Disability Abuse Reporting Earns Pulitzer Nod

Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism, considered journalism's highest honor, has chosen its finalists. Among these finalists for the prize include a five-installment series titled "Broken Shield.” The series reporters found that the California’s Office of Protective Services' investigations of abuse were routinely fault-ridden and sought to expose the abuse.

For more information on the series "Broken Shield," visit:

http://californiawatch.org/broken-shield

MTV's "World of Jenks"

MTV is putting the spotlight on what it is like to transition to adulthood as someone with disabilities. The documentary style show, "World of Jenks," is hosted and documented by Andrew Jenks who lives with three people, each for a year, and follows their journeys. Among those three people is Chad DenDanto, a man diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, which is on the autism spectrum, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Jenks states that “We realized (at MTV) that we had an opportunity to humanize and destigmatize what it’s like to have autism. One in 88 American children have autism now. It’s something prevalent that could use more mainstream media attention.” We agree, Jenks, and we would like to thank you for allowing Chad's autism to no longer define him.

For the website of "World of Jenks, please visit:

http://www.mtv.com/shows/world_of_jenks/series.jhtml

Quotes by Robert M. Hensel

The Following Quotes are by Robert M. Hensel:

"Placing one foot in front of the other, I've climbed to higher lengths.
Reaching beyond my own limitations, to show my inner strength.
No obstacle to hard, for this warrior to overcome.
I'm just a man on a mission, to prove my disability hasn't won."

 

"Limitations only go so far."

 

"We, the one's who are challenged, need to be heard. To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has and will continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being."

 

"Know me for my abilities, not my disability."

"I have a Disability yes thats true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you."
"I don't have a dis-ability, I have a different-ability."

"As a disabled man, let my life be a reflection of the endless amount of ability that exists in each and everyone of us."

"We, the one's who are challenged, need to be heard. To be seen as a disability, but as a person who has, and will continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being."

"My disability has opened my eye's to see my true abilities."

"When everyone else says you can't, determination says,'YES YOU CAN.'"

Independence for Teens and Parents

Here is a great article by Quest Online Magazine about how teens can become more independent and how to transition into becoming adults. The article goes through important categories such as timing, assistants, and resources to help further the discussion. It is always a hard topic to address, but independence is a great step to work towards.

Read the article at:
http://static.mda.org/publications/Quest/q32teens.html

Another resource that may be helpful is our own EmpowerTech organization. We help individuals with disabilities to establish independence through the use of technology. We also have a program to help prepare students for employment.

Please visit us at:
http://empowertech.org/

Playing Sports with a Disability

Sometimes, people with disabilities want to play sports but don't believe they can because of their disability. Good news! There are many assistive sports technologies, sports organizations, and resources that can help.

Assistive sports technologies, such as the BeepKickball, which helps blind sports enthusiasts play kickball, or the OTS Interspiro Divator MKII, which helps the blind to scuba dive, are becoming more and more advanced, and financial aid is sometimes available to help with costs. Instead, suppose you wanted to join a sports organization; there are many to join like Disabled Sports USA. Take advantage of resources like your city’s recreation department, your own school, health clubs, YWCA, the local Girls Scout council, and nearby colleges. They may have pools, sports teams, exercise rooms, or more ways for you to be invovled. Your local Chamber of Commerce could also help to find programs in your area. The possibilities are endless, but the initial step must be taken to contact these resources.

For more information on assistive sports technologies, please visit:

http://assistivetechnology.about.com/od/ATCAT1/tp/Assisstive-Sports-Technology-For-Persons-Who-Are-Blind.htm?nl=1

For more information on how to become involved in sports, please visit:

http://www.girlshealth.gov/disability/disbody/sports.html

Hiring People with Disabilities

A few months ago, we made a blog post about National Disability Employment Awareness Month. In the post, we discussed the topic of hiring people with disabilities. Many people have misconceptions when it comes to hiring someone with a disability. There is a myth that "Persons with disabilities can’t keep up with other workers." The reality is that it has been conclusively shown that, on average, people with a disability are more loyal, dependable, and productive than their non-disabled colleagues - and that they work more safely. 98% of people with a disability rate average or better in work safety. Employers also often cite "the cost of accommodations as a barrier to hiring persons with disabilities." This has been established as a myth because the vast majority of persons with disabilities, who are currently employed, require no special workplace accommodations whatsoever.

In fact, a recent article by the Chicago Tribune discussed how many companies such as AMC and the investment firm, TIAA-CREF, are agressively hiring people with disabilities. Walgreens is another example of a company that is adament about hiring workers with disabilities. Walgreens opened a distribution center in Anderson, South Carolina, and currently more than 40% of its employees there are people with disabilities who are paid and treated the same as their non-disabled coworkers. More than 100 Fortune 500 companies have toured the distribution center to learn more about the program. It is refreshing to see so many companies including people with disabilities into their workforce.

For the full articles used, please visit:

www.ftmeade.army.mil/pages/eeo/dis_myths.pdf
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-10/business/ct-biz-1210-work-advice-huppke-20121210_1_disabilities-walgreen-distribution-centers

Visit our website to find more information on our T.R.A.D.E. program which helps students increase their employability:

http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=105

NASA Providing Mentorship for Students with Disabilities

Through an agreement with D.C.'s Public School transition program, NASA will be providing mentors to a few lucky students with disabilities. This new program will allow a handful of students with learning difficulties or multiple disabilities to experience what it would be like to work for NASA. James Stofan, the associate administrator for the agency, states "We particularly want to encourage students who are underserved or underrepresented in STEM to explore the many opportunities that pursuing this course of study can offer. This partnership will help us do just that.” From all of us at EmpowerTech, we are thrilled to hear of yet another story where people with disabilities are given the chance to explore the world of technology.

For the full article, please visit:
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2012/12/18/nasa-mentor-disabilities/16978/

"Through Autistic Eyes" Documentary

People without disabilities often wonder how a disability would impact their lives. Most don't understand what daily obstacles would look like or how to overcome them. There is a documentary called "Through Autistic Eyes" in which Christopher Smith, a man with autism, gives insight into how a life with autism would be.

Here is a link for a documentary clip:
http://videos.disabled-world.com/video/597/the-world-through-autistic-eyes

If you are interested in making a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, please visit:
http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=65

Video-Games for People with Disabilities

At EmpowerTech, we teach people with many different disabilities how to use technology, including computers. One may ask, how does someone that is blind or with low-vision use a computer without being able to see the screen? Using technology such as JAWS, a computer software with a speech synthesizer, students are able to use the computer to do numerous tasks such as use Microsoft Word or send an email, without needing to see the screen. Tasks such as accessing the web without using the screen may seem daunting to us, but our students make it look easy with their unwavering determination. Another question that may arise is "how does someone that has a disability use entertainment like video-games?" This blog post will address how people with different types of disabilities can use video-games.

Blind Gamers:

To some, entertainment like video-games are considered a necessity. Without accessibility, blind gamers may play 2-dimensional games, like Street Fighter, and memorize how long it takes to get their character from one side of the screen or what it sounds like to use a "spinning flying kick." But, today's 3D technology and games are difficult for a blind gamer to use with those techniques. Because of this, Munawar Bijani, an avid video-gamer, developed the world’s first combat flight simulator for the blind. Bijani, a blind gamer, created the game now called “Three-D Velocity” to take entertainment for the blind to the next level. The game is now regarded as one of the best “audio games” on the market today and has been downloaded over 11,000 times.

Color Blind Gamers: 

Although not every gaming company can create fully accessible audio versions of their games for the blind, companies can create versions of their games that are accessible for color blind users. Sometimes, colorful video games are difficult for color blind gamers to use. Statistics show that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 250 women have a form of color blindness, making the disability widespread enough for gaming companies to consider inclusive gaming. James Herndon offers inclusive tips from Equal Entry:

"1.   Make sure that the colors you use do not convey important information. 

2.   Exaggerate the difference between foreground and background colors. 

3.   Don’t use colors with a similar lightness, no matter how much they differ in saturation. 

4.   Lighten the lighter colors and darken the darker ones."

Gamers with Other Disabilities:

Those strategies will work to make accessible games for color blind users, but what about people with other disabilities? The not-for-profit organization, AbleGamers, works to ensure the inclusion of gamers with all disabilities. This year, AbleGamers honored FIFA 13 with the Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year Award. The prize was given for the PC version of the game, for being “the first high-end mainstream sports game to allow users to control the entire game with only a mouse.” AbleGamers cited that FIFA 13 is a valid product for one-handed gamers or those with muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. Organizations such as AbleGamers and EmpowerTech show that having a disability does not necessarily mean not accessing technology such as computers or video-games. For more information on the articles used in this blog post, please see below.

Resources:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/16/videogames-for-the-blind.html

http://www.bpcprograms.com/games/three-d-velocity 

http://g3ict.org/resource_center/newsletter/news/p/id_398

http://www.policymic.com/articles/21924/fifa-13-awarded-most-accessible-game-for-disabled-gamers

Proven Abilities

You can never understand a person's full abilities until you give them a chance to prove themselves. At EmpowerTech, we strive to help give our students the opportunites to succeed through the use of technology. In our TRADE Program, students use Word Documents, Excel, and PowerPoint Presentations.

Here is a Word Document done by one of our outstanding EmpowerTech students:

To help us continue empowering people with disabilities, please visit our website to donate or volunteer:http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=65

U.S. Senate Rejects Treaty on Rights of the Disabled

Groups advocating for rights of persons with disabilities are still stunned after the U.S. Senate "rejected ratification of a treaty intended to grant equal access for the disabled to employment, health care, education, physical accommodations and legal protection under international law (Businessweek)." The United States, a pioneer in disability rights, turned away a measure that would help pave the way to equality internationally. The agreement, U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was modeled partly on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

For the full agreement and its contexts, please visit:

http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml

For the full articles, please visit:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-04/u-dot-s-dot-senate-rejects-treaty-on-the-rights-of-the-disabled

http://news.yahoo.com/u-senate-rejects-treaty-protecting-persons-disabilities-233047742.html

Advocacy for People with Disabilities: A Worldwide Issue

When discussing disability rights, we tend to group ourselves into a bubble based on location. We say things like "if only we had these rights here, things would be different." The problem with this is that the issue of giving rights to people with disabilities is a worldwide topic. It is refreshing to hear about people around the world advocating for disability rights.

I recently came upon an article in which young disabled people in Britain campaigned for their rights. The main issues they addressed pertained to recommendations to improve traveling and employment, two large issues that people with disabilities in the United States face. At EmpowerTech, we strive to help improve problems people with disabilities face by giving them the upperhand when it comes to being independent in the workplace and in everyday life through the use of technology.

For the full article, please visit:http://www.channel4.com/news/young-disabled-people-campaigning-to-life-live-to-the-full

For information about EmpowerTech, please visit:http://empowertech.org/

Visit Us During Open Access!

Volunteer Opportunities at EmpowerTech!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Are YOU Interested in Making a Difference in the Life of Someone with Disabilities?

EMPOWERTECH is Los Angeles County's only non-profit organization devoted to bringing the latest in assistive technology to children and adults living with disabilities.

We are looking for people of all ages with:
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office Applications
• A teaching background or experience helping people with disabilities (not required but always a plus!)
• A great attitude!

If you can help, please visit us at: http://empowertech.org
Or give us a call at: (310) 338-1597

EmpowerTech
9100 S. Sepulveda Suite 204
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Bullied Student with Disabilities

The numbers of student bullies and those being bullied are staggering. An astonishing 30% of high school students are bullies or are victims of bullying. The numbers of bullied victims go up when someone has a disability. Fortunately, there are people with great hearts that show kindness to bullied victims. A great example of this is with the football team of Queen Creek High School. A student with special needs was being bullied. High school bullies were throwing trash at her, calling her names, and pushing her in the halls. Until, the high school football team stepped in and began eating with her at lunch, walking her to her classes, and sitting with her. It is truly amazing how much of a difference you can make for someone with a disability.

For the full article, please visit:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8579599/chy-johnson-boys

For information on how YOU can help someone with a disability, please visit:

http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=65

Surpassing Expectations: Quadriplegic Janet Barnes

As part of a new way to help inspire equality, we will be posting semi-regular articles on people with disabilities that have surpassed the expectations set upon them by others. Today’s post addresses quadriplegic Janet Barnes.

Janet Barnes was born in Illinois and spent much of her early childhood unable to move. Doctors were pessimistic and told her parents that she would not live past 14 years old. After 83 years of what Janet calls “a life well lived,” last year Janet Barnes set the new world record for the longest living quadriplegic. Barnes’ independent living specialist once interviewed Barnes for the Services for Independent Living newsletter. McClintock recalls the interview saying “She wouldn’t focus on [her aches and pains.] She focused on the stuff she’d done in her life, her children and her husband… I consider her my life coach.”

Janet Barnes has a self-published biography/memoir entitled “90-Pound Heavyweight.” In it, she states, “I would not trade places with anybody. I’ve learned more than anybody could ever learn, and that’s for sure.” People like Janet Barnes help remind us that the barriers set up by the term “disability” are only imaginative and that through determination, anything is possible.

"I have not been handicapped by my condition. I am physically challenged and differently able." - Janet Barnes

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

On October 1st, 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed October 2012 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. (For more information on this proclamation, visit our blog post on it: http://empower-tech.blogspot.com/2012/10/presidential-proclamation-national.html)

The day after, we put a poll on our Facebook page asking our Facebook Friends if they would hire a person with disabilities. Many people have misconceptions when it comes to hiring someone with a disability. There is a myth that "Persons with disabilities can’t keep up with other workers." The reality is that it has been conclusively shown that, on average, people with a disability are more loyal, dependable, and productive than their non-disabled colleagues - and that they work more safely. 98% of people with a disability rate average or better in work safety. Employers also often cite "the cost of accommodations as a barrier to hiring persons with disabilities." This has been established as a myth because the vast majority of persons with disabilities, who are currently employed, require no special workplace accommodations whatsoever. There are many advantages to hiring persons with disabilities, for more information please visit:

www.ftmeade.army.mil/pages/eeo/dis_myths.pdf

http://community.gettinghired.com/blogs/articles/archive/2010/06/23/benefits-of-hiring-people-with-disabilities.aspx

Visit our website to find more information on our T.R.A.D.E. program which helps students increase their employability:

http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid=105

Assistive Technology Assessment

At EmpowerTech, our goal is to help people with disabilities through the use of technology. According to Alliance for Technology Access, fewer than 25 percent of people with disabilities who could be helped by assistive technology are using it. To find out what type of assistive technology you or your loved one might need, visit our website for information on an Assistive Technology Assessment:

http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=86
(or fill out our contact form)

http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=114

DisAbility Sports Festival- This Saturday!

This Saturday, October 6th 2012, is the DisAbility Sports Festival! The event promotes physical activity and sports for people of all ages with disabilities. Participants will learn from Paralympians and other elite coaches in 20 different sports or physical activities. More than 800 athletes from California and several other states are expected to participate, including many wounded warrior veterans.

The event is at at Cal State San Bernardino (5500 University Parkway, HP-120, San Bernardino, CA 92407)and goes from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. It is free for anyone with a disability.

To register online or to find more information about the festival, please go to www.disabilitysportsfestival.org.

Famous People with Vision Impairments

There are many successful people in the world, past and present, that serve as role models and demonstrate just how far one can go with a little bit of perserverence. The website disabledworld.com gives a list of famous, successful people with vision impairments. The list shows examples of how people can succeed despite having a disability. Here are a few of the article's highlights:

Helen Keller was an American author, activist and lecturer. She was the first deaf/blind person to graduate from college. She was not born blind and deaf; it was not until nineteen months of age that she came down with an illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain", which could have possibly been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last for a particularly long time, but it left her deaf and blind. Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities amid numerous other causes.

Stevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from infancy, Wonder signed with Motown Records as a pre-adolescent at age twelve, and continues to perform and record for the label to this day. It is thought that he received excessive oxygen in his incubator which led to retinopathy of prematurity, a destructive ocular disorder affecting the retina, characterized by abnormal growth of blood vessels, scarring, and sometimes retinal detachment.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States of America and played a big role during World War II. Roosevelt eventually aided the poor and un-employed of America and restored order at various times during his Presidency. He was also the only President to ever get elected 4 years in a row mostly because of his help for the recovery of the economy. It has been said that Roosevelt had several disabilities including vision impairment.

Harriet Tubman was a slave throughout her youth, being treated as an animal until she eventually escaped captivity. When she had reached Canada she did not stay to enjoy her freedom. She returned to the lands and brought hundreds of black slaves back to safety, saving them from slavery by escaping from what they then called The Underground Railroad. After a severe wound to the head, which was inflicted by a slave owner before her escape, she became victim to vision impairment and seizures. Nonetheless, she tossed her fears aside and kept fighting for the freedom of her people.

Louis Braille became blind after he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with his father's awl. He later became an inventor and designed braille writing, which enables blind people to read through feeling a series of organized bumps representing letters. This concept was beneficial to all blind people from around the world and is commonly used even today. If it were not for Louis Braille's blindness he may not have invented this method of reading and no other blind person could have enjoyed a story or been able to comprehend important paperwork.

Alec Templeton was a satirist and pianist who had moved from Wales to the United States where he played with several orchestras, eventually making it to his first radio performances on the Rudy Vallee Show, The Chase and Sanbourn Hour,The Magic Key and Kraft Music Hall. The way he would memorize his scripts before the show was by asking someone to read them 20 times in a row while he would listen. He was blind from birth but it did not stop him to doing what he wanted to do in the end.

Galileo Galilei was a Tuscan (Italian) astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher being greatly responsible for the scientific revolution. Some of his accomplishments include improvements to the telescope, accelerated motion and astronomical observations. Galileo was the first to discover the four largest satellites of Jupiter which were named the Galilean moons in his honor. Galileo had also improved compass design and eventually opposed the geocentric view. His sight started to deteriorate at the age of 68 years old and eventually led to complete blindness.

Andrea Bocelli had become blind at the age of 12 years old following a football accident in which he was hit in the head. At 6 years old Bocelli was taking piano lessons before also learning the saxophone and the flute. His family would always ask him to sing, Bocelli once said "I don't think a singer decides to sing, it is the others who choose that you sing by their reactions". Bocelli has also sung with other great singers such as Pavarotti.

John Milton was a civil servant, English poet and prose polemicist. Milton was well known through his epic poem Paradise Lost and also for his radical views on republican religion. He never was well adjusted in school and once got expelled for having a fist fight with his tutor. Eventually he began to write poetry in English, Latin and Italian. John Milton became blind at the age of 43 in 1651, and has written books containing quotes about the experience.

James Thurber was a comedian and cartoonist most known for his contributions to New Yorker Magazine. While playing with his brothers William and Robert, William shot him in the eye with and arrow while playing a game of William Tell making him almost completely blind after the loss of an eye. At school James could not play sports with his friends due to this accident so he decided to work on his creative mind, putting his skills in writing.

Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise. His popularity and fame grew. By 1907 he had painted many well-known paintings, but by then he had his first problem with his eyesight. He started to go blind. He still painted, though his eyes got worse. He wouldn't stop painting until he was nearly blind. In the last decade of his life Monet, nearly blind, painted a group of large water lily murals (Nympheas) for the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris.

Ray Charles was an American pianist and musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards, and a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem. In 1965, Charles was arrested for possession of heroin, a drug to which he had been addicted for nearly 20 years. It was his third arrest for the offence, but he avoided jail time after kicking the habit in a clinic in Los Angeles. He spent a year on parole in 1966.

For the exhaustive list, visit:
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/famous-blind.shtml

For information on computer training assistance for vision impairments, visit:
http://empowertech.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=104