FW: Florida Refuses Access to Feds to Conduct Polling Place Accessibility Survey

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Florida Refuses Feds Access to Conduct Polling Place Accessibility Survey

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Today's JFA:

ACTION ALERT: Tell Florida Sec. of State to Permit Accessibility Survey of Polling Places!

AAPD Calls on Florida to Allow Federal Inspectors to Survey Poll Accessibility on Election Day

Experts: School "time-out" used excessively for students with disabilities

Judge Orders Chemically-Sensitive Woman out of "Bubble"

State Disability News

"Deal or No Deal" Host Promotes Awareness of Adult ADHD

Palin Opposes Colorado Ballot Initiative That Raises Sales Tax to Help Developmentally Disabled

Palin's Record on Disability is Mixed

Survey: 15% of Those with Chronic Conditions Stop Taking Meds When They Reach Medicare's "Doughnut Hole"

Fact Sheet for Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act

In Memoriam: Judith Gilliom

"Disability Matters" Radio Show to Rebroadcast Corey Rowley Appearance

Captioned Radio Broadcast to Enable Millions of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing to Experience NPR's Live Coverage of Election Day

ACTION ALERT: Tell Florida Secretary of State to Permit Accessibility Survey of Polling Places

Thanks to the leadership of the Senate Select Commitee on Aging and the Senate Rules Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is conducting a national voting accessibility survey during this November's general election. The GAO will send federal researchers to observe and measure the level of access at various polling places nationwide gather data for an updated report on access (a similar report was done in 2000). Florida's Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, has refused to allow the survey to take place in his state. 29 Secretaries of State are permitting the survey to go forward in their states. What does Secretary Browning have to hide? TAKE ACTION!Contact Secretary Browning at and ask him to permit the accessibility survey to go ahead. For information, contact Jim Dickson at AAPD at vote@....

AAPD Calls on Florida to Allow Federal Inspectors to Survey Poll Accessibility on Election Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media contact: PanoffCommunications Manager, AAPDOffice: E-mail: RPanoff@...Oct. 21, 2008 AAPD Calls on Florida to Allow Federal Inspectors into Polls on Election DayFlorida Secretary of State Refuses to Let Inspectors into Polls to Survey AccessibilityWASHINGTON, DC - Oct. 21, 2008 - The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest cross-disability membership organization in the U.S., is calling upon Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning and Gov. Charlie Crist to allow federal inspectors into polling places in four counties to survey voting accessibility on Election Day. Florida is the only state - of 30 in the country picked to participate in the survey - that refuses to let the federal inspectors into polling places on Election Day. Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are the four counties selected by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which is conducting the survey, but Browning has said inspectors would not be allowed in to check equipment and document polling place accessibility "In a state with such a high senior citizen population and high population of people with disabilities, it's outrageous that the Secretary of State refuses to let people in to measure accessibility. What's he got to hide?" said Jim Dickson, Vice President for Government Affairs at AAPD...>>Read more.Senator Bill (D-FL) also issued a letter to Florida Governor Charlie Crist , calling on him to open up state voting booths to the GAO inspectors. >>Read Senator 's letter to Gov. Crist.

Experts: School "time-out" used excessively for students with disabilities

From the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 17):Experts say school time-out rooms are used excessively for children with behavior disordersAssociated PressBy J. CrumbDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school's time-out room - a converted storage area under a staircase - where she was left alone for three hours.The autistic Iowa girl wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders...>>Read more.

Judge Orders Chemically-Sensitive Woman out of "Bubble"

From Yahoo! News / Associated Press (Oct 21):Pa. woman ordered out of chemical-free 'bubble'By RubinkamALLENTOWN, Pa. - Ten hours a day, every day, Feudale-Bowes confines herself to a galvanized-steel-and-porcelain shed outside her house. Inside are a toilet, a metal cabinet, a box spring with the metal coils exposed, and a pile of organic cotton blankets. Aluminum foil covers the window. The place is as austere as a prison cell - but it's also her sanctuary from an outside world that she says makes her violently ill. She and her husband call the structure "the bubble."This bubble, though, may be about to burst: A judge has ordered it taken down by the end of the month...>>Read more.

State Disability News

California:SAN DIEGO - The FCC's Enforcement Bureau fined KUSI-TV Channel 51 of San Diego, CA, $25,000 in September for violating federal regulations that require TV broadcasters to make emergency information provided orally to also be made accessible to people with hearing disabilities. Captioning or another form of text or visual representation of critical details about the spoken emergency is required by federal rules. During the wildfires in the San Diego area in October 2003, the TV station failed at least twenty-two times to provide a text or other visual means when reporters told audiences to evacuate their homes, about road closures or shelter information and about air quality advisories. Read the FCC Forfeiture Order.Massachusetts:BOSTON - Advocates for the blind and those with mental disabilities are expected to demonstrate and protest the elimination of funding for social services budgets which include layoffs of disabled workers, cuts to training programs, etc. >>More.Minnesota:LAKESVILLE - A 24-year old man with mental disabilities who was tortured and savagely beaten last weekend after being lured from his home will require plastic surgery to cover cuts and cigarette burns and initials that were gouged into his arm. The four arressted in connection with the crime face charges including assault motivated by bias (on the basis of disability). >>More.Missouri:JEFFERSON CITY - Last week, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt issued an executive order, which drops "mental retardation" from one of the state's agency names. The name now is simply the Department of Mental Health's Division of Developmental Disabilities. >>More.Send Us Your State Disability NewsDo you have some state disability news you'd like to share with JFA readers? Send it to Anne Sommers, JFA Moderator at: JFA@... and put in the subject line "State Disability News"

"Deal or No Deal" Host Promotes Awareness of Adult ADHD

From Newsday (Oct 17):TV star talks about having adult ADHDHowie Mandel raises awareness through public service announcementEmmy nominated Howie Mandel, host of "Deal or No Deal," is raising awareness about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults through the national multimedia public service announcement campaign "Adult ADHD Is Real."This campaign and its Web site, AdultADHDIsReal.com, have been developed by a coalition of groups dedicated to ADHD education and awareness and made possible by Shire, according to a press release. As an adult living with ADHD, Mandel has been tapped to encourage adults who think they may have ADHD to seek diagnosis and evaluation."When I was in high school, my impulsivity led me to...>>Read more.

Palin Opposes Colorado Ballot Initiative That Raises Sales Tax to Help Developmentally Disabled

From 9News.com (Colorado) (Oct. 21): Palin opposes tax to help developmentally disabledBy WolfDENVER - Republican Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Palin (R-Alaska) is speaking against a Colorado ballot initiative designed to help the state's developmentally disabled population by raising the sales tax.Palin made the comments Monday in Colorado against Amendment 51 which seeks to raise the sales tax by one cent on every $10 spent in each of the next two years.The money would go to help the roughly 12,000 kids and adults in Colorado who currently are on a wait list to receive state services such as home nursing care and job training...>>Read more.

Palin's Record on Disability is Mixed

From the Associated Press (Oct. 17):Palin's record on special needs kids is mixedBy Anne Sutton JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Palin is frequently seen at campaign stops cradling her infant son Trig, who has Down syndrome. Her decision to give birth to Trig even after learning her fifth child would have the condition has burnished her anti-abortion views with conservatives.So viewers of Wednesday night's presidential debate might have been somewhat taken aback when McCain said his running mate understands "what it's like to have an autistic child." ...>>Read more.

Survey: 15% of Those with Chronic Conditions Stop Taking Meds When They Reach Medicare's "Doughnut Hole"

From Buisness Week (Oct 15):Health Benefits: Medicare's Costly Doughnut HoleSeniors dread this time of year, when they run out of Medicare drug coverage and have to pay out of pocket. Some just stop taking their drugsby Arlene Weintraub For many older Americans, this is a bitter time of year with a deceptively sweet name: the "doughnut hole."It's not a treat from the local bakery, but rather a coverage gap in the three-year-old Medicare Part D drug program. When Part D was first designed as a way to help elderly patients pay for their prescription drugs, the only way the federal government could afford it was to impose a yearly limit on what it would cover for each member. So once seniors consume drugs up to that threshold-it is $2,510 in 2008-they fall into the doughnut hole. They then have to pay fully out of pocket for their drugs until the end of the year, or until they're eligible for catastrophic coverage, whichever comes first .The doughnut hole has been a source of angst ever since...>>Read more.

Fact Sheet for Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act

Recently signed into law, the following fact sheet on the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act comes from Generations Ahead, World Institute on Disability, National Women's Health Network, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project.

October 16, 2008

The Prenatally and

Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act

The

Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act (S. 1810) is a

positive step toward providing better information and support to pregnant women

and new mothers whose fetus or newborn is diagnosed with a disability. This

information sheet highlights the Act's benefits and identifies some of the

issues to monitor in its implementation.

With

Democratic Senator Kennedy as an original co-sponsor, the Act does not

include anti-choice language nor restrict the ability to obtain an abortion,

even though it was authored by Kansas Republican Senator Brownback, a staunch

opponent of abortion. Both the Senate and House of Representatives passed S.

1810 and the President signed the bill into law on October 8, 2008.1

What the Act Will Do

The Act will...>>Read the fact sheet.

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