|
|
|
ABOUT US | SUBSCRIBE
| E-MAIL
EDITOR | HOME |
|
NEWS |
RALEIGH, NC, Aug. 21 --Earlier this month, Governor Mike Easley signed a
bill making North Carolina the 18th state with a death penalty that
specifically forbids executions of convicts determined to have mental
retardation. But Ernest P.
McCarver's attorney, Seth Cohen, isn't breathing easily quite yet. More.
Aug 20 --The following is a complete list of the states that plan to
have fully accessible voting systems in place for the 2004 General Election:
Maryland.
That's right. Maryland.
Eleven years after the Americans with Disabilities Act, and nine months
after the infamous November 2000 "counting of the chads", Maryland is the
only one of the fifty states that plans to have touch screen voting systems
that will be accessible for its voters who have disabilities.
Since the last election, commissions and task forces have been set up across
the country to look at ways to prevent another election spectacle. So, it
would be a good time to look at ditching the out-dated punch card system for
another that makes sense for all eligible voters.
But, according to some disability groups, even though the technology is
available, little if any real attention is being given to making the process
accessible. In fact, many election associations are looking toward an
optical scanning system, that would still not be private for voters who do
not read.
This article from Stateline.org looks at what is and is not being done and
how it appears the planners may be heading in the wrong direction:
http://www.stateline.org/story.cfm?storyid=141905
BATON ROUGE, Aug. 17 --The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals on
Thursday unveiled a proposal that would settle a year-old lawsuit filed by
advocates for community-based services.
Under the proposed settlement, the department would spend $118 million in
state and federal funds over the next four years to expand home and
community-based services for about 1,700 people with disabilities and
seniors. If all goes as planned, four years from now no one will have to be
on a waiting list for such services for more than 90 days.
The suit was filed in April of 2000 on behalf of five people with
disabilities who either were in nursing homes or were in risk of being moved
into nursing homes. The plaintiffs had claimed that the state violated the
Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act by
channeling 90 percent of its Medicaid dollars into "unnecessarily segregated
settings" such as nursing homes.
The proposed settlement has the approval of advocates for community
services, according to this story from Friday's edition of The Advocate (online at
http://www.theadvocate.com/news/story.asp?StoryID=23790)
CSUohio.com, the campus student-run website, has taken up the issue. "We are now fighting for the rights of our fellow disabled and blind students." For more on the protest or to join a discussion online, go to CSUohio.com
BANGOR, MAINE, Aug. 13, 2001 --A federal judge has ruled that three women with mental
illness in Maine cannot be denied the right to vote just because they are
under guardianships.
U.S. District Judge George Singal, in a 42-page ruling released Friday,
struck down a 1965 state law that had made it illegal for people under
guardianship by reason of mental illness to vote. Singal determined that
Maine's law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fourteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Maine's Disability Rights Center filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of the
women who claimed that the state unfairly singled out them out because of
their mental illness, without even determining whether or not they were able
to understand the voting process.
The ruling could be important for people in other states as well: As many as
43 have similar laws that keep people with disabilities from voting.
SACRAMENTO, Aug. 9, 2001--The California Supreme Court ruled today that a
court-appointed conservator cannot order life-giving food and water withheld
from a conscious patient, unless "clear and convincing evidence" proves that
the patient wanted to die under those specific circumstances. More.
A study published last week in the medical journal Lancet goes a step
further. It suggests that patients consider assisted suicide as a way to
limit a "loss of self" brought on by a perceived loss of community.
In the study, HIV/AIDS patients were interviewed about their feelings
regarding assisted suicide. Those who responded that
they had considered that form of death, said they felt it was a way to limit
"loss of self". This loss of self resulted not only from their symptoms and
decreased physical functioning, but also from a loss of community, and the
patient's "inability to initiate and maintain personal relationships".
Put simply, they would rather die than face isolation and loneliness.
"The complexity of loss of self suggests why simpler explanations, such as
pain, depression, or high-control personality, each fail as individual
explanations for the desire for assisted suicide," wrote Anthony L. Back and
Robert A. Pearlman, of the University of Washington, in the accompanying
commentary.
Researchers added that places where physician-assisted suicide is legal,
such as the Netherlands, a patient's sense of isolation and loss of self is
rarely taken into consideration.
But the case was settled before trial. The two started talking, and before long they were going up against each other for nine holes on a local course. "This is the first time I have ever played another handicapped guy in my life," Dorsey told the Detroit Free Press. "There was a lot of pressure on me, a lot more pressure than when I played able-bodied guys." As to who won, just ask Dorsey. "He's got to brush up on his short game," Dorsey said of his opponent. Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act enters Congress Aug. 2, 2001 -- The Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act has been introduced in Congress by Sens. Tom Harkin (D.-IA), Kennedy (D-MA), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D.-NY), Joseph Biden (D.-DE ) and Arlen Specter (R.-PA), to ensure Medicaid funding is used for personal assistance services and supports. More
Grizzlies Want Privileged, Not Disabled, To Get Seats by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. MEMPHIS, Aug. 2, 2001 --If the National Basketball Association's Memphis Grizzlies have their way, an area on the floor of The Pyramid that is currently reserved for people with disabilities will give way to prime seating for people willing to pay up to $350 a ticket. But they first have to deal with the University of Memphis Tigers, who call The Pyramid home, along with the man who sued the facility years ago in order to make it comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Details at the Memphis Grizzlies website.
SC Olmstead Task Force says people want to live at home by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. COLUMBIA, SC, Aug. 2, 2001 --"Disabled Say They Prefer Life At Home," was the headline from Columbia's newspaper, The State. The story reported that South Carolina's Home and Community Based Services Task Force has completed a draft report on the current status of community services in the state, along with recommendations for filling gaps in such services. The Task Force is the state's response to the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Olmstead versus L.C., which ruled that institutionalizing people with disabilities "unnecessarily" was a form of discrimination under the ADA. The task force is now holding a series of meetings for public comment; a final report will be delivered to Gov. Jim Hodges next month. The draft report is available at the very bottom of the South Carolina Developmental Disabilities Council webpage. The National Conference of State Legislatures' status report on how states are responding to the Olmstead decision was updated in March 2001. |
|