Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

$6M Award Upheld for ‘Rampant’ Sex Abuse of Deaf and Blind Children

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

A federal court has upheld a $5.75 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging rampant student-on-student sex abuse at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind.

The lawsuit claimed that a group of older students who called themselves “the ringleaders” bullied, terrorized, assaulted, robbed, gang raped and sodomized younger, smaller students at the school.

The parents of the victims blamed the school administration, the state of Hawaii, and school counselors for not providing a safe school environment and for trying to cover up the abuse.

Each of the class members will receive $20,000 or more, depending on the degree of abuse they suffered and other factors that figure into the impact of the abuse and the amount of damages they are owed for their injuries, such as whether the abuse affected their job history, mental health, substance abuse and other evidence of physical, psychological and emotional consequences.

Hey, Is That A Service Dog You Got There, Sonny?

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

When you have a service dog you have to be alert at all times for the crazies--I mean there are some really strange pilgrims on American streets. And boy, they love you when you’re blind. The dog, without meaning to, invites them in. Once in Minneapolis, checking into the Hilton, I met two really drunk college girls who professed to love my dog. They were stinko, blotto, plum loco, almost staggering. “Hey, your dog’s beautiful,” the first one said. “Yeah she’s really beautiful,” said the second. “Hey,” said the first, “You wanna touch my face?” “Yeah,” said the second, “You wanna touch me too?” “Oh your dog is so beautiful!” said the first one. “Oh yeah,” said the second. I backed away, half tripping over my suitcase. All I wanted was to check in. “No,” I said, “I don’t touch faces.” “Well what’s wrong with our faces?” said number one, her voice darkening. “Yeah, what’s wrong?” said number two. “Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “Now go away.” And then security appeared, for this was the Hilton, which is the tasteful lady of commercial hotels, and the face girls became belligerent, claiming that I lured them with the dog. Security said, brightly, “they got dogs outside.” And they went away, shouting, “You coulda touched us!” And this of course is legion, this incident, for every revolving door shoots another nut into the street. There was the lady in the Pittsburgh airport who told me how beautiful my dog was, then added that all her dogs were poisoned by malevolent strangers. Then she asked if my dog could have a treat. Really. This is often how it is.

National Federation of the Blind and Two Blind Taxpayers File Suit Against H&R Block

Excerpt from: National Federation of the Blind (click for full article)

 

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the United States, and two blind taxpayers residing in Massachusetts—Mika Pyyhkala and Lindsay Yazzolino—filed suit today in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Case 1:13-cv-10799-GAO) against the digital arm of H&R Block, which prepares approximately one in six tax returns in America and claims to be “the only tax preparation company capable of serving clients anyway, anywhere and anyhow they want to be served.”  The complaint alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Article 114 of the Massachusetts Constitution as enforced through the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act (MERA) because the company’s online tax services and Web sites are not accessible to blind taxpayers.  

Blind people access computers and Web sites through screen access software that converts what is on the screen into spoken words or Braille, but improperly coded Web sites and applications can prevent this software from working properly, denying the blind user equal access.  Both Mr. Pyyhkala and Ms. Yazzolino unsuccessfully attempted to file their 2012 tax returns using HRBlock.com.  The plaintiffs are requesting the court to certify the suit as a class action.

 

Cutting-edge all-ASL "Switched at Birth" gets TV audience to pay attention

Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full article)

 

This week ABC Family did something that no commercial television channel in the United States had ever done: It broadcast an entire episode of a show, “Switched at Birth,” in American Sign Language, with next to no oral dialogue.

As a result viewers had to do something that, for some of them, was just as unusual: pay undivided attention.

“Every single viewer — deaf or hearing — was forced to put away their phones and iPads and anything else distracting in this A.D.D. world we all live in and focus,” said Lizzy Weiss, the creator of the series. 

Captioning translated the sign language for viewers. “You had to read,” she said. “You couldn’t do anything else. And that made you get into it more. It drew you in.”

"Cold, getting warmer, hot": New app helps blind people find each other

Excerpt from: Ouch! It's a Disability Thing (click for full article)

 

People Finder has a very basic but accessible interface. Like mainstream products with similar aims, such as Grindr for the gay community and Spotme for networking at conferences, you have to have the app running if you want to meet up with people in your circle.

It alerts a user, via a vibration and a noise, when someone else with the app comes within 50 feet. It uses Bluetooth to detect people.

As you search for your friend, the app will let you know how close you are, by saying "near" or "cold" as you walk around.

To aid social niceties, There's the option to message the person through the app to say you've clocked them, before descending on them.

Mike May is The brains behind People Finder, which is being developed by his company Sendero Group. They have 13 years experience of making accessible satnav solutions for blind pedestrians but Mike says he has wanted to make a people finding app for a long time.

Why Some Sighted People Think Its OK to Demean the Blind In Art: A Top Ten List

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

10.   Blindness must be a ticket to utter existential misery and though I may not know any blind people, I know misery. In fact, I’m such a wretch already, if I lost mysight I’d have to kill myself. 

 

9.     Therefore blindness equals death. Since no one knows what real death is like, blindness will have to do. This is easy because I don’t know any real blind people anyway.

 

8.     I saw a blind person once and he was begging outside of Bloomingdales. Ergo, all blind people are in extraordinary existential misery. I will call them “the blind” without comic irony.

        Again, I don’t know any real blind people. 

 

7.     God made blind people as exemplary models of spiritual longing. Clunk clunk, here comes Jesus with some gooey mud.  

 

6.     Blind people may have compensatory powers like Tiresias. That’s because although God punishes them, sometimes he takes an almost inexplicable liking to one or two of them. 

 

5.     This is easy because I don’t know any real blind people anyway. Art for art’s sake. 

 

4.     Blind people in particular and disabled people in general are not part of the true diversity. Don’t compare crippled people (defective, lame, retarded, deaf, whatever you want to call yourselves…)

        with my able bodied sisters and brothers.

 

3.     If you’re that way, well, you probably deserve it.

 

2.     I don’t know any real blind people but I’ll bet they’re defective in all kinds of ways, hence, perfect for protean cliches about angst.  

 

1.     I think the blind tune pianos? But they’re not real artists, or Ph.Ds, or professors, or opera singers. I mean, I’ve never met one, have you?

LAWSUIT CLAIMS MARRIOTT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST BLIND EMPLOYEES CLASS ACTION SEEKS EQUAL ACCESS TO PROMOTIONS, COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Excerpt from: The Legal Aid Society (click for full article)

 

Today, the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC) and TRE Legal filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against Marriott, alleging that the hotel giant discriminates against blind and disabled employees by requiring its managers to use inaccessible computer software and rejecting accessible alternatives.

Ali Faraj is a blind Marriott employee who has been excluded from advancement to a management position with Marriott based on the hotel chain’s requirement that managers use a Sales Force Automation (SFA) software program by the Oracle Corporation called Siebel CRM (Customer Relation Management). Despite requests, Marriott has refused to configure or modify its SFA software so that disabled persons such as Mr. Faraj who use screen-reading software can serve as managers.

National Federation of the Blind 2013 Scholarship Program

Excerpt from: National Federation of the Blind (click for full article)

 

To recognize achievement by blind scholars, the National Federation of the Blind annually offers blind college students in the United States and Puerto Rico the opportunity to win one of thirty national scholarships worth from $3,000 to $12,000. 

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

All applicants for these scholarships:

1. must be legally blind (PDF document) in both eyes, and
2. must be residing in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, and
3. must be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, postsecondary course of study in a degree program at a United States institution in the 2013 scholastic year, except that one scholarship may be given to a person employed full-time while attending school part-time, and
4. must participate in the entire NFB national convention and in all of its scheduled scholarship program activities, July 1 through July 6, departing on July 7.

In addition to a scholarship, each winner will receive assistance to attend the 2013 National Federation of the Blind Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida, providing an excellent opportunity for high-level networking with active blind persons in many different professions and occupations.

Why Do Banks Still Lag In Basic Service To Blind Customers?

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

Surely banks could have done better in making their automated teller machines accessible to the blind.

It seems like a natural: keypads with Braille, audio prompts and the like. And advocates for the seeing-impaired have been working with the industry since 1999 to provide just such adaptations.

So why does it take a series of costly federal lawsuits to force banks to comply with changes they agreed years ago were needed?

Advocates for the blind and sight-impaired have filed 146 cases since December against banks in Pennsylvania New Jersey, Ohio and Texas, calling for them to come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act by making all their ATMs, which are considered a public accommodation, accessible to the blind. Among the affected banks in the Pocono region are Honesdale Bank, Citizens, PNC, US Bank, Sovereign Bank, M&T Bank, First Niagara and BB&T. About 60 cases have been settled.

Fake Service Dogs, Problem or Red Herring?

Excerpt from: Planet of the Blind (click for full article)

 

One of her assertions is that dog show people routinely cheat by passing off their pets as service dogs while traveling to dog related competitions. I have no doubt that people do this. As Ms. Lou correctly points out, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require people with disabilities to provide documentation for service animals when accessing public places. By way of analogy ask yourself what it would be like if, as a non-disabled individual, you had to produce your Passport every time you went into a grocery store or movie theater or restaurant, or wanted to board a bus. Clearly you'd find yourself without the documentation because you changed your handbag, left your briefcase on the desk, or forgot the Passport in the pocket of your other coat. The ADA is a Civil Rights law and not a "hall pass" to the bathroom in Junior High.

Not long ago I was denied access to a tony restaurant in New York City. The doorman and the night manager wanted me to "prove" that the yellow Labrador beside me, wearing a leather harness that says "Guiding Eyes" across the back strap, was really a service dog. We had a frank conversation and I told them they were violating the law. Later the owners apologized. They offered me a free dinner but I won't go back. I did have an ID card from Guiding Eyes for the Blind in my wallet. But the doorman is not permitted to demand this and frankly he shouldn't be permitted to demand this. Civll Rights are "rights" and they are not conditional on having the proper paper work.