities: Kerala has 27 per cent and Tamil Nadu over 33 per cent. Private sector incentives for hiring disabled people are found to be few and piecemeal.
In the late 1990s, employment of people with disability among large private firms was only 0.3 per cent of their workforce. Among multinational companies, the situation was far worse, with only 0.05 per cent representation for them.
In early 2006, the government approved a national policy on Persons with Disabilities.
Till now, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are the only States to have a draft disabilities policy.
The Chhattisgarh draft policy can be considered ‘best practice,’ and could provide a model for future national and state-level policy development.
Preventive careThe report has called for additional policy measures such as preventive care for both mother and child, identifying people with disabilities as soon as possible after onset, and getting all children with special needs into school.
Source: The Hindu.com
Only 1 type of voting machine will be available for disabled
New York's already laggard efforts to catch up with federal voting laws may be further delayed by lawsuits filed against the state Board of Elections.
Years behind on multiple deadlines to ensure the accuracy of voting, the board told local election officials last week they could choose between three machines to ensure voting access for the disabled, a requirement of the federal Help America Vote Act.
But board officials soon after cut the choice to a single machine, which led to one of two lawsuits from voting machine makers that could interfere with a court-ordered Feb. 8 deadline, when election officials must order new machines.
The lawsuits and board actions could mean disabled voters won't get to use new machines in time for the presidential election this fall.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in 2006 for failing to meet the terms of the HAVA and U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe approved a rigid timeline last month for the state to come into compliance. He said if one deadline is missed, he would consider appointing a special master to take charge of the process.
It may be "premature" to worry about missing deadlines, board spokesman Lee Daghlian said Monday. But he added that it was possible the companies filing suit could ask for an order to stop the counties from ordering machines.
"If we get stopped by an order, we get stopped," he said. "Then we have to work it out with the Justice Department."
The state is years behind in complying with the HAVA, which was enacted after the contested 2000 presidential election to ensure voting accuracy and access for the disabled.
"There's been frustration all along with this process from day one," Daghlian said. "So, it's nothing new to us. We've had to change dates before because of certain things the vendors didn't do, or testers didn't do, so there's certain things that take us off our timeline that are out of our control."
While the board initially selected three machines for county officials to consider, officials couldn't decide whether two of those machines met state standards for providing a "full-face" ballot _ showing all of the candidates and choices on one sheet _ and eliminated Premier Election Solutions and Election Systems & Software Inc. from the field.
Without those devices, disabled voters around the state will all use the same type of machine to cast their ballots in the fall presidential elections.
The last remaining machine is an optical scan model made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of California. Voters mark their ballots by filling in "bubbles," similar in appearance to standardized tests. In the fall elections, those ballots would likely be counted by hand, but the machines are also designed to scan and count the results while maintaining a paper record in a lockbox.
Texas-based Premier, previously Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and ES&S, of Nebraska, each submitted similar Automark Technical Systems machines _ a ballot marker that the companies sought to use with their own scanners to read the ballots.
Premier is suing the board in state Supreme Court, arguing that the company should be one of the counties' choices.
The exclusion is "capricious and unwarranted," Premier spokesman Chris Riggall said.
ES&S was "shocked" by the board's decision and hasn't decided whether to file a suit, spokesman Ken Fields said Monday.
In a written statement, the company said the board's "arbitrary and baseless decision is not in the best interests of New York or its voters _ including those with disabilities ... Because of the importance of this decision, we are willing to go to court to ensure that this matter is resolved fairly and quickly."
Liberty Election Systems is also suing the state over the board's decision not to include the company among the initial three options.
"They said that we don't have a full-face ballot, which obviously isn't the case," said Robert Witko, president of Liberty.
He also said the touch screen machine they submitted was accessible to the blind _ an issue that some voting and disabled advocates consider critical.
The state faces additional deadlines from Sharpe, including replacement of all pull-lever machines by the fall 2009 elections.
Source: newsday.com
Years behind on multiple deadlines to ensure the accuracy of voting, the board told local election officials last week they could choose between three machines to ensure voting access for the disabled, a requirement of the federal Help America Vote Act.
But board officials soon after cut the choice to a single machine, which led to one of two lawsuits from voting machine makers that could interfere with a court-ordered Feb. 8 deadline, when election officials must order new machines.
The lawsuits and board actions could mean disabled voters won't get to use new machines in time for the presidential election this fall.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in 2006 for failing to meet the terms of the HAVA and U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe approved a rigid timeline last month for the state to come into compliance. He said if one deadline is missed, he would consider appointing a special master to take charge of the process.
It may be "premature" to worry about missing deadlines, board spokesman Lee Daghlian said Monday. But he added that it was possible the companies filing suit could ask for an order to stop the counties from ordering machines.
"If we get stopped by an order, we get stopped," he said. "Then we have to work it out with the Justice Department."
The state is years behind in complying with the HAVA, which was enacted after the contested 2000 presidential election to ensure voting accuracy and access for the disabled.
"There's been frustration all along with this process from day one," Daghlian said. "So, it's nothing new to us. We've had to change dates before because of certain things the vendors didn't do, or testers didn't do, so there's certain things that take us off our timeline that are out of our control."
While the board initially selected three machines for county officials to consider, officials couldn't decide whether two of those machines met state standards for providing a "full-face" ballot _ showing all of the candidates and choices on one sheet _ and eliminated Premier Election Solutions and Election Systems & Software Inc. from the field.
Without those devices, disabled voters around the state will all use the same type of machine to cast their ballots in the fall presidential elections.
The last remaining machine is an optical scan model made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of California. Voters mark their ballots by filling in "bubbles," similar in appearance to standardized tests. In the fall elections, those ballots would likely be counted by hand, but the machines are also designed to scan and count the results while maintaining a paper record in a lockbox.
Texas-based Premier, previously Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and ES&S, of Nebraska, each submitted similar Automark Technical Systems machines _ a ballot marker that the companies sought to use with their own scanners to read the ballots.
Premier is suing the board in state Supreme Court, arguing that the company should be one of the counties' choices.
The exclusion is "capricious and unwarranted," Premier spokesman Chris Riggall said.
ES&S was "shocked" by the board's decision and hasn't decided whether to file a suit, spokesman Ken Fields said Monday.
In a written statement, the company said the board's "arbitrary and baseless decision is not in the best interests of New York or its voters _ including those with disabilities ... Because of the importance of this decision, we are willing to go to court to ensure that this matter is resolved fairly and quickly."
Liberty Election Systems is also suing the state over the board's decision not to include the company among the initial three options.
"They said that we don't have a full-face ballot, which obviously isn't the case," said Robert Witko, president of Liberty.
He also said the touch screen machine they submitted was accessible to the blind _ an issue that some voting and disabled advocates consider critical.
The state faces additional deadlines from Sharpe, including replacement of all pull-lever machines by the fall 2009 elections.
Source: newsday.com
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